The Tx-34 landspeeder unit is easily recognisable as Luke’s landspeeder from episode 4 A new hope . This is the same type of speeder, converted into a technical by the rebel alliance. Sadly this unit is what stopped me from playing the airspeeder. Unlike the airspeeder the landspeeder is a very cheap fragile platform that you can stick a bunch of guns and/or crew on. It’s definitely a glass cannon and fits the rebel aesthetic of taking what you can get in the fight against the empire.

Unit options and abilities

The landspeeder comes in very cheap at 75 points, but much like the at-rt the price is often around 110-120 since you will usually want a weapon hardpoint. 6hp and 4 wound resilience value just like the at-rt, but with surge-block and built in cover 1, however only armor value 2. Armor 2 helps vs corp troopers, but anything with larger and/or effective dice pool will get hits through. Arsenal 3 let’s you fire with up to 3 weapons at a time, which gives the speeder both a powerful combined attack and great splitfire opportunities. Transport open 1 is in my opinion a rarely useable ability. The imperial tank is transport open and I have seen that turn into a death trap for any unit being transported inside it. The speeder can hold a maximum of one non emplacement model so it’s use is a turn 1 speed boost for commanders and not much else IMO. Speeder 1 allows you to drive over terrain pieces with height of 1, giving you great mobility despite the speed value of 2. It also comes with the forced compulsory move and this is more of a boon than a drawback, as it allows the speeder to either move-move-attack or move-attack-move or any other nice combination. It essentially just gives the speeder 3 actions and for a heavy that is extremely valuable.

Upgrade choices are plenty with weapon hardpoints, pilot, comms and crew. In addition to the drivers dh-17 blaster you can take either the m-40 ion blaster or the mark 2 medium blaster. The medium blaster is just straight 4 black dice at range 1-3 in your front arc and can be compared to the rotary blaster of the at-rt. For 34 points 4 black with surge-hit gives you 2.5 average hits and will work fine vs infantry. You don’t get the massive firepower as the rotary blaster + surge-crit, but combined with the drivers blaster and a gunner crew it can become quite a effective attack, especially if you can flank troopers for a out of cover shot.

The M-45 ion blaster is a different beast entirely. It’s an exhaust weapon which usually is a big drawback, but on a speeder vehicle it’s not that big of a deal. It makes up for ut with range 1-4 and 4 white and 1 black combined with impact and ion 1 for only 4 more points. This is the only vehicle carried ion weapon and it is a nice anti-vehicle option especially against big targets like  he occupier or the at-st.

In addition to the weapon hardpoints the speeder can have up to 2 gunner crews. The first and cheapest is the A-300 gunner for 9 points and it just adds 2 white dice, however it’s not fixed so you can fire 360° and at range 1-3. It’s not that great increase in firepower but, it combines fine with the medium blaster since they both got range 1-3. 

The second option is the RP-6 rocket launcher gunner for 36 points. A pretty heavy point investment that gives you 1 white, 1 black and 1 red dice with impact 2 with range 2-4. Giving you an increase of 1.875 hits thanks to the speeders surge-hit and it can be fired 360° from the vehicle. You also get the added bonus of a kickass looking twi’lek sitting att the back of your speeder with a friggin rocket launcher.

Upgrades

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At the moment we got access to 3 different pilots one being generic and the other uniques. Wedge gives you 360° pivot instead of the normal 90°. This isn’t needed since you will rarely drive past your targets like the T-47 does. Ryder Azadi has like Wedge a 5 point cost and exhausts after use, he changes the speed of one of your moves during your activation, which includes a compulsory move. For the landspeeder this means that you can boost your comp move to 3 or break down to 1. The generic and more expensive pilot is the outer rim space jockey who gives the vehicle cover 1. This keyword stacks and it gives the landspeeder a constant heavy cover which combined with armor 2 can completely ignore the empires standard anti-vehicle rifle the dlt-19 (unless they roll natural crits). This let’s the speeder ignore small attacks, but be vary of large dice pools as it will overwhelm your defences. If they have for example 4 hits and 2 impact then you will still face 2 potential wounds due to the fact that the steps go goes cover-impact-armor.

When it comes to comms there are several useful options. Long range comlink for 5p let’s you speed away outside of command range which suits a fast flanking unit like this, the same goes with hq uplink and it also gives some better command control with the added cost of exhaust. Comms relay is not recommended since you want to have a faceup order for your heavies as much as possible. Comms jammer is a good choice an very cheap now at 5 points. This unit is fast and can get close to enemies real fast. With the jammer, you can even park next to dangerous anti-vehicle units and feel safe. Sure they can still get the order from their stack, but with good placement and timing you can really destroy your opponents plans. 

Build and tactics

The grabber jammer

• Tx-34 landspeeder 75
• Mark 2 medium blaster 34
• A-300 gunner 9p
• Outer rim space jockey 10p
• Comms jammer/Long range comlink 5p

Total 134

This unit is the go to speeder if you want a heavy activation that works great as a flanker and can go efter critical targets. You could diet this down to 129 if you don’t feel like using the comms jammer or comlink. Combined att range 1-2 in your front arc you can throw out 4 white and 4 black for an average of 4 hits before aim. You could also do a nice split fire to several targets for maximum suppression distribution. On a critical turn you could activate late, drive straight into the enemy lines and hopefully displace a unit with your comp move. After that move straight into the heart of their forces and fire in all directions including the displaced target for a potential 4 suppression tokens distributed, then sit there jamming multiple units and hopefully ruining your opponents planned command card. If you go without the jamme, I suggest sending this to a flank and try to get behind trooper targets and deliver your 8 dice attack in their backs. Comlink helps with getting order to your speeder regardless of how far it drives from your commander. This could also be fixed with a trooper units carrying a comms relay.

The ion shark

• x-34 landspeeder 75p
• M-40 ion blaster 38p
• RP-6 rocket gunner 36p
• Ryder Azadi 5p
• Hq uplink 10p

Total 164p

This is IMO the best build for the landspeeder and it’s the unit that will help carry the rebels in the post clone wars meta. Vehicles have always been a debated point in legion and the consensus is usually that going with more trooper units is better. However with the clone wars we will see more vehicles, clones have 2 announced already and the droids 1. That on top of the fact that droids will be affected by ion is great news for the rebel alliance who has the most and best ion options in the game. The tactic is to give this unit an order most turns thanks to hq uplink and the recover action, it swims steady as a shark until it pounces. Ryad lets you slow roll with a speed 1 comp move, followed by a recover action to get back hq uplink and Ryder for the next round. Your main targets is of course the enemy vehicles, with the at-st and occupier being the primary ones. If your opponent activates their vehicle you can follow with the speeder going a speed 3 comp move then unleash your combined range 4 attack of 1 red, 2 black and 5 white with impact 3 and ion 1. This is a nasty anti-tank shot. You can then follow up with a recover action so you get back all 3 of your exhaust cards. Next round go with a 1 pip command card and try to first activate the speeder thanks to hq uplink and give the enemy vehicle another attack, aiming if needed otherwise go recover again. This is a huge suckerpunch that Will leave your target with several wounds and 2 ion tokens completely shutting down their next activation. Your opponent can counter this with repair units like astromechs, but if they are removing ion then they don’t repair dmg. If you are facing no vehicle lists then it’s still an okey dmg dealer that can move across the table and attacking at long range with an average of 4 hits providing you can recover the ion blaster for each shot. With the latest point errata, vehicles will be cheaper and probably show up a bit more often. Combine this with the reduced rebel trooper ion squad to shut down enemy vehicles.

X-34 as a transport

I think that open transport is just not a good Rule for transporting. You get a small speed increase for your commanders/operatives, but you risk giving your opponent bonus wounds and you can’t attack out of it. If i had to use a transport, I can see the use for getting Solo or Leia in a good position since they have short range weapons, but I would disembark quick. I have thought about using a crazy taxi Luke when his new operative form comes out.

Crazy taxi

• X-34 landspeeder 75p
• A-300 rifle gunner 9p
• Comms jammer 5p

Total 89p

My plans is that you save your speeder with Luke onboard for your last activation round 1. You burn 3 moves straight into the heart of the enemy and Luke jumps out. Next turn use “son of Skywalker” or “I am a jedi” and let Luke go bananas. The speeder can run around trying to displace units and harass with the white dice it has and thanks to comms jammer try to block any big command card threat to Luke. I don’t know if it will work, but hey it might be fun. 

This is my analysis of the rebel X-34 landspeeder. A unit that I think works fine and has a lot of potential in the future. Give that ion shark a go and tell me how it went. If you like my analysis then pls consider supporting me on patreon https://www.patreon.com/Rebelsguide and comment on this blog with suggestion for future articles.