The Stormblade is a super-heavy tank of the Astra Militarum, built on the same chassis as the Shadowsword but armed with a plasma blastgun instead of a volcano cannon. It’s the Titan-hunter you build when you can’t build the original.
What the stormblade actually is
Take a Shadowsword, strip out the volcano cannon and its supporting hardware, and drop in a Ryza-pattern plasma blastgun. That’s the Stormblade in one sentence. It’s a super-heavy tracked vehicle, roughly Baneblade scale, and it exists because not every Forge World has the STC data needed to build a proper Shadowsword.
Ryza developed it. That matters, because Ryza is the Forge World famous for plasma weaponry, so a plasma-armed Shadowsword substitute is exactly the kind of thing you’d expect them to produce.
Why it fights differently from a Shadowsword
The volcano cannon is a sniper’s Titan-killer. The plasma blastgun isn’t. It hits just as hard against Titans and super-heavy vehicles, but it trades reach for raw output, so a Stormblade has to close the distance in a way a Shadowsword doesn’t.
To make up for that lost long-range punch, the sponsons carry lascannons with a fire control system borrowed from the Baneblade. The sponson mounts also carry twin-linked heavy bolters, and there’s a coaxial heavy bolter in the mix. A targeter sits above the main gun, with an armoured housing for a searchlight offset to one side.
The trade-offs built into the design
Dropping the volcano cannon means dropping the long-range tracking device and the redundant generators and capacitors that fed it. That frees up internal space, which Ryza used for extra heat shielding and a serious cooling system. The result is a plasma platform that’s more dependable than a Leman Russ Executioner, which is a low bar, but a real one.
It’s still a plasma weapon. It’s still short-ranged by super-heavy standards. And it’s still 310 tonnes of tank that tops out around 25 kph on a road.
- Main gun: Ryza-pattern plasma blastgun, fed by photonic fuel cells (16 shots)
- Secondary: 2 lascannons, 4 heavy bolters, coaxial heavy bolter
- Crew of six: commander, driver, main gunner, remote gunner, comms-operator, engineer
- Dimensions: 13.5m long, 8.4m wide, 6.3m tall
- Armour: 220mm superstructure, 210mm hull, 200mm gun mantlet
Hellion missiles and why they’re gone
Stormblades used to carry racks of Hellion Missiles to help finish off the biggest Titans. That practice ended after three Stormblades from the Phyressian 31st Heavy Tank Company were destroyed by their own missiles. The weapons were pulled from service after that.
Some crews still bolt on a hunter-killer missile or a pintle-mounted heavy stubber or storm bolter. Others strip the sponsons entirely and weld on more armour instead.
Where you’ll see them
Stormblades show up in super-heavy detachments of the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, and the Solar Auxilia fielded a Solar-Arkuria pattern. In the 41st millennium they’re an Astra Militarum vehicle, with known patterns running from I to VII and the Cadian 98th Armoured among the regiments that carry them.
Key facts
- The Stormblade is a Shadowsword variant armed with a Ryza-pattern plasma blastgun instead of a volcano cannon.
- It was designed as an alternative for Forge Worlds that lack the STC data to build a Shadowsword.
- It trades long-range firepower for close-range Titan-killing punch, backed by lascannons and heavy bolters.
- It weighs 310 tonnes, has a crew of six, and carries 16 shots for its main gun.
- Hellion Missile racks were withdrawn after three Phyressian 31st Stormblades were destroyed by their own missiles.
FAQ
Is the Stormblade better than a Shadowsword?
Not really, it’s a substitute. It hits as hard against Titans but loses the volcano cannon’s range and the supporting generators. It’s what you build when you can’t build the real thing.
What does the Stormblade’s plasma blastgun fire?
It draws from photonic fuel cells and carries 16 shots. That’s a small magazine for a super-heavy, so it’s not a weapon you spray around.
Which Forge World makes the Stormblade?
Ryza developed it, which fits their reputation for plasma technology. Lucius is listed as a Forge World of origin for the chassis.