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I'm coming back to the game from 20 yrs or so, so please bear with me. Many moons ago I was stationed in Germany as a grunt with the 1st Armored and we trained with the 11th ACR. I loved the idea of a hard hitting recce force / enemy speed bump that was self contained and up gunned enough to try and hold the line till the big boys can deal with the threat. So i have this idea to replicate the idea of the armored cav regt.

I have a few questions since this won't be a tournament list, just friendly scenario games.

I figure this will be mostly up gunned salamanders and chimera varients (glass cannons), maybe a squadron of russes, dismount infantry, Vendettas and valks as air support and griffins for arty.

I'm looking for rules/ ideas for the following. I'm hoping the dakka dakka community can help this old dog...

Any ideas on a "Little Bird" type spotter to work with a vendetta gun ship? Maybe a drone type piece operated from the back of a signal salamander type unit, maybe dismountable.

Scout sniper teams with laser targetters?

Besides from hvy weapon teams the squad doesn't have a SAW equivalent. Could hot shot rifles fill that gap? Are they worth it?

Should I use a deep strike rules for some airborne troops or keep with the true "dope on a rope" type airmobile troop from a Valk?

I'm sure there will be more questions. I have the latest AM codex. I wish I had the FW elys troop codex.

Thanks for the help.

You might have to houserule a few things. GW hasn't made a lot of units reflecting warfare in the information age. Mech forces should be good to go though.

You can either convert or buy upgunned Chimeras from FW with Autocannons, it's pretty much the equivalent of a .50 cal. Salamanders are awesome. So are Devil Dogs, because they're fast, though they are generally overcosted.

Hot Shot rifles are not really comparable to a squad weapon, you want something like a Heavy Bolter or Volleygun. Valks and Vendettas are pretty nice for air cav, Scions for airborne, you can't go wrong either way.

Friendly scenario games have a different mentality, don't be afraid to add or modify stuff as necessary to make your concept if the force work. The caveat is you'll need to extend the same grace to your opponents so everyone ends up having a good time.

Yoyoyo wrote:
You can either convert or buy upgunned Chimeras from FW with Autocannons, it's pretty much the equivalent of a .50 cal.

The Autocannon is the equivalent of a Bushmaster on steroids. The .50 cal equivalent is the Heavy Stubber (so-so, as the same-Strength boltgun is .75 cal).

OP:
If you are really willing to mish-mash an army together then my proposition is the following:
- HQ options can stay I guess.
- Elites is Scions Platoons, maybe a special Veteran Squad fully armed with sniper rifles and no special weapon options (Sniper Squad), and Armored Sentinels with BS4.
- Troops are Veterans and Scout Sentinels with BS4.
- Fast Attack has Land Speeder Storms from the SM Codex (Little Bird). So it has LS Storms, Valkyres, Vendettas, and maybe the Hellhound variants, but nothing else.
- Heavy Support is sponson-less BA Predators (both normal and Baal) with built-in Fast upgrade to represent up-gunned and up-armored Chimeras, and arty with built-in Enclosed Crew Compartment upgrade (again, up-gunned Chimeras, imagine it like the Stryker and its variants). Also, Vulture Gunships.
- Ranged/Special Weapon selection includes Lasgun with built-in Markerlight (from Tau codex). Vehicle Equipment also includes an optional Markerlight and Seeker Missiles (Tau codex again).

Thank you both for your quick answers.

Yoyoyo, you are definitely correct that we will be house ruling some things. Trying to balance the concepts, bringing a little "reality" home. I like the AC idea for the chimeras. I'll try to scratch build a few turrets to mount it. I'll take a look at the volley gun, is it man portable?

AtoMaki, those are some great suggestions. Maybe I'll see about kitbashing some predators and chimeras. I like the storm idea as well and I will definitely look up the marker lights / seeker missiles. Scions are the old Kaskarin (sp) troops? I was planning on using them as the airmobile troops.

Thank you both again. I'll see if I can knock out a list or concept to help flesh this out.

/Nuzz.

Nuzzgrund wrote:
I'll take a look at the volley gun, is it man portable?

They're a lot like a 5.56mm MG. They can be fired on the move, with some significant penalties (Salvo). They are more than 4x as powerful as their rifle analogue when you go static. They're AP3 though, so within 40k they're somewhat specialized. Salvo Lasguns (AP-) would be a nice touch for your regular squads but they don't exist within the rules, you'd have to write them in.

Ok. Still working on ideas, again, please bear with me as its been a while since I played.

These will be house ruled but appreciate and help in refining or just throwing them out...now I understand that this is the Imperium. Somehow they have mastered space flight, warp travel, anti gravatics, hand held laser rifles, and tiny missiles that get shot through a bolter, but they lost the science on how to weld. So, I have no idea where the limit of technology lies. I want to believe the machine spirit will guide my engineseers to be able to allow a blessed missile to see a beam of light and ride it to the heretical/ xenos target and blow it back to its mother that spawned it. So....

Laser designators for IG. My proposal would be that they can either be hand held or vehicle mounted. They can effect friendly missiles and artillery, such as hunter killer missiles, manticore, perhaps specialty rounds for the basilisk and their ilk (ie copperhead rounds).
The targetter will be effected by weather or smoke.
The targeter cannot have moved or fired the turn it attempts to designate the target.
The vehicle that is lasing the target needs to make a hit roll and also make a communication roll to let the shooter know what they are up to.
The shooter will need to make an administrative roll for a misfire.
The missile or round will hit the target (in the case of a vehicle) in the side that is facing the targeting unit. In the event of artillery targeting an infantry squad, it can gain a modifier for scatter
The artillery does not need LOS to target. (If you ask me, it's kind of silly having a basilisk or manticore on the board, that thing should be a mile away from the target), in the case of a vehicle mounted missile or a Valkyrie it should have Los.?

Ok. That's the idea. Now for the nitty gritty...will this work? If so, Point costs, dice roll threshold for hitting, communication etc. point cost and stats for the ammo for the artillery, should h/k missiles cost increase if you can use these rules? I would love to see reloads for the H/k missiles on ground vehicles. There is a lot more but my wife is giving me the evil eye. Back to the honey do list.
So help me out if you can please.
/Nuzz.

I've kitbashed a cadian wearing a comms array backpack and a SOFLAM laser designator type thing on a tripod. I use him as a Master of Ordnance. 20pts to drop str9 ap3 pie plates is pretty good. I drop him out of a vendetta with my suicide melta command squad and he gets his "danger close" on. He scatters less if he has line of sight, but he still often ends up wiping himself and half his squad out. I play against nids a bit though so as soon as they're boots on the ground they usually have hormagaunts all over them "bug out and nuke it from orbit".