Malcador Assault Tank

The Malcador Assault Tank was a great slab of a war-engine, a heavy tank named for the Emperor's closest confidant and built to smash through defences that lighter armour could not. Larger and more heavily protected than the Leman Russ, the Malcador mounted a formidable array of weaponry, its main gun capable of gutting enemy armour while a profusion of sponson and hull guns swept away all who drew near. Though its drive systems were temperamental and its speed ponderous, in the grinding armoured battles of the Heresy, raw endurance counted for more than pace. The Solar Auxilia prized the Malcador as a breakthrough engine and a mobile bastion both, an anchor around which an armoured assault could form. It advanced at the head of the cohort's tanks, drawing the enemy's heaviest fire upon its thick hide and answering with a storm of shells. Where a Malcador led, a breach in the enemy line was sure to follow, and few fortifications could long withstand its patient, hammering advance.