A Land Raider Excelsior of the Ultramarines Chapter
The Land Raider Excelsior is a specialised variant of the Adeptus Astartes Land Raider that serves a command and control function for a Space Marine planetary assault as well as a role as a heavy main battle tank and armoured transport.
As a designated command vehicle, it possesses an unusually powerful array of Augur sensor arrays, Cogitators and advanced communications gear to carry out ship-to-surface coordination of a planetary assault. It often acts in concert with the Rhino Primaris, a variant of the standard Rhino APC also intended to carry out command and control functions, to help target orbital bombardments from a Space Marine fleet in high orbit of an embattled world. The Land Raider Excelsior can transport 10 Space Marines into combat.
The Rhino Primaris working in tandem with the Land Raider Excelsior for the Ultramarines Chapter
When working in concert, Space Marine command tanks can secure victory within only solar hours of making planetfall in a combat zone. Orders weighed and delivered by one of the foremost tactical minds of the Adeptus Astartes galvanise those Space Marines nearby to heroic feats of war, whilst targeting Augurs relay telemetries that make each punishing volley impossible to escape.
Not only is the strategic worth of these tanks hard to overstate, but they bring overwhelming destruction upon the foe. The Land Raider Excelsior's Lascannons swivel and track, annihilating those enemy vehicles not crushed by its forward Grav-cannon, while the Battle Barge high above unleashes the final blow.
Guided by the Augur array of the Rhino Primaris, the resultant orbital bombardment hurtles out of the sky, leaving nothing but a crater in the planet's crust where a strongpoint lay moments before.
Unit Composition
- 1 Land Raider Excelsior
Armament
A standard Land Raider Excelsior is armed and equipped with:
- Grav-Cannon with Grav-Amp
- 2 twin-linked Lascannons
- Searchlight
- Smoke Launchers
- Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence)
- Data Auger
- Aquila Aegis Shield - A new addition to the Adeptus Astartes armoury, the Aquila Aegis Shield is a defensive energy shield much like the more potent Void Shields generated by Imperial starships that can deflect a certain amount of incoming directed energy and kinetic fire until it is overwhelmed.
The Land Raider Excelsior may take one of the following pintle-mounted weapons:
Land Raiders may also have a variety of vehicle equipment such as:
The Space Marine Captain in command of the Land Raider Excelsior may take the following additional equipment:
- Rod of Command - The Rod of Command is a revered Chapter relic that inspires nearby warriors to feats of great heroism. The Captain opens the top hatch of the Land Raider, and while exposing himself to enemy fire he raises the rod high to show his defiance in the face of the enemy.
Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications
The Adeptus Mechanicus has not publicly released the technical specifications of the Land Raider Excelsior.
Sources
- Index - Imperium 1 (8th Edition), pg. 61
- Adeptus Astartes: Space Marine HQ Command Tanks (Forge World Model Set Data Sheet)