Unless you live under a rock you will know by now that FFG on the 26th of October announced everything that is coming with wave one. As many predicted; this included expansions for troopers for both factions, the AT RT, and the Speeder bikes.

Surprisingly enough this announcement came with the reveal of the AT ST and the T-47 Air Speeder as well!

This article will be going over the T-47 Air Speeder for the Rebels there is a article about the AT ST here

T-47 Air Speeder

First Thoughts

My first thought about the T-A7 Air Speeder was that it looked small and out of scale, but that’s because in the initial release they didn’t show it next to any models. Since then we have seen photos of it from Essin and from FFG that have it stood next to other models and it feels about the right size, it is relatively small in the movies anyway. I also like the fact that the flyer itself is small as playing with large flyers in games such as 40k is a pain when it comes to placement in terrain-heavy boards.

What is really good with this model is the $30 price tag because it costs 175 points basic, and like the AT- ST the second gun upgrade is a good choice as it can fire both as an attack action, so just like the AT-ST you are getting a lot of bang for your bucks (or points for your pound if you’re British like us). Admittedly you’re getting more with the T-47 air speeder as 2 of them will cost only a bit more than an AT-RT and will take up just under half of your points once upgraded.

I personally will be getting 2 of these for battle reports and I think it will just look cool as hell.

Rules

Let’s have a look at how the Air Speeder weights up on the battle field. The T-47 costs 135 points basic, and has 7 health and 5 cogs. It rolls white dice for defence, has a defence surge, and is armoured so only crits can damage it. Due to its flying nature, the T-47 has Cover 1 all the time as well as being immune to blast and melee. Being immune to melee is massive considering the best attack in the game so far is Vader’s lightsabre! It also has Speeder 2 allowing it to move over objects at range 2, and it has movement 3, though must do a compulsory move when you activate.

Offensively this thing is a heavy hitter. It has a AS/11 Defence Laser Cannon which is ranged 1-3, firing 3 red and 3 black dice with fixed front and impact 3. Already the firepower is impressive at taking down heavy targets, and it can be further upgraded for a second gun that will fire at the same time! This will make short work of units caught out in the open and can even scratch some wounds off an AT-ST.

It’s worth noting you can only have 2 of these in your army, and it seems like you will always want to put another gun on it.

Strengths

This thing is fast, and I can see this being very tough to kill as it has strong defence to regular gunfire. With its movement you can’t really stop it getting to where it wants to go. I feel if you can get the air speeder down behind someone’s lines shooting units out of cover this will make some considerable damage to your opponent’s army. The T-47 having the speeder 2 rule is going to allow it to get anywhere on the battlefield and also hide very well, as it can shoot before moving behind a building; then next turn fly over it and shoot again, allowing it to avoid damage and still be in the game next turn.

Weakness

It is a big chunk of points from your 800 point army, and when you think about it you can get 4 units of troopers for the same points that will capture objectives and can cover a wider area. It has compulsory movement, so you must play smart with it. Another issue is that to unlock its full potential you need to pay further points to add that second gun. Currently we don’t know what they can be but if they are 30-40 points it will make this air speeder’s cost fly up! I guess in Q1 next year we will find out.