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This came to me in a daydream I was having during the middle of a class yesterday, and I'd like to expand on it slightly.

The planet of Kursk IV was visited by the Emperor during the Great Crusade, and brought into compliance. The people of Kursk are tribal, much like our Native Americans, and had developed most of their society around the horse. The only worry the people of Kursk had was loosing their great horses to the tide of incoming technological wonders, and pleaded with the new planetary government to make plans that would keep the animals, and minor traditions of their people alive. Over time, under the watchful eye of Astartes trainers, the planet had their own founding Chapter of Space Marines, the Death Riders. The new Astartes chapter began experimentation on the purest bread of war horses on the planet, and soon developed the Astartes Warhorse, a rather impressive beast standing three fold taller than a normal horse, enhanced with it's own version of gene seed. Ceramite armor was also cast to protect the horses from ballistic damage, though their toughened skin was enough to shrug off most small arms fire. Riding from the mists of dawn, the Death Riders strike without mercy, carrying powerful las-lances and bolt pistols.

Ehh, I know I really, really, really suck at writing fluff, and it's pretty early for me, but what does Dakka think?

I suppose it could count as an attack bike?

Also, anyone have any suggestions for a horse model I could use and green stuff the hell out of?

um personally I dont think I like it. I just dont see marines on horseback. I think that kinda race would be someone like the White Scars.

If you wanna go this way though I'd recommend some of the Warmachine cavalry as ideal.

Geneseed for horses... Can't really see it be done, since geneseed was designed and created by the emperor himslef, and I guess he couldn't be bothered with anything as simple as horses...

Could be an interesting 'counts-as' White Scars army... certainly an novel idea even if war-horse geneseed is a little un-fluffy.

Genetically engineered space cowboys. I like it. Just get some Archaon mounts to file and fill (and up armor) and you will be good to go ;-)

Never mind Archaons (think of the cost!) the Empire Pistoliers mounts are chunky enough that having a Marine plonked on them won't look entirely daft!

just wait for the new chaos steeds. Think they would suit your purpose.

Also i might suggest geneticly enhanced horses, instead of gene-seed horses. You might ruffle some feathers and it sounds more feasable, because the marines were, as we all know, by the emperor and suggest that someone could do the same as him might get the inquisition in a bad mood.

I just thought of something!

In Decent Of Angels dont the people that become the Dark Angels have archaic power armour and ride specially bred to be hooge horses?

just go for large or enhanced horses... geneseed is too much

You do know that three-fold means the horses would be eight times as big? I'm not shooting you down, the idea is novel, but most people don't seem to know what "fold" means, think of it like unfolding a piece of paper.

One Fold - Twice as big
Two fold - Twice one fold, four times as big
Three Fold - Twice as two fold, eight times as big

Though some people do follow that "fold" means "times" for multiplication....

Anyhow! Back on subject. Space Marines on horses is a silly idea, but Space Marines are a silly idea too, so it's a good idea! Fluff only has to make enough sense to get the horses big and the Marines on them. After that, it's all just to quiet the whiny people. I would like to see a concept design though, would be interesting.

Skinnattittar wrote:Though some people do follow that "fold" means "times" for multiplication....

Anyhow! Back on subject. Space Marines on horses is a silly idea, but Space Marines are a silly idea too, so it's a good idea!

Threefold=cubed

Silly idea + Silly idea=Good idea is kind of like Negative x Negative=Positive

I seem to recall an image in WD of a marine on a cold on holding an auspex. It looked pretty mean

How would you cube one then? It would only be one. Cubed is used for measuring volume.

Cubed as in:
2x2x2=8

I would also recommend against the "gene-seed" horses but see no problem with you having large horses that have been genetically engineered or cybernetically enhanced. Heavy armour on them works too. This could make an interesting "counts as" army.

you mean like my WIPs?





edit: Wow, the date on my camera is waaaaaaaay off

look good, mostly like a heavily armoured knight really.
are they going to be chaos?
you are going to have a bugger of a time de-chaosifying those horses.

whats up with the smooth helmet faces?

helmets are totally a stolen idea, i dig it.

My general idea is that their a group of marines isolated by a warp storm in a very low-tech system. horses are simply from a high-gravity world (if high gravity can turn a human into a tougher-than-a-marine ogryn, it can make a horse into a horse that can carry a marine, counts-as bike).

As for chaos or not, I'm undecided. I think I might do a chapter in the process of falling to chaos, so I can use either codex.

@ Knight : What is 2 the value of? Or are you just saying that "fold" can be made to the equation x(2^n) where x is the initial measurement and n is the number of folds?

Once you chip out the metal plates in the mail and maybe Imerialize the spikes a bit they should look great! I actually really like those models, myself.

i think the idea is a good one. you just dont see people put marines on horseback, and just on that principal its a good idea. good luck man!
get some minis done and lets see whatcha got!

Interesting, although the Chaos Icon on the horse kinda takes away from the Adeptus Astartes, unless of course this is for a Chaos army.

Do something about the chaos symbols, and tech up the lance. You're totally set. As for the lance, why not attach the "storm bolter" to it ala Custodes, and have them pointing the lances forward as if charging/shooting?

use the mechanical horse from the empire engineer

There were (once upon a time) Space Marine horse riders – or at least renegades:
http://www.solegends.com/citcat911/c2111chaosrenhorse.htm
...so I've no problem with the concept. I prefer the idea of genetically-enhanced steeds over geneseed-enhanced steeds (perhaps you could suggest they have subdermal armour or something?)

I think that the new plastic chaos steeds would be your best bet, as Skevan and TheBananabeast suggest.

+++
P.S. Digging the WIPs, Bananabeast. I had a similar idea for the heads, based on the HH artwork: