Before the Spartan Assault Tank, before the Termite Assault Drill, and before the mighty Mastodon, there was one true king of armoured troop conveyance – the Land Raider. Many patterns of these lumbering tanks exist in Legion armouries, but none have the pedigree of the venerable Land Raider Proteus, which now returns to the Age of Darkness with a new plastic kit.
Dating back to the Dark Age of Technology, these vehicles are no less capable of surviving the harsh realities of civil war than their more spritely cousins, exhibiting uncommonly strong influence from their machine spirits. There are stories of these tanks continuing to blast away as their crew lie dying, or rumbling back to base with damage that would wreck lesser machines.
In more practical terms, the Power of the Machine Spirit can take over targeting duties, so each weapon can fire at completely different targets. The Land Raider Proteus is an excellent tank-killer in its own right, with a pair of lascannon sponsons and a choice of hull-and-pintle-mounted guns.
But what if you don’t want to slam a squad of Terminators face-first into the thick of the fighting? Assemble your kit as a Land Raider Proteus Explorator instead, and you’ll trade your hefty assault ramp for a dozer blade to clear away battlefield obstacles,* together with a sophisticated explorator augury web to gather detailed terrain data.**
Whatever needs carrying around your latest apocalyptic warzone, the Land Raider Proteus provides. It’s so good at its job, legendary techno-archaeologist Arkhan Land put his own name on it.
Fans of a certain vintage will spot that the design of this Land Raider owes much to the original plastic version, released in the 1980s, during the very first edition of Warhammer 40,000. The classics never die.
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* Rubble, fallen trees, screaming enemies…
** Not to mention a headstart on exploring each game, represented by the Scout rule.