Horus Heresy: Land Raider Proteus Tank – Sprues and Rules Review
The new plastic Land Raider Proteus kit is here. Here’s the rundown on what to expect from the tank, both on your hobby table, and the tabletop!
The New Proteus Kit
Named for the eccentric techno-archaeologist Arkhan Land who discovered the lost STC in Warhammer Lore, the Land Raider Proteus is just out as a faithful recreation of its resin twin. It is plastic glue friendly and captures all of the elements of the original at a third of the price and easily a fourth of the weight. While it doesn’t have the functional advantage of being used to prop up the sagging end of a couch or as block to put your car on, it does go together without any of the heating, epoxy, pinning or usual construction methods needed for resin. Along with the instructions and sprues you get a niffy sheet of Imperial Fists or Sons of Horus decal sheet found in all Horus Heresy plastic vehicle releases.
The Land Raider Proteus Kit
The plastic release of the Proteus tank is well designed and builds easily, though I will say it suffers from new GW vehicle construction philosophy. It’s parts heavy, finicky as you put the subassemblies together and of course there are 20+ tank track pieces covering nearly an entire large sprue. I can’t say this was a liberating build, nor was it it frustrating but it certainly felt like work. The process was long and like all newer GW vehicles you have to be extremely careful about cleaning up contact points on the pieces where they were clipped from the sprue. Gaps are certainly an issue if you’re not actively dry-fitting or diligently cleaning each piece. Its not uncommon to find gaps and seams that don’t close all the way if you get a piece mis-aligned or miss a stray piece of sprue gate. I would anticipate this would take maybe 2-3 hrs for your typical hobbyist looking to do a quality job and longer for novices or those inexperienced with GW construction methods.
The one gotcha with this build is when you sandwich the sides to the main hull. I noticed a small gap where the top of the main hull wasn’t sitting flush against the left tank tread wall. I spent about 20 minutes sanding, filing, clipping and dry fitting with little progress in making it fit flush. Ultimately I applied He-man muscle (or in my case compression clamps) and an embarrassing amount of plastic glue to close the gap while the glue set and bonded.
Land Raider Proteus Rules
This kit comes with everything to build and play 1 of the 2 Proteus Variants; the Land Raider Proteus Carrier and the Land Raider Proteus Explorator. Both are formidable weapons platforms with an all around armor of 14 and 5 hull points. The Proteus Carrier comes with a transport capacity of 12 where as the Explorator has a capacity of 8. I think the lascannons suit this tank best though there is definitely something to be said for keeping the Proteus cheap.
The Proteus Carrier
The transport capacity is my chief complaint about fielding the Land Raider Proteus Carrier. At 220 pts before upgrades its a lot for a station wagon with lascannons that hauls 5 terminators + HQ or a 10 man squad + HQ. There are few times when I’d really want to run a 5 man unit of terminators. The only ones coming to mind might be expensive elite terminator units such as Dark Angel Knight Cenobium simply because of the already high points cost of that 5 man unit.
The Proteus Explorator
The Land Raider Explorator while similar in appearance has some nice features that make its additional 30pt cost tempting. The Explorator augury web is a nice touch that allows you to reduce the chances of reserves coming onto the battlefield for your opponent by -1 while improving your own by +1 depending on what mode you have it in. For armies that have lots reserves this is a great option, or if you know you’re likely facing an opponent with numerous deepstrikes or reserves. The other nice touch is the dozerblade. Its always nice to be able to re-roll a failed dangerous terrain check.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day the Proteus Carrier is there to bridge the gap between a Rhino and a Spartan and as far as a transport it isn’t great. It has a surprisingly limited amount of transport capacity unless you’re running small groups of terminators or some kind of non bulky infantry that absolutely needs to see the front line. On the other hand, I don’t often say no to lascannons and this vehicle is chopped full of them. It is certainly potent and can lay down a plethora of high strength low ap shooting to crack those tough targets.
Finally, I appreciate GWs efforts in changing of the FW legion staples to plastic. It makes the models far more accessible to the masses and lowers the overall cost. Having just been in an escalation league recently with a bunch of new Horus Heresy players here in Austin, TX, the ability to walk into any GW dealer pick up a vehicle or unit as a quick weekend project is priceless. Pointing a new player toward a shelf littered with product has opened up the game to a whole new audience and removed obstacles for people wanting to get involved. Ultimately that is what this is all about sharing hobbies with friends, having fun and of course forging a narrative.
