Better Vehicles in 8th Ed 40k

The purpose of these rules is to make vehicles in 8th Edition Warhammer 40,000 more interesting to play on the tabletop without sacrificing too much of the simplicity of the current ruleset. These rules will modify the way vehicles work in four key ways:

1. Facing
2. Weaponry
3. Armour
4. Walkers

In the current rules, vehicle facing, e.g. the direction any given vehicle is pointing, is not an issue. While this does make the game very quick to play, it also makes traditional considerations of armoured combat, such as relative armour thickness and the way weaponry is mounted, irrelevant. As such, vehicles rarely feel like vehicles, instead feelings no different from a monstrous creature.

The solution, then, is to reintroduce facing. In these rules, facing is intended to affect how easy or hard it is to damage a vehicle, and what directions weapons equipped on said vehicle may shoot in. These rules also acknowledge that the current ruleset has enabled conversions that drastically alter the layout of the original miniature: this will also be covered.

1: FACING

A vehicle has four facings, Front, Side Left, Side Right, and Rear. The facings are defined by four arcs drawn diagonally from the centre point of the vehicle, as shown in the pictures below.  

For most vehicles, as with our Baneblade here, defining the facings should be straightforward, with the general angles of the arcs being dependant on the width and length of the vehicle. For less rectangular armour, as with our Voidweaver, it may be worth discussing with your opponent beforehand what defines the four arcs. If the vehicle has a base, marking the base in some way would be an excellent way to show this.

Some vehicles might not have a clear ‘front’, such as a Necron Monolith. In this case, split the vehicle into four facing arcs as normal, but do not define any given face as Front, Side Left, Side Right or Rear.

After a vehicle activates in the movement phase, it may pivot so that the centre of its Front facing is now pointed 90º to the left or right. Vehicles with the keyword FLY may pivot 180º in either direction.

Walkers, which we will define as any vehicle with legs, do not use facing. We will cover Walkers in more detail later.

2: WEAPONRY

Weapons can be mounted on a vehicle in three ways: Fixed, Limited and Turreted. It is up to the player to make a good faith decision as regards to how a given weapon is mounted on a vehicle, so make sure you are being reasonable and if in doubt, clarify with your opponent. It is not necessary to make any given weapon actually traversable, which is to say capable of being moved, on the model, as long as it is clear from the model how it could move were it ‘real’.

A Fixed weapon is a weapon mounted such that it can only fire in one arc described above. An example of this is the Demolisher cannon on our Baneblade. In the shooting phase, a Fixed weapon can only be used to make attacks against targets within the facing arc it occupies, so the demolisher cannon on our Baneblade can only make attacks in the Front arc.

A Limited weapon can choose to shoot at targets in more than one arc (but may only select one target per attack), but not all around. The sponson twin heavy bolters on our Baneblade are mounted such that they can point forward and to the side. Therefore the left mounted sponson heavy bolters can fire in either the Front or Side Left arcs. The lascannon turret mounted above is more flexible and can also shoot behind, but not shoot across the tank, so it may attack a target in Front, Side Left or Rear.

The Baneblade cannon is mounted in a turret capable of rotating 360º around the model, certainly in fiction and perhaps on the model as well, assuming it has not been glued in place. As such, the cannon, as well as any other weapons mounted on the turret, may fire in any arc. Weapons on a turret do not need to all fire at the same target: they may choose different targets as normal.

A note on conversions: some modellers may have converted their vehicles in such a way as to significantly alter how a weapon is mounted. In this regard, if Matched Play points are being used, it is recommended that players use the ‘stock’ layout of the model in question. For example, if a player had converted their T’au Hammerhead’s Railgun so that it is fixed forward as opposed to the stock turreted layout, treat it as a turreted weapon. In Open or Narrative play, players should agree beforehand wether to treat their vehicles as ‘stock’, as described above, or follow the weapon layout on the converted model. In this latter case, our Hammerhead’s railgun would fire in the front arc only.

3: ARMOUR

In traditional armoured combat, ensuring your most protected side faces the enemy is vital, and trying to get around behind your opponent and attack their vulnerable sides is equally important. Rather than re-introduce armour values, we will instead define vehicles and how vulnerable they are based on their armour save. When an attack is made against a vehicle, work out which of the vehicles facings the attack’s line of sight is drawn through. Depending on the vehicle, this may improve or worsen the ‘to wound’ roll of the attack vs the vehicle. This applies to both shooting and melee attacks, with the melee attacker making attacks agains the facing they are immediately in contact with

A vehicle with a 4+ save or worse is considered Lightly Armoured. Attacks made against a Lightly Armoured vehicle’s Rear arc always add one to wound rolls, to a maximum of wounding on a 2+.

A vehicle with a 3+ armour save is considered Well Armoured. Attacks made against a Well Armoured vehicle’s Rear arc always add one to wound rolls, to a maximum of wounding on a 2+. In addition, however, attacks made against its Front arc always subtract 1 from wound rolls, to a minimum of 6+, except where the attack’s strength is double or more than the toughness of the vehicle. In this case it wounds on 2+ as normal.

A vehicle with a 2+ armour save is considered Impregnable, and attacks against it are not modified by facing.

A vehicle that does not have Front or Rear arcs, like Walkers or Necron Monoliths, also do not modify To Wound rolls.

4: WALKERS

Walkers are any model with the keyword VEHICLE that has legs. This might include Dreadnoughts, Sentinels, Forgefiends and any number of other models that get around on legs and are not infantry, monsters or daemons. This should be clear, as legs are quite distinct from wheels, tracks and anti-grav plating, but clarify with your opponent if needs be. Walkers do not use facing, and may fire in any direction as normal. However, legs can be quite vulnerable and are a serious weak spot. Once a walker has lost half its wounds, every time it takes damage roll a d6. On a 6, its legs have taken Serious Limb Damage and its movement value is reduced by d3” in addition to any damage reduction caused by a damage table as normal, to a minimum of 1”. If the walker has its movement value restored by having wounds returned to it, through a repair action for example, only restore movement value lost to Serious Limb Damage if the walker is returned to more than half wounds. In this case, immediately restore its movement value to the value indicated on its damage table. If the Walker does not have a damage table, restore its movement to its original starting value.

Thats it! It'd be great to know if any of you playtest these rules. Lemme know what you think in the comments!