he Baneblade is amongst the oldest Imperial tank design still in use. Created using Dark Age Standard Template Construct technology, it uses many systems that are now unique to its construction. This ancient STC data is limited to only a handful of forge worlds, and most of the original Baneblades come from Mars itself.

It is claimed that in the distant past there were whole divisions of Baneblades in the Emperor’s service, but today an Imperial army is fortunate to have a company of three, and more usually only a single Baneblade will be available. This is because there is immense demand for the Baneblade, both for its highly destructive abilities and also for the morale boost seeing such a behemoth gives to the Imperial Guard troops on the ground.

Each Baneblade constructed and consecrated on those forge worlds that have the original STC is logged and registered with Mars, and is given its own identity number and name. Its whereabouts, the warzones it has fought in, the crew rosters and all its other history are reported regularly to the home forge world so that the fate of each and every Baneblade might be known.

NOTE: The Imperial Guard Baneblade boxed set can make either the Baneblade super-heavy tank OR the Hellhammer super-heavy tank (not shown).