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Hello all, thought i would give my engineer brain a go and make rules for a new war machine for the glorious Empire!

I call it The Mutilator. Or Meindorffs multi-limbed machine of marvellous mutilation. Basically it is like a combine harvester but for war.

Rules
Points: 170
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
* 3 - 5 4 6 4 * 10

Armour save: 4+

Equipment: Slashing, whirling, wickedly sharp blades

Special rules

Terror
Seeing the implacable advance of a spinning calvacade of razor sharp cutting blades is a scary thing indeed. As such The Mutilator causes terror.

Unbreakable
The Mutilator is a large steam powered metal monstrosity. Plus it has no reverse gear so therefore counts as Unbreakable.

Hilariously unpredictable
The Mutilator is (as most empire technology is) an experiment. The steam engine that drives it works much like the fabled steam tank but due to its lesser bulk can move alot more swiftly than its partner in crime. At the beginning of your turn declare how many steam points you are generating, between 1 & 3. Then roll a D6, if the number on the dice is more than The Mutilators current wounds then it suffers a wound with no armour saves. The steam points however are still generated. Each steam point generated allows The mutilator to move D6+1"
If this brings The Mutilator into base contact with an enemy unit then it counts as charging.

Combat
The controlling player rolls a D6 for attacks. He/she then may choose to roll a further D6, if it is the same as the last roll then then something has gone wrong and no more attacks are generated. In addition, The Mutilator takes a wound with no save allowed. The player may choose to roll up to 4D6 this way provided no duplicate dice are rolled. So this potentially could lead to alot of dead enemies!
The roll to hit with the attacks generated. They are made in initiative order.

Engineer
As its a one off, Meindorff has great pride in his machine and actually pilots the thing himself(brave or insane, you decide!). Once per turn he may pop the hatch and fire the pintle mounted Hochland long rifle at BS5. If The Mutilator is slain then Meindorff dies with it, even self-preservation isnt greater than his pride.

So those are the rules, C & C would be much appreciated

I think you should make it non-steam and just have it be high damage, lower protection. Like a Pump Wagon. I don't really dig anything that can put out D6+1 + 4d6 Str 6 attacks even at WS3.

No ward save at all! A ward save is a comet bouncing off your face. A volcano not bothering you. They should be very rare. No amount of normal metal is ever a ward save.

I also don't like the armor save, which with the T and W is too high. You're basically creating a unit that can only kill itself. So it WILL get those 4D6+ impact hits on something, plus the guy shooting out the top. You'd just use it at until you're at 1W and sit in the middle of the battlefield shooting people and no one's going to bother attacking because you're too hard to hurt. It's a combine, it has tons of open gaps in between those blades. Make it a charriot armor save.

Or you could have guys inside it pedalling or horses pushing. And give them the wounds, which would represent them getting attacked.

So, put it in line more with the pump wagon and drop its cost a lot. But it's too powerful now and too hard to injure, IMHO. It would rip up a great dragon pretty easily at much less cost and higher surviveability.

You have a unit that can potentially move 42" in one turn. Not very good.

i shouldve put in there it can only generate up to 3 steam points a turn

Ive lowered the Toughness and Strength made it a 4+ armour save with no ward save.

Also removed the impact hits.

I think the D6 for attacks should be if you fail, you don't get them. Otherwise people will try and push it every time. Much like Ratling Guns. Those are 55 points and do Str4 attacks, T3, 1W, heavy armor and they 'splode, so vastly weaker.

I'd say take out the engineer. He kind of pollutes the concept. He'd have his hands full keeping the thing working.

OH, I didn't see this was W6 I4. That's silly. Because you're basically very rarely going to fail your early steam rolls so everyone will generate 3 steam. It should be I1. Why on earth would it be so high? Yes, Init spells will kill it, it's a harvester, not a puma. It's W should be 3-4.

I'd say they should also have some kind of movement limitation kind of like Mangler Squigs but not so bad. I see you maybe making a wheel movement and then only allowed to move forward. I just can't see it dodging dangerous terrain with that much agility. Harvesters move in gigantic straight lines. Not even sure how easily modern ones can turn.

Then drop it's cost to ~150 and make it a Rare.

Lower it's Intiative.

DukeRustfield wrote:I think the D6 for attacks should be if you fail, you don't get them. Otherwise people will try and push it every time. Much like Ratling Guns. Those are 55 points and do Str4 attacks, T3, 1W, heavy armor and they 'splode, so vastly weaker.

I'd say take out the engineer. He kind of pollutes the concept. He'd have his hands full keeping the thing working.

OH, I didn't see this was W6 I4. That's silly. Because you're basically very rarely going to fail your early steam rolls so everyone will generate 3 steam. It should be I1. Why on earth would it be so high? Yes, Init spells will kill it, it's a harvester, not a puma. It's W should be 3-4.

I'd say they should also have some kind of movement limitation kind of like Mangler Squigs but not so bad. I see you maybe making a wheel movement and then only allowed to move forward. I just can't see it dodging dangerous terrain with that much agility. Harvesters move in gigantic straight lines. Not even sure how easily modern ones can turn.

Then drop it's cost to ~150 and make it a Rare.

Not turning could be a fitting rule. May only move forward, and align into combat. Outside of that, it must reform. No wheel, no pivot.

-Matt