Warhammer 40K: Heavy Metal – The Sicaran Battle Tank
Today, we talk about the deadly Sicaran battle tank that once struck down distant foes with ease during the Horus Heresy.
The Sicaran Battle Tank was a type of heavy tank used by the Legiones Astartes during the Horus Heresy and Great Crusade.
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The Sicaran was developed by the Primarchs Ferrus Manus and Roboute Guilliman alongside the Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus. One of the more advanced weapons systems used by the Space Marines during this time, the Sicaran utilized component technologies from various STC‘s such as the Rhino and Land Raider to create a high-speed tank destroyer to complement the Predator and Land Raider on the battlefield.
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 pinpointing weaknesses in enemy armor with lethal precision.
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.
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.
Sicaran Venator
The Sicaran Venator is a variant of the Sicaran Battle Tank introduced towards the end of the Great Crusade. Purpose-built as a tank-destroying vehicle, it mounts the fearsome Neutron Laser Projector. The Venator’s combination of mobility, protection, and firepower made it highly valued by the Space Marine Legions.
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.
Sicaran Arcus
The Sicaran Arcus Strike Tank is an artillery variant of the Sicaran. Once the Arcus was one of the most advanced platforms available to the Space Marine Legions, but for unknown reasons, the Adeptus Mechanicus has declared that the design is an insult against the Omnissiah and refuses to produce or repair such vehicles. 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, the 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 forward 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.
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 forward to ambush and obliterate the lumbering siege tanks of enemy columns. Its primary weapon is the devastating Omega Plasma Array, which consists of two enormous Plasma Cannons.
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.
All hail the Omnissiah, who created these blessed machines.
