Editing Malcador Heavy Tank (section)

== Malcador Heavy Tank ==

[[File:malcadorbc.jpg|250px|right|thumb|A Malcador Assault Tank. Would have been an okay tank if it wasn't for that fact that [[Rage|the fucking hull turret prevents me from firing at a full 360.]]]]

The original stretched Russ, except it has weaker front and side armor than the Russ and its turret can't spin all the way around. To be fair, during the Great Crusade it was armored enough that anything worth shooting would be within its firing arc anyway. Ambushes by lesser threats than it was meant to fight could be ignored by it, so the lack of a turret became an asset as the armored cover would protect the gun mechanisms from heavy enemy fire. It was a line-breaker after all, not an MBT. The Malcador Assault Tank is a truly ancient design dating all the way back to even the wars that consumed [[Terra]] during the [[Age of Strife]], if anything it can be considered as the [[Papalith]] of Imperial Tanks. It used to be quite good during the Horus Heresy, as its advanced engine made it Fast, and it could mount a [[Demolisher Cannon]] and fire its [[Battle Cannon|main cannon]] at full BS ''and'' make a Flat Out move. By the time of the 41st Millennium, however, the Adeptus Mechanicus have lost all knowledge of how the engine works so they get extra finickiness while moving the same speed as every other tank. The only advantages that this tank has are that its rear armor is slightly better and that it can soak a few more hits since it's a heavy tank.

As you may realize, the Malcador seem to suffer the most in terms of getting the short end of the stick. And suspicious of the Mechanicum “forgetting” how the engines work on the primary tank used by the Imperium and probably mostly built on Imperial, not Mechanicum, worlds. It’d be like forgetting how to maintain the Leman Russ. Imperium-wide. Other then the numerous problems as listed above, there is also the consideration on how much this tank gets treated in-universe as well. The Malcador was seen as so outdated it was eventually replaced in Legion service by the [[Land Raider Proteus]], and by the time of the Horus Heresy many Malcador tanks had been relegated to the Legions' strategic reserves and second-line Imperial Army units, only to be replaced by larger numbers of smaller, more tactically flexible tanks such as the Leman Russ and its many variants. Poor bastard can't catch a break.

In game terms, it really does deserve to have its front and side armour buffed to be on par with the Leman Russ Battle Tank. Its only redeeming quality is that its more survivable thanks to being a super heavy vehicle, though all of its positives end there. Its sponson weapons angles are dreadful, its main gun has limited traverse, it actually has worse armour values than the Leman Russ (as said before), its overpriced for what it brings, and it has the chance to immobilize itself whenever it moves, which if nothing else is crunch that pretty accurately matches the fluff.

Of course, the current rendition of it sets the Malcador's unit type as "Superheavy, Fast Tank", which is hilariously oxymoronic. 7th Edition changed the Superheavy Type to automatically include all of the more specialized rules like Invincible Behemoth, and added default rules for them that didn't require apocalypse. All of this means that the Malcador became immune to all forms of penetrations except for 'Explodes!', gained the ability to Thunderblitz, and move a full 12" while still firing ALL of its weapons.

Ironically, if one was to replace the top casemate with an actual turret (like the one on the Russ), use the alternate box sponsons the Valdor and Infernus use and fix the engine, the Malcador would become a perfectly serviceable Heavy Tank for the Guard, becoming the Tiger to the Russes Panther. But that would be [[Heresy|tech-heresy]] and also regular heresy, because not being retarded is banned in the Munitorum. This is now even stupider with the release of the [[Carnodon|Carnodon]], which is from the same era as the Malcador and basically it's Medium Tank equivalent, yet manages to have both these. Although, the casemate would help protect from flanking strikes and also help in frontal assaults. Which is the role it explicitly filled.