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Hello,

Just started playing a Vraks Renegades list. I played SW in 5th edition so coming back I am faced with a multitude of rule changes as well as a shift in play style with a new army.

It comes to my attention that I have no clue on how to play Artillery.

I play my brother more times than not in friendly games. As IG I assumed that he knew about artillery, but he doesn't either.

As we sat down to play last night we discovered our lack of understanding.

Can anyone give a quick tutorial on Artillery? Or point me in the direction of one?

we had questions about
targeting artillery
additional crewmen and how that mechanic works i.e. can the crewmen themselves be targeted in shooting phase
field of fire? or 360 etc etc

and some more general questions.

any help would be greatly appreciated

Page 64 in the 7th edition rulebook should have all the answers you need.
It's the "artillery" unit type, which has all the rules for that particular unit.

That being said, artillery are kind of goofy. First off, they have 360 field of fire, like any other non-vehicle model.

Targeting artillery works just like any other unit, and artillery pieces and crew are treated as part of the same unit. Closest models to the firing unit are hit first, take saves, removed as casualties, etc, etc.

The biggest strength of artillery is that when artillery is shot at, they, AND ALL OF THEIR CREW, are treated at having T7.

So, I use mek guns a lot, which are ork artillery pieces, manned by grots, which are usually T2. So, bolters normally wound grots on 2s.

But if you shoot bolters at mek guns, you take their artillery T7 into account, so bolters need 6s to wound them!

But again, you allocate wounds to the closest model to the firing unit. So, if you have a line of marines (M) shooting at guns (G) with crew behind them (C), like so: (again, the guns and crew are treated as members of the same unit, but you still allocate wounds to the closest model to the firing unit)

M M M M

G G G G

C C C C

The guns will take the hits first, as they are closest to the firing unit. Also note that artillery pieces have 2 W and a 3+ save, in addition to being T7.

But, you only need one crewman per gun to fire them. So, if you have extra, you can do this:

M M M M

C C C C

G G G G

C C C C

In that case, the extra crewmen are in front of your guns, and are still T7! So they take the hits, not your guns. Bear in mind you have to use the crew's armor save, not the guns, if they are between the guns and the firing unit.

Also bear in mind that artillery are subject to morale tests and falling back, so be wary of sacrificing too many crewmen in this way.

In close combat, however, the artillery pieces play no part whatsoever. They cannot have wounds allocated to them in any way, nor can they attack. And the crew can no longer utilize their T7 in close combat, so in your case, the crew would be down to their usual T3.

If an artillery unit's crew all die, the guns immediately are removed as well. Furthermore, if there isn't at least one crew member for each gun, the excess guns are destroyed.

Lastly, if an artillery piece is forced to fall back from close combat, and their opponent can make a sweeping advance, the artillery unit automatically loses the initiative test to escape.

Thank you for the replies, I will dig into the BRB to get better acquainted

as to extra crew. in a battery of guns is it a pool of extra crewmen or does each specific artillery piece have x amount of crewmen? and following that line an artillery piece might lose its wounds before any crewman die? based on placement and shooting rules etc?

The artillery and crew composition will be defined in the codex - I'm not too familiar with the vraks ones, but I've heard of them.

For example, ork mek gunz, the unit is defined as one mek gun and two grot crewmen, and I can add up to 4 more artillery units (with two crew each).

Furthermore, specifically for mek guns, I can add up to two more grot crew per gun for 3 points each.

Compare that to a space marine thunderfire cannon - that unit is defined as one artillery piece, one techpriest crew, with no extra crew options.

It all depends on the unit composition in the codex. That being said, I think that the vraks artillery is a gun and 2 crew, and you can add up to 2 extra guns?

And if it answers your question, guns don't have specific crew models from their unit that have to man them. As long as any one crewman is in base contact with an artillery model, the gun may fire.

It does have to be a member of the crew that fires the gun, though. It can't be a random cultist that is nearby, or something.