Thunder Warriors (they are cool, here are homebrew stats)

[40k_fan]

Because before the Imperium could exist, someone needed to pave the way. And that was the Thunder Warriors: Towering, powerful, augmented soldiers.

Often, one must wonder what their stats might look like, compared to modern Adeptus Astartes, or other transhumans, like Primaris and Custodes.

 

Well, the stats I wrote were very much inspired by a lot of other notable examples. In terms of strength, toughness, size, attacks, and all that jazz, they are about as strong as Ogryns in every way. But in terms of leadership and speed, they are more comparable to SM Terminators, and they have even better weapon skill.

In terms of size, they rank slighly smaller than custodes, but they have just as much wounds.

 

But with all of that, they are basically worse custodes, right? Their armor is worse, they can't move as fast, they have less ballistic skill, and their leadership is noticeably worse.

Well, what makes them as good as -- if not better -- than their replacements is thus: That they are really f*cking good at utterly tanking damage. Two times out of three, they will straight up no-sell damage against them. They feel no pain. They can lose an arm, or have their guts leaking out, and they will not care. Their toughness and save might be less than a custodian, but they can equip shields too (at the cost of some weapons, but hey, humans only have so many arms.)

 

And it helps that some of their weapons are very solid archaeotech designs, like adrathic rifles, disintegrator rifles, and some classic meltas. Even their primitive kinetic weapons like rotor cannons are fueled by electric power and are more powerful the more time they have to be aimed. Not to mention the fact that they are absolutely beastly in melee combat with their swords, flails, and hammers, and they can close the distance fairly reliably.

 

I would say they are all around very solid, but it is a notable trade-off compared to other units like custodes.

 

I was inspired by this mini by major minis:

(It's a "Lightning Captain")

 

THUNDER WARRIORS (Document, 9th Edition)

Edited May 17, 2023 by 40k_fan2

[40k_fan]

Update:

 

Improved stats (buff to leadership, nerf to base size)

All new weapons

Redesigned shields

removed some abilities, redesigned others

[40k_fan]

Update:

 

Major stat redesign, and minor weapons remake.

 

These warriors should be roughly below custodes in terms of most stats, but that's okay. Like I said before, they are really good at not feeling pain, and their ranged weapons are all around on par with the custodians. But their new ability upgrades mean they are absolute beasts in melee combat, especially when charging.

[40k_fan]

Update:

Power Rating reevaluated

Number of Attacks has been nerfed to be more fair

New weapon roster:

- Assault bolter (Master-crafted, like a half-range heavy bolter with the assault ability)

- Bolt caliver (Actually just a full-range heavy bolter with assault capability)

- Bolt pistol (Absolver variant, less shots than assault bolter, but good pair with melee)

- Disintegration gun (mid range, high damage, excellent at half range)

- Disintegration pistol (short range pistol with respectable damage output, good pair with melee)

- Heavy disintegration rifle (heavy, single shot, long range, high damage)

- Plasma gladius (like an overcharged plasma pistol being shot in your face half a dozen times)

- Phosphex grenades (weaker than the phosphex bombs that Mortarion uses, but still quite effective)

- Stasis grenade (like a krak grenade on krak for wound output, and it can end attack sequences prematurely, but each thunder warrior only gets one, so use them wisely)

 

fun stuff, if you have any suggestions, please tell me!

[Xenith]

Nice work!

 

Aren't thunder warriors supposed to be somewhere between a custodes and a marine? The better-than-custodes stats seems a bit odd - maybe just S6 T4 to reflect the enhanced streangth but instability. They were also quite brutish, so I dont think the 4+ invuln for 'lightning reflexes' is fitting. 

 

With 6 wounds and 5+ feel no pain, they're really strong, but I think your 4 models for 20PL, or roughly 400pts for 4 models is spot on. 

[40k_fan]

24 minutes ago, Xenith said:

Nice work!

 

Aren't thunder warriors supposed to be somewhere between a custodes and a marine? The better-than-custodes stats seems a bit odd - maybe just S6 T4 to reflect the enhanced streangth but instability. They were also quite brutish, so I dont think the 4+ invuln for 'lightning reflexes' is fitting. 

 

With 6 wounds and 5+ feel no pain, they're really strong, but I think your 4 models for 20PL, or roughly 400pts for 4 models is spot on. 

 

We know a thunder warrior should be about equivalent to 4 or 5 space marines in terms of KDR, which I'd say puts them about the same tier as custodes.

None of their stats are really 'better' than a Custodes, the best are still going to be equal to a good Custodian. It's the abilities than distinguish them more than stats.

In terms of raw strength, they are most likely on par with Custodes. There are conflicting reports saying one is stronger than the other, so we'll average that much out.

In the lore, they can survive a lot, from losing limbs and losing organs. They can take a lot of damage before falling. That's why they have as many wounds, since they can survive much longer missing organs and pieces we would call vital.

As for instability, that mainly reflects mentally and internally, and it happens over a few years. I figured it would be more of a story thing than a feature that shows up in mechanical stats. I could give them a penalty on Combat Attrition due to mental instability though.

Also, they actually do have very fast reflexes; They may be built like a tank, but their reflexes are good enough that they can dodge plasma gun fire in one story. Just straight-up dodged it. They are canonically very quick.