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The Phobos Pattern Land Raider

The beloved Land Raider has existed almost entirely unchanged since its introduction in 3rd edition, and was the inspiration for this series. It did two things that were unique in its codex - it could transport Terminators, and it was hard to kill with AV14 all around. It's always had an Assault Ramp, though its function has changed over the years depending on how assaulting out of a vehicle has worked.

In the harsh future of 7th edition, the Land Raider's unique abilities have either been stripped away, or have become useless. Deep Strike is now so safe, using the Land Raider to transport Terminators is no longer a concern. The Assault Ramp is useful, making the Land Raider an Assault Vehicle, but the rules also restrict disembarkation to only being allowed after a 6 inch move, drastically reducing its effectiveness.

The greatest blows against the Land Raider have been caused by two changes. The first is the near uselessness of the Godhammer Lascannons. There's a reason almost no one takes Lascannons any longer; the last one I saw was begrudgingly taken on a Leman Russ variant to make it WYSIWIG. The second is the introduction of other Land Raider variants that perform much better in the role the Land Raider is supposed designed for.

If the Land Raider still has anything going for it, it's that it is still an AV14 all-around vehicle. AV14 is probably at its most durable ever. Even a squad of 5 meltas from a drop pod only has about a 50% chance of inflicting an explode result against the Land Raider - practically their worst vehicle target in the game! Of course, a single D-hit is still just as likely to take it down as a Land Speeder, but that's D for you. Also, the existence of Grav weapons that don't care about armour value makes this kind of points investment an even further liability.

Stack all of these up together, and you get a vehicle that's really just not worth taking up a sixth of your army.


The Y-Mod

Phobos-Pattern Land Raider

Front AV 14 - Side AV 14 - Rear AV 14

Type: Heavy Assault Vehicle
Hull Points: 4
Entry Points: 3 (1 front, 1 on each side)
Fire Points: 0

Weapons:
2 Twin-Linked Godhammer Lascannons
1 Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

Wargear:
Power of the Machine Spirit
Fragmentation Countermeasures (1-use only)
Smoke Launchers

Special Rules:
Godhammer Lascannons: These are a set of some of the most powerful lascannons ever developed, and would seem more suited for being mounted on massive fortifications or small titans. A Godhammer Lascannon is treated as a Lascannon that is considered a beam weapon (rules for which can be found in the psychic phase). A Godhammer Lascannon also rerolls to-wound rolls, armour penetration rolls, and may reroll damage results on the vehicle damage table.

Fragmentation Countermeasures The front of the Land Raider is packed with explosive countermeasures controlled by the Machine Spirit, and can perform various roles depending on the battlefield situation. Once per game, you may deploy the countermeasures, choosing one of the following effects:

1 - Concussive Shield - If a ranged attack would hit the Land Raider in its front arc, you may cancel one hit from that attack (treat this as a miss that cannot be rerolled). You must choose this before armour penetration rolls are made.

2 - Charge Breaker - If an assault is declared against the Land Raider from any unit in its front arc, you may make a special Overwatch attack against the unit declaring the charge, dealing 2d6 S4 hits against the charging unit. You may force the unit to reroll its charge range.

3 - Assault Blast - Whenever the Land Raider finishes a move, you may make a special attack against each unit in its front arc. Each model within 2d6 inches and within the Land Raider's front arc takes a Strength 4 hit.


The Breakdown

So what's going on here? Well, the vehicle's definitely received some love. It's been made into a Heavy vehicle so that it can move and still fire all of its weapons, letting the Machine Spirit be used to fire at an alternate target. The Lascannons are now used to literally punch through heavy armour now that they have the beam special rules! As a beam, you measure from the weapon and through the target. The beam hits the model closest to the weapon first, and if it kills it, keeps going to the next (though at -1 strength). To help it drill holes through heavy infantry, it gets to reroll to-wound rolls as well, though rerolling armour penetration and damage results will surely result in a few exploded tanks.

Also added is a totally new use of the Frag launchers, which have now been given to the Phobos Pattern. These grenade packs really appear to be similar to current technology's explosive countermeasures, that can take out an incoming missile a fraction of a moment before it damages the tank. Once per game you can use the Countermeasures to either protect the vehicle from a ranged attack, from a charge, or can add firepower to the vehicle. Note, it only works in the front arc, but can even stop a single D-hit!

As for Grav, my suggestion would be to take this Y-Mod and put it in the Land Raider formation, as that formation ignores Immobilized results, which is what makes Grav so deadly to the Land Raider.


Comments/Suggestions?

As always, these are appreciated!

'Till next time!]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8234623.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8234623.page GMT
I’m not a fan of the frag launcher thing. I’d rather an iconic unit be able to do it’s iconic thing, not given some new fancy trick to help even things out.

I think the godhammers are a little over the top. I’m OK with giving them a boost over the stock TLLC, but what you have is all that, a bag of chips, and half the rest of the armory wrapped up into a beam of death. I think boosting them to AP1, or allowing them to re-roll wound/damage results would probably go a long way. If you want to bring them to the modern age, something like if both hit the same target, treat it as a D hit. But the change to beams a a huge boost.

Other things you could add:
The option for armored ceremite.
An extra HP
A rule similar to the Ven Dread, where it can re-roll damage against it.

Let it fire more guns at more targets. Something like a second PotMS for the TLHB.

Actually, I wonder how many of it’s problems could be solved just by changing it’s type to SuperHeavy?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8234748.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8234748.page GMT
Perhaps restrict the Fragmentaiton Countermeasures to just the defensive purpose?

And I guess beam OR reroll on to-wound/armour pens, eh?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8234968.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8234968.page GMT There's a reason almost no one takes Lascannons any longer; the last one I saw was begrudgingly taken on a Leman Russ variant to make it WYSIWIG.

If all lascannons are bad, wouldn't you assume that some other Y-pattern unit would have lascannons, which would need remediation, and that you should just do a Y-pattern lascannon to cover all such eventualities, instead of not addressing the root problem?

Also, why are there so many unique special rules? Even for a land raider, shouldn't they be limited to an extreme of two, just to avoid the situation of having no actual rules and having to print unique rules for moving, shooting, disembarkation, and reserves with every single unit?

How about the idea that special rules represent visually distinct features of a model, and that the Phobos' lascannons do not appear to be much more of a variation from other lascannons than say the Cadian weapon teams' or the various patterns of razorback TLLC?

I don't think there is really any rigor to the design process on the Y-pattern.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8237865.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/669266/8237865.page GMT