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OK so I posted that I thought the Vor Vehicle rules didn't work so well and needed fixing, and then I was (rightfully) challenged to provide exactly what was wrong and what were my suggestions to fix it, anyway?
Specifically, I find tanks and vehicles less valued in terms of points cost than maybe they ought to be, and overwhelmingly available compared to infantry units. For instance, a Union infantry squad of 8 soldiers and a Sergeant, with one of the Soldiers equipped with a Draco Rocket Launcher: 327 points, and a Union Fenris MBT with a Quad Missile Launcher: 280 points. Although the Fenris is "1 per full 500 points" in the rules, you will find it impossible to field more than 1 fully equipped Infantry squad per 500 points, too.
Now, in our imaginary world, let us suppose that 10 Rad Troopers with SMG's gets the drop on our Union Squad on account of our Union player thinking he's Zykhee. It's bye-bye 327 points from a measly 140 point squad. That's more than a 2:1 kill ratio in terms of points. If these same Rad Troopers get the drop on the Fenris, they stand virtually no chance of even wounding it; this actually makes sense due to the classic ineffectiveness of small arms fire against armored vehicles. But there is no opportunity for the classic highly effective Infantry Assault Against Armored Vehicles, either... I would imagine a few Rad Grenades down an exhaust port might o a little damage to a fiddly AG drive, eh? Of course, when the Tank turns on the Rad Troopers, they die by it's Big Tank Cannon, which should be notoriously ieffective against dispersed Infantry... the Chain Gun and Quad Launcher SHOULD be better here, but the Mastiff Cannon is the job-taker here.
Now, a big weakness of Vehicles in Vor is their susceptibility to small arms fire of a different sort. I have seen Ares suits popped open by Pitbull- equivalent weapons, and I just don't think that an armored assault vehicle of that caliber is going to be easily taken down by automatic rifles. By the same token, I think Rocket launchers should be much more effective against vehicles than infantry, and sniper rifles should be much more effective against infantry than vehicles.
So what ever can we do about this gross inequity in the vehicle rules? Simple, really; we add more rules to reflect the way weapons affect different targets. Now before anyone gets too upset, remember that we were all thrilled with Rogue Trader and miss it terribly. And Stargrunt is a way cool game. And we hate how WH40K 3rd edition was simplifed. So without further discussion, examples, or justification, I present the Punkrabbitt Vehicle Rules.
1.Take the cost of every vehicle, published or Custom, and double the points cost. Do NOT double the points cost of upgrades or additions.
2. Change the availability from "1 per every full 500 points" to "1 per every full 1000 points."
3. Categorize ALL Ranged weapons and Vehicle Weapons into one of three categories: Anti-personnel, Anti-tank, and Integral (listing to follow below). Anti-personnel weapons will work as described in the Vor rulebook against Infantry models, but will only ever damage a vehicle on a roll of "1", and even then the vehicle ALWAYS gets its full Armor roll, critical hits and AM do not apply. Furthermore, a vehicle can only ever take 1 Damage from a hit by an Anti-personnel weapon. Anti-tank weapos will work as described in the Vor rulebook against vehicle targets, but all positive "to hit" modifiers are reversed (become negative) when used against Infantry targets. Integral weapons will work as described in the Vor rulebook against any and all targets.
4. Vehicle "Storming": An Infantry model equipped with any Ranged combat weapon may spend MP equivalent to the cost of climbing to get on top of the vehicle and then roll CC or less to succeed; if the model fails then it must pass a knockdown test or treat it as if the model has been rammed by the Vehicle. If the model makes the knockdown test then it is not rammed but it is treated as a critical miss, knocked prone and the model loses all remaining MP for the turn (place the model back where it was when it tried to jump onto the Vehicle). If the model succeeds in "storming" the Vehicle, it is on the Vehicle and may spend the MP to attack, no to hit test is needed here it is assumed that a clip or a frag grenade can kill anything in an enclosed area easily (empties a clip from his weapon, or drops a frag grenade into an open hatch or exhaust vent). The Vehicle is then DESTROYED.
UNION WEAPONS BREAKDOWN
Anti-tank
Draco Rocket Launcher
Harbinger Railgun
Quad Missile Launcher
Dart Missile Launcher
Masiff Main Cannon
Integral
Gila Flamethrower
Hellfire Flamethrower
Bulldog Support Rifle (GL only)
Rottweiler Machine Gun
Lucifer Plasma Cannon
Anti-personnel
All other Union weapons
NEO-SOVIET WEAPON BREAKDOWN
Anti-tank
Havoc Rocket Launcher
Gustav Cannon
Integral
Kalashnikov (GL only)
Wolverine HMG
Tempest Mortar
Cyclops Eye Blast
Eliminator Missiles
Any Mutant weapon
Anti-personnel
All other Neo-Soviet weapons
ZYKHEE WEAPON BREAKDOWN
Anti-tank
Pod Launcher tip (explosive only)
Integral
None
Anti-personnel
All other Zykhee weapons
GROWLERS
ALL Growler ranged attacks are considered Integral
Custom Forces
This is where the Force Designer needs to decide, in terms of background, what is used for what. While the obvious choice is to make everything integral, I HIGHLY recommend only Heavyweapons be Integral or Anti-tank. My guess is that a force will balance out better with about 15% anti-tank weapons, about 25% integral weapons, and the rest as anti-personnel This rules patch breaks down REALLY fast if there are too many integral weapons...
And, of course, none of this has been even vaguely playtested yet!
Like all this? Hate it? By all means, let me know; you can E-mail me!
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