There are few things in the 41st Millennium as terrifying as a headlong assault by waves of heavily armoured tanks, which is why forces like the Astra Militarum love them so much.
But recently, armoured vehicles have been struggling to keep up with the relentless firepower the average Warhammer 40,000 army can throw around. So one major focus in the new edition has been to make those units that should feel tough more meaningfully durable. And that mentality starts with the tanks.
Almost every vehicle has received a bump in Toughness. So while Toughness 9 used to be the highest you’d ever see in a game, in the new edition you can find units like the Ork Stompa with toughness as high as 14!*
All the weapons in the game have also been recalibrated to fit into this new scale, and we’ll be talking about those tomorrow.
Coming out of the gate with a Toughness score to match the Titans of old, the reinforced Rhino actually sits towards the bottom end of the pool of hardy Space Marine vehicles. Its new Toughness of 9 leaves it significantly less vulnerable to most infantry-portable weapons, even meltagun blasts.
At the same time, the Rhino receives two core abilities common across many factions – Deadly Demise and Firing Deck.The first of these dictates how many mortal wounds are suffered by nearby units when a vehicle explodes,** while the second shows how many embarked models can shoot from inside a transport. Both rules have previously existed in many different forms, and are now condensed into core abilities for clarity.
You’ll also notice that most Vehicles have an OC (Objective Control) of more than 1, meaning that ramming a depleted enemy infantry squad to muscle them off an objective, is an entirely legitimate tactic!
All of this means there’s now a lot more nuance to individual tanks, and vehicles all carve out a niche in their own factions. Rest assured though, the majority of vehicles (and monsters) are beefier than before.
We’re still not recommending staying out in the open against concentrated railgun fire, but you should find your armoured behemoths make it through more firefights and can form a solid bastion in your army. To prove the point, here are a few more examples from the Space Marine roster.
A lot of vehicles used to suffer from characteristics that degraded as they took damage. Most of those now simply suffer a penalty to their hit rolls when reduced to one-third of their starting wounds – leaving big vehicles and monsters in the fight to the last. And many vehicles don't degrade at all, we intentionally wanted to only keep these when they felt meaningful.
Come back tomorrow to find out about how weapons have changed. Ensure you catch every last bit of coverage by signing up for our dedicated newsletters, and visit the hub to see what else has been revealed so far.
* Granted, not much can reach those lofty heights. ** Provided you roll a six on death, as before.
