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| - The first Doomhammer was not specifically designed as such by the Tech-priests of Mars. During the millennium-spanning siege of the rebel Forge World of Odana, the Enginseers salvaged a damaged Banehammer, removed the no longer functional Tremor Cannon, and installed a Magma Cannon in its place. The resulting vehicle was named the "Doomhammer" by its crew and both the design and the name stuck when Imperial commanders realised how effective a weapon the Enginseers had cobbled together. Although the more dogmatic Tech-priests frown upon such field conversions, believing them to be an affront to the Machine Spirits and the Omnissiah, the more pragmatic amongst them judge the worth of a design on its results, and have accordingly standardised and started to produce Doomhammers from scratch on
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| abstract
| - The first Doomhammer was not specifically designed as such by the Tech-priests of Mars. During the millennium-spanning siege of the rebel Forge World of Odana, the Enginseers salvaged a damaged Banehammer, removed the no longer functional Tremor Cannon, and installed a Magma Cannon in its place. The resulting vehicle was named the "Doomhammer" by its crew and both the design and the name stuck when Imperial commanders realised how effective a weapon the Enginseers had cobbled together. Although the more dogmatic Tech-priests frown upon such field conversions, believing them to be an affront to the Machine Spirits and the Omnissiah, the more pragmatic amongst them judge the worth of a design on its results, and have accordingly standardised and started to produce Doomhammers from scratch on their Forge Worlds. On the battlefield, the Doomhammer's role is that of armour killer. The Magma Cannon is in essence a smaller version of the Volcano Cannon, which trades in its destructive power and range for a much higher rate of fire, which lessens the Doomhammer's efficiency as a Titan-killer but grants it tactical flexibilty. Also, the Magma Cannon does not require the tank's engine to be stopped to fire, granting the Doomhammer the required mobility to bracket smaller targets and obliterate them. The Magma Cannon is powerful enough to severely damage a Titan, but does not have the power of the Volcano Cannon to punch through Void Shields. The Doomhammer's secondary armament of three twin-linked Heavy Bolters and two Lascannons gives the tank the tactical flexibility required to deal both with armoured targets and infantry. In addition, since the Magma Cannon is much smaller than the Volcano Cannon, the space freed up by removing the gargantuan capacitors necessary for firing the Volcano Cannon can be converted into a hold capable of transporting a small platoon of Imperial Guardsmen, or upgraded to serve as a cramped but fully functional field headquarters, equipped with powerful Vox-casters and tactical arrays. This allows an armoured regiment's commander to both lead his troops and participate in the fighting. For all its efficiency, the Doomhammer does suffer from some drawbacks: as with all the Shadowsword variants, the fixed main gun requires that the tank be bodily aimed at the target, and it has a poor top speed and poor manoeuvrability. Also, the Magma Cannon is much less efficient as a Titan-killer than the Volcano Cannon. Hence, where the Shadowsword can easily operate as a lone Titan hunter, the Doomhammer must be supported by other elements of the Imperial Guard in order to bring a Titan down.
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