War machines of the Unification Wars?

[bluntblade]

I know the original Stormbirds were created during the conflict, and I swear I remember a pre-Predator tank, but are there any other Unification-era vehicles we know of?

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

The Lightning Crow is mentioned in Betrayal as being used by the Legions during Unification

[bluntblade]

Cheers

[SickSix]

In old GW lore weren't Land Raiders one of the first armored vehicles used(by the Imperium)? And they were used by everybody, human armies and Astartes alike?

[Noserenda]

In old GW lore weren't Land Raiders one of the first armored vehicles used(by the Imperium)? And they were used by everybody, human armies and Astartes alike?

The Imperium maybe, btu not during the Reuinification wars afaik as both the "Land" vehicles STCs were recovered from Mars afaik? 

[bluntblade]

Yeah, they were.

[Bung]

I think the Rhino was mentioned as something used even before the unification war.

[STC Logisengine]

The Malcador assault tank was used as it is a Terran design that was developed back in the Age of Strife many centuries before the rise of the Emperor, the same is true for its sub-patterns such as the Infernus or the Minotaur artillery tank (the Valdor tank-hunter was a Great Crusade-era modification of the infernus hull though).

The Proteus Landraider and Deimos Rhino (probably predator too) are STC-vehicles and pre-date even the age of strife, they where used by the Long March colony-fleets for transport, exploration and colonial defence even before the rise of Man's galactic confederacy, these things are OLD. However, the Landraider seems to be in short supply as there seems to have been very few to none avalible during the Unification War, probably because after a cople of millenia of unending war the Terran factions had bombed their productioncentras to dust and the few avalible units ran out. The Malcador was the main battletank for the Legions but was replaced by the Landraider and relegated to reserve stockpiles as production of the latter picked up speed in the early Crusade-era.

 

The Spartan is another Age of Strife design probably used by the thunder legion in the Unification War as it is not mentioned to be a crusade-era addition to the Legions and there is a mention of Spartans being used during the Jupiter Campaign (late unification-era).

There is also a mention of a "Cerberus-pattern main battle tank" that mounted the punisher rotary boltcannon that seems to originate in the original panoply of war fielded by the legions.

[talos402000]

The Skylance attack transport. Has been mentioned.

[Darkwrath121]

The Ares gunship of the Custodes was used during the unification wars, while the Thunder Warriors and Custodes used 'Ur-Gholem' pattern dreadnoughts.

[b1soul]

Ur-Gholem? Which source is this from?

[Darkwrath121]

Ur-Gholem? Which source is this from?

Inferno, pg119.

 

Mentioned as "the first iteration of its kind".

Edited October 12, 2019 by Darkwrath121

[Ryltar Thamior]

There's also mention of (proto-)dreadnoughts of other varieties operating during the Wars of Unification. It's quite likely that the Lucifer and Furibundus patterns either had their direct origins during this time, or were close developments of patterns and technologies in-use then.

The Albians, in particular, appear to have had dreadnought-like hardware; although I'm not sure whether these were the "Ironsides" themselves, or whether that was the general name for at least some of their formations. The obvious point of inspiration for the name, from English Civil War cavalry, would probably suggest a linkage with the vehicles rather than it applying to, say, line infantry; but who can say. [40kWIki suggests the ironsiders are perhaps a *clan* of soldiery] 

There's also mention in various Black Books of .. often rather generic sorts of vehicle. The XVIIth's Antarctic campaign writeup ['Orioc'] mentions "siege tanks"; the XVIIIs' Tempest Galleries expedition includes a reference to termite style burrowing transports [apparently produced with the help of Mars] [on the anti-Unity side, that same conflict appears to feature seriously *massive* robots and maintenance-drones that maybe Matrix style "Sentinel" etc. sorts etc.] 

Ursh appears to have had an array of warmachine-types in documented use; including air-assets of the "Roma", and presumably artillery elements of the "Red Engines".

I *may* have remembered reading something about at least one large-scale armour clashe occurring, but I can't remember where or if I actually did, so perhaps disregard that.  

[bluntblade]

I believe the Ironsides were Warriors in power armour.

[StrangerOrders]

We know that Stormbirds were developed from a previous gunship model, 'Skylance' iirc. Apparently they were a Stormbird but slower, more armoured and absolutely zero fun to ride in.

[STC Logisengine]

A point about the Stormbird-class assault landers:

 

The Warhawk- and Nephoros-pattern Stormbirds predated the Unification War and was (primarily) produced and deployed by the Indonesic bloc before their incorporation into the Emperor's forces, the Sokar-pattern is a Crusade-era redevelopment using traits from these two earlier patterns.

However the Warhawk Mk.VI was used both in the Unification and the Crusade but seemed to have been largely replaced by more modern landers (such as the Sokar and Thunderhawk) by the onset of the Heresy.

 

"Stormbird" seems however be a class of assault-landers capable of deploying at least a company line-section of Astartes (50 infantry) but less than an line company (~150 infantry) under direct fire in battlefield conditions and capable of defending its own landing-zone during troop deployment/recovery. As such the Thunderhawk is a gunship as it leans more towards a close support role with moderate troop-carrying capacity and larger dropships falls outside the classification, for example the Khobol heavy assault lander, a pre-crusade design capable of transporting at least 25 Cerastus-class knights and being described as blocky with slab-like armor and "fly" in an atmosphere via thrusters and anti-grav systems and have a pair of embarkment ramps on each flank. These landers are described shrugging of storms of heavy flakk missiles and other mechanicum shenanigans with only a whrecked paintjob and minor scratches.

[bluntblade]

There's a whole other thread to be put together on the likely history of the Stormbird.

[mactire]

Weren't Land Raiders called after Arken Land, surely this puts them post treaty of Mars after the Unification Wars.

[Elzender]

Weren't Land Raiders called after Arken Land, surely this puts them post treaty of Mars after the Unification Wars.

If I recall correctly, they are named after him not because he designed them, but because he discovered the STC blueprints. I don't know if it is stated why they changed the name from whatever name it had in the STC, but maybe it was something akin to a farmer's tractor and they decided it was not a suitable name for a potential mainstay tank of the nascent Imperium :D.

Edited October 20, 2019 by Elzender

[STC Logisengine]

Arkhan Land re-discovered the STC-imprints for the Raider heavy battle tank (the Proteus Land Raider by FW, the Plastic phobos is an imperial redesign of the proteus) on Mars (though this was far from the only surviving copy) shortly after Unity with Terra together with imprints for advanced anti-grav systems and an agricultural crawler and thus it later earned the nickname "Land's Raider" that after a century or so cemented into the "Land Raider" (something Arkhan himself bemoans at length in the novel Master of Mankind as he likes the original name better and is quite annoyed at having his name tacked on for just discovering the schematics).

 

That said, once the Crusade-fleets starts rediscovering man's old colonies they start finding Raider MBT's all over the place, sometimes in active service with planetary defence forces who had maintained their advanced tecnology and retained the STC-imprints and infrastructure, sometimes as rusted hulks on dead worlds, sometimes merely in old art or pict-captures.