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Hello everyone

I was long been musing the idea of using Imperial bastion with Escape hatch upgrade as a delivery method for footslogging assault unit.

(Escape hatch: place marker within 12”, unit can disembark from it instead of the doors, but can’t charge that turn. This gives 12”+6” (disembarkation) slingshot for assault unit of up to 20 models/10 termies, getting them in the face of enemy lines for Turn 2 assault).

Have anyone tried this tactic?
What unit you think is best for this?

I am thinking about genestealers and plaguebearers with FNP Herald...

Genestealer formation may be worth looking into moreso if you wanted to use them.

Yes. It works very well. Death company and the meph star benefit from it massively.
Take 3 bunkers in 1 formation to slingshot 3 units forward at once.
20 CSM is another good idea.
Doesn't have to be assault units either. If facing a footslogging assault opponent - throw a flamer heavy unit into the bunker, put the escape hatch and on a particular avenue of approach and boom - theres 10-20 burna boyz suddenly appeared to utterly toast ANY non invisible infantry unit.


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Best when used in conjunction with other things which get units forward quickly on T1 such as pods, scouting transports etc.

You have to survive the ensuing shooting phase of the enemy, plus any counter charge to the unit jumping out. Most things would prefer to run on out and immediately assault.

Not sure how well it would work in practice.

I love this trick for a unit of bloodletters. They have incredible BS so I let them fire the HB and quad gun of the bastion for the first turn or two until I need to jump on an objective (which is usually put mid board where I happen to designate my tunnel).

If you just wanted the slingshot effect I would probably recommend either an imperial bunker (which is considerably cheaper). Or I would say a firestorm redoubt but that is way too many pts.

Can you assault the turn you come out thanks to that "Protect This House!" or whatever it's called special rule?

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Can you assault the turn you come out thanks to that "Protect This House!" or whatever it's called special rule?

No, it specifically states you can't unfortunately. Would be a touch broken otherwise.

Yeah I kinda suspected. Shame on me for wanting broken things, but if it makes a few lesser used assault units viable in the super shootyness that is 40K I don't feel sooo bad.


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Might have to work this into a CSM/Daemons list. 20 marked marines (I'm thinking either Khorne for choppiness or Slaanesh + Icon for durability) in the bastion popping out at midfield could be pretty sweet. It's kind of like the Huron/Cypher infiltration stuff except the Bastion is your ticket to ride. It also has the merit of being able to take a quad gun and being BLOS for any FMCs you might want to hide.

I use a similar tactic with my FOR.
The main tower has an escape hatch and I have a SWS with 2 Meltas and a Det pack inside.

Anything that gets close to the escape hatch then has to deal with a surprise suicide unit. It's actually quite effective -- many people forget about the escape hatch and don't avoid it.

I've used it plenty in combination with huron and/or cypher. Having 5+ units in your opponents face T1 is just excellent. It works well for BA in combination with pods and 3 scouting flamestorm baals too.
Another use I have made 'on paper' but not tested, is in combination with raptors or ravenguard rhino scouting/other units infiltrating with issodon rush.

Drive a tank on top of it to plug the hole

It should work fine. though im more thinking a big centurion squad poping out in range of all the things when they are needed.

Another use has just occurred to me. You don't place the hatch until a unit has embarked, so just place 4/5 stormteks behind a bunker with hatch ib the center forward position of your deployment zone, now if the opponent advances ANY non superheavy vehicle... it's gone. With no worries about the scatter that a veiltek brings.

Edit: actually - never mind, it wouldn't work as they would have to embark and disembark in 1 turn which isn't allowed. Ahh bummer.

Used to do it in 6th. Performance was spotty so I stopped.

Would be great for infiltration heavy csm. Huron, Cypher and 2 x 20 squads of mellee guyz. Add in a bunch of cheap nurgle spawns and you've got the whole army in the opponent's face turn 2. Without the need for landraiders and 20-strong.

I actually played an opponent using this tactic. He put his HQ (Vulkan) and 3 centurions in his bastion and out they popped on T1 to shoot at me. Caught me a little surprised as I wasn't familiar with the escape hatch. Bastards actually managed to immobilize both of my soulgrinders on T1!

Then on my turn, I proceeded to assault them (I was running daemons) and then wiped them out after a few turns.

Poly Ranger wrote:
Another use has just occurred to me. You don't place the hatch until a unit has embarked, so just place 4/5 stormteks behind a bunker with hatch ib the center forward position of your deployment zone, now if the opponent advances ANY non superheavy vehicle... it's gone. With no worries about the scatter that a veiltek brings.

Edit: actually - never mind, it wouldn't work as they would have to embark and disembark in 1 turn which isn't allowed. Ahh bummer.

Yeah it's kind of weird actually. As bad as GW can be about writing sloppy/generally poorly thought out rules, they sure do a pretty good job of ironing out potential loopholes like this

It's certainly useful for footslogging assault units, but probably better for 'small arms' units - being able to heft units into rapid fire range on turn one is really scary.

It might make assault centurions somewhat more useable. Maybe.

This makes other assault units more potent in smaller numbers too, if they have a character to tank it's particularly more so. I am thinking this would work pretty nice for some Wolf units that have a bit more of assaulty slant. Also, Khorne marked stuff, or anything with Counterattack, really.

It's a fun trick, but you still lack the mobility that units such as Spawns, Bikes, Khorne Hounds and similar can offer. Just because you are near an enemy unit turn 1 doesn't mean that the extra 6" of movement will not be useful later...

In my case, I take the Bunker anyway. So it has some extra utility for me. I can start my Long Fangs on the roof, and have them disembark the turn the guys inside step out. Is that legal?

The fact that the hatch can't be destroyed really makes it an excellent tool, because it allows a big threat radius that, while immobile, also really can't be stopped easily. Even if you blow up the Bunker, the guys can disembark there, after all.

Good old bunkerpult, its not great for assault units but for things like centurions its pretty badass.