The biggest thing that bothers me about the Taurox is those silly guns on the sides. They aren't on sponsons or anything, they are literally glued there. How the hell do you aim with those? Swerve the vehicle trying to line up the gun?

Second problem I have is that the turret mounted battle canon is way to small. (Yeah yeah, different calibre of battle canon shells etc. But it still feels to small.)

The turret cannon looks fine in size to me, but way too limited in its firing arc. I mean, I get that Imperial tech is supposed to look backwards and only semi-useful, but even the most erratic Tech-Priest would have gotten the "brilliant" idea to simply lower the access hatch to ceiling height in order to allow 360° coverage rather than 45°.

And is that supposed to by tiny lascannons on the side? Heh, I did not even notice them until you pointed it out.

Now we're talking! See, looks a lot better already.

Wheels on the other hand ... in any other setting I'd have preferred that (especially as I prefer wheeled armour in general, such as the Soviet BTR series), but in 40k it just looks too ... contemporary/modern for an otherwise "gothic" appearance. Took me long enough to "accept" the Tauros, but that one also looks way more post-apocalyptic compared to the steampunk'd Dingo that is the Taurox.

Hey Lyn , do you remember that short story by Abnett in white dwarf 254, about the 'nids invading an imperial agriworld and the Lamenters coming to the rescue (and failing)?

There was mention there of smaller open topped wheelbased vehicles with twin heavy bolters. I always wanted to have those...

Hmm, can't say I've ever read that. Perhaps an excerpt from one of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels?

It should be fairly easy to rig up, though. Perhaps a local PDF design? Or you could just treat it like an alternate weapon option for the Tauros. The description would fit!

Nope, stand alone story. Very grimdark to. (Spores fall everyone dies!)

But it's a very good one for only a few pages long: nice pace constant building up of tension: it's like if starship troopers was a disaster movie.

I Always pictured them as jeeps with twinliked heavy bolters. One of the oW expansions has this dunebuggy looking thing (with a flamethrower for some reason) I'd probably start of with that.

Ah got it!

The Fall of Malvolion

Published in "Let the Galaxy burn"

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Let_the_Galaxy_Burn_(Anthology)#Synopsis

If you can you should definatly check it out.

It's been quite some time since I last touched a 40k novel -- but in fairness, I generally approve of the anthologies. Apart from generally touching on a lot of different aspects of the setting and featuring different writer styles, they also don't tend to fall into the same "Mary Sue Bolterporn" traphole that most other 40k books suffer from, and many of them (apparently including the one you are referring to) intentionally feature a Bad End, suitable for the setting. Possibly because the authors know it's just a "mood piece" for a couple pages, and don't perceive a need to keep the protagonists around for long. It's actually quite refreshing!

I already know some of the stories listed in the contents from another anthology, so I can vouch for them. So if you get your hands on this book, be sure to check out Ancient History , Daemonblood , Nightmare and The Lives of Ferag Lion-Wolf .

Yes, I believe that is the Tauros I mentioned.

Shameless plug: the Xenonian Free Companies supplement I wrote with Ramellan also features a transport variant of the Tauros I read about in "Hammer & Anvil"

If i find a copy I'll check it out.

Ferag lion-wolf: he some kind of dark angel space wolf/hybrid?

Actualy i shouldn't talk one of my renegade SM chapters was named : "The Blood Wolves" And unlike what people think was not derived from blood angels and space wolves but came from "Blood wolves" a monster from deadlands: Hell on Earth.

Ok lets bring this back on topic:

Inquisition war has a (old school) squat character in it. Anyone read it?

The story is a bit old school 40K, But still reads well.

Ferag lion-wolf: he some kind of dark angel space wolf/hybrid?

I think the name is intentionally exaggerated -- I'd spoiler too much if I go into detail, though. Let's just say that the story has an interesting twist.

Inquisition war has a (old school) squat character in it. Anyone read it?

I did. Was my very first 40k book ever, even before I picked up my very first codex (3E Space Marines).

And I concur, it's an enjoyable tale. This was the book I was thinking of when I talked about the difference between militant and covert Inquisitors the other day (-> Jaq Draco using another Inquisitor's purge on Stalinvast as a smokescreen for his own activities).

I'm still not sure stasis fields should work the way they do in that book.

But if they do... I wouldn't wanna be Roboute Guilliman.

Taurox conversion: these things look hella good with wheels instead of track units.

Taurox Lyn474 variant.

I saw a conversion once that replaced the front treads with two wheels in each well, and left the rear treads intact- it looked pretty cool.

If i find a copy I'll check it out.

Ferag lion-wolf: he some kind of dark angel space wolf/hybrid?

Actualy i shouldn't talk one of my renegade SM chapters was named : "The Blood Wolves" And unlike what people think was not derived from blood angels and space wolves but came from "Blood wolves" a monster from deadlands: Hell on Earth.

Ok lets bring this back on topic:

Inquisition war has a (old school) squat character in it. Anyone read it?

The story is a bit old school 40K, But still reads well.

Ugh- I hate that series! Aside from the amount of retconning that has occurred in the decades since that was published that renders it obsolete as a depiction of the current state of 40K, there is the annoying fact that, in the early days of the Dark Heresy Forums, it seemed like every third post was from some green GM who had just read the Inquisition War and come up with the 'brilliant' idea to make the PCs Sensei who were destined to take overt he Imperium (since exactly none of these posts ever featured follow-ups, I assume that roughly 100% of these campaigns collapsed under the weight of their own unworkability). And even worse than that, the main character's name is 'Jaq Draco'. Jaq freakin' Draco! Was the author 12 years old or something...?

Some of the Inquisiton War stuff was good - but yes, Ian Watson did come across as smoking something for bits of it.

I rather liked most of it. Certainly, as noted, the overt/covert bit.

(Equally, even if you're not a massive fan of the Ciaphas Cain books, Sandy Mitchell's unfinished Inquisition trilogy is good)

I've rarely used squats per se, but I've used Abhumans quite a bit. Ogryns mostly - the acolytes were breaking into a gambling den which turned out to have a couple of ogryns used for security a while back - but occasionally ratlings too.

I saw a conversion once that replaced the front treads with two wheels in each well, and left the rear treads intact- it looked pretty cool.

Ugh- I hate that series! Aside from the amount of retconning that has occurred in the decades since that was published that renders it obsolete as a depiction of the current state of 40K, there is the annoying fact that, in the early days of the Dark Heresy Forums, it seemed like every third post was from some green GM who had just read the Inquisition War and come up with the 'brilliant' idea to make the PCs Sensei who were destined to take overt he Imperium (since exactly none of these posts ever featured follow-ups, I assume that roughly 100% of these campaigns collapsed under the weight of their own unworkability). And even worse than that, the main character's name is 'Jaq Draco'. Jaq freakin' Draco! Was the author 12 years old or something...?

I found a picture of one of those, but the site didn't let me post it. The half track look is probably the best for the Taurox. But then again I've always had a soft spot for halftracks. (M3 and all its variants)

Well he wasn't 12. Maybe Ian Watson is the pen name of Matt Ward?

Jaq Draco...Kaldor Draigo... starting to sound similar here.

At least he didn't name him Luke Starkiller, or even worse: Haiku Steel-edge!

Or, as i have once threatened my GM with, make a character named Gepetto Kevorkian.

Now me, i really like that book, because it harkens back to some neat stuff from the Realm of Chaos books. And the best chaos stuff looks like it was tought up by an author smoking some weird dope. (as Magnus Grendel pointed out.)

I saw a conversion once that replaced the front treads with two wheels in each well, and left the rear treads intact- it looked pretty cool.

Hmm, like with the WW2 halftracks? Yeah, I could see that work.

Sidenote: parts of the description of the "Tauros Advector" in my fan-supplement were inspired by the German SdKfz 250 .

Ugh- I hate that series! Aside from the amount of retconning that has occurred in the decades since that was published that renders it obsolete as a depiction of the current state of 40K, there is the annoying fact that, in the early days of the Dark Heresy Forums, it seemed like every third post was from some green GM who had just read the Inquisition War and come up with the 'brilliant' idea to make the PCs Sensei who were destined to take overt he Imperium (since exactly none of these posts ever featured follow-ups, I assume that roughly 100% of these campaigns collapsed under the weight of their own unworkability). And even worse than that, the main character's name is 'Jaq Draco'. Jaq freakin' Draco! Was the author 12 years old or something...?

Is it truly "retconning" (retroactive continuity) if the IP has little to no continuity to begin with? I'm going out on a limb here and say that the Inquisition War is not any further removed from the codices than, say, Sandy Mitchell's Cain novels.

I also can't recall that many posts about Sensei, and in any way I'd say this is certainly less a fault of the novels and more of the IP as a whole, as it sometimes delves very deep into the fantastic.

As for the name Jaq Draco -- whilst you have a point, you'll have to admit that it's still better than half the Primarchs' names. "Draco" is unfortunately very overused as a name in fantasy literature, but I give the author credit for coming up with another "good bastardisation" of a contemporary first name (Jack = Jaq), as this follows a tradition we've already seen in the studio codices. And in real life, for what it's worth (given how Jack comes from Jankin, which in turn is a medieval diminutive from John, which in turn stems from Ioannes, which is derived from Yochanan, which ...).

As for the name Jaq Draco -- whilst you have a point, you'll have to admit that it's still better than half the Primarchs' names. "Draco" is unfortunately very overused as a name in fantasy literature, but I give the author credit for coming up with another "good bastardisation" of a contemporary first name (Jack = Jaq), as this follows a tradition we've already seen in the studio codices. And in real life, for what it's worth (given how Jack comes from Jankin, which in turn is a medieval diminutive from John, which in turn stems from Ioannes, which is derived from Yochanan, which ...).

Still no reason to spell it with a "Q" tough.

But i'm with you on the primarch's names:

Who names their son "Rowboat Girlyman"? *

But with names like Angron, Fullgrim and Mortarion they were asking for them to go evil...

Still Conrad Curze is a nice name. Just don't call him "CC".

*Sorry Ultramarine fans! Trolololo!

Still no reason to spell it with a "Q" tough.

But that's the bastardisation, just like the "Yo.." turned into "Io.." and then "Jo..".

Sure, just as nice and creative as Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau .

There's worse, though. *coughspacewolvescough*

There's worse, though. *coughspacewolvescough*

Which, if not for the Jokaero that I mentioned earlier, would probably be my least favorite thing in all of 40K.

Meh I grew up with Masters of the Universe so I'm used to cheesy names like that:

Stratos! Zodac! King Randor! Wun-Dar! Skeletor! Grizzlor! Blade! Spikor! Hordak! Stridor! Gwildor!

And that's the ones who aren't sexual innuendo:

Ram Man, Extendar, Snout Spout, Faker, Sssqueeze and Fisto! (Oh god, Fisto!)

Were the 80's awesome or what?