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So just like the title says. There is no notation that I can see. I put the question up because if it always hit on side armor, isn't considered a CC attack so in regards to things like Knights, who have a shield that protects them against hits that aren't CC attacks but only on specific facing's how would you determine if they get a shield save or not? Just curious.

Thread on this issue from a while ago:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/586270.page
Thread with same idea (Barrage):
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/581831.page#6581204

RAW it is side armour:

Unless stated otherwise, Vector Strike hits are resolved at the model’s unmodified Strength and AP2, using Random Allocation. These hits have the Ignores Cover special rule. These hits do not benefit from any of the model’s special rules, such as Furious Charge, Poisoned, Rending etc. Against vehicles, these hits are resolved against the target’s side armour.

RAWRAIrobblerobble wrote:
RAW it is side armour:

The OP knows it hits side armour, the question is "which side", as an Imperial Knight can get a 4++ save allocated to either it's 'left' or 'right' side armour (front and presumably rear too, but not relevant to discussion) by the player.

Thanks Quanar, helpful previous threads. I searched vector strikes but didn't go back far enough I guess

Without re-reading the previous threads, I'm not sure a consensus was ever reached?

It's not a shooting attack. Therefore the knights shield does not come into play.

Lungpickle wrote:
It's not a shooting attack. Therefore the knights shield does not come into play.

A model that made a Vector Strike in its Movement phase counts as having already fired one weapon in its following Shooting phase.

I'd say it counts as a shooting attack and not CC. Nothing says you don't get a cover save after all, which would at least IMPLY CC, plus it is losing a "shooting" attack.

Fluffwise, I'd say it hits the side it "came" from, not there's no RAW basis for deciding. I'd then defer to the closest RAW we have "Random Allocation" (on side armour). AKA 4+ it to hit the side you wanted.

RAWRAIrobblerobble,
Vector Strike is neither a Shooting attack nor is it a Close Combat attack. Vector Strike is nothing more then an Advanced Rule, one which contains instructions requiring us to resolve the Rule using the same processes we utilize to Resolve an attack of some description. However, without specifics informing us that the attack is 'Close Combat' or 'Shooting' then we can not apply either of those labels to the Rule and simply must treat it as some sort of 'unique attack' which only exists because Game Workshop fail at Rule writing....

Agreed, I should have stuck a "more as a " in there. My intent was to debunk the assertion of "it is close combat" that the prior poster had asserted (with no rules quote). VS is neither shooting nor CC, (nor does it ignore cover) and thus is also unaffected by invisibility since it doesn't roll to hit.

My group came up with a simple house rule for determining whether or not the shield applies.

If the model is in the facing protected by the shield, even if the attack is resolved against a different AV then the Knight still gets the save.

For example, a Wyvern fires its Barrage at a Knight. The Wyvern is in the front facing which happens to be where the shield is. Although the shot is resolved against side armour, the Knight would get a save. If, however, the shield was on the side facing (left or right), it would not get a save.

RAW Vector Strike doesn't hit any defined facing. All we are told is to use the vehicles side armour value to resolve the hit. Even if the unit doing the VS starts directly in front of the target and ends directly behind it.

The position of the unit doing the VS is therefore irrelevant, and random allocation rules only allow us to determine which models in a multi model unit suffer a hit, not vehicle facings.

Knights don't get an ion shield save from Vector Strike.

Why can't they just bring back 'top / bottom' facings and tell us to use that facing for vector strikes, Barrage and other attacks which 'come from above?'