Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Does anyone have any useful tips for using or equipping this set up? Are tacticals in a land raider even a good idea?
Here's what I want to run in a 1700pt list

Techmarine: servo harness, auspex
Tactical Squad: 10x marines, plasma, combi-plasma
Land Raider Redeemer: multi-melta, extra armor

I couldn't even possibly imagine for what purpose.

Black Templars would make Crusaders into OS. That's a gimmick of neat proportions.

I would use them like a tactical squad in a rhino, but the rhino is a landraider and has serious offense and defense. Also it was the only way to get my techmarine into a squad

The Crusader is generally the better pick as you get more shots and the weapons are not as awkward to use effectively.

HoundsofDemos wrote:
The Crusader is generally the better pick as you get more shots and the weapons are not as awkward to use effectively.

Except that the crusader brings boltguns, which you can find on quite literally almost every unit in the codex.

Land Raiders are bad, as their offense is nothing special for the points (especially the crusader!) and with all the D weapons, melta, armourbane, grav and haywire around, AV14 doesn't mean anywhere near as much as it used to either. So now you have a expensive transport with little to no offense (depending on variant) and barely more defense than a rhino.

The one and only use for a Raider is getting a slow assault unit up the field, and half the time it's too expensive to even do that.

The only weapons marines have that matter is their specials, and you can't even fire them out of a Raider like you can with a rhino. Drop pods give the mobility for 1/7th of the cost and come with ObSec for troops like tacs.

As for the raider being the only way to get your techmarine into a squad, you do realise that not only can he join any squad he likes, but also that since you're not bringing a heavy weapon, you only need to have 5 tacticals in a squad, leaving anything from a razorback up (ie, every vehicle transport marines have) as an option if you really must have him join a squad of tactical marines.

The real question is why you want or need him in the first place when a librarian is better. If you really want a techmarine, get a thunderfire cannon (or 3).

What purpose does a Land Raider offer a Tactical Squad over a Rhino or Drop Pod? Sure it has better armour, but then your Tacs are sitting inside a very expensive box doing nothing until they jump out... and then can't charge because you'll want to fire those Plasma Guns you gave them. You can do the same thing for much cheaper with a Rhino/Drop Pod.

If you're springing for a Land Raider, then you probably should have something inside it that's going to be worth using it for. Namely some sort of Assault Unit that you want to deliver into close combat.

Honor Guard or assault Centurions are probably a better choice to put in the land raider.


Keep the tactical marines cheap- give them a rhino or a pod.

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:
Honor Guard or assault Centurions are probably a better choice to put in the land raider.


Keep the tactical marines cheap- give them a rhino or a pod.

You misspelled Spartan Assault Tank, and that makes me sad.

I will agree that land raiders are not worth the points anymore.

But that is not the land raider's fault, it is gw's for ramping everything else up; and the hull points rules.

Back in 3rd land raiders were king. Only melta, lance, and S10 were a seriuos threat, and while a glance could still 1-shot them, it was a "roll and pray" kind of think, not something you were seriously trying for. They were worth the points(especially with potms).

In 4th they had the benefit of s5 and below bonus shooting while moving, this made the basic and crusader pretty great (fire everything while advancing your assaulty bits in pretty decent safety).

Then came 5th and dropping the move-and shoot to s4; that killed the basic but kept the crusader awesome (and introducing the subpar for the moment redeemer ), the basic went back to being mostly a bunker.

6th saw the rise of hull points and snap shooting while moving making them all ok-ish again .

Now with just about everything capable of damaging av 14 in some horrible way it is just not really worth the points to put them in.

But if you were going to transport a tac squad into battle you do not want that squad as a shooting squad. Shooting squads go in rhinos, that way they can fire from the hatch. A land raider is best done with a redeemer or a crusader(soften up the charge target, or counter-chargers) and both of those tanks want to be within 12-6" of the enemy units anyways(bolters and templates). For the squad itself: either a power weapon and bolt/grav pistol on the sgt, or a p-fist and combiflamer. You can take either a flamer or a melta for the special but neither is really necessay. Skip the heavy. An attached Chaplain is a nice additiin as well for his assault bonuses. That is it really: fairly cheap unit assaulting out of an expensive tank that also has anti-infantry capability.

P.s. I always take the multi-melta on my crusader because it adds some anti-tank to the assault cannon(which can still dual-purpose, just not as well as it used to)

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:
Honor Guard or assault Centurions are probably a better choice to put in the land raider.


Keep the tactical marines cheap- give them a rhino or a pod.

You misspelled Spartan Assault Tank, and that makes me sad.

What point is there in taking the Spartan? Its 45pts more before giving it ceramite, and your not even using the full transport capacity.

What you want is a Black Templars Crusader Squad. An extra choppy Tactical Squad that can have attached Scouts and a DT LRC.

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:
Honor Guard or assault Centurions are probably a better choice to put in the land raider.


Keep the tactical marines cheap- give them a rhino or a pod.

You misspelled Spartan Assault Tank, and that makes me sad.

What point is there in taking the Spartan? Its 45pts more before giving it ceramite, and your not even using the full transport capacity.

For assault centurions, you can take a full squad and characters in a spartan. For honor guard, well, armoured Ceramite and better guns are always handy, since you don't care about the assault launchers.

Original Poster here, just trying to sum up this thread a bit. So on one hand landraiders are super soft and offer no protection or benefit over a simple rhino. On the other, we should put expensive assault squads in them, squads who will be totally boned out in the open when their paper landraider gets blown up since they have little to no shooting.

I disagree with those who say that land raiders are as soft as rhinos. First of all nothing with s7 or lower can hurt it which means there will not be as many threats to in in my opponents army as a rhino would have. I can, depending on whether I go first and whether or not my opponent has drop troops, keep the landraider in reserve and take out the threats to it early with my own drop troops (other tactical squad and either ironclad or grav cents) and long range firepower. Then go on a killing spree. And I believe the raider does get OBSec when the tacticals are inside it. Also the techmarine gives it more defense and he compliments the tactical's fire power very well with his flamer and his plasma cutter. He can also jump out separately from the tacticals to assault and/or flame something. The land raider and techmarine add to the tactical squad's versatility in shooting, assault and defense. And if the land raider does get blown up up, the squad is versatile enough that it can probably still make itself useful. The landraider when it is wrecked also becomes LOS blocking terrain unlike the rhino and because it's armor is the same all around you can pivot at the end of your move to make the most of this.

Also I like the land raider redeemer because it wrecks jinking 3+ save grav/scatter laser bike troops and my army does't have an otherwise good answer to them

And I play ultramarines I will try it and write about how it goes

Rx8Speed wrote:
Original Poster here, just trying to sum up this thread a bit. So on one hand landraiders are super soft and offer no protection or benefit over a simple rhino. On the other, we should put expensive assault squads in them, squads who will be totally boned out in the open when their paper landraider gets blown up since they have little to no shooting.

I disagree with those who say that land raiders are as soft as rhinos. First of all nothing with s7 or lower can hurt it which means there will not be as many threats to in in my opponents army as a rhino would have. I can, depending on whether I go first and whether or not my opponent has drop troops, keep the landraider in reserve and take out the threats to it early with my own drop troops (other tactical squad and either ironclad or grav cents) and long range firepower. Then go on a killing spree. And I believe the raider does get OBSec when the tacticals are inside it. Also the techmarine gives it more defense and he compliments the tactical's fire power very well with his flamer and his plasma cutter. He can also jump out separately from the tacticals to assault and/or flame something. The land raider and techmarine add to the tactical squad's versatility in shooting, assault and defense. And if the land raider does get blown up up, the squad is versatile enough that it can probably still make itself useful. The landraider when it is wrecked also becomes LOS blocking terrain unlike the rhino and because it's armor is the same all around you can pivot at the end of your move to make the most of this.

Also I like the land raider redeemer because it wrecks jinking 3+ save grav/scatter laser bike troops and my army does't have an otherwise good answer to them

Its not that they are soft (they sorta are but not the point), but putting a tactical squad in them is a waste of points as you are not using half of what the tank is made to do...get assault units into assault.

tacticals are not horrible in assault and sometimes it is better to assault with them than rapid fire their weapons. WIth the techmarine in there they can hit pretty hard, especially against vehicles with their krak grenades.

Another thing is that normally rhinos are blown up before they even move, they're easy first blood and takes the unit inside out of the match for a while. The landraider gives my unit a better chance of actually doing something

Rx8Speed wrote:
tacticals are not horrible in assault and sometimes it is better to assault with them than rapid fire their weapons. WIth the techmarine in there they can hit pretty hard, especially against vehicles with their krak grenades.

Another thing is that normally rhinos are blown up before they even move, they're easy first blood and takes the unit inside out of the match for a while. The landraider gives my unit a better chance of actually doing something

Certainly there not horrible, but you would probably get much more use out of them if they were a crusader squad instead. Much more choppy and can take scouts as extra wounds too.


Plus it makes your Raider a DT so it will be obsec.


Tacticals are not really a good choice to put into it at all. You can do what you want of course, but you did ask for advice.

Look at in in terms of opportunity cost: for the 250pts you spent on that land raider, you could have instead spent 35pts on a rhino, then another 140+35 pts on a second tactical squad and rhino, and still have 40 pts to spend on toys for your extra tactical squad.

They're kind of a questionable buy overall, even when used as an assault transport for a melee squad. They have some utility for Crusader Squads, especially if you spam them. The main issue is that and lots of armies have powerful tools for killing AV14 (Eldar, Marines, Necrons). If you're not at least taking advantage of the assault ramp, then you're spending a lot of points for... what? A bus with couple of hurricane bolters and a multimelta?

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:
Honor Guard or assault Centurions are probably a better choice to put in the land raider.


Keep the tactical marines cheap- give them a rhino or a pod.

You misspelled Spartan Assault Tank, and that makes me sad.

What point is there in taking the Spartan? Its 45pts more before giving it ceramite, and your not even using the full transport capacity.

It has one more HP, so without D Weapons you're not gonna glance it to death by T2. Plus that space allows more characters to join Centurions, and they greatly benefit from the Frag Assault Launchers so that way you can take the Hurricane Bolters for a minor punch against horde opponents.
With Honor Guard, it's more of wanting that durability.