Many vehicles, particularly tanks, are able to bear massive weapons that are easily capable of smashing apart bunkers, annihilating enemy troops and making smoking wrecks of other vehicles. In terms of destructive power, vehicles are amongst the most powerful tools in a commander's arsenal. Nevertheless, some vehicles will need to sacrifice their speed in order to fully utilise their immense firepower, thus requiring some tactical forethought for effective use.

When a vehicle fires, it normally uses its own BS characteristic (representing the BS of the crew) and shoots like other units - all its weapons must fire at a single target unit. Vehicles can fire weapons on the move but they are limited in the number of larger weapons that they can fire.

Vehicles can mount a frightening array of weapons. These can be divided into four categories:

• Ordnance weapons
• Ordnance Barrage weapons
• Main weapons (Strength 7 or greater)
• Defensive weapons (Strength 6 or less)

Details of these weapons are as laid down in the Weapons section of the rules.

Any weapon of Strength 6 or below that is mounted on a vehicle is called a defensive weapon, whilst those of Strength 7 or greater are known as main weapons. If a weapon has a variable Strength rating, the Strength used that turn determines which category it belongs to. For example, a missile launcher would count as a main weapon if firing krak (S8) but as a defensive weapon if firing frag (34).

How many main and defensive weapons a vehicle can fire in a turn depends on how fast it moves. The normal restrictions for infantry moving, shooting and assaulting don’t apply to weapons fitted to vehicles (including addons like Hunter-Killer missiles and pintle-mounted guns). This means that vehicle-mounted rapid fire and heavy weapons always count as stationary even if the vehicle moves and don't prevent a walker that fires them from charging in the following Assault phase.

The table below shows what weapons can be fired by each type of vehicle at each speed. Fast vehicles may not mount ordnance weapons and so may never fire them.

Vehicles enjoy the advantage of being able to automatically pass the Leadership test required to target enemy units other than the closest, This might be due to their additional height, better sights, sensors, tighter fire control or other targeting improvements.

Many vehicles have turrets that can swivel around to engage targets that the vehicle is not necessarily facing towards. Turrets can be turned to face without it counting as movement.

Any vehicle that is not immobilised, and did not move in the Movement phase, can pivot on the spot in the Shooting phase before they shoot without counting it as movement, so they can (ire as if they were stationary.

The rules for firing a vehicle's main and defensive weapons are the same as lor firing the same types of weapons by infantry - you roll to hit, roll to wound and then make Saving throws as appropriate.

Just like infantry, vehicles need to be able to draw a line of sight to their targets in order to shoot at them. Vehicles trace their line of sight for shooting directly from the weapon mountings. Weapons mounted on vehicles often have a limited arc of fire and may not fire on units that are outside this arc. Trace the actual line of fire from the weapon mounting to see if it will be blocked by terrain or other vehicles. Weapons mounted on walkers can fire in a 180° forward arc. Fixed weapons have a 90-fire arc from their mounting point.

Each vehicle that can carry troops and is not classed as open-topped may have a number of fire points defined. A fire point is a hatch or gun slit from which one or more passengers inside the vehicle can fire.

Infantry aboard vehicles can fire from firing slits, hatches or over the sides of the fighting compartment if the vehicle is open-topped. All of the models aboard an open-topped vehicle can fire. Troops in a closed top vehicle, however, can only fire from designated fire points.

Infantry firing from a vehicle count as moving if the vehicle moves, and may not fire at all if the vehicle moves faster than 12". This means they may not fire heavy weapons from a moving vehicle unless normally allowed to fire heavy weapons while moving.

If passengers fire from a closed vehicle and any of them do not have a Saving throw of 2+ or 3+ (using the best of Armour Save and Invulnerable Save), then in the following player turn, enemy firing at or assaulting the vehicle count it as open-topped to represent the chance of hitting exposed passengers and the hits passing into the vehicle. This rule does not apply to the firing weapons built onto a vehicle, such as the. Chimera's lasguns. or a pintle-mounted storm bolter, for example.

Any of your units can choose the closest vehicle as a target. Just as when shooting at infantry, they may take a Leadership test to fire at one further away. When a unit fires at a vehicle it must direct all of its shooting at it. Often this means that some of their weapons can't damage it, so we assume that the other members of the squad are giving covering fire, bringing forward ammunition for heavy weapons or simply keeping their heads down. If one of your unit's shooting forces the passengers aboard an enemy vehicle to disembark during your Shooting phase, they may be shot at by units that have not yet fired in that Shooting phase.

Roll to hit against vehicles in the same way as you would against other units. If any hits are scored you then roll for each to see if they penetrate the vehicle's Armour Value, as explained later. Vehicles with a Weapon Skill characteristic that are engaged cannot be shot at.

Not all vehicles are equally armoured. Some massive tanks are protected by countless layers of reinforced adamantium and ceramite plates, while other lighter vehicles rely more on their speed to avoid incoming fire. As such, each different type of vehicle will have different Armour Values, representing not just the thickness and slope of its armour, but also how difficult a target it is because of its size and speed, how tough and numerous its crew are. and so on. Armour Values for individual vehicles also vary depending on whether the shot comes from the front, sides, or rear.

• If the hole in the middle of the Blast marker is not over the vehicle but the Blast marker is, then the Strength of the shot is halved (rounding fractions down).
  
• When a vehicle is hit by a non-barrage weapon with a Blast marker or Large Blast marker (including Ordnance), the shot is always assumed to strike the vehicle from the direction of the firer regardless of exactly where the marker is placed or scattered to.
  
• In the case of a barrage weapon of any kind, if the hole in the middle of the Blast marker ends over the vehicle, the shot is assumed to hit the side of the vehicle that (aces the firer. otherwise the attack is assumed to hit the vehicle from the direction of the hole in the Blast marker. Thus a barrage shot landing behind a vehicle may hit the rear armour but will be at half strength.

Hitting a vehicle is no guarantee that you ^ actually damage it. Once a hit has been scored on a vehicle, roll a D6 and add the weapon's Strength characteristic to it, comparing this total against the vehicle's Armour Value.

• If the total is less than the vehicle's Armour Value, the shot has no effect.
  
• If the total is equal to the vehicle's Armour Value, the shot causes a glancing hit.
  
• If the total is greater than the vehicle's Armour Value, the shot scores a penetrating hit.
  

Example: A lascannon shot hits the front of a Space Marine Predator with an Armour Value of 13. Roiling a D6. the player scores a 4. and adds this to the lascannon's Strength of 9. for a total of 13. Because this equals the Armour Value of the Predator, the shot inflicts a glancing hit.

Ordnance weapons fire such enormous projectiles that they can smash through armour or hit with such force that The target vehicle's crew are turned to mush. When you roll to penetrate a vehicle's armour with an ordnance weapon, you get to roll two D6 instead of one. and pick the highest result. Note that as Ordnance can be so destructively powerful, if these weapons manage to penetrate the armour of a vehicle you use the Ordnance Penetrating Hit table rather than the normal Penetrating Hit table.

Some weapons are so effective at cutting through armour that they will penetrate a vehicle's heavily armoured sides with ease. AP 1 weapons, such as multi-meltas, score penetrating hits even when they equal the target's Armour Value, instead of scoring glancing hits as normal. This can be still be reduced back to a glancing hit due to the target being obscured, (see Obscured Targets and Glancing Hits) or by a weapon's own special rules (for example, The Eldar Wraithcannon).

While some weapons are especially good at cutting through heavily armoured targets, other weapons have great difficulty. A weapon shown as 'AP -' lacks the penetrating power to destroy a vehicle easily, and can only ever score glancing hits.

A hit on a vehicle can have a variety of results. A vehicle's armour could be completely pierced, yet merely result in giving the crew a nasty shock. Alternatively, a lucky shot could detonate ammunition held within the vehicle, resulting in an explosion of titanic proportions. If a vehicle's armour is breached, you need to determine what damage is caused. Roll a D6 for each shot that glanced or penetrated the vehicle's armour and took up the result on the appropriate Damage table below. Note that there are separate tables for glancing, penetrating and ordnance hits.

The vehicle is rocked by the attack, but no serious damage is sustained. The vehicle may not shoot next turn. Passengers may not shoot from within the vehicle next turn, but are otherwise unaffected.

The vehicle is seriously knocked about by the attach, scrambling targeting information and temporarily losing control. The vehicle may not move or shoot next turn.

Passengers may not shoot from within the vehicle next turn, but are otherwise unaffected.

Note: Additional Stunned and Shaken results are not cumulative, so if a vehicle is shaken three times it is still only unable to lire in its next turn, not its next three turns.

One of the vehicle's weapons is ripped off by the force ot the attack. A weapon of S4 or greater (chosen by the attacker) is destroyed. If a vehicle has no eligible weapons left, treat this result as an Immobilised result instead. This can include vehicle upgrades that function as weapons, such as pintle-mounted storm bolters or Hunter-Killer missiles.

The vehicle has taken a hit that has crippled a wheel, track, grav plate, jet or leg. It may not move for the rest of the game. An immobilised vehicle may not turn in place but its turret (if it has one) may continue to rotate to select targets, and other weapons retain their normal arc of fire. Further Immobilised results count as armament destroyed instead.

Skimmers that are immobilised immediately crash, and are destroyed if they moved more than 6" in their last turn, or are over impassable or difficult terrain. Otherwise they make a forced landing where they are and remain immobilised for the rest of the game, no longer counting as a skimmer.

Note: A vehicle which suffers an Immobilised or Armament Destroyed result when it has no S4 or greater weapons left, and is already immobilised, counts the result as a Vehicle Destroyed! result instead.

The attack critically damages the vehicle. The vehicle is destroyed and becomes a wreck.

The vehicle's fuel and ammo detonate, ripping the vehicle apart in a spectacular explosion. Flaming debris is scattered 06" in every direction, measured from the vehicle's edges. Models in range suffer 1 wound on a roll of 4+ [Saving throws are allowed), but other vehicles struck by this flaming debris are unaffected. The exploded vehicle is removed and should be replaced with an area of difficult ground representing scattered wreckage or a crater.

The vehicle is completely destroyed in an immense detonation, and red-hot fragments of armour, engine and weaponry are sent scything out in all directions. The resultant explosion will kill all passengers carried, with no Saving throws of any sort allowed. In addition, a 6" area is measured from the edges of the vehicle. Any models within range suffer 1 wound on a roil of 4+ (Saving throws are allowed), but other vehicles are unaffected. The annihilated vehicle is removed and should be replaced with an area of difficult ground representing scattered wreckage or a crater.

Note: Vehicle drivers, gunners and other crew are considered killed if their vehicle is destroyed, explodes or is annihilated.

Passengers carried aboard a vehicle that is destroyed or suffers a Penetrating hit (no matter what the result) will try to get out of the steel coffin as quickly as possible. The passengers must make an immediate disembarkation move. In addition, they may also surfer casualties and/or be pinned as a result. This is explained in the table below.

Being involved in a vehicle crash due to weapons (ire is extremely unpleasant. It will take the survivors some time to pull themselves clear of the wreckage and prepare to fight again. To represent this, an entangled unit is treated exactly the same as being pinned. This applies to all passengers whether or not they could normally be pinned.

Once disembarked, passengers may be shot at by subsequent firing units and may be assaulted as normal.

Unless stated otherwise, a wrecked vehicle should be marked with some cotton wool smoke and flames and left on the table- It continues to block line of sight as if it were intact but counts as difficult terrain for infantry movement. It counts as difficult terrain for vehicles with a higher frontal armour but is impassable terrain for other vehicles, it provides a 4+ Cover Save for models on top of it or looking around it.

Some vehicles are more vulnerable to damage than others because of their lightweight construction and the fact that their crew is exposed to enemy fire. A typical example of an open-topped vehicle is an Ork Wartrak or War Buggy. Whenever a Damage roll (glancing or penetrating) is made against an open-topped vehicle, add 1 to the Damage result. All open-topped vehicles have the Vulnerable to Blasts/Templates special rule.

A vehicle moving especially fast or behind cover, whether naturally or artificially generated, will be harder to destroy. Remember that successful firing at a vehicle effectively means carefully picking a target spot, and an obscured target denies this opportunity. The exact circumstances are detailed later.

Moving skimmers are very difficult to hit squarely because they are more agile than other vehicles, and most shots are more likely lo 'wing1 them instead. Any hits that beat the Armour Value of a mobile skimmer moving more than 6" in its last Movement phase count as glancing hits instead of penetrating hits. In order to qualify as moving more than 6", the skimmer must end its move more than 6" from where it started the turn. Players may not claim their skimmers are 'circling' or moving 4" one way and 3" back. Skimmers are dependent on their speed and agility for avoiding enemy fire, and adequate velocity cannot be attained while circling.

Vehicles do not benefit from cover in the same way as infantry - their sheer size means that they will be relatively easy to hit. They can position themselves in such a way as to make it harder for the enemy to hit them in a vulnerable location. This is sometimes known as being 'hull down', and counts as an Obscured Target.

When firing on a vehicle, check that the firing models have a clear view of the whole surface (front, side or rear) ot the vehicle that they are firing at. If at least 50% of the side they are firing at is obscured by intervening terrain, or by other vehicles, artillery models, wrecks or Monstrous Creatures, then the target is classed as being obscured. Similarly, when the firer's view of a vehicle passes through an Area Terrain feature that is taller than Size 1, its view is also obscured.

If the target is obscured and a penetrating hit is scored, the vehicle's owner rolls a D6 - on a roll of 4+. the penetrating hit is downgraded to a glancing hit.

Some vehicles have small launchers mounted onto them that carry smoke charges (or a more sophisticated equivalent in the case of some alien vehicles). These are used to temporarily hide the vehicle behind concealing clouds of smoke especially if it is moving out into the open.

Once per game, after completing its move, a vehicle with smoke launchers can trigger them (it doesn't matter how far it moved). Place some cotton wool around the vehicle to show it is concealed. The vehicle may not fire any of its weapons in the same turn as it used its smoke launchers, but any penetrating hits scored by the enemy in their next Shooting phase count as glancing hits instead.

After the enemy's turn, the smoke disperses with no further effect. Note that a vehicle may still use smoke launchers even if its crew are shaken or stunned.