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Since Rough Riders have been so badly shafted over the past couple codices..I thought I'd try my hand at writing some playable and fluffy rules for them.

I think I've come up with something I'd be willing to play, both in my army and/or my opponents!
My thinking was less the Tallarn theme and more the Civil War era cavalry charges.

Let me know what you think!

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Rough Rider Squad : 60pts

Rough Rider(Cavalry) : Ws3, BS3, S4, T4, W1, I2, A1, Ld 8, 5+sv
Rough Rider Sergeant(Cavalry, Character): Ws3, BS3, S4, T4, W1, I3, A2, Ld 9, 5+sv

Unit Composition :- x4 Rough Riders + Sergeant

Weapons:
Lasgun

ccw, laspistol(sergeant)

Special Rules:

Equestrian - cannot go to ground as doing so requires abandoning the steed!

Chaargge!! - in the assault phase in which the squad charges they benefit from +2 Initiative.

Upgrades:
Up to 15 Additional Rough Riders : 10pts each

Carapace Armor : 5pts per model
Entire unit may swap all their lasguns for Power Lances : free upgrade

sergeant may swap CCW for a laspistol : free upgrade
Sergeant may swap CCW for a Power weapon : 2pts
sergeant may purchase alternate pistols from the Astra Militarum ranged weapons list

One or more Rough Riders may carry a regimental instrument (eg: bugle, bagpipes, gong or glockenspiel)
Doing so grants the entire unit the Hit and Run special rule : 2pts per model


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Broadly, you get a 5 - 20 cavalry unit, they move 12", charge 12", benefit from fleet as Cavalry do..so they get there anyhow.
If you gave them Power Lances then they will strike on the charge with anywhere up to ~40 S5 AP3 hits, however a decent round of overwatch will put a dent in that, and reasonably the opponent will get at least one turn of shooting at them since cover is -not- the cavalry's friend (the Cavalry rule making difficult terrain into Dangerous!)
Hit and Run is possibly useful, as lets face it, falling back to charge again is exactly what you'd want to do to maximise the effectiveness of those power lances. It's not a guaranteed thing though and you might easily get locked in melee for another turn, and with one wound each, every turn counts heavily towards the next assault's effectiveness.

The idea of making the Lasguns standard is to provide the opportunity for a flanking or line-breaking fast moving Guardsman squad. take and control those objective markers on the turn you need them, then rapidly displace to the next one and easily achieve those TACOs when the rest of your army is mostly a gunline

Carapace armour is probably worthwhile in most cases, but if you just want cheap but mobile horsemen, you can for-go it and spend the points on another half-strength rough rider squad!

C&C is welcome!

Perhaps add a option to take up to two Hunting Lances of the same type per Rough Rider?

What I think I'd prefer is the hunting lance instead of power lances and give it armourbane. I really only use rough riders to flank and destroy light vehicles.

Another idea I had was possibly having horses as say a cheap upgrade for vets and command squads. Taking horses on a PCS means all infantry and sws have to be mounted in that platoon, but ypu can't bring conscripts or hws. Keep rough riders as a counter charge unit with their extended move and powerful first strike.

This would then work well of they brought back doctrines as attilians could get skilled rider and other bonuses for massed cavalry.

Also need their frags back for if they do have to go through terrain otherwise it gets complex with +2 initiative and also set modifiers of going last.

Why not two wounds ala the Death Korps Rough Riders? I think that's what they really needed for a little point increase.

Apart from that they now seem decent, although maybe Ws 4 is in order.

I like your idea of cheap, fast objective grabbing riders with plain lasguns, we desperately need some speed in this codex.

However, I have said it before, but if new rules are written for rough riders they absolutely must have hammer of wrath....the impact of a Calvary charge is literally the embodiment of the rule.

 Ustis wrote:
I like your idea of cheap, fast objective grabbing riders with plain lasguns, we desperately need some speed in this codex.

However, I have said it before, but if new rules are written for rough riders they absolutely must have hammer of wrath....the impact of a Calvary charge is literally the embodiment of the rule.

Don't they already have HoW? The problem is that at Strength: 3 AP: -, it doesn't really accomplish much. Perhaps some sort of rule that improves on it? For instance, better AP the higher it rolls on Charge distance?

It isn't listed in their codex entry, unless calvary unit types have it base, I shall have to try to find my rulebook and check.

Going back to what you were saying, I don't think we should be concerned about their close combat ability but more so their durability. We don't need rough riders to be able to decimate tactical space marine squads, we have every kind of leman russ for that. However the leman russes and pretty much every unit in the army are either not quick enough or not durable enough to steal objectives late game. That's where the rough riders need to come in; I don't care if they are only armed with lasguns, make them tougher (T4, W2, 4+ armour etc.) and we can use them as a poor mans guardian jetbike unit.
Jeeze what I would give for IG jetbike troops....

Cavalry get HoW as standard, as well as Fleet

I initially wrote the rough riders as having two wounds and two attacks base, but reflected that rolling 60 dice for a single unit was a bit too much. better to have fewer but better attacks. And the "one or two really good attacks on the charge each" style is much more cavalry than becoming a rolling meat-grinder that eats entire tactical squads of marines...

I didn't consider grenades at all, I don't usually remember anything other than krak grenades during gameplay anyway
But yes, frag grenades would be sensible too.

I figure T4 with a 4+ save is pretty good for something moving that fast around the table, two wounds would be the limit to what I'd give them,
They're men on horses, not men on armoured bikes The horse is not much tougher than the guy riding him, though I picture the horses wearing flak armour or carapace armour to match the rider.

Ruadhan2300 wrote:
Cavalry get HoW as standard, as well as Fleet


They're men on horses, not men on armoured bikes

Can't Rough Riders be on Bikes as well?

I believe bikes and cavalry are separate classes, I'd have to check the rulebook for that though.

Ruadhan2300 wrote:
I believe bikes and cavalry are separate classes, I'd have to check the rulebook for that though.

Rough riders can be modelled however you like, but are currently cavalry. You can model Rough Riders as bikers and still use the cavalry rules. The same way plenty of people model bike equipped troops as riding large animals or using sorcerous powers or just being high on cocaine.

As for your OP, its another decent idea people have had for RRs for many years now. One of the more liked and commonly accepted changes is to simply rip the rules from DKOK Death Riders, which has W2 and an Invuln save last I checked.

I'm not a fan of boosting the strength of the model itself for consistency reasons, but giving +1T for the mount is reasonable. Then grant them weapons that boosts strength.

Personally, I'm a fan of rough rider ideas that turn them into mobile infantry platoons without heavy weapons. Make them somewhat analagous to other set ups in different codices; Eldar have jetbikes to their guardians, marines have bikers to their tacs, dark eldar have jetbikes to their warriors, orks have warbikers to their mobs, and so on.

Basically, you pay a point premium for added mobility and durability (like all bikes), but with Guard, you'd sacrifice heavy weapons and total numbers (cap platoons at 30 members instead of 50, as an example) which would also mean a loss of potential durability. In addition, Guard strengths generally lie in bringing as much cheap, effective firepower and staying power as possible, so paying a premium for mobility (outside of a chimera, which has its own drawbacks too) may not be ideal if your army isn't geared for it.

To that end, you'd have rough rider platoon command squads and company command squads that have one or two special orders specifically for rough riders. Let rough riders switch freely between pistol + ccw and rifles, with the option for lances all around. Then let 1 out of 5 take a special weapon or melee weapon.

Purchasing Hit and run as you put in is a great idea, and like the fluff for modelling some suitable instrument (or standard I suppose). Either a per model cost or squad based cost is reasonable, though I wouldn't charge more than 1pts per model for hit and run on some WS3 guardsmen with bonus toughness. Same goes for carapace; 5pts per model is crazy expensive and generally not worth it. Around 2pts per model is more reasonable.

As for additions I'd like see but may be a little more complicated to balance would be instead to just make rough riders have a set of doctrines for things like carapace. Have doctrines called 'Hussars', 'Dragoons', and 'Cossacks' or something, each one doing something similar to vets doctrines. As an example (that may not be historically accurate to what Dragoons do), Dragoons doctrine could grant carapace armour and let the squad re-roll failed hits of 1 in shooting. Conversely, 'Hussars' could be grants Hit and Run and may re-roll failed 1s to hit in CC. Gives them a clear role for nice advantages. Some people may not like it because it may be a little restrictive, but I'm just spit-balling at this point.

Oh, and they need mounted commissars and priests as options for squads. Effective on the tabletop, and looks doubly badass. The only thing cooler than a commissar, is a commissar on a mother fething horse.

Point is, I really like Rough Riders as a general concept, whether they're mounted on horses, small dragons, bikes, high on cocaine, or in powered exo-suits for increased speed.

The key to making rough riders good is fixing what makes them bad. In my (not so) humble opinion, what makes them bad is their cost (too high) and lack any sort of role. They don't do anything in the codex. They're not durable enough in base stats or in raw numbers, they don't have any threatening firepower in either the shooting phase or close combat, they compete in a slot with far better options, they have no special rules to define anything worthwhile about what they should be doing in your list, there's no synergy or support built in, and the worst part is no badass models standard from GW to at least get more people interested.

Ramble ramble ramble.

I like rough riders. Good idea though.

As far as I know (not being a IG player), Rough Riders are either:

1. Super skilled riders born on a planet that uses such as a part of life, thus being naturals.

2. A cheap alternative to fast moving armour and counters to such

3. Sacrificial as they usually charge something shooting at them and are not Astartes, heavily armoured, or anything particularly tough.

4. Crazy

5. All of the above.

Mind you, my idea is probably a big misconception, but hear me out as a person from outside the circle of knowledge. By my little game knowledge shouldn't Rough Riders be:

1. Cheap like any other no-name IG soldier?
2. Able to choose a lasgun for free as...well its the IG?
3. Given the myriad worlds of the Imperium, shouldn't some Rough Riders be actually worth something if enough points are sunk into them?

All of those are possibilities.

So two options present themselves.

You can either create a generic unit that represents the lowest common denominator in galactic rough riders and let the player just model them however they like, or you can create more complex rules with options similar to veterans with their doctrines and larger wargear selection.

The first has the benefit of not restricting players in the slightest, is the simplest and easiest, and is likely the most balanced or easiest to balance. The second option offers more customization, but with the possibility of leaving out a few potential options that some players would have wanted instead, and is obviously more complex for you and your opponent to remember, while also being more difficult to balance.

I personally prefer the second option is done correctly, but the question is how. OP has a good start on that front, but like any idea, could use some refinement.