Introduction

This article converts the vehicle system presented in Inquisitor # 4 to the 2nd edition 40K datafax system. It covers the main fighting vehicles only. The light vehicles; bikes, buggies, speeders etc. are covered adequately by existing Dalatafaxes and walkers will be covered in the next issue for both Inquisitor and 2nd edition 40K systems. The Capital Imperialis, Leviathan and similar vehicles are also not covered-yet...

This system allows the use of almost any vehicle you can build while using some slightly realistic limitations to keep the vehicles reasonable and playable.

Here are some suggestions for using these rules in two kinds of games. For games without Titans, I strongly suggest using no weapons over Class 2, as there really isn't any reason to use these more powerful weapons if there are no Titans on the battlefield. In games with Titans (Warhound and larger), use all rules and weapons presented here.

VEHICLE DESIGN

Armored vehicles are designed as a compromise between the three factors of firepower, mobility (speed and manueverability) and protection. For a given cost (or design requirement) any increase of one of the factors will decrease one or both of the other factors. As an example, if a vehicle is designed to go a certain speed, carry a 120 mm main gun and offer a reasonable degree of protection, increasing the gun size while maintaining the same speed must result in a reduction in armor protection. This compromise is incorporated into these rules in the following manner: Increasing armor protection will generally lower the speed of a vehicle as will adding a larger weapon.

In this system, vehicles are classified into standardized armored vehicle classes by race (See Vehicle Data sheets on pages 20-21). A vehicle in the Heavy Tank class, for example, has a fixed maximum heavy weapon capacity and standardized movement and armor values. These stats vary by race so an Ork heavy tank won't necessarily have the same stats as an Eldar or Imperial heavy tank.

The four basic categories of armored vehicles are described below:

APC (Armored Personel Carrier): Tracked, Wheeled, Hover or Skimmer troop transport mounting light weaponry (Class 1 weapons maximum) intended to support dismounted infantry.

Tank: Tracked, Wheeled, Hover or Skimmer vehicle with its main armament mounted in a rotating turret with a 360 degree traverse. A tank has good frontal armor and substantial side armor.

Self-Propelled Gun: Tracked, Wheeled, Hover or Skimmer vehicle with its main armament in a fixed, forward firing mount with a limited fire arc (normally 45 degrees). Class 2 MultiLaunchers (Whirlwind) are an exception as they are usually mounted in a box on top of the vehicle with a 360 degree traverse). It is considerably cheaper build a box superstructure rather than a turret to mount a main weapon and this is reflected in the points costs. This type of vehicle will have approximately the same frontal armor as a tank of the same class, but the side and rear armor will be thinner.

Assault Gun: An assault gun is designed to move right into the thick of the battle zone, and is specially designed for urban fighting and rooting infantry out of buildings. An assault gun has heavier armor all around although the side armor still isn't as heavy as the frontal armor. It generally carries its main weapon in a fixed front-firing mount like the self­propelled gun (with the same limited 45' arc of fire). This weapon is usually a battlecannon or other area effect weapon and has a range (and points cost) of only half the range of a normal weapon of its class. The reason for this is twofold, long range weapons are not necessary in urban fighting and the heavier armor necessitates a weight reduction to keep the vehicle's speed up to a reasonable level. This weight reduction is accomplished by shortening the barrel of the gun, which shortens the range and reduces the weight of some of the internal components such as the recoil system and gun carriage as well.

In each vehicle catagory there are different classes of vehicles, running from a light class through normal, heavy and super heavy classes as shown below.

APCS
Light APC
APC
Heavy APC
Super Heavy APC

TANKS

Light Tank
Battle Tank
Heavy Tank
Super Heavy Tank

SELF-PROPELLED GUNS

Light SP Gun
SP Gun
Heavy SP Gun
Super Heavy SP Gun

ASSAULT GUNS

Light Assault Gun
Assault Gun
Heavy Assault Gun
Super Heavy Assault Gun

PLACING YOUR VEHICLE IN A CATAGORY

Deciding which stats to use for a custom built vehicle is as simple as placing it in one of the standardized categories (usually dependent on the main weapon it will carry) on pages 20 and 21.

You can design your vehicle around a main weapon by choosing its weapon class and then checking to see which vehicle class is capable of carrying a weapon of that size. Alternately, speed can be used as the most important criteria by selecting a vehicle class with your prefered speed and then mounting appropriate weapons on it. Many vehicles can be used in more than one class simply by saying that the weapons are of a different class.

If points become a problem, a weapon of a lower class than the listing shows may be fitted to to a vehicle, but I would suggest not going more than one class lower than the listed weapons class.

Examples:

1. A Predator model can be used as a light tank with three Class 1 weapons, a lower AV and better speed or as a battle tank with better armor and a slower speed by up­ grading the autocannon to a Class 2 weapon and paying more points (see Datafaxes).

2. A Falcon model can be used in a number of ways (see Datafaxes):

a. As a standard APC with a Class I las cannon and twin shuriken catapults.

b. As a heavy APC with twin las cannon and twin shuriken catapults or a Shuriken cannon.

c. As a self-propelled gun (thereby giving up its troop carrying capabilities) with a Class 2 laser and twin shuriken catapults. With a few exceptions, any vehicle with a Class 2 or higher weapon may not carry troops. There are some exceptions in Heavy and Super Heavy vehicles, primarily for Orks.

d. As a heavy self-propelled gun with a Class 3 laser and twin shuriken catapults. 3. The standard Leman Russ is a battle tank, but can be upgraded to a heavy tank by making the battlecannon a Class 3 weapon and consequently upping the armor and lowering the speed (see Datafaxes).

Please consider the size of your model when deciding which catagory to place it in. A heavy vehicle should be at least as large as a Leman Russ or larger. See the photo on page 14 for some size comparisons.

MACHINE GUNS

For purposes of deciding what types of weapons a vehicle can carry, I would like to introduce the concept of the machine gun as a sub-class of the heavy weapons (Class 1). Many players will try to equip a vehicle carrying multiple Class I weapons, such as a Land Speeder, with two or three Las Cannons or other nasty weapons. To prevent this unrealistic tactic, vehicles that carry multiple Class 1 weapons must have 50%, of those weapons as machine guns or basic weapons (FRU-fractions round up). The Land Speeder would have one machine gun or basic weapon. A machine gun is considered to be any weapon with Strength 6 or less that has Sustained Fire. The heavy stub gun, heavy bolter, shuriken cannon, multi-laser and scatter laser are all considered machine guns. For purposes of this rule, heavy flamers are considered "machine guns" even though they are obviously not. The assault cannon and autocannon, with their very high strengths are not considered machine guns.

If you prefer mounting basic weapons, one machine gun position (MG) can be exchanged for one twin basic weapon position in the weapons capacity columns on pages 20 and 21. One Class 1 heavy weapon position can also be replaced with one machine gun position.

RACIAL WEAPONS LIMITS

Orks
With the exception of some of the specialized Ork weapons, Epic scale Ork vehicles use only battlecannons, autocannons, multi-launchers grenade launcher/ mortars and flamers, so limit Ork vehicles to these weapons for any weapons over Class 1. To help the Orks endure this limitation we have reintroduced armor piercing rounds for battlecannons. These may be fired by all battlecannons instead of their normal high explosive area ammo. Stats for the classes of battlecannon AP rounds are listed just under the battlecannon listing on the weapons table (page 22).

Eldar

In addition to specialized Eldar weapons, Eldar vehicles should use only shuriken, laser, scatter/pulse laser, D-cannon and heat lance weapons. We will eventually do stats for all of the Ork and Eldar specialized weapons.

CREW

As a general rule there is one crewman for each weapon* plus a driver. The driver is allowed to fire one basic (single or twin) weapon or one machine gun (also single or twin). This allows the driver of a Rhino to fire the twin bolters, the driver of a Land Raider to fire the twin heavy bolters or the driver of a Falcon to fire the shuriken catapults. If a vehicle has no basic weapons or machine guns, the driver does not fire any weapons.

*One rather large exception to this is the sponson weapon position on Imperial super heavy vehicles where the single crewman fires a small turret and three bolters/heavy bolters at once and can target diferent targets with each weapon.

Vehicle System Update

Introduction
Points and Damage
Tables: Eldar, Imperial, and Orks: Large (slow: 257K)
Tables: Eldar, Imperial, and Orks: Jumbo (slow: 354K)
Tables: Heavy Weapons (very slow: 297K)
Tables: Vehicle Damage
Datafax: Falcon Variants (slow: 148K)
Datafax: Eldar Heavy Vehicles (slow: 193K)
Datafax: Imperial Guard APCs (slow: 180K)
Datafax: Imperial Guard Tanks (slow: 180K)
Datafax: Imperial Guard Super Heavy Tanks (slow: 107K)
Datafax: Imperial Guard Super Heavy Self-Propelled Guns (slow: 110K)