Okay guys and gals,
Round 2 of Mattmans Marine Motorised Mobile Review:
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I started off by tweaking the Assault Cannons on those variants that have them so they have less shots, but a little save mod as they can go through armour with the rending rule in 40k. Also means less dice to roll.
I have also removed the PD off some, as in most cases the extra weapons take up the space on those vehicles where the Heavy Bolters would normally sit.
I have also tweaked the rules for Frag Launchers as per the post above.
I have added the original Land Raider and Predator stats (coloured grey) to give some comparison to the new units.
Okay first up, the Ares. It is a bit like the Redeemer as it has Assault Cannons and sponson flame weapons. The Heavy Flamers aren't as powerful as the Flamestorm, so knocked the To Hit and TSM down. It also mounts the Demolisher off the vindicator, so copied those stats over. No transport capacity and no PD as it doesn't have room for either. The Ares is usually a lot more heavily armoured than a normal Land Raider as it mounts a full face dozer blade like the Vindicator, so improved the save. There is the potential to knock its move down by 5cm (again, like the vindicator), but I haven't done it yet.
Much like the Helios, this variant has the capability of two vehicles in one package, so 350 for 3 seems a fair price, it is cheaper than buying Redeemers and Vindicators separately, but you run the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket.
Next, the Crusader. Although this was in the gold list (albeit as a Black Templar unit), I have tweaked the stats and it should be available to all.
Again, a slight variation on the Redeemer, keeps the transport, assault cannon and frag launchers, but I have ditched the Multi Melta It is not a fixed weapon unlike the PD giving heavy bolters on the normal Land Raider, all the Land Raiders have the option of taking the Multi Melta upgrade, so just doing away with it avoids plenty of issues.
Kept the PD at 4, but I have thought about upping it to 6 since it has 6 twinlinked Bolters.
Points wise they are in a the same ball park as the Redeemer and normal Land Raider, so 250 for 3, (plus it makes more sense after stripping the Multi Melta off).
Helios next. Stats are almost identical to what is in the gold book. Only changes I have made are to drop the PD (as I discuss above) and give it a small transport capacity since they can still carry 5 marines. Not sure how useful that will be, but it keeps it true to the fluff. Like the Ares, it is two vehicles in one with some risks and it was discussed in a previous post about the points of the Helios, so 350 for 3.
Next is a strange beast, the Prometheus.
According to the rules and fluff, this is command and control vehicle with banks of high powered sensors, communication, tracking and radar equipment. It basically sacrifices all the the usual potent weaponry that you would see on a Land Raider for this equipment. Armament wise it mounts 4 twin linked Heavy Bolters and normally I would think 2 shots at 5+ to hit would cover that, but because it can automatically track targets with unerring accuracy, even when the targets are moving at high speed, I have bumped the to hit to 4+ and given it the Quickdraw ability. Being a specialist command vehicle, I have given it the usual Command and HQ abilities as well as another ability I have called C3, to cover all of its specialist sensor gear.
The C3 ability give the player a couple of bonuses. Firstly due to the equipment continuously monitoring the battle and communicating with all units, it can make split second command decisions based on predicted battle simulations, therefore I have said that just before you activate a formation and reveal its order, it allows you to switch that order for a different one. That way you can see what your opponent is doing and change an order to try and counter what they are doing. Haven't added it yet, but thinking of adding the caveat that you can't use this ability to make a unit Snap Fire when they don't already have First Fire orders.
The second part of the C3 ability is that it provides detailed targeting data for artillery strikes, so it gives you chance to re-roll the scatter dice from a barrage or artillery.
Due to the rare and special nature of these vehicles, I think they should a special formation choice and currently I am thinking they should cost 150pts for a single model.
As well as the Prometheus there is a Rhino variant called the Damocles. It does exactly the same in terms of abilities, but doesn't have any weapons or transport capacity. Again, this should be a special formation of a single model and think it is most probably worth around 75pts.
Next up we move onto Predator variants.
The first is the Annihilator. This swaps the turret weapon for a twin linked Lascannon (same stats as a Land Raider sponson) and keeps the standard sponson Lascannons. With one more shot, more speed, less armour and no transport capacity compared to a Land Raider, I think this variant is on par points wise, so 250 for 3.
The Destructor keeps the Autocannon turret and ditches the Lascannon sponsons for Heavy Bolters. Now I could potentially make the Heavy Bolters a PD(1), but to keep its look in line with the other Predators, I have just kept them as normal weapons. 2 shots at 5+ to hit with no save mod makes the variant worse stats wise the the normal one, so I am thinking of just 150pts for 3 for the Destructor.
These two Predator variants also tie in with the most recent models, one which has a Lascannon turret and two Lascannon sponsons and the other which has the Autocannon turret and Heavy Bolter sponson.
Thoughts?
Next up I will be looking at fliers!
Matt