Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Hammerfall Bunker
This week’s Hot Mess is something we all wondered about. The Hammerfall Bunker – a giant piece of plastic GI-Joe plastic that is supposed to strike the fear in the hearts of the Space Marine’s enemies.
I think we can all agree the Hammerfall Bunker looks goofy. You’d think it would have more stoic-looking angel things on it. But nope we get something that looks like someone designed a corner and copied that design 3 more times to create this box of weirdness. Is it supposed to be a building Space Marines can hide in? Is it a giant Missile Launcher thing? What is it even for?
I am fine with terrain but it needs to inspire things. Or at least do stuff other than shoot poorly and look like some kind of weird off-brand “battle person” set you could buy at a discount dollar store. You could imagine some kind of character like “Lady Janet” running around and pretending to shoot the “Rattlesnake Brigade” with it.
Hammerfall Bunker 101
Pulling up my GW app and I am looking this hot mess up. Oh my lord – it is 175 points for a Single Heavy Bolter or a Single Heavy Flamer plus that Missile Thing on top. It hits on a 4+ somehow and it doesn’t even hold any Marines. I don’t know about you but in my book, a Bunker is a building I can go into. It also has Heavy Bolters on all the sides so why can’t it at least shoot 2 of them? Man and all of this for 175 points just seems like… what is the frigging point right?
Let’s Make the Gun Good
Ok this thing has 4 Heavy Bolters on it so it should just shoot 12 times. It just should do that because it makes sense. On top of that, it should hit on a 3+. That is just the base level of being somewhat usable. The Missile on top has a serious case of “old codex bad rules” with a really weird profile. I know it is supposed to be like a cousin of the Whirlwind launcher. But when was the last time you saw any Whirlwinds on the tabletop? Why not just make the gun have more shots with better stats. The lack of AP on the anti horde option just is bad. Let’s just make the gun better, 3+d3 damage on the big blast, AP -2 on the small blast, and then we can start to think of this as something useful.
Make it a Bunker – It’s In the Name!
Why not let it hold models in there? Wouldn’t that be interesting as you could say – forward deploy it and have a rule where you could forward deploy a unit. Maybe it costs points, maybe it costs CP, or just have it be free and they Garrison a unit. This could be an interesting thing and make it tactically interesting.
How About Some Leadership Rules?
Gw could let it become a command center where some of your characters can spread their Auras out all over the place. You need to reroll 1’s over here – get in the bunker and shout in the microphone. Do you want your Chaplain to inspire someone down the line – how about letting it increase auras for some things? There are a lot of little things you could do to make it better that just don’t involve it being a gun.
Who Has Hammerfall Bunkers?
Someone bought and painted up some of these so why not make them good? Heck, they could be ammunition storage or some kind of power area that amps up your weapons. Your Lascannons and Plasma get extra damage. Your bolter-like weapons now get extra shots. Just make this a cool piece of gear that might show up on the battlefield.
Let us know how you would fix the unit, down in the comments!
