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I was thinking back on the relatively monotonous nature of CSM vehicles compared to Loyalist counterparts and figure that injecting some flavor into the Thousand Sons and perhaps the World Eaters (I'll hold off on that one until I see the codex.)

Fluff first because this is a setting more than anything else. A thousand Son's sorcerer was working upon increasing the effectiveness of his Rubrics and found some had an affinity for vehicles, due to perhaps serving as crew during their days in the Flesh. He takes some out of their armor and instead binds them into special vessels within an old Heresy Style Predator Tank, then arms it with the weapons so characteristic of the Thousand Sons in "Modern" 40k. Introducing powerful new Inferno Heavy Bolters, and either Giant Warpflamer or Neutron Laser (Tzeentched up of course). I figure if a Terminator or Power Armor suit could be animated than a Tank could be possible if a Sorcerer worked on it for long enough.

In terms of build, a Rubric Predator would be similar to a normal Predator tank, but featuring weapons more common to the Heresy, featuring that same rounded turret as the Deimos Predators. Featuring perhaps 3 sponson options, either Heavy Warp Flamers, Soulreaper Cannons or a possible "Inferno Heavy Bolter" they would fit into the arsenal of existing weaponry.

Rules I'd say it would be the standard Predator Statline with a few adjustments, like All is Dust.
For its main guns, the Warpstorm Cannon (drawing inspiration from the flamestorm cannon) would be 12 or 18 inch range, 2D6 autohits Strength 6 AP-3 D2.
The Neutron Laser would ape the Admech model, 48 inch range, D3 Shots, Strength 12, AP-4 and D3+3 damage blast. This armament I'd be most open to adjustments so not to step on the toes of Admech.

Standard 2 Sponsons, and a Inferno Combi Bolter Pintle mount.

Tell me what you think about these rules but the idea in general. We've already seen those HH Era Tankettes turned into Daemon Engines by the Death Guard, wouldn't it be fitting if all the Cult Legions took an iconic Heresy era vehicle and made it their own, either through making it into a Daemon Engine or modifying it further enhance their unique nature from standard CSM. I figure with the Death Guard grabbing the Arquitor, perhaps GW could put together a pattern, say a unique Predator for the Thousand Sons, a unique Land Raider for the World Eaters, perhaps finally a "Possessed Land Raider" model given how often I see them mentioned in the fluff. Finally I guess that the Emperor's Children could nab the Sicarian.

Nice idea, a few pointers:

- Wouldn't give it All is Dust, not sure why this particular vehicle would get it.

As for weapons, the Warpstorm Cannon would be a hefty points investment as it's pretty powerful. I'd use the following statlines for the weapons:

Warpstorm Cannon: Range 12", Assault 3D3, S6 Ap-2, D2, Autohits.

Neutron Cannon: Range 72", Heavy 2, S12, Ap-4, Damage D3+3

Soulsnare Cannon: Range 24", Heavy 16, S5 Ap-2 D1. Add 1 to hit rolls if targeting a unit which suffered Mortal Wounds in the preceding Psychic Phase.

wouldn't it be fitting if all the Cult Legions took an iconic Heresy era vehicle and made it their own, either through making it into a Daemon Engine or modifying it further enhance their unique nature from standard CSM.

Eh. I'm all for creating homebrew for the fun of it, but giving each traitor legion a special vehicle variant means that you're trying to make them all unique in a roughly similar way. Which seems self-limiting if your goal is to make them feel more unique from one another.

Fluff-wise, it seems reasonable that rubricae could pilot a tank. However, they'd still be rubricae, so I'd expect them to still need a sorcerer around to keep them from going inert again. Also, I'm not sure how viable it is to put a rubric into a machine daemon engine style. If Thousand Sons could play around with their dusty brothers' souls that easily, you'd think they'd be able to restore some of their personalities a bit more. Feels a little off to me.

Mechanically, swapping out any bolter weapon with an inferno version of itself seems like a reasonable enough thing. Just make them weapon upgrades per normal and charge X points for the inferno/warpflame version. I'm not very familiar with the big guns being discussed, so I'll refrain from commenting on them other than saying it's usually best to err on the side of caution when it comes to homebrew. You want your opponent to enjoy playing against your creations.

When I think about Thousand Sons-specific vehicles, it seems to me that the main difference would be that the pilots are presumably either non-astartes or else they're Thousand Sons psykers. So I could see taking normal vehicles and applying some combination of the following:
* Inferno bolt versions of bolt weapons.
* BS 4+ instead of 3+ because the vehicle is piloted by tzaangor or cultists or spire guard.
* There's a psyker inside. Give the vehicle some psychic powers.
* Magic runes etched into the vehicle. Let embarked psykers cast out of the vehicle or cast more easily while near the vehicle. (This would make sense if you want to give rhinos more of a support role like they have with devilfish and some other basic transports.)

Also, while I question how much sense it makes to have rubricae as tank pilots (unless there's a psyker guiding them), rubric dreadnaughts make plenty of sense to me. You had a technically still alive brother plugged into a dreadnaught. Then the rubric happened. The "armor" he got trapped in would be the dreadnaught rather than a suit of power/terminator armor. Bam! You've got an all is dustnaught. Give it all is dust and a rule that makes it less effective when not within 12" of a friendly psyker. Sorcerer dreads probably make sense too. Call it a Dread Sorcerer.

 Wyldhunt wrote:

wouldn't it be fitting if all the Cult Legions took an iconic Heresy era vehicle and made it their own, either through making it into a Daemon Engine or modifying it further enhance their unique nature from standard CSM.

Eh. I'm all for creating homebrew for the fun of it, but giving each traitor legion a special vehicle variant means that you're trying to make them all unique in a roughly similar way. Which seems self-limiting if your goal is to make them feel more unique from one another.

Fluff-wise, it seems reasonable that rubricae could pilot a tank. However, they'd still be rubricae, so I'd expect them to still need a sorcerer around to keep them from going inert again. Also, I'm not sure how viable it is to put a rubric into a machine daemon engine style. If Thousand Sons could play around with their dusty brothers' souls that easily, you'd think they'd be able to restore some of their personalities a bit more. Feels a little off to me.

Mechanically, swapping out any bolter weapon with an inferno version of itself seems like a reasonable enough thing. Just make them weapon upgrades per normal and charge X points for the inferno/warpflame version. I'm not very familiar with the big guns being discussed, so I'll refrain from commenting on them other than saying it's usually best to err on the side of caution when it comes to homebrew. You want your opponent to enjoy playing against your creations.

When I think about Thousand Sons-specific vehicles, it seems to me that the main difference would be that the pilots are presumably either non-astartes or else they're Thousand Sons psykers. So I could see taking normal vehicles and applying some combination of the following:
* Inferno bolt versions of bolt weapons.
* BS 4+ instead of 3+ because the vehicle is piloted by tzaangor or cultists or spire guard.
* There's a psyker inside. Give the vehicle some psychic powers.
* Magic runes etched into the vehicle. Let embarked psykers cast out of the vehicle or cast more easily while near the vehicle. (This would make sense if you want to give rhinos more of a support role like they have with devilfish and some other basic transports.)

Also, while I question how much sense it makes to have rubricae as tank pilots (unless there's a psyker guiding them), rubric dreadnaughts make plenty of sense to me. You had a technically still alive brother plugged into a dreadnaught. Then the rubric happened. The "armor" he got trapped in would be the dreadnaught rather than a suit of power/terminator armor. Bam! You've got an all is dustnaught. Give it all is dust and a rule that makes it less effective when not within 12" of a friendly psyker. Sorcerer dreads probably make sense too. Call it a Dread Sorcerer.

Oh I meant ideas for flat out adding them to the armies, mostly just as a thought experiment. I don't have a Thousand Sons army but I figured that it could be cool if you could make a Rubricae Tank. Figured Dreadnoughts have been done to death so I focused on tanks IMO but your idea of a Dustnaught has some merit.

I was figuring if each one were to get their own take on iconic SM vehicles it would reflect two things in particular in the fluff. The corrupted fallen legions still have their perceptible origins but also have moved forward. I also figured if a suit of armor could be animated, what is stopping a particularly driven sorcerer from using a Tank as a basis. Perhaps having them have limited responsiveness without a Psyker on the ground could be an interesting way of representing their limited perception. Instead of using his eye lenses, he can only see through the vision ports of the tank.

Thank you for the feedback!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Valkyrie wrote:
Nice idea, a few pointers:

- Wouldn't give it All is Dust, not sure why this particular vehicle would get it.

As for weapons, the Warpstorm Cannon would be a hefty points investment as it's pretty powerful. I'd use the following statlines for the weapons:

Warpstorm Cannon: Range 12", Assault 3D3, S6 Ap-2, D2, Autohits.

Neutron Cannon: Range 72", Heavy 2, S12, Ap-4, Damage D3+3

Soulsnare Cannon: Range 24", Heavy 16, S5 Ap-2 D1. Add 1 to hit rolls if targeting a unit which suffered Mortal Wounds in the preceding Psychic Phase.

I would give it the All is Dust rule because its a Rubricae animating an otherwise crewless tank.