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XCOM

2020-11-24T21:32:43Z

2601:4C1:C400:4050:4870:CEE5:450C:B8BD:

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This is a [[Dan Abnett|rare treat]]. '''X-COM''', or as it's called across the pond, ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' (It was released as XCOM in North America, it was ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' literally everywhere else) is a turn-based strategy game that is, to put it simply, about as close to a game of [[Dark Heresy]] as one can get in isometric 3D. Note that X-COM is significantly older than [[Dark Heresy]], and older than all but the first edition of [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]], so it'd be better to say [[Dark Heresy]] is a lot like X-COM on the tabletop. Dating back to the much-lamented Microprose, it set a gold standard for atmosphere and playability that has, frankly, not been breached in ages.

The game is [[Dwarf Fortress|old as balls]] and in isometric view, which, paired with the Dark Heresy similarities, makes it more /tg/ material than /v/.

==A General Gist==
A general synopsis is that in [[grimdark|the not-so-distant future, there is war - and aliens]]. Aliens are arriving, and they are most assuredly hostile. It falls upon the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, or the eponymous X-COM, a multi-national task-force, to deal with the invasion by blasting the fuck out of the Aliens, stealing their shit, researching their technology, and using it to fucking kill them off, all the while fighting off terror attacks and trying to figure out where in Uranus these fucking things are coming from (as it turns out, from Mars, and if you win, the final mission involves you going to Mars and dropping an [[Exterminatus]] on their asses).

It kicked ass. It was good enough to spawn a sequel, ''Terror From The Deep'', which was basically the same game, but underwater and infinitely harder with a direct nod to Call of Cthulhu. Story-wise, the destruction of the Martian base activated a fail-safe in the aliens' system that woke up T'leth (not R'lyeh, but you get the point), their 'secondary' (and mobile) base buried deep under the seas of Earth, ran by a "Sleeping, Gigantic Alien In Coma That Can Manipulate Dreams" with an octopoid face, real subtle there. X-Com now again must protect the people while finding out about where exactly T'leth is and go in to blast it to smithereens with extreme prejudice. It was hard. Really hard. Not only do aliens have a major advantage technology-wise at the start and they tear through your recruits with impunity, but later in the game when you catch up they start using a nasty trick to take control of your troopers, leading to sometimes hilarious and [[rage|extreme rage-inducing]] turn one [[TPK]]s as your heavy weapon trooper gets controlled and fires his heavy weapon inside the transport while the team is busy disembarking. Oh, and did we mention that the only way to research the best armour in the game was to capture a live specimen of a rarely-appearing alien? And that to capture a live specimen you had to send a poor redshirt in armed with an oversized cattle prod to stun it in close quarters? And that said alien was [[rip and tear|able to tear a human apart effortlessly]] in close quarters? And (as if all that wasn't bad enough already), that the poor redshirt then had to pick up and to carry the damn unconscious thing back to the human ship praying [[rape|that the specimen didn't wake up with a grudge before he got there and the mission ended]]? Yeah, it was kinda like that. And the final level had THREE unsaveable separate levels full of extreme ambush points that had to be completed with no failure, a textbook example of "oldschool gaming".

It then spawned a second, easier, somewhat different but still appreciated sequel, ''X-Com Apocalypse''. The destruction of T'leth had a heavy price: when it rose above the clouds, it was self-destructed, killed the whole boarding team and fucked up Earth's biosphere. Humanity retreated to quickly built mega-arcologies to survive, the first among them being Mega-Primus built on the ruins of Toronto. One day, tetrahedral bright gates appear 24/7 in the city's skyline, and spews UFO's; and [[Meme|aw shit, here we go again]]. This time, X-COM, this time being a corporation, can keep existing even when the government hates you if the player is hideously rich. The Aliens' Homeworld, a separate pocket universe behind a black hole can be attacked infinitely, even after failures. The quest line is more or less the same: down a UFO, research 3 alien aeronautics technologies, reverse engineer some prototype and strike back. Unlike the two first game, there's a bigger political aspect to things as you have not only to make sure you deal with the damn aliens coming to fuck your shit up, but remain best buds with the other humans while doing so, or risk denial of public and material services(no free travel if Transtellar is mad, and Megapol, the police corporation won't sell you guns or vehicles). It tried to blend Turn-Based & Real-Time strategy into one so you could play it at the speed you wanted, and even attack other human factions for loot and in the case of Cultists, a public service. All in all, a decent and ambitious, if not overwhelmingly good game (mostly because a ton of content was cut before release). Basically this time it was one [[Cyberpunk]] city against extra-dimensional aliens, though the equipment from the first two games gave the player (and humanity) a far greater head start and replicating alien equipment is nanotechnologically done and doesn't need trophy materials but money.

Then Microprose was bought by [[Hasbro|that which must never be named]], who proceeded to nose-dive the IP with games like [[Shit Twinkie|X-COM: Interceptor]] and [[Fail|X-COM: Enforcer]]. At least Interceptor had a decent backstory and for those with a good eye, explained where the aliens in ''X-Com Apocalypse'' came from and what happened after X-Com 2. X-COM: Enforcer was little more than a horribly cheap third person shooter fit for 90's arcades.

Fucking [[RAGE|Hasbro]].

Anyway. Combat is a lot like Dark Heresy's in that it's exceedingly lethal; at the game's outset, you have no armor beyond jumpsuits with Kevlar stuffed into them, and your firearms are the best and most powerful weaponry that chemical propelled explosives can provide only moderately capable against alien forces (though quite diverse). In order to properly take these fucking things on anything remotely resembling their own terms, you need upgrades. And lots of them. Upgrades come through research, and research comes by shooting down UFOs, landing a ground assault, killing the surviving aliens, and stripping the UFO like the [[Blood Ravens]] do other chapters' shiny bits. Once brought back to base, your researchers can look into what makes the alien's gear work, research your own weapons and tech, and develop technologies to help in the fight against the Aliens. Eventually, you can load your forces up with [[Space Marine|Power-armored bad-asses]], but starting out, your forces are fragile, and fighting smart is ''vital''. You ''will'' suffer casualties early on - guaranteed - but such is war, and you must press on, allowing the survivors to grow into [[Colonel Greiss|manly badasses]].

The Aliens in the first two and the Interceptor prequel are a diverse bunch led by some creepy floating cloaked asshats, ranging from the rank-and-file Sectoids (conventional "gray" aliens), to Chryssalids (horrifying abominations that inject targets with eggs that turn them into mindless drones which will explosively birth new Chryssalids thereafter, think Xenomorph meets Genestealer). Their entertainment is neural stimulation implants which trigger exact effects of LSD, and they simply harvest anything and anyone and puree them alive before injecting into their bloodstream when hungry. Nightmare fuel = YES. The game manages to be exceedingly creepy for one so simple, and is one of many reasons that X-COM works so well. Better yet, the sequel has Al

==Tales of Heroism==
In accordance with /tg/'s love of war stories about [[your dudes]], several examples of awesome have been compiled:

''Instant'' death doesn't ''always'' happen. Occasionally, one Rookie will be touched by God and succeed against all odds. After that, he will die horribly. [[Just as Planned]].

X-COM agent of note: [[Marc Lecointe]]. Lecointe survived numerous missions, got the highest kill count on most missions, killed a Snakemen leader and his bodyguards (despite losing over half the squad), and got shot in the face and back with plasma and lived. He eventually was hit with return fire in an alley and began bleeding. He returned fire and killed the Snakeman, but bled to death before help could arrive. Lacointe lives on in our hearts.

Another agent of note is Gristle McThornbody, a Rocket-Toting Team-Killing asshole who refuses to die OR be mind-controlled. He's so badass, that even when he has 85% or more to hit on a 2x2 alien, he'll still hit the wall twenty tiles to the left.

==New Stuff and Things==
According to things [[/v/]] likes to watch on the Internet, a new X-Com game is in the pipes, set to be made in the gameplay and spirit of the old games, with new graphics and updated for the new generation of gamers to be introduced into the X-Com game style. It lost the dash along the way someplace, and got re-named ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown''. This new game, which has spawned joy boners in many on /v/ and /tg/ alike, is believed to stem from the utter, burning [[RAGE|fury]] that was originally spawned from 2K's simply-titled ''XCOM'' game, which, near as we can tell, is an FPS that takes place in the 1960s and has exactly ''nothing'' to do with the actual X-COM franchise. Seriously, don't look into 2K's game if you're a fan of the series on any level - it will cause veterans to spontaneously transform into [[Angry Marines]] and/or [[Khorne|Khornate Berserkers]]. Apparently, those in charge had the wherewithal to note that if they didn't make a ''proper'' X-COM game, [[/tg/]] (and by extension, [[/v/]]) would [[Anal Circumference|leave their asshole in ruins]]. They even went ahead to declare the two games take place in separate universes. If only [[Games Workshop]] had [[Matt Ward|that much sense]]...

==XCOM: Enemy Unknown by Firaxis==
[[File:XCOMGameplay.jpg|200px|thumb|An in-game screenshot of the new game.]]
And Firaxis came to the rescue, promising to return to the roots of XCOM (note the lack of a hyphen this time around, although the logo ''does'' have a horizontal stripe taken out of the "COM"). Since Firaxis has a lot of ex-MicroProse people, a lot of them have had to do with the original as well, and the original musical score will make a return. Although it's changed a few things to avoid hurting the brains of [[/v/|delicate little console kiddies]] like removing time units, removing ballistic simulation, cutting down on your maximum amount of squad members (4 at the start and 6 maximum) and limiting us to one base (though each base location gives its own unique bonus), it still somehow manages to be a good game in its own right. If the original X-COM is like Mordheim, then XCOM is like Space Hulk: massively simplified and more heavily dependent on the luck of the die, but with less micromanagement and long-term planning required. Save-scumming is pretty much obligatory, the midgame difficulty ramp-up leaves you no time to train up a second team if your best get wiped out.

If you haven't bought the game and you're a TBS fan, everyone in /tg/ that isn't [[That guy]], would highly recommend you give it a whirl at the modest price of <strike>
$39.99 </strike> $16.49 for all the good remade XCOM games because of our father Gabe Newell on PC,
still is 39.99 for console/Non-Steam or $9.99 on mobile/tablet devices. Like always, we have footage for vidyas: https://youtu.be/qDhuZ4b51hA https://youtu.be/-SKoS5BYVuY https://youtu.be/bxuzLyR-000

===XCOM: Enemy Within===
[[File:MectoidMEC.jpg|200px|thumb|Did we mention melee combat with exosuits?]]
''Enemy Within'' is an expansion pack (and unlike most "horse armor" tier DLCs with the name this one actually deserves it) that completely re-defines how the game progresses, compared to the original one. The game's story still progresses like the original game, but expands on it for a more entertaining experience.

It adds the "meld" resource to the game, a type of alien organic/synthetic-hybrid nanomachine that allows you to unlock two powerful technologies: MEC and genetic modification. MEC allows your troops to interface with a Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit, a heavy exoskeleton that brings the heaviest of weapons to the field (Including the option for a powerfist equivalent called a "Kinetic Strike Module". Yes, make your own faux [[Terminator]] squad! Especially when the Tier-3 Paladin upgrade bulks up your suit's armor that you look vaguely similar to Termies.). Genetic modification allows you to augment your troops using data gathered from dissected aliens, making them killier than ever before. In fact, you can create your own equivalent of an Imperial [[Space Marine]] with the list of available modifications you can do (Two of these specific upgrades are a second heart and the ability of self-regeneration). The neural dampener mod absolutely neuters the aliens' endgame trickery by giving troopers +20 will, immunity to panic, and immunity to mind control.

It also adds new aliens to the xenos' side, like a cloaking squid robot that chokes your troops to death and their own brand of exosuit troops. It also introduces another enemy into the game: EXALT. EXALT are a bunch of power-mad blokes who sees the alien's invasion as a way to gain power by adapting their technology for themselves, inching them closer to world domination. They see you as an obstacle and are determined to undermine your efforts to defeat the aliens by disrupting your operations through a number of ways and sowing panic amongst XCOM-member nations, generally making your already hectic life even more hectic. You must now defeat this new threat through a combination of [[Ork|cunning brutality and brutal cunning.]] They have most of your technologies to go toe-to-toe with you (Except for their own exosuits) and they are well hidden, so bringing them down won't be an easy affair.

===XCOM 2===
[[File:People%27s_reaction_to_XCOM_2%27s_Vipers.png|200px|thumb|Turns out they ''are'' poison glands. Hee.]]
A direct-ish sequel to EU/EW, XCOM 2 seems to decide that what's canon is not: not "you killed all the aliens, now here's more aliens", but "you know that Impossible Ironman game you played for a laugh and got utterly stomped? That's the canon ending". (The utterly stomping part takes place in the base assault, and it is so bad that two of the most important things got taken: The Commander, and more importantly, central officer Bradford's sweater). The aliens won before humanity even got to laser weapons, taking over the world and unifying humanity (read: ruling over them in a pseudo-utopia "Brave New World"-style), and basically preparing to turn them into another of their slave races (not that most of humanity knows this).

XCOM refused to back down even after the Council of Nations ceased to exist and instead went underground, hijacking an alien supply ship to act as a mobile base for hit-and-run operations against the alien occupiers, in the hopes of toppling the ADVENT (the puppet government aliens've set up) and exposing the true purpose of their supposedly ideal society to the world. So they free the captured Commander (sadly the sweater seems to be shrunk in the wash) and it's guerilla warfare time.

This is where the first core gameplay mechanic differs from the previous entries in the franchise. Where before now you had to push forth inch by inch before getting jumped by sectoids and surprise sectopods lurking around corners, most missions start with your strike team in concealment, letting ''you'' get the jump on the aliens. Once you execute this initial ambush, however, it reverts back to the standard formula for the rest of the mission.

New features include:

*The Assault class has been given a makeover to focus even more on [[Rip and Tear]], replacing the sidearm with a sword and changing title to the Ranger.
*The Sniper has been renamed the Sharpshooter and given a pistol-focused skill-tree-route that turns the soldier into Clint Eastwood (literally, like you can have a stand-off by firing 3 pistol-shots in the same turn).
*The Support class has been renamed the Specialist and been given a drone to hack, heal, shield and/or zap shit remotely.
*The Heavy has been given a nice grenade launcher to act as your cover-stomper, and been renamed the Grenadier.
*Psi-operatives are their own class now as well, and get hate-hair and [[Cadia|purple eyes]] because that makes sense and all psychically talented people look like neo-punks.
*Troops can be captured, and then rescued, which also reclaims any expensive gear they had on them (but it's never the captured troops you actually need back).
*New enemies (without spoilers), including "human" ADVENT security troops (who really love to say "bitch" and pointing towards your soldiers) with magnetic weapons who look like humans till you get their armor off, sectoid-human hybrids with teeth, thumbs, and belly buttons (which can be really creepy if you '''really''' think about it), and Snake-women called Vipers (which is what the Thin Men actually look like without their disguises).

Yes, there were snaketits on the thread that announced this to /tg/. No they are not actually tits, being venom glands. No /d/ did not care. Yes they have drawn porn of them. Yes, it will be added to the gallery. And yes... Chimera City confirmed Viper fetish as canon. Yes... There are viper bordellos are in the game.

Fortunatel,y this is somewhat balanced out by the Archons, which seem to be the refined version of the floaters. Rather than looking like a muton that fell victim to the Borg from star trek, they look like the floating torsos of male strippers that joined the armies of the Goa'uld from Stargate. In fact they're honestly far more fanservice-y than even the vipers, in that they, unlike the vipers, give the impression of having actually been designed with fanservice in mind. Seriously, ask any fa/tg/irl who isn't asexual or a lesbian to look these up and she'll tell oyu they're some of the sexiest videogame enemies she's ever seen.

Moving on.

XCOM 2 also contains an in depth explanation for the aliens' motives that many fans felt was lacking or too ambiguous in Enemy Within. Apparently, the Ethereals have some kind of fatal disease they can't cure, so they've been trekking around the galaxy culminating genes to form the ultimate bodies for themselves, while amassing a genetically supreme army. When the Ethereals found humanity, they found their genes to be so awesome and powerful that just adding some of them to a lowly sectoid turned it from a pathetic 3' tall creature you could kill with basic weapons, to an 8' tall psionic rape machine that could raise the dead and withstand salvos of bullets to the face. They then set up an alien government on Earth so they could discretely process humanity's best genetic material and slowly form new bodies for themselves that don't die called Avatars. And by don't die, we mean have copious amounts of health, teleport every time they're injured, regenerate like crazy, are guaranteed to successfully mind control anything, and are immune to any of your psychic status abilities(ie: panic, disorientation, and mind control, you can still annihilate them with psionic fire). And the boss fight involves killing three of these dick-butts and an endless wave of alien reinforcements. Using human DNA is also where their ADVENT troops came from, they grew armies of human spliced with unspecified aliens to act as their public face to the humans. But humanity wins anyway, because humans are just that fucking awesome.

The game is also notable for abandoning the usual conditions for losing. The norm for the series is for your funding to get cut if too many countries lose faith in XCOM. Since you're fighting a guerrilla war and your support are humans fighting to survive outside the aliens' control zones, that isn't happening. Instead you lose if the aliens complete the Avatar Project, their goal to mass produce the bodies for the Ethereals. If they do you get treated to a scene of almost all resistance being crushed because the Avatars are dangerous enough in small numbers and an army of them would unstoppable. You can slow progress, but can only stop it by finishing the game.

So far there have been recently four DLCs for XCOM 2. "Anarchy's Children" added new customization features for your soldiers, most of which you wouldn't ever really use. "Alien Hunters" adds a new mission, weapons, and alien rulers who you have to hunt down. The alien rulers get to take an action every, single, time, one of your soldiers takes one of their own (this was slightly nerfed in War of the Chosen to only trigger on all non-free actions taken within the Ruler's sight, because firaxis realized it was bullshit. Squadsight Snipers and Grenadiers ''will'' be your friends here). This is even more infuriating then it sounds. Some more customization options are added too. "Shen's Last Gift" adds another mission and the SPARK class soldier. SPARKs are robots you have to make in the proving ground, functioning extremely similarly to the MEC soldiers from Enemy Within. In Vanilla XCOM 2, they were very undertuned for the resource investment required to make them. War of the Chosen rebalanced them in a way that makes them significantly more viable; the addition of weapon mod slots for their primary guns can allow them to perform substantially better right out the gate and their immunity to exhaustion and hostile non-damaging psychic powers (namely mind control and insanity) combined with their ability to deploy on missions even when grievously damaged gives them a slight edge over their meaty counterparts in terms of consistency. Having said that, they still require a fairly heavy resource investment per unit to build, as in "do I go ahead and build a SPARK, or should I just upgrade my weapons to the magnetic/plasma tier?" Optional mods have improved their balance to outright making them a super unit if you wish.

And here comes the fun part; if you read the developers blog, their idea of "balance" is to actually nerf plenty of stuff...so the game is harder after having a buffed-up alien lord chase your dudes all over the game. Was old-school really this hard?

You think that's bad, the end game unlocks second wave options, like increasing all Health by 50%, having your guys get worse as they get injured, have their stats rolled at random, so you can make the game even HARDER! Because dying is ''fun''.

And finally, if you find yourself bored with the vanilla experience, XCOM 2 has a very healthy and active modding community adding anything from extra voice packs to full on reworks of the entire game akin to the famed Long War of the original game. Do you want Bob Ross to lead your squad to victory? Want to bring back weapons and MECs from the EU and EW? How about rival third-party factions of Storm Troopers or Geth to turn what's seemingly a stealth mission into a chaotic three-way bloodbath? Your own custom [[Deathwatch]] kill team? The possibilities might not be ''endless'', but you can ensure no two games are ever the same. A warning though, due to how easy it is to create and add mods to your game, care should be taken when implementing them, [[rage|as conflicting or poorly made mods can crash the game or corrupt your saves.]] Additionally, unoptimized or script-heavy mods can make lower-spec computers run like absolute ass. Unreal Engine 3.5 has annoying stability issues as well. You read that correctly. [[Derp|It runs not on the latest version of Unreal Engine 4, but a modified version of Unreal Engine 3.]] [[Fail|Not even the DLCs or WOTC itself have fixed these issues]]. Even a high end gaming machine will experience game crashes due to the age of the engine. With a higher chance if one is running over 150+ mods. Care should be taken when concurrently running a large number of them. Damn it, Firaxis patch your damn game!

While most of the character customization mods introduced (like the Halo: Reach MJOLNIR armor, Mass Effect Turians/Asari/etc, Star Wars Clone Troopers n' such) are entirely cosmetic, one particular mod bears special mention for you elegan/tg/entlemen out there. Armors Of The Imperium is a Warhammer 40k mod that adds fully fledged Space Marine power armor into the game, including a standard set, an Assault variant, a Terminator variant, an Apothecary variant, a Techmarine variant and a Librarian variant. For the ladies in your army, they have access to the Sisters of Battle power armor alongside the Seraphim variant. These armors can be upgraded much like the standard armors ingame and offer significantly better protection than the vanilla equivalents (as you would expect), with the specialized armors offering additional benefits to their wearer. The customization available to your personal Space Marines is ridiculously expansive, allowing you to mix and match virtually any version of the armor from Mk. II through Mk. X and enough additional bits and bobs that'll make any kitbasher weep with envy. The inhouse customization doesn't quite end there either, as the pack comes with dedicated Space Marine Chapter "nationalities", letting you perfectly recreate a significant number of popular or well known Space Marine chapters down to the last detail. Combine this with the available voice packs, bolter and plasma weapon mods to create your very own personal Space Marines to defend holy terra in style!
Mods that aren't Imperium or Chaos are mixed bags and some even downright offensive to the eyes. As most of the armor and weapons look like they are made from plastic for some reason [[fail|seem to look as if they were ported from mobile games.]]

When 2K rolled a bunch of Firaxis' games into their own custom launcher (XCOM included), it initially [[Fail|didn't have mod support]], meaning that you were unable to activate or alter any mods installed post launcher update. This was adjusted, thankfully, but many older mods didn't take too kindly to the new launcher and don't properly load when launching the game. There are a few alternate XCOM game launchers that you can find and download that restores the game to pre-2K launcher, so there is a way around that inconvenience.

====XCOM 2: War of the Chosen====
This brand new expansion gives us three new allies to aid us. It's actually more than large enough to be a game into itself.

*Reapers: Stealthy hunters who wear [[Shadowrun|trench coats and gas masks]] and are armed with nothing but a rifle and explosives. It's enough. Reapers are ''the'' defacto masters of infiltration and assassination and right out of the gate have a dramatically buffed state of concealment called "Shadow". When in their "Shadow" mode, Reapers are virtually undetectable and can only be revealed by the enemy if they literally run into them by sheer dumb luck. Yes, you can have your Reaper sit ass out completely out in the open in the middle of the street and the aliens will be none-the-wiser. Reapers can and will begin to reveal themselves on the offensive, however, as they have an exponentially increasing chance to reveal themselves after every shot they take. Upgraded reapers can mitigate this slightly by taking a perk that prevents the odds of being revealed from increasing if they kill the target they shot at. [[Dakka|They also have an ability that lets them shoot at an enemy until they run out of ammo.]] Long story short, these guys are only slightly less powerful than the Reapers from Mass Effect.

*Skirmishers: ADVENT defectors who are armed with a grappling hook that can pull them to a rooftop and pull themselves to the enemy or vice versa and at max level allows them to have the [[Awesome|alien rulers ability to gain action points every. Time. The. Enemy. Moves.]] Except it only works three times a turn, and doesn't trigger on non-move actions. [[fail|The game doesn't tell you this.]] Their Bullpups have lower range and damage over the standard rifle, but make up for it by being able to shoot multiple times a turn and being wielding by dudes using grappling hooks to zip between buildings like Spiderman. Despite the longer barrel would give it the same stats and longer range. Once again you need download a workshop mod to fix this.

*Templars: [[Grey Knights|A resistance group made of only psionics]] that wield psi blades and machine pistols, but you'll probably never use those. They're fast, hard to kill, and hit like a brick. And like any good psi-based unit, they can fry their enemies with lighting from their hands. They're like the [[rip and tear]] half of the Ranger, but with psionic powers. They have access to some rather obscene powers (like being able to teleport your allies and enemies across the map or summon lightning storms to disintegrate several enemies at once), but this is tempered by them needing to build up Psionic Focus by killing enemies in melee in order to use them. They're also fantastically hammy and roll their Rs.

But these new allies come with a catch as you now have to fight the titular chosen who can adapt to your soldiers' abilities with their own strengths and weaknesses, and the Lost ([[tarpit|zombie swarms]]) that attack both you and ADVENT. Along with these new allies and enemies is trying to get the three resistance groups to work together, as well as a new fatigue and relationship system.

The faction leaders are voiced by actors from [[Star Trek|Star Trek: The Next Generation]]. [[Fail|They do pretty good job except for Marina Sirtis poorly performed lines.]] Good thing the game allows players to switch to a better voice for your first Reaper(and their other soldiers).

====Tactical Legacy Pack====
A mini expansion pack that adds 4 mini-campaigns detailing some of the adventures of Bradford and Lily Shen during the tumultuous days of ADVENT's takeover, adds new weapons to your WotC playthrough for each of these mini-campaigns you beat, allows you to choose between three soundtracks, (X-COM 1, X-COM 2, and Legacy Remixes), allows free access to all of the 100 challenges rather than the random daily challenge system, and even allows you to make your own challenge missions. Also has more than a few bugs and oddities that needs to be fixed with workshop mods. However it isn't as a glitchy broken mess compared to some [[Fallout|other games]].

IT WAS Free until Dec 3rd, 2018, for all WotC owners. Though it's still a cheap buy at $7.99 on Steam. The ability to switch between three soundtracks alone is worth it.(remixes of classic XCOM tracks, the OST from Enemy Within and the vanilla War of the Chosen soundtrack. )

=== XCOM: Long War ===
The big daddy mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown made by a small developer known as Pavonis Interactive that is single-handedly responsible for XCOM 2's thorough mod support (alongside Firaxis [[Blood Ravens| "borrowing"]] some notable aspects of this mod for the actual sequel), Long War is a ''very'' extensive rework of the entire game from the ground up. While the mod greatly expands the classes, perks, weapons and armor players can gear up their dudes with, it also greatly enhances the aliens' arsenal, which now adapts and evolves to combat the player the longer the game goes on. The number of changes made to the game is well into the hundreds and the difficulty is so stepped up that it makes the vanilla game a walk in the park comparatively. This mod is almost universally praised, to the point that not only did Firaxis make it a point to make the sequel as mod-friendly as possible, but they actually partnered up with the Pavonis team to help develop the core XCOM 2 game as well as the first wave of miscellaneous mods to showcase how easy it is to plug-and-play community made content into the game.

As said previously, this is pretty much ''the'' XCOM mod. It's such a big mod that a lot of other XCOM mods are metamods designed to modify ''this'' mod!

=== XCOM: The Board Game ===
From [[Fantasy Flight Games]], there's a board game adaptation of XCOM (in fact, ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown'' was quite inspired by board games, with the two-actions-per-turn system instead of the old 'time units'). There's a companion app for smartphones, tablets, and computers which controls the aliens and informs players of events, a bit like a [[Game Master]], but without exposing the players to too much bookkeeping. Amazing what games can do with computers these days -- just imagine if such a thing had been available for [[FATAL]]! On second thought, don't.

Players (1-4) take on different roles in the XCOM organization. The Commander keeps an eye on the budget and allocates interceptors. The Chief Scientist directs research efforts. The Central Officer works the app and solicits input from the others (if there are any) to make decisions (many of which are time-critical). The Squad Leader manages troops and base defense. Together, they need to allocate their resources, judge when to push risky but rewarding avenues (inviting retribution from the aliens if they fail), and defend humanity. Like the games, successes are rare -- a die only has a 1/3 chance of coming up with a success, and tasks may need multiple successes. There is also an "enemy die", a [[d8]] that is rolled against the number of times that task has been attempted. If it rolls equal to or under that number, something bad happens. So, do you pool resources for critical tasks (neglecting anything else, and hoping that your priorities are correct), in order to most likely be successful before the threat level climbs too high? Or do you stay flexible but push your luck? Your call, commander.

===XCOM 2: Long War 2===
If you thought XCOM 2 was ''already'' hard, thanks in part to the involvement of the original Long War modders in the game's development, said modders come back with a sequel mod for the game. Not only does this go even further than the first Long War in going into a lot of detail, such as new graphical touches, significant rebalancing and completely overhauling the global map to be more reminiscent of classic X-com. But the difficulty is amped up even more, with missions even requiring you to send in potentially fatal scouting parties to make sure your ''other'' squads don't die on the spot. Also, rather than launching parties directly into battle, missions spawn on the geoscape with an expiration timer. The player ''can'' launch immediately, but the enemy presence will be drastically increased! Instead, the idea is that the squad can spend time infiltrating, to let ADVENT get complacent and draw troops elsewhere. Having more Resistance folks working Intel increases mission expiration times, but the bigger and heavier the squad, the more infiltration time is required. And vice versa -- short-staffing a squad can allow a player to infiltrate to high percentages on short notice... but now you've only got like four guys on the ground, and that might not be enough firepower if activations go badly...

This mod requires dramatically more strategic thought and care. Weapons, armor, and equipment are all purchased individually, forcing you into decisions like 'do I continue the rollout of my newly available armor-piercing coilguns, or do I buy armor for the two rookies I've trained up?' and 'do I send my last seven man team to secure me an engineer, commit them to a long infiltration to wipe out an advent tower, or hold them in reserve for a better opportunity?' The difficulty is likewise much higher, but you have dramatically expanded options to combat it with special weapons, squad leaders, extra inventory slots packed with flashbangs, veteran troop skills, choosable bonus perks, a psi advancement training regime that makes some actual sense, and many, many more troops and mission opportunities. Minor reinforcement on that last one, in fact: in stock XCOM 2 you'll likely end the campaign with fewer than twenty soldiers, whereas here it's pretty common to have a hundred active-duty troopers at a time.

The Shinobi ([[Derp|all the Ninja IRL schools have closed up shop]]) is the most overpowered class. Making missions easier then they should be as he can [[derp|bypass Overwatch]] and has a very low impact on infiltration. Making missions unrealistic for players who hate RNG and want a pure stealth game.

The devs of Long War have said they will not be making a Long War for War of the Chosen. The reasoning for this is two-fold; sifting through all the new/reworked code introduced in WotC would take months, if not a year or more just to ensure compatibility with the expansion, much less add to it. The second and more important reason is that Pavonis is focusing heavily on their own X-COM type game and would much rather put their time in that project (understandably).

Some faggot on reddit, however, has recently (as of late 2019) made some impressive strides. While Long War of the Chosen isn't ready for primetime and is missing some important features, anyone can download the beta for it here: https://github.com/long-war-2/lwotc

===XCOM: Chimera Squad===
A surprise entry into the XCOM series, being teased on April 14th and coming out 10 days later. It was supposed to another expansion for War of the Chosen. However since XCOM 2 was already bloated. Chimera Squad was turned into its own game instead.
The game takes place 5 years after the human victory achieved in XCOM 2, and centers around City 31. So you'll have to wait until XCOM 3 to see 2s sequel hooks resolved. In this city, former aliens and humans live together in a tentative peace, and you take control of the namesake Chimera Squad composed of both alien and human agents. It's their job to clean up the remaining remnants of ADVENT as well as other violent troublemakers around the city. Gameplay-wise, Chimera Squad seems to play more like Final Fantasy Tactics, rather than the modern XCOM entries, in that units move on a timeline rather than using block turns. There is also a bigger emphasis on individual agents, as you fail a mission if any of [[Your Dudes]] die.

It's more or less a combination of Alien Nation (the aliens are former slaves) and SWAT/Police Quest, while being a loose remake of XCOM: Apocalypse.
The individual maps are considerably smaller, and mostly down into "rooms", in general each room containing a set number of enemies (there are exceptions; reinforcements can, and will arrive on certain mission types). Each mission starts with you breaching the "room," taking a free move or attack action, and letting enemies hunker down (if you caught them by surprise) or take their overwatch fire (if they were expecting you), before the game goes to turn based mode, and once you've cleared out a room your agents heal a set amount of their HP based on difficulty before you breach the next room, and move on to the next "encounter".

All agents have a dedicated melee attack called "Subdue" which deals a small amount of damage (3 - 4), which if it defeats the enemy knocks them unconscious instead of killing them, potentially allowing you to gain bonus Intel after the mission is over. Multiple agent abilities are dedicated to making it easier to "arrest" enemies for this intel boost, although with the number of captures that are happening in a single week, you got to wonder what they're doing with all of those prisoners... <s>Soylent green</s> <s>Advent burger</s>Burger Palace anyone? However unlike XCOM 2, Melee combat is right out useless. As the two agents who are melee experts are worthless except for bullet sponges that will be replaced by much more useful Androids. No they don't get bonus damage for using Subdue either. So players are better off buying Tranq Rounds and just shooting the various gang members instead.

Chimera Squad's agents are nerfed versions of XCOM 2 classes. However because the devs are lazy. They obviously never tested the game to make all agents useful. Despite being a mixed team of humans and aliens. The aliens are lacking [[DPS]] compared to humans.
So players will almost end using a squad of four humans that will usually be made up of: Blueblood, a gunslinger, who plays like an XCOM 2 Sharpshooter without a sniper rifle and is generally regarded as the best agent. As such he will be the one who should be equipped with Experimental Ammo. The only other good agents are Claymore, a Reaper with a shotgun and stealth replaced for blowing shit up, Godmother, a Ranger without a sword but has high dps and is great for overwatch, Patchwork, who is a buffed Specialist without healing abilities and Terminal, who got the medic half of the tech tree. Agents Torque(a Viper) and Verge(Sectoid rifleman) are B-Team at best and will only be useful if one of the five above are recovering from being knocked out or assigned to training. The Hybrids aka Skirmishers are also useless. As Cherub's skills are situational at best while Zypher is a poor man's Templar. You'd wish the game had kept the Skirmisher class from XCOM 2 if wind up using either of them.

Everyone else are better off assigned to tasks around the base or as benchwarmers. Reflex grips allow Agents to take an action after shooting. So players should be saving up resources to buy them from the Scavenger Market. Which makes Riflemen(Verge and Patchwork) almost as good as Blueblood. While turning Shotgunners(Godmother and the otherwise lackluster Muton Axiom) into short range house cleaners. Getting the good agents are RNG. So you need a roster expansion mod to not be screwed by the game.

And it has Vipers as fetishized [[monstergirls]] with exclusive sex worker locales as canon and anime style advertisements featuring the various aliens. Make of that what you will. There is a also Sectoid conspiracy theorist Floyd Tesseract. But unlike the IRL douchenozzles Floyd is actually intelligent and locates the hostages of a terrorist cell before Chimera Squad does. [[Fail|Compare this to the moronic DJ from XCOM 2 who accidentally created Chryssalid Lures before the events of the main campaign]].

A few have joked that the whole game is actually happens in the mind of your XCOM agents whenever they get mind controlled, and why they fight with the aliens against humans. Which if true, says a lot about XCOM agents regarding their attitude towards Vipers. [[/pol/|Though it's mostly the usual morons whining about diversity.]]

Also the game is currently buggy as fuck with the game defaulting to integrated graphics, as before the only patch released in May 2020, agents would lose their loadouts, along with the stranded freezing and crash to desktop. So you're better off waiting for further patches or downloading Workshop mods to fix them if you want to play Ironman. The impatient should keep the Task Manager open on another monitor just in case.

Since Firaxis doesn't have DLC or expansions to work on and instead are focused on Civilization VII. Any bugs that persist after the May patch will likely never be fixed. Compare this to XCOM:EU and 2 when all the DC was already released before the end of the year in the same timeframe. So if you want a 100% bug free experience. You'll have to search for fanmade patches on the Steam Workshop.

==The Bureau: XCOM Declassified==
Despite having the name XCOM in the title, the game really has little relation to the series. The reason behind this is because 2K passed this game on to the lovely people that brought you Bioshock 2; meaning it was made by a studio that makes more or less decent games. It was first revealed in the E3 2009 only as "XCOM", a first-person shooter set in the 1950s where you would fight black-goo/geometrical eldritch abomination aliens things. While it looked decent, it had the unfortunate problem of being the latest XCOM game since ''Enforcer'' and a far cry from the beloved strategy game the fans all knew and loved, the reaction was so bad that Firaxis' ''XCOM: Enemy Unknown'' became a thing, while "XCOM" was retooled into ''The Bureau: XCOM Declassified''.

It's supposed to be a prequel, set in the 1960s during the Cold War era. The protagonist, William Carter, was a CIA agent just delivering a suitcase of classified "documents" until an Outsider disguised as a female agent got ahold of it. Not long after that, an alien invasion commenced!

The Bureau is a RPG that plays like Mass Effect, but not as good for a variety of reasons. One reason is in the dialog scene, you're given choices of what to ask/say. They really don't impact the game, nor changes it for the most part, so you can skip a majority of it if you want to. The agents in your squad are pretty dull, sure you can change their names and how they dress, but really doesn't offer any friendship/foe engagements. If they die, you will need to recruit another agent and start him off from scratch, but really, leveling them up isn't fun and customizable, so just restart a checkpoint if they do die.

The agents in your squad have bad AI if you don't babysit them and give commands on what they should do, and their skills at fighting Outsiders are... Well, okay. The best they can offer is their abilities, so spamming them and you taking care of the killing is an effective way to go (Some recommend starters to start their first mission with a Recon to cause critical damage on certain enemies and a Commando for [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|taunting the grunts and make them easy picking for you]]).

There would be more to go on, but if you want to know more about the game, you can search up reviews of XCOM Declassified. In short, it's a decent prequel that fans can find some enjoyment, but it's not as good as Enemy Unknown. Without going into spoilers, there's also a reveal during the last few levels that's surprisingly meta and well-written. Still worth looking into if you can find it for cheap or rent it.

Interestingly enough, turns out that the universe in XCOM Declassified is the same as that of Enemy Unknown/Within's. After the events in The Bureau, all records were wiped. This explains why the player had to start from scratch at the beginning of Enemy Unknown. When the Ethereals of Unknown/Within spoke of their [[Derp|own failure to ascend,]] they really meant that they wanted to be like the Ethereals from The Bureau. Either way, only time will tell exactly [[Grimdark|what the hell they were preparing humanity for.]] However since XCOM lost the war and were forced underground by ADVENT in XCOM 2. Asaru's efforts were made pretty much worthless.

==Xenonauts==
X-Com coded by [[Reasonable Marines]].

A faithful remake of the original, with time units and all that. Changes a few things (like lack of Psionics on your side) and adds vehicles (yes, blowing up half a building with a rocket jeep is awesome) and controllable dogfights. Basically the alien invasion is during the Cold War and makes everyone shit themselves simultaneously when THOUSANDS of spaceships are openly in orbit and fucks humanity's shit up in creative ways. Every day the UFO's are left wandering, news bulletins full of terror and destruction emanate from the screen adding to the drama and suspense.

The ending is very creative, particularly concerning the plot of how an inferior species can even bother to defeat a powerful empire. Stunningly well-made, desperate final mission which may result in a glorious ending, or a bittersweet ending where you still win but the assault team is martyred.

Other differences between it and the original include:

Maps are mostly pregenerated, not fully procedural.

Fewer weapon and ammo types. Seriously, you've got the big five (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper, and LMG) and a rocket launcher. No variant ammo types, although the weapons do have researched tiers (which are simply damage-ups).<s> This means no unfairly powerful weapons like the Rape Launcher or the Stun Grenade Launcher.</s> There *are* a few super weapons but seriously, if you waste a "Singularity Generator" which is an ENTIRE CAPTURED BLACK HOLE (a hot commodity salvageable from alien battleships) for a 50 kilogram (without ammo) glorified grenade launcher that doesn't even one shot its AoE, you are a fucking moron.

More basic inventory control. You don't micromanage producing and storing individual missiles, and you can have as many magazines, grenades, and med-kits as you want, limited by carrying limit. You just build the alien-based laser or plasma gun, base gives you ammo made fashioned from a melted-down alien cells. (Alenium is basically a quantum-grade battery aliens came up with. Usually it powers the alien craft, you simply creatively salvage the spent ones into explosives because [[HFY]].)

Smaller team sizes. Max troop count on a mission is 12, with the best drop-ship.

Fewer oddball items, like the motion scanner or psi-ball, but there is now an assault shield, so your dudes don't immediately die when popping open a UFO. Said shield gets upgraded with Alien alloys, and even the final mission sees use of it. Trust me.

Rookies are better out of the gate, but are still shit compared to your colonels. Still, they have a decent chance of killing an enemy in a turn, doubly so if carrying a missile launcher. No longer to operatives miss the broad side of a barn. They *will* miss the spot but will still shake it badly.

Explosive weapons damage items, lowering the amount of money you receive from selling. This is for the best, because explosives are stupidly powerful and are probably the most reliable way of putting a fool down. Considering Reaper, the expy for Chyrssalids are even faster and crazier, you *are* going to need them.

Saveable, customizable loadouts for all of your troops, and obviously no engine-based limit on the amount of items you can bring into a mission.

Aliens don't really hide in corners or really hard to find spots, which makes flushing them out a lot easier. I said flushing out mind you, as they DO charge out and deal extremely serious amounts of damage before going down, to say nothing of teleporting aliens that burst fire in your face if they are lucky.

Troops remain vulnerable a lot longer. You are never at the point where you can float an invincible army of death-dealing demigods over a cowering cadre of snakemen, raining death and destruction down with maddened glee. Even if you do, weird aliens will teleport close and blow you out of the sky, or your flyer will fry a nerve from psionics.

Country relations are more important than after-mission loot.

You can kick or pistol whip an enemy to death. Cue surrounding an annoying alien marksman and beating him to death with riot shields.

You can call airstrikes to cancel boring UFO raids.

No Psionics for Earthlings so there is no way to counter some of the aliens methods to dominate their enemies.

===Xenonauts 2===
Now with 3D graphics! A demo is available through GOG.com, with the release planned to be <s>later in 2017</s> <s>late 2018</s> <s>early 2019</s> early 2020. In early access as of June 2020.

==UFO: Alien Invasion==
The most detailed opensource version of XCOM based on the Quake 2 engine.

Buildings are not destructible and it doesn't have a great fog-of-war. It doesn't have unmanned vehicles like the current iterations and sadly doesn't have any sort of Chryssalids yet.

Has a better world map than any other XCOM in that you can fully explore it like google-earth, even showing ship movement on the globe in real time. The campaign is more forgiving in that it does not force you through Acts like Enemy Unknown where you can't possible keep everybody happy, or has nations constantly bitching at you for radar coverage like in Xenonauts. Instead you get to bid captured UFOs and give preference to unhappy nations that feel neglected or where you haven't been saving civilians frequently.

The camera is completely free in battlescape mode just like in Enemy Unknown, complete with zoom capabilities. Lots of different weapons, though you will find yourself a fool if you don't immediately start using alien weapons. Also levels tend to have more floors than other iterations, such as one mission in which you're going through an office building or another where you're entering a subway.

The only major problem with the game is that the smoke grenades are so overpowered your guys will be coming out of your drop ship like Snoop-Dogg out of his trailer. Otherwise you'll find aliens are more than happy to shower your guys with plasma from across the map.

After a general huge update smoke is now useless and aliens are much, MUCH more powerful.

Oh, and its free. Still, fuck it. Final version is broken, often locking the game, and developers have been keeping silent, the fucking FAGGOTS.

==Phoenix Point==
A spiritual successor by Julian Gollop himself. As of the time of this edit, fully funded and in development with a hard-as-balls backer pre-alpha having been released. The basic idea is; some kind of strange virus has been dug up in the permafrost and has had two outbreaks so far, each escalating in severity. Now it's invading the land a third (and fatally final) time, most of humanity is gone (Partly cus of the virus, partly cus of WW3 happening during the second outbreak), and you must defend the survivors from both the creatures and each other, you poor sap.

The virus morphs all life into Lovecraftian horrors. Literally Lovecraftian; it is implied that [[H.P. Lovecraft|Howard the Great]] was inspired by ancient findings describing an outbreak of the same virus a few million years ago. It even came from Yuggoth. Humanity being humanity, there are several factions with drastically different ideas on how to deal with it; there is a faction based around a religion [[Genestealer Hybrids|worshipping the mutations that is also capable of retaining human consciousness despite said mutations]], another is [[Eclipse Phase| high-tech anarcho-communists trying to coexist with the virus and other factions]] while the third faction [[Starship Troopers|Is a high-tech PMC turned militaristic civilization with "Service Guarantees Citizenship" that just wants to destroy the virus and any of its sympathizers]].

So far, the game has managed to gather enough funding and reach one stretch goal for a floating base that will be given as FREE DLC, along with other stretch goals at a later date should the game be successful.

Expected; large bosses, your own mutated soldiers with crippleable limbs, the option of saving a group of people by [[Dawn of War II|landing on a giant creature and injecting it with poison]], Deep Lore, A hybrid of the old TU and new Two-Action system, unique tech trees for each faction (which you can also get in on by either allying with or stealing from them) and randomized global events (a la Crusader Kings 2).
Oh, and there are [[Flamer|flamethrowers]], Shoulder-Mounted missiles, power armor, gauss rifles and other goodies, such as a mutant mount for the cultist faction.

==XPiratez==
What XCOM 2 was to XCOM: Enemy Within, XPiratez is to X-COM: UFO Defense. Made of pure [[Awesome|awesome]], you lead a crew of female mutants on a quest to kick ass, gain riches, and fuck bitches. A mod for OpenXcom, it's completely free and gets constant updates. Go check it out! Nothing's more satisfying than crushing a pureblood's head in with a sledge hammer and then mowing down his mates with your [[Dakka|custom Boarding gun]]. Basically, post XCOM defeat, humanity is a province in the alien empire, and a long, long time later, you lead a band of mutant female pirates living the pirate life, looting, capturing, ransoming, and eventually enslaving prisoners. More detailed, fanmade, with a morally darker atmosphere for the protagonist faction (apart from turning prisoners from human factions to slaves -miners for men, maids for females, and ahem..."squires" for shota younglings from Cult of Sirius), PirateZ offers a unique experience.

==The X-Com Files==
This megamod for OpenXcom will allow you to grow X-Com from its humbled beginnings, as a two-men team travelling the world in an expensive-looking car to global the military force we all know and love. It contains many, many additions, like new mission types, enemies, equipment and story arcs (including the entirety of my previous project, the Final Mod Pack). It also places the game a bit more firmly in the 90's conspiracy genre and its clichés.
Defeat the enemies from the outer space, the oceans the underground, but primarily within our own society! This mod and XPiratez have become very popular on Twitch, a questionable website sometimes described as a hive of scum and villainy with thots.

==The Tabletop Game==
Yes, there was a Tabletop game, made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]], so this article has some direct /tg/ relevance. The problem is, [[Derp | you need a cell phone app to play it]].

==Aliens==
Needless to say, in this game, there are many different types of aliens that your teams are going to have to fight.

===Original Continuity===
====X-COM: UFO Defence====
'''Sectoid''': Doesn't matter what game, these guys are always the first things you face. They're not tough, but they are annoying, and the higher ranked ones (yes aliens have ranks, just like your guys in the old games) can and will successfully mind-control your guys all the fucking time.

'''Cyberdisk''': The original flying, metal pancake, these guys only show up supporting Sectoids. They can take an abusive amount of punishment, and deal it out just as much, before exploding when they are finally disabled. Expect to see your bullets passing over or under it all the fucking time.

'''Floater''': Changed significantly in the remake. Here they're a still mostly intact torso and abdomen mounted on a giant, floaty antigravity ball. They can't fly as freely as the ones in future versions, but they're far less suicidal, and prone to setting up ambushes.

'''Reaper''': Big, spiky dogs that appear alongside Floaters on terror missions. They're dumb as shit and only attack in melee making it easy enough to lure them out and turn your entire fire team against them. Now if that would actually kill them.

'''Snakeman''': Another basic type, these guys are easy pickings on any mission other than Terror Missions. Their autopsy states that they are stuffed full of fertilised eggs so take that "men" part with a grain of salt.

'''Chryssalid''': And these are the reason you'll hate Snakemen on terror missions. They bring Chryssalids with them. Twelve foot tall murder bugs that kill people, plant their eggs into them, turn them into shuffling zombie, which hatch into new Chryssalids unless killed, ''quickly''. Unlike the remake these guys can take a beating, and it's entirely possible to have an entire squad with laser weapons and repeating grenade launchers hit one of these bastards with every shot, and it'll still be standing at the end. You see one of these things, you do not let your squad break apart or approach blind corners.

'''Muton''': As always the aliens' equivalent to your guys, except they're better armoured (despite wearing goofy green jumpsuits), better armed, and just better being as they're not the best janitors all the world's militaries have to offer. Mutons don't have Psionics on their side, so if you want to play with them bringing along your Psi Specialist is a good idea, otherwise they're going to take an absurd amount of punishment to put down. A superhuman grade Muton can take a block of High Explosive to the chest and come out shooting, so bring the plasma, and bring enough it of for a small city block.

'''Celatid''': One of the two terror units found alongside Mutons, it looks like nothing more than a floating kidney bean. It's small, it's fast, and it has the most damaging non-High Explosive attack in the game, which becomes even more destructive against non-armoured targets like your rookies, or civilians. Thankfully this attack works on a lobbed arc so its range is severely nerfed down to 7 tiles, but out in the open that goes up to 16 tiles, and it can attack up to three times in a turn if it doesn't have to move.

'''Silicoid''': The second terror unit that is deployed alongside Mutons, and the most useless alien unit in the game. It crawls along at a speed of 8 tiles a turn, has no ranged attacks, and triggers reaction fire from even the worst of your guys allowing you to use it as a reaction fire training sponge, especially if you use Incendiary rounds as it will not take any damage from fire or incendiary rounds, but your guys will still gain experience. High Explosives work well against it.

'''Ethereal''': Far different from the remake game, Ethereals are packing heat in conjunction with their insane Psi abilities. These cloaked bastards can fly, will rain plasma fire down on your squad, spot for their allies to make their job easier, and at the end of it all, they'll mind control or panic the ragged remains of your squad. Kill them as quickly as you can, preferably from long distance with a Blaster Launcher.

'''Sectopod''': Giant metal murder toads. These guys aren't actually robots, although they come close, they are intact Remote Control murder mechs for the ethereals so that they don't have to get close to you while they turned you into plasma fried Kentucky X-COM rookie. The scary thing about these guys is just how much punishment they seem to take, even from late game weapons; however if you can target their rear armour, and bring laser weapons (which deal x1.5 damage against these guys) you'll be laughing all the way to the ICU. Of course this is going to make your prospects against their Ethereal controllers far, far worse, but hey-ho, win some, lose some.

====Terror From The Deep====
IA, IA, CTHULHU FATAGN

'''Aquatoid''': Genetically, and surgically slap gills and flippers onto a Sectoid, et Voila! You have an Aquatoid. Their commanders still have the Psionic abilities of their land locked cousins, but they call it Molecular Control, because they're fancy like that.

'''Gillman''': Apparently an earth creature, these creatures from the black lagoon were around when DINOSAURS ROAMED THE EARTH!, and submitted to the aliens when they arrived the first time round. They make for 'poor' soldiers (although this being TFTD that just means their only better than your guys by a factor of 1 or so, and not 3) and can take a bit of punishment from basic weaponry, although by the time you get Sonic weaponry, they start dropping like wheat before the scythe. Taking one of these guys in alive, and dead is critical to researching melee weapons (???), and accessing the final mission. So get catching.

'''Lobsterman''': An organic Sectopod, these guys will walk off whatever you throw at them, and then strike back with extreme prejudice. Ironically though they're mostly weak to stunning weapons, making tasers, and stun grenades the best weapon to use against them if you've got them. If you don't, well you can always use drills to pierce their hides, or hope that the tiny plinking of your harpoons cause them to laugh themselves to death.

'''Tasoth''': A clone vat species based off of humanoid velociraptors, these guys would be awesome, if they were on your side. As they are not, they are assholes. In combat they function as Ethereal lite's, unable to fly, and not quite as psionically potent, they make up for this by having much more physical strength, health, and durability.

'''Bio-Drone''': A brain-in-a-jar mounted on a super speaker. Electrical impulses torture the brain and use its screams (without vocal chords, don't ask me) to project a wave of hyper-condensed sound which will melt the victim's brain inside their head. Noise Marines might have stolen this idea for their Doom Siren. Grimdark as fuck because often the brains are made of kidnapped civilians.

'''Calcinite''': A Gelatinous green goop inside an old school diving suit, it might be possible to mistake this thing for one of your guys while you're underwater, but they remain fully suited up while on land, so the helmet is a good indicator. They lack any ranged attacks, and will instead try to run up and claw your agents face off, to add to this, their antique diving suits are tougher than your guys starting body armour (WHY?), nonetheless any weapon will put them down.

'''Deep One''': You'd think this would be the perfect place for some Cthulhu monstrosity, but sadly no. These guys are more "The Fly" than anything else. Humans that have been captured, tortured, and then surgically and genetically altered to become alien shock troops, the only original bit of their humanity left is their eyes. Their primary ranged attack is an arcing electrical burst (which is treated as a Gauss weapon for damage types) which allows them to fire over walls and other obstacles so nowhere is safe.

'''Hallucinoid''': Giant electrical jellyfish. The aliens keep on taking earth creatures and turning them into weapons of war. Although choosing jellyfish may have been a... poor decision. These things aren't particularly aggressive, preferring to just gently float into range when they can be bothered, rather than hunting your agents down. Unfortunately they're still tough enough to weather the storm of fire that their slow approach allows you to unleash on them, and their melee attack is devastating.

'''Tentaculat''': BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T BE A X-COM GAME WITHOUT CHRYSSALIDS, NO MATTER WHAT YOU CALL THEM. THEY CAN FLY NOW SO HAVE FUN! (appearance is directly identical to Grell from [[Dungeons & Dragons]])

'''Triscene''': A mother-fucking T-REX! The aliens brought back a T-Rex, slung two sonic cannons onto its sides, and let it loose in battle. These guys are the sectopods of TFTD, without the sectopod's weaknesses. However they have one glaring flaw, which is they have no under armour, and one well placed grenade will severely hurt them, or outright kill them if powerful enough.

'''Xarquid''': An overgrown Nautilus that swims in reverse, the things act like sniper tanks, preferring to sit in one corner of the map, usually several levels up, and snipe your squad from a safe distance. Other than the reaction fire you'll inevitably take when hunting these things down, they're not particularly dangerous, just use cover and explosives if they're on the ground, or get underneath them and take out their weak underbelly.

====X-COM: Apocalypse====
'''Brainsucker''': Because Facehugger was already taken. Why is the first alien you encounter in this game another GOD-DAMNED CHRYSSALID? FOR FUCK'S SAKE! These guys are fairly weak, and can be dealt with simply in RT mode, in TB however, their movement speeds enough to take them from outside your field of vision and into attack range, considering that their melee attack is a one hit kill keep enough time units back for reaction fire.

'''Multiworm''': One big ugly green fat worm the size of a human that shoots acid like a machinegun. Kill it with piercing weapons for a surprise burst of FOUR land equivalent of piranha, the Hyperworm. Use fire and nades for a pentakill in one shot.

'''Hyperworm''': Doglike rapid moving worms with a vicious bite. Toss fire and grenades to kill quickly.

'''Chrysalis''': In 72 hours, the Hyperworm turns into that to produce new aliens. Harmless meat bag.

'''Anthropod''': Ugly blue humanoid alien with decent stats. The first gun using alien. Helpless on its own but Alien equipment becomes TPK bait afterwards complete with personal shield and fuckhuge bazookas.

'''Psimorph''': Huge flying blob [[Psyker]] with fuckton of HP. Kill on sight as it will mindrape every agent. Luckily stays in the Alien Dimension... Mostly.

'''Spitter''': Misunderstood Pink Guy from Uganda who looks for de way, spitting on Heretics. Weak.

'''Megaspawn''': Imagine an Imperial Knight but alien scum and wholly organic. Its' rapid firing, replenishing rocket launcher arm and ORGANIC LASER CANNON ARM says it all. Huge and powerful.

'''Popper''': Muslim alien who Allahu Akbar's you.

'''Skeletoid''': Anthropod V2.0 with flying. Fast reacting, agile and smart. Dangerous with endgame equipments.

'''Micronoid Aggregate''': Actual alien rulers. Hive mind of single cells running across all Alien veins and buildings.

'''Queenspawn''': Mother whore, land octopus and breeding bitch. If you stun her, you get the best Alien toxin gun... AND IN GAS FORM! Now you can start a race war and gas all xeno scum, like humanity should.

'''Overspawn''': Kaiju alien dropped from top 2 biggest UFO's. When aliens get mad, it will rampage across town, and can destroy the xcom base underfoot if it hits its building. Scramble all crafts and shoot it down, try hitting it with rubble for instakill.

===Reboot Continuity===
The reboot continuity has its own array of different monsters, with some changes in variety between the first and second game.

====X-COM Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within====
'''Sectoid''': Tiny little grey men in the first game, these are the first Psionic enemy you'll meet, with the ability to boost each other in combat. This can be rather nasty giving them an extra hit point and a +10 to hit and dodge, although if you kill the booster, you'll kill whatever Sectoid they're boosting as well thanks to Psychic feedback.

'''Sectoid Commander''': Only in the first game, these guys are Sectoids on psychic steroids. You'll see one on the tutorial mission and get a taste of what they can do, even if you don't fight it. They're stronger, tougher, and more psionically powerful than the basic sectoid, and are the first unit that can possess your guys mid-firefight.

'''Thin Man''': Apparently an "Infiltrator Unit" nobody (other than the Ethereals) would mistake these guys for human at close distance as they have snake scales running up their necks, and are skinny enough to make a supermodel jealous. Apparently they were made from genetically modifying Snake-women as they can spit clouds of poison at great distance, and will explode into one when they're killed. Otherwise they're real flimsy. Do not underestimate them, however, as their choice of weaponry and habit of frequently spawning on high ground means that they will often one-shot soldiers through full cover if not dealt with quickly.

'''Muton''': How you know the aliens are stepping up their game. Everything up till now has been child's play (for a particularly psychotic child), then these guys come along. Big, tough, cunning, brutal, and dangerous, these guys will mulch a squad equipped with regular weapons and armour without breaking a sweat, and capturing one of these guys alive brings one of the better upgrades. Have fun.

'''Muton Berserker''': Ha, ha, ha. These girls are melee monsters, capable of soaking up bullets by the magazine, and slowly getting angrier and angrier as they do. If they can get in close they'll unleash the melee hurt, but thankfully they're not amazingly fast. Thankfully, their instinctive charge of the last person who shot them means you can set them up to run a gauntlet of Overwatch fire, with a bit of luck.

'''Muton Elite''': As much health as the Berserkers, plus armor, and lacking the berserk charges. Instead, they carry heavy plasma cannons.

'''Floater''': Apparently reject Mutons, stripped down to an upper torso and fitted up with cybernetic implants, mainly a jetpack. They're your first hint that the aliens may not be one big happy family, as they have an idle animation consisting of them ripping at their flesh and bionics until blood spurts. They're basically the fastest unit in the game, great Overwatchers, and pack about as much punch as a standard Muton. They have a special ability that sacrifices all their actions for the turn to instead fly to any single spot on the map, which they love to use to get the drop on your team.

'''Heavy Floater''': A tougher, armored version of the standard Floater, with a bigger gun. Basically just replace floaters in the late game to keep them competitive, but they've got no new tricks up their sleeves.

'''Outsider''': Strange "energy" lifeforms that serve as the technicians of the UFOs. You need to capture one of these in order to advance the game. They're wimpy, but their light plasma rifles are deadly accurate, so they can gun down whole teams if you're careless. For some unexplained reason, they just up and completely vanish from the game as soon as sectoid commanders turn up, never even being mentioned again. The most popular fan explanation is that they are actually not so much ''crew'' of the UFOs as ''hardware''.

'''Sectopod''': The aliens' equivalent of a tank; an enormous, heavily armored killer robot that walks around the battlefield in a perpetual squat, it has insanely high health, high armor, a 50% damage reduction ability with the Enemy Within expansion, and the ability to blaze away with both a fuck-off huge fire-laser-beam-thing and to launch showers of cluster bombs. They also blow up when you kill them. Your most hated enemy.

'''Cyberdisk''': A ridiculously fast flying robot that can shapeshift between a flying saucer-like flight-mode (in which it's harder to hit) and its unfurled combat mode. Not quite as killy as the sectopod, but still really adept at ruining your day.

'''Drone''': Small flying robots that basically zip around like laser-spitting wasps. They don't do much damage, but they can repair mechanical aliens and they explode like a grenade when killed. And they're extra-hard to hit, for added nuisance factor.

'''Chryssalid''': An absolute fucking nightmare, just like the original series. These bugs are lightning fast, vicious, and if they kill anyone they'll automatically plant an egg in the corpse, which will turn into a zombie before hatching a new chryssalid three turns later. And these zombies are tough enough to weather several turns of shooting. One of the standout points of Enemy Within is a pre-baked mission where you get to investigate a whaling ship that crashed ashore in Newfoundland after being infested by Chryssalids who turned the catch into their personal hive. Your job is to first investigate the area, and then light the place up for your bombers so they can carpet bomb the place into fire and rubble, running your squad away the whole time.

'''Ethereal''': The leaders of the alien forces, physically frail but masters of [[psionics]], which they can use to ''really'' fuck up your day.

'''Seeker''': A relatively weak squid-like robot that uses camouflage to sneak up on its prey and then tries to crush it to death with its tendrils. They like to go after isolated members of your squad, which can be used to bait them into going after Assault troopers with Close Combat Tactics for hilarious effects.

'''Mechtoid''': An armored exoskeleton piloted by a sectoid, carrying twin plasma mini-cannons. Sectoids can use their mind merge ability to give a layer of shielding to mechtoids; killing the sectoid removes the shield and causes some damage to the mechtoid.

====X-COM 2 / War of the Chosen====
'''ADVENT'''

The end results of what the Ethereals want to do with humanity. Puppet soldiers controlled by a series of psionically linked chips that feed back to command nodes. It's stated that the Commander's brain was a central "tactical command" processing node for these, providing the ADVENT officers and troops with advanced stratagems. The fact that XCOM rescued him in the tutorial mission serves to explain why the Resistance has such an easy time with ADVENT during the game itself, forcing the aliens to send in the more advanced otherwordly brawn.

*'''Trooper''': The grunts come in three flavours, with increasing HP, Dodge, and Accuracy as they tier up. [[Imperial Guard|Challenging only in high numbers primarily by way of sheer volume of shots and by overrunning soldiers pinned down by said firepower]].

*'''Officer''': These guys aren't a threat on their own, however they can Holo-Target one of your guys, granting their ADVENT and alien allies a +10 to hit against that soldier. Killing the officer removes this mark from your soldier and as such, you should prioritize taking down the officer should you become afflicted by it.

*'''Shield-Bearer''': The most annoying ADVENT type in the base game, these guys can pop a shield that gives every ADVENT and Alien soldier in range +3 or +5 temporary HP. Combined with their armour these guys can take a licking and keep on ticking. Taking them out will drop the shield on everybody else, so they should be a target priority otherwise each affected enemy will require significantly more effort to drop. They also kinda look like Robocop so they have that going for them.

*'''Stun-Lancer''': Melee focused, these guys are noticeable by the fact they were far less armour than any other ADVENT soldier. They're addicted to melee and will almost exclusively favor charging in to taze your guys with their electric Melee beatsticks. While this normally just runs a good chance of disorienting or stunning your soldier, it can straight up knock your dudes unconscious if RNG fates it so. In the event some affliction prevents them from slapping your dudes with their tasers, they do carry a standard ADVENT Rifle. They however can be easily dealt with if you have a Ranger with Blademaster, Bladestorm and upgraded blades. They'll run towards your Ranger only to be swiftly cut down like chumps.

*'''Priest''': Introduced in WotC, these guys are the ADVENT Psions. Primarily a supportive unit, they can boost another ADVENT soldier much like Sectoids could in Enemy Unknown (and like that game if you kill the priest the soldier will suffer psionic feedback and die), or they can put one of your guys in Stasis for a turn, preventing them from doing anything. Advanced and Elite priests have additional tricks that allow them to Mind-Control your guys, and place themselves in Stasis if they would be killed, instead staying around with 1 HP for another turn.

*'''Purifier''': Flamethrower wielding ADVENT troops that only appear in WotC. The guys are kept "secret" from the public (despite that fact they can appear in any mission if the RNG says so) as they are supposed to hunt down and kill the lost in the old, abandoned cities. As stated they use flamethrowers, alongside incendiary grenades, and when you kill them there's a good chance they will explode, so don't kill them with melee unless you want to lose your eyebrows. Although that can lead to some hilarious chain reactions if you're lucky.

*'''General''': Only appears in assassination missions in WotC. Essentially just a beefed up Officer with a shit ton of HP, and the ability to throw Flash-Bangs.

*'''MEC / Heavy MEC''': The first truly heavy ADVENT Unit. These things come with an absurd amount of HP and armor for the early game. They're not particularly smart however and cannot use cover at all, instead relying on their durability to weather your shooting so take advantage of this. Remember not to bunch your guys up as they have a shoulder mounted missile launcher that they will use on your guys if they're clustered together. MECs can also use suppression at the end of their turn if they can't target a group. The Heavy MEC is just tougher and more accurate, you can think your way through this fight. The best way to deal with them is hacking or anti-machine equipment such as EMP rounds and grenades.

*'''Turrets / Heavy / Superheavy''': It's a turret. What more do you want? They have some armour and a decent amount of HP as well as the ability to fire up to twice per turn (more often than not, they'll shoot once then enter overwatch). As can be expected, turrets don't move and are usually positioned up on building rooftops or on trains for that high-ground advantage. Like most mechanical enemies, you can hack it with a Specialist or simply destroy it by using Bluescreen rounds. If the turret is on a rooftop, you can also utilize conventional explosives (like grenades or rockets) to blow out the floor from underneath it, destroying the turret instantly.

*'''Sectopod''': The final and toughest ADVENT unit. It's just as much of a nightmare as it was in the first game. Sectopods have three actions per turn as opposed to the nearly universal two, can extend their legs to give themselves a height advantage over your soldiers and walk through nearly all buildings and terrain (destroying cover or even blowing out the floor from underneath your soldiers as it does so) in their path. The basic shots they fire do devastating damage and shred armor, potentially killing even highly ranked soldiers if caught even slightly off-guard. They explode rather violently when they are finally defeated, likely killing or severely injuring any units caught in the blast. So don't be stupid by making your melee units deliver the finishing blow. As with any robotic unit they can be hacked by a properly specced specialist, although their rather high hacking defense makes taking control of them extremely difficult. Bluescreen Rounds, EMP Grenades and/or acid grenades are all highly recommended when fighting it.

'''Aliens'''

*'''Sectoid''': Tougher than you remember due to the infusion of human DNA. Now have the ability to resurrect dead troopers - yours and ADVENT - as zombies, and all sectoids from the get-go can lay a mind whammy on your troops, randomly panicking, disorientating or controlling them.

*'''Chryssalid''': Because why the fuck wouldn't the Ethereals keep their most effective terror weapon. These guys have changed from scuttling horrors to burrowing, venomous, scuttling horrors, capable of turning anyone they kill, either with their venom or their claws into a slowly metamorphosing cocoon that, if it reaches maturity, will spit out '''THREE''' new chryssalids, because Firaxis hates you. They are rendered mostly harmless by being set on fire, so if you think you're going to run into them bring incendiary rounds, fire bombs, and hell weave vests. The previous sentence is no longer the case in War of the Chosen, so prepare your anus.

*'''Viper''': The most famous of the new aliens because they look like [[serpentfolk|humanoid snake-women]] with [[furry|nice tits and a sweet pair of hips]]. Appear pretty early in the game; not much tougher than sectoids, but quite annoying. They can drag you out of cover with their tongue whip attack, spew toxic clouds like the Thin Men, and strangle you in melee like a Seeker. These gals represent the true form of the Thin Man alien from the last game. (And yes, the thin ''men'' were actually disguised snake ''women'' the whole time.)

*'''Andromedon''': One of the cooler new alien designs, it could almost have been ripped out of the old X-COM series. It looks like a combination of an old diving suit and an iron lung, filled with green acidic sludge, and a single pickled alien who apparently needs that sludge to live and dies if exposed to Earth's atmosphere. When you kill it the first time the glass torso-visor shatters, exposing the pilot's corpse, and the suit reboots and come to life by itself, dropping its heavy plasma cannon and charging into melee. In its first form, an Andromedon is a tough customer, with more armour & health than a Muton while packing the same firepower. In its second form it will only ever try to hit you with its fists, but it leaves behind trail of acidic and poisonous sludge that hurts your guys if they try to move through it (because jumping isn't a thing, despite the ability to haul yourself up drainpipes) which makes navigating the battlefield a hassle, especially in densely packed urban missions. Thankfully their second form will be easier to deal with. Due to the immense control of the battlefield these guys possess (being able to simply destroy cover by running through it and leaving acid trails that can cut off avenues of approach) in addition to their rather devastating firepower, it's highly recommended you fully focus these things down if no other priority targets (like Sectopods) are immediately present.

*'''Faceless''': A new enemy that should only appear in Terror Attack missions, but they can be seeded in regular missions if you pull the Dark Event that allows them to mingle with the regular citizens. Isn't that lovely. Shapeshifters that look like ordinary humans until your troops get too close (or all other aliens are killed), then they turn into ''fucking huge'' moaning melted-wax men with claws the length of shotguns. In the early game they can be a hard target to drop due to their fairly high HP and ability to regenerate lost health every turn. That said, as exclusively melee units that rely more on ambushing unsuspecting XCOM operatives, they can easily be kited and picked off at range. In a pinch, your Scanner Grenades and Specialists can reveal concealed Faceless by scanning the area, so there's a touch of counterplay against them.

*'''Muton''': Remaining as the ethereal's shock infantry, these Mutons have apparently been crossbred with humanity, making them slightly smaller and faster, but also slightly smarter. But considering just how badly the A.I. can flub up sometimes, you have to wonder about that last one. They aren't packing any more HP, but they now have a point of armor, which means that the first point of damage from every attack gets ignored, so they'll soak up more damage unless you can shred their armor with heavy weapons and explosives. They'll still be a threat until you get Plasma weapons, and 3rd tier armour, but once you're there, they pretty much become chaff beneath the scythe. They also like tossing grenades if they don't have a direct line of sight on your troops. Along with the ability to use suppression if a Muton can't get into melee. Making them an annoyance well into the late game. They're also the only Alien that has countermeasures against melee, being able to parry and riposte 50% and dealing significant damage to your Ranger.

*'''Berserker''': Now visually more distinct from the regular Muton instead of just having a fancy costume, being entirely naked and seemingly skinless, looking like the musculature section of a human anatomy book. Still the same extremely tough melee combatants with the same instinctive berserker charge, only now they have this feature that lets them attack their ''allies'' if they're mad enough. This game also reveals that Berzerkers are actually the Muton ''women''. Gives a whole new meaning to the term [[Amazon]], huh?

*'''Codex''': A replacement for the Outsider, but far more annoying. The Codex first appears when you Skulljack an ADVENT officer, and it looks like a weirdly sexy woman made of pure yellow, but with a cybernetic brain & spinal column. They can teleport around the battlefield, and when struck by an attack that fails to kill them, they split into two Codexes with half of their remaining health. They can also create temporary [[Matt Ward|zones of energy that suck all the ammo out of your guns]], and then close with deadly force. Naturally you want Snipers or Magnetic/Plasma Weapon chain attacks to kill them quickly. Which you should have by the time of encountering them. Unless of course you rush the skull-jack out in your first run, and get one of these while you still have conventional weapons, in which case... have ''fun''. Or just toss a flashbang at them and turn them into slightly more dangerous ADVENT Troopers.

*'''Specter''': Another WotC specific enemy. These guys look like the Codex if they were men and made out of Necron Scarabs rather than pure energy. It's fitting too as they are a collection of Psionic nanobots that can grab your guys, stun them, and create a shadowy doppelgänger with all of your guy's skills and gear, and none of their bad luck. Thankfully killing the Specter will also kill this doppelganger and bring your guy back into the fight, but if you can't take it down immediately, expect the tide to turn against you. In a pinch, you can revive a soldier possessed this way with a medically inclined Specialist, though you'll still have to fight the doppelganger. Oddly, attacks that harm biological targets without requiring a will test can harm the Specter.

*'''Gatekeeper''': A giant, floating, psionic ball that might be the replacement/upgrade to the cyberdisks. No, we're not joking. For all the goofiness of trying to summarise this thing, it's a shockingly vicious threat. That big metal sphere contains a psionic powerhouse in the shape of a fleshy mass with tentacles which will unfurl to bitchslap your soldiers into the ground if they get too close. When moving or firing its eye-beam (a very strong, if semi-inaccurate laser), it remains enclosed in its heavily armored sphere (We're talking 4-6 pips of armor, difficulty dependent). In order to use its most powerful attacks, however, it must unfurl out of its armor in order to cast them. These include the ability to create a ''massive'' explosion that deals heavy damage to everything within it and reanimates ''all'' humanoid bodies within its radius as zombies that it controls (this includes any humans killed ''by'' said explosion) and the ability to grab your soldiers and siphon their life to heal itself. Additionally, it'll try to use cover despite being a 2x2 giant, floating, metal, psychic ball of doom. As a final FU, when killed they explode with a blast that will reach all tiles around them, heavily wounding or outright killing any of your squad next to them. Melee units such as Templars should be kept far away if they don't have Fortress. One of them is always encountered during the Psi Gate mission and will likely be the first time seeing them. Hilariously these tiny Eldritch Abominations can be mind controlled by Psi Operatives, if their will stat is good enough. Another way of dealing with them is using explosives and heavy weapons that shreds their armor. These would be the first targets to use Frost Grenades on if you encounter them early in the maps. You should have Magnetic or Plasma Weapons by the time Gatekeepers start showing up or they will be nearly impossible to defeat.

*'''Archon''': So someone in the Aliens' side realized that having a heavily mutilated torso mounted on jetpacks, which actively tore at its implants and constantly mounted suicide charges so it could be put out of its misery was bad for PR, so they replaced the Floaters with these guys. They look almost angelic or like something out of a high-tech ancient egypt, and their design incorporates a lot more white and gold with much less obviously chop-shop cybernetics. The nigh-constant pain going away has made them far smarter too. They still like to jump around the battlefield, but now they can also use a new ability called Blazing Pinions to rain rockets down on your guys after a turn's delay and will actually take advantage of cover. They also happen to have the Adonis-like musculature of a Chip-n-dale dancer. No seriously, ask any fa/tg/irl who isn't asexual or a lesbian to look up these, and she'll tell you they're one of the sexiest videogame monsters she's ever seen. Snaketits, meet mechpecs.

*'''Avatar''': The Ethereals' plans are revealed when you discover these creatures. Avatars are genetically engineered lifeforms created from the genes of the most psi-capable humans, crafted to house the essence of the Ethereals, whose own bodies are breaking down irrevocably. Extremely tough and powerful psionics, these guys are arguably your highest priority on the battlefield. The Commander gets one of his own at the end of the game. This is because they plugged him/her into their psionic network and never bothered to remove or change anything after XCOM recovered them. [[Fail|As the Ethereals are really quite stupid despite claiming to be the superior race.]] While lacking the full skill set of the Psi Operative, they have useful abilities that can still perform near their level. Avatars also come an awesome gun that they hardly ever use; [[Cheese|it ignores armor values, uses only one action point that allows him to fire twice in one turn, and can knock a Sectopod down to half health in a single volley.]] It can be acquired through workshop mods should you want it outside the final mission, though most such mods restrict the weapon to Psi-Operatives. It wouldn't make much sense otherwise.

'''The Alien Rulers''':
If you played the previous game, you may have been wondering: "what happened to Dr. Valen?" Well, the first DLC for XCOM 2, "Alien Hunters" reveals that she went off and set up her own base in an abandoned alien genetics lab, where her experiments in undoing the genetic suppressants on three cryogenically suspended subjects created three amped-up alien variants so powerful that the Ethereals couldn't control them. Great work, doc! Alien Rulers have a huge health bar and many unique abilities, but one of their more bullshit traits is that they have, no shit, Lair actions from D&D 5e. If you don't play D&D, this means they get a free turn in reaction to ''every'' action your troops take. This is nerfed somewhat in the WotC expansion to only reacting to anybody taking an action in its immediate line of sight (so dudes hiding behind walls or who are too far away won't trigger them). The best way to deal with them is heavy use of Incendiary, Acid and Venom Bombs. Not only do all these grenades stack damage over time effects (such that they take damage on every one of their own turns), but the burn limits the number of things they can do on their turn, the acid shreds almost all their armor while the poison severely hampers their accuracy, if it doesn't just gimp them of their reaction entirely. Free actions (like the Lightning Hands perk) and reloading don't trigger reactions, while abilities that allow your troops to make multiple attacks (like Rapid Fire or Chain Shot) count as one action. In WotC, Sharpshooters abusing the Squadsight mechanic can attack them without triggering a reaction if they are doing so from outside conventional range. Something you should have before facing them in mid to late game. Because fuck these guys. War of the Chosen also allows you to "integrate" this expansion, eliminating the special story mission in lieu of just shoving the Rulers around various facilities and just giving you the special guns. Doing this means missing out on a couple minor cutscenes, controlling Bradford for a mission and missing out on the opportunity to take his fancy gun kitted out with [[cheese|every possible upgrade]] for a spin.

*'''The Viper King:''' The only male Viper in existence, this creature shows why the Ethereals removed the male gender from the viper species with how rampantly he set about fertilizing every female viper he could encounter, filling an entire base with a huge array of hatchling vipers you have to fight through. His unique abilities allow him to spit a freezing gas instead of the normal venom. The weakest of the Alien Rulers, the Viper King is usually the first one you encounter. He's ironically also the most vulnerable to the Frost grenade, so slap it in a Grenadier with the Heavy Ordinance perk and hit him with it from out of sight to maximize your attacking opportunities. If you manage to tag 'n' bag Subject Gamma, you can turn his carcass into a unique Spider Suit, the Serpent Suit, that can scare the scales off of normal vipers and lash out with freezing whips.

*'''The Berserker Queen:''' Just as much bigger and scarier compared to normal berzerkers as they are compared to male mutons, Subject Beta can not only unleash a howl that can panic your whole squad, but is equipped with cybernetically integrated wrist-mounted hammers she can use to create earthquakes. Because fists the size of the average adult human weren't enough apparently. From her carcass, you can build the R.A.G.E Suit, which not only terrifies mutons and berserkers, but lets your trooper make a berserker-style charge attack themselves.

*'''The Archon King''': Subject Alpha is the nastiest Alien Ruler in the game, and has the most health. His special attack "Devastate" is a version of Blazing Pinons (the Archon's "shower an area with rockets" ability) that does less damage, but which can also disorient, stun and knock unconscious. Worse, it hits on the next Ruler Reaction, meaning you have no chance to get away from it the way you do from Blazing Pinions. He also has a unique attack where he grabs a trooper, hauls them into the air, and then power dives them into the floor. If you can take down this asshole, his corpse can be refashioned into the Icarus Armor, a superior Warden Armor suit that grants the Vault ability and the ability to pull off the Archon's "move to any point on the map you wish" twice per mission. Give it to your best Sniper, as this allows them to keep up with the rest of the squad and find the nearest vantage point.

'''The Chosen''':
The new Dragons aka Second in Command below the Ethereals. These three alien hybrids were once human before being abducted by the aliens (indeed, the Hunter was once one of the Reapers before his capture) and molded into the Ethereals' ideal elite agents. Each of them acts as an antagonist to one of the three resistance factions XCOM allies with and usually come equipped with a bunch of BS abilities that can wreck your troops at lower levels. You also want to find their base ASAP as they gain upgrades through the game like you do and can hurt your income. Getting their OP shit is also a nice bonus.

When first encountered they'll attempt to stun and either siphon the knowledge from or capture one of your troops for intel. If they succeed in doing so, it gives them a massive boost to their progress against you and will ultimately lead to a potentially game-ending assault on the Avenger. Additionally, soldiers that they choose to capture will go off the grid for quite some time before you can get the chance to rescue them. If they appear during a Blacksite mission, The Chosen AI will just straight up murder a squad member instead. [[Rage|The game doesn't give any hints to this change in behavior.]] So if you're counting on manipulating their AI into kidnapping a soldier who is near death during those missions. The Chosen will just slaughter your squad like the rest of ADVENT. Because all bets when are off when your trying to kill mommy? and/or err daddy? Shklee? Maybe?
Thankfully, the game rolls to give them permanent weakness, along with an arch enemy who will deal extra damage to a Chosen among the new Hero classes. They will also roll for one immunity and a special ability, though the immunities are things that many players will hardly ever use against a boss regardless. The special power can either be meh, or fuck you right over. Good thing for the player the summoning powers are mutually exclusive and can't gain strengths that counter most of their weaknesses.

They can also be countered by researching Mindshields, your own (fully upgraded) Psi operatives and the buffed Sparks. When you have the latter two the Mindshields are redundant as the last two are right out immune to being stunned and mind controlled. Too bad there aren't new lines for a Spark with Julian's voice. As hearing a GlaDOS expy with the attitude of Bender snark back at The Chosen would have been hilarious.

*'''The Assassin''': The first of the Chosen you'll meet if you're playing the "Lost and Damned" mission to introduce yourself to the new mechanics introduced in WotC, the Assassin is a dark reflection of the Ranger class. The biggest [[Weeaboo|weeb]] in all of Advent. She attacks mostly with her Katana (although she does have a rarely used shotgun called Arashi, and you'll thank the programmers she rarely uses it), striking out of concealment to stun one of your guys (Who you'll then have to revive or risk them getting kidnapped), before running away. In the same turn. Because the Bad Guys get to move, shoot, move, but the player doesn't get nice things. To top this all off she's immune to overwatch so you either have to try and escape from the current mission, or take the fight back to her just as hard. Oh yeah, and avoid bunching your guys up, or she will stun half the squad at a time with an area of effect special attack, but don't get too spread out or you won't be able to revive stunned soldiers before she kidnaps them. Thankfully, her concealment works by the same rules as yours, and it'll break if one of your guys flanks her, so if you've got a good idea of where she is, you can move someone in to reveal her, and then light her up with the rest of the squad. To make her easier to deal with make sure to take a Specialist with Scanning Protocol. After killing The Assassin you can build Arashi and her Katana. Though many will find her Katana redundant after they have tier 3 Axes and late game Templars.

*'''The Hunter''': While you would expect a roided up [[Space Wolves|Craven the Hunter cosplaying furfag]] by name alone, he is instead a more or less a [[Vindicare|hit man armed with a pistol and sniper rifle]] with an Affably Evil personality.[[Ork_Snipers| He's also known to have team killed some of the weaker Advent aliens when he got bored]]. Unlike his siblings he outright admits that he is a psychopath who likes killing things. The Hunter's abilities are a bit mundane compared to the other Chosen. While still being effective none the less. His Tracking Shot can aim at your troops from the other side of the map, and if they don't move he will kill them the next. This makes mind controlling Advent and hacking MECs for recon useful for once. He also come with a grappling hook with no cool-down, stun grenades and pistol tranq shots that never miss. So don't be stupid and send in a lone Reaper without Banish. Even if he rolls them as a weakness. As they don't put out enough damage to out snipe him and will end up killed or captured instead. His Sniper rifle Darklance and pistol Darkclaw are obviously weapons that are meant for your Snipers. So Reapers can't use it without modding the game. Not a good idea regardless as it can't be modified with extended magazines and mods that can do this might cause conflicts. The Hunter is by far the most popular of The Chosen among players. While all three of them are edgelords, he adds a huge load of snark to his. He even mouths off to the Ethereals. This shouldn't be surprising as he's voiced by the very talented Nolan North.

*'''The Warlock''': Probably the most dangerous of The Chosen, if you don't have Mindshields. If you do he's about as dangerous as the final boss of the game. If you don't he's damned near impossible as he'll mind control your entire squad at once. In the event his mind-wiping powers are ineffective/on cooldown, he'll summon waves of exploding spectral zombies or psionic copies of Stun Lancers to swarm after you. On his direct offense he has a buffed up plasma rifle that will do extra damage to psionics (i.e. your Psi Operative and Templar), a mind bullet that will split off to affect up to two additional targets, and the ability to teleport his own allies into flanking positions. Sometimes his AI does some stupid shit such as teleporting an Advent next to him. Bonus points if said Advent is the target your supposed to kill during the mission. Once you get his Disruptor rifle, it has every possible upgrade in the game. Though only Rangers, Psi-Operatives and Specialist can take it in an unmodded game. A waste on the latter two as by the time you get it. Their late game abilities and equipment make giving them a 3.5 tier weapon redundant.

'''The Lost'''
Also know as the laggers, as the game starts slowing down if there are too many of them on screen. Introduced in WotC, the Lost were created when survivors of the initial invasion decided that returning to the desolated ruins of their former cities still infested with radioactive alien drop-pods and trying to live off the scraps [[derp|was a good idea]]. The Lost serve as a sort of third enemy faction and will attack XCOM, ADVENT and Alien forces alike (though with a very high preference for [[your dudes]], go figure). Any explosives, be they from grenades, gas tanks or cars will summon hordes of them in the missions they can appear in and can potentially overwhelm both your soldiers and your computer's RAM in high enough swarms. They have a notable weakness to fire and if ignited, will run away panicking before burning to death. Any successful killshot (be they from you or the aliens/ADVENT) will refund the action point spent to kill it, which helps significantly when dealing with swarms of them. Like both the aliens and ADVENT, all variants will start appearing with more base health as time passes, but as long as you're on top of your research game, they shouldn't be a problem.

*'''Regular''': Standard Lost behave exactly like any prototypical zombie; they beeline it towards whichever enemy suits their fancy and try to peg them in the head with their rotting limbs. In most cases, they can easily be killed in a single shot with most guns, bar the unlucky miss/damage roll.

*'''Dasher''': Faster and with slightly more initial HP (4-5, as opposed to 2-3) these guys aren't much more of a threat compared to regular Lost. They do have a surprising threat range and can easily surround isolated soldiers if not picked off immediately, however.

*'''Brute''': These guys have a lot of HP for a Lost, can actually deal some melee punishment. Early on they do require a little bit of focus fire to down them and they become more and more common by endgame. Then again, by endgame you'll have the best weapons and armour, so once again... only really a threat if you're unlucky, and there's a lot of them.

Recommended soldier classes for missions involving lost are Reapers with Banish and Annihilate, Skirmishers, Rangers and Templars with Bladestorm and Templars/Sharpshooters with Faceoff for room clearing. Dragonfire rounds also ensure that even if by some miracle the Lost shot by them survives, they'll be rendered harmless and die shortly after. There is also a mod that makes their targeting more realistic, as by default they target XCOM(70%) over Advent(30%). Which doesn't make sense as Advent would have no reason to deploy Purifiers. They become even more annoying if the game rolls to deploy a Chosen at the same time. Be wary of your RAM and don't rely on autosaves.(16GB+ is the bare minimum you want to have! If it still lags use lower settings. High settings look about as good as maximum and still run at a decent FPS.)

==See Also==
*[[X-Com Play By Post]], experimental rules for playing X-Com on a forum.
*[[XCOM: Tomorrow's War edition]], a conversion of [[Tomorrow's War]] for playing X-Com on the tabletop.

==Gallery==
{{Promotions}}
<gallery>
Image:Don_t_mess_with_humanity_by_Jaekyu.jpg
Image:Get_Some_by_IronShrineMaiden.jpg
Image:Public_Display_of_Affection_by_Jaekyu.png
Image:Rookie_Shooter_by_Jaekyu.png
Image:X-Com_(1).jpg
Image:X-Com_(2).jpg
Image:X-Com_(3).jpg
Image:X-Com_(4).jpg
Image:X-Com_(5).jpg
Image:X-Com_(6).jpg
Image:X-Com_(7).jpg
Image:X-Com_(8).png
Image:X-Com_(9).jpg
Image:X-Com_(10).jpg
Image:Snek.png
Image:Archon.jpeg
image:Torque E621J2UFrW2ozmYGxIMnBiw-8R7y qOlCsGLJHmEiKxvYtw.jpg|Torque finds herself on E621
</gallery>

==External Links==
* [http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page UFOpaedia.org], a wiki dedicated to X-COM (and sequels, and mods, etc.).
* [http://openxcom.org/ Open Source engine for the original game]
* [http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=269&enmi=XCOM:%20The%20Board%20Game Fantasy Flight Games's official X-COM game.]
* [http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/? Long War main page.]
* [http://ufoai.org/wiki/About UFO: Alien Invasion]
* [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BqoEJUWKVRFSKXOA2Ks3Ce7Kvphmg0kAFKcuXJHgmr0/mobilebasic?pli=1 Things X-COM operatives are not allowed to do], a list in the vein of Mr. Welch's list. Occasionally hilarious
* [https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=5026.0] A 40k mod for openxcom NO idea as to why it hasn't shown up here.
[[category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Software]]

Stormbird

2020-11-24T20:09:56Z

2601:4C1:C400:4050:4870:CEE5:450C:B8BD: /* Overview */

[[File:Stormbird.PNG|thumb|350px|right|With this and the [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord]], all we need now is a model for the [[Imperator Battle Titan|Imperator]] and the [[Emperor]]. And a doctor to call when your dick is still hard, 4 hours later. [[Fail|It's also more aerodynamic than just about every Space Marine aircraft smaller than itself]] ]]
The Thunderhawk’s big older brother and predecessor, the '''Stormbird''' was to the [[Legiones Astartes]] of the Great Crusade what the [[Thunderhawk]] is to the Astartes Chapters of the 41st Millenium: a primary means of transport and air support for Space Marines. The Stormbird, however, was much bigger, able to carry up to 50 Space Marines as well as dreadnoughts and rhinos, protected by void shields, and armed with a ton of firepower. So it was basically an Imperial [[Manta]] for all intents and purposes. It replaced the Skylance used by the [[Thunder Warriors]].

*'''Length:''' 29-50m; approx, depending on Pattern
*'''Wingspan:''' 29-50m; approx, depending on Pattern
*'''Crew:''' 4 crew including 50 Astartes
*'''Acceleration:''' 1500-2000 kph approx
==Overview==
By the time of the Horus Heresy, though, while some of the bigger Legions insisted on keeping their Stormbirds in service, most had begun relying more and more on the smaller and easier to produce Thunderhawk. After the [[Codex Astartes]] reforms, the ability to carry half a company’s worth of marines all in one aircraft wasn’t even arguably economical anymore, and the remaining Imperial Stormbirds were finally mothballed. A rare case of a weapon disappearing from the Imperium's arsenal, not so much because of a lost ability to produce it, but because it simply didn't fit into the changing playbook of Astartes tactics anymore. One would think they would have re-purposed them for anti-Titan operations, into heavy bombers or for transporting vehicles full time.

If the Wrymworld size chart is correct it would be possible to fit a Fellblade or two inside this thing. All they would have to do is convert that empty space for Fellblade cannons, Turbo-Laser Destructors (kind of odd that the Thunderhawk is the only Space Marine plane with an actual anti-Titan weapons isn't it?) or maybe even weapons used by Knights. With enough left over for all the ammunition or power generators, coolant, and anything else they would need. However in the Imperium efficiency and creative thinking is considered [[Heresy|Tech Heresy]]. This is even worse now that the Horus Heresy novels revealed it actually had a dedicated STC loadout that carried macrobombs.

As of the 41st Millennium, it’s currently unknown if there are any Stormbirds still left in Loyalist vaults, though Traitor Legions like the [[Word Bearers]] are said to still have a few around, and if Forge World’s recent release of the model and 40k rules for the Stormbird is anything to go by, odds are there probably will be [[Ultramarines|a couple]] [[Dark Angels|of chapters]] that will be revealed to, surprise, surprise, still have their Stormbirds as well.

It is interesting to note, though, that Forge World's stormbird is almost an entirely different aircraft from the one pictured in older fluff. Where the old Stormbird looked like a giant [[Valkyrie]] with two tiltrotor turbofan engines each almost as big as the aircraft itself, the Sokar-pattern Stormbird is basically just a Thunderhawk on steroids (The old Stormbird was also fluffed as having a ''100-marine'' carrying capacity, rather than the Sokar's 50). A bit odd, as Forge World has generally tried to maintain the Rogue Trader look when updating the old material.

As it turns out, the Sokar is simply one of several very different patterns of the same general classification of aircraft (unlike the Thunderhawk, the Stormbird is not a standard template design, more like several STC patterns in the same role), and the Sokar itself is actually among the smallest of them. Legions variously fielded Condor- (Sons of Horus), Khonsu-, and Apophis-pattern (the Wolves deployed 30 on Prospero) Stormbirds, the latter being known as "sun-killers" for their size and appearance. There was also the Warhawk-pattern Stormbird, which can carry 100 marines like the Rogue Trader version and, given its description as "monstrous and fat-bodied", likely looked like that version as well.

Since half a company of Space Marines is you'll never see outside of Apocalypse level games is already too much money for most players. So no one would bother fielding an entire company just to stuff them into one vehicle. The most likely variant to see release in the coming decade or two would be the Stormbird pattern equivalent to [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Superheavy_Laser_Weapons#Single-Barrelled| Turbolaser] Thunderhawks. With something akin to a rapid fire [[Volcano Cannon]] or a precursor to [[Macro-Accelerator Cannon]]s. Though it would just as much of a longshot to get a new mold for the Sokar before 2040.

The Sokar, Khonsu and Apophis, sharing a naming convention (derived from minor Egyptian gods) are likely the last generation of Stormbirds to enter general service before the Crusade.

One notable Stormbird is the one Nathaniel Garro had pimped out for his personal use by Malcador so that he could cruise around the galaxy hunting down members for his loyalist A-Team.

== Tabletop ==
Funnily enough, the reasons the Imperial Manta was mothballed in the fluff are also kind of represented in the crunch. The Stormbird is one of those units that could be tentatively referred to as Mega-Super-Heavies (like the Reaver, Warlord, and the actual Manta for instance). Units that are just so big and so expensive that outside of the very biggest games (as in, boards where Basilisks run out of range), they have close to zero practicality. In the case of the [[Stormbird]], a [[Thunderhawk]] probably ''would'' be a more economical option most of the time. With all that said, though, the Stormbird certainly delivers your points worth. The Stormbird has 14/13/12/ and 12 HP. It comes with five turreted Twin-linked Lascannons (so right then and there, you got more laser [[dakka]] than a Terminus Ultra), six Dreadstrike Missiles (S10 AP2 Ordnance, small blast) which can be replaced with a single use 3D6 Apocalyptic Barrage that hits like a Battle cannon. It can buy an Orbital Strike, with Strength D AP1, Massive blast, Indirect fire only and '''multiple use''' for the low, low price of 150 pts. Its 2 Void Shields can become a 12" bubble if you go into hover mode, which is a safe idea since you also get Armoured ceramite and a 5++ invul. Transport capacity of 50 can carry pretty much everything including Dreadnoughts and (possibly fully loaded) Rhinos which take up 10/25 slots respectively. Good thing the Age of Darkness FoC limits you to 25% spending on LOWs and no one actually has the money to play Apoc with FW, right?

8E Sokar Pattern Stormbirds are different. ''2117'' points to put one on the field, though you are rewarded well. 40 wounds, T9, 3++ save and 5++ Invuln makes it a tanky bugger. four twin Lascannons, three twin Heavy Bolters and a battery of Hellstrike Missiles add to the firepower of the thing, and it retains it's 50 Marine transport capacity, as well as it's expanding Void Shields. Power of the Marine Spirit allows the plane to fire all 32 of its shot even if it moved. Though most players won't even bother because it's better to have it camp at optimal Lascannon range. Though it lost its Orbital Strike capability.
While it can't kill Super Heavies as fast as a Turbolaser Thunderhawk. The Void Shields and two squads of Lascannon Devastators(4 cannons per squad plus the Sarge) should allow it to outlast anything smaller than a [[Warlord_Battle_Titan|Warlord]]. Airborne and a Move of 50" with an Advance of 20" allows it to scream across the map at a -1 to hit - and you really need all the dice you can with that T9 3++ save to begin with - and drop Assault Terminators right in your gunline.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
Image:StormbirdOld.jpg|The only image of a Stormbird people had for years (and the basis for many an [[awesome]] scratch-build) before Forge World came out with the Sokar Pattern.
Image:Stormbird_Scratchbuild.JPG|One of said scratch-builds. The new Stormbird model is cool and all, but work like [http://www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/40k%20Stormbird%20Troop%20Transport.htm this] kinda makes you wish Forge World had stayed closer to the original.
</gallery>

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}

{{40k-Imperial-Ships}}

{{40k-Chaos-Ships}}

{|align=center border=2 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4
|-
!colspan=1| Adeptus Astartes!! Other Imperials!! Chaos
|- valign=top
|
{{Template:Marines-Forces}}
|
{{Custodes}}
|
{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{Death Guard}}
{{Emperor's Children}}
|}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

[[Category: Flyers]]

Stormbird

2020-11-24T20:06:08Z

2601:4C1:C400:4050:4870:CEE5:450C:B8BD:

[[File:Stormbird.PNG|thumb|350px|right|With this and the [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord]], all we need now is a model for the [[Imperator Battle Titan|Imperator]] and the [[Emperor]]. And a doctor to call when your dick is still hard, 4 hours later. [[Fail|It's also more aerodynamic than just about every Space Marine aircraft smaller than itself]] ]]
The Thunderhawk’s big older brother and predecessor, the '''Stormbird''' was to the [[Legiones Astartes]] of the Great Crusade what the [[Thunderhawk]] is to the Astartes Chapters of the 41st Millenium: a primary means of transport and air support for Space Marines. The Stormbird, however, was much bigger, able to carry up to 50 Space Marines as well as dreadnoughts and rhinos, protected by void shields, and armed with a ton of firepower. So it was basically an Imperial [[Manta]] for all intents and purposes. It replaced the Skylance used by the [[Thunder Warriors]].

*'''Length:''' 29-50m; approx, depending on Pattern
*'''Wingspan:''' 29-50m; approx, depending on Pattern
*'''Crew:''' 4 crew including 50 Astartes
*'''Acceleration:''' 1500-2000 kph approx
==Overview==
By the time of the Horus Heresy, though, while some of the bigger Legions insisted on keeping their Stormbirds in service, most had begun relying more and more on the smaller and easier to produce Thunderhawk. After the [[Codex Astartes]] reforms, the ability to carry half a company’s worth of marines all in one aircraft wasn’t even arguably economical anymore, and the remaining Imperial Stormbirds were finally mothballed. A rare case of a weapon disappearing from the Imperium's arsenal, not so much because of a lost ability to produce it, but because it simply didn't fit into the changing playbook of Astartes tactics anymore. One would think they would have re-purposed them for anti-Titan operations, into heavy bombers or for transporting vehicles full time.

If the Wrymworld size chart is correct it would be possible to fit a Fellblade or two inside this thing. All they would have to do is convert that empty space for Fellblade cannons, Turbo-Laser Destructors (kind of odd that the Thunderhawk is the only Space Marine plane with an actual anti-Titan weapons isn't it?) or maybe even weapons used by Knights. With enough left over for all the ammunition or power generators, coolant, and anything else they would need. However in the Imperium efficiency and creative thinking is considered [[Heresy|Tech Heresy]]. This is even worse now that the Horus Heresy novels revealed it actually had a dedicated STC loadout that carried macrobombs.

As of the 41st Millennium, it’s currently unknown if there are any Stormbirds still left in Loyalist vaults, though Traitor Legions like the [[Word Bearers]] are said to still have a few around, and if Forge World’s recent release of the model and 40k rules for the Stormbird is anything to go by, odds are there probably will be [[Ultramarines|a couple]] [[Dark Angels|of chapters]] that will be revealed to, surprise, surprise, still have their Stormbirds as well.

It is interesting to note, though, that Forge World's stormbird is almost an entirely different aircraft from the one pictured in older fluff. Where the old Stormbird looked like a giant [[Valkyrie]] with two tiltrotor turbofan engines each almost as big as the aircraft itself, the Sokar-pattern Stormbird is basically just a Thunderhawk on steroids (The old Stormbird was also fluffed as having a ''100-marine'' carrying capacity, rather than the Sokar's 50). A bit odd, as Forge World has generally tried to maintain the Rogue Trader look when updating the old material.

As it turns out, the Sokar is simply one of several very different patterns of the same general classification of aircraft (unlike the Thunderhawk, the Stormbird is not a standard template design, more like several STC patterns in the same role), and the Sokar itself is actually among the smallest of them. Legions variously fielded Condor- (Sons of Horus), Khonsu-, and Apophis-pattern (the Wolves deployed 30 on Prospero) Stormbirds, the latter being known as "sun-killers" for their size and appearance. There was also the Warhawk-pattern Stormbird, which can carry 100 marines like the Rogue Trader version and, given its description as "monstrous and fat-bodied", likely looked like that version as well.
Since half a company of Space Marines is you'll never see outside of Apocalypse level games is already too much money for most players. So no one would bother fielding an entire company just to stuff them into one vehicle. The most likely variant to see release in the coming decade or two would be the Stormbird pattern equivalent to Turbolaser Thunderhawks. With something akin to a rapid fire Volcano Cannon or a precursor to Macro-Accelerator Cannons. Though it would just much of a longshot to get a new mold for the Sokar before 2030.

The Sokar, Khonsu and Apophis, sharing a naming convention (derived from minor Egyptian gods) are likely the last generation of Stormbirds to enter general service before the Crusade.

One notable Stormbird is the one Nathaniel Garro had pimped out for his personal use by Malcador so that he could cruise around the galaxy hunting down members for his loyalist A-Team.

== Tabletop ==
Funnily enough, the reasons the Imperial Manta was mothballed in the fluff are also kind of represented in the crunch. The Stormbird is one of those units that could be tentatively referred to as Mega-Super-Heavies (like the Reaver, Warlord, and the actual Manta for instance). Units that are just so big and so expensive that outside of the very biggest games (as in, boards where Basilisks run out of range), they have close to zero practicality. In the case of the [[Stormbird]], a [[Thunderhawk]] probably ''would'' be a more economical option most of the time. With all that said, though, the Stormbird certainly delivers your points worth. The Stormbird has 14/13/12/ and 12 HP. It comes with five turreted Twin-linked Lascannons (so right then and there, you got more laser [[dakka]] than a Terminus Ultra), six Dreadstrike Missiles (S10 AP2 Ordnance, small blast) which can be replaced with a single use 3D6 Apocalyptic Barrage that hits like a Battle cannon. It can buy an Orbital Strike, with Strength D AP1, Massive blast, Indirect fire only and '''multiple use''' for the low, low price of 150 pts. Its 2 Void Shields can become a 12" bubble if you go into hover mode, which is a safe idea since you also get Armoured ceramite and a 5++ invul. Transport capacity of 50 can carry pretty much everything including Dreadnoughts and (possibly fully loaded) Rhinos which take up 10/25 slots respectively. Good thing the Age of Darkness FoC limits you to 25% spending on LOWs and no one actually has the money to play Apoc with FW, right?

8E Sokar Pattern Stormbirds are different. ''2117'' points to put one on the field, though you are rewarded well. 40 wounds, T9, 3++ save and 5++ Invuln makes it a tanky bugger. four twin Lascannons, three twin Heavy Bolters and a battery of Hellstrike Missiles add to the firepower of the thing, and it retains it's 50 Marine transport capacity, as well as it's expanding Void Shields. Power of the Marine Spirit allows the plane to fire all 32 of its shot even if it moved. Though most players won't even bother because it's better to have it camp at optimal Lascannon range. Though it lost its Orbital Strike capability.
While it can't kill Super Heavies as fast as a Turbolaser Thunderhawk. The Void Shields and two squads of Lascannon Devastators(4 cannons per squad plus the Sarge) should allow it to outlast anything smaller than a [[Warlord_Battle_Titan|Warlord]]. Airborne and a Move of 50" with an Advance of 20" allows it to scream across the map at a -1 to hit - and you really need all the dice you can with that T9 3++ save to begin with - and drop Assault Terminators right in your gunline.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
Image:StormbirdOld.jpg|The only image of a Stormbird people had for years (and the basis for many an [[awesome]] scratch-build) before Forge World came out with the Sokar Pattern.
Image:Stormbird_Scratchbuild.JPG|One of said scratch-builds. The new Stormbird model is cool and all, but work like [http://www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/40k%20Stormbird%20Troop%20Transport.htm this] kinda makes you wish Forge World had stayed closer to the original.
</gallery>

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}

{{40k-Imperial-Ships}}

{{40k-Chaos-Ships}}

{|align=center border=2 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4
|-
!colspan=1| Adeptus Astartes!! Other Imperials!! Chaos
|- valign=top
|
{{Template:Marines-Forces}}
|
{{Custodes}}
|
{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{Death Guard}}
{{Emperor's Children}}
|}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

[[Category: Flyers]]

Imperial Ordnance

2020-11-24T19:59:31Z

2601:4C1:C400:4050:4870:CEE5:450C:B8BD: /* Macro-Accelerator Cannon */

{{topquote|Infantry win firefights, tanks win battles, artillery wins wars.|Common sentiment amongst the [[Imperial Guard]] senior staff.}}

That's how the saying goes. And it's true. Without the big guns you are doomed to be [[Ork|murdered gruesomely for the lulz of it]], [[Tyranids|get eaten]] or [[Chaos|have your soul used as a condom]] for all eternity. The Imperium knows this and has devised a truly staggering amount of heavy guns dedicated to ruining your shit into next Sunday from anywhere in between half a mile to half a continent away.

== Man-portable Weapons ==
The lightest of indirect support weapons can be carried by individual or paired soldiers. While this makes them tactically more flexible, they have reduced firepower compared to their heavier counterparts.

===Assault Grenade Launcher===
[[File:Assault_GL.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Assault Grenade Launcher]]
The Assault Grenade Launcher is a small, cheap, low-tech hand-held grenade launcher used mainly by hive gangers such as House Goliath in [[Necromunda]]. Due to its small size, these things can be [[Dakka|dual-wielded]]. They are technically single-shot grenade launchers, but they can be fitted with a ammunition back-pack to unleash an [[MOAR DAKKA|ungodly amount of grenades for such a small weapon.]]

It could be assumed that the Balistus Grenade Launcher is a more advance version of this.

On the tabletop, with this weapon, you’ve taken a Goliath champion and turned them into a 40k [[Primaris Space Marines|Primaris]] [[Aggressor]]. It is literally a [[Awesome|Rapid Fire Grenade Launcher]]. Beware, though, as firing Frag Grenades through this thing makes it Unstable, potentially knocking your expensive grenadier out of the game early.
<gallery>
Assault_GL_BP.JPG|The backpack in question.
</gallery>

===Concussion Carbine===
[[File:Concussion_Carbine.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Concussion Carbine]]
A civilian Grenade Launcher used in [[Necromunda]]. It is a pump-action Grenade Launcher that house a select amount of grenades. As its name implies, the grenades used by the Concussion Carbine would most likely consist of smoke, flashbang and concussion grenades. Although frag or krak grenades could be used in times of shit hitting the fan.

Concussion Carbines are a type of Grenade Launcher used by Enforcer squads. Concussion Carbines give Enforcers the ability to disperse a crowd or bring down a foe intact for later punishment and are particularly effective against densely packed foes.

The real-world equivelent would be the single-shot Grenade Launchers used by Riot Police and SWAT.

===Grenade Launcher===
[[File:Grenade Launcher.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Grenade Launcher]]
The grenade launcher is a light, man-portable weapon capable of firing small explosive charges. It is primarily employed by the Imperial Guard, with almost every trooper squad featuring at least one of them. Grenade launchers are a common weapon used by Imperial Guard infantry squads thanks to their ability to lob grenades greater distances and with more accuracy than can be thrown.

Their primary duty is to lay down suppressive fire and destroy light vehicles and buildings. It has a choice of two different payloads, anti infantry Fragmentation grenades, and anti-armour Krak grenades.

Space Marines scout bikers utilise a variation of this weapon, the "Astartes pattern" Grenade Launcher. It fires the same rounds, but with an increased rate of fire.
<gallery>
File:CadianShockTroopsGrenadeLauncher.png
image:ScoutBikeGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Scout Bike</center>
</gallery>

===Vengeance Grenade Launcher===
[[File:VengeanceLauncher.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Vengeance Grenade Launcher]]
A grenade launcher only found in the [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Vidya Game of SPEEES MEHREEEEENS!]]

A much more tactical weapon than its assault-orientated cousins.

The Vengeance Grenade Launcher is an experimental Adeptus Mechanicus weapon created on the Forge world Graia just prior to the Ork invasion of Warboss Grimskull. The Vengeance Grenade Launcher is not authorized for use off world, but those Space Marines who have field tested the weapon attest to its effectiveness against a range of targets. The launcher can fire out up to five fusion charges that stick to surfaces and then be remotely detonated.

The current status of this weapon is unknown.

<gallery>
File:TitusVengeanceZoomed.png|Captain Titus holding one of these badboys.
</gallery>

===Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher===
[[File:RPG-Imperial-Guard.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher]]

Like something out of Call of Duty, this is basically your stereotypical RPG-7 you find in every single modern first-person shooter. Like, GeeDubs ain't even trying anymore to be creative or subtle. It seems that, after 40,000 years of production, no one, not even the folks from the [[Dark Age of Technology]] could have topped the genius of the most widely used RPG in the world. So I guess the RPG-7 shares with the [[Stubber#Heavy Stubber|M2-Browning]] as the most unkillable gun in 40k.

The RPG Launcher is a more powerful version of the Grenade Launcher. They are capable of launching the same variety of grenades as normal launchers but are able to accurately hit targets hundreds of meters away. Unlike [[Missile Launcher#Missile Launcher|Missile Launchers]], RPGs don't have a complex targeting system that allows for extreme tracking and maneuverability capabilities. Rather, it just fires in a straight line. While this makes it less useful in hitting moving targets, it compensates by being far cheaper to produce, easier to maintain and the logistical boon of not being as unergonomically big and ungainly as your typical missile launcher. It also can't be defeated by any counter-measure that doesn't focus on shooting things down. You can't trick a directionless rocket with flares or chaff and you can't ruin non-existent guidance with ECM.

===Grenadier Gauntlet===
[[File:GrenadierGauntlet.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Grenadier Gauntlet]]
Think of it as a heavy grenade launcher or a sawn-off Missile Launcher.

The Grenadier Gauntlet is a type of heavy Grenade Launcher used by Imperial Guard [[Ogryn|Bullgryn.]] Like all Ogryn weapons such as the Ripper Gun, the Grenadier Gauntlet is not meant for accuracy and range, instead it is constructed like a giant baton. The grenade launching mechanism is just a feature for the Bullgryn to launch something explosive at an enemy he can't reach.

The foes are often left reeling and shell-shocked even before the maul-wielding Ogryns charge into their midst and bludgeon the survivors into a red paste.

In terms of the firing mechanism, the Grenadier Gauntlet obviously works like any normal grenade launcher. However it does have a lower set of ammunition due to the Ogryn's natural stupidity and inability to understand the concept of reloading.

Still, as a baton, it is naturally incredibly tough to withstand the immense strength of a rampaging Ogryn as well as simple enough to use for these dumbasses.

<gallery>
image:BullgrynGauntlet.png|<center>Alternate View</center>
</gallery>

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===Grenade Harness===
[[File:GrenadeHarness.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Grenade Harness]]
The Cyclone Missile Launcher of Grenade Launchers.

The Grenade Harness is a type of Grenade Launcher mounted on some Space Marine Terminator Armour. These launchers allow for a barrage of Frag grenades, usually before a charge by the Terminators to soften up any opposition.

The Grenade Harness has a lower ammunition capacity than a regular Grenade Launcher due to its smaller size. It is thus used tactically in surgical strikes in order to maximize the weapon's potential. Like the Cyclone, it functions the same way but with an obvious decrease in weapon range and output.

For the Ork equivalent, [[Stikkbomb Launcha|''see here:'']]

<gallery>
image:GorgonTerminatorGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Gorgon Terminator</center>
</gallery>

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===Balistus Grenade Launcher===
[[File:AllarusCustodianGrenadeLauncher.png|200px|right|thumb|Balistus Grenade Launcher]]
A new type of grenade launcher wielded by the [[Adeptus Custodes|Golden Boys in Shining Armor.]]

Balistus Grenade Launchers are potent ranged weapons wielded by the Adeptus Custodes, which excel at piercing armor like a giant [[Bolter]]. The only users of these weapons are the venerable [[Allarus Custodians]]. It is unknown if the more common [[Aquilon Terminator|Aquilon Terminators]] (assuming they still exist) have permission to carry these around.

Like the wrist-mounted bolters carried around by Gray Knight Terminators, the Balistus Grenade Launcher works on the same principle. Except, instead of providing covering/suppressing fire in close to medium range, these things mulch infantry at longer ranges.

It is unknown where the Grenade Launcher stores its ammunition, given the relative size of the barrel in contrast to the size of the weapon itself. Maybe it is a single shot weapon? It is stated to be drum-fed but if it is drumfed, it must be either the galaxy's first invisible drum magazine or the Imperium rediscovered how to make and use pym particles and that tiny stick magazine attached to it is supposed to fit enough ammo to last a battle. Though, it's most likely somehow related to the magazine of grenades visibly sticking out of it in the picture right here. Although, that could just be your imagination and the magazine might not exist.

The choice of a grenade launcher as an anti-heavy infantry weapon is also bizarre, as grenade launchers are low velocity guns that fire thin skinned shells which basically make the shell itself relatively harmless for a round of its size if you're just looking at the kinetic energy. A dud round from a grenade launcher might not even hit someone hard enough to kill them, as all the killing power of the round comes from the explosive. You'd think it's some kind of HEAT round, but those focus the force of the blast on a single target by shaping the explosion to launch a jet of molten metal to achieve penetration and so wouldn't have the d3 shot profile given to what used to be small blast weapons.

So the most reasonable theory is that the grenade launcher's rounds are a kind of frag round whose shells are filled with a high grade sort of shrapnel able to shred right through most forms of personal armour in use in the galaxy. Because the shrapnel would be tiny, large monsters and vehicles would shrug it off as the shrapnel would lose energy before cutting too deeply into them, which fits with its not amazing strength characteristic, but infantry would be losing limbs, organs, and organs and power armour, cyborg augmentations, or robotic parts would have their delicate internal components devastated. In other words, basically launching a bomb full of some of the sharpest stuff known to man to reduce people to confetti and thus provide for choppy dakka. Khorne and Gork would be pleased.

Or maybe, just maybe, they use krak grenades or plasma or melta. You know, '''''anti-armor grenades'''''. Which we can safely assume it does, in fact, use. Knowing the favoritism for the Custardes, it probably also includes psyk-out grenades and refined vortex grenades.

<gallery>
image:BalistaGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Close-up View</center>
</gallery>

==Heavy Grenade Launchers==
A much bigger variant of the standard grenade launcher that peppers the battlefield with explosive munitions.

===Deathwatch Frag Cannon===
[[File:Deathwatch_Frag_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Deathwatch Frag Cannon]]

This is where the term Grenade Launcher ends and where [[Dakka|Grenade ''Cannon'' begins.]]

Fielded exclusively by Space Marine Veterans of the [[Deathwatch]]. This is a belt fed grenade spewing death machine. It's so new and confidential that there is no fluff to explain how it works. So we'll have to make guesses based on it's weapon profile. For now, we'll assume that since it's a grenade launcher, it works like a grenade launcher. I know, I know, this is quite hard to grasp, but bear with it. Looking at real world Grenade Launchers and light artillery pieces like the M3 37mm Anti Tank gun we can make an educated guess as to how the Frag Cannon Works. Firing either solid shot rounds or canister shells like a giant shotgun. Deathwatch Frag Cannons fire at least two different rounds. The first turns it into a slightly better Heavy Flamer. The other turns it into a short range rocket launcher that hits twice. Becoming a two shot [[Lascannon]] at half range.

A Deathwatch Veteran squad can take four of these things. In the same unit as Terminators and other Deathwatch exclusive [[dakka]]. [[Xeno]]s and [[Chaos]] forces should consider themselves lucky that weapons like Barrage [[Plasma Gun]]s, [[Melta|Atomizer Cannons]] and Techxorcism Guns are ultra rare. [[Anal_Circumference|As the Deathwatch can deploy all of them in a single Veteran Squad.]] Whether these downsized Frag Cannons originate from an STC or a vault from one of the many Watch Fortresses is not stated.

===Auto-Launcher===
[[File:RepulsorAutoLauncher2.png|200px|right|thumb|Auto-Launcher]]
Resembling a rack/box of grenades, Auto-launchers are vehicle-mounted grenade launchers similar to Smoke Launchers. The [[Repulsor Tank|Repulsor]] is the most infamous user of these weapons.

They are simple, six-barreled – though the ones on the Repulsor have eight, for some reason – weapons mounted on vehicle hulls, firing salvos of either three grenades types at a time: Frag, Krak, and Blind. They are useful for when you are indecisive on whether you want immediate proximity defense or just a simple smoke screen. The Auto-Launcher carries six grenades, all of the same type. Auto-Launchers are best identified by the literal racks of exposed grenade/missiles pointed randomly everywhere. Why the Imperium thought it was a good idea to place these weapons on extremely random places is unknown since these grenades would not be able to hit its targets tactically...[[Awesome|unless those grenades can home on their targets, of course]]. But in all seriousness, this is because the design of these weapons is based on real life active protection systems which spit out slugs, shrapnel blasts, and sometimes even small rockets in the direction of incoming projectiles in order to shoot them down. This being the Imperium, however, they have decided that it will work just as well as an actual weapon, rather than just a defensive tool.

While you'd think them being externally mounted runs the risk of someone shooting at the exposed grenades and causing them to detonate, we should note that all the charges face outward, and so they are not capable of doing damage to the vehicle they are mounted on; and '''B''': they are designed (''assuming they really are based on our active protection systems'') to deal with incoming projectiles, so even if they are pointed the right (''in the perspective of the tank's crew, wrong'') way. the blast would not be able to much damage to the armour... unless the the grenades in question are Kraks.

It has a lid, though, so it's probably only open for a moment to fire.

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===Ravenwing Grenade Launcher===
[[File:Ravenwing_Grenade_Launcher.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Ravenwing Grenade Launcher]]
A Ravenwing Grenade Launcher is a specially customised Grenade Launcher commonly utilised by the elite [[Ravenwing|Ravenwing Black Knights]] of the [[Dark Angels]] Chapter's 2nd Company, commonly called the [[Ravenwing]]. Ravenwing Black Knights employ Grenade Launchers adapted to fire even at the high speeds of their [[Bike Squad|Assault Bikes]].

These Grenade Launchers can also fire specialized shells utilizing ancient technologies such as [[Radium Weaponry|Rad Shells]] and [[Grenades & Explosives#Stasis Bomb|Stasis Bomb]] in addition to the standard Krak and Frag Grenades. Rad Shells are essentially dirty bombs that spread contaminated, radioactive fragments that have a toxic and debilitating effect on a foe, while Stasis Shells are impregnated with an ancient and now poorly understood technology that when detonated, [[Doctor Who|momentarily freezes the flow the space-time continuum,]] causing the reaction times of any enemies nearby to be dramatically slowed if they are caught in the area of effect.

On tabletop, these Grenade Launchers can cause D3 Mortal Wounds if using a CP whilst the Stasis Shells make a single hit roll with +1 to hit, and if it scores a hit the target takes d3 Mortal Wounds. Nonetheless, it is far better to just use the Plasma Talons instead.

===Ironclad Assault Launcher===
[[File:IroncladAssaultLauncher.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Ironclad Assault Launcher]]

Like the Fragstorm Grenade Launcher but for [[Centurion Squad|Centurions]] and [[Dreadnoughts]].

The Ironclad Assault Launcher is mounted on the Ironclad Dreadnoughts or Centurions. It projects both offensive and defensive grenades. On the Centurion, they are located on the torso, between the arms and the chest. They are the four squarish pods that house these grenades. On a Dreadnought, it comes in two sets of six like what you can find installed on top of some Land Raiders' tracks. The sets of two variant similar to the Centurion can also be found on the Caestus Assault Ram by the opening hatches, complementing its [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Melta#Magna-Melta Magna-Melta]. Like with the auto-launcher, this is essentially a defensive system being used offensively, spitting out all its grenades in something resembling a shotgun blast from hell to either demolish obstacles, suppress the enemy, or tear them to shreds.

On tabletop, the Ironclad Assault Launchers gives both the Ironclad Dreadnought and Centurions the ability to deal d3 mortal wounds to units within 1" of it after a charge on a 4+, which ensures they'll be softened up when you begin the fight phase.

<gallery>
image:IroncladLauncher.jpg|<center>Centurion Variant</center>
image:CaestusAssaultLauncher.jpg|<center>Caestus Assault Ram Variant</center>
image:LandRaiderAssaultLauncher.jpg|<center>Land Raider Variant</center>
image:SpartanAssaultLauncher.jpg|<center>Spartan Variant</center>
</gallery>

===Fragstorm Grenade Launcher===
[[File:FragstormGrenadeLauncher.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Fragstorm Grenade Launcher]]
Think the Grenade Harness for Dreadnoughts.

Fragstorm Grenade Launchers are a type of grenade launcher used by Primaris Space Marines. Like the Grenade Harness, these launchers allow for the firing of a barrage of frag grenades before a charge. However, they can also be used defensively when the Dreadnought is surrounded by enemies and they just need to pepper a targeted radius with shrapnel and explosions.

They are equipped for anti-personnel roles to Aggressor Squads and Redemptor Dreadnoughts.

Their more tank-busting equivalents is the similarly named Krakstorm Grenade Launcher.

And no, despite their appearance, they have in no way related to the Auto-Launcher by function.

<gallery>
image:PrimarisAggressorGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Primaris Aggressor</center>
</gallery>

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===Krakstorm Grenade Launcher===
[[File:PrimarisRepulsorKrakstorm.png|200px|right|thumb|Krakstorm Grenade Launcher]]
It's literally a Fragstorm Grenade Launcher that fires, you guessed it, Krak Grenades.

A Krakstorm Grenade Launcher is a type of Imperial Grenade Launcher usually wielded by the Primaris Space Marines that fires a volley of three aforementioned Krak Grenades at a time upon the enemy. It is deployed for use as an anti-armor or anti-fortification weapon by [[Repulsor Tank|Repulsor grav tanks.]]

Although there is no evidence of it being mounted on the [[Redemptor Dreadnought]], the fact that the ammunition of both the Frag and Krak are superficially similiar means it wouldn't be ''that'' out of the blue if GW decides to update the Dreadnought with these weapons.

Like the Auto-Launchers, the Krakstorm Grenade Launcher carries the same issue of it being awkward to aim, with the only logical explanation if that the Krak grenades themselves have homing features like that of a missile.

In terms of rules, they act as they are named. Good vehicle killers, although the sheer amount of anti-tank weapons that the Repulsor carries means that these weapons are best used for killing any stragglers.

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===Frag Cannon===
[[File:Frag_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Frag Cannon]]

The Frag Cannon is a giant [[Awesome|machine gun heavy grenade launcher]] and is the big brother of the more tacticool Deathwatch variant. Regardless we can guess that they are both automatic grenade launchers at different calibers. Making them at least 40mm in diameter or larger. In most cases, the term Frag Cannon refers to the one found in the [[Blood Angels]] Chapter. Like the [[Dark Angels]], they are one of those weapons jealously kept secret so that the AdMech can't horde all the good shit.

These Frag Cannons are the older larger version exclusively mounted on [[Furioso Dreadnought|Furioso Dreadnoughts.]] The Frag Cannon is a shoulder-mounted weapon, replacing the Dreadnought arm as other heavy weapons do, and fires a pair of long, hollow adamantium shells that fragment upon firing, resulting in a hail of razor-sharp shrapnel.

Their range is much shorter and lack the versatility of their smaller counterparts; somewhat capricious in nature since the shrapnel it produces [[Lolwut|can be stopped by light armor, while simultaneously being able to rip through power armour.]] Making up for it with a higher volume of fire.

In 8th Edition, this giant monster is a [[MOAR DAKKA|Double Heavy Flamer on steroids]] with 8" 2D6 S6 AP-1 1 D auto-hits. Hordes beware. Also an assault gun on a very fast model so you can advance and roast. Pair this with a Heavy Flamer and the amount of auto-hits your Dreadnought would produce would be enough to be a Tarpit ''Remover'', not a Tarpit Breaker. [[Rape|'''A fucking REMOVER.''']]

===Blackstar Cluster Launcher===
[[File:BlackstarCluster.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Blackstar Cluster Launcher]]

An aerial grenade ordnance that fires from the air rather than on the ground. Air superiority and all that.

The Blackstar Cluster Launcher is an array of two six-barreled Grenade Launchers mounted on the rear of [[Deathwatch]] [[Corvus Blackstar]] gunships. These allow the pilot of the Blackstar to sow a hailstorm of munitions in his wake as he strafes the primary target. The launcher is capable of firing either fragmentation or incendiary munitions. If you wanna re-enact a miniature bombing of Berlin, the Blackstar has got your back.

As you can imagine, having a unit that can just fly over and drop what is essentially bombs without the risk of going close to enemy fire on a rather sluggish platform is pretty sweet. Thus, the Blackstar rocks a delightful Blackstar Cluster launcher, which lets you bomb a unit you flew over. For every model in the unit (up to 10), roll a die and, on a 6, that unit takes a mortal wound.

[[Tl;dr]], the Imperium has created a plane that [[Shitstorm|literally shits <s>out bird poop</s> grenades]]....while...[[Bullshit|more like explosive diarrhea.]]

== Mortar ==
A mortar is an artillery weapon that launches shells in a high arc. They tend to have relatively short barrels and fire shells at relatively low velocities. The Imperial Guard uses them in two sizes: the standard man-portable mortar, carried and operated by two Imperial Guard troopers; and the heavy mortar, which can be used in static or towed artillery mounts, or mounted in a Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier. They can destroy light infantry and light vehicles easily enough, but are unlikely to trouble heavy infantry or vehicles with tank-grade armour.

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===Light Mortar===
[[File:CadianMortarZoomed.png|200px|right|thumb|Light Mortar]]
The most common form of Mortars is...well....the Mortar. Some may call it the Light Mortar due to the smaller payload and size and the existence of the heavy mortar (See bellow) but whatever. The Mortar looks like...a basic modern Mortar found in use in today's armies. I guess the design haven't change for over 40,000 years, but hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it.

The Light Mortar fires an explosive shell on a high-arching trajectory capable of flying over the heads of nearby troops and crashing down on the rear ranks of the enemy. Its primary use is in the anti-personnel role, breaking up enemy infantry formations and pinning them down.

Mortars are prized for their ability to lay down a curtain of fire from behind cover, and while not particularly accurate their explosive power makes up for this deficiency. However this indirect-fire capability requires accurate targeting information to be effective and the use of spotters with proper vox-protocols in order to avoid friendly fire. Standard procedures has the spotters locate targets, whether through visual or remote-servitor means, and send a fire request to the mortar crew's [[Imperial Guard Command Squad|Platoon Command Squad,]] which plots a firing solution and relays that information to the mortar teams assembled, adjusting fire as required.

In 8th Edition, the Mortar is now a 48" Heavy D6 S4 AP0 D1 heavy weapon, and may fire indirectly. Down in cost, and along with the [[Nerf|nerf]] to the [[Wyvern]] this brings it back into the realm of 'good' choices. At 11 points a gun team, it's a dirt cheap light and medium infantry muncher. Because of the revision to the way AP works it's in direct competition with the Heavy Bolter; this ALSO means it's in indirect competition with your entire motor pool. Consider this when the challenge of fitting half a dozen kits' worth of mortar tubes into your list is a daunting prospect. Becomes much more viable in games using a lot of scenery or buildings, so take it when you need to lob some pain over that city block or hill that your other heavy weapons can't shoot through.
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===Mole Mortar===
[[File:Mole_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Mole Mortar]]
Basically a reverse Mortar. In that it travels ''underground'' rather than overhead. It's more of a torpedo then a Mortar, but it got 'Mortar' in the name and we need to stick it somewhere.

The missile burrows its way toward its target, bypassing all surface hazards and defenses, emerging from the ground beneath the target. The missile is self-guided and able to track its target through solid rock. [[Mole Mortar Team|As an invention of the]] [[Squats|Sphess Dorfs]], the Mole Mortar soon found its way up the ranks of the [[Imperial Guard]] due to its unorthodox firing methods.

The Mole Mortar was originally developed to destroy enemy tunneling vehicles but was so successful that now used as a [[Wat|short-ranged assault weapon,]] even though such premonitions sounds outright [[Stupid]] let alone suicidal, it is worth remembering that since vehicles have thinner bottom armor if you can get a hit on a tank it's going to be fairly devastating. It is sometimes used to breach fortifications too strong for conventional weaponry to damage. Due to the unique way it operates, the mole mortar is able to circumvent most defenses, striking from below to explode within bunkers and other structures.

Heck, the Mole Mortar was so popular in the Guard that it eventually led to the creation of the Mole Launcher. [[Original character, do not steal|Figures.]]

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===Heavy Mortar===
[[File:Heavy_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Mortar]]
The Heavy Mortar is a larger support version of the standard Mortar used by the Imperial Guard. Its primary advantages are a wide range of ammunition types, a high rate of fire, and simplicity to construct and maintain. However its massive size means the heavy mortar must either be towed into place by a [[Trojan Support Vehicle|Trojan]] or [[Centaur Utility Vehicle|Centaur]]. A special version of this is mounted on the [[Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier|Griffon Mortar Carrier.]]

While they were once quite popular with many Imperial Guard regiments, the use of heavy mortars has fallen out of favor in recent years, since for many commanders it lacks both the heavy firepower and long reach of much larger artillery pieces, limiting its use in box-barrages or counter-battery fire (because out-ranging and quickly destroying enemy mortars is sooo terrible since the Guard is actively trying to get its own troops martyred). Towed heavy mortars have become even less popular, being seen as too slow to keep up with advancing mechanized units, and have largely been regulated to PDFs and Siege Regiments.

For all their faults heavy mortars also have a number of advantages. They are an excellent close support weapons for engaging enemy infantry and light vehicles, freeing the heavier artillery for use against more appropriate targets, and can maintain a steady rate of fire for hours. Its versatility also allows it to fulfill a variety of other roles, from launching illumination shells during night battles or laying down a smoke screen before an infantry attack.

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===Belleros Energy Cannon===
[[File:Belleros_Energy_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Belleros Energy Cannon]]

The Belleros Energy Cannon is one of the two primary weapons for the giant rubber duck known as the [[Skorpius Hover Tank#Skorpius Disintegrator|Skorpius Disintegrator]]. The Energy Cannon is a mortar, it basically functions like one. It is also a Direct-Energy Weapon (DEW), which means it is for all intents and purposes a [[Lolwut|laser mortar...]] sort of. Another explanation is that it is some sort of microwave DEW, which can cook targets through walls. It is a bit vague in that regards.

With a range of ''only'' 36" (This is shorter than the 48" [[Ferrumite Cannon]] mind you), the Belleros is no proper artillery. Rather, the energy cannon is a weapon meant to support allied troops through indirect fire via the harassment of enemy positions. With it’s 3D3 shots and 2 damage per wound, this is a weapon that is primarily made to clear hordes of GEQs and MEQs. One big advantage especially for AdMech players is that it can target units that aren’t in direct LoS. At Str 6 and -1 AP, this thing is not a vehicle killer in the slightest. Rather, as aforementioned, it is a Tarpit cleanser as, in terms of raw damage potential it can clock up to [[Powergamer|18 damage.]]

===Griffon Heavy Mortar===
[[File:Griffon_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Griffon Heavy Mortar]]
The Griffon Heavy Mortar is the smallest and lightest of the artillery guns. This weapon has been a source of [[Skub]] in-universe.

Critics of the Griffon claim that its main weapon is too small to warrant its vehicular mounting (despite being large enough it'd make a Rhino look like a truck), while tying up fire control and observation assets needed by much larger pieces (which wouldn't be communicating if the observers were calling for the Griffon instead). For its supporters though, the Griffon is the ideal compromise between weight, firepower, mobility and ease of use. Its heavy mortar is excellent against infantry and light vehicles, freeing heavier artillery for use against more appropriate targets, and can maintain a high rate of fire. The vehicle is also capable of keeping pace with rapid advances for which heavier vehicles like the Basilisk are too slow to maintain.

Its firepower is not impressive (it's S6 AP-1 and ignores cover), and its range is also relatively short (48"), but because it is so small and light, it can sustain higher rates of fire than other guns and, when carried in the heavy chassis of a [[Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier]], it can be fired indirectly and roll two dice dropping the lowest for number of attacks).

[[Tl;dr]], this weapon is the reason why conventional towed Heavy Mortars are now phased out from the Imperial Guard, instead being put in as a reserve artillery piece from the ''[[Planetary Defense Force|PDF]]'' of all things. How the mighty has fallen.
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===Stormshard Mortar===
[[File:Stormshard_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Stormshard Mortar]]
Take a mortar and give it the firepower of a machinegun. [[Dakka|You get yourselves a Stormshard Mortar.]]

The Stormshard Mortar is an artillery system commonly mounted in two pairs on Imperial Guard [[Wyvern Suppression Tank|Wyverns.]] These mortars excel in urban warfare, firing shrapnel down on enemy infantry without exposing the vehicle itself to harm. It is a fairly close range weapon for artillery, but it is needed in the heavily tight space of Hive Cities where the chance of an artillery shell hitting the rooftops of some poor hobo's house is actually quite high.

Because of the chance of facing against [[Tyranids|Horde]] [[Orks|Armies]], the Wyvern mounts not one, but ''TWO'' sets of Stormshards. These means that these badboys carry four mortars on one turret. [[Rape|Add to the fact that they can fire on auto and you have a weapon system that eats Swarmers for breakfast.]] All of the fucking yes!

Given it's similarity to the Heavy Quad-Launcher, it is likely the same weapon firing different ammo.

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===Karacnos Mortar Battery===
[[File:Karacnos_Nukes.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Karacnos Mortar Battery]]
The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] have their own mortar and [[Lord of the Rings|it is a mortar to rule them all.]] Called the Karacnos Mortar Battery which is so named after the [[Karacnos Assault Tank|vehicle it is mounted on.]] Also found as the carapace weapon on the Imperial Knight Astreus. The Karacnos Mortar Battery is special cause it uses ''[[Fallout|radioactive warheads]]'' [[Awesome|as its armaments!]] You can't get more metal than that! As it is basically firing a barrage of dirty bombs, this mortar fires its radioactive warheads which is designed to sweep an area clear of all organic life.

As you can imagine, these badboys aren't that well liked for those Imperial Commanders who want to have a idyllic and livable planet to prosper. Seriously, a couple of these batteries would turn a city into a uninhabitable wasteland that only a [[Death Korps of Krieg|Krieger from a Death Korps would enjoy.]]

On tabletop ([[Horus Heresy|The 30k rules at least]]), the Mortar is a R60 heavy bolter with barrage, small blast, fleshbane, radphage, Ignores cover and pinning which seems good on paper but with the majority of targets getting armour saves this mostly equates to a longer range Wyvern.

===Morbus Heavy Bombard===
[[File:Morbus_Heavy_Bombard.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Morbus Heavy Bombard]]
The standard weapon for the [[Legion Arquitor Bombard]], the Morbus Heavy Bombard is a big fuck-off mortar system designed to fire shells that could bring absolute devastation to even the most heavily armored enemy units.

Whilst not as large and devastating as its larger cousin such as the Colossus Siege Mortar. The Morbus Heavy Bombard could in fact, act as the middle child between the Colossus and the smaller but more mobile Griffon Heavy Mortar.

This mortar was so good, that good [[Mortarion|ol'Morty]] decided to [[Blood Ravens|'borrow']] the idea and concept for his own daemonic [[Plagueburst Crawler|Plagueburst Crawlers]] [[Plague Wars|that he unleashed on the Imperium after the Heresy.]] Although why it took Mortarion over 10,000 years to modify and tinker around the Morbus Heavy Bombard is unknown; maybe it is to act as Mortarion's 10th Millennia Anniversary 'surprise' gift to the Imperium after all this time.

===Colossus Siege Mortar===
[[File:ColossusSiegeMortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Colossus Siege Mortar]]
The Colossus Siege Mortar is huge, cumbersome and highly destructive, and it's so large that its shells have to be loaded by cranes instead of by hand. It fires massive concussive rounds that will turn its target to paste (as long as it's a human wearing something less than terminator armor -- S6 AP-2 Dd3 is good against infantry blobs, not so much for harder targets), even if they are hiding in cover.

Because one cannon wasn't enough, the Imperium built the Dominus Armored Siege Bombard, a variant of the [[CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]] that carries an automated ''trio'' of Colossus cannons (though the Dominus only costs as much as two [[Colossus Bombard|Colossi]]...which actually makes sense, as the Colossi are built on a Leman Russ chassis where-as the Dominus just has to pay for an extra cannon, not a whole new vehicle to carry it).

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===Dominus Triple Bombard===
[[File:DominusTripleBombard.png|200px|right|thumb|Dominus Triple Bombard]]
Hey! Remember how we said that a certain Imperium vehicle was actually big enough to mount not one, but THREE Colossus Siege Mortars? Well here it is, the Dominus Triple Bombard found only on the DOMINUS ARMOURED SIEGE BOMBARD. This monster is a god damned tarpit cleanser.

An automated battery of three Bombard cannons rigged to fire together in sequence, it can pulverize anything caught within its field of fire. The Triple Bombard has two rates of fire: a slower rate the Dominus is limited to when on the move, and the second a higher rate for sustained fire when it is stationary.

In practice the Dominus throws [[Rape|10d6 S10 ap-3 shots with indirect fire when stationary,]] easily wiping any unit foolish enough to be larger than 5 models. S10 Ap-3 is also a serious threat to any armor short of a titan, and the weight of shots pretty much guarantees an overkill of single model targets. Essentially, [[OP|it is a mortar system so big, with shells so large that]] [[Rape|''Tank Armor]] [[Count as|now counts as]] [[Flak Armor]]'' [[Cheese|when faced with this cheesemonger.]]

The older, even bigger and more Squattier version of the Dominus Triple Bombard is the Thunder-Fire Cannon from the [[Squats]].

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==Multi-Use Weapon Systems==
Ordnance that has variable uses that ranges from clearing hordes of infantry, to tankbusting, to shooting those flying buggers out of the sky (the majority of which use WW2 style of anti-air guns which is only great for low altitude aircraft). These weapon systems can change its weapon loadout which makes it extremely versatile for almost all situations. May or may not bleed into the [[Missile Launcher]] categories.

===Tarantula Sentry Gun===
[[File:TarantulaTurret.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Tarantula Sentry Gun]]

THE GIANT ENEMY SPIDER DO DO DODODODODODODDOO DO

Sorry. It had to be done.
One of the more iconic sentry guns and probably the only notable sentry guns used by the Imperium. The Sentry Gun, more commonly referred to as a Tarantula, is an Imperial automated mobile weapon system based upon ancient Imperial technology. Useful in a variety of roles, it is most notably used by the [[Imperial Guard]], but is also utilized by other groups including the [[Adeptus Astartes]] and the [[Adeptus Arbites]]. The exact origin for its nickname is unknown although it is fair to assume that their multi-legged appearance can be attributed in part to this.

Utilizing simple logic engines and infused with a machine spirit, the Tarantula can function without needing to be controlled by a human gunner. Commonly fitted with either twin-linked [[Lascannon|lascannons]] or [[Heavy Bolter|heavy bolters,]] the Tarantula offers a significant deterrent to both enemy armor and infantry waves. [[Derp|However, it is not intelligent enough to actually choose its targets]] - [[FATAL|instead only prioritizing the closest threat in range.]]

The uses for these sentry guns are many and varied, from defending a perimeter from surprise attack to establishing a roadblock or operating as part of a static defensive line. However, their lack of inherit mobility restricts their use on a fluid battlefield. A Tarantula can be carried on the back of a [[Chimera]], [[Rhino]] or by a [[Valkyrie]] in addition to their normal passenger compliment. Tarantulas can even be air-dropped via grav-chute and deployed from packing crates.

Beloved by the [[Imperial Guard]], because it's an automated gun turret defending them on the front lines, and they don't even need to be in harm's way.

[[Grimdark|They will still be put in harm's way]].

Astartes Tarantulas are semi-mobile and can move themselves to a degree and even engage in pre-programmed patrol routes.
<gallery>
File:Hevboltertarantula.jpg|Tarantula Heavy Bolter
File:Lascannontarantula.jpg|Tarantula Lascannon
File:HyperiosLauncher.jpg|Tarantula Hyperios
File:RadarPlatform.jpg|Tarantula Air Defense Command Platform
</gallery>

===Sabre Weapons Battery===
[[File:Sabre_Gun_Platform.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Sabre Weapons Battery]]
Yet another weapons platform used by the Imperial Guard, usually for light air or ground defense at important assets or locations. Two Guardsmen are needed to crew the platform, which features dual heavy weapon mounts able to be fitted with standard Imperial Guard weapons for ease of supply and maintenance, although the actual model only showed one guardsman.

The Sabre (aka the Sabre Gun Platform) shares the same leg mounts as a Tarantula, but instead uses a crew of Guardsman to fight rather than a machine spirit. The platform along with its weapon mount can rotate a full 360 degrees and features built-in auto-stabilizers to reduce recoil and improve accuracy of its mounted weapons. Its light structure means it can be easily disassembled and repositioned on the field, but not while under fire. Because of this, Sabre teams are expected to hold the line even against overwhelming odds. As they often form the last line of defense for a failing Imperial campaign, assignment to a Sabre is seen as a [[Grimdark|death sentence]].

Its primary armament is either quad [[Heavy Stubber|Heavy Stubbers,]] twin-linked [[Lascannon|Lascannons,]] twin-linked [[Heavy Bolter|Heavy Bolters,]] twin-linked [[Autocannon|Autocannons,]] or the most useless and suicidal of all, [[FAIL|a goddamned fucking searchlight]], I mean yeah sure, you could illuminate targets during night fighting, but that's as far as you could go. However, they are most often used as a form of anti-air defense, so tend to most commonly be seen with quad heavy stubbers.
<gallery>
File:SabreGunPlatform01.jpg|Heavy Stubber Sabre
File:SabreAutocannon.JPG|Autocannon Sabre
File:SabreHeavyBolter.JPG|Heavy Bolter Sabre
File:SabreLascannon.JPG|Lascannon Sabre
File:SabreSpotlight.JPG|Searchlight Sabre
</gallery>

===Firestrike Servo-Turret===
[[File:Firestrike_Servo-turret.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Firestrike Servo-Turret]]
The [[Primaris Marines]] version of the Sabre Weapons Battery, but without the added bonus of leaving the Primaris Marines to die. Firestrike Servo-Turrets are Primaris heavy weapon platform turrets, that can be armed with either twin Accelerator Autocannons or twin Las-Talons.

Firestrike Turrets are primarily a defensive weapon which lays down withering volleys of fire to secure the flanks of Space Marines bases of operations. They are mounted on gravitic ventral plates, hovering across the battlefield to ideal firing positions

Also a nice option for conversion to get a 2nd/3rd edition razorback turret on modern vehicle kits.

Crunchwise, on 9th Edition, it is your 'basic' (Basic in the loosest sense of the term) Primaris static gun turret (with, [[Lolwut|somehow, M3,]] [[Derp|despite being modelled without a way to move]]) crewed by a novitiate Techmarine (BS2+ and Sv2+, but can't repair and lacks any appropriate keywords) and sporting twin large calibre cannons, namely of the [[Accelerator Autocannon]] ((anti-infantry) 48" Heavy6 S7 Ap -1 D2) or [[Las-Talon]] variety. Also, this thing looks damn similar to the Turrets used in [[Starship Troopers]], which is pretty rad even if the model is [[Fail|a turd on the battlefield.]] [[Tl;dr|TL;DR,]] you're paying less points to put a tank weapon on a cheaper BS2 platform that has nearly no mobility and only T5.

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=={{anchor|Leman Russ}} Tank Guns ==

These guns are too large to be carried by infantry (excluding "heavy" weapons such as [[lascannon]]s and [[autocannon]]s), but are still small enough that a heavy vehicle, like the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], can carry and fire them while in the thick of battle. It should be noted that certain [[Autogun|Autoweapons]] are also a form of ordnance. So don't be too surprised if you see a few similiar faces around here.

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===Taurox Battle Cannon===
[[File:TBattle_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Taurox Battle Cannon]]
The little wee kid brother of the famed Battle Cannon. If the Battle Cannon is considered as the mainline tank gun of the Imperium, then the Taurox's version would be considerd as the autocannon IFV gun of the family.

The Taurox Battle Cannon is the primary armament of the [[Taurox Prime]] and is considered by some as a light artillery piece. It is fitted with advanced recoil-dampening devices and auto-targeters to allow it to fire accurately even while moving.

On the tabletop, the crunch pretty much matches the fluff. The Taurox Battle Cannon is the mini-Battle Cannon; being a 48" ranged, S7 AP-1 Heavy D6 weapon. Good for picking off TEQs and light vehicles, although it would struggle against MBTs.

===Battle Cannon===
[[File:Battle_Cannon_Leman_Russ.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Battle Cannon]]
''For additional information, see here: [[Autogun#Battle Cannon|Battle Cannon]]''

The primary weapon of the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], it is the most commonly used tank gun for good reason: the Battle Cannon can pull double duty as both an anti-tank and anti-infantry weapon thanks to its considerable range (72"), strength (S8 AP3 = instant death to [[MEQ]]s and capable of damaging any vehicle) and explosion size (5" blast = blob-killer). The cannon proved so popular that it was made the primary armament of the [[Macharius (tank)|Macharius]] and [[Malcador (tank)|Malcador]] super-heavy tanks, and has been forked into several versions by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]:
{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Battle Cannon (Leman Russ)|range=72|strength=8|ap=3|type=Ordnance|rof=|rules=Blast (5")}}
 

Since the revamping of the AP-system and moving away from "blast template" mechanics, the stats for battle cannons were changed, becoming something of this 
{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-8|name=Battle Cannon (8th Edition)|range=72|strength=8|ap=-2|damage=D3|type=Heavy D6|}}
It is worth noting that while AP-2 now allows 3+ and 4+ armour to actually provide at least some save-roll (5+ save for 3+ armour and 6+ save for 4+ armour), 2+ armour (like that of the Terminators) now only get 4+ save instead of 2+.

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==={{anchor|Conqueror Cannon}} Conqueror Battle Cannon===
[[File:LRConq.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Conqueror Battle Cannon]]
Fitted to the [[Leman Russ Conqueror]], this is essentially a lighter and smaller version of the Battle Cannon. Its shorter range and smaller blast radius is more than compensated by the reduced recoil and higher rate of fire, allowing for an even greater damage output than a Battle Cannon. Like the battle cannon the Conqueror cannon is capable of firing high explosive, anti-tank, smoke, illumination, and even Hunter shells, although not infernus rounds. The Forge World Gryphonne IV also designed a special shell just for this weapon, known as the '''Augur Shell'''. While similar to an HE shell when the Augur's impact detonator is triggered the thin shell wall splits open and the soft explosive charge is spread across the target; a microsecond later the secondary detonator in the base of the shell ignites the explosive. This causes cratering and cracking of the target's outer armor, while inside the target it produces spalling capable of damaging internal equipment and wounding or killing personnel (Which sounds extraordinarily similar to HESH ammunition). However the shell was not considered a success and in the end relatively few were produced. Shaped charges work better, hence why HEAT is more common than HESH. Also, metals like nickel can be put in a HEAT round to turn it into a beam of plasma, but HESH is simply a pancake of explosive that goes boom. Ultimately, a focused boom is better, though HESH is better when you need just plain boom without it being focused somewhere. Though there is an important caveat when it comes to HESH VS HEAT: HEAT penetrates, but HESH sends more force into the target, meaning that if a HESH rounds sends enough conclusive force into a tank, you can scramble the crew and internal devices as if you shook a can half filled with jello. When all is equal, HESH is likely preferable against APCs, IFVs, and other forms of transports that HEAT or AP would kill but survivors would escape from to fight another day. HEAT is good for killing vehicles in which the machine is the threat, not the people in it (like battle tanks and mobile artillery, mobile guns, etc.).

On the tabletop, it's a "Heavy" weapon, as opposed to "Ordnance", which allows the carrying vehicle to fire its sponson weapons at full ballistic skill (though, since the Conqueror is not a heavy tank, that only applies if it holds still...).

In 8th Edition it's just a Battle Cannon with 50% of the range (36").

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=== Macharius Battle Cannon ===
[[File:Malcadorbattlecannon.png|200px|right|thumb|Macharius Battle Cannon]]
The [[Macharius Heavy Tank]] has a twin-barreled variant of the Battle Cannon, because it has a bigger turret and because two barrels are better than one. It also looks like it has a larger bore which means it can fire larger calibers. For all intents and purposes, the Macharius Battle Cannon should be considered as a superheavy weapon if not for the fact that the Macharius itself is not completely in the superheavy category.

It used to actually fire two shots, but that's been changed to a single massive (7") blast in more recent publications similiar to how some video games give sawed-off shotguns a firing mechanism to blows off the two barrels at the same time. Maybe they will get around to making a single massive cannon for it, too. A Macharius Vanquisher Cannon? It exists. But a Macharius with a giant single gun? we wish.

Then 8th Edition drop and we went back to a 2-shot Battle Cannon. Lame.

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==={{anchor|Vanquisher Cannon}} Vanquisher Battle Cannon===
[[File:Vanqcannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Vanquisher Battle Cannon]]
Huge gun, huge range, huge barrel, huge damage. Basically an anti-tank gun fitted on tank destroyers. The Leman Russ Vanquisher has its weapon tooled for only one purpose: to fuck enemy tanks and monsters hard using huge shells.

It sacrifices its blast radius for an improved capacity for armor penetration (AP2, S8 + 2d6 = 10-20 with an average of 15 = roll for the [[anal circumference|circumference]] of the hole that is about to get punched through your armor). The [[Macharius (tank)|Macharius]] can carry twin-linked Vanquisher cannons, and has enough internal space that it can also fire high-explosive shells like the regular Macharius Battle Cannon, so it's like two tanks in one -- and it costs about as much as regular Russ and a Vanquisher put together. 
Worth noting, that the cannon is now somewhat nerfed, being given only S=8,AP-3 while retaining Heavy 1 and gaining D=D6R (the same rule as meltagun, albeit not only when in half-range or less).

The only problem is that the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] lost Tigrus, the only [[Forge World]] that made Vanquisher cannons, to the [[Orks]] in M35 (somehow, you'd think the Imperium would throw so much firepower in defense of such a vital world that nothing could take it), so the only way to make new Vanquisher tanks is to take the cannons off of tanks that have been immobilized -- not a simple feat, given that the cannon is so dangerous to armor and stands out as a priority target for enemies. Two other Forge Worlds, Stygies VIII and Gryphonne IV have stepped up to try and match the old cannons (read: [[Forge World]], the company, has produced two alternate turrets for [[Leman Russ Vanquisher]]s), but they're just not quite there (though it makes no difference on the tabletop, of course). And then Tyranids ate Gryphonne. (It was delicious.)

And it also seems, that as per 6-th edition Astra Militarum Codex and onwards, the fluff was changed to do away with "Vanquisher cannon being rare" altogether - now the Leman Russ Vanquisher is noted as being simply the dedicated anti-armour variant of Leman Russ, often employed as command tank in armoured formations. However, it now also seem that Vanquisher cannon now lost it's ability to fire HE rounds, being able to only fire anti-armour HEAT rounds, something ineffective against infantry formations.

It should be noted that, unlike how many on /tg/ perceive it, the Vanquisher is '''not''' just a Battle Cannon firing specialised Anti-Tank shells. The Guard does use separate specialised HEAT shells for the basic BC, but Imperial Armour shows the Vanquisher Cannon to have a smaller bore than the standard one, while the shells have a greater diameter-to-length ratio and possibly be some form of APFSDS round.

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===Demolisher Cannon===
[[File:Demolisher1Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Demolisher Cannon]]
The Big One. Fitted onto the [[Leman Russ Demolisher]] and packing enough heat to turn [[Terminator|Terminators]] and heavy and super-heavy vehicles inside-out with a single shell, the Demolisher Cannon's short range (24" -- shorter than some infantry weapons) is the only thing that stops it from being a truly amazing weapon.

Even then, it can cause considerable damage (S10 AP2 Large Blast = kiss your everything goodbye) and because it is smaller than the other cannons, is one of the few ordnance weapons used by the [[Space Marines]], mounted on the [[Vindicator]] and [[Land Raider Ares]], and it is used as secondary armament on certain super-heavy tanks, like [[Baneblade]]s and the [[Malcador (tank)|Malcador]].

The Demolisher fires special ammunition much larger than that used in the Battle Cannon, allowing it to punch through layers of concrete and plasteel alike. A Demolisher shell is constructed with an outer layer of standard high explosive and shrapnel, which surrounds a chemical core. Upon impact, the explosive layer detonates, punching a hole in the enemy's armor and spreading shrapnel over a wide area. It also starts a chemical reaction in the core, causing it to super-heat into a jet of plasma, which lances through the compromised armor, spreading molten death over a wide area and literally ripping the target from the inside out. The tremendous recoil produced by firing the cannon is capable of lifting the front end of a tank off the ground and, were it fired while moving, risk causing it to roll over.

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==={{anchor|Nova Cannon}} Eradicator Nova Cannon===
[[File:Leman_Russ_Eradicator_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eradicator Nova Cannon]]
The Eradicator Nova Cannon fires shells with an unstable "sub-atomic" core (yes, this just might be a tank cannon that fires ''mini-nukes''). These shells are somewhat hazardous to the tank and crew, as they have a non-zero probability of exploding if they get jostled while loading, so most [[Imperial Guard Regiment|regiments]] that use [[Leman Russ Eradicator]]s have a margin for crew losses, and that is without the off chance of radioactive leaks from a faulty shell.

The Eradicator is most effective supporting infantry forces fighting in areas such as cities and jungles, and it is easily replicated on dozens of Forge Worlds. For urban combat however the Eradicator does not feature the additional rear armor found on similar vehicles, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from behind.

They keep using the Nova cannon, though, because the shell's massive blast completely flattens any cover, so unless the targets are power armored, there's no escape for them (S6 AP4 = Instant Death for most standard infantry; less effective for beefier troops). Why a shell that detonates if it's shaken does not go off when it's fired from a freaking cannon is not completely explained by GW.

== {{anchor|Baneblade}} Super-Heavy Tank Guns ==

Technically, these guns can be carried and fired by a vehicle in direct combat, but because that vehicle has to be the size of a [[Baneblade]], they deserve a category of their own.

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===Accelerator Cannon===
[[File:Fellblade_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Accelerator Cannon]]
The main gun of the [[Fellblade]]. It fired armor-piercing explosive ''self-guided'' "darts" via either magnetic acceleration or gravity impellers. It was also twin-linked, though the Fellblade had severely limited ammunition for it, relying mostly on its other weapons until a suitable target presented itself.

This type of cannon used a complex overpressure mechanisms of a special vacuum-based system which can propel heavy shells with greater force than a conventional cannon of similar size. This system is so efficient that they provide very little recoil from every shot, making the Accelerator cannon extremely stable and accurate. The loading mechanism of Accelerator cannon is also highly advanced and served by a special loading mechanism that allows the tank’s commander to switch ammunition type at a little notice.

It was made on the [[Forge World]] of Tigrus (home of the original Vanquisher cannon -- which resembles the Accelerator Cannon quite closely, with the long barrel and large muzzle brake). It can fire high-explosive shells comparable to a super-charged Battle Cannon (S8 AP3 7" Blast) or armor-piercing shells comparable to what would later become the Vanquisher battle cannon (S9 AP2 3" Blast, rolling 2d6 for armor penetration).

Its smaller brother is the Accelerator Autocannon.

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===Macro-Accelerator Cannon===
[[File:MacAccelerator_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Macro-Accelerator Cannon]]
Think of the Accelerator Autocannon on steroids. The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is to the Accelerator Cannon in the same way the Accelerator Cannon is to the Accelerator Autocannon (Try and speak that sentence five times in a row).

The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is a large kinetic weapon used by the Primaris Space Marines' [[Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank|Astraeus Super-Heavy Grav Tank]] as its primary armament. The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is actually a complex mass driver that uses a potent electromagnetic field to accelerate a barrage of high caliber ferro-carbide slugs to extremely high speeds. It is basically an upscaled Imperial railgun. Usually twin-linked, these weapons unleash an onslaught against which even enemy heavy armor cannot stand.
Note: Mass Driver is used in the wrong context here. Unless they intend to say the Macro-Accelerator Cannon are miniaturized versions. That can be used as Railguns. But Games Workshop writers don't proofread their shit anyways,

Crunchwise, the fluff seem to match the rules. The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is a vicious Heavy 12, S8, AP-2, Damage 3 that ignores all abilities that impose negative hit modifiers when targeting anything with the FLY keyword. Normal vehicles wouldn't even survive a barrage of these and superheavies would take a beating.

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===Baneblade Cannon===
[[File:Banebladecannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Baneblade Cannon]]
The [[Baneblade]]'s primary cannon is an upscaled Battle Cannon, improved in strength, armor penetration, and blast radius (S9 AP2 10" blast = 10" wide [[lascannon]] pie-plate). Its special shells are not propelled by an explosion, but are rather miniature rockets that increases the shell's range and accuracy tremendously. However, this also leads to the danger of a build-up of gasses in the barrel, which can cause serious harm. To combat this the Baneblade Cannon is built with a double-sleeve design with venting ports studded around the cannon's muzzle, allowing these gasses to escape under their own pressure.

When fired the shell leaves the barrel under its own blast pressure with speed maintained whilst the rocket burns, with each booster burning out and falling away as the next one ignites. This means that the Baneblade's Cannon works on a similiar basis to a upscaled Bolter -- a feature that "counterfeit" Baneblades produced on other [[Forge World]]s are unable to reproduce, and so they substitute standard battle cannon rounds for them. There's no indication that they're much, if at all, different, though.

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===Dreadhammer Cannon===
[[File:Dreadhammer.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadhammer Cannon]]
Back in the [[Great Crusade]], [[Perturabo]] asked the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to build him a new cannon that could level buildings with a single shell and be carried at a reasonable speed. Because the [[Horus Heresy]] hadn't happened yet, and they were thus still feeling like innovating now and then, the tech-priests agreed, and built him the Dreadhammer.

It fires shells that weigh several tons, and experiences so much recoil that even the super-heavy [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank]] has to limit the propellant used (and thus the range) if it wants to fire on the move. At first, people made fun of Perturabo for asking for (and getting) a super-Demolisher, but it has a bigger blast radius and, if the Typhon stays still, a longer range, and it really does shake buildings to their foundations. The appearance, name, and firepower of the Dreadhammer cannon suggest some connection with the [[Baneblade]]-mounted [[#Hellhammer Cannon|Hellhammer cannon]].

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===Hellhammer Cannon===
[[File:Hellhammer_cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Hellhammer Cannon]]
The comically small Hellhammer Cannon is the main weapon of the [[Hellhammer]] tank. Resembling a Baneblade with [[Lulz|micropenis issues]], this gun has spawned numerous compensation jokes at the tank's expense. Still, every nerd has its day and one thing the Hellhammer excels at is in its ability to fire [[Fallout|mini-nukes.]]

The Hellhammer Cannon fires shells with a building-busting sub-atomic charge (like the Eradicator Nova Cannon). Each shell weighs 180 kilograms and is propelled by a rocket motor, with exhaust vents on either side of the barrel allowing for the safe discharge of gas with every firing. Due to the sheer weight of the shells, an automatic loading tray assists the loader, limiting the weapon's rate of fire. The tremendous concussive explosion (S10 AP1 7" Blast) is enough to collapse a building in one shot (Ignores Cover), so crews are trained to fire at the ground floors of structures that need to come down. The short barrel and recoil compensators give the cannon a very short range (a measly 36"). As such, the Hellhammer cannon is only used on tanks that are built for urban combat, like the [[Hellhammer]] super-heavy tank.

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===Quake Cannon===
[[File:Quake Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Quake Cannon]]
''For additional information, see here: [[Autogun#Quake Cannon|Quake Cannon]]''

What has already been said about the Quake Cannon in the Autogun category has been said here. The Quake Cannon is an [[Awesome]] gun with a [[Stupid]] construction process. The quintessential fortress fucker supreme.

The Quake Cannon is an odd beast; its firepower is not unusual for a weapon of its size (S9 AP3 10" Blast), but it has a longer range than any other tank gun (180", only exceeded by the Earthshaker and Colossus cannons), and is normally an arm weapon for [[Warlord Battle Titan]]s.

It is occasionally mounted on a Baneblade chassis to make the [[Banesword]], essentially a super-heavy self-propelled artillery piece, primarily employed against fortifications. Also, it's ammunition is filled with the echoing shockwave of a world that was subjected to [[Exterminatus]], [[Awesome|and the sound it makes as it flies through the air is said to be the screams of those who died in the exterminatus that powered it.]]

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=== Stormsword Siege Cannon ===
[[File:Stormsword_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Stormsword Siege Cannon]]
The Stormsword Siege Cannon fires big bunker-busting rocket-propelled shells. Unfortunately, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] never considered that crews might want to fire at things other than ground floors of nearby buildings, so the cannon cannot elevate very far (though, if it did elevate too far, the recoil might just rip it out of the turret). It makes up for this by being able to turn entire city blocks to dust with a single shot.

The weapon and vehicle itself is built specifically for sieges and street-fighting, the Stormsword is geared towards providing troops close-quarter support with a variety of heavy weapons whilst its cannon is used to lay waste to entire encamped bunkers and buildings.

It used to be that the [[Stormsword]] just had a Hellhammer Cannon that couldn't swivel, but apparently that made them too similar, so in the sixth-edition version of [[Apocalypse]], GW made the Hellhammer Cannon a 7" blast and left the Stormsword with the 10" pie-plate.

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===Tremor Cannon===
[[File:Tremor_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Tremor Cannon]]
Most cannons launch shells that are fuzed to explode on or shortly before impact. Not the [[Banehammer]]'s Tremor Cannon: after landing it buries into the ground before it detonates. This muffles the blast (S8 AP3 is actually the lowest-strength and worst AP of all the super-heavy tank guns), but it sends a tremendous shockwave through the earth that leaves enemies not caught in the blast stumbling and slowed. The fluff describes this as ''liquifying'' the surrounding terrain.

Imagine the ground under your feet giving way, suddenly having the consistency of water. By the time you've figured out what's happened, you're partially buried in the dirt and have to dig yourself out before the enemy comes and shoots you like a horse with a broken leg. And that's if you're lucky, it's entirely possible to get buried completely and suffocate to death under several feet of earth and rubble. You can see why it would be very, very bad to be on the receiving end of this weapon.

In theory it would also make a decent wall and bunker cracker.

==Artillery Guns==

Sometimes, the Imperial Guard can't get in range to use tanks, or could, but only at a cost that even the [[Departmento Munitorum]] would find staggering, like when they are attacking enemy fortresses. To overcome such obstacles, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] had a brilliant idea: make even bigger guns with a longer range. These guns are so big that they cannot be fired on the move; they are often built into static defensive positions, or for [[Imperial Guard Regiment|regiments]] that need to be more mobile, they may have guns placed on towed platforms, or on self-propelled chassis (see [[Imperial Ordnance Pieces]] for more information).

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===Thunderfire Cannon===
[[File:SM-thunderfire.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Thunderfire Cannon]]
''Not to be confused with the [[Squats|SPESS DORF's]] [[Thunder-Fire Cannon]]. For the full page, [[Thunderfire Cannon|see here.]]''

The actual cannon of the Thunderfire Cannon Unmanned Ground Vehicle. This gigantic piss-off quad-barrelled cannon is a short-ranged artillery piece that is less indirect blind(-ish) firing and more in-your-face levels of FUCK OFF. It's like the [[Angry Marines]] of artillery guns. These cannons are so ECKSBAWKSHUEG that the vehicle it is mounted on is actually like, 50% of the total weapons system.

The only people even qualified of handling this thing are the [[Techmarines]]. For much added [[Lulz]], the cannon of the Thunderfire Cannon can be mounted as the primary weapon for the [[Land Raider#Achilles Pattern (Forge World)|Land Raider Achilles]]. Oh yes, we know what we are all thinking. [[Meme|Yo Dawg, we heard you like artillery guns, so we put a artillery gun inside a artillery gun so you can shoot whilst you shoot!]]

The Techmarine manning a Thunderfire Cannon can set its shells to detonate in a variety of different ways, depending on the tactical situation. Surface detonations are employed against numerous enemies in comparatively clear terrain, airburst shells are used to scour a foe from cover, and the Techmarine can even program the shells to burrow deep into the ground before detonating; though the force of the blast from such Tremor Shells is greatly reduced, the resulting shockwave is sufficient to leave the foe sprawling, making them easy pickings for his brother Space Marines.

They also look similar in appearance to the Astartes Quad Launcher found on the [[Rapier Armoured Carrier|Rapier Carrier.]]

===Lucius Pattern Heavy Quad-Launcher===
[[File:ThuddGun2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Lucius Pattern Heavy Quad-Launcher]]
''For the original, superior, motorized and [[Squat|shall-we-say ''Squat'']] version, [[Heavy Quad-Launcher|see here.]]''

Derived from the original, more mobile and cooler looking Squat Heavy Quad-Launcher mobile light artillery platform, the less cool and more cumbersome Imperial variant functions essentially the same, [[Fail|except you can't drive the damned thing but you have to tow it instead.]] This is made worse when considering the Squats ''literally'' gave the Imperium and by extension, the Mechanicus the blueprints for the original motorized tractor variant. [[FAIL|The Mechanicus some how lost the tractor in the process.]]

So now the Imperial Guard is stuck with the less mobile and cumbersome Lucius Pattern Thudd Gun. They were once quite a common light artillery piece, but ever since the day the Mechanicus lost the blueprints to attach a tractor at the rear end of the gun, most of these artillery pieces have now been relegated to second-line Imperial units, used by [[Planetary Defence Force|Planetary Defence Forces]] and militia units.

Similar to the Dorf version, the Quad Launcher's main drawback as a weapons system is the time required to reload between volleys. Ammunition is placed into the hopper, the breech is then hand-cranked back which allows the round to feed into the breech, which then slams forward into the ready position. The hopper can then be reloaded with another shell. When the gun fires, the recoil allows the second shell to load automatically. Once this second shell is fired, the whole slow reloading process must be repeated. The weapon's complex automated loader is also prone to jamming and misfeeds and must be very carefully maintained and cleaned in the field. However, at least the original Thudd Gun is mobile. This....thing however, requires to be towed by either a [[Trojan Support Vehicle|Trojan service vehicles,]] or [[Centaur Utility Vehicle|Centaur light tanks.]]

Like many Imperial models, this one is quite clearly based on a World War era artillery piece, in this case the German [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebelwerfer Nebelwerfer].

===Earthshaker Cannon===
[[File:Earthshaker2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Earthshaker Cannon]]
The Earthshaker Cannon is the [[#Battle Cannon|Battle Cannon]] of artillery pieces: common, highly recognizable and very lethal (S9 AP-3 Dd3 anywhere within twenty feet). It fires its shots further than any weapon except for the [[Manticore Launcher Tank]] and [[Deathstrike Missile Launcher]].

This 132mm caliber weapon has a muzzle velocity of 814 meters per second and fires a 38 kg projectile, hitting targets over 15 km away in under 19 seconds, using the standard five powder charge.

Six and seven powder charges can be used to hit targets well beyond this range, however the additional wear and stress this causes on the barrel limits the number of overcharged rounds to twenty, with authorization for their use required. Only Earthshakers on static mounts can fire these charges, as vehicle mounts are considered too unstable for their use. The most common type of shell fired by Earthshakers are high explosive, but it can also launch incendiary, smoke, illumination, and even diamantine-tipped armor piercing shells. Shells fired by Earthshakers have been known to cause craters fifteen meters in diameter and obliterate infantry in an instant.

The Earthshaker is most often mounted on the [[Basilisk Artillery Gun|Basilisk self-propelled artillery tank,]] though it also appears in static artillery positions as well as built into fortifications. Field artillery also makes use of towed versions pulled by Landcrawlers, as with Quad Launchers and Griffon Heavy Mortars. Some Earthshaker Cannons had their own carriage which can be towed away from front line positions by the [[Trojan Support Vehicle|Trojan]] if the enemy are in danger of getting too close or allow the stationary platforms to be re-tasked to where they are needed most.

Amusingly enough despite being depicted as an artillery gun in 40k, the Earthshaker is modeled after the long-barelled WWII German [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41 Flak 88] rather than a field howitzer from the same epoch.
<gallery>
Escarriage.jpg|The old carriage model.
</gallery>

===Medusa Siege Cannon===
[[File:MedusaGun.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Medusa Siege Cannon]]
The Medusa Siege Gun is an aging siege weapon used by the Imperial Guard both as a towed artillery piece and mounted on the [[Medusa (tank)|Medusa Siege Tank.]] Compared to the Earthshaker Cannon the Medusa fires a much larger shell at lower velocities. This gives it immense destructive capabilities, useful in breaching the walls of an enemy fortress or destroying bunkers in a single shot, but it consequently has a much shorter firing range, even compared to other siege weapons like the Bombard. For this reason they are less useful for harassing and counter-battery fire, but are still prized by many siege regiments for their ability to blast enemy walls, installations, bunkers and trenches.

The Medusa Siege Cannon is the shortest-ranged of the Imperium's artillery weapons at 36" (Breacher shells on the carriage to 48"), but it is not meant to launch munitions over fortified walls; rather, it is meant to shoot fortifications directly and destroy them (which it certainly does, at S10 AP-3 Dd3) -- and when regular shells aren't enough, they can fire special Breacher shells that sacrifice indirect fire for d6 damage to buildings.

{{Clear}}

===Basilisk Magnus===
[[File:SoulstormBasiliskMagnus.png|200px|right|thumb|Basilisk Magnus]]
Get a Earthshaker Cannon. [[Drug|Pump it full of steroids and growth hormones]] and make it big enough to launch an [[Angry Marine]] at full force. Ladies and gentlemen, the Basilisk Magnus is born. Seriously, this thing is the size of a [[Baneblade]].

Exclusive in [[Dawn of War]] or more specifically, the Soulstorm expansion. The Basilisk Magnus is a large artillery platform, defending the 252nd Conservator Regiment's stronghold in the Dussala Precinct on Kaurava I. It fires devastating rounds that creates a wide area of destruction, though it needs a spotter to acquire targets. If the artillery spotter is killed before the Basilisk Magnus' operators receive the targeting information, it will not be able to fire.

This honking piece of [[Rape]] was notorious for hitting something as small as a [[Gretchin]] from one end of the map. Shame there isn't a tabletop conversion....yet. You can also use it in the Ultimate Apocalypse Expansion to shell people from across the map.

<gallery>
image:Basilisk_Magnus.jpg
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Thunder-Fire Cannon===
[[File:Thunder-FireCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Thunder'''-Fire''' Cannon]]
''Not to be confused with the SPESS MEHREEN's [[Thunderfire Cannon]]. For the full page, [[Thunder-Fire Cannon|see here.]]''

The actual cannon of the Thunder-Fire Cannon (Jeez, a bit of deja vu here?). The Thunder-Fire Cannon was the foremost first line of defense for the [[Squat]] homeworlds and possibly the second largest artillery right next to the Goliath Mega-Cannon. Seriously, it might be [[Epic]], but those are fucking big guns capable of firing fucking big shells from quite a considerable (and fucking big) distance.

Just to give you an idea on how ridiculous Squat artillery is. The Thunder-Fire Cannon is a ''[[Lolwut|supporting artillery piece]]'' meant to provide backup for the Goliath Mega-Cannon. Oh yes, [[Lulz|an artillery piece supporting a even ''BIGGER'' artillery piece.]]

As you can imagine, these things are triple-barrelled, kind of like the more mobile but smaller Dominus Triple Bombard. The Thunder-Fire Cannon in itself is always seen mounted as a static piece of artillery. So we ain't completely sure if it can be mounted on a mobile platform, although it wouldn't really surprise us granted that these ''are'' the Squats we are talking about here.

===Nemesis Quake Cannon===
[[File:99560108206_WarbringerTitanQuakeCannon01.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Nemesis Quake Cannon]]
''For additional information, see here: [[Autogun#Nemesis Quake Cannon|Nemesis Quake Cannon]]''

The Quake Cannon on steroids, or the holy lovechild between a Quake Cannon and a Gatling Blaster, [[Skub|whichever you ask.]] These monsters are possibly the largest gun model ever made by Games Workshop on tabletop....''for now'' at least. Mounted on the new and shiny [[Warbringer Nemesis Titan]]. This giant six-shot revolver of doom is designed to kill enemy Titans on sight, thus in any sensible usage, this weapon is regulated at the back lines as a giant sniper, unfortunately the Imperium [[Herp|lacks any sensibility]] and uses these as front line weapons instead. Nevertheless, having a fast firing Quake Cannon '''''is''''' a boon to any forces as now you have a very quick way to whither down the [[Void shields|Void Shields]] of enemy Titans in a quick and efficient manner rather than risking the time reloading. And seeing how this Titan gained prominence during the [[Horus Heresy]] when [[Emperor Battle Titan|Emperor Battle Titans]] were common enough to be thrown left and right like normal battle tanks, the nature of this weapon makes a whole load of sense. This cannon also works wonders against heavily fortified encampments and any forms of fortifications in general due to the monumental concussive force unleashed as its shell impacts the ground setting off powerful localized earthquakes. Overall, what has been said on the [[Autogun]] page has already been mostly stated here.

However there is a reason why this giant dick cannon is here. It also functions extremely well as artillery. Unlike the more average Quake Cannon which is restricted to purely a superheavy tank gun due to the design of the Banesword; preventing any proper gun elevation, let alone install a proper turret and hit anything beyond 90 degrees. The Warbringer Titan is a big enough platform to not only mount a supersized Quake Cannon, but also spacious enough to install a proper turret module and some proper elevation. This allows the Nemesis Quake Cannon to launch its bullets in an arc and turns it into a supersized Earthshaker Cannon.

Of course, it is a designated Titan-killer first and foremost, but the nature of the Quake Shell also means that - as aforementioned before - it could function amazingly well against fortresses and entire fleets of smaller ground vehicles. The powerful concussive shockwaves would liquefy the grounds of enemy armor, forcing them to halt its advance and even sink them through the ground if the terrain collapse. It could also weaken the foundations of fortress walls and bunkers, causing it to collapse on itself or outright shattering the walls through brute force.

===Goliath Mega-Cannon===
[[File:GoliathCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Goliath Mega-Cannon]]
''For the actual vehicle itself, [[Goliath Mega-Cannon|see here.]]''

A hilariously [[Dick|phallic]] weapon made by [[Squats|They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named]]. The Goliath Mega-Cannon, both the gun ''and'' [[Goliath Mega-Cannon|the vehicle]] (Don't tell us why they decided to name both weapon and vehicle the same) is one of the largest artillery pieces ever known and fielded.

Basically each shell weighed several tons and was powerful enough to shatter entire fortifications and turn a fleet of Baneblades inside out. These motherfuckers were the Schwerer Gustav in all but name.

Curiously, the gun never really needed any shock absorbers to control the immense recoil. However it could be that the Goliath Mega-Cannon (The vehicle, not the gun) doesn't need one as the vehicle's own base ''is'' the gun's base.

The power of the Goliath means that each cannon fires its own barrage template. A Goliath attack is worth four barrage points plus the roll of a D6, giving a score between 5 and 10. The super heavy shells fired by the Goliath are so good at reducing fortifications to rubble that it ignores hit modifiers for cover altogether.

The Goliath lobs its shells high into the air to achieve its mammoth range, but it can't depress its barrel to hit a very close target. This means a Goliath can't shoot at targets closer than 50cm, so it has a min range of 50cm. They also don't have any self-defense secondary weapons so you need a few Thunder-Fire Cannons to offer cover support and picking off any units near the Goliath.

Of course, all of these rules are now outdated. But it is pretty cool to see the power it once had.

{{Clear}}

===Thunderer Cannon===
[[File:Thunderer_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Thunderer Cannon]]
Not to be confused with the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank#Thunderer Siege Tank|Thunderer Siege Tank of Leman Russ fame]].

The Thunderer Cannon is a giant FUCKOFF cannon and one of the largest form of ordnance known on land. This cannon is one of the primary weapons of the [[Squat]] [[Colossus War Machine]] and the shells of which, is powerful enough to [[Fist of the North Star|cause nearby mountains to suffer critical existence failure in the form of giant mud slides.]] Seriously, just look at that [[Anal Circumference|''bore size'']] and translate that to the size of the vehicle itself.

The Thunderer Cannon acts as a giant artillery gun meant to deal with squadrons of superheavies and Titans rather than infantry and tanks. This is due to the placement of the Thunderer as well as the fact that it is not mounted on a turret, suggesting that the entire superstructure of the Colossus' 'tower' is reinforced, so as to properly handle the ridiculous recoil of this big stick of death.

Because of its placement and function, it is likely that the Thunderer Cannon was the basis for the Behemoth Cannon.

===Doomsday Cannon===
[[File:Squat Doomsday_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Doomsday Cannon]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Necron]] [[Doomsday Cannon|Doomsday Cannon.]]''

The appropriately named Doomsday Cannon is one of the three primary FUCKOFF cannons, with the first being the Thunderer Cannon and the last being the Behemoth Cannon. The Doomsday Cannon is a relatively popular weapon as far as superheavy ordnance weapons goes. As it is found as the primary weapon for both the [[Colossus War Machine]] and the [[Leviathan|Leviathan Command Center]].

[[/d/|Due to its size and ''girth'',]] the Doomsday Cannon can only be situated and mounted on the prow of these respective vehicles. This is to ensure that the recoil does not topple over or shake apart the vehicle's superstructure. However, this comes at the cost of having a lower maximum range even though the Doomsday Cannon is just as capable of adjusting its firing arc.

Unlike the more longer ranged and accurate Thunderer Cannon, the Doomsday Cannon removes all subtlety and just goes strait into [[Exterminatus]] territory, as the explosive yield of the shell being fired ([[Rape|Again, just look at that ''bore size'']]) can be felt several miles away.

[[Tl;dr]], it is literally a [[Autogun#Macrocannon|Macrocannon]] in all but name. When this thing fires, [[Anal circumference|you might as well just bend over and accept the consequences.]]

===Behemoth Cannon===
[[File:Behemoth_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Behemoth Cannon]]
The largest ground artillery field piece to date. [[Skub|Well, that is assuming that the Goliath Mega-Cannon is slightly smaller than the Behemoth Cannon]] ([[Derp|GW is very bad at size consistency, just look at the Warlord Titan and how its size jumps all over the goddamned fucking place.]] [[Fail|That's quality control for GeeDubs for you]]). Until GW decides to one-up themselves and invent an even ''bigger'' artillery piece.

The Behemoth Cannon is a massive weapon that is the primary armament of the [[Capitol Imperialis]]. The giant landships that can be mistaken for a city block and is tall enough that a goddamned motherfucking [[Warlord Battle Titan]] can use for cover. The Behemoth Cannon is so large that four [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]]s could fit within its barrel (Although the models and artwork definitely disagrees with that statement), and the concussive force of firing the weapon can produce a mushroom cloud and shake the earth itself.

It is basically a land-bound and more mobile version of a Macrocannon and may or may not be a variant of the Thunderer Cannon.

{{clear}}

===Bombardment Cannon===
[[File:BombardmentCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Bombardment Cannon]]
A naval artillery field piece meant to do a mini-[[Exterminatus]].

A Bombardment Cannon is a type of [[Macrocannon]] weapon found almost exclusively in use on the warships of the [[Adeptus Astartes]] and [[Adeptus Arbites]]. It is comprised of a turret-mounted electromagnetic linear accelerator that fires Magma Bomb plasma-based warheads at a higher velocity than standard [[Torpedo|Torpedoes]] but shorter range. Primarily intended for use in orbital bombardments of planetary surfaces in support of ground forces or Astartes drop assaults. In this way, an Astartes vessel can bombard the targeted region of the planet with Magma Bombs to soften the enemy resistance for the [[Drop Pod]]s or [[Thunderhawk|Thunderhawk gunships]] containing Space Marines that will immediately follow.

A Bombardment Cannon can also be used as a ship-to-ship weapon in void battles to great effect, where the great destructive force of the Magma Bomb warheads can render even the strongest armour plating irrelevant and destroy an enemy voidship in short order with only a few salvoes.

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[[Category:Warhammer_40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Warhammer Weapons]]

Stormbird

2020-11-24T19:25:49Z

2601:4C1:C400:4050:4870:CEE5:450C:B8BD: /* Tabletop */

[[File:Stormbird.PNG|thumb|350px|right|With this and the [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord]], all we need now is a model for the [[Imperator Battle Titan|Imperator]] and the [[Emperor]]. And a doctor to call when your dick is still hard, 4 hours later. [[Fail|It's also more aerodynamic than just about every Space Marine aircraft smaller than itself]] ]]
The Thunderhawk’s big older brother and predecessor, the '''Stormbird''' was to the [[Legiones Astartes]] of the Great Crusade what the [[Thunderhawk]] is to the Astartes Chapters of the 41st Millenium: a primary means of transport and air support for Space Marines. The Stormbird, however, was much bigger, able to carry up to 50 Space Marines as well as dreadnoughts and rhinos, protected by void shields, and armed with a ton of firepower. So it was basically an Imperial [[Manta]] for all intents and purposes. It replaced the Skylance used by the [[Thunder Warriors]].

*'''Length:''' 29-50m; approx, depending on Pattern
*'''Wingspan:''' 29-50m; approx, depending on Pattern
*'''Crew:''' 4 crew including 50 Astartes
*'''Acceleration:''' 1500-2000 kph approx
==Overview==
By the time of the Horus Heresy, though, while some of the bigger Legions insisted on keeping their Stormbirds in service, most had begun relying more and more on the smaller and easier to produce Thunderhawk. After the [[Codex Astartes]] reforms, the ability to carry half a company’s worth of marines all in one aircraft wasn’t even arguably economical anymore, and the remaining Imperial Stormbirds were finally mothballed. A rare case of a weapon disappearing from the Imperium's arsenal, not so much because of a lost ability to produce it, but because it simply didn't fit into the changing playbook of Astartes tactics anymore. One would think they would have re-purposed them for anti-Titan operations, into heavy bombers or for transporting vehicles full time.

If the Wrymworld size chart is correct it would be possible to fit a Fellblade or two inside this thing. All they would have to do is convert that empty space for Fellblade cannons, Turbo-Laser Destructors (kind of odd that the Thunderhawk is the only Space Marine plane with an actual anti-Titan weapons isn't it?) or maybe even weapons used by Knights. With enough left over for all the ammunition or power generators, coolant, and anything else they would need. However in the Imperium efficiency and creative thinking is considered [[Heresy|Tech Heresy]]. This is even worse now that the Horus Heresy novels revealed it actually had a dedicated STC loadout that carried macrobombs.

As of the 41st Millennium, it’s currently unknown if there are any Stormbirds still left in Loyalist vaults, though Traitor Legions like the [[Word Bearers]] are said to still have a few around, and if Forge World’s recent release of the model and 40k rules for the Stormbird is anything to go by, odds are there probably will be [[Ultramarines|a couple]] [[Dark Angels|of chapters]] that will be revealed to, surprise, surprise, still have their Stormbirds as well.

It is interesting to note, though, that Forge World's stormbird is almost an entirely different aircraft from the one pictured in older fluff. Where the old Stormbird looked like a giant [[Valkyrie]] with two tiltrotor turbofan engines each almost as big as the aircraft itself, the Sokar-pattern Stormbird is basically just a Thunderhawk on steroids (The old Stormbird was also fluffed as having a ''100-marine'' carrying capacity, rather than the Sokar's 50). A bit odd, as Forge World has generally tried to maintain the Rogue Trader look when updating the old material.

As it turns out, the Sokar is simply one of several very different patterns of the same general classification of aircraft (unlike the Thunderhawk, the Stormbird is not a standard template design, more like several STC patterns in the same role), and the Sokar itself is actually among the smallest of them. Legions variously fielded Condor- (Sons of Horus), Khonsu-, and Apophis-pattern (the Wolves deployed 30 on Prospero) Stormbirds, the latter being known as "sun-killers" for their size and appearance. There was also the Warhawk-pattern Stormbird, which can carry 100 marines like the Rogue Trader version and, given its description as "monstrous and fat-bodied", likely looked like that version as well.

The Sokar, Khonsu and Apophis, sharing a naming convention (derived from minor Egyptian gods) are likely the last generation of Stormbirds to enter general service before the Crusade.

One notable Stormbird is the one Nathaniel Garro had pimped out for his personal use by Malcador so that he could cruise around the galaxy hunting down members for his loyalist A-Team.

== Tabletop ==
Funnily enough, the reasons the Imperial Manta was mothballed in the fluff are also kind of represented in the crunch. The Stormbird is one of those units that could be tentatively referred to as Mega-Super-Heavies (like the Reaver, Warlord, and the actual Manta for instance). Units that are just so big and so expensive that outside of the very biggest games (as in, boards where Basilisks run out of range), they have close to zero practicality. In the case of the [[Stormbird]], a [[Thunderhawk]] probably ''would'' be a more economical option most of the time. With all that said, though, the Stormbird certainly delivers your points worth. The Stormbird has 14/13/12/ and 12 HP. It comes with five turreted Twin-linked Lascannons (so right then and there, you got more laser [[dakka]] than a Terminus Ultra), six Dreadstrike Missiles (S10 AP2 Ordnance, small blast) which can be replaced with a single use 3D6 Apocalyptic Barrage that hits like a Battle cannon. It can buy an Orbital Strike, with Strength D AP1, Massive blast, Indirect fire only and '''multiple use''' for the low, low price of 150 pts. Its 2 Void Shields can become a 12" bubble if you go into hover mode, which is a safe idea since you also get Armoured ceramite and a 5++ invul. Transport capacity of 50 can carry pretty much everything including Dreadnoughts and (possibly fully loaded) Rhinos which take up 10/25 slots respectively. Good thing the Age of Darkness FoC limits you to 25% spending on LOWs and no one actually has the money to play Apoc with FW, right?

8E Sokar Pattern Stormbirds are different. ''2117'' points to put one on the field, though you are rewarded well. 40 wounds, T9, 3++ save and 5++ Invuln makes it a tanky bugger. four twin Lascannons, three twin Heavy Bolters and a battery of Hellstrike Missiles add to the firepower of the thing, and it retains it's 50 Marine transport capacity, as well as it's expanding Void Shields. Power of the Marine Spirit allows the plane to fire all 32 of its shot even if it moved. Though most players won't even bother because it's better to have it camp at optimal Lascannon range. Though it lost its Orbital Strike capability.
While it can't kill Super Heavies as fast as a Turbolaser Thunderhawk. The Void Shields and two squads of Lascannon Devastators(4 cannons per squad plus the Sarge) should allow it to outlast anything smaller than a [[Warlord_Battle_Titan|Warlord]]. Airborne and a Move of 50" with an Advance of 20" allows it to scream across the map at a -1 to hit - and you really need all the dice you can with that T9 3++ save to begin with - and drop Assault Terminators right in your gunline.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
Image:StormbirdOld.jpg|The only image of a Stormbird people had for years (and the basis for many an [[awesome]] scratch-build) before Forge World came out with the Sokar Pattern.
Image:Stormbird_Scratchbuild.JPG|One of said scratch-builds. The new Stormbird model is cool and all, but work like [http://www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/40k%20Stormbird%20Troop%20Transport.htm this] kinda makes you wish Forge World had stayed closer to the original.
</gallery>

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[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

[[Category: Flyers]]