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OK, the RAW says that you get to ignore the skimmers cover saves for going flat-out and the turbo-boost save for bikes. The common theme here being that the Hydra's onboard computer/machine spirit is used to compensating for flyers going at high rates of speed so shooting a relatively slower ground based vehicle like a skimmer or bike should be a piece of cake for it. but we came upon a question today about ork vehicles that get a cover save for their exhaust.

Since the ork save has nothing to do with speed as much as it does the fact that their vehicles are ramshackle constructions at best....I suggested that the Hydra would NOT get to ignore the ork cover save. And I am the IG player with the Hydras.

Am I correct in this or am I unnecessarily hamstringing my Hydras?

I agree with your analysis - RAW indicates only benefits against cover saves from Turbo Boost and Flat out movement - they would specifically mention if other cover saves were able to be ignored.

the compensators compensate for high speeds, not obscuring smoke (via exhaust/smoke launchers), nor physical barriers that may be in the way (when a vehicle is 50% hidden behind a barrier).

Agreed. There is no basis for the Hydra to ignore Ork bike's standard smoke-style cover save.

In reality, this rule only bumps Ork biker's cover save up from a 3+ to a 4+ and completely hose Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbikes.

I play against Eldar, and when im IG'ing it, these guys will feature heavily!!!

Eldar dont care, they get a 3+ armour save anyway

It only really hoses DE jetbikes and SM scout bikes.

Huh, that sure is an obscure rule. Why even have it?

For shooting marine scout bikes and DE I guess...

(I have never seen a unit of scout bikes or DE bikes in 5th edition, ever, and I play every week.)

Interesting but academic, essentially a meaningless bonus in the IG dex then.

It's still effective against Skimmers moving Flat Out, it's just vs. Bikes Turbo-boosting that it's not super useful.

If I recall it also works against flyers in Apoc (sorta.) You still need a 6 to hit, but they normally get a 4+ save as though they were a skimmer moving fast, so in this case they wouldn't.
Personally, I think they should have said bikes do not get cover other than from terrain/intervening models (ie. no special rules).

Aye, its more useful against skimmers tbfh

Augustus wrote:Huh, that sure is an obscure rule. Why even have it?

For shooting marine scout bikes and DE I guess...

(I have never seen a unit of scout bikes or DE bikes in 5th edition, ever, and I play every week.)

Interesting but academic, essentially a meaningless bonus in the IG dex then.

On the contrary Augustus, it just depends on the gamers in your particular area. Where I game we have both a Dark Eldar player and a Space Marine all biker army in our group....and the tourney i was in last weekend had 2 DE armies and the same SM bike army in the mix, so its very useful to me.

like I said it all depends on the group you are going against. And that particular rule is by no means the only benefit to having a Hydra....or two....or three.

The Hydra definitely would not need 6s to hit flyers, its an AntiAircraft gun!

The rule is simply a bonus, and NOT including it would make little sense - if it is good at hitting things moving fast, it shouldnt care if it is a bike or a skimmer. Also scarab swarms wouldnt like it, as they get a 2+ cover save when turboboosting, and S7 means a base gone per unsvaed wound....

Technically, though, you have to buy the 200pt Apoc version to not roll 6's to hit flyers. And that one can't ignore fast skimmer or fast biker bonuses. I guess it costs that many points to recalibrate the Machine-Spirit-Guided-Targeter for flyers vs. ground.

Eh, the new hydra is just plain better. For the cost of one old one plus 25 points you get 12 twin-linked shots that hit more than 3.666 times on average, even when needing 6's.

That's a lot better than the old version.

sourclams wrote:Eh, the new hydra is just plain better. For the cost of one old one plus 25 points you get 12 twin-linked shots that hit more than 3.666 times on average, even when needing 6's.

That's a lot better than the old version.

Yup, much much better.