I haven't been posting lately. School and other projects, for example an annoying illusion sometimes also referred as "life", have distracted me from 40k, the true meaning of existence. Anyway, I just had to force myself to do something, and here you see me (t)rolling... (...not hating... hopefully..)
I've personally seen them rolling. Towards me, towards my objectives, towards my army, and those blasted bummobiles are driving my 'nids and Daemons crazy. With GK I do have the tools, but somehow I just can't throw 6's and waste tons of psycannons on them. What's this madness... A year ago Land Riders were a joke. Nowadays they are a force to be reckoned. Solo, twin and triple -Rider builds have massively bloomed over Finnish tournament scene. Armies with mass melta are happy, but my Chaosjappies are not.. Playing 2 objectives against twin Riders is pretty much autolose without superb luck and crazy-hot dicerolling.
What has caused this? There are probably countless reasons;
First and foremost reason could be Grey Knights. When the Steel Power came out with their rifle-toting-psyfle-madness, they made rhino hulls sad metalpandas. Powering up into AV14 helps; even with psycannons rending, it takes really much effort and some luck to wreck or explode a Rider. I have personally wasted many shooting phases on 2 of these powerhouses with my GK. My friend keeps telling me to add melta to my army, but... Maybe I should.
Anyway. Taking AV14 might be a reaction to the shifting of metagame caused by GK.
Land Riders counter many lists very well. For example 'nids or Daemons, or Orks can't really handle them. Same is true with missilespam -type armies. Rock, paper, scissors is a good game, eh.. Well these baddies know how to play it right. Single multi-melta can turn your 250pts bomb into wastepile, but against armies that don't have them.. It sucks to be a Xeno. Deldar have lances, an effective way to get rid of LR, but many other armies are left out cold. This culminates in team tournaments such as ETC or ATC. Playing counter-type lists might help you win against opponents with equal talent regardless of some bad rolls.
AV14 is also a psychological factor. It intimidates and flattens, taunting you to shoot it, and same time laughing at you str8 weaponry, and taking a crap on lower str guns. Forcing your opponent to roll the dice instead of having to perform against the odds yourself is a serious trump card for the LRplayer. I hate performing with my die; sometimes it just doesn't happen even if it by all means should.
And one shouldn't forget the thing itself. AV14 vehicle, with variable good weaponry, cheesy machine spirit, solid transport capasity and massive footprint, not too shabby, even when you have to pay jackload to get it. Also, the model itself offers valuable LOSblock to other vehicles, CSM Daemon Princes, Mephistons and other buggers. To me 250ish points for all this is a bargain, atleast when bought into right type of surroundings (and I don't mean Hawaii beaches and women rubbing sunlotion in the sun -kind of surroundings..(wait what..)). And let's not forget the assault ramp. Assault terminators really do love this rock, as many BAlists have proven.
What armies then use these beasty boys? Lately I have seen Space Wolves, Blood Angels and CSM run twinRaider lists. SingleRaiders are often included in many marine armies, MohlieSM being a prime example. Nick's Black Templars with 2 LR have won big time in USA. Whatever one says, this LRBoom is real, growing, and hurting. Hopefully older 'dexes get their piece of anti-tank-cake in the coming updates.. If not, I know a rock that's gonna crush some armies big time.
Joo-o
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