The Storm Part 1

I finished putting the base coats on the storm and also the scouts in the storm on Wednesday. I generally base coat over black with Tallaran Flesh (which I am nearly out of), and also the adeptus battlegrey mix that I use (50% with black)

Anyway, I thought it applicable to talk about the Landspeeder Storm today, since I run it every time that I play my marines even semi-competitively. I love it, in fact, I would say it is my favorite part of the new codex.

When I was in California and rumaging through the Space Marine codex I took a good look at all of the new things that were added, and was really impressed with the storm. At the time all my friends were down on the scouts because of their WS/BS 3 and their cost, the common conception was that they should be cheaper, which may be true actually, but is immaterial to the conversation at hand.

The Storm has two things going for it, open topped and Scout. Those two things make it godlike as a transport. First, let's talk about what NOT to do with the storm.



But they are blisteringly fast.

I buy five scouts with a sergeant with a power fist/combi-melta/meltabombs on him. If I go first, I gamble no one will seize and I scout forward (24 inches) to within 12 inches of whatever I want, and then disembark, move, shoot and assault. Someone have a landraider on the table with Vulkan and thunderhammers? A melta gun at 6 and then another meltabomb hit have a good chance of at least stopping it. Someone have a squad of broadsides or hammerheads? It hasn't moved yet so you get meltabombs and 4 krak grenades on the back (with no decoy launchers)? vehicle squadron? Ohhh Boy, the hits are distributed around! Even Chimera's too close together, you get to blow up multiple of them often.

It's a suicide squad of 165 points or so. And it can CHANGE the game. Last time I was at tournament I scouted up and immobilized a landraider someone had positioned on it's side. Ragnar and all his friends had to try and footslog for the rest of the game.

If you are going second, unless you can scout it to some place where you know that it will be completely outside of LOS, do not start it on the table, outflank it. You have a 21 inch charge off the sides when you out flank after all (12 inches+3 for disembark+6 for assault). Now, I realize that scouts are not making anyone freak in hand to hand, they aren't thunder hammer/storm shield terminators. But the benefit is that they get to choose who they attack. Outflanking 21 inch charges let you pick the battle. They often hunt heavy support options to me, Devestator squads, any vehicles, Lootas, tau crisis suits, eldar of any kind.

Now, there are two armies I have fought that I find they actually operate very poorly against. The first are tyranids. In general the tyranids present quite a little problem for my scouts, as most people can beat them in HTH. But, they are a fast skimmer transport holding a scoring choice. Even in these games they can be tactically amazing, zipping around to control or contest something later in the game. In addition, with the Cerebus launchers, if they even kill one more then the enemy, then you can force a -3 morale check. Unless you are marines, that means you probably will break off the table.

Now, let's talk about armament. It comes with a heavy bolter, and if you don't have any other points, that is fine, but that isn't very good. I have seen people put multi-melta's on their vehicles, but all in all, I simply think that a 4+ to hit with the scouts isn't worth it. We both know it will never hit anything. If you have vulcan, ignore that and take the multi-melta.

I take the heavy flamer, and here is why. Often I will want to assault a vehicle, and people that have played against scouts will screen things they don't want me to get to. Kroot do this for tau, guardsmen or blob squads, things like this. I don't trust scouts to shoot... but I trust them to flame. It completely ellimates the ballistic skill downgrade.

I have seen people take five basic scouts and throw them in the storm. Don't, unless you plan on using it for just scoring options, or to throw krak grenades on something. The sergeant has a BS of 4, so the entire mechanism is almost a delivery system for him and his friends. It's worth the updgrades you put on him in my opinion.

I have a tournament on Sunday, and I will report back at that time about the results from the storm as a explanation of tactics then.