Mantis Warriors Iron Exemplar Command Spearhead

Over the weekend we celebrated the impending arrival of my son with a baby shower. No, I didn't attend. I was in the basement with Geneguard, Cerberus, and Tau4Eva playing an 8,000 point per side fully-painted Apocalypse game. Cerberus shot a battle report that will be posted soon.

I had 20 terminators painted already for my Mantis Warriors, plus plenty of predators and land speeders, so it was time for some Land Raiders to carry my terminators. I figured out that if I had three land raiders I could carry all of my terminators, so I picked up another before the price hike.

The 8x4 battlefield - jungle terrain!

Originally I had intended to just toss my chapter master in with 7 terminators in the Crusader, then 6 in each regular land raider. Then I found the Iron Examplar formation in IA 9 that puts a Captain and his command squad in one land raider, then two to four more land raiders in the formation. They had to contain an elite choice basically. While in formation, any units within 6" of the command raider were stubborn (this was HUGE late game!). Each Land Raider also was able to totally ignore its first penetrating hit.

So I loaded the captain up with terminator armor, lightning claw, and storm shield, and then brought along his command squad (I haven't painted one yet, so I used my stand in sternguard).

The other two land raiders held their terminators. I deployed them centrally in my line to advance across the field as quickly as possible and take the enemy held objective. (Unfortunately in turn one one of my terminator land raiders immobilized itself!)

It took me about two weeks to paint these land raiders. I used Army Painter Green to base coat and prime in one shot, then painted on the details, then weathered and decaled. These land raiders have seen A LOT of use, so they're muddy, shot up, and scorched.

The Mantis Warriors are currently on a penitent crusade to restore their standing in the Imperium, so any vehicles they have are going to be extremely dirty and shot up. This really hits home with my 'Armies on Campaign' theme I'm going for with my MW army.

I'll try not to steal the thunder from Cerberus' bat rep, but the command raider made it all the way to the back of the eldar lines; one terminator raider made it to the objective and stayed for a while before being blown up by bright lances (but delivered its payload of terminators); one land raider immobilized itself in our lines early on then moved up to hold our objective.

All in all a great time... I can't wait to see the new bat rep!