Things That Make You Go, “Hmmm…”: The New 40K Rules (Part 2)
In the previous installment in this series, I discussed various changes to the rules, including several for the Movement, Shooting, and Assault Phases. Because the rules for vehicles have changed so dramatically, I have devoted this installment to that subject alone.

I’ll provide a page number reference for each item so you can look them up in your copy of the rules (for the purposes of this article, I’m assuming you have the hardbound English-language version). 

The list below is not meant to be comprehensive: there are plenty of other rule changes, but I don’t discuss them here because they seemed very obvious or have already been discussed to death on Internet forums.

Dangerous Terrain Tests for Vehicles (page 61): “If a vehicle has moved up to 6", the test is taken on a single D6, otherwise, it is taken on two D6. If any dice rolls a 1, the test is failed and the vehicle is immobilized for the rest of the game….If both dice roll a 1, the vehicle is tipped over or irretrievably bogged down and counts as destroyed.” If I were you, I wouldn’t floor it when driving your tank through a forest, Heinz. 

Access Points (page 62): “The access points for all official vehicles on publication of these rules are given in the appendix.” What appendix?

Disembarking (page 62): “When the unit disembarks, each model must be deployed within 2" of one of the vehicle’s access points, and within unit coherency.” You will note in the photo provided on the same page that the model itself need not be within 2" of an access point, only one of the edges of its base. This makes it far easier to disembark big squads from vehicles with few access points (most notable example: Necron Warriors “disembarking” from a Monolith). 

Presumably, embarking would work in similar fashion: so long as you can get the edge of a model’s base within 2" of a vehicle, it can embark.

Assaulting From a Vehicle (page 62): “After disembarking, models…may not assault unless the vehicle has ‘open-topped’ noted in its profile, is a Land Raider (or one of its variants) or did not move before the passengers disembarked.” The new rule is not necessarily the end of the “Rhino Rush,” but it does tend to delay it a turn.

Emergency Disembarkation (page 68): It sucks to be in a fast-moving vehicle that takes a serious hit. If the vehicle takes a penetrating hit but does not explode or is wrecked, passengers are wounded on a 4+, have to disembark, and must take a Pinning test. If their rides goes “boom!” under them, passengers are wounded on a 4+ and any rolls of less than 4 have to be re-rolled—your odds of getting hurt just doubled. In addition, passengers are automatically entangled. 

Walkers in Assault (page 72): “Models fighting a walker always fight against its front armor, as the walker is not a static target and rampages through the melee, turning to face its foes.” Dreadnoughts just got better in fist-fights (as if they weren’t good to begin with).

Grenades vs. Walkers (page 72): Under the old rules, models could only use grenades against walkers if the walkers had been immobilized first. No longer. 

Vehicle Squadrons (page 73): Vehicles in a squadron “need only remain within 4" of each other to remain in coherency, rather than within 2"”. Note that bikes are not vehicles, so bike squadrons still must stay within 2" of each other. 

“If any of the vehicles in the unit are immobilized or stunned for any reason, the rest of the unit must remain within 4" of them, or choose to abandon them. Any vehicles that are abandoned are left behind and counted as destroyed.”

Hmmm.

Vehicles and Deployment (page 81): “When deploying a single chart choice, the units that make up that choice may deploy separately from one another if you wish….Thus a squad does not have to arrive in its transport vehicle if you do not wish it to.” Meaning that you could set up your Tactical Squad on one end of the board and its Razorback on the other end, and you opponent can’t say “boo” about it.

“A note on secrecy. Your opponent cannot normally inspect your army roster, including asking you what is in each transport vehicle.” No need to reveal which Wartrukk is carrying the Warboss and his kitted-out Nobz and which is carrying “mere” Trukk Boyz….

Vehicles and Reserves (page 85): “If a unit has a transport attached, roll for both together, though the passengers do not have to arrive mounted in the transport.” So, your Wyches could arrive in reserve at one end of the board to counterattack the Khorne Berserkers, and simultaneously, their Raider could come in elsewhere to fire at the Chaos Dreadnought bearing down on your lines.

Hmmm.

Vehicles as Scoring Units (page 85): Note that according to the table, a vehicle that has lost its weapons but is still mobile counts as a Scoring Unit and is worth no Victory Points to the opponent. You can shoot off every gun on a weapon beast like the Land Raider Crusader (which sports six sets of twin-linked bolters, twin-linked assault cannons and a multi-melta) and receive dookie for your efforts. 

Hmmmmm.

In Conclusion
The 40K rules have undergone many subtle changes—be aware of them and use them to your advantage!
 

© copyright Kenton Kilgore, April 2005 

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