Obliterator unit ideas

[Sorceror Fellrust]

Obliterators can absorb and replicate heavy weapons, such as lascannons and plasma guns. Each obliterator packs about as much potential firepower as a battle tank.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Obliterator_Virus
With the new fluff showing techpriests and techmarines alike transforming themselves into obliterators, I feel it is necessary to ask why the Iron Warriors, the best at creating new weapons of destruction, have not exploited their large obliterator virus resource pool in order to create truly daemonic tanks and biomechanical obliterator titans capable of altering their armaments.
I remember seeing a pic from before the codex:daemons came out with a daemon tank concept that involved spawnlike arms and mouth cannons. The IW could make that.

[BurnArt the Ravenbane]

Well, the fact that techmarines and magos do that doesn't mean every marine can. If that'd be true we'd have a whole army consisting only of Obliterators, while now they are very rare and highly valued.

ps

666 th post! Woot!

[Warsmith Gorrched]

When you get into things the size of tanks and titans youre talking a different ball game. Usually what happens with tanks and titans is that they become corrupted by some other means instead of being created right outa the stuff from chaos.

At least thats how the GW fluff it up. I could be wrong.

[Barrakus]

I can see your point, perhaps the obliterator virus can only work on living tissue, not on lifeles tanks but perhaps the techpriests could build a machine to hold the oblits, imagine a land raider with firing ports that obliterators on the inside could fire out of, say this tank could hold like 5 oblits, transporting them in relative safety, allowing them to fire what ever they wanted in any direction, and maybe the oblits could even use their inate skills to help repair that machine. it would be unstopable. it would be....... a monolith? hmm....

[Warsmith Gorrched]

And here is the point of the game where it gets a bit over the top, at least what I think. Your ideas are creative, imaginative and when it comes down to it, very chaos. But you also gotta think about it like this. Say you do have a land raider and you do put 5 oblits into it. Now think of the cost. You're talking 225 for the LR and another 350 for the oblits to ride around in it. So we are talking 575 for something that is alright in its performance (Now I'm going by what would be used in this instance very literally).

A better idea would be something like this....

The land raider of said chaos force has been slaughting many a person/thing for the past 10k years. Over these years it has earned valor and other points of honor with the gods of chaos and thus has had several mutations to itself and its crew. Thus they are one in the same now. In forgoing its passengers as none who do travel inside ever leave it, the tank has taken in itself to create its own weapons as it sees fit. The weapon mounts have been known to change in battle and become an entirely different weapon to react what is going on around it.

So basically you would have the same weapon spots as you would normally do. However this would allow you to pick and choose using the oblits options for those areas. No troop capacity but it gives you a wide option of weapons to use.

Kind of get my drift?

Personally the biggest problem I see is when people make up units just to do something that thier army normally cant use. However this idea you have of making demonic tanks and titans with the obliterator virus has given me way to many unhealthy ideas that will no doubt result in my girl friend yelling at me for purchasing more things to fuel this new ambition. It is rather fluffy in a sense but wth a little bit of tweaking I think that this could no doubt make its way to the table.

[Sorceror Fellrust]

I bow to your logic, Warsmith Gorrched. Your land raider idea is very inspired.
With the old school viral obliterator unit, it appears that anything could become an obliterator. In the inquisitor game (can't find link to article), they tried to develop a more common form that would not cause its vectors to die if they were not on a daemon world. This virus form was highly contagious.

I admit that most of the resulting units would be too strange and expensive to use outside of apocalypse. The obliterator cult may conceal variant obliterator forms (infected electro priest) and weapons that they do not wish to risk in regular battles. It may be that the mercenary obliterators are veteran scouts for the cult, searching out centers of technology and bringing designs back to the cult.

Now if say an IG tank company comes within range of an obliterator squad that can infect it, the combined biomass of the tank crew (6 or 7 people) should be able to merge with most of the tank if spread out. The merging of several individual personalities with the tank's machine spirit would probably drive them all insane, creating a random spawn tank. (Think combined chaos spawn/obliterator/battle tank).

I do not believe that these units would be fair or suited to a regular game, but the titans and formations already used in apocalypse are often about as crazy as these units would be.

On an unrelated note, what is the purpose of the obliterator cult in the long run? Have they been tasked to be the weapon of chaos against the necrons and the cult of the dragon? Warp tech cannot be influenced by the void dragon as far as I know.

[Warsmith Gorrched]

As far as I know and with what I have seen with the fluff the obliterator virus is simply a tech heresy that has moved onto levels its creators probably didn't think it would reach.

My own hypothesis is that its part of the scrap code spasm that hit Mars and tore Mars into civil war (as it happened in Mechanicum of the Horus Heresy series). Thus the obliterator virus was born out of that much larger virus and moved onto infecting human beings.

Thats at least how I think of it.

If you really wanted to go all out crazy with it you could make it a rule of 100 extra points a model and it can switch its weapons around to that of any option it currently has. Would be modest I would think. Ya it would be an expensive tank but it would be something that you would be able to go wild with on the modeling aspects of it.

[Barrakus]

You guys think oblits could merge together? kind of like a big, evil voltron? that would be cool

[Warsmith Gorrched]

Hmm it is possible, after all it is chaos.

Then again it could just be dread that got hold of the virus and is now a very large and very angry obliterator.

[BurnArt the Ravenbane]

So angry it shoots his fellows when they're close... grr...

[Warsmith Gorrched]

Yes that is a minor detail....

However you can just have them at the front lines off on their own away from everyone but the enemy....that works usually....

[BurnArt the Ravenbane]

Tried that, a lone Dreadnought doesn't work for me, firstly it is being destroyed easily as it isn't all that hard alone its a juicy target and secondly it used to be a great support unit, but alne it has nothing to support and just goes around shooting stuff. Anyone can do that, many can do that better.

But going back on topic, I think if someone would want to create something like mega-obliterator and field it then I gues Dread's stats are best for it. One could even sculp a model on his own, not base it on a Dread, and make it look like Obliterator only much bigger, and use it to represent a Dreadnought.

[Barrakus]

I don't know, I think the demon prince with mark of Tz and a couple of spells would be better for representing a mega oblit. at least it could fire more than one type of weapon.

[Sorceror Fellrust]

A mega obliterator would be an interesting conversion for a dreadnought.

An obliterator dreadnought would have to be an apocalypse unit, as the weapons options for the dreadnought, when combined with the body weapons of the obliterator, would create a unit capable of wielding two twin linked lascannons or two missile launchers.

On the fluff side, it might be possible for an iron warrior to be too injured for even the dreadnought surgery to sustain him, requiring the use of the obliterator virus to reinforce his body with internal augmentations.

[blackcell8]

Plus using a Dreadnought being used as a mega-Obliterator would make sense of its Frenzy, multiple Obliterators combining together, minds slowly melding together as well...?