Repulsor Tank

"So in summation, what you have before you is a troop transport that can't carry troops, a skimmer that's too heavy to clear any terrain worth mentioning... and a quasi-tank with less armour than a Land Speeder but with enough firepower to take out half of Macragge City?"

– Adept Fanning, on reviewing the STC design notes of the Repulsor Tank.

A lightly armoured transport that traded most of its troop capacity and armour for an absurd amount of guns to negate its low survivability. This thing really is the M2 Bradley of the 42nd millennium.

The Repulsor, aka the Landraiderspeeder (landräuberluftkissenfahrzeug? Full of eels?), aka the Landspeeder 2: Electric Boogaloo, aka the Chadmarine Wave Serpent, is another brainchild of Magos Belisarius Cawl (and presumably his huge fucking supply of drugs, seeing as it looks like the product of a one night stand between a GI Joe vehicle and a Star Wars hovertank). For a long time it was the only vehicle capable of carrying our Chadmarines. Yes, not even Land Raiders were capable of carrying these guys ...for some reason. The old-school Space Marine vehicles just weren't hip enough with the NuMarines. Thankfully, as of 10th Edition, this is no longer the case.

Overview

The Repulsor, though clearly derived from the same Standard Template Construct patterns as other vehicles of the Adeptus Astartes, is the first armoured vehicle deployed by the Imperium of Man to make use of anti-gravitic technology since the days of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. The Repulsor is manufactured by the forges of Mars under the command of Archmagos Dominus and everyone's favorite mad scientist cyborg, Belisarius Cawl, like most of the new wargear produced for the Primaris Space Marines. It is unknown whether Cawl incorporated recently recovered ancient technology to produce the design, or whether it emerged from his own mind as part of his radical turn towards the former heresy known as "innovation." Given Cawl's reputation and history with such things, the latter is the more likely explanation.

The ventral plates of the Repulsor came about through Archmagos Dominus Cawl’s desire to create a transport worthy of his Primaris Marines: a vehicle that could strike suddenly and repeatedly at the enemy until the day was won. The tank he designed is indeed capable of traversing almost any terrain, even lava streams or lakes of boiling acid should the need arise (it is hovering, after all). However, it moves little faster than the armoured behemoth of the Land Raider, for its power is directed more into the manipulation of clashing gravitic energies than forward motion (translation: messing with gravity so it stays in the air). Anyway, unlike other skimmer vehicles, it has the effect of crushing any terrain it floats over, making sure anyone trying to hit its underside gets a nasty surprise, as one unfortunate chaos marine found out. Even getting close to it is difficult due to the strength of the gravitational fields that surround it. However, since the lore says it’s supposed to strike quickly and that the reason for the slow movement and crushing stuff is because of power being mostly into keeping it afloat, it seems likely that the crushing stuff and grav field that makes getting close difficult (and likely slows or pushes away incoming fire) is not necessary for floating. This, in turn, implies that when travelling out of combat the Repulsor has its energy mostly directed to propulsion and probably would then lack the crushing effect and extra cushion against attacks. Which would fit the lore about it being meant for quick strikes.

The Repulsor is also notorious for the amount of guns it carries. Seriously, this thing is fucking ridiculous. Its turret alone makes a Battlefortress blush in shame. Even a Baneblade would ask it to calm the fuck down (Except for the Stormhammer, which wept a single tear in pride). I mean, it has even a gun on its rear end, so yes, it is one of the few ground vehicles not vulnerable from surprise butt sex from the occasional sneaking Catachan Devils. The weapons found on this nasty tank includes the Las-Talon or Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon in the tank’s turret that blasts apart enemy vehicles that could conceivably pose a threat, whilst the extensive suite of bolt weaponry, Auto-Launchers, heavy stubbers, and Grenade Launchers lay down a storm of horde-killing firepower. Orks wet themselves when they see this. At least there are no fucking multi-lasers. No, really! In addition to several grenade launchers and missile launchers and the butt twin-linked heavy stubber, the rear diagonals on its turret have twin-linked bolters! Even when it’s not shooting at you it’s shooting at you!

So far the Repulsor has only been seen extensive use during the Indomitus Crusade started by Papa Ultrasmurf. More variants are coming under way to further boost the forces of the Imperium.

For some bizarre reason, the Las-Talon is the same gun as that found on the Stormhawk. Why Cawl thought it was a good idea to put a fast aircraft weapon on a slow tank is beyond us. The Las-Talon has the exact same profile as the Twin Lascannon just with a shorter range, even though its in the turret and therefore the primary weapon. Also in Dark Imperium novel the Repulsor Tank has the ability to drop from orbit into the midst of battle like a drop pod. Sadly this ability does not transfer to the tabletop. Presumably because Matt Ward couldn't get his cheesifying paws on the rules this time.

Crunch

When it was added to the game in 8th, the Repulsor was billed as the main dedicated transport option for primaris units, even though its stat line (and cost) had more in common with a Land Raider than a Rhino. This made it an ineffective transport, to say the least, and calls for a faster, lighter, and cheaper transport continued until the Impulsor premiered more than a year later. By 9th, the Repulsor was switched to the Heavy Support role, where it likely should have been placed since the beginning.

Stat-wise, the Repulsor sits in the same weight class as the Land Raider, but trades the former's 2+ armour save for an "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to its weapons. Just about every gun can be traded out, making it a nightmare to magnetize. Fortunately, the move to 9th has streamlined things a bit. Its Icarus weapons lost their penalty to hit non-flyers and its auto launchers now only grant it the Smokescreen keyword. Indeed, the Repulsor has become a decent, but not amazing weapon platform platform, and without CORE, it will lack crucial support from the rest of your army. However, its one of the only ways to Mk X Gravis models across the battlefield.

Repulsor Executioner

Anti-tank and a battle tank? It's even reasonably designed? What is this world coming to?

For some reason, GW only recently realised that the Primaris Marines lacked both a dedicated battle tank and a dedicated anti-tank unit, so they decided to implement a new tank with the coming of Apocalypse. Enter the Repulsor Executioner, which at first glance appears to be the Primaris answer to the Predator Tank, until you learn it STILL has transport capacity, making it a true Primaris Razorback/Falcon. One must fear what a Primaris Predator will look like. It has the Aquilon Optics special rule which is basically the Leman Russ's Grinding Advance, being able to shoot twice (with the main Turret) if you move half or less. Just as well, because this thing has a fuckhueg amount of firepower.

The tank appears very similar to the previous version of Repulsor, but most of its guns are now on the turret... which is... better, as there's a more realistic chance that most of this thing's absurd dakka can actually aim at things (but because it's not actually touching the ground it can just rotate the chassis to aim while using momentum to keep moving in the original direction). It also maintains the Onslaught Gatling Cannon of the original Repulsor as a turret mount, with a hull Twin Heavy Bolter and an Ironhail Heavy Stubber as a pintle mount (and two more Ironhail Heavy Stubbers still inexplicably mounted on its backside in the same AA mount as the basic Repulsor). However, it's the main weapons that give this vehicle its functions. The first of its new armaments is the familiar Macro Plasma Incinerator, previously seen on the Redemptor Dreadnought, which may actually find a purpose for once as the budget option, since it's not competing too heavily with other weapons. The other option is the Heavy Laser Destroyer, which is the Lascannon's angrier big brother with a 72" Heavy 2 S10 AP-4 Dd6 that treats all Damage rolls of 1 or 2 as 3 statline. If Aquilon Optics activates then you get at least 12 wounds and if the dice gods smile upon you, that is a potential 24 wounds at S10 AP-4. Prepare thine anus, for it is going in dry. If, of course, you actually hit with every shot.

Gallery

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  Now all we need is a picture of the one with more guns photoshopped onto it.

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  Why does this look so famili- Dammit Cawl, stop stealing the work of better Magi.

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  They made a movie about the making of the Repulsor.

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  Plasma version of the Repulsor Executioner.

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  Still not enough Dakka

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  The Repulsor preliminary drawing. Note it has far less weapon than the final product.