Space Marine Chariot Attack Bike Rules

Today saw the very first outing of my Spear of Mawdryn Space Marines after a several year break from 40k (and my word it showed). It was a shame that my upainted and hurriedly constructed miniatures had to ruin some fantastic photos of Colonel Scipio's beautiful Palladian Guard. It was a very closely fought game with some particulalry unlucky dice rolls for both of us, but plenty of sportsmanship - and most importantly, a fantastic game. Battle report with photos can be found here - Scipio kindly wrote this one up.

The game saw a few of our army specific house rules, a more complete set for the Palladian Guard and a handful for myself - I'm still working on these. Today's post will look at my proposed rules for the conversion that featured in my last post - the Space Marine "Chariot" Attack Bike.

The notion is quite simply is that it's an Attack Bike that has been bodged to act as a Chariot - a staple of inter-tribal warfare on the world of Mawdryn. Used as a mobile platform for archers or javelinmen, these ranged versions are easily represented by the vanilla rules for Attack Bikes. What we are concerned with is the chariot as shock weapon, the one with the vicious bugger wielding sharp things in. As a shock weapon, much of the benefit is in the initial impact, so most of its benefits come on the first turn of combat (if it charged).

Without further ado here are the proposed rules, with potential alternatives where appropriate; it is supposed to fair and characterful, but effective. Any suggestions are very very welcome.

NOTE: UPDATED BASED ON FEEDBACK SO FAR (29/03/12)

MAWDRYN CHARIOT ATTACK BIKE     40-50pts (or more, suggestions welcome, base cost of attack bike without heavy bolter is 30pts)

WS  BS  S    T    W  I  A  Ld  Sv
  4     4    4   4(5)  2   4  3   8    3+

Unit Composition: 1 Chariot Attack Bike
Wargear: Power Armour, Bolt Pistol, Chainsword (Charioteer only), Frag & Krak Grenades, Space Marine bike
Special Rules: And They Shall Know No Fear, Combat Tactics, Hit and Run [Charge Attack]*

*Charge attack causes D3 x S4 additional hits on the first round of combat if the chariot charged


Options
The charioteer is considered to have a bolt pistol and close combat weapon as standard, no additional attack bonus is given as it is already accounted for on the above profile.

The Charioteer may replace his bolt pistol or chainsword with a Power Weapon for 15 pts.

Shield Generator  +10pts (Cost worked out against 6+ save of Combat Shield for 5pts and 3+ for Storm Shield at 15pts) - may increase to 15pts

Gives a 5+ Invulnerable Save to both bike rider and charioteer against ranged weapons only


Draco Banner +5-10 pts (suggestions welcomed)
If Chariot wins combat, -1 to opponent's morale check (also available for bikes)

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I did consider rules for various things such as spiked/scythed wheels (which are represented on the model) to act like the old Chaos vehicle spikes rules, but thought these were a little too beardy...