Monster Hunters

[Noserenda]

Throwing up a bit of a blank here so i was hoping the Frater could help... 

Are tehre any specialist Monster hunters in 40k? Obviously there is a lot of crossover with Xenos and/or Daemons and thus the Deathwatch/Grey Knights but im looking at factions/characters/units that specialise in bringing down big game for something. 

Promote your favourites! Debate your enemies!

[Cactus]

Ork beast snaggas are the obvious one. Arguably Tyrannic War veterans too.

 

Wasn't there a monster hunters USR in 4th/5th edition?

[N1SB]

There's an interesting example in the 9th ed 40k anthology, Nexus & Other Stories, about a Space Wolf Lone Wolf.  He's the last survivor of some squad and he goes around looking for rumours of the biggest monsters (like he heard of some sea dragon that turned out to be a Tyranid bio-construct) to kill or be killed by, not for the Inquisition, not for his Chapter, not even for his own saga, but just to rid the Imperium of the damn things and, should he fail, at least he'll finally join his brothers.

 

Are you working on a conversion, Brother?

Edited November 8, 2021 by N1SB

[sairence]

Don't know about big game, but Armageddon has special Guard units of ork hunters who are keeping the feral ork populations, that inevitably are left after such large invasions, down.

[Noserenda]

 

Are you working on a conversion, Brother?

Maaaaybe :D Ty for everything so far folks! 

 

(Cant believe i forgot beast snaggas so soon after release though...) 

[Fire Golem]

Oh yeah I got a Monster Hunter (video game) vibe from some of the Beastsnagga weapons, aside from the actual literal monster hunting they do. 

[LameBeard]

Aren’t Catachan Devils meant to be massive? Does anyone hunt them?

 

Also, pre-compliance Caliban, “the Order” are literally monster hunters.

Edited November 8, 2021 by LameBeard

[MARK0SIAN]

I'm sure one of the Catachan regiments has a reputation as monster hunters, not sure which one though. The Salamanders also still hunt the various beasts/drakes of Nocturne.

[Doghouse]

Knights would be the most obvious one for me.

[ThePenitentOne]

I love Dark Eldar Beastmasters. In the DE rules, they only work with Khymerae, Clawed Fiends and Razorwings... But Ambulls are unaligned, so they can join any faction without being part of a detachment, or interfering with army purity.

 

RAW you can't use the Beast Master's buff on the unaligned Ambull, but if you've got a narrative minded crew, you can probably get it through. I have special scenarios for Hellion/ Beastmaster mobs to catch monsters for use in the Wych Cult arenas, and other scenarios where the Wyches have to fight what the beastmasters catch. 

 

The Escher cats, and even Sigmar Gryph Hounds are also good for this purpose, though you have to houserule up 40k profiles for them.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Space wolf lone wolves were probably one of the most direct "monster hunter" units. They basically swear an oath to kill something to big to either honor their pack or to regain their honor. Unfortunately they're a Crusade upgrade now not a unit entry. Space wolves also have a beastslayer warlord trait that gives them buffs against monsters and becomes an aura if the character who has it kills one. (you can also activate it with a stratagem if a character kills one that doesn't have a warlord trait).

 

The Dark Krakens are a new salamander successor that "seek out the largest foes, whether that be in terms of physical size or sheer numbers." (space marine codex). Salamanders and fleshtearers would also be good choices.

 

Catachans and Beast Snaggas are probably the other best choices that I'm aware of. 

[Sothalor]

For something outside the playable factions/units, oft-times Rogue Traders can exhibit behavior like this.

 

One example of this was in the Rogue Trader RPG supplement called The Koronus Bestiary. Many parts of it were written from the perspective of the chief armswoman of some Rogue Trader who fancied himself an exotic big game hunter and liked to look for strange and esoteric creatures and xenos - which tended to be incredibly dangerous, frequently landing him and his party in all sorts of trouble.

[WrathOfTheLion]

I was thinking Dark Angels made the most sense, given the history of the Order.

 

There's a strategem for Deathwing Knights, 'No Foe Too Great to Subdue', specializing in attacking Vehicles/Monsters, so there's a bit of rule fluff there too.

[sitnam]

I would assume by their nature that some Kroot specialize in monster hunting.