Legiones Astartes - Early Crusade Equipment

[No Foes Remain]

Greetings fellow Fraters.

 

So in the planning of a few of my armies (and mocking up lists on battlescribe) I was pondering a few things, one of my armies (a Blackshield force) would be comprised of an early crusade force that would have returned to the Imperium at the time of the heresey and another force (my Terran Ultramarines) would end up using a lot of older 'lesser' gear due to them being not liked by the rest of Legion or Legion High Command.

 

So my thoughts dwelled to the narrative aspect, what equipment/wargear would an early-to-mid Crusade Legiones Astartes force use? I know the Xiphon was pre-Imperium and all but replaced by the Primaris-Lighting and a bit of research showed that the Scorpius was introduced just before the Heresy, in addition the Sicaran was mid-to-late as it was the brainchild of Ferrus and Guilliman. Mk2/Mk3 was early-to-mid as well as Cataphractii Terminator Armour with the other marks and variants being mid-to-late.

 

But what other equipment was available to early crusade force or considered old and outdated but still perfectly usable?

 

 

Thanks,

No Foes Remain.

 

 

Pre-Crusade:

 

Weapons:

• Bolt Weaponry (M676 Union Model)
• Volkite Weaponry
• Unknown Pattern Plasma Weaponry (First Legion Only)
• Proteus pattern Rotor Cannon
• Thunder Edge Pattern Chainsword
• Rapier Armoured Carrier
•  

 

Armour:

• Mk-I Power Armour
• Mk II Power Armour
•  

 

Vehicles:

• Malcador Battle Tank
• Land Raider Proteus
• Deimos Pattern Rhino
• Ur-Gholem Pattern Walker/Proto-Dreadnought
• Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought
• Lucifer Pattern Dreadnought
• Xipon Pattern Interceptor
• Storm Eagle Assault Gunship
• Warhawk Class Stormbird
• Nephoros Class Stormbird
•  

 

 

Early-Crusade:

 

Weapons:

• Phobos Pattern Bolt Weapons
• Tigrus Pattern Boltgun
• Ikanos Pattern Bolt Pistol
• Autotellurian Pattern Graviton Gun
• Sol Militaris Pattern Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter, Lascannon, Plasma Cannon
• Proteus Pattern Missile Launcher
• Charatran Pattern Power-Axe
• Mars-Proteus Pattern Power Axe
•  

 

Armour:

• Mk III Power Armour
•  

 

Vehicles:

• Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank
• Deimos Pattern Vindicator Siege Tank
• Spartan Assault Tank
• Baneblade Superheavy Tank (and variants?)
• Fire Raptor Gunship
• Thunderbolt heavy fighter
•  

 

 

Mid-Crusade:

 

Weapons:

 

• Tigris Patten Bolt Pistol
• Ryza Pattern Plasma Gun
• Proteus-II Pattern Missile Launcher
• Voss-Incarnadine Pattern Heavy Bolter
•  

 

Armour:

• Mk IV Power Armour
• Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour
•  

 

Vehicles:

• Scimitar Pattern Jetbike
• Land Raider Phobos
• Typhon Heavy Siege Tank
• Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought
•  

 

 

Late-Crusade:

 

Weapons:

• Umbra Pattern Bolt Weapons
• Tigris Pattern Boltgun (Seeker Variant)
• Ryza 'Sunspite' Pattern Plasma Pistol
•  

 

Armour:

• Mk VI Power Armour (Prototype testing by XIX^th Legion)
• Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour
• Gorgon Pattern Terminator Armour
• Tartaros Pattern Terminator Armour
• Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour
•  

 

Vehicles:

• Scorpius Pattern Whirlwind
• Deimos Pattern Damocles Command Rhino
• Sabre Strike Tank
• Sicaran Battle Tank
• Sicaran Venator
• Sicaran Punisher
• Sicaran Omega
• Land Raider Achilles
• Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer
• Contemptor-Cortus Class Dreadnought
• Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnought
• Thunderhawk Gunship
•  

 

Crusade-Era Unknown:

 

Weapons:

•  

 

Armour:

•  

 

Vehicles:

• Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought
• Condor Class Stormbird
• Sokar Pattern Stormbird
• Apophis Pattern Stormbird
• Khonsu Pattern Stormbird
• Sykri Pattern Stormbird
•  

 

 

Heresy-Era:

 

Weapons:

• Umbra-Ferrox Pattern Bolt Weapons
•  

 

Armour:

• Mk V Power Armour
•  

 

Vehicles:

• Deimos Pattern Vindicator Laser Destroyer
•  

Edited April 20, 2020 by No Foes Remain

[Askari]

Malcador tanks were older and considered sort og obsolete by the time of the Heresy. Most of the older stuff was better though. Volkite weaponry was the mainstay of early unification and crusade forces. Edited April 12, 2020 by Askari

[MegaVolt87]

Land raiders, spartan, preads, contemptors (mabye levi) and stormbird were pretty early support assets also. Same with the rhino. Not sure how late mars pattern preads and rhinos were though.

[bluntblade]

Malcador tanks were older and considered sort og obsolete by the time of the Heresy. Most of the older stuff was better though. Volkite weaponry was the mainstay of early unification and crusade forces.

Just to sound a note of caution, volkites had been replaced by bolters as the mainstay rather quickly, as the Legions expanded. You'd also have attrition due to battlefield damage and such, so a less favoured unit would probably be using bolters like the rest (but maybe with the Veterans and officers carrying volkites as a mark of status).

 

As far as TDA goes, it's not been depicted in any visual media (except for the Iron Hands' Gorgon variant) but the Indomitus pattern was present at this time (mentioned in Praetorian of Dorn and some FW media). Both the "main" Terminator patterns in 30K are considered superior, so I would've thought that getting some Indomitus and modelling them without the Crux Terminatus would be the way to go. Plus it would set your army apart as one of... three(?) that I've seen field Indomitus.

Edited April 13, 2020 by bluntblade

[Beren]

Furthermore, the reason that Volkite was limited after a certain time period was the difficulty of maintenance and production. They didn't take volkite away from marines that had them, they just didn't replace them to the same degree. So if your unit has been operating without resupply, they would have suffered the same rate of 'attrition', and if they are disfavoured by the current command then the 'older but better' gear would still have been given to someone else first anyway.

[No Foes Remain]

Right I've changed the first post a bit to reflect a list of what was used when after a quick flick through some of the Black and Red FW Books.

 

 

@Askari: Totaly forgot about the Malcador and volkite weaponry, thanks for that.

 

@Megavolt: Good shout, double checked in the Black Books and added them in. Of the Mars Pattern all I can find is that it was in use during the crusade and not when it was put into use so I've left that out for now.

 

@Bluntblade: Now with Terminator armour I was unsure as to when which pattern was put in use, I know Cataphractii was in use first but I am unable to find any refferences regarding when. Similary I have found that Tartaros was in use in the late crusade but not if that was when it was first issued and I can't see any refferences for Indomitus in the Black Books, so if you can find quotes that would be great!

 

@Beren: Thats a fair point, I guess what units already had volkites would keep them but they wouldn't end up getting any extras and maybe not any replacements either.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

Concerning Land Raiders the Proteus model would have been there from the very beginning I would think. All technology is based on ancient blueprints, but the Proteus model is depicted as being very old even among those blueprints as being essentially the exploratory rover of choice for human colonists during the Dark Age of Technology (which also explains why it has that sensor suite as a potential upgrade).

 

Concerning power armor I am not sure if the Astartes ever wore thunder armor (Mk1), but even if they did, by the time they left Terra for the crusade it is my understanding that they all wore at least MkII armor because it is completely enclosed and thus suitable for conquest among planets that don't have a breathable atmosphere.

 

You haven't really put dreadnoughts there, but the Contemptors are mentioned as being a recent design based on developments over the older Lucifer and Castraferrum designs, which implies that those early designs would have potentially been there for the early great crusade forces. Thus building your army to only include Castraferrum dreadnoughts (or converting some Lucifer dreadnoughts) could be an interesting way to depict them having been created earlier prior to Contemptor becoming the standard. Contemptor-Cortus was used during the Ullanor campaign, so by the mid-crusade you had enough Contemptors running around to also make a budget Contemptor when the situation demanded it. The Leviathan was a late crusade design as it emerged suddenly from the workshops of Terra with relatively little input from Mars.

[bluntblade]

Gorgon Armour was explicitly derived from the Indomitus pattern: 

 

Rogal Dorn's Huscarls included warriors in Indomitus plate, and in the Invasion of Paramar, "at least five patterns" of TDA were used by a single Alpha Legion strike force.

[Darkwrath121]

Concerning power armor I am not sure if the Astartes ever wore thunder armor (Mk1), but even if they did, by the time they left Terra for the crusade it is my understanding that they all wore at least MkII armor because it is completely enclosed and thus suitable for conquest among planets that don't have a breathable atmosphere.

Lord Commander DuCaine of the Iron Hands is actually noted as wearing MkI armour during the crusade, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was heavily modified or just one of the suits he used (Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa).

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

I stand corrected then. Also regarding TDA I think the newest patterns of armor regarding that were the Gorgon pattern that is explicitly mentioned as being a work in progress by Ferrus Manus at the time of his death and thus being left as a WIP version and the Tartaros pattern that shares a lot of it's design aesthetic with the Mark IV pattern power armor (or Mark IV pattern astartes battleplate as they talk of it in the HH books), which was also the newest version of power armor that has been widely disseminated among the legions with what would become Mark VI being available in a limited fashion for operational trials.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Brother-Captain Gilead

[No Foes Remain]

Updated the list in the first post with feed back and added in bolters.

 

 

Concerning Land Raiders the Proteus model would have been there from the very beginning I would think. All technology is based on ancient blueprints, but the Proteus model is depicted as being very old even among those blueprints as being essentially the exploratory rover of choice for human colonists during the Dark Age of Technology (which also explains why it has that sensor suite as a potential upgrade).

 

Concerning power armor I am not sure if the Astartes ever wore thunder armor (Mk1), but even if they did, by the time they left Terra for the crusade it is my understanding that they all wore at least MkII armor because it is completely enclosed and thus suitable for conquest among planets that don't have a breathable atmosphere.

 

You haven't really put dreadnoughts there, but the Contemptors are mentioned as being a recent design based on developments over the older Lucifer and Castraferrum designs, which implies that those early designs would have potentially been there for the early great crusade forces. Thus building your army to only include Castraferrum dreadnoughts (or converting some Lucifer dreadnoughts) could be an interesting way to depict them having been created earlier prior to Contemptor becoming the standard. Contemptor-Cortus was used during the Ullanor campaign, so by the mid-crusade you had enough Contemptors running around to also make a budget Contemptor when the situation demanded it. The Leviathan was a late crusade design as it emerged suddenly from the workshops of Terra with relatively little input from Mars.

 

You are correct, forgot that about the Proteus and have adjusted its position.

 

As Darkwrath said, all the early Proto-Legiones Astartes who fought during the tale end of the Wars of Unity would have probably worn Mk1 or a variation of it so thats the reason I put it there.

 

Dreadnoughts I wasn't to sure where to put them all but after a dig through the Black Books I found some more accurate times just like you've said and thus added them in. Haven't placed the Deredeo yet as I can't seem to find any refferences as to when it was made just that it was hard to make and slowly entered service into the Legions but demand increased due to the Heresy.

 

Gorgon Armour was explicitly derived from the Indomitus pattern: 

 

-snip-

 

Rogal Dorn's Huscarls included warriors in Indomitus plate, and in the Invasion of Paramar, "at least five patterns" of TDA were used by a single Alpha Legion strike force.

Thanks for that, found out from the Iron Hands bit in the Black Books that the Gorgon was made late crusade and just before the Heresy kicked off so I've placed the Indomitus at mid-crusade for now as I'm not really sure how early it was available.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

Concerning Sicaran variants I found this tidbit in the PDF of the Sicaran Omega tank destroyer datasheet: "The Iron Warriors are known to have fielded more of these vehicles than any other Legion, routinely deploying company-sized formations to counter enemy super-heavy armour, yet the first recorded instance of an Omega is under the colours of the Raven Guard during the raid on Ishtar Minor in 010.M31." This, combined with some other bits of the flavor text, would indicate that the Sicaran Omega variant was a crude maintenance refit for more advanced versions which had become damaged during the fighting as Horus Heresy unfolded, meaning that that variant would need to be placed at the very end of the timeline as well.

[No Foes Remain]

Nice find, added it in!

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

No, thank you for compiling this. I have been planning to do something like this for a long long time (not for the same reason though, just to chart what the technological progress was during the Great Crusade) and now I get to profit from your hard work ;)

 

Speaking of which, the Typhon heavy siege tank was a design that was created by Perturabo's request, so it had to have happened after Perturabo was found and found something that he felt could not be destroyed without the creation of such a monstrous war machine.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

And continuing about siege tanks, the Deimos pattern Vindicator Laser Destroyer is described thusly: "First retrofitted into the heavily armoured Deimos pattern Vindicator chassis during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, several Legions took to fielding this variant as a mainline battle tank, proving itself on many occasions as an able tank hunter." So that variant was created as the Horus Heresy was already happening.

[No Foes Remain]

Wow, thats interesting to know about the Vindicator, guess one of my lists will need to be revised. Added in as well as the Typhon, in addition aparetly the Sicaran was being introduced to all Legions just before the Heresy although the Iron Hands and Ultramarines got a number due to the shared project, so I've bumped that from Mid-Crusade to Late-Crusade.

Edited April 13, 2020 by No Foes Remain

[Gederas]

The Stormbird was a pre-Crusade vehicle, as "it originated as the Warhawk and Nephoros-class assault transports and were first utilised by the Yndonesic Bloc for use against the Panpacific techno-barbarian tribes during the Unification Wars on Terra. They were later adapted by the Emperor for His early Space Marine Legions, replacing the aging Skylance gunships used earlier on." Which also gives us another pre-Great Crusade vehicle, the Skylance Gunship

 

The Sokar-pattern Stormbird (the one we can purchase on FW) is explicitly stated to design made during the Great Crusade. The other designs have an unknown origination, but are all also likely Pre-Great Crusade to Mid Great Crusade.

 

The classes of Stormbird:

1. Warhawk-class: Pre-Great Crusade (utilised by the Yndonesic Bloc during the Unification Wars)
2. Nephoros-class: Pre-Great Crusade (utilised by the Yndonesic Bloc during the Unification Wars)
3. Condor-class: Unknown (likely early Great Crusade)
4. Sokar Pattern: Great Crusade (unknown if early/mid/late)
5. Apophis Pattern: Unknown (likely sometime during Great Crusade, known to have been used by the Space Wolves during Battle of Prospero)
6. Khonsu Pattern: Unknown (likely sometime during Great Crusade, known to have been used by the Space Wolves during Battle of Prospero)
7. Sykri Pattern: Unknown (likely sometime during Great Crusade)

 

The Storm Eagle and Fire Raptors are Great Cusade-era as well. The Thunderhawk was designed specifically for the Great Crusade, so we know it's probably the 'last' Pre-Crusade vehicle.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Gederas

[No Foes Remain]

Added the Warhawk and Nephoros, in regards to the others with a quick googling I've failed to find any more info in regards to when they were used. Storm Eagle and Fire Raptors I haven't been able to find when they were put into service either, at a guess early crusade but I don't want to add it in until I know for certain.

[Gederas]

Added the Warhawk and Nephoros, in regards to the others with a quick googling I've failed to find any more info in regards to when they were used. Storm Eagle and Fire Raptors I haven't been able to find when they were put into service either, at a guess early crusade but I don't want to add it in until I know for certain.

Might just have to add a "Crusade: Unknown Date" Section?

[MegaVolt87]

Concerning Sicaran variants I found this tidbit in the PDF of the Sicaran Omega tank destroyer datasheet: "The Iron Warriors are known to have fielded more of these vehicles than any other Legion, routinely deploying company-sized formations to counter enemy super-heavy armour, yet the first recorded instance of an Omega is under the colours of the Raven Guard during the raid on Ishtar Minor in 010.M31." This, combined with some other bits of the flavor text, would indicate that the Sicaran Omega variant was a crude maintenance refit for more advanced versions which had become damaged during the fighting as Horus Heresy unfolded, meaning that that variant would need to be placed at the very end of the timeline as well.

*Sighs deeply and adds two to shopping list instead of venator.* :(

[No Foes Remain]

 

Added the Warhawk and Nephoros, in regards to the others with a quick googling I've failed to find any more info in regards to when they were used. Storm Eagle and Fire Raptors I haven't been able to find when they were put into service either, at a guess early crusade but I don't want to add it in until I know for certain.

Might just have to add a "Crusade: Unknown Date" Section?

 

Good idea, added it in at the end with what we know so far.

[STC Logisengine]

Mk II power armour was issued to the legions during the latter stages of the Unification wars on Terra and was fully implemented as the Crusade kicked off, remember that the wars of Unity ended with the destruction of Sedna outside the orbit of Pluto so it's in the wrong category. :)

The Lucifer and Castaferrum dreadnoughts, as well as the Rhino (or RH-1-N-0 Tracked Exploration and Multi-Purpose Defense Vehicle) of both Mars and Deimos patterns  date back to the Age of Technology and was used on Terra even before the Unification Wars and thus was avalible from the very beginning for the legions.

The Storm Eagle was first produced on Terra in the early days of the Crusade to fill the gap for a small transport, orbital shuttle and reconcraft for the legions, missions that the various Stormbird-class assault landers where to unwieldly or specialized to preform.

The Fire Raptor was developed as the Crusades started running into orc-held systems (so almost at once) as a dedicated close-support gunship to tackle massive swarms of tough xenoforms.

[No Foes Remain]

Yes! Now that's what I'm after! Thank you very much, list adjusted and updated.

 

I have also grouped the vehicles into armoured, heavy armoured, walkers then aircraft. Should I seperate them further or leave them as is?

[STC Logisengine]

A few further points.

I think you should replace -pre-crusade- with -unification war- as it is a distinct era, just for clarity.

 

Also, boltguns of all marks are STC-tech, and saw limited use by the legions on Terra but was more widely deployed during the conquest of the sol system (late unification era).

Land raiders, while millenia old by the onset of Unification was not used until the early years of the crusade as none had survived Old Night on Terra so they should shift down a category.

Similarly, Spartans are also predate Unification however there is a mention (I belive in book 3) that a handful was used during the Jovian campaign on the moons of jupiter before the crusade began.

 

[lansalt]

Some notes:

Volkite weapons were from Mars, so they weren't used by imperial forces until some time after the Treaty of Olympus. Terra had it's own type of ray guns called "Adrathic weapons" from the Unification Wars and were restricted to Custodes.

I don't think Terminator armour was avaliable at the early Crusade era.  It was called "Tactical Dreadnought Armour" after a project to bring the firepower and protection of dreadnoughts to enclosed spaces like space hulks  (which mirrors the real life development of the miniatures by GW). IIRC Cataphractii weren't first issued until the mid-Crusade era, along with the first Land Raider Spartans developed to carry them (the original Proteus LR coudn't)

The early dreads where various Terran proto-dreads used by Army/Custodes/Thunder Warriors (not sure if the legions too), the Furibundus (Army/Astartes), and others unseen like the Lucifer pattern. Maybe the first I-III Castraferrum marks.