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...

Army Specific Notes should be found in their respective tacticae.