Achilles Ridgerunner

An Achilles Ridgerunner of the Genestealer Cults streaks into battle against the foe.

The Achilles Ridgerunner is an Imperial light exploratory vehicle often used to scout out new ore seams by mining guild prospectors and newly discovered terrain on Frontier Worlds by geological surveyors.

Because of its speed, range and sheer durability, the Achilles Ridgerunner also has proven to be very popular for use with the outriders and scouts of the Genestealer Cults.

Role

The Achilles Ridgerunner is a common sight throughout the Imperium. Although not specifically designed for military use, like so many of the utilitarian machines favoured by the Genestealer Cults, it has proven remarkably effective as an outrider and scout vehicle.

Employed by Imperial mining guilds and geological surveyors as exploration vehicles, Ridgerunners range into deadly frontier environments, their pilots scanning for promising resource deposits and communicating their location back to base. The Mining Lasers mounted on the vehicle are typically used to unearth rich seams of valuable minerals and rare metals, but these powerful directed energy emitters can burn through protective plating and flesh as easily as they carve through rock strata, giving the Ridgerunner a powerful weapon with which to destroy enemy infantry or light armour.

An Achilles Ridgerunner is built for speed as well as durability, and is a vital reinforcement for a Genestealer Cult in a fight.

Standard armaments also include Heavy Stubbers for repelling hostile fauna, opportunistic scavengers and xenos threats -- ever-present hazards when exploring Frontier Worlds. As is their practice, the warriors of the Genestealer Cults have supplemented the Ridgerunner's arsenal with various additional weapons: Mortars and Missile Launchers offer invaluable firepower against heavily armoured targets, adding an offensive punch to these fast and rugged trucks.

Though well-equipped to engage enemy scouts and outriders, the Achilles Ridgerunner's true qualities lie in its ability to range ahead of the cult's main insurrection forces, scouting out potential ambush sites and new routes of ingress into the foe's territory. Many Ridgerunner crews include a spotter equipped with magnoculars, whose task it is to identify and relay enemy troop movements and weak points in the opposition's defence.

This vital data is transmitted to the cult gene-sect's headquarters, where it can be absorbed and disseminated by a Nexos strategist. Other Ridgerunners carry flare launchers, usually employed for signalling and coordinating ambushes and outflanking manoeuvres -- though at a pinch they can also level a smokescreen to hide the vehicle's advance.

With their heavy chassis and rigorous suspension, Achilles Ridgerunners are particularly well-suited to navigating bombed-out cities and thick sprawls of hostile terrain -- the saying goes that the driver will give out long before the Ridgerunner does. Whether thundering across overgrown expanses of wilderness, prowling caverns or smashing their way through the rockcrete wasteland of shattered hive cities while spitting signal flares into the sky, Achilles Ridgerunners are vital components in the Genestealer Cult's grand uprising.

Unit Composition

• 1-3 Achilles Ridgerunners

Wargear

• 2 Heavy Stubbers
• Heavy Mining Laser
• Flare Launcher
• Missile Launcher or Heavy Mortar (As replacement for Heavy Mining Laser)
• Frag Missiles (For Missile Launcher)
• Krak Missiles (For Missile Launcher)
• Survey Augur (As replacement for Flare Launcher)
• Spotter (As replacement for Flare Launcher, increases weapon ranges)

Sources

• Codex: Genestealer Cults (8th Edition), pp. 60, 94
• Warhammer Community - Genestealer Cults Preview