This section of the rules describes how vehicles of all shapes and sizes move and fight. As mentioned earlier, vehicle rules are quite different to those for infantry in order to show their unique strengths and weaknesses. Vehicles can move swiftly and bring a tremendous arsenal of weapons to bear as infantry fire patters harmlessly off their armoured hide. However, determined infantry squads with the right weapons can use dense terrain to outmanoeuvre lumbering vehicles and can easily knock them out unless the vehicles have their own infantry to guard them.
- Vehicle Characteristics
Vehicles use Ballistic Skill, Armour Value, and Type instead of the standard troop characteristics.
- Vehicle Movement
Most vehicles move up to 12" in the movement phase and turn freely by pivoting on the spot rather than wheeling.
- Fast Vehicles
Fast vehicles can move up to 24" in the movement phase, and can still fire weapons at speeds that would silence an ordinary vehicle.
- Terrain Effects
Vehicles that enter or start in difficult terrain must pass a Difficult Terrain test or be immobilised; Skimmers and Walkers have their own variants of this test.
- Skimmers
Skimmers hover above the ground and ignore terrain as they move, but are destroyed outright if immobilised in difficult or impassable terrain.
- Walkers
Walkers move and fight like infantry, testing 2D6 for difficult terrain and always able to fire two weapons even when they move.
- Carrying Troops
Vehicles can carry troops across the battlefield under armour, but a transport's passengers can be wiped out if it is fired at before they disembark.
- Disembarking
A unit can get out of its transport before or after the vehicle moves, but cannot disembark at all if the vehicle moved more than 12" or in the assault phase.
- Embarking
A unit boards a vehicle by moving within 2" of it as a whole; whether the vehicle can still move that turn depends on whether it moved before or after boarding.
- Vehicle Shooting
A vehicle fires all its weapons at a single target unit using its own BS, but a moving vehicle can bring far fewer of them to bear.
- Troops Firing From Vehicles
Normally only half the models aboard a vehicle can fire from it, but all of them can if it is open-topped; none can fire if the vehicle moves faster than 12".
- Vehicle Line of Sight
Line of sight for a vehicle's weapons is traced from each individual weapon mounting, respecting its arc of fire and any blocking terrain or vehicles.
- Moving and Shooting
A stationary vehicle can fire all its weapons, one moving up to 6" can fire only one weapon, and one moving further cannot fire at all — Fast vehicles and Walkers follow their own variants of this rule.
- Turning to Face
Turning a turret to face, or pivoting the vehicle itself, does not count as movement and so does not affect firing — unless the vehicle is immobilised.
- Ordnance
Ordnance weapons are huge vehicle- or fortress-mounted guns so powerful that firing one prevents the vehicle moving or shooting anything else that turn.
- Rolling to Hit
An ordnance shot uses the large Blast marker and the Scatter dice to see where it lands, hitting any models fully or partially underneath it.
- Ordnance Barrages
Some ordnance is fired indirectly like a mortar barrage, guessing the range and rolling the Scatter dice and a D6 to see where the shot lands.
- INCOMING! Ordnance Barrage Pinning
A unit that takes casualties from an ordnance barrage must pass a Leadership test at -1 or be pinned, unable to move, shoot, or assault next turn.
- Shooting At Vehicles
Vehicles are tougher than living troops to destroy outright, but their crew can still be stunned or disabled and their fuel and ammunition can detonate.
- Choosing A Vehicle As A Target
A vehicle is targeted like any other unit; hits are rolled for normally, then rolled again to see if they penetrate its Armour Value.
- Armour Penetration
Roll a D6, add the weapon's Strength, and compare the total to the vehicle's Armour Value to determine whether a hit bounces off, glances, or penetrates.
- Vehicle Armour Values
Reference table of Front, Side and Rear Armour Values for common Imperial and xenos vehicles, reflecting their size, speed and crew as well as their armour thickness.
- Damage Rolls
Once a vehicle's armour is breached, roll a D6 on the appropriate table (glancing, penetrating, or ordnance) to see what happens to it.
- Notes
Clarifies what happens to crew and embarked passengers when a vehicle is destroyed, and how repeated Crew Stunned or Immobilised results stack.
- Open-Topped Vehicles
Open-topped vehicles suffer +1 on Damage rolls, and template or Blast marker weapons score double the normal number of hits against them.
- Skimmers Moving Fast
Any hit that would penetrate a Skimmer that moved more than 6" that turn counts as a glancing hit instead.
- The Hull Down Rule
A vehicle in or behind substantial cover counts as hull down and treats all penetrating hits as glancing hits instead; smoke launchers grant the same benefit for one enemy shooting phase.
- Vehicle Units
Some vehicles, such as Ork Wartraks and Eldar Vypers, fight in units of up to three vehicles rather than as a single model.
- Moving
All vehicles in a unit must move at roughly the same speed and end within 2" of each other; immobilised vehicles are left behind.
- Shooting
A unit of vehicles fires all its weapons at one target unit, with hits distributed evenly starting with the nearest vehicle.
- Vehicles In An Assault
Vehicles don't fight in close combat as such, though tanks can Tank Shock enemy units and Dreadnoughts and other walkers fight in close combat like troops.
- Skimmers
Skimmers can move over enemy troops without harm to either side, though the troops can still assault them, and skimmer tanks can still Tank Shock.
- Tank Shock
A tank can overrun an enemy unit in its movement phase, forcing a Morale check that sends the unit falling back 2D6" if it is failed.
- Death or Glory!
A trooper who passes his Tank Shock Morale check can stand and shoot the oncoming tank instead of moving aside, but is crushed and killed if he fails to stop it.
- Infantry Assaulting Vehicles
A squad of troops can assault a vehicle and attempt to destroy it, even though vehicles don't take part in close fighting the way troop units do.
- Launching an Assault
A squad assaults a vehicle by moving 6" into contact, taking the shortest route and so being unable to swing round to the side or rear unless they start there.
- Hits
Attacks automatically hit a stationary vehicle, hit on a 4+ if it moved 6" or less, and hit only on a 6 if it moved further or is a Skimmer, regardless of WS.
- Damage
Penetration in an assault is D6 plus the attacker's Strength, with Monstrous Creatures rolling 2D6, and melta bombs or krak grenades boosting the attacker's effective Strength at the cost of bonus attacks.
- Results
No combat results are counted for an assault against a vehicle; the vehicle simply moves off next turn while the attacking troops act normally.
- Dreadnoughts In An Assault
Dreadnoughts fight in an assault like infantry and never check morale, so the only way to win a combat against one is to destroy it.
- Drawn Combats
In a drawn combat a Dreadnought can move up to 6" to attack unengaged models or turn to face attackers who came from its side or rear.
- Multiple Combats
In a multiple combat, infantry units still check Morale as normal even though any Dreadnoughts involved remain locked in combat regardless of the result.
- Immobilised Dreadnoughts In Close Combat
An immobilised Dreadnought can still fight, but loses one Attack for each immobilised result it has suffered, and becomes vulnerable to krak grenades and melta bombs.
- Other Walkers In Assaults
Gun platform walkers like Imperial Guard Sentinels and Eldar War Walkers fight in close combat as Dreadnoughts do, but their low Strength and Attacks make them poor at it.
- Vehicle Morale
Vehicles never check morale for any reason, on the assumption that their crews have unshakeable faith in their machine and their commander.