Sicaran Battle Tank
The Sicaran Battle Tank was a type of heavy tank used by the Legiones Astartes during the Horus Heresy and Great Crusade.
Contents
Overview
The Sicaran was developed by the Primarchs Ferrus Manus and Roboute Guilliman alongside the Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus. One of the most advanced armoured units in the arsenal of the Great Crusade, the Sicaran battle tank was exclusively used by the Space Marine Legions.[14a] The Sicaran utilized component technologies from various STCs such as the Rhino and Land Raider to create a high-speed tank destroyer to complement the Predator and Land Raider on the battlefield.[1][2] Its introduction was on-going at the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, and the Warmaster ensured that many examples of this new tank found their way into the armouries of those Legions that would side with him before the outbreak of the civil war.[14a]
The Sicaran Battle Tank was primarily armed with two Herakles-pattern Accelerator Autocannons, which allowed it to rapidly fire shells at a far higher velocity than a standard autocannon. Secondary armament included sponson-mounted Lascannons. Because of its advanced weaponry, the Sicaran was capable of tracking and engaging swift moving targets and pinpoint weaknesses in enemy armor with lethal precision.[1]
In the 41st Millennium Sicaran tanks are prized as rare relics, their systems little understood by even the most venerable Master of the Forge. They are normally held in stasis when not in use to prevent the vehicle from decaying.[4]
Chaos Space Marine warbands still employ Sicarans, though these are often millennia old and have since become Daemonically corrupted. As such, they are most commonly found among the original Traitor Legions.[5]
Technical Specifications
| Vehicle Name: | Sicaran Battle Tank[4] | Main Armament: | Twin Accelerator Autocannons or Omega Plasma Array[13] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forge World of Origin: | Unknown | Secondary Armament: | Sponson Lascannons or Heavy Bolters |
| Known Patterns: | Unknown | Traverse: | 360° |
| Crew: | Driver, Gunner | Elevation: | From -32° to +42° |
| Powerplant: | Open core plasma ioniser | Main Ammunition: | 140 Rounds |
| Weight: | 65 tonnes | Secondary Ammunition: | 1,400 rounds (Heavy Bolter), Unlimited cell (Lascannons) |
| Length: | 8.2m | ||
| Width: | 7m | Armour | |
| Height: | 4.85m | ||
| Ground Clearance: | 0.32m | Superstructure: | 80mm |
| Fording Depth: | {{{Fording Depth}}} | Hull: | 70mm |
| Max Speed - on road | 74kph | Gun Mantlet | 80mm |
| Max Speed - off road: | 58kph | Vehicle Designation: | Unknown |
| Transport Capacity: | None | Firing Ports: | N/A |
| Access Points: | N/A | Turret: | 80mm |
Variants
Sicaran Venator
The Sicaran Venator is a variant of the Sicaran Battle Tank introduced towards the end of the Great Crusade, and saw extensive use in the opening battles of the Horus Heresy.[3][14c] Purpose-built as a tank destroying vehicle, this pattern replaced the turret-mounted accelerator cannon of the Sicaran with a fearsome center-line mounted Neutron Laser Projector. When coupled with the Sicaran Venator's ferocious speed, the neutron laser is an ideal anti-tank weapon, slicing apart armoured hulls with casual ease and blasting internal compartments and crew with atomic fire.[14c]
Conceived in the fires of war, the Sicaran Venator is the result of all the knowledge gleaned from the unnumbered battles of the Great Crusade. Its advanced neutron laser is specially designed to provide the Legiones Astartes with superior firepower, enabling it to destroy any and all xenos threats that might be encountered by the expanding armies of the nascent Imperium.[14c]
Despite the relative rarity of these vehicles, the Venator’s combination of durability, speed and firepower ensured that they proved pivotal in a number of battles, and made it highly valued by the Space Marine Legions,[3] surviving where lesser Predator or Vindicator tanks did not.[14c]
Sicaran Punisher
The Sicaran Punisher is a variant of the Sicaran Battle Tank that came into general use amongst the various Space Marine Legions in the final days of the Great Crusade, however the Punisher Rotary Cannon it mounts has a far older history. Originally mounted on the now rare Cerberus pattern main battle tanks, the punisher had established a reputation as a deadly tool in the eradication of massed conscript infantry or hordes of swarming xenos creatures, limited only by its relatively short range and prodigious appetite for munitions. Married to the Sicaran hull, where the impressive speed of that vehicle effectively negated the short range of the weapon, and the complex feed assemblies developed as part of the various Terran accelerator cannon, the punisher is once again in widespread use among the Legions, though now it is employed against the very warriors it was intended to protect.[6]
Sicaran Arcus
The Sicaran Arcus Strike Tank is an artillery variant of the Sicaran. As part of a program initiated by the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, seeking to grant a Legion strike force access to highly specialised weapon systems without the need to employ numerous vehicles for each role, the Sicaran hull was chosen to mount the newly developed twin Arcus Launcher. Capable of deploying a wide range of warheads, each crafted to fulfil a distinct tactical niche, the Arcus was intended to become the cornerstone of a new tactical doctrine the Master of Ultramar had begun to formulate, allowing small Legiones Astartes forces to operate without extensive support and in smaller numbers than during the Great Crusade.[14b]
Despite being limited to a few prototype vehicles at the onset of the Horus Heresy, and the doctrinal issues that kept it out of production on most major Forge Worlds, a number of Legion Home Worlds produced small numbers of this variant. Of particular note is the inclusion of the Neutron-Flux Warhead, a Terran development dating back to the years prior to the alliance with Mars. Continued production of these weapons was the cause of the Mechanicum's refusal to sanction the Arcus pattern hull.[14b]
Without the specialized knowledge of the Mechanicum, the advanced Arcus Launchers have slowly broken down and have since been replaced with more common rotary Missile Launchers. In addition, its stocks of its rare warheads have dwindled. However the Arcus is still used by some Space Marine Chapters as a fast strike tank, racing it forwards to saturate a target area with incendiary devices and using its renowned speed to escape unscathed. This enables the Chapter to clear otherwise redoubtable bunkers and fortresses with brutal efficiency.[7]
Some Sicaran Arcuses were further outfitted with Helical Targeting Arrays.[14b]
Sicaran Omega
Retrofitted to allow the Sicaran hull to carry heavier firepower, the Omega is a formidable tank hunter. It utilizes the speed provided by the Sicaran’s engines to apply overwhelming short range firepower in battle, racing forwards to ambush and obliterate the lumbering siege tanks of enemy columns. Its simplified but perhaps crude systems are all capable of being produced by the lesser forges attached to many Space Marine strongholds, allowing them to replace losses of more complex vehicles even as the various Forge Worlds became isolated by war and mistrust at the height of the Horus Heresy.[8]
The main weaponry of the Omega reflects this stopgap approach, with its primary weapon taking the form of the devastating Omega Plasma Array, which consists of two enormous Plasma Cannons.[8] With these cannons being imperfect, over-sized copies of the Mechanicum's Plasma Fusil weaponry and relying on the brutal application of overwhelming force to reduce enemy armour to wrecks instead of the precise annihilation of more advanced weapons systems. Despite these drawbacks, the Omega proved effective in battle and its designs quickly spread from Legion to Legion as examples were captured in battle.[14d]
Known Named Sicaran Tanks
- Heritor of Gage - Ultramarines.
- Hero of Kryrenia - Black Templars.
- Morkai's Roar - Sicaran Arcus. Originally belonging to the Space Wolves, it was gifted to the Obsidian Jaguars.[9]
Images
Epic-scale Sicaran for Legions Imperialis
Epic-scale Sicaran Arcus for Legions Imperialis[12]
Epic-scale Sicaran Punisher for Legions Imperialis[12]
Epic-scale Sicaran Omega for Legions Imperialis[13]
Sources
- 1: Forge World (last accessed 10 March 2015)
- 2: The Horus Heresy Book Two - Massacre, pg. 203
- 3: Forge World (last accessed 10 March 2015)
- 4: Imperial Armour Volume Two (Second Edition), pgs. 78-81
- 5: Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost and the Damned, pg. 37
- 6: Forge World
- 7: Forge World
- 8: Forge World
- 9: Warhammer Community: Psychic Awakening: The Stand of the Sabre (Posted on 17/02/2020) (last accessed 1st December 2020)
- 10: Warhammer Community: Heresy Thursday – The Plastic Sicaran Speeds into Action (posted 12/5/2022) (last accessed 12/5/2022)
- 11: Warhammer Community: Heresy Thursday – The Sicaran Venator Is a High-Speed Tank-Hunter With a Massive Laser (posted 23/2/2023)
- 12: Warhammer Community: Sunday Preview – Devastation Comes to Tallarn (posted 28/7/2024) (last accessed 28/7/2024) https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/07/28/sunday-preview-devastation-comes-to-tallarn/
- 13: Games Workshop Sicaran Battle Tank Squadron (last accessed 28/7/2024) https://www.warhammer.com/en-US/shop/legions-imperialis-sicaran-squadron-2024
- 14: Liber Astartes:
