Vehicle Rules

Every vehicle has a Datafax—a single card recording its armament, movement and defensive capabilities.

The front gives the vehicle's weapons and their fields of fire, its speed at each movement rate, its Motive Type, its Ram Value, the number of crew it carries, its transport capacity and its points cost.

The back gives a hit location table and the Armour Value of each location, followed by the Damage tables for the hull and for each weapon.

The points value of a vehicle includes its crew, except where the vehicle is bought as an upgrade for a character model, as bikes are. The number of crew required is recorded on the vehicle's Datafax; their characteristics and equipment are given in the army lists.

Boarding & Leaving

Boarding and dismounting work for crew as for any other model; however, if the driver leaves a vehicle while it is moving, the vehicle will go Out of Control in the next turn. A crew member who dismounts cannot operate the equipment they were using until they reboard. Dismounted crew stay within 6" of their vehicle; only its destruction releases them, whereupon the survivors band together as a unit of their own, bound by the normal Squad Coherency rules.

Psychology

While crewing a vehicle, a model is immune to Psychology and exempt from Break tests. A crew member who dismounts becomes subject to both as normal.

Taking Over a Crew Position

Any crew member can perform any role aboard the vehicle, and if a crew member is killed, another can move to that position to take over. It takes an entire turn for a model to change positions, during which time it cannot perform any other actions. Adeptus Mechanicus Engineers, Techmarines, Squat Engineer Guildmasters and Ork Mekaniaks may likewise board a vehicle and take a position over. No other model may do so.

Move vehicles during the Movement Phase, in any order relative to other units.

A vehicle has three move rates—Slow, Combat and Fast—each given on its Datafax as the greatest distance it may cover at that rate. Vehicles begin the game halted or at Slow speed, and may change speed by only one band per turn.

Turning

A vehicle travels directly forwards unless it turns.

Measuring Turns

Place the turn template in front of the vehicle with its direction arrow aligned to the vehicle's facing, then turn up to 45° to the left or right. A turn may instead be estimated by eye if the opposing player agrees.

Every vehicle's Datafax gives its Motive Type, which governs the terrain it may cross:

Some vehicles carry troops in addition to their crew. The number carried is given on the vehicle's Datafax as its transport capacity, counted in human-sized or smaller models. Ogryns, Space Marines in Terminator Armour and other models of equivalent size each count as two.

Any number of models may board or leave in a turn, up to the vehicle's capacity. Models leaving may do so at any point in the vehicle's move, interrupting it if necessary, and are placed touching its sides or rear; they may then make a normal move immediately. Squad Coherency must be maintained between those leaving and any remaining aboard.

Models may board a vehicle that was stationary or moving at Slow speed in its previous turn, provided they end a normal move within 2" of its side or rear. The vehicle may then move off.

Troops may board or leave without risk while the vehicle is moving up to 10". Beyond that, each model sustains an automatic hit with the Strength and Save Modifier shown below, and suffers 1 wound if the save is failed.

A vehicle can be driven out of control by damage, by a psychic attack or by an exotic weapon. Only a vehicle that moved in its previous turn can be affected; a stationary vehicle never goes out of control.

Move it as a Compulsory Move, before all other models. Roll a D6 for direction, then move the vehicle 3D6", capped at its maximum speed.

Some damage results send a vehicle out of control for one turn, after which it halts; others leave it out of control for the rest of the game, or until a collision stops it. Where the driver has been slain, another crew member may restore control, as given on the Datafax.

A vehicle moving over 10" that runs into another vehicle, a Building, or any terrain or Obstacle it cannot cross suffers a collision; where it strikes a vehicle or building, both may take damage. At that speed it may also ram another vehicle deliberately, or overrun troops on foot; both are resolved as collisions.

Ram Values

Collisions are worked out from the vehicle's ram value, given on its Datafax. Values vary between vehicles; the categories below are a summary.

^† Creatures and Dreadnoughts may not deliberately ram. Their ram values apply only when they are rammed, or collide accidentally.

Collisions Between Vehicles

Each vehicle rolls against the armour of the other. Locations that touch are hit automatically; every other location on both vehicles is hit on a D6 roll of 4+. Armour Penetration is D6 plus the Strength of the vehicle's ram value, plus its damage dice where variable. Compare the total to the Armour Value of each location hit—equal or higher damages that location, so roll a D6 for Damage. Exposed crew take a hit at the ram value's Strength, damage and Save Modifier.

Buildings & Terrain

Resolve collisions with buildings and Impassable Terrain the same way: the location that struck first is hit automatically, every other on a 4+. Armour Penetration against a building may not exceed its own Armour Value. The building takes a hit at that same value, which may breach it. Whether other terrain is removed after a collision is left to the players.

Overruns

A vehicle moving 10" or less cannot harm creatures, which have time to step clear. Against a faster vehicle, a creature may dive aside by rolling equal to or under its Initiative on a D6; a 6 always fails. Those that succeed are placed to either side of the vehicle, unharmed. The second creature a vehicle attempts to overrun in a turn adds +1 to its Initiative, the third +2, and so on. A creature that fails takes a hit at the ram value's Strength, damage and Save Modifier, and the vehicle takes a randomly located hit with a penetration value of that creature's Toughness + D6.

Any crew member may fire one of the vehicle's weapons in the Shooting Phase, the driver included. A weapon fires only within the Firing Arc given on the vehicle's Datafax.

Linked Weapons

Weapons mounted to fire in tandem are Linked Weapons, and count as a single weapon: one crew member fires them with one action, and all of them fire at the same target.

Roll once to hit. On a hit every linked weapon hits; on a miss every one misses. Against a vehicle, roll once for location—all of them strike the same point—then roll Armour Penetration and damage separately for each weapon. Against any other target, roll to wound and take a saving throw separately for each weapon.

Where linked weapons have Sustained Fire, roll to hit as though a single weapon were firing, then roll the Sustained Fire Dice for all of them together. A Weapon Malfunction on any of those dice jams every linked weapon; resolve any hits before the jam takes effect.

Passengers

Troops the vehicle is Transporting may fire from it in their own Shooting Phase. In an open-topped vehicle every model aboard may fire, provided it does not fire over the head of another model; the driver's head is no obstruction.

In an enclosed vehicle the number that may fire depends on its doors and hatches. Count an access hatch or door as room for two models to fire through, and a firing slit or viewport as room for one.

An attack that hits a vehicle must penetrate its armour to have any effect.

Armour Value

Every location on a vehicle has an Armour Value, given on the back of its Datafax. The higher the value, the thicker the armour and the harder it is to penetrate.

Front, Side & Rear Shots

A shot fired from within the vehicle's forward 90° arc counts against its front armour. A shot fired from anywhere else counts against its side/rear armour, which on most vehicles is the thinner of the two.

Penetration Tests

Roll a D6 and add the Strength of the weapon that caused the hit. Where the weapon causes a variable amount of damage, roll those dice as well and add them. The total is the thickness of armour penetrated: equal to or greater than the location's Armour Value and the attack penetrates; less and it bounces off, with no further effect. Each weapon's penetration is recorded on its entry under Weapons.

Range

Every full 24" between firer and target strips 1 point from the attack's penetration.

Bonus Penetration Dice

Hand-to-hand attacks and psychic attacks add the dice below to the penetration total, according to the Strength of the attack. Shooting earns no such bonus.

Where a shot penetrates a location's Armour Value, that location is destroyed in most cases; sometimes the whole vehicle is. Roll a D6 on the damage effect chart for that location, printed on the back of the vehicle's Datafax.

Multiple Hits on a Location

Roll damage separately for each hit that penetrates; the damage adds up. Once an area is gone—destroyed, its crew member killed, its weapon wrecked—further hits there are not rolled and cause nothing.

Vehicles and support weapons are commonly organised into units on the battlefield—vehicles into Squadrons, support weapons into Batteries. A squadron or battery usually consists of units with similar capabilities; the specific types may vary, provided every member can maintain a similar speed.

Support Weapon Batteries

Any support weapon costing under 100 points must belong to a battery. An army with three or fewer support weapons must form a single battery. An army with up to six may form up to two batteries of approximately equal size; with up to nine, up to three batteries, and so on.

For example, a force containing three Thudd Guns and two Rapier Laser Destroyers could field batteries of three and two, or all five as one—but not two batteries of two and a lone weapon.

Support weapon batteries observe the following:

Vehicle Squadrons

An army containing three or fewer vehicles worth less than 100 points each must form them into a single squadron. An army with up to six such vehicles may form one squadron or two of approximately equal size; with up to nine, up to three squadrons, and so on.

For example, a force containing two Warbikes, two War Buggies, and a Wartrak could field a squadron of two vehicles and a squadron of three, or a single squadron of five—but not two squadrons of two and a lone vehicle.

Troop Transports & Bike Squads

Vehicles used for Transporting Troops are under no obligation to squadron, though the player may place them in one. A squad mounted on Bikes follows the squadron rules yet adds nothing to the army's vehicle total—each bike-mounted squad is, in effect, a separate squadron.

The following rules apply to vehicle squadrons:

Squadrons of vehicles worth more than 100 points each—such as Land Raiders or Dreadnoughts—may also be fielded, although such vehicles are under no obligation to form squadrons. In this case, every vehicle in the squadron must be of the same type—a Land Raider squadroned with two Predators is not allowed.

Characters

A vehicle ridden by a Character adds nothing to the army's vehicle total when squadrons are formed. Likewise, a character mounted in or on a vehicle worth less than 100 points is not subject to the squadron rules, but may be placed in a squadron if the player wishes.

Squadron & Battery Coherency

Coherency binds the vehicles and support weapons of a squadron or battery, as Squad Coherency binds an ordinary squad. Squadron and battery coherency distance is 6"—no vehicle or support weapon may move more than 6" from the rest of its unit.

A model that ends up more than 6" from its squadron or battery because another model is destroyed suffers no morale penalty, unlike an infantry squad—the unit's communication net is superior, and its crews are more used to fighting individually.

Coherency may be broken temporarily while moving—to avoid a collision, for example. At the end of the game, however, any vehicle or support weapon more than 6" from its squadron or battery counts as destroyed when calculating Victory Points.

Support weapon crew must remain within 4" of their weapon at all times, unless they flee or the weapon is destroyed. The crew of a destroyed weapon may join another support weapon in the same battery. A crew member acting as a spotter for Mole Mortars is not subject to coherency—a single crew member may act as spotter for every Mole Mortar in a battery.

Dismounted crews from individual vehicles follow the normal rules for Crewing Vehicles and do not have to maintain squadron coherency.

Bikes and trikes may mount individual characters or entire squads as the army lists allow. Their motive type is Bikes & Trikes, which governs the terrain they cross. A squad of bikers must stay within 6" to maintain Squad Coherency.

Bike & Trike Movement

Bikes and trikes move as other vehicles do, with Slow, Combat and Fast speeds, but accelerate from Slow to Fast in a single turn rather than spending a turn at Combat speed. They decelerate at the normal rate.

Skid Turns

A bike or trike may make additional turns of up to 45° beyond those its speed allows. Take a skid test for each; a skid turn may follow a normal turn or another skid turn. Roll a D6 and read the result against the bike's speed.

Mounting & Dismounting

A model may mount a stationary bike or trike within 2" at the end of its move, and ride off at the start of its next turn. A passenger may jump on or off at any point in the bike's move. Up to 10" this carries no risk; beyond that the model sustains an automatic hit with the Strength and Save Modifier shown below, and suffers 1 wound if the save is failed.

A rider may also jump from a moving bike. A moving bike left without a rider goes Out of Control for one turn, then falls over and halts.

Collisions

By exception to Collisions, Ramming & Overruns, a bike or trike that runs into a larger vehicle damages only the location it struck rather than every location. The bike itself takes an automatic hit on the first location to make contact, and every other location on a D6 roll of 4+.

Shooting From Bikes

Weapons mounted on a bike fire directly ahead, and the rider may fire them in the Shooting Phase at targets in that arc. A pintle mount on a trike or sidecar fires into the forward 180° arc. Neither may fire where the rider is recovering from a skid turn, or where damage prevents it.

A rider may instead fire a pistol, and a passenger may fire a basic weapon in place of a pintle-mounted weapon. A hand-held weapon has an unrestricted fire arc.

Hit & Run Attacks

A rider or passenger may attack a model on foot in passing, without halting. Resolve it under the Hand-to-Hand Combat rules as the bike moves into contact, each side rolling a single attack dice whatever its Attacks characteristic or weapons. The biker always counts as charging and as having the higher Initiative, and neither model may Parry. A model may make one such attack during its move, and may not shoot in the same turn.

Dreadnoughts, sentinels and war walkers are Walkers, and cross terrain as that motive type allows. They carry a Datafax like any vehicle, but with a characteristic profile in place of the usual movement rates. The profile carries no Toughness—that is covered by its armour values.

Their weapons are integrated into the machine's controls, so the occupant may fire any or all of them in the Shooting Phase rather than one weapon per crew member.

Movement

A walker moves under the infantry rules, using the Movement allowance on its profile, and may make a double move to charge or Run, forfeiting its shooting for that turn.

It moves straight ahead in the direction it faces. A free change of facing, up to 90°, is allowed as the move begins and again as it ends; every further turn of up to 90° along the way costs 1".

Close Combat

A machine with a Weapon Skill fights under the normal Hand-to-Hand Combat rules. Unlike other models it may leave close combat freely, brushing man-sized opponents aside. Against a model of its own size it may not, and must fight on.

Crashes & Collisions

A walker steps aside from obstructions as a creature does, so Collisions, Ramming & Overruns does not apply to it. A damaged walker that staggers into a vehicle, a Building or terrain it cannot cross is treated as any other vehicle, and the collision is resolved normally.

A walker damages troops on foot only by attacking them in close combat, and may not overrun them. A model struck by a staggering or falling walker takes damage as normal.

A Space Marine Dreadnought's arms carry variable-configuration weapon mounts, letting it be refitted to suit the tactical situation. The weapons themselves resemble the heavy weapons that Space Marines and Terminators carry, but their mountings are sturdier, feed from deeper magazines, and aim through better targeters. Part of that advantage is already in the Dreadnought's Ballistic Skill and its freedom to move and fire heavy weapons; the rules below carry the rest, and apply to weapons mounted on a Space Marine Dreadnought.

Assault Cannon & Storm Bolter

Jams in a sustained fire weapon come mostly of overheated components or an empty magazine, and the Dreadnought's deep ammo hopper and heavy build hold both at bay. When a Space Marine Dreadnought fires an Assault Cannon or a Storm Bolter, the first Jam rolled on its Sustained Fire Dice each turn is disregarded. A Storm Bolter so mounted therefore never jams, and an Assault Cannon jams only when two or more Jams come up together. Three Jams together still explode the cannon—the weapon is destroyed, and the Dreadnought takes no further harm.

Missile Launcher

Though some older Space Marine Dreadnoughts carry an ordinary Missile Launcher, most mount the salvo-firing Dreadnought Missile Launcher—its rules are given in its own entry.

Multimelta

The Dreadnought's Multimelta carries a variable focus. Fired on a narrow beam it behaves as a standard Multimelta; opened to a broad focus it trades range and power for spread, taking effect as a Heavy Flamer.

Twin Lascannon

The twin Lascannon mount scans a target and picks out its separate components, letting the Dreadnought lay its shot on the piece it wants. Roll to hit as normal. Where a vehicle is hit, the D6 hit location roll is made as usual, and the Space Marine player may then shift it by 1 in either direction. A location behind cover cannot be reached by adjusting the roll.

Power Fist

A Dreadnought Power Fist carries extra servos, gripping a target and rotating to tear pieces away—at its most destructive against vehicles.

The tear attack may only be used against vehicles, Dreadnoughts included. One tear attack may be taken in place of every two hits the Dreadnought would normally score: winning a combat by two allows two ordinary hits or one tear, and a vehicle that would take three hits may instead take one tear and one ordinary hit. To resolve a tear, the Space Marine player nominates a single location on the target and rolls for penetration as normal. Penetrate the chosen location and the piece comes away—damage is rolled at +2 on the damage chart.

A skimmer hovers above the ground on gravitic motors. Its motive type is Skimmers, which governs the terrain it crosses.

Movement

A skimmer may land only at Slow speed and will crash if it attempts to land any faster. A skimmer that lands moves no further that turn, and may take off in a later movement phase at Slow speed. It may instead halt without landing, which is called hovering, and a hovering skimmer may turn by any amount. Troops may mount or dismount only while it is landed or hovering.

Out of Control

A skimmer goes Out of Control as any other vehicle, moving 3D6" in a random direction. Roll a D6 as well for its altitude.

Pop-Up Attacks

A skimmer that was stationary or moved at Slow speed in its previous turn may make a pop-up attack. Declare it in the movement phase; the skimmer moves upward instead of across the table. Models on Overwatch may shoot at it as it rises, and are usually the only models able to shoot at it at all.

In the shooting phase a popped-up skimmer traces Line of Sight as though up to 12" above the table, as may enemy models firing back on Overwatch. Add 12" to the range of any shot made at it; the skimmer's own shots take no such penalty. It drops back down once the attack is resolved, and in its next turn may pop up again or move off at Slow speed.

Overruns

A skimmer may not deliberately overrun troops on foot. The exception is a jet bike crew armed with close combat weapons, which may make Hit & Run Attacks as the rider of a bike does.