Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Space Marine Reivers
Let’s take a deep dive into a hot mess of a 40K unit and some thoughts in how we can fix them up. Howdy Reivers
Do you remember when GW first released these with this whole Fear Tactic ideas that this army might cause. The fear of skull faced Marines wearing unique armor that is still good but looks different with their weird ankles? What about those sweet bowie knives and hook pistols? Aren’t they supposed to have sweet pistols too? This was a unit that was supposed to be awesome like the Primaris but different enough to be unique.
Space Marine Reiver Basics
These were supposed to be Space Marine Terror troops with assault on the mind. Kind of like some kind of special forces unit they were to get close, hop over some walls, and get to sticking you with their giant knives. Of course as we all know this unit didn’t do any of that very well. Outside of some very specific meta builds during the hey day of the Space Marine apocalypse – they are ignored. I remember seeing them in White Scars as their knives are pretty scary when they are powered up in the Assault phase. Still this is a unit that just never seemed to fit into the narrative the models looks and fluff writers wanted. So what the heck should they do?
How Can We Make Reivers Good?
FEAR!
Again if we want something to be scary lets make being scared something valid. You could do some kind of Leadership thing but I am wondering if it would be more interesting to do some kind of fear based bonus’s to the unit. Things like they cause a -1 LD and if they have a higher leadership then the unit they are attack they get bonus’s. Stuff like +1 to hit or +1 to wound. Heck even things like causing Mortal wounds on 6’s to wound to really amp up how scary this unit can be. This could be the “assassin” unit designed to get close and start bring the light of the emperor to the enemies dark souls.
Faster! Faster! FASTER!!!
The Phobos armor always felt like a half fast attempt to making a cool set of scouts. Why don’t we make the army better by either doing some kind of infiltration thing or even an ability to move faster. Heck just pile on the rules to make these guys truly unique and a cool swiss army knife of doom by amping up their speed. Make their base movement faster, given them bonuses after dispatching a unit, or heck even let them consolidate in different directions after fighting. Give them something that makes having the ankles look funny a powerful option.
Sweet Wargear!
These guys have a ton of pouches and wargear lets make them unique. Why don’t they have special grenades that they can use? More than just smoke bombs or melta bombs. I don’t something crazy like the old GK grenades of old by we could have some kind once a game option. Some kind of leadership bomb that scares people or something else that stacks with some other rules. I feel this could be a unit with a lot of weird things that make the grimdark of 40k neat.
Better Guns
Why not make their heavy pistol cool? Give them some assassination bullets or something else that could be a once a game thing. Something like super fire where they shoot out a ton more bullets or armor punching options. Don’t just copy Death watch ammunition but give some unique tweaks. Heck they could have stole some Disintegration rounds from the Custodes and are ready to do some murder with their Heavy Pistols of doom.
That dancing is certainly terrifying!
Formidable Opponents
I’d like to see Reivers and Phobos on the table top as they provide a unique design for Space Marines. Their skull faced visages are neat and they should be scary to fight against. I don’t think all of these rules are needed but at least something can be done to bring some flavor to this army whenever the new Space Marine book comes. I want the actual only assault based Primaris units to be well – scary in assault.
Let us know how you would fix the unit, down in the comments!
