Doomlord "The Emperor's Organ"

Crew: 12 (1 commander, 1 Fire Director, 3 gunners, 4 Loaders, 1 Comms Operator, 1 tech adept, 1 driver)

Known Patterns/Subvarrients: I-III (MkI-MkIII)

Armament:

Main Armament: 3x 132mm 'Earthshaker' Artillery Guns (10 rounds each stored onboard, more supplied by support vehicles), Hull Mounted 203mm "Demolisher" Cannon (10-15 rounds)

Secondary Armament:2 hull-turret mounted Heavy Bolters (1500 rounds each)

Mobility:

Max Speed:20 km/h

Traverse: 360 degrees (Main Turret) and 6 degrees (Hull Turret)

Elevation:-1 to 80 degrees

Powerplant:MR507 V18 Multi-Fuel engine

Dimensions:

Weight:396 Tonnes

Height:7 metres

Width:6.8 metres

Length:13.5 metres

Ground clearance:1.2 metres

Armour:

Superstructure: 200/200/200mm Faramite Alloy Plate

Hull: 200/200/200mm Faramite Alloy Plate

Gun Mantlet: N/A

Turret: 100/0/0mm Faramite Alloy Plate

Lore: An engineering miracle created on the request of one of the greatest military minds of his day, the Doomlord represents a rare case of natural human ingenuity being applied to overcome obstacles that conventional tactics would fail or struggle immensely to overcome. Able to provide withering and accurate artillery support from a mobile and well protected chassis.

The year was M41.392, and the Macharian Crusade was well underway after a full and wildly successful year of conquests seeing a total victory over around 100 worlds, but the warmaster Macharius' 1st Army Group was facing severe complications. The planet Savethen is the latest planet the warmaster must conquer, lying on a vital junction that would allow the 1st Army Group to link up with the 2nd and 4th Army Groups in order to plug a dangerous bulge caused by an over-extended 3rd Army Group. But the world, once an Imperial Hive world in an age long forgotten, had been built up into an impregnable fortress world. The already impressive defensive and military assets afforded to Imperial Hive Worlds built up upon by the local population in their isolation from the Imperium, arranging their society into a highly militaristic order ruled over by a council of their most talented and influential admirals and generals. Every section of their society was handed over to the production and maintenance of vast military formations and void-capable warships, with which they could take whatever they did not possess on their own planet from their neighbors.

Every step of a Savathen Campaign would be a war of bloody inches. Smaller towns and cities were glorified bunker complexes with overlapping fields of fire from reinforced gun ports and artillery support from neighbouring settlements. Minefields, thousands of kilometres in size, filled every unsettled spec of land; while massive former hive cities bristled with anti-orbital weaponry of apocalyptic size along with mile after mile of trenches and hardpoints blocking progress of any kind. But the crown jewel of Savethen's defences was the planetary capital of Saravstead, a 50,000 km2 fortress complex built on the foundations of a mountain range that once surrounded the hive city. While the tall spires of the hive city breached the lower stratosphere: bristling with weapons of all types and sizes; from massive anti-orbital laser arrays to simple flak batteries. Rivals had tried and failed hundreds of times to break the planet's capital, only to be gored on the walls of Saravstead or have their army waste away in the minefield-infested and artillery-scored wastes that surround the great fortress city.

It was decided, as the primary source of governance and the most immediate threat to Navy elements in orbit, that Saravstead was to be the first major objective of the campaign. Macarius insisted all available elements be focused onto this singular objective, despite advice from generals for diversionary attacks or seizure of major production centres and likely avenues of reinforcement first, as a siege of such a massive fortress would leave their forces vulnerable to encirclement. The move was a huge gamble from the warmaster, but it was a move that would come to characterise his all-or-nothing thrusts to achieve decisive victories at every opportunity, but he recognised the sheer size and magnitude of such an undertaking and the consequence of failure. Macharius knew that even with continuous naval bombardment it could be years before the fortress was truly broken by conventional means, and a siege would be extremely costly to both the Navy; which would be continuously harassed by anti-orbital fire and opposing naval elements, and the Guard as they attempted to break down the walls. As a Hive city could sustain itself for centuries if necessary, and there was the ever-present threat of massive encirclements by forces from neighbouring hive cities. Titans were also out of the question, as their size made them perfect targets for concentrated Alpha Strikes from batteries all across the city as well as their slow speed giving the opponents in the inner defences time to prepare. New tactics, and new equipment, would be required to defeat this particular foe.

In this environment, the Doomlord would be born. The forgeships produced a superheavy that combined a battery of 3 Earthshaker artillery pieces with a massively heavily armoured mobile gun platform that was effectively a modified sponsonless Baneblade hull. Just one of these tanks could lay down the firepower of a whole platoon of Basilisk SPGs while simultaneously crawling forward at the leisurely maximum pace of 20km/h. But the Doomlord would not be deployed in individual units to Savathen, but in specialised Regiment-strength formations all around the mega city, that moved forward ahead of the main assault line to demolish outer defences beyond the main wall and suppress the defences on the fortress outskirts with thousands of Earthshaker shells. The thick gun shield and frontal armour able to shrug off direct hits even from battle cannons if needed.

The Doomlord's job was then, once walking the assault formations upto the outer walls, to create breaches large enough for Leman Russ Battle Tanks, Armoured Sentinels and Guard Shock-Assault companies to enter on mass and begin establishing footholds all over fortress-city. This was achieved by firing all it's earthshaker cannons in unison with its hull mounted Demolisher Cannon to blast gaping holes in fortifications, normally platoons of the super heavy tanks would sync up their fire to generate one massive explosive yield.

Any defenders not immediately killed by the shockwave and displaced material would be stunned and deafened, as eardrums collapsed from the negative pressure, and incredible noise generated by the breaching effort. The Guard elements swiftly rushed through previously unbroken defences to achieve rapid lightning victories throughout the city. Heavier artillery and nuclear weapons kept suppressed throughout the operation by the Navy, which continuously subjected the massive fortress city to a heavy Macro Cannon and Lance Bombardment from High Orbit, making any attempts to move through the city centre or open the casements for heavier weapons impossible while Doomlords and assault regiments broke down the fortress in sections all around the city area.

With the enemy inside the walls and the fortress defenders being slaughtered, the ruling council of Savathen surrendered the Planet only a couple of weeks into the campaign, with losses for the imperials being only around 1,550,000 men in total, and only a couple of hundred leman russ tanks and armoured sentinel support walkers. Most of the fortress defences and hive cities around the planet being handed over to Imperial control completely intact. This incredible victory not only allowed 3rd Army Group to continue its unstoppable advance across the stars without complications but also granted the Imperium a valuable anchor for the region through which Imperial supply lines could be kept securely open. This would be just one of many victories that would see Macharius worshiped as an Imperial Saint and recognised as a military genius, his ability to keep losses low for high gains making him immensely popular with all parts of the Imperial Military. After the campaign he would be cheered and celebrated throughout his army groups rank and file, while the high lords passed down title after title to the growing list of peerages Macharius would hold.

The Doomlord that was instrumental to the success of the campaign would continue to see service throughout the Crusade as mobile heavy firesupport and a Super Heavy SPG, equally as capable in a defensive or offensive operations, the Doomlord was an Imperial Guard Infantry man's best friend when they needed firesupport. The incredibly loud and rhythmic termination of a continuous barrage from a Doomlord earning it the nickname 'The Emperor's Organ'. Now, long after the end of the crusade, these veterans of one of the Imperiums most successful military campaigns ever are a rare sight. Few forge worlds produce them, and those that served with Macharius having been distributed around the Imperium and lost to Imperial records. It is no longer known how many, if any, of these original vehicles still survive to this day.