107,790
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→Combat Methods
Blood Pact units will often contain a mix of heavy and support weapons akin to those of the Imperial Guard. Some Imperial tacticians claim that the officers of the Blood Pact deliberately style themselves on the Imperial Guard, and it is certainly the case that traitor Guardsmen are used to hone and improve the basic combat abilities of the Pact. Such traitors, due to their relative rareness, are distributed throughout the Pact's numbers to disseminate good techniques. Others point out that Blood Pact armaments resemble those of the Imperial Guard because these are the most commonly plundered. Several munition-producing Forge Worlds - especially Neffethyl and [[Urdesh]] - were amongst the planets conquered in the Sabbat cluster, and from them the Blood Pact have enjoyed a ready supply of Guard-quality weapons.
The Blood Pact - thanks to these captured Forge Worlds - have numerous armor and artillery formations. Blood Pact armor is generally slightly inferior to standard Imperial, most of it being Urdeshi-pattern variants such as the STeG 4, and the [[AT70 Reaver Battle Tank|AT70 Reaver-pattern tanks]], though they do also have more limited numbers of the larger and more powerful AT83 Brigand-pattern tanks, as well as a few of the rare [[Baneblade]] super-heavy tanks. The Blood Pact also field a lighter-armored variation of the [[Defiler]] known as the [[Stalk Tank|Stalk tank]]. All Blood Pact armored vehicles are painted red, inscribed with numerous obscene Khornate slogans, and are often decorated with the skulls and hides of their enemies.<sup>1</sup>
In addition to their fearsome weaponry and vehicles, the Blood Pact have special psykers known as [[Gore Mages]]. These dark wizards can possess Blood Pact warriors with Daemonic spirits, turning them into ferocious, almost unstoppable creatures that they call [[Blood Wolves]]. Also, Gore Mages radiate a sense of irrational fear and have access to many other powers involving blood.<sup>3</sup>
