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Just thinkin.. a dozer blade is a big ole sheet of metal in the front of the tank, especially on a vindicator. Wouldn't shots aimed at the front have to go through the dozer blade before it even hits the tank itself? Instead of just an upgrade to deal with terrain, what if they added to the pts a bit and made dozer blades increase a tanks front armor by 1? or, possibly make all shots to the front count as glancing? Or, make all front shots glance on a 4+?

How about not doing any of that.

The most I would ever allow of dozer blades is counting as "Extra Armor," and then they woud have to cover a big portion of the front of the vehicle, rather than just the bottom edge. Remember, the Leman Russ is AV14, plus 1 to that and you get AV15.Or giving them "rolling" glancing hits, making them indestructible (you can no longer destroy on a basic Glancing hit).

Realistically, a dozer blade would count as spaced armour for the bit of hull it covered.

Spaced armour works by triggering the fuse of some types of shells before they reach their ideal standoff distance from the real armour. The types of warheads affected are HESH and HEAP, which are commonly used in guided missiles and low velocity rounds such as RPGs, 40mm grenades and howitzers.

If you look at a late WW2 Panzer 4, the thin sheets of armour on the sides are spaced armour.

This kind of armour does very little against a purely kinetic round like most modern tank rounds.

As pointed out by Skinnattittar, what works in real life does not necessarily transfer to the game environment.

I disagree with dozer blades adding to the front armour but I do however think they should add 1 to the strength of a ramming attack.
Ramming is a fun rule and I think that makes sense.

I think the point about ramming is cool.

Great idea - anything that gets more ramming into the game is good!

;-)

id say they shud count as a 5+ cover saves

Based on?

While all the ideas presented here have merit, most of them don't really work out well in the game. Adding +1 to the front armor of a vehicle is a HUGE upgrade. All of a sudden every rhino in existence is getting one so they can have a front armor of 12 and every Leman Russ is now armor 15. That just doesn't work out well in the terms of the game, almost regardless of how much it ends up costing.

Making the dozer blade give the vehicle a cover save (I assume it’s from front arc only) would be more reasonable so long as it's only 5+ and the price of dozer blades goes up to compensate for the increased power of the upgrade.

Adding +1 to the ram value is the most reasonable suggestion so far as it is both fluffy and a minor upgrade.

The problem that's common to all of these suggestions is that in most cases, the whole purpose of the dozer blade changes. Particularly with the cover save and armor bonus options, you are no longer taking the dozer blade to help you move though cover (that becomes a side effect) you are taking the dozer blade to help protect your tank and that isn't the point of the upgrade.

Phoenix wrote:While all the ideas presented here have merit, most of them don't really work out well in the game. Adding +1 to the front armor of a vehicle is a HUGE upgrade. All of a sudden every rhino in existence is getting one so they can have a front armor of 12 and every Leman Russ is now armor 15. That just doesn't work out well in the terms of the game, almost regardless of how much it ends up costing.

Making the dozer blade give the vehicle a cover save (I assume it’s from front arc only) would be more reasonable so long as it's only 5+ and the price of dozer blades goes up to compensate for the increased power of the upgrade.

Adding +1 to the ram value is the most reasonable suggestion so far as it is both fluffy and a minor upgrade.

The problem that's common to all of these suggestions is that in most cases, the whole purpose of the dozer blade changes. Particularly with the cover save and armor bonus options, you are no longer taking the dozer blade to help you move though cover (that becomes a side effect) you are taking the dozer blade to help protect your tank and that isn't the point of the upgrade.

What he said...

Additionally, there is no way that the dozer blade that came with the original Rhino (circa 1990) and associated kits would provide any cover or additional armour. A ramming bonus perhaps.

Remember however that these may be fun, and would be OK to make a dozer blade additionally add +1 to strength bonus on a ram for say 5 points, but it is a game, and things are not supposed to make rock hard sense.

eg. an Avatar can be taken out with poisoned shots? and many other inconsistencies with what we would expect in reality.

@ Mantin : I agree with most of your points. Simple fact of the matter is, Dozer Blades just don't come up the hull far enough on the models (except the Vindicator obviously) to make an appreciable difference. What, shots that would have been zinging under the hull are getting deflected by the dozer? Or that little slim area near the bottom of the very front of the vehicle? Just doesn't seem like a practical rule either... Although I do like the idea of +1 when ramming. Fluffy, fun, and practical!

I am all for having a dozer blade give a plus 1 to ramming. I think I will try it out in my next game if my friends allow it.

How about it taking the first 'weapon destroyed' / 'immobilized ' damage from the front or side.
Then, it's destroyed.
Since it would then act as ablative armor without changing the dynamics of what weapons could damage it.

- just a thought

Another thought why not have the dozer blade just act as a "ram" and have it be a diffrent peice of war gear all togeather. That way it just gives a plus 1 to ramming and nothing else and is the same cost as the dozer blade.

Because the Imperial Guard and Space Marines are not known for ramming. Doesn't match fluff. Not saying they won't or haven't, it's just not something they do so wouldn't bother popping something like that on. Besides, last thing you want to do with a tank is get really close to another tank that's about to be destroyed.