For awhile now, the Legion player base has been wondering when the next Heavy Supports would be coming. The disappointing performance of the the T-47 Airspeeder has left Rebel players hungry for a new unit in that role. The T-47’s cost and relatively low defensive power have kept it grounded ever since Veers came into the picture. It was believed that Han and HQ Uplink would breathe some life into it with Reckless Diversion, but making a relatively weak platform with an already premium cost even more expensive was not a workable solution. Success with the Airspeeder remained elusive. So, given the bleak picture I’ve just presented, enter the X-34 Landspeeder, aka “the floating pickup truck.”

Stats and Keywords

Cost-wise, the unit is modeled after the AT-RT – the main chassis is relatively unimpressive (though it has its uses), coming in at 75 points. Defensively, it shares the same health and resilience value as an AT-RT, but like other repulsor vehicles we’ve seen, it comes with native Cover 1 and a white defense die with Surge: Block. It also introduces a new concept, Armor X where X is the amount of hits the speeder can cancel. Add a dodge token and you’re looking at 4 cancelled hits. Not as good as regular armor, but still pretty darn amazing.

Like the RT, all (or nearly all) of the offensive punch is in the weapon upgrades. But, unlike the AT-RT, you could hardly expect to take a naked Landspeeder and be effective – you’re probably going to need at least one hardpoint or passenger to get its offense going; the driver’s DH-17 is just not enough. Similar to the T-47, the Landspeeder has Arsenal 3, meaning it can fire off three of its weapons every turn, which matches with what we see on the unit card: A hardpoint and two gunners. Lastly, it has Speeder 1, which makes the X-34 Landspeeder ignore terrain that is height 1 or lower, but obligates it to make a compulsory move.

Most fun of all, the Landspeeder introduces a new mechanic that we haven’t seen yet in Star Wars: Legion – transports.

Light Transport 1: Open

You may transport 1 friendly trooper unit that consists of exactly 1 small base mini. After defending, if you suffered 1 or more wounds, each unit you are transporting suffers 1 wound.

As the article suggests, this makes the Landspeeder a hero delivery system, getting your commanders or operatives exactly where they need to go. However, the defenses of the Landspeeder are relatively weak, which discourages expensive commanders like Luke from hopping in, lest they suffer wounds along with it. However, thanks to its speed, you can put Luke in exactly the place you want him very quickly, so it may still be an excellent move to put him in the X-34. Notably the Landspeeder matches the save of Leia and upgrades that of Chewbacca, so there may be some interest there. Jyn Erso already has Infiltrate, which sort of defeats the purpose of transporting her, and Han Solo wouldn’t be able to use his Uncanny Luck to defend himself while he’s in the Landspeeder. Delivering Han onto a flank could still be quite powerful, given how strong his ranged attack can be with the right number of targets.

Pilots and Passengers

Possibly the most exciting feature of the Landspeeder, it introduces a character from the Star Wars: Rebels show. Meet the former Governor of Lothal turned Rebel:

•Ryder Azadi

Rebel only. Repulsor vehicle only. (Exhaust)

While performing a move, increase or decrease your maximum speed by 1.

While his appearance is welcome, his card text is not all that brilliant. He’s not as much of a downer as Wedge, though. For 5 points, you gain or lose 2 inches on a move, which is excellent for running away… once. However, that 2 inches could be the difference between making it over a piece of Line of Sight blocking terrain to safety or crashing. It’s not clear whether you can use Ryder to slow down your compulsory move, but I do not expect it to be the case. At least he’s only five points, so you don’t have to spend too much to get him.

There is a second pilot, from the Outer Rim, but we don’t know what it is. We can see that the vehicle equipping it gains a keyword. We’ll just have to wait and see what it is.

The preview article is frustratingly short on weapon information, similar to the way the Rebel Commandos Sniper rifle preview was handled. It’s hard to get a clear picture on the Landspeeder’s offensive capabilities for the time being, but we do see a few things:

The Twi’lek passenger with the rocket launcher has a minimum range of 2. The Rodian passenger is armed with an A-300 rifle, which is the same gun used by the Rebel Pathfinders. One of the hardpoints, “Mark II…” looks to be similar to the AT-RT rotary cannon, since it only has Fixed: Front and no additional text. The other hardpoint can shoot to Range 4, much like Bistan, and has the standard Impact 1/Ion 1 common to ion weapons.

So, how do you fly it?

Many of the tactics that apply to Speeder Bikes will apply to this vehicle. Deploy perpendicular to the main vector of your army. Stopping to aim is going to put you at significant risk, so it’ll be best to take a compulsory move, shoot, and then move again. Playing the range game and finding deployment opportunities where you can scoot out and around most of the enemy’s position is going to be essential, so look for wide deployments like Battle Lines or Disarray. This will guarantee that you take a minimum amount of return fire. You’ll want to take advantage of the large forward arc and nab an enemy unit right on the edge of it, then unleash hell with Arsenal 3. And, much like Speeder Bikes, last-first will be a very strong tactic with a well timed use of orders or HQ Uplink, both for attacking and for delivering your commander to its destination.

Well, that’s what we know so far about the flying Toyota. Keep it locked here on Yavin Base for more articles – the Rebel specialists received their full spoiler yesterday. In the meantime, we can look forward to playing Grand Theft: Mos Eisley when these things are released.