Thunderhammer & Autocannon Project

[Evilgoat]

this thread is a bit of a mixture of topics but i'll post it here, as it has a fair bit to do with my house rules regarding the Thunderhammer and the Autocannon



A while back I made up these additional weapons for the original space crusade squads from bastardized bitz and a bit of green stuff, I cast these weapons with the same pin fit as the original weapons so they can be added and removed from your squad depending on the mission.

 

I'm happy with the look of the weapons, some of the colours are a little hard to match, some colours are better casting in clear resin, whilst others are easier to tint with an opaque resin.

Now onto the rules that I have been using for these weapons,  you will notice that the chaos marines also have their own additional weapons ( this is to ensure the game is not  unbalanced. I will also say I have totally ignored the thunderhammer and autocannon rules from white dwarf (I hope this does not offend anyone :P ) the reason for this was I envision the Thunderhammer to be a weapon with a lot more power then 2 red dice and having an area effect, and I was not satisfied with having old tech autocannon behave in the same way as the assault cannon.

THUNDERHAMMER RULES.

The thunderhammer being a close combat weapon has a blast radius in all 8 squares around the wielder, the marine may only hand-to-hand another miniature and never a square as such. The hammer rolls 2 red and 2 white dice, and the total of the roll is damage given to the 8 adjacent squares to the marine,with the exception of the miniature that is being engaged in hand-to-hand, he has a chance to defend himself and the normal close combat rules apply, any other miniatures in the adjacent squares (blast radius) are dealt the full damage of the dice which must overcome their armour value by 1 (same as a ranged attack). (Fg.1)

 

Fg. 2 shows the dangerous nature of having a thunderhammer in your squad. kamakazee gretchins and orcs will take every possible chance they can to attack your thunderhammer whilst he is adjacent to other marines in his squad. this doesnt end well. so it is very powerful, but movements must be well planned.The thunderhammer is classed as a heavy weapon, though due to no ammunition to carry, the thunderhammer may move 6 squares each turn.


AUTOCANNON RULES.

The auto cannon rules are based around the weapon being more of a tank buster type and not as rapid firing as its later model the assault cannon. The autocannon may fire 2 shots, these shots can be combined to take down heavily armoured enemies.  The 2 shots may be separated by movement as shown in fg.3 and Fg. 4 or 2 shots before or after movement.  the autocannon rolls 1 red and 1 white dice per shot and cannot be fitted with a targetor, and may only move 4 squares.

   

CHAOS MARINE RULES

The Alien player may outfit anyone of his 2 chaos marines with the thunderhammer and autocannon, he may only outfit a reinforcement with these weapons if they are not already on the board. and in total may only use each weapon twice per game.
as far as points go, the chaos marines with the new weapons stay as a 5 and marines stay the same as well.

I have played these rules quite a lot and they make for a very frantic yet fun game :)

cheers,
 

[Tony1978]

I used a different rule for Thunderhammer (in combination with the shield), but your rule can be very dangerous for friend marines.

I like also the autocannon rules. Did you use it with order cards?

[Evilgoat]

Hi Tony,
Yeah we use all the original order cards with the autocannon. Including the 'heavy weapon' order

What rules do you use for the thunderhammer and stormshield?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Excellent work, both modeling and rules wise.

The weapon pieces look really nice and it's awesome you've managed to get them to fit the Space Crusade marines so well

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the way your rules work (for the weapons they repesent), but it looks like you've got them balanced pretty well and they make a nice addition to game - I think I'd like to see the rules applied to some entirely new weapons rather than existing ones.

[Tony1978]

My rules?
First of all I suppose that a Thunderhammer (like a Lightning claw) is a weapon more specialised in close combat than a simple energy weapon (like an axe, sword or fist).

On the second hand I suppose that a Thunderhammer + Shield is a combination that emphasizes the "defence" instead of the "attack" (unlike a pair of Lightning claws that emphasizes the attack).

Then, my rules are a bit different from those appeared on White Dwarf 134 because I think that the Thunderhammer, in combat, is more powerful than in autodestruction modality.

So

Thunderhammer rule: it attacks with 3R (3 red dice) only a single miniature because it's a bit bulky. No special rule like the spectacular one you invented. Also, the marine can immolate himself, autodestructing his hammer and attacking all 8 adjacent cases with the result of a throw of 2R.

Stormshield rule: it's a partial protection, so it cannot increase the Armour Value of the marine (unlike an armour or a force field), so if he receives damage (ranged or melee attack) it simply throw 1R and cancel as many wounds as the result of the die. It's the rule given in White Dwarf 134.
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A question about autocannon and order cards.
Don't you think that this weapon is a bit overpowered if used in conjunction with a "Fire!" order? The marine can attack 4 times!

[Evilgoat]

Thanks Mortis,

I was playing around with  another weapon option for the commanders but it only got to prototype stage, and I never cast them.
It was a chainsword and plasma pistol combo.  1 red and 1 white hand-to-hand, and 1 red and 1 white for firing. The plasma pistol has the same firing properties as the plasma gun so the commander has a chance of destroying more then one enemy. Though still keeping with the same 2 red and 2 white formula for the commander weapons, I wasnt sure how often this weapon option would be used or whether it would encroach too much on the power axe and bolt pistol's turf , so at this stage this weapon option has gone on the back burner.

[Evilgoat]

Tony1978,
Thanks for your thunderhammer rules,

I agree with you, the autocannon does seem overpowered at first glance. The balancing factor for this weapon is it only attacks 1 target per shot. So in reality even when used with a fire order card, The  maximum potential for the weapon is to destroy 4 aliens if all your rolls go to plan... on the other hand all the original heavy weapons used with a fire order card have a much higher maximum kill potential  and thats even without targetors on them. For instance the missile launcher has the potential to kill up to 8 enemy miniatures per shot if all the conditions are right ( northeasterly breeze, not too hot, not too cold, an alien player who bunches his miniatures) if you get what I'm saying. I think the only time the autocannon is more powerful then the other heavies is when its shots are combined when up against  heavy armoured  aliens.

Cheers

[bujinkan]

OMG! Coolest thing. Ever. Would you consider producing/selling this stuff?