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Hello everyone.

I've found all the fluff I can on the subject, and still have not come to a real conclusion, so I guess I decided to ask here. What do you all think the best regimental command vehicle is for an Imperial Guard Armored Regiment?

1) Traditional superheavy - baneblades, shadowswords, all the 3-structure-point behemoths from ages ago.
2) Modernized superheavy - Malcador, Macharius, or one of the other 2-structure point superheavies
3) Leviathan Command Vehicle - In 3rd Edition and Epic, this is an option for a regimental command.
4) Other - Leman Russ, Salamander, anything else, put in a response and why!

From what I've read a leviathan is used for control of a theatre of war, often a general will live in it and meet his officers in it. Baneblades and things based off of the baneblade chassis seem to be to armoured regiments what ogryns are to infantry, they are attached when needed.

I think it would depend on the commander and if the regiment is mechanized infantry or not. A mechanized infantry regiment would definitely use something like a leviathan or more likely in the field a chimera or salamander, whilst a regiment consisting of tanks would more likely have a tank commander/leman russ with antenna on top like a real world command tank.

However a tank regiment may employ a baneblade or banblade based vehicle for its leader, but that depends on their relation to the meachanicus and your personal preference.

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:
However a tank regiment may employ a baneblade or banblade based vehicle for its leader, but that depends on their relation to the meachanicus and your personal preference.

That's about it.

In the books I've read, the really big tanks are either a separate division all-together or a single big one will be at the center of an armored fighting force (think of a modern carrier task force, with the biggest ship in the center surrounded by the smaller vessels.) commanding the rest.

the Levi' is more used as an overall Mobile HQ for an entire army battle group commanding multiple regiments, more often then not being behind the lines giving orders and sometimes support fire.

Id go traditional super hevey tank as by sounds the bigger ones are ment to control entire battle groups and not play so much role in smaller battles unless its a pivotal objective that has to be taken and whole campaign resting on it.

Maybe a....


CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT





Basically a Regiment needs its coms and data-feeds where the Main HQ is, so anything with great access to information is better than pure Battle-Tanks.
I'd say the Companies are lead from the front ( a Battle-Tank variant ), the Regiment should use a mobile HQ and therefore a well protected transport vehicle.

It would depend on the commander. But, I would imagine that most commanders would ride around in a Chimera or Leman Russ equipped with extra comms equipment.

If he was a particularly bold commander he may use a Baneblade or other superheavy for his command tank. It would put him more at risk, though.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
It would depend on the commander. But, I would imagine that most commanders would ride around in a Chimera or Leman Russ equipped with extra comms equipment.

If he was a particularly bold commander he may use a Baneblade or other superheavy for his command tank. It would put him more at risk, though.

This, Decide on the personality of the Commander and then you'll have your answer.

Other: LRBT variant of some kind, probably with the Mars Alpha hull favored by commanders for its extra internal space. Alternatively, a Chimera variant might make sense if your regimental commander is a proper leader and doesn't engage in direct combat, but that wouldn't be very interesting from a gaming perspective.

"Old" superheavies are kind of a questionable choice because they're traditionally deployed as separate units that are reserved for the most important battles, so they wouldn't be integrated very well into the everyday operations of a regiment. A higher-ranking officer in charge of a wide area of the battle might use one as a command vehicle, but would probably give broad strategic orders while the regimental officers deal with the tactical situation of executing those orders. On the other hand, if you want to go with the GW approach of the commander being the biggest badass on the front lines instead of sitting in the back commanding, a Baneblade or Shadowsword is an awesome super-tank that fills that role very nicely and you can probably come up with a fluff justification for it.

A "modern" superheavy doesn't make sense because they aren't modern. Fluff-wise they're obsolete second-tier units at best (Malcador, Macharius) or specialized support units (Valdor, Minotaur). Nobody would ever willingly choose one for a command vehicle when a Baneblade or Shadowsword is available, and even a LRBT/Chimera might be a better choice since the smaller tank is less likely to attract excessive amounts of attention from anti-tank units.

A Leviathan is probably the least likely choice. It's a ridiculously stupid vehicle that should have been deleted from the fluff, even by GW standards.

Go for one of the Malcadors or Macharius tanks. They're actually 'ancient' though, not modern. I say that simply because they're rarer and therefore more epic. A manly commander would choose a manly ride

If I ever get a superheavy it'll be either a Malcador Defender or a Malcador Infernus, both of them appeal to me.

Why not a stormlord? Plenty of space inside for staff and close protection guard squads.

Given the size of the superheavies there is probably a decent amount of space for a command space, or a neural link f8r the commander.

I am of the opinion that Infantry Regimental commanders would use Chimera as their command vehicle. RRegimental Tank commanders would use a Leman Russ variant. Artillery Regiment commanders would be in an Artillery vehicle or a Chimera.

The super heavy vehicles would be reserved for Generals and above commanders. Those are the officers in charge of Brigades/Divisions/Corps/Armys.

SYKOJAK wrote:
I am of the opinion that Infantry Regimental commanders would use Chimera as their command vehicle. RRegimental Tank commanders would use a Leman Russ variant. Artillery Regiment commanders would be in an Artillery vehicle or a Chimera.

The super heavy vehicles would be reserved for Generals and above commanders. Those are the officers in charge of Brigades/Divisions/Corps/Armys.

What if your regiment has two companies of superheavy tanks?

The fluff for Leviathans was that they were pretty ubiquitous at the regimental level:

Armies of the Imperium page 46/47:
"A regiment almost always has several Leviathans operating behind the lines, maintaining communications with all HQs in that zone. If your army does not include a Leviathan then it is assumed that the regimental HQ is behind the lines.."

"If your army does include a Leviathan then there is a risk of it being eliminated, destroying your entire chain of command. However because there are always more Leviathans waiting to take over the chain of command is only broken for 1 turn."

If the regiment has superheavies then I'd go for a Leviathan, otherwise however I'd stick with something fast enough to keep up with the rest of the Regiment. My personal choice would be a "relic" Malcador Defender converted to a command post, the Malcador (Heavy Tank, not Superheavy) was retired from front line service because the Imperium lost the ability to maintain its engines - during the Heresy it was a Fast vehicle.

 Gashrog wrote:
My personal choice would be a "relic" Malcador Defender converted to a command post, the Malcador (Heavy Tank, not Superheavy) was retired from front line service because the Imperium lost the ability to maintain its engines - during the Heresy it was a Fast vehicle.

This is actually one of the worst options, as the defender variant is described as having a very cramped hull because of how many gunners it needs. A command vehicle needs space for the extra crew and equipment, which means some other tank.

I also vote Malcador. If you wanted to be creative you could modify the Malcador defender (which is an awesome model btw) to not have the guns above and turn it into the commanders office/bunker.

From there he can see in many directions, have space and so on. And more importantly, ride in style.

 Peregrine wrote:

This is actually one of the worst options, as the defender variant is described as having a very cramped hull because of how many gunners it needs. A command vehicle needs space for the extra crew and equipment, which means some other tank.

What Swastakowey suggests is exactly what I had in mind when I said 'converted'