Horus Heresy Review: Legion Fire Raptor Gunship

This is a variant of the Storm Eagle Gunship. And it makes the Storm Eagle seem unworthy of the title "Gunship" to be perfectly honest!

At its base, this gunship is AV12 all around with a nice 4 hull points for durability. Although it is vulnerable to dedicated anti-aircraft fire, it is one that will be likely to hang around.

The really amazing thing about this unit from my perspective is the sheer amount of weaponry that it holds -- even without upgrading it.

Let me give just a brief overview of what this gunship is capable of shooting off every single turn:

(a) Seven S6 AP3 shots (twin linked);
(b) Twelves S5 AP4 shots (also twin linked);
(c) One shots: Four S6 AP4 sundering shots.

I really think that this is an incredible amount of firepower for the price tag. Indeed, I don't know why we're not seeing plenty of Fire Raptors on every gaming table! Probably the model cost in real life, I suspect.

There are a number of upgrades possible as well. A reaper auto cannon battery can be taken, reducing the number of shots in (a) above, but increasing to S7. This is probably not worth it (arguably) as the AP3 at lower strength is going to be more valuable in Heresy era gaming (and in 40k as well, I'd wager).

Armoured ceramite is usually a given for ground based tanks, but for fliers, I just don't know. It kind of depends on whether we are thinking melta guns are going to get in range, or lance weapons are going to be an issue. This could, therefore, be skipped without too much risk I would contend.

A search light is always nice - and certainly cheap. But given that most points costs are done in multiples of 5's these days, we'd probably be wasting 4 points (unless we have similar upgrades available elsewhere!). It could always be valuable against Night Lords, of course.

The hell strike missiles depend on taste to some extent. I do like the basic tempest rockets, but can certainly see why one might wish to upgrade.

Add in to that mix that it can do a strafing run (BS5) as well as fire at different targets and the bolt like weapons don't contribute to the amount of weapons that can be fired per turn, and we're looking at an excellent unit here.

Overall, I would think that the baseline unit is therefore completely viable. But more than that: this unit is really a very powerful one. I'm totally surprised we don't see more of them - they are really rather good.