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5th edition seems to be trying to make the distinction between vehicles and tanks. The choice of words seems to make this clear.

Page 68 is the beginning of the 'tank' section and it goes on to state what vehicles classified as tanks can do all the way until page 69.

The problem is this:

Vehicles classified as 'tanks' may tank shock. Fairly straightforward, yes?

It then goes on to state how ramming is a type of tank shock. Thus leading one to presume that only tanks may ram.

BUT, it then goes on to state the following:




The wording constantly makes the distinction between tanks and vehicles throughout, until you see the caveat of "MASS if the vehicle is a tank".

This causes myself a bit of confusion, as I presumed the distinction was rather cut and dried.

But it appears that any vehicle may ram.

This opens up all sorts of other questions as well, such as since ramming is a form of tank shock, but any vehicle may ram, may any vehicle also tank shock as well?



Hopefully this will be FAQed soon, as this could open up a huge can of worms.

Sounds to me that any vehicle can ram.

Only Tanks can ram.

The rules for Ramming are in the Tank section, are referred to as a special type of Tank Shock, and refers to Tanks as doing the Ramming.


The +1 for Mass comes in because the vehicle that gets Rammed also inflicts damage back on the Rammer.

The example given on page 69 shows how it works for a Land Raider Ramming a Trukk. The LR gets the +1 to its Strength for the Ram damage. The Trukk (as it is not a Tank) doesn't.

insaniak wrote:The +1 for Mass comes in because the vehicle that gets Rammed also inflicts damage back on the Rammer.

Ahhh now THAT makes sense. I knew I was missing something there.

I am sure you can see where this causes some confusion, but your explanation seems to clear it up rather well.

Yeah, the rules entry itself is a little muddled... it does say that both vehicles take damage, but the way its written, it only registered after I read the example and then went back and read the rules entry a second time.

I don't see the confusion.

Ramming is a special form of Tank Shock, so it can only be done by a vehicle which can Tank Shock. If you can't Tank Shock, you can't Ram.

Further, the language is very clear that Ramming is only ever done by Tanks:

Ramming
Ramming is a rather desperate manoeuver and means that the vehicle must concentrate on moving at top speed towards on enemy vehicle. This means that it may not shoot in that turn's Shooting phase, making it an attractive choice for vehicles that have no armament left, or are shaken.
Ramming is a special type of vehicle shock move and is executed in the same way, except that the vehicle must always move at the highest speed it is capable of. Units other than vehicles in the way of a ramming vehicle are vehicle shocked as normal. However, if the ramming vehicle comes in contact with an enemy vehicle, the collision is resoled as follows:

See the difference?

The consistent reference to a Tank as the Ramming vehicle, rather than a generic vehicle is not by accident.

Thanks, as I stated originally, I understand all that.

The confusion arose from the stipulation of +1 if the vehicle is a tank. I misunderstood that to mean that any vehicle could be the rammer. (further exacerbated by a poster in the swooping hawk thread)

Also as previously stated, the misunderstanding is cleared up now.

I think its clear only tanks (and other vehicles that can tank shock) are allowed to ram.

Besides what has already been said I think it is important to note that the Ramming rules are in the 'tank' section of the rulebook, and taken as a whole the only vehicle who has permission to make such an attack is a tank (and perhaps any vehicle that can make a tank shock attack).