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I've been doing some playtesting and mathammer concerning them, and mostly I'd say I'm pretty impressed. The charge of a 5 man RR squad against MEQ's is rather potent, and if you kill even 4 of them you've made up your points. A win in combat could even mean a relatively easy sweeping advance with the 5 initiative provided by the lance on that first turn. People complain about getting charged, but I'd say that for the most part that's not an issue with these guys, providing you field them right. The only problem I see with them is their lack of survivability against any fire, so that they would have to be maneuvered through cover with great care.

Before I commit myself to a box of chaos marauders for converting these (with plenty of filing and greenstuff), I'd be interested in hearing the general consensus on the usefulness of these guys.

Keep em in the back field, and charge any unit arrogant enough to come near your fire base, particularly non-uber canifexes, terminators and other nastys, it dosent matter how hard the enemy is, because the RR's are dead anyways in assult and will strike first. I have seen RR's vaporize these units with ease. Charge with them alone and you come up against their primary weakness, they are 10 point guardsmen fire-magnets. Do NOT let them get shot!

True. The possibility of a 24" assault move is tempting, but for the most part you'll end up getting around 20" so you take a gamble on your run roll there. Does anyone know if the Initiative of 5 provided by the Lances carries over into factoring the sweeping advance? I assume it does?

Nope. Sweeping Advances use "unmodified Initiative.

There have been several threads on RR, and while some do not like them many think they are ok.

I personally love them. Most my builds have 1-2 squads, and they are fast enough to keep up with the mech component...Surprisingly with the new dex they have killed more vehicles than infantry targets, as shooting has so far been sufficient for the infantry, while the improved damage tables for vehicles have sometimes "forced" me to use the RR to finish off vehicles...actually, with vehicles which have not moved or have moved at combat speed, RR do very well versus av10 rear armor, and the krag grenades also have come in useful later on once the lances are depleted...

Their primary role is still cracking high armored infantry, but their secondary role as tank hunters is a very pleasant addition to their role after...

There decent tankhunters against a tank with a rear of 10 cuase kark and sarge with melta bombs and 2 melta guns bam

They are great in a small squad to make it so that you don't crumple to a light MEq assault, but they are incredibly flimsy to shooting and only good for one charge. Also you have to get that charge, and they happen to take a fast attack slot which the valkyrie/vendetta shares.

That is correct, but at least RR are still a decent choice....

Rough Riders are okay but are easily outclassed by the other choices in the fast attack section.

A Banewolf can fill the same counter attack role as the RRs as well as be aggressive.

yes, but bane wolves cannot go into HtH, and they really will have a hard time versus units with a 2+ save, such as termies and the like......

no arguments, I have used the bane wolf and hellhound (not yet the devil dog), and they are fantastic...but I prefer to have an assault component in my list, and RR are the cheapest and most maneuverable in that role......

Best way to find out if a unit is worthwhile is to ask your opponent- the more they hate playing against it, the better it will be used against them.

Having said that, i have a fair bit of hate for roughriders, as a chaos player. The trick is having them in the right place at the right time. They can tear up high armoured targets with their lances, but they are squishy, but with a 20-24" range, they can sit out of range/LOS most of the time before they are needed. They kill marines and then usually die the next turn, leaving the unit they tarpitted nice and open to the rest of your army. They are a tarpit with spikes in it.