Should I bump the Strength of the experimental pistol and rifle to 5? I'm thinking S4, AP -1 is a bit weak for Hazardous weapons.
The problem there is that even at S5, these guys don't seem well-equipped to shoot most units to death. That's essentially a tau pulse carbine at that point, except it kills the wielder.
The special rule on these guys means they obviously want to get very close to enemy vehicles when they die. None of their guns are *especially* scary into infantry, etc., so it really seems like these guys want to specialize into vehicles. So with that in mind, if I were running this unit as-is, I'd be going for wrecking tools and melta guns and nothing else because those are the only weapons that really threaten the vehicles they want to kill.
Unfortunately, I feel like all the other profiles are kind of never-takes because they're only really good at killing light infantry, and this unit is going to be at a disadvantage in that firefight every time because they're constantly killing themselves with hazardous.
On that note, I'm not sure sticking Hazardous on every single gun is necessarily the fluffiest or most interesting way to go. Like, I get that experimental tech is wonky and maybe a bit dangerous, but I wouldn't expect every single back alley heretech gun to explode like a plasma gun. They wouldn't survive long enough and in sufficient numbers to form 10-man squads like this one if they were blowing off their own limbs every time they practiced their craft. So narratively, it seems a little too lolrandom skaven/ork tech. And mechanically, it kind of cancels out the benefits of having better guns when you're putting craters in your own squad every time they shoot. But you said you want these to be a suicide squad, so I won't harp on that point.
To help make the rifles/pistols relevant, perhaps consider giving them Lethal Hits instead of better strength or
AP? That would still represent a vague mix of weapon upgrades that help against all targets as these guys tinker with their gear, but it would also make them a smidge more effective into their preferred target of vehicles.
For faction, I feel like these guys would be at-home in a
GSC army.
GSC is 90% the local population of your average imperial world mind-controlled or genetically influenced to serve the cult. They're big on sabotage and have little reason to avoid a bit of "creative machine maintenance" as the day of ascension draws near.
For points cost, maybe try them out at about 50ish for 5 and 85 for 10? A ten-man squad technically has almost as many shots as a fire dragon squad, but at worse
BS, with worse special rules, worse armor, etc. These guys will die to a stiff breeze and are really just praying they roll hot on their melta shots or that they somehow manage to catch a vehicle in melee with their wrecking tools. Without 10 bodies, they lack the damage output to be reliably dangerous (still useful as a cheap scout unit), but with 10 bodies they become harder to hide and more vulnerable to Blast weapons.
Looking at it again, you might consider revising their saboteur rule. Specifically the timing. Being within 3" of the enemy in *your* command phase means that either the enemy opted to get up close to your anti-vehicle unit, or else you moved super close to the enemy vehicle on your turn (probably charged it), and then the enemy
opted to stand right next to you all turn instead of moving a couple of inches away. Maybe let the ability trigger once per battle round at the end of any phase? Or just turn it into a passive aura, possibly with a larger area of effect?
