Blood Claws and Land Raiders...

[Confuddled]

Sure. The hurricane bolters give me some extra dice to roll, but that's not exactly much of a contribution with regards to versatility or viability. It sure as heck ain't worth the extra 10 points!

If anything, the extra dice could well be a liability, especially if you're shooting at a single small squad - mixing bolter and assault cannon fire gives the opposing player the chance to assign multiple assault cannon shots to a single model.


Also, a immobile Raider (of any variety) carrying troops pretty much has a 12" (give or take) exclusion zone around it - odds are you don't want to get jumped by the troops inside.


An immobile empty Raider, however, is another matter entirely.

Godhammer? Yeah, those lascannon can still reach out and touch someone.

Redeemer? No one is going to want to wander into range of the flamestorms, so you've still got some impact on the game, especially if you're already parked in midfield - you've still got 8" of reach on either front corner, forcing him to go aroundl.

Crusader? Whatever - the bolter shots are an annoyance, especially if you're up against a horde of infantry. If anything, an opponent is more likely to use an empty Crusader as cover and a LOS blocker rather than avoid it!


If you really want versatility, it would be a toss-up between the Godhammer (long guns are nice in a Space Wolf army, though the 10-man capacity sucks wet dog poop) and the Redeemer (shorter range, decent capacity, good hull-mounted weapons), with the edge going to the Redeemer - bigger capacity, better hull-mounted gun and cheaper.


Where Crusaders really shine would be as Terminator transports, since you'd really get the most out of the increased transport capacity AND full benefit from the assault launchers.


edit
To put it another way:

If you absolutely must have that 16-model (or equivalent) capacity, then yeah, the Crusader is the go-to tank, and you just make do with its weapons mix as best as you can - take your shots where you can and hope for the best.

end edit

[Purple]

as a rule of thumb, most units can withstand a couple of bolter shos but nobody except temrinators will want to go need a redeemer.

In a SW army i dont see any need to take a LRC as i woudlnt be using any unit with more than 12 models in it. Wolf Guard and grey Hunters FTW. A massive temrinator squad in a LRC woudl be nice but who woudl do thatthats jsut asking for it

[Creative Carnage]

Thank you to everyone who posted... I may still consider this unit as the army gets up into the 2000+ point range... however I will more likely be running with Grimnar/Wolf Guard list or Rune Priests/Gray Hunters as the core of my army if I decide to build Space Wolves...

[DarkLink]

Sure. The hurricane bolters give me some extra dice to roll, but that's not exactly much of a contribution with regards to versatility or viability. It sure as heck ain't worth the extra 10 points!

edit
To put it another way:

If you absolutely must have that 16-model (or equivalent) capacity, then yeah, the Crusader is the go-to tank, and you just make do with its weapons mix as best as you can - take your shots where you can and hope for the best.

end edit

I've recently switched to using Crusaders instead of Godhammers (Grey Knights), and my Crusaders absolutely brutalize everything they touch. Now, admittedly, Grey Knight Crusaders are one of the few things that we have that are better than new Crusaders (we can always fire Hurricane Bolters, and get free Extra Armor and Multi-Melta), but I wouldn't trade the 24" firepower of a Crusader for an 8" effective range on my "good" guns.