Reading 7th Edition - Vehicles

Nick speaking,

OK, the start of this section just goes over the basics, which is the same as always, but there is a note that a vehicle that immobilise's itself takes a hull point. It also notes that vehicles that have Psychic powers do so in the psychic phase as well. Moving and shooting vehicle is the same as before, with a note that vehicles have the relentless special rule...

The next pages are about vehicle guns line of sight, which is all copy and paste, with the same pictures as before. No change for moving flat out or to hull points, as well as glancing and penetration hits, except there is a new damage table to roll on! The results being Shaken on a 1-3, Stunned on a 4, Weapon Destroyed on a 5 and immobilised on a 6. There is now a 7+ result, Explodes, which I assume is for low AP weapons as they still get the +1/+2 as before. Surrounding units are now hit at strength four instead of the old strength three. Zooming flyers have to roll an additional dice when they get an immobilised result, with a three plus sending them down the chart to Crew Stunned results, but a one and two making them crash and burn. Crash and burn is the same strength six scattering blast, but there is no mention of the strength ten hits on embarked units in this section, but it does have it later in the book under effect of passengers.

Cover saves for vehicles are the same as before, but the charging a vehicle section no longer says you cannot charge a vehicle that you cannot hurt!  Unless you are immobiled, all vehicles are treated as weapon skill one, even if they haven't moved with the usual exception to Walkers etc. The rest of the assault section is the same as before.

Vehicle squadrons are the same as before, as are the transport rules. There is an added bit that says psykers can only manifest witchfire powers, they of course can only use them if there is a hatch to shoot from. You still cannot target units embarked as before.

The effects on passengers has changed, any passengers in a transport that takes a Shaken, Stunned, Weapon Destroyed or Immobilsed result has to take a leadership test at the end of the phase, if they fail they can only snapshot next turn. Wrecked vehicle results are the same, and you now have to allocate wounds randomly for exploded vehicles.

Most of the Flyer rules are unchanged, there is a note that a Flyer can only be repaired if the repairing model in on board the Flyer. The Flyer rule pages look a lot simpler, with some of the old rules like vehicle damage results and bombs being moved to other areas of the book.

In the Chariots section, Chariot riders can no longer disembark from the Chariot. If the Character or Chariot dies, both are removed from play. If a model such as a Necron makes an Everliving roll, both Character and Chariot come back with one Hull Point. There is a paragraph to cover Characters shooting from the Chariot counting as stationary, but having to shoot at the same target. Except for blast and template weapons, the controlling player can now allocate hits to the Chariot or closest Character on the Chariot. The Hammer and Wraith attacks stay the same, but you no longer gain a +1 save to the rider. An Immobilised Chariot Counts it as stunned, or if it is Immobilised from difficult terrain, just takes a Hull Point.

No change for open-topped, Heavy or Fast vehicles, although skimmers no longer have the rule that says they crash if they moved flat out the previous turn. I don't play Walkers that often, but as far as I can tell the rules are pretty much as they were before, except they now have Hammer and Wrath. I also never really used ramming much either, but I can see that the chart has changed as there is no longer the +1 for each 3" of movement.

All the vehicle upgrades are the same, and there are some new sections dedicated to Super-Heavy Vehicles, Walkers. and Flyers. I own non of these models and have never played against any of them, so I visit these pages at a later date.

That's Vehicles done, next up, Characters...