I've been holding off on making a Land Raider purchase because I wasn't sure which variant to get. Initially, the Redeemer seemed like a pretty good deal since it was 10 pts cheaper than the others and had those sweet AP3 flame cannons. But I guess it ultimately comes down to how you intend on using it.
I see myself fielding one primarily to transport assault terminators, and if I'm already going to splurge on a unit like this, I might as well go all out and take as big a squad as I can fit. The redeemer and original LR models can only transport 12 (or 6 terminators), while the crusader can carry 16 (or 8 terminators). This alone doesn't seem like a huge difference, but the extra capacity of the crusader is nice.
I can see myself including the extra multi-melta since it's only 10 pts. Which brings us to the next big difference amongst the 3 types; Power of the Machine Spirit. All 3 get PotMS, but when you think about it, only 1 version is getting to use that to its full potential when moving at combat speed. The crusader variant is the only one that can move 6" and fire all it's main guns then use PotMS to fire that extra MM, which could be used on a completely different target if need be. The hurricane bolters are a low enough strength to count as defensive weapons, so they can fire normally up to combat speeds without needing to use the special power on the sponson guns. That plus the extra transport capacity seals the deal for me. I think this will be my next (and potentially last) model for my marines, at least for a while. I've located the parts for the 8 assault terminators that will be riding inside, and will try to knock those out next. After that, it's back to Dark Eldar (which I'm still working on paint schemes for).
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