Long range scanner

[nutty]

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to order a couple of FW "hostile environment" squads over the weekend to use as veterans in my army. Now; the command squad comes with a scanner.. but I can't find the rules for them, or any topic about them that is less than five years old.

Does anyone know if there are any current rules for the scanner? Or is it just a fun little piece of terrain/objective marker?

[RedCuffs]

There is a bit of kit used by Elysians called the Long Range Ground Scanner.
Rules are in IA 3,4 and 8.
It has two modes.
Long Range Sweep and Short Range Lock. Decide which mode before the game and it must remain in that mode throughout the game.

Long Range Sweep will prevent any enemy unit from infiltrating on a 4+.
Roll for each infiltrating unit.
Enemy units prevented from infiltrating deploy as normal.
Also ...
Unless the unit the LRGS is in is falling back it can force a -1 modifier to enemy reserve rolls.
They still automatically arrive on turn 4 though.

Short Range Lock allows you nominate an IG unit within 12" at the beining of your shooting phase.
On a 4+ roll that unit may re-roll its "to hit"
If the LRGS unit and nominated unit both have VoxCasters they can be anywhere on the board.
You may nominate a different unit each turn.
You cannot nominate barrage or ordnance weapons.

Info sourced from IA3 2nd ed.

[nutty]

Thanks Redcuffs,

I only have IA 1 & the Badab War books and I couldn't find the scanner in there. Is it an upgrade for an Elysian CCS/army? Or can you use it for Codex: AM armies as well?

The IA books are a great read, but a bit pricey to pick up for rules for a single unit or upgrade. It sounds like a fun piece of kit though, so I'll look into it.

[RedCuffs]

In IA 4 and 8 the only IG units are the elysians.
IA3 does have Tallarn units in it but there's no mention of them having any scanning devices as far as I can see.
Also the LRGS is listed under Elysian Drop Troop Army Wargear. So I'd say not available to other IG units in those IA volumes.
However, there's no saying that your guys could have nicked one.

In IA 3 and 4 a Vet in a Command squad swaps his lasgun for a LRGS leaving him with just a close combat weapon to defend himself with.

In IA8 however they are a separate squad. An HQ choice that doesn't use up a FOC slot.
It is crewed by 1-4 normal Gurdsmen who keep their standard wargear.

The IA8 version has other slight differences.
In Long Range Sweep it is the infiltrating player that must roll a 4+ if he wants to successfully infiltrate.
Also you may only take one in the army where as in IA3&4 you can have 1 with each HQ squad if you want to.

Although IA8 is generally regarded as out of date you could just take that unit and attach it to your main force. And with the new rules basically meaning you can take as many of whatever you like I don't see why you'd have to stick to one.

Alternately you could similarly throw an IA3 or IA4 Elysian HQ in your list.
Actually chose IA3 as IA4 Elysians cannot give orders.

[nutty]

Thanks again, I'll see if one of my buddies has IA3 or IA8 laying around for me to borrow; either adding the scanner to my cadians, or using allies to add it in. It might be fun to run my vets as 'counts-as' Elysians in some games, and using them as allies to my footsloggers. The hostile environment gear should make them look different enough, and I should find a use for deepstriking vets.

[RedCuffs]

No probs fellow Guardsman !!!
Just as a side note, if you're looking for a nifty little allied force to deep strike from reserve don't discount the Elysian D99 Vets from IA4. They are a bunch of hard hitting sht kickers !!!
Despite the fact that the officers can't issue orders I would argue that, as IG, they would still be able to receive orders from the main force HQ's.
What's nice about them is that their troops and elite squads can be as small as 5 men (troops can be as large as 13 but have limited weapon options). Their sniper squad can be as little as 2. The rest of the Elite squads are really Spec Wpn heavy. If you sink enough points into it you could have a squad with 10 Grenade Launchers deep striking beside a bunch of "whatever you don't like". Or, if you don't like deep strike as a method, just leaping out from their Valkyrie dedicated transport.
I'm a big "Drop Troops" fan as you may have guessed.

[nutty]

There's something to be said for guys that grav-chute deploy into a sea of Tyranids/Orks/nastiness. But my Resin/Plastic habit is already getting out of hand.. so it might be best not to think about droptroopers or converted marauder troopcarriers right now

[RedCuffs]

I get what you're saying about the 40Krak habit.

I was more suggesting that you use your vets as proxy Elysians.
I used to proxy some of my Cadians as Elysians, the wargear is as good as identical and most of the differences like Auxiliary Grenade Launcher aren't really noticeable in their absence.

Anyway ... just a suggestion of an option you have.

[nutty]

Oh.. I understood what you where suggesting, I said more or less the same thing in the post above.

But knowing myself; if I play with counts-as Elysian.. there is a chance I'll enjoy doing so. Which in turn will probably lead to me buying large amounts of valkyries/vultures/drop sentinels/elysians/marauder(s)/etc.

First things first though: I've placed my order yesterday, so my scanner should be arriving soonish.

[RedCuffs]

Oh yeah ... you did say that ...
Well, if you're buying Forge World scanners I fear you may already have succumbed to the dark side of 40Krak.
Good luck with it, let us know how you get on.