Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

If there's one area that I've found makes or breaks a game experience in 40k, it's been the way that Tank Shock and Ramming gets resolved in games.

A Land Raider that attempts to Ram a puny Warbuggy gets stopped in its tracks, while a Riptide that doesn't flee in panic tries to scram and hit the deck! Let's ignore the fact that said Warbuggy will probably have been gunned down early on, while said Riptide would never let such a clunky metal box anywhere near it without tearing it a new one, and just focus on the innate silliness of such mechanics.

A lot of this deals with the differences between the two: While a Tank Shock is basically "Pick up your tank, place it down, then displace any models underneath", the ramming is "move into contact with the enemy, then pause." This has lead to some...unusual scenarios, like a Battlewagon being so big that when it tankshocks a model, it might end up moving *closer* to the advancing Orks, to their amused glee.

The initial lazy proposal I contemplated is:
-When a ramming vehicle moves into contact with an enemy vehicle, take the difference of the strength of the ramming vehicle's ram attack, and the strength of the rammed vehicle's ram attack. If the ramming vehicle is stronger, the enemy vehicle is "pushed back". The rammed vehicle moves directly away from the ramming vehicle, at a distance equal to the maximum of the difference in strengths of the attacks, or the remaining distance the ramming vehicle is allowed to move. The ramming vehicle's maximum remaining move distance is equal to the smallest difference in ramming strengths of any of the vehicles it rammed.
Example: A Land Raider (Tank, AV 14=S8) rams a Warbuggy (AV 10=S5) that is 9" away. Because S8 > S5, the Warbuggy is displaced 3" directly away.

-Monstrous Creatures and models with the Extremely Bulky USR (so Ogryns, mutated thingies of Chaos, etc) are subject to ramming attacks (which ignore armor saves). Compare the ramming strength of the vehicle, against against the base strength of the model being rammed to determine the maximum displacement.
-When a model is displaced, any other models in the way are also displaced, unless they are also resistant to being displaced.
-If a displaced model cannot be moved out of the way, it gets smashed up dead. Splat!