Land Raider Ares

In their unrelenting hunt for the Fallen, the Dark Angels, have had to adapt to many situations in order to successfully capture their prey. They cannot reveal their secrets to anyone in the Imperium and so must forgo their assistance. The Ares pattern Land Raider was developed because of this reason. Following years of rumors, the distant planet Murus, was found to be under the control of three Fallen Dark Angels calling themselves 'The Tribunal'. In order to reach their fortress citadel the Deathwing would be forced to traverse the city surrounding it. The Tribunal had anticipated this eventual confrontation and had fortified the city with weaponry made all the more powerful by their knowledge from ages past. The leaders of the Dark Angels determined that the armour of the chapters vindicators could not stand up to the fire power they faced and so commissioned the Chapters Techmarines with finding a solution that would allow the Deathwing to reach the fortress and bring these Fallen to their redemption. Day and night they worked, and finally after many weeks they had successfully developed a tank with the heavy armor of a Land Raider and the crushing power of the Vindicators Demolisher cannon

The Ares was also equipped with a pair of Sponson- mounted twin-linked Heavy flamers and a hull-mounted twin- linked Assault cannon. Weapons that would prove invaluable during battle in the heart of a city. The Ares has no troop carrying capacity as it must have room for the large demolisher shells it will unleash. For this reason it has been mostly used in conjunction with the other troop carrying patterns of Land Raiders. Unfortunately the battle of Murus was a failure. The Tribunal was able to escape long before the battle began and the Deathwing lost their quarry. However the Ares was a success and of the six created only one did not make it through the city to the Fortress. Following the battle the Master Techmarine, in a move unpopular with the Dark Angel’s Inner Circle, submitted this newly created pattern to the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars but it has never officially been accepted as a viable variant of the Land Raider. Thus It is one of the rarest Land Raiders. However in a very few cases other chapters Techmarines have acquired the plans detailed by the Dark Angels Techmarines and have used them to create the Ares for situations that might call for its use.

+++ For a downloadable Ares datasheet and an article to help you create your own datasheets click here. Ares datasheet and info are on the last two pages of the article +++