Unit of the Week: Raiders

[Vel'Cona]

Next on the docket is everyone's favourite spikey raiding skiff of doom: the Raider!  Any Archon, Succubus, or Haemonculus worth their salt knows the value of the True Kin's favoured party wagon, but let's take a moment to discuss this integral transport in its most current incarnation.  As before, we'll start with the basic elements, good and bad:

 

+Extremely fast and has Fly

+Large transport capacity (10 models)

+Carries deceptively powerful Assault weaponry

+Strategems increase mobility even further

+Built-in 5+ Invulnerable save

+Can carry a wide range of units

+Embarked models can shoot

+Above average melee potential (for a Transport, anyway)

+Can benefit from some Kabal Obsessions

 

-Comparatively pricey

-Somewhat fragile

-Capacity can make including best wargear options + characters challenging

-Most wargear upgrades limited use (accept Phantasm Grenade Launcher)

 

Much like Kabalite Warriors, Raiders are my go-to Transport of choice simply because of their larger capacity, though having a bonus Dark Lance/Disintegrator is always helpful, too.  While I used to be a fan of the Venom, I'm finding that having more bodies in the transport with a bit of room to slide in a character is exceedingly useful, and I've only been taking Raiders since the general demise of Kabalite Trueborn (more on that in future UotW discussions!).  In particular, the old favourite of 10-man Kabalite Warriors in a Raider has been a workhorse unit for me, especially given that those Warriors can now take 2 special weapons.

 

How have your Raiders done in the new 'dex?  Have you had any luck using them for strange/esoteric units?  Have they supplanted Venoms entirely for you?

[shaun03]

Radiers are my prefer method of transport, I run 2 of 5 wracks in them dark creed coven and I'm all ready maxing the negative LD bubble.  I stick with lances, PGL and grizzle trophies.

 

I am liking them over the venoms, venom spam has place it just doesn't work with my list.

 

I still used the old 3rd raiders without sails and bigger profile, if aint broke don't fix it, they can hide more easily and take up less space so stacking the grizzle trophies pays off sometimes, anytime you get extra model to flee it makes the point back and than some.  

 

They are fragile, but falling back and still shooting is nice boost, my wracks don't carry guns so I am not loosing shooting, so zig zagging all over the place, and using fire and fade isn't effecting the riders ability to shoot. This might be less effective when you are carrying warriors and 2 special weapons. But no the less being fall back and shoot is still threat as the enemy knows he still going to catch either lance or dis to face. Un canny players will give chase, but don't let our speed go to your head we can still be caught and its never pretty when that happens.  Also objective grabbers late game, make all move and cover some ground.

 

Sacrificial tarpits, when you got radier thats near death moving up to either tie up unit so you can hit with CC monster of your own or tie up so you can avoid a CC monster and get shots on them is nice.  Having a swarm lord eat a raider for 1 turn while you get some big guns on it. or holding back steelers for turn. Maybe the dice will like you and it will survive long enough to fall back and pop a shot off. As cheap as they it doesn't hurt to bad when they die by tying up something nasty, unit management works both ways. 

[micahwc]

I don't own any venoms so I can't really compare them, but Raiders have been MVPs in my (admittedly limited) games so far. I run dark lances on them and I find the dark lances usually make their point cost back in kills/wounds.

 

As far as being a transport in 40k is concerned, they are one of the better transports in the game. Compared to a rhino the raider is less tough, but has an invulnerable save, a better gun, the troops can shoot out of it while embarked, it can withdraw from combat and still shoot, its better at close  combat, and it's a lot faster.

 

Compared to a razorback the raider is less tough but has an invulnerable save, has generally weaker guns (lascannons and assault cannons on the razorback), it's troops can shoot while embarked, it has twice the carrying capacity, it's better in close combat, its a lot faster, and its a lot less expensive in points.

 

Compared to a Land Raider its considerably less tough, it's considerably less well armed, it has the same or lower carrying capacity, it's occupants can shoot while embarked, and it's considerably cheaper.

 

Compared to a chimera the raider is less tough but has an invulnerable save, has comparable guns (slight edge to the chimera), less carrying capacity, more shots from the riders including special weapons (chimera only has las arrays), it moves faster and its less points.

[Vel'Cona]

Hmm, I wonder how Raiders stack up to Wave Serpents?  Or Devilfish?  I don't know enough about the other Xenos armies to make a determination, there.

[Lord Asvaldir]

The wave serpent isn't a great comparison because it's such a good transport, even faster than raiders (unless you're playing flayed skull), with more toughness, weapons and transport capacity. Only weakness is that it's not open topped. Of course our craftsworld kin pay for the wave serpent being that much better, it is significantly more expensive than a raider. I'm not familiar enough with the devilfish to compare it to the raider, but again I think it really comes down to not being opened topped. We pay for opened topped by being a t5 vehicle, but I think that's a pretty good tradeoff. 

 

Overall when it comes to the raider vs venom argument, the main reason why I prefer raiders is that it just comes down to less pts to transport larger number of troops in raiders than venoms. Now that are troops are so cheap I like to pack in as many warriors and sometimes wyches in transports as I can, and it's much easier to pay for transports for every unit if I stick to mostly raiders. 

[Jacques Corbin]

So, what are the best load outs for a Raider, depending upon Cult, Kabal, or Coven? Like, I imagine a Cults Raider would have a Shock Prow and Disintegrator Cannon. A Coven's Raider would have a Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Dark Lance, and Grisly Trophies. The Kabalites would have Splinter Racks for sure.

[shandwen]

So, what are the best load outs for a Raider, depending upon Cult, Kabal, or Coven? Like, I imagine a Cults Raider would have a Shock Prow and Disintegrator Cannon. A Coven's Raider would have a Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Dark Lance, and Grisly Trophies. The Kabalites would have Splinter Racks for sure.

Ehhh, the math for splinter racks makes it a wash. Not really worth it.

[Otasolgryn]

I keep em min cost. Lance or dissy depending on what else i have in my army.

Nothing else, to keep cost down.

 

And they are just awesome.

 

They have mobility to zip around with a 50” threat range, or zoom closer, with several of them and their passengers unloading on the same segment of the line.

 

And while they are more fragile than rhinos etc, they real nasty vehicle killers, such as lascannons, well they actually got a save against it.

 

Also, a dark lance is as good as a lascannon or the same, against most vechicles

[Lord Asvaldir]

Splinter racks are nice if you can afford the, but hey are something I strip out whenever I'm lacking the pts. It's a nice luxury item, but you just have to keep in mind it's a luxury, not something you want to keep when lacking pts. All the other upgrades are basically pure fluff, don't really cost much but also don't add much either. 

 

Biggest decision for raiders is really disintegrator cannons vs dark lances, and ultimately I don't think you can go wrong with either. Really just comes down to if you have lots of dissie cannons on your ravagers/razorwings or dark lances, and what you need more of. 

[Vel'Cona]

 

Biggest decision for raiders is really disintegrator cannons vs dark lances, and ultimately I don't think you can go wrong with either. Really just comes down to if you have lots of dissie cannons on your ravagers/razorwings or dark lances, and what you need more of. 

 

For me, the opportunity cost for a single hard-hitting AT weapon makes the Dark Lance a great choice for a Raider, and spreads them around the army better to make it tougher for my opponent to prioritize targets.  I'm slowly coming around to the Disintegrator with the influx of multi-wound high save/invul nonsense thanks to Custodes (didn't know there were that many of them in the galaxy, and yet they're 3/5 armies locally :P), but I feel that stacking them on a Ravager is probably the better option.

[Lord Asvaldir]

I don't think it particularly matters where you have your dark lances/dissie cannons as long as they are spread out across your army. You don't want say all your dark lances on your ravagers and all your dissie cannons on your raiders for example. As long as you have a decent balance of those two weapons across raiders, ravagers and razorwing jetfighters I think you're set. Granted I'm not sure yet what the optimal balance of those two weapons are since they are both so awesome, but I'm definetly leaning towards getting more dissie cannons as I only have 4 in my army right now and there's only 3 platforms we can take dissie cannons on, while dark lances are somewhat less important due to blasters being equal damage now. 

[Jacques Corbin]

Well, an Obsidian Rose unit of 10 Warriors with 2 Blasters and a Dark Lance in a Raider with a Disintegrator Cannon is pretty obscene. I am kind of mad that Splinter Cannons do not benefit from Splinter Racks anymore. Still, that Kabalites Obsession of +6" range is pretty sweet.

 

For my Cult of the Cursed Blade, I also went with the Disintegrator Cannon, and a Shock Prow. It is easy to imagine that one moving and advancing, while a high on combat stims Wych fires away with the cannon. This ferries a Squad of 10 Wyches, with 3 Shardnet/Impalers, and a Power Sword on the Hekatrix, because she is swinging at S4. Everyone is all about the Hydra Gauntlets, but the fact that a Shardnet/Impaler requires an opponent to beat a d6 roll with a d3 roll to fall back is insanely good!

 

Now for a Haemonculus Coven, the Dark Lance is an obvious choice. They lack a lot of anti-tank. Again, shock prow, and grisly trophies. Honestly, I would have 2 of these, each full of 10 wracks, 2 Ossefactors per squad. Just have them hang back near a Haemonculus. Now, since their Raider has the Haemonculus Coven keyword, wouldn't it get +1T as well? Twin Assault Cannons? Well, let's see those 5+ to wound...

 

Needless to say, the Phantasm Grenade Launcher is a no brainer. Thus far, only Dark Angels, as far as I know, are immune to Ld dickery across the board. Nids require the synapse bugs being sniped.