Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Vehicles 101

Vehicles 101

Introduction to Vehicles

So you want to run a lot of Metal Boxes. Welcome to the club; this article is "under construction", for the most part, but feel free to provide input wherever necessary.

A brief recap of the recent history of 40k vehicles

The general viability of vehicles in 40k has oscillated from edition to edition, with some editions favoring certain types over others; 5th edition statistically favored massed light vehicles over smaller numbers of heavy tanks; statistically speaking, if each direct hit that penetrated had a 16% chance of destroying an enemy tank, it was more efficient to take more Razorbacks, rather than running Land Raiders.

6th edition came out and introduced "Hull Points" as a mechanic for vehicles. While in theory, one could destroy an enemy vehicle by exploding it, in practice, firing enough glancing shots to strip it of health would prevent the extremes of 5th, where lucky dice rolling could have a single lightly-armored truck take five or six direct hits from a Railgun and still stand, while a Leman Russ Battle Tank died to *one*. If you damage a vehicle enough, it *will* be destroyed, no extraneous luck required. Unfortunately for many, vehicle damage was still generally an unforgiving affair; add general restrictions preventing Assaulting from most transports, and the fact most infantry could move-and-fire Rapid-fire weapons at full-range, and most transports lost a lot of purpose. The worst insult was the fact that vehicles could not score for objectives, even if they were carrying Troops that *could*. Some vehicles still had their use (Flyers were very useful to have, as were Serpents and the Catacomb Command Barge) but for the most part, vehicles were missing from the game.

We're now in 7th. Hull points remain, but the damage table is more forgiving; unless using a dedicated anti-tank weapon like a Lascannon or Railgun, a penetrating hit will *not* outright destroy a vehicle in one go. Combined with missions that favor taking-and-holding objectives in the midfield, as well as allowing *any* model to score, and vehicles are potentially an important element of the game nowadays, though nowhere as dominant as they were back in 5th edition.

Types of Vehicles, and their Roles

40k has a word salad of special vehicle-types: Tanks, transports, flyers, skimmers, fast, walkers, chariot, heavy, super-heavy (walkers/flyers/tanks), and so on so forth.

• Fast Vehicles can fire more weapons on-the-move, and move further on a Flat-Out move.
• Tank just simply means the vehicle can Tank Shock enemy models and Ram enemy vehicles. This area should be expanded to discuss Tank Shock in general.
• Skimmers simply ignore intervening terrain/models when moving, and can elect to Jink should an enemy shoot. Note that although Skimmer by itself doesn't give a move bonus to Flat Out, a Fast Skimmer has a bigger bonus than a Fast Vehicle that isn't a skimmer.
• Flyer: Flyers come in from Reserves, being hard-to-hit, and usually are able to alpha-strike a position without too much reprisal. However, their inability to stay stationary, combined with limited firing arcs, means you usually get one good round of shooting with them every other turn...make them count!
  • Hover: This simply means that the Flyer can choose to move as though it were a Fast Skimmer. Though this makes them vulnerable to return fire, it does allow them more freedom in moving/selecting targets.

Metal Boxes and You: The Humble Rhino

Though 7 Loyalist armies (Space Marines, Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Inquisition, Sisters of Battle) and Chaos Space Marines have access to the Rhino and its variants (Razorback, Immolator, or otherwise) in some form or fashion, a lot of their basic use will remain the same throughout each army. By itself, a single Rhino is fairly fragile; even attempting to rush with numerous Rhinos has its issues; against an army with sufficient ranged anti-tank, you end up basically paying to give your opponent the luxury of fighting your army piecemeal.

So how do Rhinos work in 40k nowadays? What advantages does it have?

• A Rhino is durable-for-its-cost: A Rhino is fragile by itself, but not fragile enough for its cost. By itself, it does minimal damage, and generally isn't worth shooting at from an economy-of-force perspective (sure, you *could* say "Free Killpoint." Did you really need to use your Broadside battery to kill it?)
• A Rhino has a good profile: Unlike Raiders, Wartrukks, Serpents, or other exotic vehicles, the Rhino is basically a glorified M113 APC. Just a solid lump of plastic with a profile that is high enough to block line-of-sight to friendly infantry behind it, but low enough that it can take advantage of cover (either terrain, or your dudes).
• A Rhino is Versatile: This is the big one. A Rhino can serve as mobile terrain, as a bunker, a transport, or simply a cheap objective-holder.

General things to note when running Rhinos include:

• NEVER face-down an enemy gunline: The Rhino is generous in that three of its four sides are available as access points. If an enemy wishes to shoot you, chances are the Rhino will leave a wreck. Note "wreck", and not "crater": If you directly exposed your front armor to the opponent, the access points on the side will probably be exposed to enemy fire, while the rear access point will leave your guys super-crowded for blasts/a hungering Heldrake. Rather, face the enemy gunline at a 30-60-degree angle depending on whether your opponent can or cannot reach your rear arc. This way, you have more freedom to disembark, and have a nice piece of terrain to block line of sight.
• Maintain Formation If Viable: (This one matters more for those folks wanting an old-fashioned Razorback list. Godspeed, you crazy bastards) Some armies have high-strength blasts that can put a major hurt on your vehicles; should someone be bringing Manticores or a Doomsday Ark, you won't want to try this. However, you can run Rhinos/Razors in a "train"/convoy, with them advancing in a progressive line, the head of the convoy popping Smoke, while the rest take advantage of cover. *Remember* that vehicles measure weapon LOS from their weapons, and Razors have a high turret mounting. Just because you have cover doesn't mean the enemy does.
• Space them Out: Blasts are not the only thing you have to worry about when running Rhinos. A vehicle can only move directly forward, directly backwards, or pivot on the spot. In the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millenium, there is no Tokyo Drift. Let us suppose you have a line of Razorbacks advancing on an enemy, and some Eldar player has proceeded to turbo-boost a unit of Jetbikers to the rear of the convoy, and sacrificed a Serpent to block off the head of the convoy...if your Rhinos were exactly 1" apart, you're in trouble. Always maintain a minimum of 2" between each Rhino you wish to run, and preferably add an extra 25 mm to that. Most minis in this game are mounted on bases at least 28mm-wide, so even though you're spaced out, you create a mobile wall denying parts of the map to your opponent.
• The Rhino of Fury: Using the same principles mentioned above for a Rhino, it's possible to punish players aiming for horde armies by taking 2 Rhinos, driving at diagonal perpendiculars towards each other, spacing out their front bumpers 2-and-something" away from each other, and parking a rifle team in the center. The same principle can be expanded with 3 Rhinos, four...

Skimmer Milk: 2% Armor

Skimmers are one of the most common classes of vehicle in 40k. The entirety of Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar and almost all of the Necron motor pools are Skimmers, which altogether make up about half the non-Rhino vehicles in the game.

• Jump Vehicles: Skimmers behave similarly to jump infantry. They move over terrain as if it weren't there. However, if they start or end their move in terrain, they have to take a dangerous terrain test. The distinction is, unlike jump infantry, skimmers have no way to "walk"; they ALWAYS risk this dangerous terrain if they move in cover. Many armies have ways to let your skimmers either re-roll dangerous terrain checks, automatically pass them, or ignore them entirely. These are usually cheap upgrades and tend to be worth it. One thing to remember is, thanks to ignoring terrain, Skimmers essentially can fly through ruins and buildings as if they weren't there, long as they're less than 12". This means you can park a skimmer behind a bastion during your opponent's turn, then fly right over it to get in his face.

• Jinkle Jangle Bongo I Don't Wanna Leave The Congo: All Skimmers have the Jink universal special rule. This rule is one of the most delicious bits of bullshit in 6th and 7th Edition. Essentially, whenever an enemy skimmer is shot at, you can choose to Jink; you declare this before the enemy gets a chance to roll to hit. If you do, your shots next turn are Snap Shots, but you gain a 4+ cover save. This is especially good because most skimmers(Dark Eldar and Eldar especially) have ways to get bonuses to their cover saves, turning this 4+ into a 3+.

Army Specific Notes should be found in their respective tacticae.

Flyers: Death from the Skies and You

Flyers are without a doubt the single most controversial inclusion into 40K because it comes with so many benefits that it's insane and oftentimes considered broken. Prior editions made them into essentially oversized hover vehicles, but 6E decided to make them special units of their own. Death From the Skies (The 6E book and the supplement crammed into Shield of Baal: Leviathan) allow you to spend 35 points to make a special snowflake airplane.

• Deployment: Flyers, unlike FMCs, can't begin on-table without some special rule. Instead, they have to start from reserves. While reserve-screwery can help stall a flyer, it's not going to stop the inevitable.

• Zoom, mothafucka! ZOOM!: Zooming flyers must move between 18-36" in a straignt line (with a 90 degree pivot before moving), this is non-negotiable. Any less and they crash. To add to the absurdity, they can fire up to 4 weapons in a turn, with 18" being combat speed. Going Flat-Out makes if move between 12-24".
  • Targeting: This is the thing that pisses people off the most about flyers; they're just damn-near impossible to hit! Along with their innate Jink rule, Zooming Flyers also force anyone shooting at ti to fire Snap-Shots and is immune to all templates and pieplates.
    • However, only a complete retard with zero tactical sense would try something like spamming sixty multi-meltas in order to beat a flyer. No, you have a rule to help with that: Skyfire. This rule allows you to fire at a flying model at full BS. Issue is that some armies (Dark Eldar, Necrons) don't have any ground-based Skyfire, and thus are forced to spam their best guns to do that. This requires you to to look at your codex and identify key units to grab or consider buying an ADL with a gun. Remember that Zooming Flyers have Skyfire by default, and thus will always be good to match each other up.
  • Crash and Burn: So you're penned by some lucky schmuck with missiles or that fancy Mortis Dread. You have to take a Grounding test, right? WRONG. You instead have to worry about the vehicle damage table. If you ever get Immobilized, you have to roll a d6: on a 3+ you replace it with Crew Stunned, but if you roll a 1 or 2, you're dead.
  • RETURN TO THE COMBAT ZONE: There's a good likelihood that if your flyer is zooming that it might luck into a table edge. In these cases, your plane can flee the combat zone and go back to Ongoing Reserves, with every ding you have. Upon returning. you're back to zooming.

• Hovering Doom: If your flyer can hover, you can then turn it into a jumbo-sized Fast Skimmer. You can only embark and disembark anything you're transporting in hover mode. The general disadvantage is that you can be hit by non-Skyfire units now, but in some cases it becomes a scoring unit.