Various vehicles can carry troops across the battlefield. The advantages of being able to move a squad rapidly from one area to another under the protection of armour plate is obvious. The danger is that troops will be wiped out aboard the transport if it is fired at before they disembark.
Access Points
Each vehicle model capable of carrying passengers will have a number of 'access points'. These are the doors, ramps and hatches which the passengers use to get in and out of the vehicle. The exact access points for each vehicle are detailed in the 2003 Chapter Approved compilation.
Designers' Note: Access points have been introduced since the 3rd edition Warhammer 40,000 rules were released. These rules have now been formalised as mandatory.
Disembarking
A unit that begins its Movement phase inside a vehicle can get out either before or after the vehicle has moved. When the unit disembarks, the models are deployed at least partially within 2" of one of the vehicle's access points. If the vehicle has already moved then the passengers cannot move other than to deploy, and they cannot disembark if the vehicle moved more than 12". This 12" move limit includes all bonus movement from special engines, frenzied driving and so on (and that does mean all bonus movement, with no exceptions — this over-rules anything previously published in a codex or FAQ). If the vehicle has not yet moved then the infantry may move as normal after disembarking, and the vehicle can then move off separately at any speed.
Troops on board a vehicle may not disembark in the Assault phase and may never disembark within 1" of an enemy model. If compelled to disembark, because of the vehicle being destroyed, for example, any models that cannot disembark because the access points to the vehicle are blocked by enemy models become casualties.
After disembarking, models may shoot but may not assault unless the vehicle they disembarked from is open-topped.
Designers' Note: This particular addition should attract a lot of interest. Players will have to rethink their transport vehicle tactics quite a bit to cope with it. Compared to previous editions of the rules, transport vehicles have enjoyed a golden era, perhaps to the extent that the pendulum has swung too far. This rule is an attempt to redress matters a little.
Embarking
A unit can get inside a vehicle by moving to be at least partially within 2" of one of its access points. The whole unit must be able to embark or none of them can. If some models are out of range, their compatriots will wait until they can mount up together. If the vehicle moved before its passengers got aboard then it may not move any further in the same turn. If the vehicle has not moved beforehand then it can move normally as soon as the unit is on board.
An infantry unit can embark into an open-topped vehicle in their Assault phase if it consolidates and moves so that all its models are within 2" of the vehicle.
Embarking and Disembarking
Models may disembark from an open-topped transport vehicle and re-embark as part of a consolidation move. Apart from this, no models may embark and disembark in the same turn.
Passenger Capacity
Each transport vehicle has a maximum passenger capacity which may not be exceeded. Sometimes there will be constraints on exactly which types of models can embark on a particular vehicle. Terminators, for example, cannot be embarked on a Rhino or Razorback, although they may be transported in a Land Raider. Infantry equipped with jump packs may not embark in transports because of the space taken up by their bulky equipment.
Dedicated Transports
Some transport vehicles are directly assigned to a particular unit. Normally, a unit entry in a codex will include a transport option – allowing a vehicle to be selected along with the unit. Other transport vehicles occupy a force organisation chart slot (for example Eldar Falcons) and can be used to provide ad hoc transportation to any unit that can embark on it.
No more than one unit can ever be embarked on a single transport.
Dedicated transports may only be used to transport the squad they are selected with, plus any independent characters who have joined the squad. An independent character may disembark and leave the squad that owns the transport embarked, but if the squad disembarks then any independent characters must do so as well.