Land speeders and LS Storm

[packwolf]

 I am curious about land speeders - and, to a certain extent, Land Speeder Storms

 Before 'the Wolves' I was playing a lot of Inquisition forces, they were my chosen project for 2013. The wolves are for 2014, so I am looking at a lot of different options at the moment.

 I'm intrigued about land speeders - they have very low armour ratings, so I can see bolt guns taking them down with enough hits - but at the same time, I can see them being highly effective - and cheap, mobile gun platforms

 Can anyone who has experience of land speeders and their use, provide me with any pointers please?

 

[Stretch]

One on its own doesn't work. Give it a weapon for a specific job and make sure it does it. Keep the damn thing moving and if you have spare foc slots take them separately and not in squadrons.

[eiglepulper]

Typhoons are pretty sweet too for long range fire support with optional missiles, plus they can take a multimelta if you want to swap out the heavy bolter, but the range disparity of missile launcher+multimelta is a little too big for them to be worth taking together.

I use them in pairs and keep them moving slowly so as to get the jink save guaranteed, plus try to keep them at least 25% behind cover which thus increases the cover save to 4+. This hiding element is made all the easier due to the spread of the missile pods on either side of the LS, since LOS is determined from the weapon mount [and barrel] but only one pod requires LOS to allow the weapon to be fired.

As Stretch said there too: give the LS a job to do, arm it appropriately and let it get on with its job. Whether or not using a single one is best is your call; personally I use them in pairs because then at least you have to take down 4 Hull Points to claim a VP for the unit. They do succumb fairly readily though, especially to close range double taps from rapid fire weapons - those 6s always seem to proliferate when it's your enemy rolling the to-penetrate dice - so using them at the extreme range of their own weapons does tend to help a bit. 24" for multimelta and assault cannons helps to keep them out of rapid fire double tap range, the heavy bolter allows the LS to stand off even further away and the Typhoons have the best advantage of range by far.

As long as you remember to keep them moving and to use terrain to hide behind as best as possible while retaining LOS for the weapons, LS units do become a bit more survivable. I use 6 in my White Scars list: two Typhoons, 2 Tornados set up with multimelta/assault cannon and 2 Tornados with heavy bolter and assault cannon. Long range firepower/anti-MEq, anti-tank and anti-infantry, and they work. They do die of course, but they present such a threat to the enemy that he eventually will concentrate on them which of course then helps the rest of your army.

R.

[Lord Draconiroth]

Personally the biggest thing are the Storms are now dedicated transports for scouts (even though had a house rule since they appeared for that)