Imperial Guard Landspeeder

40 points per model

The Land Speeders fielded by the Imperial Guard are an evolution of a Standard Template Construct (STC) pattern discovered in the wake of the Horus Heresy. Utilizing ancient technology, the Land Speeder uses a repulsion plate to skim a planet's gravitational field, simulating the effect of flight, and enabling it to perform low-altitude maneuvers that more conventional atmosphere-capable craft would find nigh-impossible.

Early Land Speeder designs were relatively unarmored, but over the millennia the design has been modified with light adamantium plating. This alteration was made not for the sake of the crew – though it does offer better protection than the standard flak armor issued to Imperial Guardsmen - but to better protect the delicate control units, without which a Land Speeder is merely a large chunk of welded metal swiftly approaching terminal velocity.

Obviously, not every Guardsman is suited to piloting a Land Speeder; those who qualify to pilot these rare craft are those Guardsmen who embrace the speed of which a Land Speeder is capable. Most Land Speeder pilots are regarded as being more than a little reckless by their colleagues in the more conventional arms of the Imperial Guard. Indeed, no wholly sane man, however courageous, would willingly embrace the repertoire of dizzying low-level combat maneuvers of which the craft is capable. Land Speeder pilots think nothing of skimming close to rock spires, jinking through forests or performing abrupt nose-dives and barrel rolls to avoid incoming fire. Considering the mental and physical strain of such bewildering maneuvers, the fact that few Land Speeders are lost to pilot error can be solely attributed to the extensive training, built-in machine spirits and stamina of the Imperial Guards who crew them.

With their versatile weapons loadout, Land Speeders can be tasked to a variety of battlefield objectives. These can range from lightly armed reconnaissance deployments, to tank hunting or other seek and destroy missions.

The gravitational drive of a Land Speeder does not allow it to function at high-altitudes, but it can be used to perform a controlled descent from the upper atmosphere. This allows a Land Speeder to deploy from overflying Valkyrie Gunships and assail the foe without warning.

Imperial Guard Land Speeders are nowhere near common enough to field in any great numbers. When they appear on the field, they are often ordered to support other units. Some Land Speeder equipped Imperial Guard regiments will field their entire fleet of Land Speeders as a fast moving and nigh unstoppable assault wave, blasting a hole in the enemy battleline that chimera-mounted Infantry squads can exploit, before peeling off and engaging another target with a similarly devastating effect.

Unit Composition:

• 1-3 Land Speeders

Unit Type:

• Vehicle (Fast, Skimmer)

Options:

Any Land Speeder may replace its heavy bolter with:

• heavy flamer: free

• multi-melta: +10 pts

Any Land Speeder may be upgraded with one of the following:

• A Typhoon missile launcher: +30 point

• Heavy flamer: +5 pts

• Heavy bolter: +5 pts

• Multi-melta: +15 pts

• Assault cannon: +30 pts

Wargear:

• Heavy bolter

Special Rules:

• Deep Strike

Related Pages

Up
Assault Squads
Beastmen
Bikers
Jet Bikes
Landspeeder
Squats