Chimera variants

There was a time, in the not too distant past, when the Imperial Guard of Warhammer 40,000 used Rhinos as transports. Later these were replaced by the now ubiquitous Chimera. The Chimera had significantly more guns than a Rhino (back then, a multilaser, a heavy bolter, 6 lasguns and a storm bolter, compared to a simple pair of bolters), and so could function as a light tank, and, at the time, could be taken as such.

The weapons fit back then was fixed. All Chimerae had the same basic armament. You could upgrade the heavy bolter to a heavy flamer, but that got you into the weird realm of Vehicle Cards, and was expensive in points.

Over time, the Chimera evolved. First we got the Hellhound, then the hull weapon became an either/or, the storm bolter became optional and the multilaser could be swapped for a heavy bolter or heavy flamer. The model didn't accomodate the alternative turret weapons, so Forgeworld filled the gap. Forgeworld gave us turrets with autocannon and twin heavy bolters. Eventually the kit was updated and any of the standard armaments could be built out of the box (hull heavy bolter or flamer, turret multilaser, heavy bolter or flamer, and pintle mount storm bolter or heavy stubber).

In time, we got a range of vehicles based off the Chimera hull, a few as transports, many as light tanks.

It would seem that, in time, we may see a huge expansion of the range of options, if the last 24 years are anything to go by.

Here are my suggestions for old variants that can be quite easily built from modern kits with a bit of work:

Chimedon
The Chimedon mounts a Conqueror battle cannon in the turret. To accommodate the ammunition and provide recoil dampening, its lasgun arrays have been removed and it's transport capacity reduced to 6. This remains a dedicated transport.

Chimerro
The Chimerro is a simple variant, it mounts a hunter killer missile, and is pretty much just an ordinary Chimera, just with an alternative designation to distinguish them from lighter armed versions (the old Epic Chimerro had the ability to fire its missile each turn, but a turn represented an entire battle of 40k, so...).

Chimerax
The Chimerax is an anti-personnel bullet hose, designed to stand in for Hydras when they weren't available. The original Chimerax mounted 4 autocannon, 2 on each side of the turret, but this looks ungainly and is difficult to articulate. So, an alternative is to fit the turret with an Exterminator Autocannon, or Punisher Gatling Cannon. Of course, if you wanted the mini Hydra variant, a Quad Gun will fit the bill, although I'm not sure how to fit such to a Chimera. With the increased firepower, it, again, loses half its transport capacity. Again, this remains a Dedicated Transport.

Chimeradon
This is a step up, essentially a Hellhound alternative. It loses all transport and becomes a Fast Attack or Heavy Support unit. It mounts a full battle cannon or a Nova cannon, that takes up the entire turret.

Of course, all of these are just ideas at present, and would probably be best limited to Armageddon detachments only (since Armageddon is a huge factory churning out immense numbers of Chimerae). The lore has a number of other variants, including the APDS-6A "Defender", which mounts a turbolaser destructor in its hull, which is so big that the vehicle can accommodate no other weapons. That would be an interesting piece.

All of this is just suggestions, but i hope we'll see some, if not all, of them in years to come. I'll certainly be converting some...

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