Space Marine Hailstorm Tank

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**4oursword**

The Hailstorm is a Space Marine tank created by the Purgators Chapter as an anti-infantry powerhouse. Using the versatile Rhino chassis, it trades its transport capacity for a pair of Hurricane Bolter Sponsons and reinforced Frontal Armour.

Hailstorm Assault Tank
BS Frontal Side Rear
4 13 11 10

Type: Tank

Wargear: Two Hurricane Bolters

Options:
May take a pintle-mounted Heavy Flamer or Multi-Melta for +15pts
All other options as per the Space Marine Codex for the Predator (Don't have the most recent edition)

So this is a tank designed for taking down Tyranids. It's not subtle, and it's not pretty, but it does the job well. The Multi-melta was added by the Purgators when taking the Hailstorm to other warzones, specifically as a way to take out other vehicles before dousing their occupants with thousands of bolter rounds.

As for points, I would think similar to a Predator Destructor. What say you, Dakkanauts?

**Happyjew**

Changing an STC? The Mechanicum will not be happy.

As a Tyranid player it doesn't seem that OP, especially since the things that would be attacking it would be MCs or mid-range shooting.

**4oursword**

Eh, the Blood Angels and Space Wolves do it all the time. The Purgators never had much time for the Mechanicum- they nicked a forge world from them for a reward for saving it from the Emperor's Children, and never looked back.

**Happyjew**

This tank is clearly designed for horde armies. If your opponent is running Nidzilla, it's in trouble. I'm not saying that this is bad, Just that it would not be as threatening.

**AtoMaki**

4oursword wrote:

As for points, I would think similar to a Predator Destructor. What say you, Dakkanauts?

Nah, 50 points should be enough for it. It can only use its full firepower if it remains stationary and 2x3 TL boltguns are not really that scary. Definitely feels underpowered IMHO. Maybe add special issue ammo and make it 80-90 points? Or even add Fast and make it 90-100 points?

**4oursword**

Although, I'm not sure of the points for a Predator Destructor in this edition. Fast is a Blood Angels thing, so I wouldn't want to encroach there. Special Issue would make it more versatile, so that might be cool.

**Nevelon**

A rhino with no passenger capacity and AV13 front is a predator. What role does this tank fill that a Auto/HB "Dakka" pred can't? That pred costs 95 point in the new codex.

Now if you want hurricane bolters on an AV13 chassis, take them as an option for sponsons. The stormraven pays 30 points to add them, which is 10 more then the HBs on a pred. I'm not familiar with what BAs pay to put a flamestorm cannon in the turret, but you might want to look into that.

Special ammo is suposed to be rare. I don't see it being issued in the quantities to load up a hurricane bolter with it.

**4oursword**

Nevelon wrote:
A rhino with no passenger capacity and AV13 front is a predator. What role does this tank fill that a Auto/HB "Dakka" pred can't? That pred costs 95 point in the new codex.

Now if you want hurricane bolters on an AV13 chassis, take them as an option for sponsons. The stormraven pays 30 points to add them, which is 10 more then the HBs on a pred. I'm not familiar with what BAs pay to put a flamestorm cannon in the turret, but you might want to look into that.

Special ammo is suposed to be rare. I don't see it being issued in the quantities to load up a hurricane bolter with it.

Auto/HB is more suited to Heavy Infantry. Plus, boltgun rounds aren't going to be in short supply for a Space Marine chapter- it's a salvage situation.
Now that you mention it, Special Issue ammo sounds like a bad fit.

**Kain**

Even if you absolutely spammed these things, they wouldn't put out enough shots to really put a dent in a big fat blob of termagants, cultists, guardsmen, kroot, or boyz in cover. Have a top mounted hurricane bolter set too if you're deadset on this unit. 18 bolter shots at 12' still isn't totally amazing but it'd be getting close to the amounts of dakka you'd want for the job.

**4oursword**

Adding a top-mounted one removes the modular nature of space marine tanks. I imagine the sponsons were looted from a destroyed LRC, or a downed SR.

**Kain**

4oursword wrote:
Adding a top-mounted one removes the modular nature of space marine tanks. I imagine the sponsons were looted from a destroyed LRC, or a downed SR.

Put at least an option for a turret mounted hurricane bolter, because as it stands this thing is pretty sucky. It's basically six marines, except not as durable to a lot of things. And can't score. And can't use it's full firepower if it moves.

**Nevelon**

Kain wrote:
4oursword wrote:
Adding a top-mounted one removes the modular nature of space marine tanks. I imagine the sponsons were looted from a destroyed LRC, or a downed SR.

Put at least an option for a turret mounted hurricane bolter, because as it stands this thing is pretty sucky. It's basically six marines, except not as durable to a lot of things. And can't score. And can't use it's full firepower if it moves.

IIRC there are no hurricane bolters mounted in turrets. So from a salvage/slapping something together POV, it makes no sense to have one there.

But if this is an ad-hoc field conversion, I don't see where the AV13 is coming from. That's full tank toughness. If you want to base off of a rhino, you should stick with the rhino's armor, crummy though it is. Or better yet, use a razorback. Stick with one of the free turret options (TLHB, TLHF) and trade the cargo capacity for the sponsons. So instead of having 6 guys hop out and double-tap, you have the hurricanes doing it. Maybe bump the price up 10-20 points. Sure, it's fragile, but if you are worried about the kind of soft targets bolters work on, you don't need full tank armor. The kind of weapons those targets tend to bring to the fight are claws, rocks, and harsh language. AV 11 front/sides should be fine for that.

**4oursword**

The armour was just extra plates, maybe taken from the same Land Raider they nabbed the sponsons from? It could be bumped down to 11, though.

Hmm. I'm not too fond of the idea of a turret- I like the image I have in my head of a very squat vehicle. Nonetheless, it's worth consideration.

**Furyou Miko**

The image of a rhino chassis with sponsons and no turret is pretty awesome - my own Infernus Assault Vehicle was based on the same idea (with Heavy Flamer sponsons rather than Hurricane Bolters).

As it stands, I'd price this about the same as a tactical squad and give it a unique spot in the Marine TO&E by making it either Squadronable or allow it to be taken in the same manner as a Dedicated Transport.

As for the extra frontal armour on an emergency refit, the answer is obvious. It's not an up-gunned Rhino, it's a salvaged Predator whose turret was destroyed. Either that or you can put a Siege Shield on the front - the most recent rules for the Repressor make it an FAV13 rhino, where previously it was just a FAV11 Rhino that automatically passed DT tests.

So, yes. My suggestion: 40 points, with the following amendment to the Tactical, Devastator and Veteran squad entries:

The unit may take a Dedicated Transport from the following list:
- Rhino...............35 points
- Razorback......65 points (or whatever a HB razorback costs)
- Hailstorm........50 points

Because they no longer include the rule that a squad has to be able to fit in its dedicated transport, you don't need to make special dispensation for a vehicle with no transport capacity.

For reference on the pricing: The Repressor is 70 points for a standard rhino with FAV13, a pintle-mounted heavy flamer and a dozer blade.

**Nevelon**

4oursword wrote:
The armour was just extra plates, maybe taken from the same Land Raider they nabbed the sponsons from? It could be bumped down to 11, though.

Hmm. I'm not too fond of the idea of a turret- I like the image I have in my head of a very squat vehicle. Nonetheless, it's worth consideration.

Well, it's not like the razorback turrets are particularly high-profile. And from the look at their website, the FW ones are even lower. (Take that with a grain of salt, not seen one in person.) And once you slap the hurricanes on the side, the center of mass of the whole thing is going to get lower, adding to the squat look.

At the end of the day it's your home-brew, so you need to be happy with it. And make sure the gang you play with is fine with it as well.

**4oursword**

Hmm, thanks guys! What do you think of the option for it to have pintle-mounted Multi-melta or Heavy flamers? I'm erring away from it myself.

**Nevelon**

Only LRs get pintle MMs, and nobody in the army gets pintle HFs. They are a bit out of character for a rhino chassis. If you want some extra punch, stick with the classic vehicle upgrades, SBs or HKs.

**DogofWar1**

It might be worth looking into something like the weapons the Land Raider Prometheus wields, TL-Heavy Bolters on sponsons.

The increased range would help, in that you wouldn't have to choose between moving up close enough to shoot, or shooting, resulting in decreased efficiency for both.

The tradeoff would be decreased shots (two TL-Heavy bolters is 6 shots vs. 12 shots w/ Hurricane), but you could also allow for turrent mounted TL heavy bolters. Call it a Hailstorm Bolter, and make it 2TL HBs. I imagine it'd look something like: http://cdn.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Gears-of-War-3-turret-2.jpg sitting on top of a rhino. Still fairly low to the ground, and gives you 12 shots total at 36". The downside is you probably wouldn't get a Pintle weapon.

**Furyou Miko**

The pintle heavy flamer or multi-melta is fine if it's just one, but the other cupola should be restricted to standard upgrades, I think. There's precedent for the single pintle flamer or melta, after all, but two will not only push it into the realms of heavy support, but will go over the standard Imperial restriction of top weapon + sponsons or hull-mounted, plus possibly storm bolter.

**4oursword**

The precedent is why I thought this would work well. Obviously, the pintle flamer is on the repressor, but it looked cool and I could see a Space Marine tank crewman using one to deal with enemies that get just a bit too close for comfort.

I agree that it should be just one, and one or the other. That makes sense.