Rough Riders

Rough Riders are mounted cavalry drawn from the feral, feudal and frontier worlds of the Imperium, places where fighting from the back of a beast remains an everyday martial skill. On such planets, nomad clans and warrior horse-lodges have honed the arts of the charge across generations of bloodshed, and the most renowned of all Rough Riders hail from the world of Attila.

Their value lies in speed and reach. Rough Riders range across ground too broken for tracked vehicles, serving as scouts, patrols and rapid-response troops able to operate alone for long stretches deep behind enemy lines. Their mounts are bred for toughness and aggression, frequently as ill-tempered and dangerous as the riders who master them, and many are further hardened by selective breeding, gene-craft and combat-enhancing chem treatments.

The signature weapon of the Rough Rider is the hunting lance, its head derived from the shaped charges once used to slay great predators on their home worlds. A hollow, lightweight shaft is tipped with a spear point wired to an impact fuse, so that the lance detonates its charge at the instant of contact. Delivered on the charge, it strikes with devastating force, letting a wave of Rough Riders shatter a stronger foe in one explosive pass before galloping clear to strike again.