Hey guys, I was going to start playing Only War soon and I need help. I want to play as a Death Rider or Death Korp of Krieg since they look fun to play.... However I'm confused as to what and how to build these. I know the normal guardsmen has specialties but I don't know what fits best and what's a good build for a rider.

Anything you guys suggest would be very helpful!!!!!

Both rough riders and death korps are cover by published rules. Easy.

Death Riders also have a full set of rules in Hammer of The Emperor.

Death Riders of Krieg, Hammer of the Emperor, pg. 19.

I think he wants a class, such as Operator, though I'm honestly not sure what the best class to capitalize on the needs and advantages of cavalry will be. You can ignore many Specialist classes, Heavy, and such.

Maybe WSpec, Sarge, or Medic. Since the WSpec is the "typical" Guardsman, when in doubt, I guess I'd build that, as Operator, while a driver, might not fit a vehicle with life, as well as a Sentinel, Chimera, or what have you.

Sergeant or Weapon Specialist, as those have access to cheaper WS advances and talents because of their aptitudes. You're going to want to be using your lances, so ideally, you would want to be able to hit with them too.

Very Helpful so far guys. Thanks for responding also to clarify on it. I was just trying to find a way to build a over all guardsmen. However your suggestions have given me food for thought. Oh my friend also asked since the Death Korp get +2 wounds would the stormtrooper class be good or no?

In between. They have good armour and some helpful skills, but the background wouldn't fit easily, and the hot-shot lasguns are probably less helpful to you than a more ranged regiment. That's if you're death riders. Death Korps, throw my complaints largely out the window.

Sergeant or Weapon Specialist, as those have access to cheaper WS advances and talents because of their aptitudes. You're going to want to be using your lances, so ideally, you would want to be able to hit with them too.

Granted, the enemies are different, but samurai archers proved that mounted soldiers with ranged weapons CAN be effective, and if you don't plan with something else, the one-shot wonder lances are the stupidest weapons in 40K, IMO. I would think that pistols and bullpop lasguns, like what Elysian drop troops like to carry, would be viable from horseback. That, or a melee weapon that isn't one-use only. That's why Al'Rahem scoffed at the hunting lances, and found a power saber, a sword mostly curved to be BETTER in mounted combat, where the straight edge variety gets forced out of one's grip as they ride by. Sorry, I've always had mixed feelings on Rough Riders and Shining Spears for what I see as a failure in use and lose weapons, when you can't often expect your involvement in a full-on battle of armies to involve one action, and then off you go, to let NPCs slog out the rest. Didn't favor them in TT, either, though I did like the better options the Shining Spear Exarch could get.

And I agree that they are quite dumb and mostly useless. However, since they can only be used mounted, it's worth investing some points in as he will (probably) use them in his campaign. After all, most Rough Riders are depicted using them in fluff, even though they have other melee weapons as back up.

If you really want to talk about useless, he's on a futuristic battlefield fighting aliens that are stronger, faster, and more cunning than humanity, usually armed with devastating automatic weapons. And he is on a horse.

As long as you ok with riding horses in a far future battlefield none of this is a problem. Death Riders get 2 lances and a las-pistol, if you pick seargent or commisaar get chainswords too. Plus they have a power sword (and more lances) as favoured weapons so the weapon specialist should be able to get that. So those are the best ones to go for and fit the fluff too.

Exactly, you will get more use out of Weapon Skill than you will out of Ballistic Skill, as you will have an easier time than finding (and resupplying) ranged weapons. Like Face Eater said, you have better access to good melee weapons than you do good ranged ones.

Very great idea's good. Your providing me with a lot of things to consider. But I have a question for you... What would you play as? This is just to get a field of what seem's to be the norman and not..... Also are Ogryns broken? I'm not going to play one but someone in our group does.

Very great idea's good. Your providing me with a lot of things to consider. But I have a question for you... What would you play as? This is just to get a field of what seem's to be the norman and not..... Also are Ogryns broken? I'm not going to play one but someone in our group does.

Depends on the definition of broken. However, ogryns don't tend to serve in Rough Rider regiments. Those Death Rider modded horses are stronger and tougher, but they probably can't carry an Ogryn very far. Me and my group will play most things, to an extent but Ogryns are hard to play, as (naturally) they can't really hold an intelligent conversation.

Ogryns are a huge pain in the arse.

They run roughshod over everything, sessions often turning into the squad babsitting the giant psychotic toddler who wants to kill, break, eat or run screaming from everything in sight..

Which says alot about those who play them, in my experience at least.

Honestly that's not my experience. They aren't really much better in ranged combat than human PCs. A few lucky rolls from the orks with the heavy shootas and they've got some hurt on them, same as everybody else. Plus low agility means bad evasion rolls.

Not to mention their Hulking size means they tend to get hit more often! Also, Enemy hvy weapons teams will always target them first as a matter of tactical expediency! Honestly, IMO, It's a rare player that doesn't want to turn the game into an ongoing theme of "Hulk Smash!" Even Played properly, Ogryns are little more than beserkers on the battlefield and not worth much off it. It would take an extremely creative player to change my opinion of one. In deference to Terraneaux, They are actually a bit worse at ranged combat than standard guardmen! Their primary weapon, The Ripper gun has a 30m range! Any kind of smart enemy will engage at long range and they'll get chopped to pieces!

Alright so are the sub-human characters just terrible?

Abhumans, not subhumans.

The ratlings have crazy, crazy damage potential. Sure, they die to a loud fart, but they are extraordinarily lethal to pretty much everything.

Ogryns have wounds for days, is their main advantage. That, and they have some actually very strong comrade abilities - they can frenzy as a free action after a kill in at least one of their specialties, and they can use normally two-handed melee weapons in one hand. They also have one which doubles (!) the amount of degrees of success they get on a BS test in Gun Lugger.

Ogryns, in my opinion, are worse than useless. The best melee weapons they can use are great weapons (not power, not even chain, but Emperor-damned mono-weapons), because nothing else is Ogryn-Proof, and the +3 to damage from unnatural strength and +10 strength is so not enough to compensate. The only thing they have going for them, in my view, is being able to run around really quickly with an auto-cannon and dispense death at range - somewhat hindered by their lower BS.

Disclaimer: I haven't checked the rules in a long time, so I could be wrong about everything.

Last I checked: no BS penalty.

So lower BS would from having only one aptitude when buying it up?

Like a heavy gunner?

Oh. Well, then, without a BS penalty, I would bump them up from worse than useless to "actually pretty darn good", depending on whether the GM limits your ability to get implants.

Oh. Well, then, without a BS penalty, I would bump them up from worse than useless to "actually pretty darn good", depending on whether the GM limits your ability to get implants.

And with the Shield and those specialties, Ogryns become freaking scary. They can use weapons like they didn't have clumsy, two handed rifles and melee weapons one-handed, get double DoS on full auto attacks, wield any heavy weapon......

Ogryn Bone 'Ead dual wielding two Best craft Eviscerators. That is a scene where i think even Marine would think twice before attacking.

I wouldn't even dignify Shield of Humanity by including it, but if I were a space marine of comparable XP to an ogryn that can dual-wield eviscerators, I'd bring out my power weapon.

Which is why the ogryn should have been dual-wielding power weapons.