# Land Behemoths



## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

I know the Iron Hands' clan companies each have such a massive rolling fortress on Medusa as their mobile headquarters. Then my interest was roused when a friend linked me:
http://www.graffitiwithpunctuation.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ME_London.jpg

An image of the London City Crawler from the Mortal Engines post apoc series. Which I hear Peter Jackson is interested in movielizing.

Picture a dystopic future, where the big cities of the world has been mounted on massive tracked units, driving around and cannibalizing lesser cities to feed their forges. Hence the moniker 'Predator Cities'

The series can be gotten on amazon in both book and ebook format. Bought the 4pack myself as Im a sucker for good postapoc reading.

But it gives me quite a wibe of the world of Medusa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_Cities


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

That is pretty impressive artwork. Having a penchant for post-apoc stuff I must look these books up.

However, the squats had the monopoly on things like this long before the IHs did. Not quite the scale of what you posted above, but I think might be a bit closer to what the Medusans use.

Collossus.









Leviathon.









Land train.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Well yeah, the Mecanicum have the Ordinatus war engines, which is on the same scale as those warengines of the squats. I remember the Cyclops, a giant cannon on tracks.


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## Old Man78 (Nov 3, 2011)

You know if you say "squats" 5 times in front of a mirror g.w will bring them back!


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Oldman78 said:


> You know if you say "squats" 5 times in front of a mirror g.w will bring them back!


That's a myth. I did and they haven't. :grin:


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

So far im finding Predator Cities to be a pretty good post apoc read.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Brother Lucian said:


> So far im finding Predator Cities to be a pretty good post apoc read.


Keep us posted over in the non-BL books forum. If I don't find something new I'll have to read The Stand or Swan Song again.


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## Old Man78 (Nov 3, 2011)

Khorne's Fist said:


> That's a myth. I did and they haven't. :grin:


You have to be naked with an apple in your mouth and your wife streaming it to youtube!

On topic, I might try these books, I love post apoc stuff and airships, I'm bogged down in the heresy series with mark of calth and have lost all interest t.b.h


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## emporershand89 (Jun 11, 2010)

Khorne's Fist said:


> the squats had the monopoly on things like this long before the IHs did.


Indeed, got a good chuckle off seeing these classic's. Still waiting for them to spring out of their hidden Cryo-Chambers and beat the Necrons to death.

On topic though it is an interesting picture that you paint with the image of the rolling castle (reminded me more of Howe's Moving Castle than anything else). I think though these fortress would be massive; I mean large enough to see from space. I'm not sure such a feat is possible, even for the mighty Astarte?


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Well Imperator titans have a whole gothic castle on their backs. Orbital satelite imagery is quite good even in our days, unless you meant seen unaided by any mechanical means.

But I vaguely recall mentions of Land trains on medusa as well, though its not likely battle trains alike what the squats had. Finished Predator Cities btw, they should quite please any warhammer fans. Hunting old tech (archaeotech for the 40kers) is a major point of them.

But to get back to such land behemoths, the Imperial Guard still retains the Leviathan command center which shares much in appearances with the squat colossus. I vaguely seem to recall that the imperium originally got it from the squats?


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## PlayingWithHammers (Nov 7, 2013)

Barsoom series (John Carter) has mobile cities on the wastelands of Mars. The film made it all look really quite good too. 

Honsou's mechanicum allies have a Black Basilica, some kind of chaos leviathan.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Didn't the Matrix 3 have something along those lines?

And Orbital Plates are pretty much that thing as well - Calth and Terra make explicit mention of them - although considering the nature of them, are not only anti-gravitic powered, but more for defensive purposes rather than habitation.

Edit - I fucked up with that one. See below. Disregard the above.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Vaz said:


> Calth and Terra make explicit mention of them - although considering the nature of them, are not only anti-gravitic powered, but more for defensive purposes rather than habitation.


???

Calth didn't have any superorbital plates. In _Know No Fear_ it says that, "There is already talk of a projected superorbital plate. Like Terra. Terra has superorbital plates. The master worlds of the Imperium have plates." So no plates...yet. And, to my knowledge, they never got the plates.

And the ones on Terra also had some habitation.

Kasper from _Prospero Burns_ mentions him staying on the Terran superorbital Lemurya in "luxury suites". 

In the short story, "Hands of the Emperor", we're given the description of another plate, Arcus. It has a "metropol-platform" (aka, a habitation platform). It also notably " wasn't a military installation, and boasted no defensive weaponry of its own."

Those are the rare occasions that we've been given any real information on the superorbital plates (granted just off the top of my head). Do you have some citations of purely defensive plates?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Apparently my memories going awry. Thanks for the corrections, hailene.

No, KNF and Hands of the Emperor were the two I was thinking of when I made the post. There may be others I missed, but I completely got those wrong. +Rep.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Ah, "awry". Can't wait for the next Ghosts novel, haha.

Your memory has been on the fritz of late. Or is it jsut me?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Bit of both, you're on fire. I'm getting old, plus I've spent the last few weeks vegging out after a car accident decided to try and rearrange my pelvis into the general area of my clavicle, and two months of jeremy kyle and dotty old people in hospital and hospital staff who seem to think that doing phys in a wheel chair is "damaging" has driven me a bit loopy. Or, more so, I should say.

I guess I'm just going back into the habit of skim reading, where I picked up the gist without properly reading it.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Spotted an image of an Ordinatus engine. Certainly qualifies as a land behemoth when you note the scale.
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb...40k/images/7/75/Ork-Controlled_Ordinatus2.jpg

Appearently one thats been purloined by the orks.


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