Hello, fellow Iron Warriors!

Some of you might remember my topic on Tiger tank-inspired Baneblades, where we discussed the factor of tiger-esque Baneblades in the 41st. millenium. There was quite an feedback from you guys, and now the time has come for me to stirr up som oppinions from you chaps again.

Lately, I've enjoyed myself some much needed R&R with a downloaded pc-version of the good, old Halo game, -Halo: Combat Evolved, mind you- and whilst playing one mission, one gets the chance of controlling the -in my oppinion- awesome Scorpion Tank. Not only does it pack a punch and fun to control, it also gave me a revelation;

What if the Scorpion could be modified as a Baneblade?

...and more important,

What if the Scorpion would be a Baneblade Pattern developed by the Iron Warriors?

In the game, you see that 4 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers hitch a ride on it, each on one of the 4 track units of the Scorpion. these could easily be represented by, say, Iron Warriors that are armed with the weaponry of the Baneblade's side sponson and turrets. For the Scorpion's turret, why not simply use the Baneblade one, and just beef it up a little? The hull also needs a bit of re-design, so it can mount the demolisher cannon and twin-linked bolter turret.

You see, there are lots of idea's for this conversion, and I would be more than gladly to hear your idea's :thumb:

-Loki

It makes sense, the track and road wheel assemblies on a bane blade would probably be hard to build being so large, but using 4 smaller sets would be an efficient way to deal with that problem. You could make it a Stormblade or similar "big gun" variant, then you wouldn't need to modify the hull as they don't have demolisher cannons.

Cool idea, if you add enough spikey bits to it. However, I can see problems arising with having CSMs in sitting poses AND holding heavy weaponry. It seems like there would be a bit of a conflict with having a heavy bolter sitting in a guy's lap and not looking like luggage.

Powered mounts or tripods, perhaps?

I'm a little iffy on 'high-tech' looking IW vehicles. Personally I see them more associating with older, more solid, proven designs. That sounds hypocritical coming from me seeing as I'm often posting high-tech looking concepts, my justification there is that it's more of a Dark Mechanicus thing, and the fluff of my Company involves frequent contact with the Dark Mechanicus and several vehicles built under contract by them.

I see it working one of two ways; The IW would salvage and repair a 'classic' Baneblade, or aquire a new one from somewhere. Paying the Dark Mechanicus to supply them with a Baneblade, and recieving one that has been subject to several improvements that would otherwise be heresies against the machine sounds logical to me. Quad track units for improved stability/reliability (if one set of tracks or powerplant breaks you've still got another three to limp on), a smaller-bore cannon using a high-velocity round and warp-immured warheads, a co-axial minigun on the turret (replaces the hull HB turret)...

The other thing is that I can't imagine the IW having the time or resources to develop this sort of thing by themselves. Adapting Defiler technology to create cheap Knight walkers or re-fit Rhino chassis with experimental weaponry is one thing, but re-designing the Baneblade from the ground up would take up so much time and resources that any right-thinking IW engineer would spend the time cranking out more tanks that are already proven to be effective.

Maybe the quad track idea isn't a new design; perhaps it's a converted mining vehicle or something? A lot of the books talk about special vehicles like transports and things that the game has no models for; perhaps they captured a mechanicus mobile lab or whatever and decided to strap some guns to it that would be an efficient use of time and equipment. It may fit the fluff better to not use it as a baneblade, maybe use it as a macharius or malcador instead to show that it's not a first gen tank. Also as for the guys on the four corners, why not make them servitors? That would have much the same look and fit fit in with the “low tech” look. Heh, maybe the servitors could have tattered robes so it would look like it was the original crew lobotomized a recycled, waste not, want not.

Hmmm... interresting development.

I do not intent to build this brainchild of mine in the near future, other projects have higher priority. -such as my allied Possessed Warlord titan, the Dominus Ex Ferrum- I merely wanted to know people's minds on this one.

That one gave me quite a laugh, but you're right, if you have high-tech looking concepts, you might want to have something that binds it together with your army. Be it fluff-wise or army-wise.

as to answer the "sitting on his lap and holding a Heavy weapon" remark, well, you see Havocs running around with heavy weapons, why not take one step further and make 'em totally Arnold Schwarzenegger-ish? Justification; bionics overkill :lol: !

My justification is that my 'high-tech' stuff has been built under contract for my IW by the Dark Mechanicus. The idea sprung forth from trying to create some Dark Mech ties that were also identifiably different from my IW, and not just IG either.

While the Scorpion is fun in the game it doesn't have the right IW feel for me. From Halo I'd think something more like the Scarab. Part of the fluff with my grand company is that they do direct business with the Dark Mechanicus with supplying materials and components they have raided in attacks and in return the Dark Mechanicus supplies them with more specialized gear and new designs for war machines. My grand company then uses it's mobile and immobile factories, with some embedded Dark Mechanicus engineers, to produce these machines and tools and other essentials. This way at some point the Dark Mechanicus have designed a Scarab like machine and now my grand company produces them because of the tactical methodologies a walker type tank can use that a track type tank can't use.