A long-awaited update to the venerable Land Speeder soars into action in Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon, and today we’re showing off its rules.
The Land Speeder is a classic Space Marine scouting vehicle brought bang up to date with a new look, new weapons, and new abilities. It’s packed with guns and a real threat to lighter infantry and vehicles on the enemy’s flanks, while working beautifully with the new Fulguris Task Force detachment, which champions speeders of all kinds.
Compared to the heavier Storm Speeders, the Land Speeder emphasises raw velocity and agility over durability, manifesting as an eye-watering 14” of Movement and the Purgation Run ability that lets it duck back into cover after shooting.*
Its armament is much heavier than you’d expect for a vehicle of its size, packing an onslaught gatling cannon or heavy flamer, plus a multi-melta and stormfury missile launcher for anti-vehicle work. As a fast flanking unit, it’s immensely useful for checking both infantry and light vehicles, giving the rest of your army space to get more dangerous targets in their sights.
Most importantly, it can soar right over intervening terrain thanks to the FLY keyword, which has updated movement rules to cut down on fiddly measuring. Instead of getting out your protractor and working out just how far your flying units moved up a slope, you now simply cut 2” from their Movement stat and ignore any vertical distance. As the crow flies, they say.**
FLYING MODELS
Models with the FLY keyword, and units such models are part of, are said to be able to FLY. Some rules also refer to such models/units as FLYING models/FLYING units.
Each time a FLYING unit is selected to make a normal, advance, fall-back or charge move, before moving any models in that unit, the active player can declare that it will take to the skies. If it does, while resolving that move:
Subtract 2" from the maximum distance.
Each time a FLYING model moves:
Ignore all vertical distance for the purposes of how far it has moved.
It can move through all types of model (including enemy models and MONSTER/VEHICLE models).
It can move horizontally and vertically through all categories of terrain feature.
TAKING TO THE SKIES
This Riptide Battlesuit can FLY. It makes an advance move with a maximum distance of 16".
Before moving the unit, the active player declares that it will take to the skies. That move’s maximum distance is reduced to 14", but while making that move, the Riptide Battlesuit can move through all enemy units (including VEHICLES) and all terrain features, ignoring any vertical distance that would normally be counted to ascend and descend terrain features.
A gun up top… a gun underneath… missiles on the sides… It seems like the new Land Speeder has the best bits of the old Land Speeder, Tornado and Typhoon variants all merged into one.
The Land Speeder will be available for the first time in the Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon boxed set. In the meantime, join us tomorrow as we take a look at what tinkering the Meks have been doing to that other stone-cold classic – the Ork Wartrakk.
* What those in the biz call ‘the ol’ shoot-and-scoot’.
** Unless you’re the Land Speeder-loving White Scars, then it’s ‘as the berkut flies’.
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