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Can someone please explain to me how does Tank Shock work? I read the rules over and over again and just can't understand it.

shyzo wrote:
Can someone please explain to me how does Tank Shock work? I read the rules over and over again and just can't understand it.

What is it in particular that you don't understand? Your question seems vague.

What is it in particular that you don't understand? Your question seems vague.

Oh, thats tactics then.

Yes, directly killing models is difficult - through normal TS, anyway, not upgrades such as Chaos and Orks (or did the rolla get nerfed too much?) can get - and deliberately so.

What it can do is:
1) clear an objective. they must move the shortest path to end up more than 1" away, large vehicles can knock a squad that barely made it to the objective range away from that range
2) Force spread out models to bunch up - handy for flamers!
3) Force models to makea morale check - not everyone is fearless, and there are a fair few missions where causing a unit to fall back even for a turn can gain you points, more objective cards (or hamper their objective draw) etc

Its actualy not at all vague. What youre thining is vague is there is no "here;s how you kill models", when that isnt, over many editions now, at all the primary intention of TS

nosferatu1001 wrote:
(or did the rolla get nerfed too much?)

Yes, yes it did
Only works when a unit is DoG 'ing.

Thunderblitz is the way forward if you want to kill things with a Tank Shock.

It's very difficult to kill models with TS. The primary use for it is forcing leadership tests on enemy squads, pushing them off an objective, or hearding them around.

Example: you have a couple of rhinos in front of a big horde of boyz who are sitting on an objective. If you play your tank shocks correctly, you can force them to take two leadership tests, and push the whole squad back several inches, allowing you to cap the objective. Keep in mind that the boyz have to stay in cohesion and 1" away from all your units after you've moved all your tanks - it gives you a deceptively large amount of board control. Not to oversell it's importance, but it's just another tool in your kit.

Tank shocking units close to table edges can be fun if you can force them off the board, as I've done a couple of times against unexpecting opponents.

The simplified version?

1) Read Rules for Tank Shock
2) Don't Tank Shock

Seriously, though, I can't really think how to explain tank shock beyond what's in the book. The main thing about tank shock, is you should really only do it if you have no weapons left on the tank, or you need to get through enemy troops to grab an objective or something. Basically, designated where and how far you're moving. Enemy player tests Leadership. If they pass, literally nothing happens, they just move, you go through, they move back. Unless they make a death or glory attack. If they fail, they fall back. It's been my experience that 99% of the time, tank shocking isn't gonna hurt the enemy. The main exceptions are 1) tank shocking behind enemy lines, forcing a unit to fall back off the board, and 2) tank shocking so you stop in the middle of a unit. Since they move out of the way of the tank by the shortest distance possible, but have to leave 1" between them and the tank and maintain unit coherency, a lot of times several models will move the opposite direction of the rest of the unit, lose unit coherency, and die. Because in the grim darkness of the future, it's easier to just die than run a couple feet around a tank to rejoin your unit.

tank shock is an excellent tactical option for players with empty transports. I always use my ork trukks (with rams) to tankshock anything that's not fearless to try and force leadership checks. if I have enough trukks left, then I can eliminate any deathstar in the game just by boxing them in with 3 trukks and crushing them with the fourth. makes the opponent cry, and ask for the exact rules wording, and try to find any loophole, clutching at every straw... ...then eventually removing their super expensive deathstar so my 35 point trukk can go there.

moral of this story: getting hit by a trukk is bad.