[Epic] Imperial Guard Dragonfly

From: Carl Billen <billenc_at_...>
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 08:51:50 +0100

I was just looking at the old-style Thunderhawks, thinking "You can never
fit 6 stands in that !" that I came up with the following :


History :

A few decades ago, the Space Marines of the Constellation Crusaders launched
an assault on the Ork base of Warlord Ug-Gazlub. They used four
Thunderhawks Mk1. to drop their entire Assault Company behind enemy lines.
In those times, the THawks Mk1. were considerably smaller and less armoured;
the transported troops were also packed closer together. The 4 Hawks were
first intercepted by 5 Fighta-Bommerz, before suddenly appearing above a
bunch of Flakwagons. Of the 4 THawks 3 were destroyed and the last one was
driven off, which crashed on landing. The Chapter Master was extremely
angry about the loss of his Assault Company, and complained to the Adeptus
Mechanicus about the problems with the THawk.

This resulted in the redesign of the of the Thunderhawk which resulted in
the bigger, improved Thunderhawk Mk2, which is the model as we know it
today. It boasts increased firepower and better armour.

However, this was just one of the improved designs. A design which was
rejected by the Space Marine Chapters, but accepted by the Imperial Guard,
was the design of the Tech-Priests of Dobhurra . They sacrificed carrying
power for increased armour, and designed and impoved targeting system for
the turret. It is equipped with the short-range Fireflash missiles, which
deliver a barrage to confuse the enemy when dropping the troops. As a
result, the Dragonfly was born. Because of its small transport capacity,
and its consoderable cost, Imperial Guard Regiments only have access to a
few Dragonflies. The existence of the Dragonfly has however prolonged the
existence of the Imperial Guard Assault troops, of which was talk to remove
them out of the Codex, leaving assaults for Space Marines only.


Statistics :

The Dragonfly miniatures is the old-style Thunderhawk miniature, with the
following profile :

Speed : Flyer
Range : 15 cm
Firepower : Barrage
Assault : 1/3
Armour : 6+
Special : Transport (2)
Point Value : 50


Addition to Army List :

Imperial Air Transport Detachment (only 1 detachment per army allowed)

    1 Detachment HQ .. +25 points

Main Force

Make up to 10 choices from the following list :

    Dragonfly 50 pts
    Marauder 45 pts
    Thunderbolt 30 pts


Play Notes :

Imperial Guard Assault Troops are organized in Squads of 2 IG units, and
have the profile of the standard Imperial Guardsman with the Assault and
Jump Packs Special abilities, which raises their points cost to 18 pts (= 14
pts + 2pts per stand x 2 stands). They can dismount considerably earlier
from the Dragonfly (thanks to their jump packs), and therefore do not lose 5
cms of their move when dismounting (but only when all the troops in the
transport have jump packs. The Assault Command stands are upgraded to Jump
Packs for free, and may include a Captain and a Psyker (at the usual cost).

Author's Notes :

This is my first try at inventing a new unit, and I haven't even tried it
out (this happens when you invent units when sitting in the bus during the
trip to work). I hope that all the IG players will try it out to see if it
isn't too useless/cheesy. Furthermore, the points cost is just an estimate;
I looked at the Fighta-Bommer and the Firelord and simply thought something
like "decrease the range, descrease the FP, increase Armour and add
Transport(2)", to arrive at the round point cost of 50 pts.

Any remarks are always welcome !

Greetings,

Carl Billen
billenc_at_...
Received on Fri Jan 23 1998 - 07:51:50 UTC