Monday, May 3, 2010

Landing Gear Is Not What You Think

One of the funniest (or annoying) things about playing Warhammer 40k is the surprising amount of players who, for whatever reason, have not read their codex or their rulebooks. The Tau Landing Gear is the prime indicator of someone who has not read the rulebook or the codex. Ever been in that situation when your Hammerhead gets immobilized by a lucky shot by a Lascannon?
Your opponents gets all excited and says "its destroyed right?!"
"No," you say, "it's just immobilized."
"Oh because it has landing gear?"
"No because it didn't move flat-out, silly. What's landing gear got to do with it?"



You see, this situation happens to me all the time and its an indicator that your opponent doesn't know the skimmer rules, nor does he know the landing gear rules.

A skimmer is only destroyed by an immobilized result when it is either in a vehicles squadron (as per the squadron rules) or if it has moved flat out (more than 12 inches). As a Hammerhead or Devilfish are not fast skimmers and cannot move flat out, nor are they in squadrons, an immobilized result is only ever an immobilized result.

Landing Gear has nothing to do with immobilized results whatsoever. It simply allows a vehicle to land in the movement phase. While it has landed, it does not count as a skimmer. I have never used this ability. I could see it being used to create a LOS blocker. A Devilfish lands, removes its flying base and a squad of Battlesuits hides behind and jumps out to shoot and then jumps back. I've honestly never done so, as I like to keep moving but it is just one trick in the bag you can use.

8 comments:

IvorTangrean said...

Yes but you have to remember that the Tau Codex is a 4th edition book. And in fourth any immobilized skimmer was destroyed so it is kinda like every skimmer in fifth has landing gear as it's primary use was to give extra defences to your skimmers.

Tim said...

@Ivor, I thought I might be banging my head against a wall with this one. :P
To clarify: the Landing Gear rules have absolutely nothing to do with any vehicle damage results. Even in 4th they did nothing to protect your skimmers. They simply allow you to 'land' in your own movement phase. Go back and read the codex entry for Landing Gear.

Mark said...

Whats the model behind that dude in the pic?

Tylermenz said...

Would the LOS thing be null with the new true los rules. i know in 4th edition you could shoot under devilfish, but I thought in 5th that all tanks blocked LOS, regardless of the base.

I could be wrong.

Tim said...

5th edition is true line of sight, so if you have guys hiding behind a tank and the shooter can see them from underneath the tank, well, your guys can be shot at...

Anonymous said...

Not to mention with TLOS you need taller bases than the GW flying base - on the lower stem base, the 'fish blocks LOS for the firewarriors in back of the skimmer (because LOS is measured from the head of the shooter, which can't see under a low-flying 'fish they are right behind), but not for the enemy unit in front of the 'fish (which has LOS to the FW's feet).

Nothing to do with landing gear.

Anonymous said...

I love landing gear although I've never used it either. If I remember correctly, we sadly can't begin the game in a landed position, which is unfortunate. I hope they change that for our next codex.

Anonymous said...

And actually contrary to popular belief, you cannot remove the flying stand of your skimmer after it lands since the BRB specifically states you can only remove it if the vehicle is destroyed or immobilized. So by landing you give up your movement and stop counting as a skimmer. So LOS stays the same, and you lose your dodge ability against ramming attacks. Landing gear is useless in 5th since using it makes your tanks worse.