40K Imperial Armour! The Basilisk Self Propelled Artillery And The Earthshaker Cannon! 

If your problem isn't being solved with artillery, your problem is that you're not using enough artillery

No matter how advanced the warhammer tech is you still see: 1. The Wespe from WWII 2. picatinny rails

The best thing a Guardsmen could hear on the battlefield. Confirmation on firing coordinants from a battery of Basilisks.

My philosophy has always been, if they are too hard to dig out, bury them in the rubble.

Earthshaker…Earthshaker…Earthshaker!!!!!! Saw many a player of any other faction’s face drop when I’d fire my first shot & put down the template. Always has a proud place in my army…even if they are mostly Catachans.

I’m planning on getting a Basilisk for my guard army, so this was insiteful! I’m also going to try and freehand “Shatter Their Skies!” On the front of it for all the guardsmen I’ve lost in the Dawn of War series.

Just so you are aware, Box Barrages are not new to Vietnam, they were originally developed, like many modern Artillery techniques, during WWI. Primarily Box Barrages during WWI were used to cut an area off, essentially a curtain of fire would 'box' the enemy in, and not allow reinforcements to enter the area. Or indeed the enemy in the box to leave! Not in one piece anyway. It was used to isolate an area for an infantry assault. What was new in Vietnam was that Communications equipment and fire control equipment had progressed to the point that Box Barrages could be set up rapidly and offensively without much in the way of pre-planning so long as you had well trained gun crews. What was new was not Box Barrages but how they were used in an offensive manner, rather than the more defensive pre-planned examples of WWI. Most modern artillery techniques were born during WWI, they have been hugely refined over the years as both the guns and the technology for fire control, spotting and communications has progressively gotten better, but the basic ideas and practices were more or less laid down in the mud and the blood of 1914 - 1918.

Some of the new software they have for these things is amazing. Imagine every tank and artillery in an area synchs up, they all aim for the same target, then fire at different times so that every shell hits the target at the exact same fraction of a second within a 4 square meter area, or they can stagger the impacts to hit in the exact same spot within 2 seconds so each explosion digs a deeper and deeper hole. Frickin' insane.

Arch, do a video on traitor guard. They're the most criminally ignored group in the entire setting.

"Incomming fire has the right of way." Old artillerymans maxium. But seiously if i have to choose in the 40k setting if i want something with extreme range or more boom vs reliablity i will always go for reliability as it is less likely to blow up in your face.

Can confirm the Usmc, at least in the security forces regiment, still uses field phones between prepared positions to avoid possible interception. The lines tend to get cut by people simply walking on them by mistake and they’re a pain in the ass because you have to hand-crank them but they are still in use. Also some of the more permanent positions will have regular phone lines built in.

the comforting thunder of the big guns

Kreig Officer: Observer, do you see that bunker over there? Kreig artillerymen: Yes, sir. Kreig Officer: I don't want to see it anymore. Kreig artillerymen: Understood sir.

16-20km are the specs on terra. Different planets, different gravity and atmo (as acknowledged in the sounding section)

I remember playing against my brother as 475th cadian artillery regiment too his chaos blood drinkers space Marines as my imperial guard regiment was being ripped to shreds plus my brother lucky dice rolls where unatural I figured my last chance of defiance was to get his champion and leader at the same time I had a Leman Russ Demolisher with demolisher siege Cannon upgrade and a Coloessus and one heavy weapons team left He's been busy mopping up half my forces he just destroyed with his khorne berserkers and his dreadnought and chaos defiler I had bad luck rolling my dice so he ignored my artillery at the time while he was going after my other forces so now is the time to finish my artillery group I close my eyes and rolled and I finally got a lucky roll I don't remember what I rolled but I do know it was what I was looking for at the time as my demolisher landing a lucky hit as his leader Stefan taker of world's and his champion blew up in a fire explosion the look on my Brothers face as he howl Khorne you've taken Stefan too soon was priceless the 475th imperial guard artillery regiment went down in the blaze of Glory

"How much artillery will we need, Lord Commander?" "Yes."

Okay more seriously, there's a couple peculiarities with the earthshaker cannon doctrine that makes much more sense when you realize that 40k is british and using british pop culture to inform the writers. 1: The cannon's smaller caliber 2: The cannon's robust and cheap construction. 3: Separation of combined arms into specialty units. In short, learning from the experiences of world war 1, namely that you can bomb the fuck out of something and it'll never be enough, no matter how big or small your pp compensator, so its not the size that matters its the motion of the ocean. They went all in on narrow front advances using suppressive barrages to support their infantry and vehicles on the attack and defense. They economized their cannon and shell to be as supply efficient as possible, while the American's were using the 105 they're using smaller 88mm guns. Less HE and penetrative power but who cares? You're bombing the shit out jerry keeping him on the back foot while your men are just walking forward. This in contrast with the Americans who presighted Europe. No, I mean they presighted the entirety of fucking Europe. These are the people who conducted the most complicated *series* of naval *invasions* in the history of the planet. While the British system of systematic creeping barrages was rightly called inflexible, it was also a simple and easy to conduct operation that can be planned between infantry and artillery commanders routinely. While the American's had on call artillery to hit time on target opportunity strikes across a massive front simultaneously, the british focused on the narrow front strategy, concentrating firepower and effect to break the fulcrum of the enemy and shatter their line. Both sides had merit, and both sides had their operational failings (Hurtgen forest for the US, Market Garden for the British) Now this is mirrored in Imperial Artillery Doctrine. Supply can be inconsistent and thin, but when its abundant allow for a concentration of firepower and guns in both narrow and wide fronts. "Most" Imperial commanders like to concentrate the maximum amount of force on a frontage to conserve resources, not everyone is as lucky as Cubrik Chenkov to be blessed by the Blood god to conveniently have unlimited reserves at hand. They're also dealing with mix of troop quality. Sometimes they'll get top of the line veteran regiments who have "circumvented" Munitorum regulations regarding combined arms formations by either raising said regiments together, or have become scratch combination regiments. Other times they'll be dealing with freshly raised conscripts called up in an time of emergency. Simple tactics like a creeping barrage to protect your infantry as they advance on an enemy hardpoint. Its inflexible sure, but you can't get your men bloodied and seasoned if they're fucking dead. Now you're going to be asking me about the british habit of separating units out into component parts and forming regiments that way. Well many nations have done and still do this to some extent. Nowadays its mostly for training and instruction purposes, but also because the line between what constitutes what type of unit has blurred to the point of irrelevancy. EVERTYTHING is motorized now at the least, if not mechanized, and these same mechanized units have the ability to engage armored units if not on near parity then giving one hell of a black eye with ATGMs. But artillery remains "separate" as a regimental force due to their literal physical separation between infantry/armored/assault forces and their firing positions. They're still combined arms force mutually supporting one another, but instead of being right behind their advancing lines they're also skirting and moving in the back lines to the next firing positions to avoid that every dreaded counterbattery.

Arch you posted this a day after my birthday. Between Auspex's video on the IG leaks and this, i feel 26 is going to be a good year. Thank you, Arch!

Happy to see a follow up to your imperial armor series :). I recently rewatched the videos on the chimera and the leman russ and was wondering when the next installment would come! Thanks for the great content arch, been watching for about 7 years now

FIIIIIINALLY!!! Another Imperial Armor video. Tanks are, and will continue to be, the most badass weapon on the battlefield.

Happy Tukayyid Day, Inquisitor! As for why the Imperium doesn't do smart targeting and counter battery operations is primarily because artillerymen don't care where the rounds go and just want to see shit explode

Baneblade: When you're finally sick of holding the line. 100x Basilisk: When you're finally sick of the line.

Funny thing. When I was studying Vietnam war bombing the first time, I "somehow" completely missed box barrage. This lead to a very erroneous opinion, when I was looking at the 300 bombs dropped per single kill and just assumed it was either staggering incompetence or just seeding the country's soil with heavy metals and annoyingly lethal Easter Eggs.

Was "Ruble" and ruin really intended in the title card? Lol i thought it was an archcast video on the financial impact of the war for a moment.

As a former artilleryman (Redleg) I can tell you there’s no fucking way that the Basilisk uses a 132mm gun. There’s just no way. Couldn’t be smaller than a 203mm easily. From models to artwork, there’s just no way it’s that small. Those shells are just too huge.

I believe this classic British WWI poem suits quite well. Ahem. BOOM BOOM BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Beautiful.

Commander: "Captain, do you see that enemy formation?" Artillery Captain: "Yes, sir!" Commander: "I do not want to." Artillery Captain: "In the Emperor's(nyeeoth, Also known as Adam Kadmon) name!"

There was supposed to be a kaboom, where is the earthshaking kaboom?

I just completed a report on the modern Self-Propelled Howitzer market, and I am shocked at how underwhelming the Basilisk actually is. Even in the early years of M3, 155mm is the gold standard, and 30km (40km with rocket assisted munitions) is the *minimum* acceptable range. Even multi-round simultaneous impact is becoming standard. I get the Imperium is technologically declined, but they are still an interstellar empire, howitzers are basic AF compared to directed energy weapons like lance batteries.

You can determine the location of a indirect fire weapon based off the impact area. There’s a report that the USMC used to do I think it’s called a crater or shell report. I learned it in my advanced infantry school but we don’t do it because you never want to go look inside a crater that the enemy has hit with IDF because they can do it again.

Fantasic timing, my Lord Arch! Ill be putting the finishing touches on my first Basilisk model this weekend. Looking forward to listen to this while I paint. Keep up your amazing work, my Lord

Wait only 132mm? Those guns look way too massiv to be only 132mm XD

Earthshaker is the cannon, The Basalisk is the Self Propelled system.

I am surprised by the cannons caliber. I thought it would have fired a bit of a bigger shell.

That thumbnail made me think this was about Russia at first. I think you meant "Rubble and Ruin" not "Ruble and Ruin"

My first active duty medic job was with MRLS. Now thats artillery. Steel rain on a whole grid.

This just makes me wonder all the more about orbital bombardment. If it's a spaceship dropping rounds down upon an enemy force with near impunity it seems you end a lot of conflicts. The only way to stop it would be to attack the ship in orbit with your own but you risk destroying your allies and civilians with any missed strikes.

7:52 Something worth keeping in mind: if you have fixed or towed artillery with a sufficiently long range, you can keep those batteries in place and use them for counter-battery use where they are less likely to suffer counter-battery (or counter-counter-battery) fire to begin with. You can also use them as behind-frontline assets where you are relatively sure that enemy towed artillery is not in range of them and use them to support your advance alongside any self-propelled artillery. Albeit that latter option is more dangerous to your own towed artillery.

Thank you for sharing this good sir.

Dawn of War with the Apocalypse mod using Imperial Guard and the Artillery special doctrine... There is no sound more satisfying than hearing the enemies of Mankind vaporize in massive, sustained explosive artillery bombardments.

thank you sir enjoy the uploads!

Arch’s BaseLisk and it’s Based Earthshaker Cannon

Excellent video as per usual sir. Excellent.

Fantastic work

Forgotten Weapons of the 41st millennium. "Hey guys, thanks for tuning into our video on the SPG"

I still agree with your t-shirt about this topic^^ got a few good laughs from it xD

I love the old imperial armor pictures

Basilisk, when you want to scatter the enemy in tiny pieces

Day late for my birthday, but I’ll take it. Thanks for all you do and keep up the good work, Arch. Ave Imperator.

Love all the video's lately, I would love to see some bout the mighty and much better than skaven Dawi! Kazuuk!

"Patterson, you see that over there?" "Yes sir." "I don't want to." *"YES SIR."*

132mm. honestly this makes me laugh and cry, because its Very clear that the earthshaker artillery piece was based on the american 240mm M1 Howitzer

Ahh, the model that made me pick up the guard.

28:57 - I believe that Landlines can be intercepted. I remember hearing that the line between the UK and US in WW2 kept being intercepted by the germans via the underwater cable. Could be wrong though

You are a legend man. Well done for all of your content

Now THIS is what I'm here for!

Nothing like the smell of Artillerey in the morning

Another thing about smoke shells, is that if you can get the smoke thick enough, you either have to get OUT of the area under smoke bombardment or choke to death because the smoke is displacing the rest of the air. Maybe not good against Eldar or Tau or Necrons, but it would work well against Orcs and Tyranids...

If it's a gun (artillery classification), that means it's used specifically for direct fire. Just thought I would point that out. Then again, this is the Imperium of Man's military, who use tanks that are, whether you want to admit it or not, deathtraps compared to contemporary main battle tanks.

I'm being recommended your videos again which is nice, have some sacrifice on me.

Man, I wonder what could have inspired this. Not complaining, I love Imperial armour.

Lore video by Archboi, how lovely

Much fun, such interesting indeed

even During the 60s Radar was used to locate enemy Artillery. this being Fast enough to locate and return fire, this is necessary as even a towed Battery can set up, fire roughly a 100 rounds and be on the move in 6 mins

Nice video !

Acoustic triangulation for counter battery identification isn't too hard to pull off with low tech, either vehicular mounted or placed acoustic sensors near an engagement area. Basic sound ranging has been around since WW1 used by the British as you mentioned, Russians have used passive sound triangulation either emplaced or on vehicular mounts for some time, not as good as radar based, but with no signature to attract SEAD anti radiation fire. Of course the best counter battery is radar based, they have radar in 40K, but perhaps not dedicated cogitators to back trace POO sites, though really if you can fire radar guided missiles for air defense you should be able to do counter battery as well...

I am going to miss you in the next few weeks going on a massive themepark-filled roadtrip.

The heroes of the siege of Vraks and many other imperial battlefields.

my whole strat in dawn of war was just made around these.

big guns never tire

Yes, I would say the ruble is indeed in ruin right now

Artillery, when you want to reach out and touch someone...with extreme prejudice.

I think the lower tech of the imperial guard makes some sense due to it's scale. They probably could make higher tech artillery or rifles but it would cosr more in time and resources and when you've got to do it a bazillion times over it's probably a significant difference.

As my old Sergeant told us, "Calling for artillery is like ordering Burger King: Have it your way." He also told us only he was allowed to scream Immediate Suppression! into the fires net.

I do enjoy these

The seige of vraks mentioned counter battery fire when the cardinal was reinforce

Happy Tukayyid Day Arch!

Ah the Earthshaker love them!

back in 4th ed Iron warriors Chaos space marines could take a single basalisk. I had a friend who played guard (and relied entirely on Russ tanks) well, back in those days you had to guess range to indirect fire. welp... I dropped a shell on the back armor of his most expensive tank (roughly double the points cost of the basalisk) first turn, destroying it (and occasionally taking out nearby troops when it exploded) 5 times over the course of 6 games, he never DID learn to deploy within that 36 inch minimum range.

we have orbital range finding right now with satellites.

Artillery, the queen of the Battlefield.

Love my Earth shakers they have put in work have to replace the barrels all the time ha...

Funny to think during 30k these guns were crewed by space marines wish they still did.

Your army went boom.

The funny part? Modern artillery definitely outclasses the fictional mainstay of a galactic army.

I mean, I get it is suppose to be part of the aesthetic. But... they've got ships in space. The material cost of a simple mirror to reflect and direct solar energy from well outside of any ground-based counter-attack is a pittance next to that of ships. Just literally melt them out of their bunkers.

[libationes deis algorithmi]

I gotta say, saying we don't have orbital assets for direct observation when we have thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of satellites in orbit for just this specific task is a little irksome.

Soothing ungents for your machine spirit (the Algorithm)

Any good soldier worth his salt loves his artillery.

Meme: A bullet might have your name on it but a granade is to however it may concern. Dear grid coordinates.

Landlines can be hacked. You just need an engineer brave enough to cross no mans land hooking a similar wire to the land line and running a line back. Yeah an observant operator might pick up some abnormal static when someone us listening on the hacking device but thats why you have radio silence when listening to enemy chatter on the land lines.

''fire several shells ad different elevations'' aka , to hit the target at the same time ,yep thats one nasty thing modern computing assisted/mechanical/self propelled arty can do.. if i dont recall wrong i think its one of the selling points for the 'archer' system to do that very efficiently even giving up a bit of potential max range for the option to borderline 'drive by' bombard you if there is any cover for it to hide in as it sets up to rapid fire and then move the moment the last shell left the barrel.

"Shatter their skies!"

Great vid!....~Grab yer helmet, we're putting you on an AT Gun ARCH, with experience & survival, you can work your way back to the bigger guns in the rear areas!...;)

I'm not familiar with current rules but I think counter battery abilities wouldn't be hard to implement. For Imperial Guard, if they still take Basilisks in squadrons have it as an upgrade or ability you can take for the command vehicle, any indirect fire weapons that hit within 12" of the command vehicle or any unit with a vox caster any Basilisks in the unit that haven't fired during the previous turn can take a shot within a decreasing radius of the enemy artillery, subject to all the usual rules like scatter. The radius will only decrease if the enemy artillery remains in the same spot. I'd say Space Marine artillery units could automatically have that as an ability since they are more advanced, same with some of the Chaos Marines. Might be a little broken but it could be fun especially for armies that run heavy on indirect fire weapons.

Artillery - The answer to most of life's problems!

I always wondered why these things were almost never direct fire guns.

My favorite dow units

**Heavy earplug dancing**