Wolf at the Door

[Grimtooth]

At the beginning of Wolf at the Door, Bulveye came flying in on a "Stormbird" didn't he? What exactly would this be? A precursor to the Thunderhawk? Why does it sound very familiar to the new "Stormraven"?

[Durfast Spiritwolf]

Great Crusade era assault craft used by the wolves on Prospero.

 

Much bigger than a TH or even a 'Stormraven' - think full smurf battle company in one lift

[Lord Ragnarok]

And not just used by SW. All marines used them pre heresy. Love to know the fluff on why they are no longer used (besides the warp ate the blueprints)

[DV8]

My theory (that is, not backed up by any fluff whatsoever, simple logical reasoning on my part) is that they are simply unnecessary anymore.

 

The Legions, in their (re)conquest of the galaxy, took part in some massive conflicts and needed to land much larger amounts of troops than a Chapter can bring to bear now. A deployment of several hundred marines in any average conflict in the Heresy was not unheard of, and probably rather common. Contrast to now, when a Chapter only consists of a thousand marines, deploying a full battle company is only done in the largest of conflicts (i.e. Black Crusade, War for Armageddon, etc.)

 

To that end, after the Horus Heresy when the Legions were broken down into Chapters and the armories divided, what few Stormbirds existed slowly dwindled in number to non-existence as conflicts grew "smaller" and required less of an Astartes presence. The Mechanicus never replaced them, and instead churned out more and more Thunderhawks to fulfill the same role.

 

 

DV8

[Grey Mage]

Im told... dont know myself mind you... that the reasoning was that the stormbirds were larger and less maneuverable, wich wasnt as much of an issue when you had lots of marines... but that the smaller thunderhawk was superior at dodging, and killing, enemy aircraft and anti-air fire and its reduced cargo capacity wasnt an issue when the legions split.

[Vash113]

Actually the Thunderhawk came into use during the end of the Greate Crusade. The Stormbird could carry roughly 50 Marines, the Thunderhawk 30. Even so the Thunderhawk could still carry a serious number of marines.

 

The Thunderhawk was amore advanced version of the Stormbird design based off of rediscovered STC technology, was far more maneuverable and versatile. The Stormbird was a heavy troop transport and modest gunship but the Thunderhawk could be used as a decent interceptor, ground support vehicle, lander and all around gunship and it had the maneuverability to perform decently in all those roles. In essence the Astartes could do more with fewer craft.

 

It's possible that some of the 1st and 2nd Founding Chapters still have and possibly use Stormbirds, but all of them would be 10,000 years old. Most likely any that survived have long been relegated to museum pieces. The Traitor Legions however still heavily use the older Stormbirds, the heavy fighting of the Horus Heresy and the incomplete deployment of the Thunderhawk at the outset of the Heresy forcing them to fall back on the older but reliable Stormbirds.

[Grimtooth]

I knew it was larger then a Thunderhawk with the description of the SW deploying from "ramps" but not that much bigger. So by that standard we surmise that the Stormraven is between a Thunderhawk and a Stormbird.

 

Thanks.

[The_Betrayed_Spacewolf]

about right i would guess. Possibly the thunderhawk was just a better ride, armoured, armed, who knows.

[Grey Mage]

I knew it was larger then a Thunderhawk with the description of the SW deploying from "ramps" but not that much bigger. So by that standard we surmise that the Stormraven is between a Thunderhawk and a Stormbird.

 

Thanks.

Nah, the stormraven is even smaller than the thunderhawk... it only carries 12+dread, whie the thunderhawk carries 30+dread :S.