Pound for pound, the space marine land speeder is one of the best fast attack choices in the game. Its skimmer status and versatile armament makes it tactically useful for any army build. Here’s why you should seriously consider including them.

Coming in low and fast-- a multi-melta for your pleasure.

Space Marine Basics:

• They’re incredibly cheap. The base speeder is costs a mere fifty points, with almost all of its upgrades coming in very inexpensive as well. This lets you field squadrons easily or add one to your list when feeling a points crunch elsewhere.
• They can do almost anything. Whether it be slagging enemy armor up close with its melta weaponry, picking off troops with assault cannons or flamers, or long range missile assaults—the land speeder is ace.
• They’re fast skimmers, so they can fly over anything during their movement to get into an optimal position for their weaponry.
• Their speed also lets you get your guns to bear earlier, which is something that other space marine units can’t do

Advanced Tactics:

• Unless your opponent lacks weapons able to take down light vehicles, it’s best to deep strike your multi-melta equipped land speeders to attack unprotected armor. Your marines will be strong enough to weather the first few rounds of fire.
• Did you forget that weapons that are STR 4 or less are considered ‘defensive weapons’? This means that you can shoot a land speeder’s typhoon frag grenades in addition to another weapon while moving at speed!
• Land speeders are great flanking vehicles to harass enemy transports early in the game, which works great against armies like orks who usually come straight at you.
• For trickier situations, pair a squadron with a synergistic unit, such as a tactical squad, scout squad, or dreadnaught. This gives you another set of guns to take down threats that the other might not be able to handle on its own. For example, scouts can’t reliably kill armor—but a speeder’s multi-melta can; readnaughts are vulnerable to mobs, which is where a heavy flamer comes in handy.
• Squadrons vs. lone speeders—which to take? Since squadrons can be picked off by mid-strength weaponry, lone speeders are usually advised, especially when deep striking. However, squadrons allow you to pump out more fire, since multiple speeders can be fit into a single force org slot. Consider putting typhoon speeders into squadrons for a devastating salvo of missile fire.

War Gear

For land speeders, it’s all about guns!

• The standard heavy bolter is too much for the cost of a the speeder, and won’t accomplish much for you. I always swap mine out with a multi-melta by default; it’s too good not to.
• The secondary, ‘tornado’ weapon hard point is where the important decision needs to be made.
  • Keep in mind that you probably won’t be shooting both weapons every turn, since land speeders are best utilized if they’re on the move, and you can’t shoot two weapons when you deep strike.
  • Dual multi-meltas is a tempting possibility, since it almost guarantees the destruction of something. Weigh the benefits of this based on your opponent so you don’t spend on overkill.
  • The assault cannon is a bit overpriced, but not shabby if you’re gunning down light armor like ork trucks or dark elder reapers.
  • The expensive typhoon launcher is a solid bet if you need the long range support, especially since they make your speeder good against all kinds of targets.
  

  Squadrons are more of a sure thing, but when outnumbered lone speeders can cover more ground.

Off the Sprue

The space marine land speeder is a love-it-or-put-up-with-it model. It isn’t sleek, to scale, or glamorous, but I suppose it’s pretty much on par for the space marine style. The kit does come with seated marines, which could be in demand for other projects, as well as weapons easily magnetized. I’d like to see something in the way of extra gear, fins, wings, etc. to allow players to make their speeders more their own, but for now we’ve got to make do. My biggest complaint is that the model is clearly open-topped, but land speeders lack the rule in the codex. It’s tempting to WYSIWYG jerky opponents sometimes.

For a dedicated role-playing game fan like me, getting this was really only a matter of time.

Visit http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ for official info.

Deathwatch is an pen-and-paper RPG by Fantasy Flight Games that puts the party into the roles of Space Marines, neck deep into the fires of the 41^st millennium. As a whole, the game is exceptional, brilliantly capturing the themes and mood of the setting. As an avid 40K player, it is very exciting to add life and excitement to a universe that until now was confined to six turns of wargaming. If you’re a fan of games like Dungeons and Dragons, and especially if you’re a fan of Warhammer 40K, I highly recommend getting involved; however, if you’re on the fence, maybe my veteran RPG opinion may sway you one way or the other.

The Book:

Overall, the Deathwatch Core Rulebook is gorgeous. It’s big, thick, fully illustrated, and useful in almost every way. The rules are, for the most part, very clear and easy to find. It’s a much better experience than trying to find rules in the 40K rulebook, but in general I think that any WOTC product is easier to read. Some of the art is recycled from the 40K codices, but the vast majority is unique and very high quality. The content is top-tier, across the board. It seems to me like the perfect amount of content vs. flavor has been incorporated, making it fun to read and useful. Deathwatch not only gives you the rules, but a ready-made campaign backdrop, complete with detailed personalities and settings. The setting is actually quite good, incorporating a little bit of everything for GM’s to grab hold of and run with.

Characters:

The steps for building a Deathwatch character are straight forward, and do a good job of trying to make Space Marines different from one another. This I feel is one of the biggest challenges of the game, since equipment, stats, and skills are very similar for most characters—especially early on when the characters don’t have much experience to purchase upgrades. The biggest element of character creation is choosing a chapter, which forms the basis for background and roleplaying style. These choices are interesting, but require a lot of effort on the part of the player to make their marine anything other than a one-dimensional caricature that emphasis only their chapter’s traits. This I think is largely a limitation of the source material, and perhaps my group’s preconceptions about space marines. Deathwatch’s descriptions of the chapters is interesting, but the language distances the player from this background by making it seem like it has happening “out there”, rather than to the character. Using language directed more to the player may have made the chapter’s style more applicable to their character. To sum– roleplaying a space marine well is hard if you don’t have experience playing this sort of game. Finding reasons for space marines to roleplay AT ALL may be a challenge for new GMs.

There are six space marine specialties, which work like classes in other systems. Apothecaries are dedicated healers, assault marines are melee specialists, devastators use heavy weapons, librarians psychic powers, tactical marines their leadership abilities, and techmarines access to interesting gadgets. Each class offers only a paltry selection in regards to specialized abilities, but as the characters gain experience many new options open up. As characters gain experience, they are given total freedom to purchase upgrades—a great system for “leveling up”. This means that players can get the features that they want, so long as they are associated with their specialty. As a D&D player, this system is very appealing. It opens up the door for more complete customization and playing characters “against type”, which makes for interesting characters. Additionally, it lets players choose between stat increases as well as new abilities, making upgrading especially flexible. In general I think that the specialties are a good mix, but wish that there are more inherent differences between them from the get go.

The Game System:

Deathwatch’s core system is percentile based. If your Ballistic Skill is 65, you have a 65% chance of hitting something. Pretty straightforward, but the situational modifiers add up quickly. For the most part you’ll be counting up or down by 10’s, so it’s easy to wrap your head around the numbers, but learning where the modifiers come from takes lots of time. On the whole though, the core system is easy to understand, and fits into character building well.

One thing I think is especially inspired is Deathwatch’s “Squad Mode”, which allows the Marines to synchronize their actions for special abilities. This is absolutely brilliant. It encourages different players to become the “team leader”, since new abilities unlock based on the specialty and background of that character. Going into melee-heavy, fight? The blood angel assault marine is the perfect leader. Need to help hold the line from an invading horde? The ultramarine tactical marine will give you morale buffs and defensive tricks. Squad Mode encourages teamwork and gives the Kill Team tools to overcome especially challenging situations; a great inclusion to the system.

Good luck trying to tally the character's kill count.

Combat:

This is where my biggest complaints about Deathwatch’s game system come from. On the surface, it’s use of the game’s core percentile-based mechanic seems easy, but there are a staggering amount of modifiers and arithmetic necessary to accurately run a fight. While deciding what characters can do in a fight is quite easy, since the game follows the d20 standard of standard action, move action, minor action, figuring out what happens is time consuming. For example, here’s how a simple melee attack is resolved.

• Attacker makes WS test (almost always with modifiers)
• Attacker determines hit location (by inverting the attack roll, or by rolling again because you forget to do it the first time)
• Defender makes WS to parry
• Attacker Rolls Damage.
• Defender Calculates damage by using the following algebra equation:

[(Damage rolled) + (Strength or other modifiers)] – [(Defender’s Armor - Weapon’s Armor Penetration) + Defender’s Toughness]) = Damage Taken

This means that there are sometimes four rolls per attack in combat, and many combatants have multiple attacks. In the event of firing a fully automatic weapon, there may be nine or more rolls just for that character’s turn. Compare this to a typical attack in D&D 4^th Edition:

• Attacker makes attack roll.
• Attacker calculates damage:

[(Damage rolled) + (Strength or other modifiers)] = Damage Taken

Much easier, but admittedly simplified. Deathwatch accounts for specialty armor and weapons, giving players more situations to overcome and weapons to chose from. A balance between a game like D&D’s streamlined rolling and Deathwatch’s realistic portrayal of armor would be great. After playing for a while, I can see that this is a big part of combat and is something carried over from the wargame, but the RPG would move much faster if it didn’t the player to calculate so much math. Usually this level of calculation is important only for the PCs, since they are often capable of killing most foes with a single hit, which leads me to my next point.

Feel:

Deathwatch does an awesome job of making the PCs feel very, very badass. Space Marines have many special abilities and traits that it makes them equivalent to characters of about 10^th level in D&D. In our first campaign a beginning group of four characters laid waste to hordes of kroot skirmishers, shot down tau vehicles, and pacified powerful groups of enemies with intimidation. They survived missile bombardments, being outnumbered 10:1, utilize inspired special abilities, etc. All in a days work. In short, Deathwatch’s rules makes Space Marines WAY more awesome than you have probably ever imagined.

At first I found it challenging, and even a little frustrating to make encounters because the Kill Team overcame everything I threw at them with ease. Once I gained a little more understanding of the system though, I found this to be a great change of pace. In my usual games of D&D I challenge players with realistic struggles that make them feel human, but also very capable. In Deathwatch, the challenges are over the top and huge; larger than life so much so that it makes the PCs feel almost like super heroes. As a DM, this gives me the ability to stage unique and explosive encounters that would easily kill any not wearing power armor. In Deathwatch encourages you to go huge or not at all.

The Verdict:

With the exception of a few clunky rules, Deathwatch is an excellent game. It brilliantly captures the 40K spirit and puts players into the power-armored shoes of the universe’s ultimate heroes. It requires more thought on the part of the DM than games like D&D, which make it very easy to make adventures and enemies, but is more intense, grisly, and flavorful. I wouldn’t recommend Deathwatch to those who haven’t played RPGs before, because the rules are somewhat complicated, but for fans of 40K willing to slug through some experimental sessions—and especially for 40K fans who’re experienced roleplayers, Deathwatch is excellent.

You can order the core rulebook here at Chaos Mail Order under the Roleplaying section. Have fun!

The Crisis Battlesuit is the backbone of the Tau army, and an immediately recognizable touchstone to an entire genre of sc-fi action. Visually striking and tactically flexible, there is a lot to like about battlesuits despite they and the Tau being a demanding army to command. Even with their shortcomings though, battlesuits can own the opponent’s advancing line by raining down fire.

Time to don the mantle of the hero.

Crisis Suit Basics:

• Battlesuits are fairly cheap, and possess a statline that gives them staying power.
• They have access to almost every gun in the tau arsenal, making them cross-role easily.
• Their “jump-shoot-jump” ability makes them difficult to pin-down, and able to perform sneaky tactics for the skilled general.
• They provide something that nothing else in the tau army can—lots of shots, where you want them, on something that can survive counter fire. Like everything in the Tau codex though, battlesuits are pretty much through if caught in close combat.

Advanced Tactics:

• Battlesuits are all about mid to long range fire suppression thanks to their combination of traits and weapon slots. Strongly consider equipping the missile pod + plasma rifle combo.
• Battlesuits are the Tau codices’ tough guys, but they still need finesse to succeed. Target selection, markerlight hits, and the unit’s jetpack move are essentials.
• A battlesuit’s maneuverability makes it very easy for them to gain cover. Consider jumping them in front of, and then behind a line of kroot or advancing devilfish so that you always gain clear line of sight, and then evade.
• Deep striking is almost always a gamble that doesn’t pay off, because battlesuit’s loose their ability to use their jetpack move during the turn that they arrive.
• Battlesuit’s have a disappointingly mediocre BS. If you want their firing its most optimal, get some markerlights on their targets.
• Complexity isn’t always a good thing. Although the battlesuits come with a ton of options, they rarely benefit your army by taking them.
• While battlesuits have an attractive S5, they’re still terrible in close combat. Since they’re so useful for a tau army, it benefits you to do whatever you can to avoid being caught by melee attackers.

Battlesuits count as jump infantry, so you can get a cover save thanks to defending units. For the Greater Good!

War Gear

Few units in the game still come with as many options as XV8 suits, but most of this gear has become obsolete or is too expensive for practical use. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s available:

• Weapons systems are ultimately what the battlesuit is all about.
  • Burst cannon: The STR5 standard is a fair choice for battlesuits, but only if you’re fighting horde armies. The Tau have enough STR5 shooting from other sources that a burst cannon on your powerful suits is usually wasted fire.
  • Flamer: I would only take these in the twin-linked variety, because if you’re close enough to use them, you’re close enough to be charged by whatever isn’t burned to death. In general, these should be avoided, but if you know that you’ll be facing imperial guard, orks, or tyranid, they can come in handy.
  • Fusion Cannon: While the melta traits of this gun are attractive, there are better platforms for this weapon than an XV8 battlesuit. Basically, if you can use it, you’re going to be charged on the next turn—and killing a single tank is almost never worth it. Use piranhas to speed fusion cannons to targets, and keep your suits safe laying down cover fire.
  • Missile Pod: Now we’re talking. Excellent range, solid stopping power, and a crazy cheap price tag make the missile pod almost a mandatory choice.
  • Plasma Rifle: After the missile pod, this is my go-to gun. Although expensive, it gives you the combination of high STR and low AP that makes it a serious threat to your enemies key units, like terminators or monstrous creatures.
• Blacksun Filter: Since battlesuits will usually be fighting at range, blacksun filters can become handy, though the current edition of the game uses nightfighting only in one game turn.
• Drone Controller: The ability to take drones can be handy, but remember that if you have more drones than battlesuits in your unit then you most use their majority statistics, which is no good. Keeping a shield drone on hand to absorb melta, or lascannon shots is never a bad idea though.
• Multi-tracker: Mandatory if your battlesuit isn’t sporting a twin-linked system.
• Shield Generator: Taking the shield generator gives you very little benefit over what a shield drone, especially since the kinds of the things you want to defend against will instant kill a battlesuit if you fail the invulnerable save anyway—you may as well have it kill a drone!
• Target Lock: A perfect example of why the tau codex is due for an update—references about rules that aren’t even in the game anymore.
• Targeting Array: A great choice if you a utilizing a twin-linked weapon system, such as a missile pod or fusion blaster, or if your list is short on markerlights.

Don't shoot at more than your guns can handle. Targets like this Rhino are sure things for XV8s.

Off the Sprue

Battlesuits have a solid model, suitably dramatic and tough looking. The kit comes with almost every weapon choice available (except for the ion blaster and airbursting frag), as well as the primary wargear options. The suits limbs are very easy to convert, letting you give your suits some great poses. Overall the kit is very paintable, so long as you’re good at painting smooth coats; there are lots of broad surfaces. Magnetizing weapons is easy, given its size. Overall a good kit, though more variants for heads, etc. would be great. Here’s hoping for an update to accompany the next codex.