Dreadnought - Venerable Dreadnoughts: Older Dreadnoughts are referred to by Space Marine Chapters as Venerable Dreadnoughts or more simply as their "Ancients". Having earned many millennia worth of combat experience, Venerable Dreadnoughts are even harder to destroy than their younger counterparts. However, as a trade-off for their knowledge, they are armed with older, more volatile and usually less effective weaponry.Venerable Dreadnoughts often are a drain on their Chapter's resources, for their millennia-old pilot becomes harder and harder to rouse with the passing of time, and their even more ancient chassis are prone to malfunction, with the parts needed to update them no longer available. A sizeable portion of a Master of the Forge's attentions is spent caring for his Chapter's Ancients, with the ever-lurking risk of the Venerable Dreadnought simply not waking again.Yet no Chapter would ever consider granting the Emperor's Peace to its Ancients, for they are the wardens of a Chapter's history and traditions, for only they can still remember first-hand what now only resides in the mouldering tomes of the Chapter's Librarium. Some of these ancient behemoths no longer resemble the current mass production Mars Pattern Mark V Dreadnoughts and are bulky and cumbersome. Others stand towering over their foes like elegantly-crafted statues ready to smite their enemies.It is now nearly impossible for most Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes to construct new Dreadnought chassis from scratch, as the technology and know-how is no longer available to the Imperium. This is made obvious by the existence of such Chapters as the Iron Hands, who lost the majority of their Dreadnoughts early in the Horus Heresy at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V. Now the Chapter maintains relatively few Dreadnoughts relative to other Astartes formations, since they were unable to replace these losses. As such, Venerable Dreadnoughts are a scarce resource for their Chapters, since any damage they suffer must be replaced by using stockpiles of ancient parts or cannibalising already extant Dreadnought chassis of a similar pattern and make.One of the more notable examples of a Venerable Dreadnought is the Space Wolves' Bjorn the Fell-Handed. He is the oldest Dreadnought currently in service in the Imperium and was once a member of the Primarch Leman Russ' personal retinue. He fought in the Horus Heresy and served as the Space Wolves' first Great Wolf when he was still whole of body. The most esteemed member of the Space Wolves, Bjorn is the only being the current Great Wolf will listen to and if necessary defer to, and is reverently woken once in each standard century. At that time, all the Space Wolves present, from the Great Wolf to the youngest Blood Claw, raptly and silently gather around the Ancient to hear him speak of their Primarch Leman Russ, and keep the Space Wolves' ancient oral tradition alive.Oddly, the Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought released by Games Workshop is similar in design to the standard Mark V Dreadnought (save for the Space Wolves tokens and possessing a metal blister instead of plastic), while the "generic" Venerable Dreadnought is an ornately decorated war machine.