Quote: (zombocom @ 11 Dec. 2008, 23:57 )
I'm still dubious as to the usefulness of movement 15 transports.
I thought this for a long time until I saw someone really use one well. Believe it or not, they can be extremely useful. It's probably better to think of it in terms of "adding infantry to the WE formation" rather than "WE as oversized transport".
Having 2-300 points of infantry that can spill out if you don't pin the WE makes assaulting it really darn hard.
Initiating an assault with 12-20 units with FF5+ is pretty wicked even before you consider that the WE can take the first hits on 4+RA, possibly on shields as well, and provide cover saves if any enemy fire gets past that.
When it comes time to grab objectives in a GT scenario, you can dismount during any move, allowing the large mounted infantry formation(s) to block off large sections of terrain that the WE couldn't hope to control alone.
Even from the "WE as transport" perspective it has a couple advantages:
It's as fast as the infantry on foot so it doesn't slow them down. It provides 4+RA and possibly shields while they close, plus WEs can move through/use a lot of terrain that AVs cannot for more durability. Losing a couple activations of fodder infantry isn't much of a price to pay for delivering them all the way across the board without taking fire.
Having a "safe" retreat near the front lines for a broken formation is sometime useful.
All that combines to make a mounted transport WE a strong multi-purpose threat as compared to an empty version, even with 15cm move.
