The topic for tonight's post is that I have received a response from forgeworld regarding some rules questions I had regarding the Renefades and Heretics army list.
Here were my questions:
1. What are the rules for a Renegade Ogryn's Power Drill? There is no entry for that weapon in the book but it is an option for 15 points.
2. The entries for most units state that 1 model may take a special weapon for every 5 models in a unit, but it does not specify that the special weapon replaces any weapons he already is armed with. Does this mean that a Renegade may be armed with a flamer, close combat weapon, and autopistol?
Here was the respond I received the other day:
Hi,
Thank you for your email. The answers to your questions are as follows -
1. The Power Drill does use the same stats and rules as the Lascutter
STR - 9, AP-2, TYPE - MELEE, UNWIELDY, CUMBERSOME
2. Yes you can have the pistol, close combat weapon and a special weapon when you upgrade a model to take a special weapon.
For those who don't know CUMBERSOME is a Forge World created USR stating:
A model using a weapon with the Cumbersome rule can only ever make a single attack at WS 1 in any Assault phase, regardless of their profile or any other bonus or special rule.
First off cudos to FW for the relatively prompt response and for definitively answering both questions.
The answer to question two is very cool, it lets me keep my Plasmagun armed guys alive if I just want to shoot an Autogun an grants my Flamer totting guys a bonus attack in assault. I think they went this route because the Chaos Sigil and Vox upgrades are lumped in with special weapons, so they avoided making a icon bearer or radio operator be unarmed.
The answer on the Power Drill is very disappointing. I get it that it's an improvised weapon and all that, but the previous version of the army list (Siege of Vraks) stated that a power drill was just a simple power weapon. So you would have your regular number of attacks just at AP 3.
Now a Lascutter is a cool and fluffy option for Tactical Marines or Imperial Guardsmen as swapping a single low strength attack for a single str 9 ap 2 attack is great. So what if it only hits on a 5+ unless you're attacking a vehicle or something with a WS lower than 3? I believe that in Zone Mortalis it lets you cut through walls and bulkheads somehow as well.
But on a Renegade Ogryn? For those not familiar with their rules Renegade Ogryns similarly to their IG counterparts are a heavy assault unit for an army which is otherwise quite mediocre in assault (Though hilariously so. Why be evil if you can't send legions of minions to die pointless deaths?). They have D6 attacks per model at Str and T 5 with 3 wounds a piece and no armor save, all that for 60 points a model. Just reading that sentence will make most chaos players think "Ogryns suck, I'll just take chaos spawn that do the same job and cost a lot less." That would be quite the mistake due to Renogryns' (Thank you whoever came up with that abbreviation.) special rules.
Renogryns have Hammer of Wrath, Random Attacks, Fearless, and RAMPAGE. That last rule is what makes these guys amazing. See rampage gives any model that has it +D3 attacks in assault so long as it's side has fewer models in the assault. Now remember that the minimum squad size for these guys is 1, so you are almost always going to be outnumbered in assault. This means that on the charge each Ogryn has D6+D3+1 attacks, this usually averages to between 5 and 6 each but it can theoretically be 10 attacks a piece! 10 attacks in a unit of up to 10 guys, and that's ignoring what chaos hounds do if you take some!
Add to that the fact that Renogryns come with Frag Grenades, can take Carapace Armour, and can gain: +1 attack (Tzeentch), roll two dice and take the highest for random attacks (Khorne), Fleet (Slaneesh), or 4+ FNP (Nurgle) and you have a seriously potent unit! Last game I smashed through a big Ork biker squad with Warboss, Maddok, and a few other characters with 5 ogryns.
So taking all that into account, why is the ONLY weapon upgrade for the unit as Lascutter? Is it really an upgrade to give up all of those 5-10 str 5 attacks in exchange for a single str 9 Ap 2 attack at WS and I 1 (Renogryns are WS 4 and I 2 base) even on the charge? And this costs me 15 points to do? What?!?
I get that this is a fluffy army, I love it for that. But this upgrade just does not make any sense. The unit does one thing really well and pays a very high premium for it at 60 points a model, yet this upgrade makes one model do another thing EXTREMELY poorly for 75 points? How is that an "upgrade"?
A better rule would be for it to just give Armorbane, AP 2/3, and unwieldy. That would be worth 15 points and fit in with the unit. I find it hard to picture a giant roided out monster sitting still to delicately slice one enemy with his gigantic bionic drill arm while hopped up on frenzon. He'd have to be the most polite and careful Ogryn ever not to score extra hits on the enemy by just bumping into them accidentally.
So yeah, there is your answer for anyone who wondered what a Power Drill's rules were. I love IA 13, it's awesome and Renegades are the funnest army I've played in 4 editions. This is an option I won't be using though from now on.
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