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I'm trying to put together some stuff to play NetEpic Gold, a fanmade re-write of Epic 40k, and it involves lots of proxying. To cut a long story short, I came to the conclusion that it would not be insensible to just call some of my IG proxies "locally-produced variants" of normal IG vehicles, much like how the DKoK invented Ragnarok tanks when they needed lots of vehicles fast in the middle of a 500-year siege, or how the Macharius was created as a cheaper 2nd edition Baneblade to fill a force gap.

So my question is: How far are the Guard allowed to go with making custom vehicles when they can't get proper resupplies or have unusual fighting conditions, how often does it not result in genocide against the tech-heretics, and what does a new pattern of vehicle have to do to get recognised as an official variant?

With a sub question: Is this now a stupid question as the 40k lore is moving forward and I haven't been keeping track of it since 8E dropped?

Thanks for the replies so far

The item I'm working with atm is going to get used regardless of lore (for practicality reasons), but I'm thinking of fluffing it as being pretty much "old Leman Russ parts inefficiently bolted together so that we have some more tanks while we wait for a resupply". That and being given a cheaper engine for ease of reproduction, losing some armour plating to reduce weight, and extending the track a little to be better at climbing over trenches, holes, and small mountains of detritus.

Formerly Wu wrote:I think the line between "necessary battlefield adaptation" and "tech-heresy" is rather like the line between Catholic church doctrine and heresy. Less based on logic than on the quirks and political situations of the time and place it was codified, rationalized however it needed to be.

There are a lot of different battle tank patterns in the Imperium; the Leman Russ is just the most prevalent of them. See the AT-70 Reaver, built by an Imperial forge world before its fall to Chaos. As long as they're basically the same capabilities and have logistical interoperability, they'll see battlefield use by regiments that have access to them.

Great looking minis, btw!

Thanks!
Given that variant, it wouldn't be too much a stretch to say that a local Mechanicus mission gave a hand mediating between "knock-off LRBT" designs they were familiar with and the local situation to provide a workable tank pool.

Flinty wrote:The tanks in the above picture actually look a lot like the original.epic scale Russ model. Was that deliberate?

Probably. These are "Novan Churchillian Tanks" by from Troublemaker Games' Defeat in Detail line:
http://vanguardminiatures.co.uk/product-category/defeat-in-detail-6mm/tusculum-nova/novan-regulars-vehicles-and-aircraft/

They also have designs that look waay more like Russes (Centurion MBT) but those are a few years more recent than my purchases.

Old 6mm Russ tanks:

I was thinking more along the lines of disconnection from Imperial supply lines combined with constantly-attacked local production, resulting in shortages of spare parts, combined with awkward local conditions.
An example hard-to-get part would be whatever gizmo allows a LRBT engine to turn any fuel source into energy (Petroleum products, wood, misc recyclables, etc), ball-bearings for turret rotation - as opposed to mechanical rotation, cogitator copmponents used in LRBT systems, and so on.

Any local shortages of AdMech personnel would also likely result in the need for Guardsman-compatible repairs, so a simplified design would be handier in some combat areas.

Spawning off from this discussion, I have a name and basic fluff written up:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/756147.page

Meet the LR-35 (Named after the LRBT and the Russian T-35 multi-turreted tank)!