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With the release of Khorne Daemonkin, I was hoping desperately for the release of a new unit that I'm sure many others have dreamed of: Berzerkers riding juggernauts, or an equivalent of Skullcrushers for 40k.

Unfortunately, that bloody, skull-filled dream did not come true.

But if your gaming group is anything like mine, your friends are down to use homebrew rules to FORGE A NARRATIVE and stuff.

Therefore, I present this unit entry to the world in hopes that you will comment and provide feedback. These rules have already been presented to Heresy-Online.net and Bolter & Chainsword, but I'd love to have an even wider audience to expose them to.

The original inspiration for the ruleset came from Thunderwolf Cavalry, which is the closest analogue to my unit: power armored cavalry whose mount is nearly identical (begrudgingly, it's better...). From there, I attempted to swap wargear and special rules that were not compatible as well as add a bit of flavor.

There is a mindset among some players that homebrew units must be underpowered and expensive. It is obviously not universal, but I've encountered it often enough to note. So I offer the following for your consideration: The current meta of our game involves a LOT of cheesy bs that is totally legitimate and straight from Games Workshop's writers. One can complain, and one can refuse to play a general who makes use of the worst of these units, but they don't really need anyone's permission to use them in most situations. Wraithknights, Necron Decurion formation, Eldar Scatterbikes, Flesh Tearers allied drop pod shenanigans, Draigostar, Superfriends, et cetera. Considering the insanely good shooty units we've been seeing in AdMech, a CC unit with the ability to actually do some work is not at all uncalled for.

Please, keep that in mind. I know that the target demographic for this unit is friendly games. In fact, those are the only kind that I play. That being said, this unit is designed to be powerful. It is designed to be a close combat monster of a unit but at the same time I believe it is still quite reasonable over all. Of course, that is my opinion and I am biased on their favor. I have modified it extensively since its early inception based on the feedback I received from other players, so what you see is not merely the wishlisty nonsense it could have been.


Please take a look and tell me what you think:

Loving it, I Think theyre well costed and may very well give CSM a bit more "umph" on the table, and obviously this works well with the Khorne Daemonkin too. Awesome job!

Thank you!

50pts, make em 55 and give them 3 wounds as juggers in every iteration have 3 wounds, other than that I think they are pretty good, got rid of the stupid t4 and that's a good step, still think str 5 should be there but that's neither here nor there.

 Formosa wrote:
50pts, make em 55 and give them 3 wounds as juggers in every iteration have 3 wounds, other than that I think they are pretty good, got rid of the stupid t4 and that's a good step, still think str 5 should be there but that's neither here nor there.

Definitely prefer your way, but they have the stats as listed because a juggernaut adds +1 T/W/A.

S5 on the charge due to FC, at least.

T5 3W would be ideal, but I think I'd rather have S5 base? Having both would probably bump points up to ~60 a pop, which still isn't terrible.

Rending will help negate S4 a bit. S5 would be 6's to would big baddies anyway. Slash through that 3+ save this way.

Ah your applying the mount stats for a hq choice, fantasy juggers or all types have 3, same as 40k, why would chaos marine ones have less?

I think the hq one is only +1 wound as Could you imagine +3 on a chaos lord

Str 5 on charge is fine by me, it's more of a "I want str6 on the charge" than anything wise but your right that would bump the cost, these guys should just be better thunderwolves, as a balance factor you could add demonic instability to offset the cost?

 Formosa wrote:
Ah your applying the mount stats for a hq choice, fantasy juggers or all types have 3, same as 40k, why would chaos marine ones have less?

I think the hq one is only +1 wound as Could you imagine +3 on a chaos lord

Str 5 on charge is fine by me, it's more of a "I want str6 on the charge" than anything wise but your right that would bump the cost, these guys should just be better thunderwolves, as a balance factor you could add demonic instability to offset the cost?

Well they aren't really daemons, and I hate that rule with a passion, so that one is a definite no.

The majority of the units a deamon

Haha juggernaut does not confer "you missed all your attacks and the fire warrior got lucky so your entire unit is erased" !

Even though now that the Khorne Daemonkin codex has already been released under almost no Khorne-specific Chaos Space Marine model support... This is a good idea that could still happen, if Games Workshop is willing to errata their own new release with a unit that would have been the poster child for the entire codex had it existed at the time. Ah, well. The fact that they went ahead and made a daemonkin codex means that we already have all they're going to give us...

But a man can dream...

 Quarterdime wrote:
Even though now that the Khorne Daemonkin codex has already been released under almost no Khorne-specific Chaos Space Marine model support... This is a good idea that could still happen, if Games Workshop is willing to errata their own new release with a unit that would have been the poster child for the entire codex had it existed at the time. Ah, well. The fact that they went ahead and made a daemonkin codex means that we already have all they're going to give us...

But a man can dream...

Yup, sad but true as far as GW is concerned. They have an increasing willingness to delete unit entries they don't have models for. As you say, if it wasn't in KD it'll probably never happen.

The one wild card they can utilize in the future is the dataslate. They can release totally new units and then simply drop a digital dataslate for the rules a la the advent calendar formations. If they're happy with 7th edition and they update all the armies to have rulebooks written for it, dataslates are the way to go. Very little production cost as far as the rules, and the models are their strong point ultimately.

That being said, it'll never happen. That's why I decided to forge my own gat dang narrative and make the unit that I want.

Thats thunderwolf cavalry with fnp and 1 less attack.

And no free rending.

TWC don't own the patent on cavalry. You could argue that TWC "are rough riders with x, y and z".

And I can say that this is RWBKs without Plasma Talons and with 1 more wound and FNP)

Sounds interesting though.

It's certainly less relentlessly terrible than the bog standard blood crusher (I'm sorry, that many points for a T4 melee only model with a crap save that's not even especially great in melee? Pass). The T5 and 3+ save should help them suffer critical existence failure much less often which was always my problem with the newer Juggernauts (Oh is that a battlecannon you Slaaneshi scum have there? Terribly sorry about showing up, we'll just go and turn ourselves inside out and save you the trouble). Their damage output doesn't seem like it'll be super great but in the edition of "shooting, shooting and more shooting" just having the ability to survive the trek across the board and still present a reasonable threat counts more in my book than damage output.

Also, props for the pretty sheet.

Thank you, thank you.

This is still a "beta" test of sorts, but I haven't been able to figure out their perfect stats/loadout. I think in general I'm satisfied with them. They're a solid unit without being exceptionally weak or powerful. Honestly I'd prefer them to be a little on the stronger side. At the currents point costs I figured trading 1 attack for FNP was decent.

Perhaps a unique special rule of sorts?

Actually looking at doing something similar if I make it to a Warhammer World event in the not too distant.

There's a Battle Brothers event, and the event pack adds in a formation called "Gods Of War" available to everyone - 3+ independent characters, who get Fearless, Feel No Pain, and a roll on the Personal Warlord Traits table each.

I find myself tempted to try and make up the armies using two sets of said formation to produce an army of eight daemonkin chaos lords on juggernauts....

I'll just slide this into the recess of where I put warp-smiths in why GW hasn't put them into KDK, I mean come on warp-smiths are even included in the lore of one of the factions. My rant aside this unit looks amazing, but I have a change.

Uncontrollable rage: If within charge range of an enemy unit at the beginning of your turn take a leadership test, if failed the unit moves 12in towards the unit and attempts to charge, and if the charge is successful the SKs get hatred for the WHOLE combat.

I tested the unit out, sadly t5 and 2 wounds = dead unit in 2 of my games and they proved rather lackluster when they hit combat eventually, I will keep testing but thus far they seem too expensive, I'm going to test them at 40pts next, then 3 wounds wounds, let you know what happens

Comparing them to hounds they are overcosted.

I would either make them 30 points, or up them to 3 wounds

 Formosa wrote:
I tested the unit out, sadly t5 and 2 wounds = dead unit in 2 of my games and they proved rather lackluster when they hit combat eventually, I will keep testing but thus far they seem too expensive, I'm going to test them at 40pts next, then 3 wounds wounds, let you know what happens

WOW! That's awesome that you tested them!

Did you use the rending banner? Any weapon upgrades?

I tested the unit out, sadly t5 and 2 wounds = dead unit in 2 of my games and they proved rather lackluster when they hit combat eventually, I will keep testing but thus far they seem too expensive, I'm going to test them at 40pts next, then 3 wounds wounds, let you know what happens

What killed them? Whenever I see Thunderwolves, they're always loaded out with Storm Shields, so I wonder if an Aura Of Dark Glory is enough to keep them safe.

The Icon of The Stampede should probably be included as a default - without rending, the unit has little more punch than a khorne terminator squad - but without AP weapons.

I'd be tempted to give them chainaxes by default - more because no bugger every buys chainaxes for bezerkers, and it'd be nice to see someone actually use the signature weapon of khornate warriors.

locarno24 wrote:

I tested the unit out, sadly t5 and 2 wounds = dead unit in 2 of my games and they proved rather lackluster when they hit combat eventually, I will keep testing but thus far they seem too expensive, I'm going to test them at 40pts next, then 3 wounds wounds, let you know what happens

What killed them? Whenever I see Thunderwolves, they're always loaded out with Storm Shields, so I wonder if an Aura Of Dark Glory is enough to keep them safe.

The Icon of The Stampede should probably be included as a default - without rending, the unit has little more punch than a khorne terminator squad - but without AP weapons.

I'd be tempted to give them chainaxes by default - more because no bugger every buys chainaxes for bezerkers, and it'd be nice to see someone actually use the signature weapon of khornate warriors.

Well they currently do have chainaxes by default. Not that CSM needed help killing hordes of xenos, but it's better than nothing.

Perhaps some "special" chainaxe that has rending, and increase the base cost by a few ppm?