Written by: Jack
Planetary System: Sol
World: Earth
Date: 26.04.2026
Hello everyone. I wanted to take some time to talk about one of my favourite units in Warhammer 40k: Rapier Laser Destroyers.
This week I finished a second Voss Pattern Rapier for my 3rd edition themed Space Marines. Some of you may know that the Rapier didn't actually make it into Codex Space Marines and this is true. The only model that existed at the time of release was the ancient Rogue Trader one. I'm not sure exactly when it went out of production but the original Rapier was first produced in 1988 and sold with two Imperial Army crewmen.
The Rapier Laser Destroyer progressed from Rogue Trader to 2nd edition, where it could be taken for Space Marines with Servitor crewmen. It is described in the Wargear Rulebook as the following:
"The Rapier Laser Destroyer is a mobile anti-tank weapon mounted with a four-barrelled laser known as a Rapier. The weapon's four separate laser chambers are designed to focus with precision accuracy at a single point. A tremendous amount of laser energy can be directed against the target, making the rapier far more powerful than the lascannon. However, the Rapier is so heavy and bulky that it has to be transported on a specially-designed motorised track unit. The crewmen control the Rapier's firing and movement with a special radio control box which they carry."
This Rogue Trader incarnation of the Rapier was dropped when 3rd edition 40k was written, which was launched with a new Space Marine codex in 1998. So where does my double-barreled model come from? Well a seemingly unrelated event occurred in the year 2000. Jervis Johnson (one of the key figures behind Warhammer 40k) founded Fanatic Games as a specialist team within Games Workshop. Their goal was to provide more support to the "Specialist" games within their product lineup, notably Necromunda. The newly founded team inherited a bunch of leftover models when they acquired the Necromunda range, the two most important ones for this blog post were these bad boys:
These two sculpts were actually designed for 40k, not Necromunda, but as Jervis explains in his article written in Citadel Journal #43, they were not finished in time for the launch of 3rd edition. The sculpts were abandoned, but as they were "a nice model", he decided to release them for Necromunda in the very first Necromunda magazine. Shortly afterwards they found their way into the Citadel Journal with special rules written by Jervis himself.
Now to address the elephant in the room, as you can see there are now two very different Rapier models. One has the traditional four barrels, the other only two. Why? Well it's never explained. Likely two sculpts were designed and whatever one was preferred would have been the official one to go into production. The four barreled "Graia" design was the only one painted as a studio model. As far as I can tell, Games Workshop never photographed a painted "Voss" one.
The article in Journal 43 gives the lowly Rapier a huge amount of attention, spanning multiple pages with in-depth lore and rules for both Space Marines and the Imperial Guard. It also has lore stats for a Lucius pattern Rapier, one we've never had a model for. On the table though they all function the same way, the two barrels of the Voss pattern are just as effective as the four of the Graia. The Voss however would be forgotten while the Graia would live on, returning with a new Forgeworld model many years later.
So how do they fare on the tabletop? The rules in Citadel Journal #43 feature the Laser Destroyer as a strength 10(!) single shot gun at AP 1, tied to an AV 10 all-around platform. As they are AP 1, in 4th edition they treat all glancing shots as penetrating ones, a really nice boost against tough vehicles. At strength 10 you are nailing just about anything you hit! Even the mighty AV 14 front plate of the Leman Russ will be penetrated half of the time. At strength 10 they can also hunt toughness 5 multi-wound models like Lost and the Damned Chaos Spawn or CSM Obliterators by abusing the Instant Death rule, especially since they ignore all armour saves.
So what's the catch? Well they are ruinously fragile. When fired upon, every shot has a 50/50 chance of hitting either the crew or the Rapier. Run out of crew? The Rapier is dead. The Rapier got hit? Well it only has an AV of 10, and is instantly destroyed by any glancing or penetrating hit. Even Boltguns can destroy Rapiers. You can't utilise line of sight very well with them either for protection as the Rapier cannot move and shoot in the same turn, and only moves the same 6" movement speed that infantry move. If you get the first turn, you can expect your Rapier Battery to unleash an immense amount of destruction. If they get the first turn however, your Rapiers are in big trouble. Especially so if your opponent is packing indirect fire like a Whirlwind or a Basilisk. Thankfully the crew can function as normal infantry if your Rapiers are destroyed prematurely, so send those marines in for revenge! Space Marine (and Guard) crew cost the same as their standard infantry counterparts and are armed, so don't be afraid to take extra. At 75 points per Rapier (with a marine crew member at 15 points) they are much pricier than a simple Lascannon. You have to make sure they are worth the cost.
I'm very happy with my two Voss Pattern Rapier models, they are a very obscure and forgotten piece of Citadel history. I've never seen a painted example of one anywhere else online. The model was hidden away in side publications and then quickly abandoned entirely by Games Workshop. It makes you wonder just what other designs were created but never saw the light of day. I have also managed to acquire the Graia version. It seems to be much much rarer, very infrequently appearing for sale and usually for very high prices. Thankfully I managed to find one that has been completely untouched (though it cost an arm and a leg!) and I'll get around to painting it eventually. For now though my two Voss models will do, I have a campaign lined up for August where I hope they will perform well!
Thanks for reading my long-winded article about a completely random Warhammer model. If you enjoyed this article, please check out my others! And if you own one of these two old Rapier models, please send in photos of your own through to my email!