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So I've been playing this game since 3rd ed and I'm still kicking around my old tau army. I'll be playing a teaching game with a friend of mine soon (him tau me ork) after searching the forums and rulebook i have a few questions.

Consider this situation.

1 .A squad of 20 orks charges the front of a hammerhead (front:13/side:12/back:10) clearly they cant hurt it, but they got to move 6". Lets say the nob gets a lucky hit and the ships stunned so it cant move next turn. Next turn (assuming the orks survive getting shot to crap) they move 6" past the skimmer for sake of simplicity they go around not under (not sure if going under a skimmer is legal) now during the assault phase they double back and charge the back of the ship at +1 str for the charge (they can actually glance it on a 6!)

So the questions presented here is do you get the benefit of furious charge when charging a vehicle?
Can you run underneath a skimmer?
If you can what's the armor value on the underside of a skimmer?
and in whole is this situation legal?

2. Does the tau railgun submunition shot scatter now? I can't find anything saying it doesn't. but i know in at least 4th ed it didn't scatter.

1.)yes you benefit furious charge

no you cant run underneath and the underside has no armor value

the situation is legal in 4th assuming the squad actually gets behind the tank before it charges (you measure what "arc" the charging model is in when it charges, and that determines if it attacks side, front, rear)

In 5th none of it matters - charging a vehicle with no WS you always attack REAR armor no matter where you charge from.

2.) yes it scatters in 5th, like all blasts.

lambadomy wrote:no you cant run underneath

While this is generally accepted practice, in 4th edition it actually is legal, RAW, to run under a skimmer, provided that it's on a tall enough flight stem.

Distance between a non-vehicle model and a skimmer is measured from the model's base edge to the skimmer's hull. So long as the skimmer is high enough up so that the distance between base and hull is more than an inch, the model is free to move underneath.

Having said that, it's the sort of thing that is likely to cause a ruckuss if you pull it without warning in the middle of a game.

lambadomy wrote:
In 5th none of it matters - charging a vehicle with no WS you always attack REAR armor no matter where you charge from.

I like the sound of this but i can't find anything in 5th ed to prove it. Can you give me a page?

page 63, under "armor penetration in close combat"

seems I may be wrong and this is for all vehicles, not just ones with no WS.

In the case of walkers it states "Models fighting a walker always fight against its front armour, as the walker is not a static target and rampages through the mêlée, turning to face its enemies." and thanks for the info on assaulting a non WS vehicle.

aburnflags wrote:Does the tau railgun submunition shot scatter now? I can't find anything saying it doesn't. but i know in at least 4th ed it didn't scatter.

It didn't scatter in 4th edition because it is not ordnance. It was (and still is) a Blast weapon that uses the large Blast Marker instead of the smaller one.

it will scatter now because ALL blaster weapons scatter (2d6-BS, if in LOS. 2d6 otherwise)

Regwon wrote:it will scatter now because ALL blaster weapons scatter (2d6-BS, if in LOS. 2d6 otherwise)

And I will happily take the scatter. The number of times I needed that damn rail head to hit a target and rolled a 2 !
Now, the shell goes off everytime with a pretty good chance of hitting something.

Although, in my first 5th ed game on the weekend, my hammerhead went down to loota boy shooting. I got too close for the disruption pod to be of use. My own dumb fault.....
Usually take two burst cannons, was trying to get them in range of another unit....but with the new strength limitations on secondary weapons I guess gun drones will now be part of the standard fitout?

with multi-tackers HHs fire as fast vehicles. this means that you can more up to 6" and fire all of your guns. admittedly you wont get the cover save with that, but if you have distruption pods it doesnt even matter.

Regwon wrote:with multi-tackers HHs fire as fast vehicles. this means that you can more up to 6" and fire all of your guns. admittedly you wont get the cover save with that, but if you have distruption pods it doesnt even matter.

Tau can't even get the cover save for movement, since you have to move over 12" to gt it. Thanks goodness for the Disruption Pods.................

don_mondo wrote:

Regwon wrote:with multi-tackers HHs fire as fast vehicles. this means that you can more up to 6" and fire all of your guns. admittedly you wont get the cover save with that, but if you have distruption pods it doesnt even matter.

Tau can't even get the cover save for movement, since you have to move over 12" to gt it. Thanks goodness for the Disruption Pods.................

Its almost as if GW actually thought about this issue beforehand!

inconceivable

Flinty wrote:
Its almost as if GW actually thought about this issue beforehand!

inconceivable

Given that the Tau Empire codex was one of the first or second out after 4th was released... yes... yes it is

Actually, your orks can beat the crap out of that Tau skimmer in HTH as all hits in close combat are now on the rear armor. That means with furious charge, you are getting a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE lotta s4 shots vs. armor 10, so chances of glancing are very good, even without the nob.

nathonicus wrote:Actually, your orks can beat the crap out of that Tau skimmer in HTH as all hits in close combat are now on the rear armor. That means with furious charge, you are getting a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE lotta s4 shots vs. armor 10, so chances of glancing are very good, even without the nob.

Especially (IIRD) since the to hit roll against skimmers is now based on movement, not on them being skimmers..................

nathonicus wrote:Actually, your orks can beat the crap out of that Tau skimmer in HTH as all hits in close combat are now on the rear armor. That means with furious charge, you are getting a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE lotta s4 shots vs. armor 10, so chances of glancing are very good, even without the nob.

This will of course make flechette dischargers as compulsory as disruption pods.
Whats that? You want to assault my hammerhead? Throw a bucket of dice. Throw them again. Now take off a whole heap of dead orks before you attack!
Better bring a big unit and hope that it is still pretty big when it reaches the HH?

But, I would be the first to concede armour 10 assaults will definitely make me think about putting the vehicles in harms way in the first place.