Hello All

I'm running my players through the Lure of the Expanse adventure and wanted to introduce some more Eldar stuff than is alreayd in there, namely aspect warriors. The excellent Creatures anathema has the Dire avenger in it (and what a badass he is) and i am going to use the same stats, with a few changes to talents, for the other aspects.

But what about wargear.

Has anyone yet put aspect warriors in their game?

I'm particularly interested to see if anyone has come up with rules for Howling Banshee masks, Striking Scorpion mandiblasters, Dark Reaper launchers and warp spider web spinners.

If no one has already thought about this, lets see if we can't come up with some rules here.

Gribble_the_Munchkin said:

Lasblasters, Sunrifles, the Dragon's Breath Flamer and Death Spinners are all in Into the Storm.

Gribble_the_Munchkin said:

How about here ?

I haven’t had a chance to use Aspect Warriors in the RT game, but here’s my thoughts on their special equipment. I might get lucky with what’s about to be Into the Storm, or some of this might not be in there. So for what it’s worth:

Scorpions:
- Eldar Chainsword (+2 damage, +1 Pen)
-Mandiblaster (As MIU Las Pistol)

Banshees
-Banshee Mask (Activated on the charge, causes Fear(1) that does not effect Banshees, and the wearer is counted as having rolled a 10 for Initiative)

Reapers
-Reaper Launcher (-/-/6, 2d10+5 Pen 8, Range [What ever a heavy bolter is], Clip 18, Heavy Weapon)
-Stabilized Armor (+10% to hit)

Swooping Hawks
-Wings (As jetpack with 10x fuel, no noise)
-Lascarbine
-Grenade Pack (S/-/-, 1d10+5 E Pen 2, Clip 1, Reload 2 Full, Blast(10), must be dropped from flying)

Spiders
-Warp-pack (As a half action the Spider may relocate to anywhere within 50 meters)
-Death Spinner (S/2/-, 3d10+5 R Pen 0, Clip 10, Reload 1 Full, Blast(1), Primitive)

Fab, thanks for the links.

As for the ideas on mandiblasters and banshee masks.

I'd give mandiblasters a bit more bite (hoho). Maybe 1D10+4 damage and pen 3. But have it only work in close combat and requires a ballistic skill check as a free action, usable once a round. That makes them nasty, as they should be, las pistols will just bounce off most armour.

Banshee masks, definately agree it should only work on the charge, although i'm not sure i'd have them as fear. If i recall correctly they tend to frazzle the targets nervous system, making it very hard for them to fight back. Maybe give a single turn penalty to weapon skill for anyone they charged. but a hefty one, -30 or so. Lasts on the target until the start of the banshees next turn.

I agree that an eldar chainsword should be a bit more nasty than an imperial one, not sure if i'd just make it best quality or give it the stat boosts you recommend.

Well, you might want to do both with the Chain Swords, it depends on how you want to stat-out the Scorpions themselves. In the TT they've got the same strength as Space Marines. In one codex is was because of the Scorpion themselves, in another, entirely because of the weapon. Your right about the Mandiblaster though, its damage output is more akin to a bolter then a lasgun.

Reduction of weapon skill was a special ability the Banshee Exach can buy, so you might want to save it for her specificly. In the TT it's just an initiative thing. Basicly makes sure they go first. Could simplify it to exactly that, On they (would) charge, they go before anyone else in the close combat.

Quicksilver said:

Changing the order of combat doesn't really have the same effect in 40kRP, though. In the tabletop game, initiative affects only when you strike during a given round of close combat... but in 40kRP, it affects the entire turn, every turn, in every combat. It's a different scale of effect.

Personally, my inclination is to go back to the mechanics Banshee Masks had in 2nd edition 40k, so that they stop an opponent fighting back for a few moments. The simplest way to achieve this is simply to say that someone being charged by a warrior with a Banshee Mask must pass a Difficult (-10) Willpower Test or be Stunned for one turn, essentially stopping them from defending themselves properly or retaliating while the Eldar cut them down... which is the point. It's powerful, but it's also exactly the kind of effect needed to make Howling Banshees do what they're described as doing.

I've not played the tabletop game for a long time so i'm out of touch on the current rules.

On Banshee masks, initiative is going to be relatively useless as eldar have such high initiative bonuses anyway with their unnatural agility. If they have lightning reflexes (as would be appropriate for a very acrobactic melee fighter such as a banshee, then we could be looking at +15 on the initiative. Even without the banshee mask, thats going to be unbeatable for all but the most insanely agile/quick characters.

I think i'll go with the stun idea that N0-1_H3r3 suggested. This seems to do what i always imagined (based on my old wargaming days) what banshee masks were capable of.

Do banshee/scorpion exarchs carry any funky kit? I only recall banshee exarch having a power axe in tabletop and scorpion exarch carrying a power sword i think. Do they get more interestting weapons/mask weapons?

I had a GM throw a single Warp Spider at our Dark Heresy group, along with a Harlequin, and a Ranger sniping at us.

We managed to get ridiculously lucky and take down his Harlequin fast. The holofield he made up gave at least a 50% miss chance to any successful attack, if I recall correctly.

I believe he had the Warp Spider teleport his full move speed as a half action and the weapon used the flamer cone and did 2d10, pen 12, Tearing. We lost all of our support units, 5 npc =][= Stormtroopers, and at least 3 of the 5 players were taken to critical levels before I managed to tag the Warp Spider with a krak grenade to the head.

Then we had to deal with the Ranger who was keeping us pinned from across the map.

Yeah, it does make more sense to give the Banshee's a stun effect, both based on the description and the it's effectiveness in game.

Their exarchs get a few interesting tidbits, but not the regular troopers. The Banshee's can get forearm blades and/or abig two-handed power sword, as well as a deadly bola thing. The Scorpion exarch can get a 'biting blade' double wounding chainsword, or a power-fist/catapult combo weapon. Plus plasma and haywire grenades. There may have been other option in earlier editions of the books to.

The Deathspinner is interesting as, at least for the TT, it's changed rather dramaticly over the years, from doom flamer templates to rapid fire guns. The latest incarnation is a high str. weapon, but the fluff seems to note how greatly it's effected by armor.

Just a quick couple of thoughts while I'm waiting for stuff to print out here at work

Banshee Mask: Wearer causes Fear 3 to their target on any turn in which they make a Charge action.

Mandiblasters: Treat as a MIU Autopistol with the... ****... no book in front of me... Small? Short? The upgrade that makes a plasma pistol pocket sized for your convienience and mine... you know the one...

Biting Blade: Treats 9's AND 10's as 10's for Fury of the Emperor.

I've had cause to bring in Eldar Power Armour (Navigator player worked out that being tall and spindly meant he was the same general proportions as an Eldar and, hey, some of them have power armour, right?)

Eldar Reaper-pattern power armour: Head, Arms, Legs, Body. Armour 8. Near Unique. Grants the Auto-stabilised Trait.

Eldar Scorpion-pattern power armour: Head, Arms, Legs, Body. Armour 8. Near Unique. Grants a +20 to Concealment rolls.

NOTE: Eldar power armour, due to its exquisite construction, already counts as Best quality and does not require a power source. Eldar power armour grants +10 to strength and does not infer any increase in size.

Well I ran the big Eldar battle last night where my explorators faced off against a variety of aspect warriors, a farseer a trio of pathfinders and 20 odd wraithguard.

The scorpions and Banshees took almost all the PCs partys fire as they closed to combat, only a few made it into combat at which point the scorpions it turns out are really rubbish against high armour enemies (not sure if this is the same as the TT though). The Banshee masks, doing a willpower test or be stunned for the turn did quite well and work great against tough targets, such as our groups arch-militant. But as is only right, they didn't last long after the charge.

The dark reapers kicked much butt but got on the wrong side of a hellhound tank.

All in all, quite a success.

professor_kylan said:

That's way too powerful, in my opinion. That would put out most characters for the entire combat, meaning that more often than not you'll have a TPK, when the descriptions of Banshee Masks suggest that they only really stun their opponents for a short time, not completely incapacitate them.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Wow. That's fantastic!

I can't help feeling the aspects are just cut down versions of Harlequins.

Cut down harlequins? How so?

Fluff wise Harlequins are actor/dancer/warriors, a cult essentially that travels widely, kicking the butt of chaos. Aspect warriors by contrast are craftworld eldar and follow the path system. They stay on their craftworld, except for when they are making war. Aspect warriors adopt an aspect of their wargod Khaine. This leads to specialised combat roles, such as heavy fire support, close combat, ambush, special ops, scouting and so on. Harlequins fight in a variety of roles (death jester, solitaire, etc) but nothing so structured.

Rules wise, harlequins are extremely mobile and invariably close combat focused (death jesters aside). Aspects have a whole range of different combat roles. Striking scorpions and Howling banshees are close combat specialists, Dark reapers are heavy weapons support, Fire dragons are anti armour/hardened targets, Swooping Hawks are scouts and rapid repsonse, etc.

Because my recollection is they published the Harlequins in White Dwarf and then some time later the Aspect warriors which seemed to be en masse version of the Harlequin types for instance Death Jesters and Dark Reapers. I think Harlequin are a much more interesting antagonist for the RT than the rather dull and bog standard Aspect warriors.

Depends on what you are having your PCs doing.

I've been running mine through the Lure of the Expanse adventure where aspect warriors make sense (as the Kaelor craftworld has sent a presence) but harlequins don't (no chaos related activity, not their business).

Still different strokes for different folks

people seem to forget that the banshie mask also has a small chance to cause damage as thenervous system reats to the feed back to violently so 50 per chance of 1d5 damage plaus righteous damage on 9/10 roles.