Have a lot of thinking time in my hands of late, and my mind went to the issue with vehicles in the current edition. I remember well why
HP were introduced [5e was Parking-lot-hammer], but the ham fisted way
GW applied the change, in typical GQ fashion, swung the pendulum into the opposing wall.
Here's my change.
Things are the same as is now, until immediately after you make your penetration roll.
Glancing hits are now a -2 modifier on the table.
Weapons and attacks which are
AP- are a -1 modifier on the table.
Damage table
1-3 Shaken: Vehicle can only snap fire
4 Stunned: Vehicle halves movement distances, only Snap Fire
5 Drive Damage: 1 HP of damage, vehicle gets a Drive Damage token
6 Weapon Damage: 1 HP of damage, random weapon gets a Weapon Damage token
7 Critical Damage: 1d3 HP of damage
Drive Damage Token: vehicle suffers a -2" penalty to all movement distances, which does effect its effective combat/cruising speed. Multiple tokens are cumulative.
Weapon Damage Token: Weapon gains the get hot rule. If it already had the rule, there is a -1 modifier to the roll. Multiple tokens are cumulative.
Haywire functions differently now.
1. Roll to hit, if you do, roll on haywire table
Haywire Table
1. No effect
2. Shaken
3. Stunned
4. Drive malfunction: vehicle moves in a random direction in its next movement phase, determined by the scatter dice. If a hit is rolled, it takes 1 HP of damage, and gets a Drive Damage token
5. Weapon Malfunction - random weapon may not be used for a turn.
6. Systems overload: 1 HP of damage, +1 on the table for the next Haywire attack resolved against the vehicle.
Grav weapons cause a Crew Stunned result against vehicles.
This is part 1 of things. These changes alone make vehicles more survivable, whilst hopefully promoting the use of dedicated anti-vehicle weaponry.
Next update will be adding repair units, similar to tech-priests, to factions lacking one. Tau get a repair drone,
CWE a bonesinger, etc. Flyers will get addressed on how they interact with the table.