Mole Mortar for Horus Heresy Legions: Future miniature?

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

 Today, Everguild announced a new card for Horus Heresy Legions online game, the Cthonian Mole Mortar:

 

"Force your enemies to think their every step twice with the Cthonian Mole Mortar, available in today's shop for the first time! Don't miss your chance to add this war machine into your ranks."

 

Unlike the 99% of the cards of this game, isn't based in an existing miniature, released or OOP.

So, is this card announcing a future release for Horus Heresy AoD and/or Legions Imperialis?

Edited January 16 by Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf

[sairence]

I suppose Mole Launchers are a thing, the FW Death Korp range has them.

 

And I doubt GW would let a video game dev make up their own units. So seems likely.

[Doctor Perils]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/08/03/heresy-thursday-fire-support-and-remote-control-bombs-for-the-solar-auxilia/

They already previewed mole mortars for LI

[CL_Mission]

I can only hope that if there is a 28mm rendition of this unit the operator is as hyped as he is here.

[Sothalor]

52 minutes ago, CL_Mission said:

I can only hope that if there is a 28mm rendition of this unit the operator is as hyped as he is here.

 

Yeah, that guy is enjoying his best life. It's almost inspirational!

[Guest Triszin]

2 hours ago, Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf said:

 Today, Everguild announced a new card for Horus Heresy Legions online game, the Cthonian Mole Mortar:

 

"Force your enemies to think their every step twice with the Cthonian Mole Mortar, available in today's shop for the first time! Don't miss your chance to add this war machine into your ranks."

 

Unlike the 99% of the cards of this game, isn't based in an existing miniature, released or OOP.

So, is this card announcing a future release for Horus Heresy AoD and/or Legions Imperialis?

Certainly looks like a 40k scale kit

[Kastor Krieg]

Mole Mortars are one of the silliest Warhammer technologies out there.

[TheMawr]

43 minutes ago, Triszin said:

Certainly looks like a 40k scale kit

 

Its a drawing, not a render ;)

[OttoVonAwesome]

9 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

 

Its a drawing, not a render ;)

Yes and no. Anyway I expect there will be more new units than the sentinels and mole mortar rapier. The Solar Aux list was pretty anemic. There's alot of room for creativity there. Heck we might finally find out what Saturnine pattern terminator armour is.

[01RTB01]

2 hours ago, Kastor Krieg said:

Mole Mortars are one of the silliest Warhammer technologies out there.

Bubble chukkas and shokk attack guns say hi lol. Mole mortars comparatively make total sense :D

[beefeb]

12 hours ago, Kastor Krieg said:

Mole Mortars are one of the silliest Warhammer technologies out there.

 

 

Initially I would agree  but then on reflection, considering our modern day bunker buster bombs which can penetrate many meters of ground or concrete  prior to detonation, I actually dont think its as far out there as many of the 4ok weapon or tech systems!  

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

14 hours ago, Kastor Krieg said:

Mole Mortars are one of the silliest Warhammer technologies out there.

But funny, really funny. I miss them from old times

[OttoVonAwesome]

14 hours ago, Kastor Krieg said:

Mole Mortars are one of the silliest Warhammer technologies out there.

Not if you really think about it. Any modern military would kill for that kind of technology. It's a mortar that can fire without giving away it's position like a land torpedo. Anti air lasers would be useless against it and bunkers well... Easier to bust through the floor then the roof. Bionic Eye lasers are alot sillier.

[Mandragola]

They're certainly a technology that wouldn't work in all situations. They'd be particularly useless for fighting on space ships/stations, which happens to be the environment the solar auxilia are otherwise equipped to fight in. You'd just drill a hole in the deck beneath you (which could be a big problem) and the projectile would end up falling or floating in an essentially random direction.

 

Edit: It's still cool that they're coming though. This appears to indicate that we'll get plastic rapiers for the SA, which is great. We could have guessed that this would be coming based on seeing the epic version but this is perhaps near to confirmation. A whole new large wave of SA releases is good news for 30k generally, as it shows GW is keeping going with it.

 

That said, personally I have no real interest in them. For me the heresy is about the marines. It's a bit weird to me how the SA makes so few appearances in the books, meaning they end up being kind of a blank page in terms of background. There are quite a lot of instances of army units turning up but hardly any of those seem to be the SA. Maybe this release will flesh them out and I'll get on board. For now I've got a small detachment that supports my Raven Guard, based on the arbites models and necromunda bits. They use the SA rules but are intended to be former inmates liberated by Corax. I'll keep them for my infantry but potentially grab a few of the new sentinels and maybe this kind of thing when it appears.

Edited January 17 by Mandragola

[Doghouse]

I'm not really a fan of this design and much prefer the old traditional reversed mortar design which had a more portable feel to it, it had more of a squad support weapon feel in aesthetics.

 

Mole mortars may seem daft but they were a really interesting concept back in the day, one of my favourite RT era blurbs was a short passage describing and Astartes throwing himself on one as it emerged from the ground to save his unit. I think it is a specialised weapon for specific conditions but would be great for intercepting the likes of Termites or tunnelling creatures or used in trench warfare.

 

I don't think this design works, it feels more like we have the rapier what nostalgic things can we slap on it to make it different from Astartes? I think the Krieg design works better and this would be better served being a heavier version of the weapon.

[Mandragola]

Now you mention it, I agree on the specific design of the thing. The original design and the Krieg one had the launch tube already partially in the ground. I imagined the projectiles starting relatively slowly and drilling their way to the target.

 

This version apparently fires multiple explosive projectiles at the ground immediately in front of it. That seems like it would have a roughly 100% chance of catastrophic failure.

 

I don't mind weird and wonderful tech in a sci-fi setting but it's nice if the designers offer some sort of explanation on how stuff works, even if that is "orks believe it will so it does". The SA are supposed to have relatively normal equipment that works according to the laws of physics and I'm not yet persuaded that applies to this thing.

[Doghouse]

I think GW were going through their 'tunnelling machines are cool' phase. The Russians did look into "underground boats" in the 1930s but the prototype could only go about 10 metres or before breaking down and there were rumours of them trying to develop a Battle Mole in the 1960s but I think this was later debunked. The Americans designed what were meant to be underground geological probes under the Los Alamos program and I believe they made working machines which I guess could be classed as being similar to a mole mortar shell but a bit bigger. They also had success with larger machines that could carry people but I think it was a case of I think they realised there wasn't much point to them so abandoned the project. 

 

So it's a cool idea just not very real world practical, there was this whole era of lets make nuclear powered underground submarines that seemed to just die off and in terms of 40k fits into the eighties 2000ad influenced sci fi tropes I guess.

 

I think the real world application was intended to use thermal energy to burn through rock leaving a glass like tunnel behind it which is plausible in 40k terms given that we have melta technology. I suppose a thermal lance would have to burn through the rock and then the torpedo travels along that path.

 

[MoriyaSchism]

1 hour ago, Doghouse said:

I'm not really a fan of this design and much prefer the old traditional reversed mortar design which had a more portable feel to it, it had more of a squad support weapon feel in aesthetics.

 

Mole mortars may seem daft but they were a really interesting concept back in the day, one of my favourite RT era blurbs was a short passage describing and Astartes throwing himself on one as it emerged from the ground to save his unit. I think it is a specialised weapon for specific conditions but would be great for intercepting the likes of Termites or tunnelling creatures or used in trench warfare.

 

I don't think this design works, it feels more like we have the rapier what nostalgic things can we slap on it to make it different from Astartes? I think the Krieg design works better and this would be better served being a heavier version of the weapon.

The Krieg mole launcher has an operator controlling the breaching torpedo so I assume they have some sophisticated sensor technology to accompany all this. If I recall correctly the Imperial Armour book described the warhead using the same type of technology as power weapons to tunnel through the earth. Now that I think about it the Death Korps are the only regiment I can think of that use drones in form of the goliath demolition vehicle and the remote controlled mole warheads.

[Mandragola]

1 hour ago, MoriyaSchism said:

The Krieg mole launcher has an operator controlling the breaching torpedo so I assume they have some sophisticated sensor technology to accompany all this. If I recall correctly the Imperial Armour book described the warhead using the same type of technology as power weapons to tunnel through the earth. Now that I think about it the Death Korps are the only regiment I can think of that use drones in form of the goliath demolition vehicle and the remote controlled mole warheads.

Actually the SA get goliaths too. They'll be in the same support set for epic as the mole mortars. Oddly though, their rules aren't in the core LI book - where the mole mortar can be found. Its burrowing rule means it always counts as hitting vehicles from the rear (or underneath) armour and it ignores void shields. There's nothing to stop you firing it at planes, though like most things it'll need 6s to hit them.

[Marshal Rohr]

A mole mortar is impractical because the fuel needed to power the drill would substantially reduce the explosive payload and mines already exist, so armored vehicles are engineered to be protected from explosions from below. Infantry would be just as vulnerable to an explosive coming up as they already are from coming down. 
 

The only place a mole mortar would really be practical is against some kind of subterranean Xenos species like Squats or some kind of insect which is probably the reason for their existence in universe. 

[Petitioner's City]

15 minutes ago, Marshal Rohr said:

A mole mortar is impractical because the fuel needed to power the drill would substantially reduce the explosive payload and mines already exist, so armored vehicles are engineered to be protected from explosions from below. Infantry would be just as vulnerable to an explosive coming up as they already are from coming down. 
 

The only place a mole mortar would really be practical is against some kind of subterranean Xenos species like Squats or some kind of insect which is probably the reason for their existence in universe. 

 

Could it be the magic fuel of fusion or space magic similar to what powers a suit of power armour? 

[Mandragola]

43 minutes ago, Petitioner's City said:

 

Could it be the magic fuel of fusion or space magic similar to what powers a suit of power armour? 

Sure but if you had access to fusion reactors in sufficient quantities to fire them at people you'd do other stuff with them. You wouldn't still have Leman Russes powered by coal, dinosaur juice or whatever.

[Tyriks]

=][=  Since this is not actually news, we have decided it should be moved to a more appropriate forum.   =][=

[SgtSharp]

11 hours ago, Mandragola said:

They're certainly a technology that wouldn't work in all situations. They'd be particularly useless for fighting on space ships/stations, which happens to be the environment the solar auxilia are otherwise equipped to fight in. You'd just drill a hole in the deck beneath you (which could be a big problem) and the projectile would end up falling or floating in an essentially random direction.

 

Solar Aux also act in hostile environs, think airless moons or toxic atmospheres, think of a defensive network on some moon somewhere, the defenders in deep underground bunkers, controlling remote turrets, thinking themselves safe, until they hear a rumbling and then a mole mortar round punches through, opening up the bunker to the void outside.

 

its a specialist tool, but the solar aux are specialists.

[MegaVolt87]

On 1/18/2024 at 9:13 AM, SgtSharp said:

Solar Aux also act in hostile environs, think airless moons or toxic atmospheres, think of a defensive network on some moon somewhere, the defenders in deep underground bunkers, controlling remote turrets, thinking themselves safe, until they hear a rumbling and then a mole mortar round punches through, opening up the bunker to the void outside.

 

its a specialist tool, but the solar aux are specialists.

 

Agreed, I think they are fine when you need to breach a space instillation you don't plan on occupying (eg-ork rock). Can't blow it up from outside, breach, map and use these to hit internal shield generators, ammo mags etc. SA are about being specialized that things like this are not practical majority of the time, but when the use case comes up its a foregone conclusion.