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I'm confused about firing arcs on vehicles. It seems pretty clear in the rule book that you should check in the vehicle entry for what something is, ie: sponson, hull mounted etc. But so many vehicles seem to not mention what half of their weapons are. Am I just missing where this is located?

For example right now I am wondering about the Basilisk. It doesn't seem to say what the earthshaker cannon is. What if someone wants to shoot at a target off to the side of the basilisk and doesn't rotate the vehicle? can they do this? Do they just measure from the end of the barrel?

I noticed it says in the rules that you draw line of sight down the barrel of the gun. So this would kind of suggest that you couldn't just shoot off to the side. But then that seems to be just for determining cover.

And finally I don't actually own a Basilisk yet (thinking of building a guard army), can anyone that knows tell me how the earthshaker cannon moves on it? Does it rotate at all? etc.

Cheers.

While I'm probably taking my life in my hands by responding without having my rulebook in front of me, I believe that the "free rotate" rule is still in place in 5th edition: if you do not move a vehicle during the movement phase, it can be rotated in place at the start of the shooting phase, and not count as "movement"

Otherwise, the Basilisk's Earthshaker cannon, like all other "fixed" weaponry (hull HB, etc.) can fire in a 90 degree forward arc (45 degrees to each side of the centerline of the barrel).

I believe that, as modeled, the Earthshaker cannon can only elevate and depress, not rotate relative to the body of the Basilisk.

Balzac wrote:While I'm probably taking my life in my hands by responding without having my rulebook in front of me, I believe that the "free rotate" rule is still in place in 5th edition: if you do not move a vehicle during the movement phase, it can be rotated in place at the start of the shooting phase, and not count as "movement"

Otherwise, the Basilisk's Earthshaker cannon, like all other "fixed" weaponry (hull HB, etc.) can fire in a 90 degree forward arc (45 degrees to each side of the centerline of the barrel).

I believe that, as modeled, the Earthshaker cannon can only elevate and depress, not rotate relative to the body of the Basilisk.

Nope, the free rotate in the shooting phase is gone in 5th edition except for walkers who automatically pivot to face their target when shooting.

To the OP, yes, GW says that all vehicles will have their weapon types specified in their codices but then they've gone ahead and stopped doing that with all 5th edition codices!!! It drives me bonkers.

But the online rulebook FAQ is fairly clear(ish), weapons are assumed to be able to pivot as far as they can as modeled and if you glued a weapon in place that can normally rotate then you have to use your imagination to figure out how far they should be able to rotate.

In the case of a Basilisk, it doesn't rotate at all as modeled out of the box.

That means it falls under the 'hull-mounted' category and only has a 45 degree arc of fire to the front. But remember that the arc is drawn from where the weapon is MOUNTED (see the diagram on page 59 of the rulebook where the 45 degree arc starts on the Vindicator) so it is quite a bit wider than if you sarted the arc at the tip of the Earthshaker's barrel.

Balzac wrote:

Otherwise, the Basilisk's Earthshaker cannon, like all other "fixed" weaponry (hull HB, etc.) can fire in a 90 degree forward arc (45 degrees to each side of the centerline of the barrel).

Note that the arc is actually only 45 degrees (or 22.5 degrees to each side of the centerline).

Thanks guys.

Also Balzac, even though that rule is gone now in some way it remains as on page 58 it states that pivoting on the spot does not count as moving for the purposes of firing. So just means you need to remember to do it in the movement phase.