Crew: 8 (1 commander, 1 Comms Operator, 2 gunners, 2 Loaders, 1 tech adept, 1 driver) and room for upto 50 additional passengers and their equipment (20 of which may fire from mounted gunports)
Known Patterns/Subvarrients: I-VI (MkI-MkVI)
Armament:
Main Armament: Thrice-Hardened Ceramite 'Hell Roller' Anti-Mine Roller, 2 Hunter-Killer AT-Missile Launchers (18 additional missiles stored on board)
Secondary Armament: Pintle mounted Storm Bolter or Heavy Stubber (5000-7500 rounds), 4 Sponson-Mounted Heavy Falmers, 4 hull-turret mounted Heavy Bolters (1500 rounds each, in two turrets, one turret doubles as AA defence), 2 Sponson Mounted Lascannons (1000 shots each), 20 side-mounted Galaxy-Pattern lasgun gunports (10 per side)
Mobility:
Max Speed: 22 km/h
Traverse: 360 degrees (Upper-hull turret), 180 degrees (Sponson turrets) and 6 degrees (Lower-hull turret)
Elevation: N/A
Powerplant: MR507 V18 Multi-Fuel engine
Dimensions:
Weight: 366 Tonnes
Height: 6.6 metres
Width: 8.8 metres
Length: 15 metres
Ground clearance: 1 metres
Armour:
Superstructure: 220/220/220mm Faramite Alloy Plate
Hull: 300/250/250mm Faramite Alloy Plate
Gun Mantlet: N/A
Turret: N/A
Lore: Another creation of the legendary Macharius Crusade, the Hellblade represents a radical shift in both doctrine and super heavy tank design, a rather ugly looking but fondly appreciated tank earning the name 'iron grox' by the Imperial soldiers. Named after the common Imperial cattle for its large wonky appearance and slow speed; but steady and dependable service.
The Hellblade, like the Doomlord, was born from the needs of the campaign and the genius military mind of Macharius. The year was M41.395, after years of fighting the Imperial Crusade was being stretched to its limits. Despite Macharius achieving more than his superiors would dare to dream possible, with a vast domain of nearly 1000 worlds brought under the Imperium's rule thanks to his brutal lightning campaign, the forces of his 8 Army Groups were being stretched to their operational limits. Some regiments had been reduced to only a couple of hundred men by the fighting, and some armoured divisions along the front were going into battle with no operational vehicles left in their arsenal but determinately marched with the infantry to maintain the unstoppable momentum.
This predicament, while not of serious concern to most of the Imperial High Command, worried the Warmaster greatly. Macharius saw his units being depleted and expressed great concern, despite his best efforts to preserve the Imperium's proud formations the sheer ferocity and scale of the combat seemed to make high attrition an inevitability. Or did it?
Making a controversial move at the time, the warmaster ordered his army groups to cease the advance, to the anger of his general staff; and turned to the mechanicus with a proposal for a superheavy troop carrier that defied all previous design standards. The Tech Priests bristled at the unconventional design as a form of tech heresy and the generals bickered about giving the many enemies arranged against them time to recover and dig in; potentially even lose what they had all worked so hard to gain. The warmaster should not be pursuing untested experiments when so much hung in the balance they argued, but Macharius would hear none of it, and demanded the super heavy go into production or the crusade would not resume. Begrudgingly, his orders would be carried out.
The Hellblade that resulted was a reversed Baneblade hull, with engine block at the front and Heavy Bolter Turret at the back, and massively enhanced armour protection on all sides. Where the Demolisher Cannon would be, instead an assault ramp was installed that allowed guard infantry to rapidly board and exit the tank, while space that would normally be taken up by the main turret assembly and main weapons was given over to a spacious transport compartment that could cram 50 men and their equipment inside. To complement this, the outer walls of their compartment were lined with gunports. These were Galaxy-Pattern lasguns fixed in ball-mounts that allowed 20 of the passengers to fire on assailants to the tank's flanks from the safety of the tank's armoured hull. In addition to this, where the main turret would be on most Super Heavies a dual purpose Twin-Barreled Heavy Bolter Turret was installed that could suppress a trench line or provide limited AA protection. The Hellblade also retained the sponsons from the original baneblade, although reversed to face backwards from their usual position and mounted with heavy flame throwers to further its assault role and AT missiles to offer the giant transport a means of defeating armoured targets without the need of an escort. But the most striking change was perhaps the giant ceramite roller attached to the front of the vehicle, in front of the engine block, for the purposes of clearing obstacles and mines that might halt or slow the Hellblade's progress.
The first of these tanks would be deployed to the front just a month after the advance was temporarily halted, and Macharius only restarted the crusade properly once all frontal elements were sufficiently equipped with the new tanks, where they very rapidly became firm favourites of the troops on the ground. The Hellblade's design meant incoming fire had to penetrate a heavy ceremite roller, massively thick faramite plate armour and the engine block before they posed any threat to the crew or the passengers. The Iron Grox, traveling in groups, able to make slow but relentless progress in the face of any terrain or resistance mounted against it and deploy several platoon's worth of infantry directly on top of enemy positions while providing suppressive fire and AT support.
The warmaster's move not only made him even more adored by the soldiers that served under him, but also silenced any doubt in the minds of his generals over his unorthodox tactics. Macharius led the Imperial forces all the way to the western edge of the galaxy before his untimely death. An event mourned all across the Imperium, as the greatest man of his age left the Imperium much larger and mightier than it had been in millenia while he lived, yet somehow much more lost and empty in his passing.