Weapons and Vehicles of the Imperium of Man

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This article is a list of Military Equipment of the Imperium of Man, including the Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Inquisition and other ground forces. As well as their usage by the forces of the Imperium, many of these weapons are also employed by the forces of Chaos, by the Gue'vesa auxiliaries of the Tau Empire and Looted examples are used heavily by the Orks.

Land Vehicles

  • Leman Russ Tank-The Standard Main Battle Tank of the Imperium of Man, the Leman Russ is a cheap and reliable vehicle that can be produced in large quantities easily by most Forgeworlds and billions of these vehicles are used by the Imperial Guard. It is capable of operating in most environments and can run on a wide variety of diferent fuels, but is cramped and uncomforable for its crew to work in. The standard Mars pattern Leman Russ is equipped with a Battlecannon and three sponsons (one on each side, one in front) which can mount either a Lascannon or a Heavy Bolter, although many variants of the Leman Russ exist to fill specialized roles such as anti aircraft vehicles or using advanced weaponry specifically made on certain forgeworlds.

The Leman Russ is named for the Primarch of the Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines.

  • Baneblade Heavy Tank-The Baneblade is an advanced Tank fielded by the Imperium. An ancient Standard Template Construct design, Baneblades are larger and is far more heavily armed, carrying eleven weapons for artillery, anti infantry and anti vehicle work as well as having superior armor to the Leman Russ. However, it is a far more complicated design and only a handful of forgeworlds can produce these vehicles and as such their numbers are severely limited. Each Baneblade given an name by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Like the Leman Russ, Several diferent vehicles are based off of the Baneblade Chassis.

  • Leman Russ Demolisher
  • Chimera APC-The Chimera is the standard Armored Personnel Carrier of the Imperial Guard. Like the Leman Russ it is cheap to produce and easy to maintain and is employed in massive numbers. Chimeras can move up to twelve soldiers into the battlefeild. For protection and fire support to infantry forces, Chimeras are armed with either a Multilaser or a Heavy Bolter, as well as gunports for their crews to fire from.

The Chimera Chassis is used as the basis for a multitude of Imperial Military Vehicles.

  • Basilisk Self Propelled Artillery Vehicle-The Basilisk is a vehicle based off the Chimera Chassis. Produced in large numbers, Basilisks carry massive Earthshaker Cannons and are the main mobile artillery of the Imperial Guard. Most Basilisks have an open bay in which the Arillery crew works, leaving them vunerable to attack and shell fragments, although some compartiviely rare Basilisk varients do exist with enclosed chambers for artillery crews.
  • Land Raider-Land Raiders are powerful Standard Template Construct armored fighting vehicles used by the Space Marines. These Vehicles serve as both Tanks, carrying heavy Lascannons mounted in side sponsons capable of Reducing enemy vehicles to Slag as well as serving as armored personnel carriers, ferrying spacemarines into the heat of battle. Each Land Raider is painstakingly crafted. Land Raiders posses an Artificial Intelligence that is capable of fighting even if their crew is killed. As well as the standard Land Raider, several varients exist armed with Artillery missiles and Flamers.

Currently, Land Raiders are exclusively used by the Space Marines, but this was not always the case. In the early days of the Imperium, Land Raiders were used by Marine and Guardsmen as large numbers of the vehicles were produced on the forgeworld of Anvilus 9. During the Horus Heresy the planet was taken by Chaos Corrupted Techpriests and was devestated. The Result of which was that Land Raider production nearly completely haulted. As such, the Emperor ordered that Land Raiders were (For the time being) were only to be used by the Space Marines. Before this order was recinded, the Emperor was crippled and made his ascention to the Golden Throne and no-one dared to violate his word.

  • Rhino APC-The Rhino APC is an Advanced imperial Armored Personnel Carrier. A Standard Template Construct design, the Rhino APC is considerably more durable than the Chimera. However it is also harder to produce, each being painstakingly crafted on dedicated forgeworlds and their use is limited to a few prominent organizations, including the Space Marines, Inquisition and the Adepta Sororitas.

Like the Chimera, the Rhino Chassis is the basis of a number of military vehicles used by the armed forces.

  • Hellhound-Hellhounds are a specialized support vehicle based on the Chimera Chassis used by the Imperial Guard. Hellhounds are armed with a Heavy Flame weapons known as Inferno cannons.
  • Predator Tank-Based of the Chassis of the Rhino APC, the Predator is the primary tank used by Space Marines. While not as durable as a Land Raider, Predators offer armored support to the forces of the Adeptus Astartes and are in general superior to Chimera APCs. Predators have turret mounted Las Weapons as well as sponsons which can either be fitted with Lascannons or Heavy Bolters.
  • Whirlwind Artillery Tank-The Whirlwind is based of the Chassis of the Rhino APC. The Whirlwind Artillery Tank acts as an MLRS to the forces of the Space Marines, providing space marines with long range rocket artillery to bombard structures and enemy positions with. As the technology behind the Whirlwind's launcher system was discovered after the Horus Heresy, the forces of Chaos lack fire support from Whirlwinds.
  • Sentinel Scout Vehicle-Sentinels are lightly armored bipedal walkers used as scouts, raiders and light support vehicles. Sentinels are cheap and can be produced in large numbers. Sentinels have a hardpoint for various weapons, most commonly a Lascannon, but it can be fitted with a variety of weaponry, including Heavy Bolters, Flamers and Missile Launchers and those in service of Gue'vesa forces have begun equipping their sentinels with Tau Weaponry more commonly found on Tau Battlesuits.
  • Land Speeder-Land Speeders are fast moving antigrav vehicles employed by the Space Marines. These Standard Template Construct vehicles carry a crew of two and can mount a variety of weapons, including autocannons, heavy bolters and missile launchers. Land Speeders are fast, but are comparitively poorly armored when compared to most other space marine vehicles. The knowlage to produce these vehicles has been lost to the Adpetus Mechanicus, as such replacements are non existant.
  • Dreadnought-Dreadnoughts are technically not vehicles, but are on their scale. Dreandoughts are effectively massive tombs for fallen space marines. Inside each Dreadnought is an ancient space marine champion who had been fatally wounded in the Emperor's Service who is linked up to the machine's life support systems and controls it via a cybernetic uplink, allowing him to continue to serve the Imperium of Man. Dreadnoughts are massive bipedal machines armed with a variety of weapons, including flamers, Autocannons, Lascannons and missile launchers, as well as powerful claws designe to rip through tank armor and crush infantry. Many Dreadnoughts are milenia old and are revered among the space marines, staying dorment during periods of inactivity. Like with the Land Speeder, the knowlage to make these machines has been lost to time and have become even more irreplacable among the forces of the Imperium.
  • Penitent Engine-Penitent Engines are special devices specially built for use by the Ecclesiarchy and generally used to augment the forces of the Adepta Sororitas. Penitent Engines are Bipedal walkers with minimal armor and armed with a variety of weapons, most of which geared to close combat such as heavy Flamers and Giant Saws. The operators of these vehicles are condemned heretics that are given a chance at redemption through death in the service of the Emperor, blindly charging into battle unprotected and exposed to destroy as many enemies as possible before being killed in combat.

Aircraft and Dropships

  • Thunderhawk Gunship-The Thunderhawk Gunship is an advanced transport used by Space Marines. Thunderhawks are heavily armed and armored and capable of devlivering a sugnifigant force of Space Marines into the battlefield and offering them airborne fire support.
  • Marauder Bomber
  • Lightning Fighter


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Weapons

  • Bolt Weaponry-Bolt Weapons are a type of projectile weapon used by the Imperium of man. Bolt Weapons are smoothbore guns that fire specialized ammunition, known as Bolts. Bolts have two stages of propulsion. The first is a rather standard explosive charge inside the cartridge, the second is inside the actual bolt, which contains a rocket engine that ignites after the bolt has cleared the barrel. This gives bolts superior firepower over more conventional projectile weapons. Many different variants of Bolts are used for specialist, the most common with this is an armor piercing high explosive rounds with others including armor piercing, incendiary, fragmentation as well as even more exotic forms of bolt, including bolts with prayers inscribed onto them to be effective against Daemons and Psionic threats. The Standard Caliber of most Imperial Bolt Weapons is 0.75 Inches, or roughly 19 millimeters with heavy bolters having that increased to 1 Inch.

The Imperial Space Marines make heavy use of Bolt Weapons as their standard small arms, using Bolt Rifles as well as heavy bolters fed from backpack mounted hoppers as well as equiping terminators with a more powerful varient known as Stormbolters. Due to the expense of manufacturing them and their ammunition and being high maintenance systems, Bolt Weapons are generally not issued as small arms to the Imperial Guard, although they are used by the Guard as Heavy Machine guns as both tripod mounted weapons and as Vehicle weapons. As well, a few Elite soldiers in the Imperial Guard as well as commanding officers and Imperial Commissars are equipped with Bolt Pistols.

  • Las Weaponry-Imperial Laser weapons are among the most common weaponry used by the Imperium of Man in many forms ranging from infantry small arms to capital ship level weapons.

The Standard Infantry Weapon of the Imperial Guard is the Lasgun, a cheap, reliable and easy to manufacture Laser Rifle powered by energy cells that can be recharged through a variety of means including plugging them into the engines of Vehicles, exposing them to sunlight or tossing them into campfires (an act which considerably decreases the lifespan of the cells). The firepower of the standard Lasgun is 19 Megajoules per shot, more powerful sniper rifle variants exist, sacrificing rate of fire for sheer firepower. Despite being more powerful than modern projectile weapons, Lasguns have lackluster firepower when compared with many weapons in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and are often pejoratively referred to as "Flashlights". Larger, more powerful versions known as Lascannons are often used as anti-tank weapons. Fully automatic versions of Imperial laser technology are known as Multilasers, which are both used as tripod mounted anti tank weapons as well as being mounted onto vehicles.

A more advanced form of Las Weaponry exists are Hell Weapons, which offer greater power but are more costly to produce and somewhat harder to maintain. Hellguns are generally issued to Elite soldiers, such as Imperial Stormtroopers. Rifle scaled Hellguns are powered by backpack mounted power cells.

  • Plasma Weaponry-The Imperium makes use of Plasma Weaponry, but it is a very unrefined technology. While an Imperial Plasma Gun offers greater firepower than Las or Bolt weaponry of comparable scale or even comparably scaled Pulse Weapons of the Tau Empire, Imperial Plasma weapons are dangerously unstable, being prone to overheating and all too often they literally blow up in their user's face. This, combined with high production costs severely limit the Imperium's usage of Plasma Weapons.

The Imperium makes use of both Handheld Plasma Rifles and Pistols, as well as equipping it on Leman Russ Executioners, a vehicle which has crews that have a reputation for being insane.

  • Flame Weaponry-The Imperium of man makes heavy usage of flamethrowers making use of an advanced fuel known as Prometheum. Flamers range from small arms to heavy units known as heavy flamers and Inferno weapons. Flamethrowers often hold some religious significance being seen as the Emperor's fury cleansing evil with fire. Among the groups that make heavy usage of Flame Weaponry are the Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines, Catachan Jungle fighters and the forces of the Adepta Sororitas. Several Vehicles, including Hellhounds, Catachan patern Sentinels and Immolators are also equiped with Flamers.
  • Melta Weaponry
  • Projectile Weaponry-Despite its arsenal of more advanced weaponry, the Imperium still sometimes makes use fairly conventional projectile weapons. The most commonly used of which are shotguns due to their usefullness in close quarters (Such as inside the coridors of a spacecraft or in dense urban enviroments) and ability to accept a wide range of ammunition useful for specific roles. The most powerful of which are ripper guns, which are simple high calibre automatic shotguns used by Ogryns for close ranged support. Shotguns scaled for more common humans are widely used by Naval security forces onboard Imperial Warships and by the forces of the Adeptus Arbites.
  • Melee Weaponry-For close combat, the Imperium of Man employs a variety of weapons, ranging from simple combat knives, rifle butts and bayonets to advanced systems involving such as Chainswords and forcefield equipped blades able to slice through tank armor.
  • Grenades-Making use of Both Grenade Launchers and Hand Grenades, There are three main types of Grenades used by the forces of the Imperium of Man, Fragmentation, Krak and Melta. Fragmentation (Frag for short) Grenades have pre-fragmented casings designed to break apart into a shower of shrapnal and are designed for anti infantry work. Krak Grenades are more annological to modern day High Explosive Anti Tank grenades and are useful against vehicles. Melta Grenades work on the same princible as Melta Bombs and are even more effective against armor than Krak Grenades. Specialized Ogryn Grenades are also used, these are upscaled, giving them extra power as well as to allow the Large and clumbsy hands of Ogyrn to actually use them.


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Miscellaneous Equipment

  • Power armor-Standard Imperial Power Armor is an ancient and Refined Technology. Imperial Power Armor is made of advanced Ceramics and is extremely durrable. Imperial Suits of poer Posseses advanced life support and sensor systems, enhances the Strenght of the wearer and has a formidable set of sensors and targeting computers to aid the user. However, its high cost of production severely limits production and is mainly used by the Space Marines, the Adepta Sororitas and a few other figures, many of which being in the Inquisition. Matinence of suits of power armor is a highly ritualized process, including blessed oils, prayers to the Machine Spirit and other things to that effect. Many varients of conventional Power Armor exist, from the standard space marine suit to those used by the sisters of the Adepta Sororitas.

Chaos Space Marines also make use of Power Armor, but there designs are considerably out of date compared to those of the Imperium.

To operate Imperial Power Armor at maximum effectiveness, a specialized surgically implanted Organ known as the Black Carapace is needed. Only Space Marines have said organs. Operation of power armor is possible without it, albiet with notable dropped proformance.

  • Terminator Armor
  • Carapace Armor-Carapace Armor is a form of non powered body armor employed by the Imperium. It is made of the same Ceramics that Power armor is made of and is fairly durable in of itself. Body Coverage ranges from full body armor to helmets and torso plates. While offering above average protection, it is heavier than Flak Armor and can more quickly tire out it's wearer.

Although far cheaper and easier to make and maintain than power armor, Carapace Armor is still fairly expensive to make, as such it is usually only available to high ranking soldiers in the Imperial Guard such as officers, Commissars and Stormtroopers, as well as being used by Space Marine Scouts. Never the less, a few guard planets in the Imperium do have the ability to equip either all or most of their Guard Forces forces with Carapace Armor, but these are strictly in the minority.

  • Flak Armor-Flak Armor is the most common type of body armor in the Imperium. Flak Armor is composed of several overlapping layers of fabrics and ceramics and is extreamly cheap and easy to produce even with severely limited industrialization. Most Guardsmen wear Flak Armor, with many planets having their own distinct design of Flak Armor for their soldiers. Ogryns have access to specialized heavier suits of Flak Armor. It offers protection against shrapnal and low velocity projectile weapons, but is of minimal use against high powered weapons common in the 41st Milenia and is often unflatteringly refered to as "T-Shirts".

As well as the Imperium, Flak Armor is also heavily used by the Orks, who can both make it themselves, as well as stealing Flak Armor from the Imperium's forces, reworking the plates to fit their heavy muscular bodies afterwards.

  • Drop Pods
  • Grav Chutes


This section is a stub and needs to be completed. You can help by editing this article.


This article is a stub and needs to be completed. You can help by editing this article.

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