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Curious how a pillbox should be treated in 40k. It can be seen as either a terrain feature that gives cover and concealment, or as an immobile armored vehicle. I have seen sets of ww2 rules that treat them both ways.

Also, curious about homemade models of pillboxes. Would love to see what others have done.

Pilboxes seem like they are most similar to Fortifications if they are played as open terrain (3+ cover save, but you can shoot the guys within it if you have Line of Sight).

If they are played as buildings you have to remove the models from the table once they embark and assign them an Armor value. And you can not shoot the guys inside the building until they are forced to disembark because of building damage.

Either way decide with your opponent on how they will be played.

Dedicated gun crew or walk in/out?

Dedicated gun crew make impossible to hit until the enemy is at a certain range like flames of war.

FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs wrote:
Dedicated gun crew or walk in/out?

Dedicated gun crew make impossible to hit until the enemy is at a certain range like flames of war.

There are no rules for "Dedicated gun crew" like that in 40K.

Easiest way is to run it as a building, or run it as a fortification (Not a building).

I've made a few, I just use them as "small" buildings (max 10 men inside), AV 13 around; a long window that counts as 3 firing ports, and two fixed heavy bolters for units inside to fire. a nice place to hold if you can do it, just dont get hit by lascannons or stuff inside dies fast...

 StarHunter25 wrote:
I've made a few...

How and out of what? I can imagine a simple cardboard box would be a good start. I have also seen some toystore plastic pillboxes that are reasonably close to 28mm scale. Curious what would look halfway decent without being too fiddly.

I used the left over foam thingies my standing lamps came in... just trimmed some of the stuff off, cut a hole in the front and tacked on some heavy bolters I had laying around on them. Plus, if you put a decent coat of grey spray primer on it, followed up by a light dusting of black they almost look like concrete!

Isn't a Bastion basically a pillbox? Or the Wall of Martyrs- Imperial Bunker piece.

I would just suggest making your own terrain similar to one of those.

 StarHunter25 wrote:
I've made a few, I just use them as "small" buildings (max 10 men inside), AV 13 around; a long window that counts as 3 firing ports, and two fixed heavy bolters for units inside to fire. a nice place to hold if you can do it, just dont get hit by lascannons or stuff inside dies fast...

Just FYI, the BRB suggests you play buildings that are not "Fortification" slot purchases as dilapidated (2 less AV than normal) so your AV 13 bunker was a 15 AV to start out with. You might want to drop it to AV 12 for consistency, or play it as just terrain and not a building that you embark into.

Not quite what the BRB says. If you want Fortifications as neutral buildings you can make them dilapidated and change them but for buildings they can do whatever on pg 92. And since this is about pillboxes (not a GW buyallourplaysetsandtoys!) I would say making the pillboxes available when putting down terrain would be fair. I made two with some wood and I just cut a line across for a firing point with a dremel. Oh since it's made with wood I used wood glue...makes sense right? Just made a plan with how much area 10 models would need and built the walls accordingly.

Apologies for the blurriness.

There in the top right is my pillbox. There are 5 marines in it and 10 can fit. The right side has the slot to draw LoS but I haven't done any kind of emplaced weapons/details/door either...

I need to get back to making terrain. Especially that power plant you see with a cut up funnel and old spray paint can for the top.

I used an old take away container. Cut a hole in the back as the entrance, and a slot in the front to fire from. I can fit quite a few models in there. Never painted it though.
Sort of like this: http://shopandsaveonline.com.au/images/takeawaysmallround.jpg
But we usually treat it like a terrain piece with 3+ cover, or (rarely) as AV 13, then 3+ cover after destruction

I love the idea of a pillbox with heavy bolter gun emplacements that can shot but that's open enough for the troops inside to be assaulted.

I think I might make a couple, call them terrain with 3+ cover save, and provide an interesting area of the battlefield.

There are rules in the BrB for bunkers/pill boxes, IIRC they have armor 14 on all sides and roof and i believe they have a 3+ or a 4+ cover save and follow the same rules as fortifications. also they just count as terrain. and either side can take them. They dont have any enplaned gun only way you could do that is if you get your opponent to agree that it has a heavy bolter for x amount of points, and not count it as a fortification.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
There are rules in the BrB for bunkers/pill boxes, IIRC they have armor 14 on all sides and roof and i believe they have a 3+ or a 4+ cover save and follow the same rules as fortifications.

The underlined does not make sense.

Either:

It is a Building with an AV (And you have to embark on it so your models are removed from the table and do not need the cover save as they can not be targeted).

Or

It is a bunker (Not a building) that gives a 3+ cover save and you use TLoS to shoot at the guys inside the bunker.

The first one, you need to embark in and off of it. i do know there are rules for them though some where in the BrB because i asked this same question back in the 5th edition



Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK just pulled up my BrB and found the exact rules on them. bunkers are an armor value 14 building. depending on its size is how many models you can fin inside it. 6x6 10 models 9x9 20 models

12x12 30 models. in addition units inside the bunker can not be attack but the building can. on a glanceing hit of the building one unit inside takes a hit with the ignores cover rule. on a penitrateing hit one model takes a would the same way. Also you roll on the building damage chart.

The rules i was stating was the OLD rules. when you could shoot the people inside or the bunker itself. :p

Isn't a pillbox just a small bunker? That's my understanding of it.

they are

Cool.