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Ditch the horses. Heavily represented worlds such as Cadia probably don't have a single horse on them, why are we still grandfathering in a planet most players who joined post 2nd Ed have never heard of (Atilla).

Change RR to bikers - or just give them the option to upgrade their horses to bikes, give them something nifty like a teleport homer to synergise with Tempestus or even something that enables them to spot for artillery. Potentially something similar to the servo skull for Inquisition.

 MarsNZ wrote:
Ditch the horses. Heavily represented worlds such as Cadia probably don't have a single horse on them, why are we still grandfathering in a planet most players who joined post 2nd Ed have never heard of (Atilla).

Change RR to bikers - or just give them the option to upgrade their horses to bikes, give them something nifty like a teleport homer to synergise with Tempestus or even something that enables them to spot for artillery. Potentially something similar to the servo skull for Inquisition.

You give them rules that are flexible allowing you to model them however you want.

Calling them cavalry and modelling them with bikes still makes perfect sense. Same with making them bikes and modelling them as cavalry.

I prefer the "Mounted Platoon" option myself. Make them a modular unit, that can represent anything from light to heavy cavalry. Give them Hit and Run, and let them take Altered Mounts as a "free" swap that lets them get +1 to their Armor Save, in exchange for losing H&R. Give them the option to buy Carapace Armor, Frenzon, better pistols (The 40k equivalent of Empire Pistoliers would be entertaining; space Caracole tactics), etc.

Oh, and allow for Mounted Veterans, or for mounted HQ choices too (Mounted Priests anyone?)

It goes without saying that any changes to RR would be accompanied by the option for certain ICs (Commissars, Priests, maybe psykers) to buy a dank ass horse to pimp around with.

Maybe they should get robot horses and storm shields and powerfists and rending and be called "lightning horse cavalry".

Martel732 wrote:
Maybe they should get robot horses and storm shields and powerfists and rending and be called "lightning horse cavalry".

And they can be unicorns and have giant magical wings and gak rainbows and fairy dust!

I would not have replaced the Hunting Lance with a Power Spear. The former ones were more powerful and more useful even if they were one use only (it's rare for such a fragile unit to have the chance of making two charges anyway so the one use only isn't that bad). With a Power Spear, units like Chaos Space Marines with Close Combat Weapon might actually still beat you even if you charge because they strike first and with enough punch to hurt your guise before they strike. I would say the lascarabine is barely worth two points. For their price tag, I would also give them the Special Rule Acute Senses since light cavalry was famed for its ability to trek dangerous zones and surround ennemy forces. Because of their speed, I would have perhapse gave them Objetive Secure (via their light cavalry use) too despite being Fast Attack since light cavalry was also used extensively to capture and scout terrain before the arrival of the main force. In that spirit replacing Outflank by Scout isn't such a bad idea.

You have a point on hunting lance epronovost. Regarding your other suggestions, I feel like that would be much for 10pts guys to have Outflank, Acute Senses and Objective secured. It looks like a one-shot unit that pop up from anywhere you want to capture a lone objective. Idk... About Scout, I really think Outflank can be more useful, just for the sake of having an outflanking unit in the IG Codex

As a general response to others, I would love a platoon based RR unit. Still, it should fit only to cavalry regiments rather than being accessible to any IG unit. Good idea still.

 RazgrizOne wrote:


As a general response to others, I would love a platoon based RR unit. Still, it should fit only to cavalry regiments rather than being accessible to any IG unit. Good idea still.

What if my army fluff has a small detachment assigned to it for scouting duties? What if two depleted regiments (one a cavalry) form a full strength mixed regiment?

RR platoons should be accessible to any force that wants it.

I'd platoon them up, have additional special weapons available to each squad plus a platoon command squad that can take extra special weapons and make a specialized company strength formation. Heck, maybe toss in a Company Command Squad on horseback just for the formation.

Also, maybe upgradable mounts to a variety of alien riding creatures that have unusual traits.

An upgrade option to bikes would also be interesting.

Ultimately though, Rough Riders as is are a fragile unit that really only exists to pull off a successful charge in a game that is tough on fragile units and charge dependant units. Making them a fast shooty unit that also has a good charge is probably the best fix for them.

Jefffar wrote:


Ultimately though, Rough Riders as is are a fragile unit that really only exists to pull off a successful charge in a game that is tough on fragile units and charge dependant units. Making them a fast shooty unit that also has a good charge is probably the best fix for them.

Yeah, this is my line of thinking too. Have them be speedy, double spec weapons infantry squads that can infiltrate/outflank run and grab objectives and then sit there shooting plasma- or guys who can be fast melta outside of a chimera.
Any hunting lance stuff can be represented with

Special rule: Hunting lances
Hammer of wrath attacks are resolved at strength 6

which would reward them for getting charges without making them one-trick ponies.

 =Angel= wrote:
Special rule: Hunting lances
Hammer of wrath attacks are resolved at strength 6

Actually, while I'm not sure about the idea of just making them mobile special weapons squads, using the Hunting Lances for HoW attacks is a great idea. I'd actually suggest a simple special rule that allows you to get a bit more out of their charges, by emphasising that they charge in and through the unit, using their Hunting Lances and then getting away as fast as possible.

So

Hit & Run
Hunting Lances: As before, NOT one use only, can be used in HoW
Thunderous Charge: When charging, if the Rough Rider unit cause an unsaved would from HoW attacks, the enemy unit has -1 to it's A value for the rest of the turn.

Now the unit charges in, gets to use it's lances twice on the charge, doesn't get hit back as much, and can run 3D6 away again. They're still not some amazing combat unit, and will suffer if they can't get behind cover from the H&R move, or if they are charged, but used correctly their charge will be a lot scarier.

I gave them an extra wound base, and since characters in my houserules get an additional one (with a couple codex exceptions) the Sargent in the unit has three wounds. Makes them quite a bit harder to kill for their points, but not so much as to be broken.

Lythrandire Biehrellian wrote:
I gave them an extra wound base, and since characters in my houserules get an additional one (with a couple codex exceptions) the Sargent in the unit has three wounds. Makes them quite a bit harder to kill for their points, but not so much as to be broken.

If you double a unit's wounds and it's still not OP, the unit needs work.

The issue was primarily that they still died as easily as basic guardsmen and nothing in their statline besides speed symbolised their being mounted on bigger creatures.

Bikes make you tougher, but the more monstrous mounts (thunderwolves and blood crushers) also add a wound. Since horses aren't as potent as the aforementioned mounts, I saw no reason not to give them a little more survivability.

These guys are supposed to be tough on their own due to their (probably) hard toiling hand to hand based lifestyle, so they and their horse will take a significant beating to put down. (Unless you hit them with str6, at which points the two of them are pasted)

I agree with the argument saying they have lesser mounts and thus, may not deserve +1T. A guy on a horse is hardly as tough as a Marine I guess. But if we do not give them that, how could they be better then?

From a crunch pov they totally need that since mobility is far from being that useful is such a shooty edition. Other buffs could be implemented but what would they really bring?
They have no particular reason to have big armor saves and +1W with T3 would be totally useless since they would be ID by pretty much anything. 5+ FnP is nice but not sufficient on its own.

IMO T4 is a balanced improvement that do not compromise their "we are cavalry in the 41st millennia, we'll die anyway" feeling.

Regarding Hunting Lances, I like the fact they allow them to strike at I5 but this One Use Only is lame. Fluffy and quite realistic, but lame still. I don't want to modify weapon profiles so, I'd rather not scrap this rule. S6 HoW is a nice idea, but wouldn't it be too strong to have this plus standard attacks (which would be done with standard CCW or not?)
Like the guys have the time to strike with the Hunting lances, drop them and attack with other weapons in the same assault phase?