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Cat

2020-05-03T04:45:59Z

2600:6C58:637F:E506:8D06:F5F8:E9D4:A4F3: /* IRL relevance */

[[Image:Joyous feline.jpg|thumb|Do not be fooled by its appearance. This cat will wreck your shit.]][[Image:Monglercat.jpg|thumb|This cat will mongle your cock.]][[Image:SQUAD BROKEN.JPG|thumb|Cats are also known to caus- SQUAD BROKEN!!]]
The ''Felidae'' family, general known as '''cats''', are a group of carnivorous mammals that has species native to all continents except Antarctica. Indeed, they are only family within the Carnivora order where '''all''' members are carnivorous. Cats include several of the most dangerous and iconic predator animals including the lion, tiger, bobcat, leopard, cheetah and puma.

While [[human]]s have domesticated the cat's arch-rival, the dog, for over 10,000 years, cats have only been domesticated for a few thousand. Even using wild felines as execution method is only known to go back to the time of Alexander the Great (c. before 300 BCE). While dogs have been used to fill a variety of tasks, domestic cats are primarily used for pest control, since they kill rodents and other threats to stored food without taking much interest in the supplies themselves. Since cats tend to eat these pests, they are fairly self-sufficient guards.

Cats have the ability to break spacetime occasionally by expanding to fill all available space, an ability [[Dwarf Fortress#Cats|accurately depicted in Dwarf Fortress]].

==Dungeons and Dragons==
Domestic cats have long been an option for a [[Dungeons and Dragons]] [[familiar]]. Larger cats are typically favored forms of [[Druid]]s who transform into animals or take animal companions. This is especially so in 3E, as they tend to have Pounce, which dramatically increases their attack power by letting them full attack ''and'' move on the same turn.

===The Killer Housecat===
In ''[[3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons]]'', house cats have stats that make them incredibly deadly combatants for their apparent harmlessness and low [[Challenge Rating]]. Thanks to a tiny size and high dexterity, a cat has an armor class that makes it as hard to hit as a man in a chain shirt. The cat is actually ''harder'' to hit, since that AC is all touch AC, so splash weapons and energy rays '''will not save you'''. They are also very stealthy and win initiative, so they can ambush easily.

A cat has three natural attacks, all doing 1 damage each; statistically, a cat will virtually always kill a level one [[Commoner]] one on one, and possibly even a level one [[Wizard]] if there's no familiar helping them fight back. Even if he can get casting off (which is already a resource expenditure far in excess of its supposed CR), the few first level Wizard spells available aren't that likely to work on the monster thanks to low damage that is likely halved (and if it's a ''familiar'' attacking you, outright avoided) by the cat's high reflex save. More meaty classes fare better, but still need disproportionate effort to kill it.

''[[Pathfinder]]'' nerfs them slightly, but only through a minor, easily overlooked system wide change: Damage reduced to less than one by damage penalties does one ''non-lethal'' damage (in 3E this was still lethal damage). This means a victim has a chance of being rescued after being KOed, but before the cat finishes them off. This does raise the question of how cats can actually kill rats without first KOing them; then again, that's not unrealistic to RL cats, who usually try to cripple their prey before going in for the killstroke (because the killstroke generally leaves the cat vulnerable, so making sure their prey can't fight back is important).

The "killer housecat" phenomenom is well known enough that it's referenced regularly in 3e forums and its derivatives as a standard deadly "monster" for its CR and to emphasies how squishy low level Wizards are, as well as other games and media in or neat the /tg/-sphere.

== Cats in Magic the Gathering ==
The cat is one of the oldest creature types in the game. It first debuted in [[First Magic Sets|Limited Edition]] (Savannah Lions), though the first one to be printed with the type on it was in [[Legends]]. While most creatures with the Cat type are anthropomorphic of some kind, be it [[Catfolk]], [[Rakshasa]] or [[Ajani Goldmane]], [https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Cat#Other_cats there's plenty of actual predators represented]. "Normal" cats tend to be green, since it is (naturally) the color of wild beasts. Some cats are white, since they're a symbol of many white values like the group and knightly virtue. Oketra of [[Amonkhet]] is a psuedo-Eygptian deity that considers cats sacred. Cat tribal is quite rare.

Whitemane Lion is a notable cat card that has been printed several times. It has an effect that requires you to return a creature to your hand when you summon it. This effect seems like a drawback, but is actually key to powered many decks that abuse it to repeatedly trigger enter the battlefield effects. One of these combos is with, fittingly enough, Oketra's Monument. These two allow you to spawn as many 1/1 tokens as you have white mana for.

Not to be outdone by the other [[Wizards of the Coast]] game, ''Magic'' also contains a lethal house cat. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=262864 Sanctuary Cat] debuted in [[Innistrad]]. It normally wouldn't be a notable card; it's a 1/2 white one drop and a functional reprint of [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=21057 one of the oldest cards in the game] with a generally worse type, and a few strictly better cards have been printed. This card became notable because the art depicts what seems to be a normal cat, and since 1/1 has always been the normal power and toughness for one-mana creatures, this cat can kill a surprising number of things and live. Most of these creatures are still trained and armed/armored soldiers.

== Cats in [[Warhammer Fantasy]] ==
Like in old folklore stories, [[Queen Neferata]], the first [[Vampire Counts|Vampire]] and head of the Lahmian Bloodline, likes to turn her underlings (usually female) into cats to sneak into the homes of men (or women) of high standing. The shapeshifting ends, and the Vampire seduces their target leading to them either being their mysterious mistress (in all applications of the word) or their mysterious relative/spouse nobody had heard of. Either way, Neferata gains another pawn in her plan for world domination. In old Lahmian models cats often appeared alongside the Vampire.

==Cats in Warhammer 40k==
It was confirmed in one of the [[Ciaphas Cain]] books that humans still keep cats as pets. And when you consider how many rats and shit must be in those hive cities, it's not exactly surprising. They would be quite at home on a ship of the Imperial Navy, but sadly, many might also just be food for hive world inhabitants and feral worlds, anywhere where food is hard to find (much of the Imperium).

==IRL relevance==
The main point of IRL overlap between cats and /tg/ (besides the panoply of cat-themed board games) is that a cat '''will''' knock over all the fiddly bits of your game if you let them. Preventing this is difficult, particularly if the pieces are of the right size to make a cat think "hey, this looks like it might be edible". While cats are usually smart enough to not eat inanimate objects (unlike dogs), a cat will attack unusual small objects like game pieces in order to make sure it's not just a small animal that's playing dead. During gameplay, a [[Lasgun|laser pointer]] is a good tool to divert the cat, but fiddly bits left alone remain a significant risk.

Feral Cats have adapted to living in Australia. Yes, these little shits could survive in a fucking [[Death World]] if there are not enough natural predators to keep their population in check. Of which there are only two on the continent. Even a house cat will kill smaller wild animals because living pest control as stated above is why humans adopted them. Unlike dogs, cat's have yet to lose the instincts of their wilder cousins.

== Cats in mythology ==
Domestic Cats played a large part in Egyptian religion. They were the most frequently mummified creatures. We don't know why they did this or their exact purpose, though we do know Egyptians were among the first to domesticate the cat.

[[Japan]]ese myth has the [[Catfolk|nekomata]]. These two tailed cats vary between large, man-eating monsters and magically-inclined though generally-peaceful variations of domestic cats.

Black cats allegedly bring bad luck. They are a favored familiar of witches.

==See also==
*[[Catfolk]]

[[Category:Dwarf Fortress]][[Category:Not related]]

Land Speeder

2020-05-03T03:59:52Z

2600:6C58:637F:E506:8D06:F5F8:E9D4:A4F3: /* Land Speeder Vengeance */

[[File:Land speeder side on.jpeg|300px|thumb| The Humble Aluminum Box, Suspended by forces that we don't understand and employed regardless]]

The '''Land Speeder''' is a light reconnaissance and strike vehicle used by the loyalist [[Adeptus Astartes]]. None of the traitor legions use them because <s>GW is loath to give them any kind of tabletop mobility</s> grav-technology has issues in the constantly-changing physics of the Warp (and, on a note of practicality, they don't have the tech needed to maintain them, on top of the inevitable attrition that comes with waging millenia of warfare). However, some of the newer warbands that were once loyalist Chapters do have them and use them. Land speeders came from an STC found in M31 by the esteemed and venerated OG Techno-Archaeologist Arkhan Land (of [[Land Raider]] fame). It just so happened to be that the Space Marine Legions were looking for a paper plane to ride around in fucking with their enemies, so the land speeder took off! During the [[Great Crusade]] the [[Imperial Guard]] (at that time the Imperial Army) made use of the Land Speeder, but by the 41st millennium only the space marines get them because grimdark [[Grimdark|technology is being lost we forgot how to anti-grav everything sucks yadda yadda.]] This only sounds dumber when faced with the fact that [[Derp|numerous bits of fluff and literature (Ravenor, Eisenhorn, and Ciaphas Cain in particular) make mention of air-cars, air-bikes, speeders and other such vehicles in civilian use which are presumably anti-grav]]. Of course, this could just be because the technology that is still known to the Imperium simply isn't up to the rigors of combat, similar to how cars existed for several decades before being reliable enough to work as military vehicles. Alternately, they could be like boltguns: easy enough to make but impractical to field and maintain. It has also been stated in some sources that the land speeder is capable of flying so fast that only Astartes reflexes are capable of controlling it, which does nothing to explain why the Imperial Army used to field them.

On the campaign trail land speeders are primarily used as light reconnaissance vehicle, used to scout out assorted information when marines don't have air superiority to scout things out the sensible way. They are often paired with [[Whirlwind]] batteries to hone firing solutions in this way. Occasionally they're used in battle as fast attack strike vehicles, especially by the [[Raven Guard]] and their descendant chapters. Land speeders rely on speed and firepower to survive in battle, ideally jetting in and destroying whatever they're attacking before it can retaliate, though more often than not they end up exploding in a glorious ball of flame after blowing up a few things. The default Land Speeder is armed with a heavy bolter, but they're often up-armed with rocket launchers, Multi-Meltas, heavy Flamers, or assault cannons.

By the codex, land speeders are piloted by the 7th company and attached to battle companies as needed in the same manner as other reserve troops. In theory, the entire company should be able to deploy entirely in speeders, if needed, although this rarely occurs in practice. Pilots for marine aircraft are often drawn from the 7th's piloting pool.

==On the Tabletop==
Crunch-wise the Land Speeder is a fast skimmer made of wet cardboard. With T6 and only 5 wounds you'd better keep it far away from the enemy's weapons, or else deep strike it to make a suicide run. For the first method you should kit it with a Typhoon ML and either a Heavy Bolter or a Multi-melta, while for the latter you can choose a combination between Multimelta and Heavy Flamer.

In a Gladius it can fill the Fast Attack role (if for some reason you don't want to take the almighty Bike Squad) quite cheaply. Give it a Heavy Flamer, keep it in cover the entire game then on the last turn zip it halfway across the board to capture or contest an objective (remember it has ObSec from the Gladius).

A couple of patterns stand out: the Land Speeder Storm can carry a half-squad of [[Space Marine Scouts]], while the Land Speeder Tempest is fully-enclosed and more armored. The Dark Angels also employ their own versions of the Land Speeder, which have larger thrusters, a large turret on top, and a small gun cage on the front end. [[Derp|Which makes you wonder what they were thinking, attaching a tiny turret manned by a massive, heavy marine to the front of an extremely fast and fragile skimmer...]]

More details of the crunch can be read further below.

==Variants==
===Land Speeder Tornado===
[[File:Land Speeder Tornado.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Smurfs in a Land Speeder Tornado]]
The Tornado is an up-armed dedicated fire-support Land Speeder variant. The standard loadout is a heavy bolter or heavy flamer and an underslung assault cannon. All the best parts of a typical Land Speeder with some extra anti-infantry firepower. Fluff-wise, this is the most common Land Speeder employed by the Adeptus Astartes.

In 8th edition, Land Speeders are now, for all intents and purposes, slightly bigger, faster, and more heavily armed [[Bike Squad|attack bikes]]. The key difference here is that land speeders are now counted as flyers, which means if they do manage to survive the melee combat they'll occasionally find themselves in, they can just move out and shoot as normal (albeit with the penalty for moving with heavy weapons).

For extra [[Lulz|lols]] play as the Salamanders and make sure the Land Speeder's loadout consists of everyone's favorite tarpit cleanser. [[Tl;dr]], imagine a unit of three Land Speeders kitted out with ''6 heavy flamers'', as they're one of the units that benefit the most from the Flamecraft stratagem. Have fun as [[Ork]] and [[Tyranid]] players cry.

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===Land Speeder Typhoon===
[[File:LSTyphoon.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Occasionally you just need some missiles on a speeder]]
The Typhoon is a Land Speeder variant designed to serve as a heavy-support platform. It's a Land Speeder with a big goddamn missile launcher taped to the back. It often times has a multi-melta, and is effective as a skirmisher that can rapidly outflank and destroy enemy vehicles.

A Land Speeder Typhoon are often loaded with Krak Missiles to make for a very powerful anti-armor weapon system, as it is able to attack enemy armored vehicles and retreat before the foe has time to retaliate. The Land Speeder Typhoon is usually deployed in conjunction with a Land Speeder Tornado, as the Tornado's powerful anti-infantry weaponry eliminates enemy infantry while the Typhoon freely engages enemy armor.

On tabletop, you can upgrade your vanilla Land Speeder into a Typhoon by simply plopping some missile launchers on the sides. This also makes them excellent at [[Tarpit|tarpitting gunlines.]] Missile launchers got great (although overcosted) in this edition, which makes the Typhoon a very solid option, but be cautious as these are also expensive, and whilst the land speeder is very resilient to small arms fire, a good shot from a dedicated anti tank weapon will see it explode rather swiftly.

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===Land Speeder Tempest===
[[file:Typhoon.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Yes it does look like a tiny fighter jet. No it does not actually fight other fighters]]
The Tempest is a specialized Land Speeder variant by the [[White Scars|Mongols]] that differs from other Land Speeder in two main ways. Firstly, instead of having an open cockpit, the entire crew cabin is enclosed and armored, thus helpfully preventing the pilot from being shot in the face by some punk on the ground with a heavy stubber. Secondly, the Tempest is loaded up with better overall armor, internal missile launchers and a beefier engine, and serves as more of a fast attack support craft then other more fragile Land Speeders.

On the tabletop, [[Derp|despite looking like a fighter jet and being more aerodynamic, the Tempest for ''some reason'' has a tiny drop in movement]] ([[Skub|well, sort of; see below]]) from the vanilla type, but has better toughness and Ld (not that the latter usually matters). Each one is equipped with an Assault Cannon and two Tempest Salvo Launchers (36" Heavy 1d3 S6 AP-3 D2; at only 10 points each, drastically better as a pair than a Typhoon Missile Launcher against anything at all, but the Tempest itself is a good deal more expensive than a vanilla). When Advancing, they must move between 20" and 35"; they also impose a -1 to hit against them in the next Shooting phase and prevents units without the FLY keyword from charging (or being charged by) them.

The reason why they are ''slightly'' slower is because these guys don't have Anti-grav Upwash, so a unit of 3 of them is 5" slower than a unit of 3 vanillas, rather than 1", when not Advancing. When Advancing, they are much faster, regardless of unit size, since they can go their choice of 20-35" (no need to roll), instead of 16-21 for a small unit or 21-26 for a large unit of vanillas. Unfortunately, there's no option to take Assault weapons on them of any stripe.
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===Land Speeder Storm===
[[File:99120101075_LandSpeederStormNEW01.jpg|250px|thumb|left|ROAD TRIP! ROAD TRIP! ROAD TRIP!]]
A stretch version of the Land Speeder for [[Space Marine Scouts|Scout]] teams to (sneakily) rocket into the chaos of battle. The Storm can also provide fire support for them with its heavy bolter and Cerberus missile launcher. The giant radio aerial sticking out of the back of the chassis isn't only for tuning into Gothic rock as you purge Xenos scum, it also jams teleport homers in a short radius.

On the tabletop, the Storm is a dedicated transport for 5 Scout models, for the same base cost as a normal Landspeeder. Open topped so they can shoot out of it, although still suffer any penalties for shooting heavy weapons after moving, and cannot shoot after falling back even if the vehicle still can. Does not get Concealed Positions, but has an 18" move, to easily re-locate. Starts with a Cerberus Launcher (D6 bolter shots at 18") and a Heavy Bolter that it can swap for a Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, or Assault Cannon.

You can also put a Scout Sniper squad inside for a mobile Character killing fire base with a 7 wound buffer. Heavy flamer to discourage charges (and hopefully let you fly away next turn), or a Heavy Bolter/AC to provide supporting fire. Or...you can put a Scout Shotgun squad inside with a Heavy Flamer instead, and charge it up into their face.

The [[Dark Angels]] are also fond users of the Storm due to its fast speed and ability to carry a boat load of scouts into their position.

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===Land Speeder Proteus===
[[File:Blender.jpg|250px|left|thumb|The flying blender has returned!]]
The infamous Land Speeder of the Legio Astartes during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. This rickety flying blender from the days of Rogue Trader has made its return in the [[Horus Heresy]] line and by the Emprah does it look as dangerously designed as we last remembered. This flying death trap earned that name by being literally a bunch of jet engines duct taped to a couch. Seriously look at the thing. The marines are so exposed that one ricochet of an Autogun round would either [[FATAL|blow up the engines, knock out the pilot or shred his seatbelt, sucking the poor SOB into the blender that is the jet turbine ''right behind him'']].

Then there's the fact that the rear weapon has everything from heavy bolters to multi-meltas, volkites, and heavy flamers all shooting right over the marine's heads, and would likely [[FAIL|melt their helmets to slag]] with the heat wash. Lost technology has nothing to do with why this obvious prototype was quickly phased out, <s>even an ''ork'' would call the Proteus a bad design.</s>

Relax, relax, you're wearing a suit of armor anyway, no big deal. Its got some interesting weapon options and seems to include multiple hunter killer missiles, which are nice for some alpha strike dakka. Just don't look backwards and never piss off its machine spirit.

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===[[Land Speeder Vengeance]]===
[[File:Land Speeder Vengence.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Dark Angels. Having cooler toys than you since always]]
The Land Speeder Vengeance is a much heavier version of the Land Speeder exclusive to the [[Dark Angels]] and their successors. Armed with either a Plasma Storm Battery that can tear apart TEQs or an ancient relic that repels enemy fire, it is a potent asset for the Unforgiven that. They inevitably refused to share it with anyone else and would rather violate the Treaty of Olympus Mons/Treaty of Mars. Because the AdMech would take a thousand years oiling (read jerking all over) the STC and a couple more millennia to release a gimped version of it. The same reason why Blood Angels and Space Wolves also never share their exclusive gear.

The STC design was discovered by the Dark Angels in M36. Most commonly employed by their Ravenwing formations, the Land Speeder Vengeance has proven its worth on the battlefield time and time again, able to keep pace with the fastest of the Ravenwing vehicles. A more archaic version of the Land Speeder Vengeance, the Ravenwing Darkshroud, is also employed by the Dark Angels and their successors. The Darkshroud is known for its rather goofy and over-the-top gothic statue thing that creates a protective shielding for the pilots.

For its rules, you can click on its main page. But general consensus from Dark Angels players agree that it is a pretty good vehicle for their army playlist due to being both fast, relatively tough and being able to hit like a truck going 140km/h.

Overall, this thing is [[Awesome|Boss.]]
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{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Template:40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}

==Star Wars==
In [[Star Wars]] Landspeeders are a type of repulsorlift craft. Their ability to float above the ground, ignoring most terrain, and achieve high speeds makes them very effective personal transportation that isn't dependent upon roads to function, something that is of high value in the largely untamed Outer Rim. Most landspeeders are open topped, but a few aren't, and nearly all are unarmed civilian vehicles by default. Uparmored and armed landspeeders are popular skirmish vehicles for less conventional forces like the Alliance to Restore the Republic, mirroring the [[Wikipedia:Technical (vehicle)|technicals]] and [[Jeep 106mm Recoilless|antitank]] [[HMMWV-TOW|cars]] of the real world. Even relatively well off forces like Naboo's [[Planetary Defense Force]] make use of them.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Vehicles]]