Why don't theses come in plasma?

It was used by Vraksian rebels, of course. Most Imperial Guardsmen would turn up their noses at them, and for good reason, but a rebel PDF on a world of mothballed tanks isn't going to be picky.

>Plasma
>Penetrated

user, think really carefully about what plasma weaponry does and why it's used.

You ah correcuto, Gue'la. Za barristic weapons of za Tau Empiah ah superiah to exproding, unreriabre Imperiar prasma cannon.

Pikku rerated

Same reason during WW2 German troops would paint big, visible nazi flags on top of captured enemy tanks. It was for the friendly fighters.

When you're zooming few hundred miles an hour high in the air, you can't always make out a T-34 from another T-34, or what style tanks are around them. But when one has a massive Nazi flag painted on it and the other one doesn't, you can be quite sure the one with the Nazi flag is on your side.

On Vraks it would stand to reason that both sides had similar equipment and rebels probably wanted friendly fighters to not bomb them or their tanks.

The Imperium is almost certainly going to be enjoying air superiority. Painting a big chaos flag on top of your tank is just advertising yourself as a target in that case.

Maybe the star was painted during a period when friendly air support was available? I mean, it's not hard to give a dude a bucket of paint and a brush and tell him the mark the tank.

I'm pretty sure logic and sound reasoning didn't enter into their decision at all. I think their thought processes began and ended with "MUH DARK GODZ".

>That driver hatch being part of the frontal armour aspect.

What the fucking FUCK GW?

Well, I mean, what does it matter what they paint on their tanks, the Imperial pilots won't hit shit because they're too busy sucking the Emperor's dick and committing tech-heresy by not tucking their boner under the correct flight suit belt.

Yes, GW invented that shit. Blame them.

Not like the Churchill had very heavy armour while having a hatch on it's front plate.

Aren't Malcadors better than Russes for the kind of fighting that was happening on Vraks, though?

They are shoddy tanks. Bigger than Russes with a less manuverable turret, and only a little more armor in the back - not in the front or sides.

The pattern with all the heavy bolters on it was somewhat more useful, and its engine problems weren't as problematic in such static warfare where they'd park a tank and form a defense around it, but they still could have had better.

They can have heavier forward firepower than a Leman Russ though, and in a trench warfare scenario that's where the enemy is always going to be.

>not in the front or sides

Depends on the rules. 30k ones have AV13/13/12 and are Fast. They can drop the Fast for AV14 on the front. And get Flare Shields for -1 Str. to incoming shots on the front arc (-2 if it's a blast or a template). Also 6 HP.

My militia has 2 with demolisher cannons, battle cannons and lascannons, and with AV14 and Flare Shields. For the price of a Russ and a Demolisher I get them in one tank, with Super-Heavy status, and extra protection. Couple that with some Gorgons as dedicated transports and Knights aren't the only armies rolling tons of Super-Heavies.

In gameplay PoV, Malcadors are russ v1.5. They shoot slightly better, take pounding slightly better (when you factor in the lack of instant death and shakes/stunns) but also cost as much as 1,5 russes. So which one to take? Matters almost not at all. Malcadors are faster thou so if you need to get somewhere, thats your pick.

But then again theres a massive exception to this: This motherfucker.

This thing here, this the bane of every single thing in this game that doesnt have AV. And when equipped with lascannons (pretty good choice since the sponson-arc is big and you can fire at different targets) its even moderate threat to those, too. But against everything else it just annihilates them. When equipped with its basic weapon it has Hellstorm S7 ap3 torren which it can whip up to 18" away. That means effective range of 28". When you can also move 12" that means you can autohit anything up to 40". But for +10pts you can change that to acidpoison motherhumper that has ap2 and wounds anything with poison2+. Oh you're in cover? WHOOOSH. Battle company? WHOOOSH. Deathstar? Oh I hope you packed your unmodified invisibility WHOOOOSH.

But in the end, its still just Malcador. Av13/12/11 and 6hp wont last long when you pack that threatening weapon. But it also cost only 275(+10pts chem ammo +30pts sponsons) so you'll still have rest of your army to play with if Infernus goes boom.

Well technically with that layout they aren't tanks per se, but tank hunters. Designed with a massive heavy forward weapon that gimbals and intended to do all it's heavy fighting in one direction, they were quite popular in WWII german forces for their cheapness compared to true tanks.

>technically with that layout they aren't tanks per se, but tank hunters
>they were quite popular in WWII german forces for their cheapness compared to true tanks

The StuG was an assault gun, user. The Malcador should be labelled as an assault tank. And yes I am aware that to technically be a tank it needs to have a rotating turret, but given that the Mark I Tank doesn't fit that definition either I think we can safely dismiss it here.

>needs to have a rotating turret

Sweden here, you're a faggot. And this is coming from Sweden.

trying waaay too hard, heretic

What is even the point of the Malcador? It's not like it's any easier to make that...protrusion, for lack of a better word, than it is to make a turret.

But you guys run Leo 2s now

I think it was just old, pre-Leman Russ design that was going to be outphased anyway.

This. Beamspam plebs get off my Veeky Forums

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But that's as of 30k, not as of 40k. They're horrible in 40k - you almost have to use the 30k rules if you want them to be viable. In 40k, they are canonically horrible - more used by PDF regiments that would rather mothball them.

no need to go into details.

Low tech production. If you aen't able to build baneblades or russes, you're not gonna build plasma weaponry either.

Because it'd burn their dicks off. Heyo!

>Imperium is almost certainly going to be enjoying air superiority
Situtation depending. Chaos has some nasty fliers, and I'm not just talking about Helldrakes. Double Eagle confirms this.

the 103 was designed for Swedish terrain though.

At least I'm trying, not throwing my hand in the air, going "fher teh emprr" and giving up on everything.

Still an MBT without a turret.

Better question is why you don't put quad lascannon in the turret then use the heat sinks to power massive lasgun arrays on the sponsoons. Then put more lasguns on it and keep adding lasguns. Light up the night.

I have never head of a quad lascannon. And I don't think heat sinks can power lascannons.

>posting a railgun
>implying railguns are ballistic weapons

BIG BAKA

You know what "ballistic" means, right?

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They are balistic weapons, just not reliable as they tend to melt their barrels faster than most heavy machine guns can dream of doing.

Lasgun power packs can be recharged using light and heat. Therefore all waste heat can be converted into lasgun shots.

A quad lascannon is a twin-linked twin-linked lascannon. Like something you would put on a tank is you were drunk and foul in the eyes of Omnissiah but had a brilliant idea about how to upgrade a Russ on the cheap.

Yes, but a quad lascannon would use much larger amounts of power than a twin-linked one. And it's not like all that waste heat can be perfectly funneled out to instantly charge a pair of sponson multi-lasers or lascannons.

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>Why don't theses come in plasma?
Probably it's probably a lot easier, not to mention cheaper, to write your thesis on paper than it is on plasma.