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I've been trying to figure this out for a while but am not having much luck, I assume that given there absence from the Solar Auxilia aarmy list in Conquest and no mention of them in other sources that they were came into service after the Horus Hersey. Does anyone know anything else on this topic?

Thety werre not around in the early 40k and Epic, early Epic was Horus Heresy based.

Main Guard transport was the Gorgon IIRC.

From what I can tell the we're originally produced on griphonne. Being that it is in the south segment and was established in the middle years of the great crusade. They used the Dracosos armored transports.

Thanks guys, guess we are not likely to see them become an option for the Imperial Army to take in future HH books then

 Orlanth wrote:
Thety werre not around in the early 40k and Epic, early Epic was Horus Heresy based.

Main Guard transport was the Gorgon IIRC.

The Heresy Imperial Guard list for Space Marine 1st edition used Rhinos and Tunnelers - back then the Gorgon was a minelayer with no transport capacity.

Bear in mind however that Space Marine 2nd edition had Imperial Guard still using Rhinos as standard in the modern era.

The Dracosan transport is described in Conquest as being "employed almost exclusively by forces configured in the Solar Auxilia pattern", now that sentence can potentially be read two ways: either the Dracosan is only used by Solar Auxilia pattern forces, or else it is the only vehicle used by Solar Auxilia pattern forces. Either way the implication is that other vehicles are used outside of the Solar Auxilia.

For what it's worth there was at least one Chimera card for the Horus Heresy CCG.

Probably. 40k (Or, rather, 30k) doesn't have the level of detail to warrant the same level of button counting as you'd see for other armies. As long as the description of the item of the question doesn't mention "Made/Discovered after the Horus Heresy" it was probably used somewhere by someone. Forgeworld wouldn't put Chimeras in their books because they want you to buy their super expensive Resin kits. 40k Rhino, Terminators and Land Raider kits are period correct for example.

If i remember correctly didn't the Imperial Guard used to have access to Land Raiders back before and during the early stage of the Horus Heresy? I would love to see that become an option, would be very cool to use.

Also now you mention it I'm surprised Solar Auxilia list didn't include Rhinos, would have made alot of sense in my head

Funny neough there was a period in epic (around the time of 'Armies of the Imperium') where the IG had access to Predators, Rhinos, Chimeras AND Leman Russes. That was also the era of the 1000 ton Baneblades/Stormhammers and I think Shadowswords as well

I don't remember any EXPLICIT mention of the HH using chimeras, but it is worth noting that Legion Basilisks on the Forge World site are on Chimera hulls (at least currently. That may be changed given the Solar Auxilia Basiliks/Medusas)

Connor MacLeod wrote:
but it is worth noting that Legion Basilisks on the Forge World site are on Chimera hulls

Erm, not so much no. It's a similar shape but clearly belongs to the Rhino/Land Raider family.

 Gashrog wrote:
Erm, not so much no. It's a similar shape but clearly belongs to the Rhino/Land Raider family.

No, it's clearly a Chimera hull with modifications added on top of it. The kit even uses several of the plastic Chimera parts (the bottom of the main hull, inside of the track sections, and the tracks). And the 30k section of the website still suggests the Armageddon-pattern Basilisk/Medusa. Finally, the rules for the 30k artillery tanks use the Chimera stat line, not the Rhino or Land Raider.

Ah, the effects of some fancy side panels with cutouts.

 Gashrog wrote:

Connor MacLeod wrote:
but it is worth noting that Legion Basilisks on the Forge World site are on Chimera hulls

Erm, not so much no. It's a similar shape but clearly belongs to the Rhino/Land Raider family.

Rhinos and their variants have more of a trapezoid shape to their track arrangement See here in various angles.

The Land Raider is closer, but only if it was built onto the tracks backwards see here at various angles.

The Chimera meanwhile, closely resembles it, as we've seen here at various angles. You can also see how it differs from both the Rhino and Land Raider insofar as dimensions and track arrangement.

Yes I already said it's the same shape as the Chimera.

But the tech is clearly related to the Rhino/Land Raider.

If you were to scratch build a Legion Basilisk out of say 2-3mm thick balsafoam the sides would have 4 layers. The first layer would be the same as the Chimera yes, but would the second, third and fourth bare any resemblance whatsoever. If you were to use a greenstuff mould to copy the axle protuberances from a GW kit which would be correct: a Rhino or a Chimera? And by extrapolation, from which vehicle would a Techmarine have more luck scavenging spare parts for a damaged Legion Basilisk?

 Gashrog wrote:
Yes I already said it's the same shape as the Chimera.

It's not just the same shape, it's literally a Chimera hull with some fancy bits glued onto the side. It has some superficial visual elements in common with "normal" marine vehicles, but it's not even close to being a Rhino or Land Raider variant.

Besides the shape/nature of the base hull has relatively little to do with the tech level used to build it. That's the whole point of STC. You can build what looks to be visually the same tank (or close to it) from a wide range of materials from the basic to the exotic (even though this will result in a wide disparity of performance, durability, etc.) You can even maintain/repair it with a wide selection of materials (with those same tradeoffs evident.. using a more readily available but less durable material to patch up your holes does leave you with weak spots, but sometimes you may have no other option.)

The Solar Auxilia 'Basilisks' and Leman Russes and other vehicles are said in Conquest ot be built to Space Marine standards of construction, and yet they visually look the same as their non-Solar pattern brethren.

(Ironically this means it should be possible to build very low grade Rhinos and Land Raiders, without all the fancy stuff the Space Marines get or the exotic materials, cuz they're all STC. Land Raiders will never do that because the STC is restricted, but its not impossible to have Rhinos built like that... although they'd likely be inferior to Chimeras in any event.)