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What is a Volkite Caliver?


Tamwulf

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It is indeed. Volkite weaponry display shorter ranges than standard weaponry (the Volkite Serpenta pistol has a range of 10" for example), have a strength of five and an AP of five and come with a special rule called 'Deflagrate' which inflicts a further wound on a squad for every unsaved wound caused. They're rare weapons, even during the Crusade/Heresy era due to their high need of maintenance and it's this factor that decides that the standard astartes weapon is Bolt weaponry rather than Volkite. So, Volkite weapons had a shot at being the standard space marine arsenal, is what I read from that. :)

It's an excuse for Forge World to sell some more expensive weapon packs, lol. More stuff from the Heresy that magically disappeared in the future Star Wars Prequel style.

 

 

But I agree, they do look pretty cool, and I want to pick up one of the smaller ones off of Ebay as a toy for one of my character models in my 40K army, obviously "counts as" something else.

Thanks guys. I ordered a 10 pack from Forgeworld (Merry Christmas to me!). I was going to use them on my Chaos Space Marines as a bolter substitute. Ya know, hurling nothing but pure hatred at the poor, misguided fools that worship a husk on the Golden Throne. :confused:

 

Still, interesting rules. Are they assault or rapid fire?

 

Just one more reason for me to get that damned overpriced, Forgeworld book... :)

It's an excuse for Forge World to sell some more expensive weapon packs, lol. More stuff from the Heresy that magically disappeared in the future Star Wars Prequel style.

 

They were standard Astartes issue during the early stages of the Crusades. However they were incredibly hard to produce in the required numbers, so by the time of the Heresy they had mostly been replaced by the Boltgun which the Adeptus Mechanicus could mass produce by the bazillion.

 

I assume that when Mars as ravaged by civil war, one of the 'blueprints' that was lost was the Volkite range..

It's an excuse for Forge World to sell some more expensive weapon packs, lol. More stuff from the Heresy that magically disappeared in the future Star Wars Prequel style.

 

 

But I agree, they do look pretty cool, and I want to pick up one of the smaller ones off of Ebay as a toy for one of my character models in my 40K army, obviously "counts as" something else.

 

You do realise that one of the main themes of 40k is the grandeur of the past, that the Golden Age is long over. We're constantly told that the Imperium lost so much technology during the Horus Heresy, and yet when one item doesn't turn up in 40k, you start saying that it's obviously just a marketing gimmick by Forge World to sell random weapons :D

It's an excuse for Forge World to sell some more expensive weapon packs, lol. More stuff from the Heresy that magically disappeared in the future Star Wars Prequel style.

 

 

But I agree, they do look pretty cool, and I want to pick up one of the smaller ones off of Ebay as a toy for one of my character models in my 40K army, obviously "counts as" something else.

You do realise that one of the main themes of 40k is the grandeur of the past, that the Golden Age is long over. We're constantly told that the Imperium lost so much technology during the Horus Heresy, and yet when one item doesn't turn up in 40k, you start saying that it's obviously just a marketing gimmick by Forge World to sell random weapons :rolleyes:

I don't want anyone to feel demeaned that I hold a contrary opinion, so I will remove this response.
Thanks guys. I ordered a 10 pack from Forgeworld (Merry Christmas to me!). I was going to use them on my Chaos Space Marines as a bolter substitute. Ya know, hurling nothing but pure hatred at the poor, misguided fools that worship a husk on the Golden Throne. :rolleyes:

 

Still, interesting rules. Are they assault or rapid fire?

 

Just one more reason for me to get that damned overpriced, Forgeworld book... :lol:

 

It's a pricy book, but to me it was worth the cash. At least it left less of a bad taste in my mouth than the $50 CSM codex did.

I stand by my belief that the weapons and tech in the HH Betrayal book should be intergrated into main line GW setting. As relic weapon options/gear and that since alot of the chaos marines are from Crusade time then should it not be atleast possible that one of them out there has something from the Crusade era tech. So I have started intergrating FW weapon ruls and gear into my gaming group. It is real fun now, when I use graviton weapons in areas where jump or vehicles are going to be moving.
Personally I think Betrayal made every other SM codex obsolete because it gives a base line for what SW could do and what many of the first and second founding probably still can do. By comparison much younger chapter come off as chumps and I don't thin GW really knows how they want to portray Chaos SM yet with their unfinished published CSM. Moving forward their is going to have to be a very different and much more varied approach to all PA dexs or they are just going to fall flat.
Personally I think Betrayal made every other SM codex obsolete because it gives a base line for what SW could do and what many of the first and second founding probably still can do. By comparison much younger chapter come off as chumps and I don't thin GW really knows how they want to portray Chaos SM yet with their unfinished published CSM. Moving forward their is going to have to be a very different and much more varied approach to all PA dexs or they are just going to fall flat.

 

I'm not sure what this has to do with what a Volkite Caviler is, except as some kind of rant about the Chaos Space Marine codex and some dire warning about how outclassed "younger chapters" will be. Do you actually have the HH:B book?

 

As far as the fluff behind the Volkite weapons... I am very happy to see something like this instead of the "Plain Jane" Plasma and Meltagun weaponry of the Imperium. It seems the directed energy category of weapons in the Imperium is a bit lacking. I love the Bolter and all, but when the IG carry Lasweapons, can manufacture them apparently by the billions, why then are Space Marines armed with Bolters? It only makes sense that during the Great Crusade and the height of the technological Renaissance of the Imperium that directed energy weapons would be considered as a viable replacement for a Bolter. Supposedly, the only advantage of a Bolter over any other weapon is it's ease of use and maintainability. Ease of use is of no concern to a Space Marine. He's been psycho-trained and learned in all forms of weaponry. Maintainability would be an issue in a dark age of technology where resources and technical know how are in short supply. During the Great Crusade and early HH? Not so much. Why have they never been mentioned before? Come on! It's GW. Why does this surprise you?

 

I got to say the discussion in this thread did make me get the Horus Heresy:Betrayal book, and I'm glad I did. Thanks all!

The main premise as to why the marines and other elite forces like Sisters of Silence/ Sisters of Battle and the Custodes are largely the exclusive users of bolters is that it is takes exceptional skill to make a bolt weapon and bolt rounds, let alone to maintain them. It is far from practical to for the Imperium to make bazillions of bolters because of this and instead its the lasgun that is made such numbers. This has added to the reason why the bolter is a status symbol among commissars, marines and SoB being the chosen of the Big E. Some guardsmen who can actually acquire bolters choose to still use lasguns because they are easier to maintain and are far more reliable than boltguns. Yes a boltgun can blow a persons head up, while a lasgun would only burn a persons face, but the boltgun is of no use to you if it get jammed far too easily etc.

 

If the relationship between a boltgun and the volite is similiar to that of the boltgun and the lasgun, it would make little sense for the legions to commonly adopt the volkie on mass because of the diffleculty keeping the volkite weapons functional all the time. On top of this there are other factors to account for, the bolter probably has a longer range than the volkite aswel which would hinder the uses of the volkite to standard line Marines. The volkite weapons probably would have had uses with close assault troops being the marine equivallent of the shotgun :D.

It seems the directed energy category of weapons in the Imperium is a bit lacking. I love the Bolter and all, but when the IG carry Lasweapons, can manufacture them apparently by the billions, why then are Space Marines armed with Bolters?

Because Space Marines are used like a scalpel, not like a hammer and anvil.

Lasweapons are given to the IG exactly because they're easy to maintain.

Its that reason why they're popular with hive gangs.

Second in line to that are autoguns because they can almost always be made with locally available materials (and thus quite popular with renegades).

 

Space Marines and select other forces get Boltguns because they're superior weapons that require increased maintainance.

And while they're popular with hive gangs, they're also reknown to hive gangers for being difficult to maintain.

Maintainability would be an issue in a dark age of technology where resources and technical know how are in short supply.

Wasn't the Dark Age of Technology supposed to be pretty much the apex of human-made technology? Including titans such as the Castigator-class.

The volkite weapons probably would have had uses with close assault troops being the marine equivallent of the shotgun

Carbine rather, I think.

Wasn't the Dark Age of Technology supposed to be pretty much the apex of human-made technology?

 

No, the apex was just before the Dark Age of Technology. The Dark Age was the period of several thousand years when all the worlds of Mankind were cut off from each other and huge amounts of technology was lost forever.

Wasn't the Dark Age of Technology supposed to be pretty much the apex of human-made technology?

 

No, the apex was just before the Dark Age of Technology. The Dark Age was the period of several thousand years when all the worlds of Mankind were cut off from each other and huge amounts of technology was lost forever.

 

No, the Daemon Sparrow is correct. You're referring to the Age of Strife.

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dark_Age_o...gy#.UM8HgluQmP4

Iirc, the Golden Age of Technology and the Dark Age of Technology are synonymous - they're essentially the same time period but with a different outlook on it. It was, as LordEnki points out, the time directly before the coming of the Old Night.
No, the Daemon Sparrow is correct. You're referring to the Age of Strife.

 

Fair enough, I stand corrected.

 

It's dumb though - It's like saying that the Dark Ages were a fantastic time in history, rather than period of intellectual darkness and economic regression that occurred in Europe following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

 

If the Dark Age of Technology was the Apex of Mankind's technology, why was it so dark?? :lol:

 

I'm not saying anyone's wrong, just that it's silly!

It's called the Dark Age of Technology because we are looking at it in hindsight - it's an age of mysterious and seemingly arcane technology to those that lived from before the Great Crusade and onwards. It's a time of marvels the likes of which very little is understood, even by the best minds.
I think it was Dark because it got so advanced the machines rose up against humanity, the Iron Men are a good example - they are mentioned a few times in the fluff and there is one of them in one of the Gaunts Ghosts books.

That's why anything resembling true AI is outlawed in the Imperium.

"Thou shalt not make machines that can think too much", so quoth some random dude when the Iron Men thingy was over.

A majority of the population in M41 maintains a rather strong anti-intellectual streak. Thus, an age of great technological advancement and scientific progress would indeed be seen as a dark age.

Yeah, I guess it would be pretty much Zeitgeist...

o, the Daemon Sparrow is correct. You're referring to the Age of Strife.

Of course I am. :P :)

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