Raiders

Sleek, baroque vessels of murder.

So I've been sick, but I'm back now! And I've been meaning to talk about these little guys. They clock in at 60 points, and 10 armor all around. Expect to get shot down by bolters seeing as you're open topped, making every god damn result +1 to the chart. Meltas will wreck your shit badly.

As with most vehicles, you can drop the Dark Lance and pick up a Disintegrator for free, giving you three S5 AP2 shots, perfect for assassinating heavy infantry if you so choose. But, sticking warriors with a blaster inside of it give you a very nice firepower platform, allowing you to target something at 36" with your DL, and something else at 18" with the Blaster. You really can put down a lot of threats with them, but they're incredibly flimsy for their downside. No options for extra armour, and once you get a gun shot off, or become immobilized, you are stuck there for the rest of your life.

The really interesting thing about Raiders are all the upgrades you can buy!

• Flickerfields for a 5+ invuln save against any attack.
• Night Shields reduce the range of any weapon shooting at them by 6", and it counts for working out melta and rapid fire bonuses. So a normal melta will have to be 3" away from you to get the extra dice.
• Torment Grande Launchers give a 6" bubble around your Raider, which reduce the leadership of an enemy unit by 1, and if a unit chooses to assault your craft, they have to make a Leadership test(not Morale!), and if they fail it, can't assault anything.
• Shock prows enable you to tank shock, and combined with the Enhanced Aethersails option, gives you a potential 36" tank shock, along with the TGL give you a pretty good chance to run a unit off the table on the first turn!
• Envenomed blades inflict a single S4 AP- hit whenever a model rolls a 1 to hit it in close combat, which may be effective for crowd control... But if you're in range for an assault by 30 boys, you've got problems that this thing won't help you with.
• Chain Flails allow you to inflict D3+1 S4 AP- hits whenever you pass over a unit, which is nice, but really is rather weak, considering the crimes against humanity you can cause with Reavers.
• Grisly Trophies allow you to re-roll any leadership checks you make within 6" of your Raider, which is a nice little thing for 5pt.
• Splinter racks allow any unit onboard firing with Splinter Rifles or Splinter Pistols(but not Cannons) to re-roll any failed to hit dice. Re-rolling 3+ shooting attacks often yield you an incredible amount of hits, making them beastly shooters.

The upgrades can really add up though, making the usual Raider I take around 90 points. Too many times the upgrades prove their worth though, disregarding 1/3rd of the penetrating hits you receive isn't something to whine about really. It's the difference between your Raider blowing up and killing all the Wyches inside, and your Raider moving up 12", the Wyches disembarking, fleeting, and tackling whatever you need them to.

It's not unusual for a list to have a Raider for every infantry unit they have, that can buy them. Though I hear they're starting to phase out a little bit for Venoms with 5 warriors and a Blaster inside of them, because people love being cheesy and playing internet lists. 

All in all, it's one of the coolest and most dynamic models released for a vehicle, and if I ever get mine finished, you can be sure I'll be posting pictures of them.