LRs place in a DG list?

[Bloody Legionnaire]

The humble Land Raider, once again, finds itself in an odd place this edition.. Undoubtedly it gained some pretty big buffs in the firepower and survivability dept. However.. those gains are almost completely mitigated by the amount of firepower that it will receive. It has a very high point cost for its very limited role as a transport...

 

Blightlord terminators are probably the only unit worth putting in a LR but now we're making an already expensive unit even more expensive. The LR will provide Blightlords with a little bit better resiliency and much better mobility. 

For an army that's very resilient are there enough threats the DG can place on a table to take firepower away from the LR? Mortarion will definitely draw away fire from almost anything but he is very pricey and including him, a LR, and terminators in one list is going to stack the points up very quickly. 

 

What do you guys think? Any Land Raider fan boys out there that plan on including the steel behemoth know matter what? =P 

 

[General Strike]

I've considered them for my plaguewing lists, but only one. Two if I don't bring Mortarion. I have one DSing terminator squad, one riding up in a LR, and one foot slogging with a hauler and plague surgeon. This is alongside a flying DP and Mortarion.

[Plaguecaster]

I'm much rather shove Death Shroud in it as it actually helps the slow pokes get into combat easier where they murder most things easier

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Plaguecaster, I agree.. and that was my first inclination as well considering they are much better in CC than blightlords. However, considering they work so well with Mortarion I decided it might be better to teleport them in to wherever he is on the board. I'm pretty sure death shroud are too expensive to bring 2 units of them but that's the only way I'd take them in a LR. 

[Bulwyf]

The only way I would bring in a 2k list would be if I didn't bring Morty and was going more of a PM/termie list.

[Plaguecaster]

Plaguecaster, I agree.. and that was my first inclination as well considering they are much better in CC than blightlords. However, considering they work so well with Mortarion I decided it might be better to teleport them in to wherever he is on the board. I'm pretty sure death shroud are too expensive to bring 2 units of them but that's the only way I'd take them in a LR.

I'd probably never include Mortarion as part of my Prophets of the Seven force so more plan on using them as bodyguards to a Plaguecaster who they should easily be able to protect pretty well so a a squad escorting one would be pretty nice delivering into the enemy right in a landraider where the Plaguecaster can buff them to whilst being protected by them

Plus I'v always had a soft spot for expensive units which I always would try and include like using LRs or Defilers in previous editions when they were over expensive mainly for rule of cool especially the Death Shroud who I want to use lots since they simply are gorgeous models :D (even though they are terminators and until now never really wanted to field any sort of terminators)

Edited September 25, 2017 by Plaguecaster

[OnboardG1]

I'd be inclined to teleport death shroud in just prior to your main army regardless and then cloud of flies them to prevent them getting shot off the board if they flunk their charge. The Land Raider is a big chunk of change for a vehicle that can potentially be shot off the board in turn 1, leaving your very expensive death shroud sitting 20" away from my lines where they can't do a thing about it. 

[Panzer]

Considering how easily Marines and AM can spam Lascannons...no I wouldn't ever put my money on an expensive unit in a Landraider. 

[DuskRaider]

Truthfully, I don't see much of a point to it. Perhaps for the Lascannons, but you can do that just as well with Predators, Helbrutes, or even Entropy Cannons on a Plagueburst Crawler. Moving up quicker may sound good until you realize that the force is really meant to travel at roughly the same speed in a mass to benefit the most from the various buffs / spells / AoE effects. Then again, a squad of 7 CC Plague Marines with various buffing ICs could be a nasty surprise, be it in a Land Raider or even a Rhino (much cheaper as well).

[Panzer]

Moving up quicker may sound good until you realize that the force is really meant to travel at roughly the same speed in a mass to benefit the most from the various buffs / spells / AoE effects. Then again, a squad of 7 CC Plague Marines with various buffing ICs could be a nasty surprise, be it in a Land Raider or even a Rhino (much cheaper as well).

Yeah that's a good point as well.

There are some units that are supposed to move fast (mainly the drones) but the rest is supposed to footslog and just facetank most shooting until they are there. That's why the army has access to so many defensive abilities (5+++, -1 to-hit auras, "growing" Poxwalker, stuff that prevents targeting at a unit if another is closer).

If the Landraider had some ability to make charging out of it easier, like being allowed to move (not advance) and then disembark instead of embarking first or re-rolling charge distance the turn you disembark, it would be a much more interesting choice. Kinda sad that it didn't get anything like sad since that was the only real reason why people considered taking Landraider in 7th even (for the most part).

[Charlo]

Considering the capacity is limited to 5 Terminators, it doesn't feel like they're too worth it for them - especially in the advent of no-scatter teleportation combined with the sheer resilience of our TDA. Also means you can bring more than 5 in a squad.

 

Could be nice to cover off some Anti-Everything and transport a squad of combat based Plague Marines + support characters (Grenade bombardment?) but nothing a Rhino can't do for much cheaper.

[DuskRaider]

If I'm really hard up for Terminator transportation, I'd rather just invest in a Spartan and take the whole damn squad. Yeah, it's expensive but IMO it's worth it if you're really looking for that sort of thing. With that in mind, the main reason I always used so many Spartans in HH was because the Terminators couldn't Deep Strike 9 times out of 10. These days they're so cost prohibitive in anything but massive games that I'm not sure that's even an answer at all.

[Guidebot]

I have an old land raider sitting around, so I was thinking of converting it and using it with my DG.  

 

However, it seems to me that using transports with DG is somewhat paradoxical.  You're paying a lot of points for infantry that are good at walking and shooting, and are also better than most at enduring incoming fire.  Paying more for a transport that helps ignore these characteristics seems counter intuitive.

 

That's not so say that transport has no role in this army.  I'm definitely open to being shown the merits, or discovering them myself whenever I finally have some tanks done.  

[Lord Marshal]

Only reason to take one, as far as I can see, is if you want to get Deathshroud up the field without Teleporting/slogging it at movement 4" and also need some lascannons.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Lord Marshal

[Checkmate77]

Having one or two PM squads in Rhinos does give you some flexibility to react to opponents deployment/movement.  Also for moving and positioning units with low range weapons (Plague Spewers, Blight Grenades etc) and for quick capture of mid-field objectives.  So IMO Transports are definitely viable for DG.  That said, the LR is simply too expensive for what it can do.  Rhinos have become so much better in this edition, and for their price they are now well worth it.

[Mack]

LR's have always been pricey in my book and hard to justify, but in 8th edition they seem even more so. I think a 50 point cost reduction would have made them more viable, but DG is an expensive point army. Finding the points for a LR is even harder compared to other options in the book.