Thunderfire Cannon

Artillery units count as infantry in most respects, but when they are fired at, hits may be scored on the guns themselves, which have vehicle-like characteristics. 


The gun models are treated as vehicles with an Armour Rating of 10 Any glancing or penetrating hit will destroy a gun – do not roll on the Vehicle Damage table, the gun model is simply removed. If all the crewman models are killed, the guns are immediately removed as well. 


Sometimes the player has the choice of adding leadersor additional models to the crew of an artillery unit. These models are part of the crew in all respects and may operate the guns as normal, even if they are otherwise slightly different from the rest of the crew. Independent characters that join the unit, however, do not count as crew and cannot operate the guns.


Artillery units are slowed by difficult terrain like infantry, but gun models must also take dangerous terrain tests when they pass through it. There must be at least one crewman per gun to allow the unit to move – if there are fewer than this, then the unit may not move.


Unlike other vehicles (see next section), the gun models cannot fire if they moved at all in that turn’s Movement phase. Any crewman that is within 2" of a gun in the Shooting phase can fire it. The crewmen firing the guns may not fire any weapons they are carrying, while the other crew members (and any independent character that joined the unit) are free to fire their side arms, and can even shoot against a different unit than the one targeted by the unit’s guns. The guns themselves cannot split fire. When firing the guns, there must be a line of sight to the target from both the gun model and the crewman firing it (unless they are barrage weapons, of course). Ranges are measured from the gun model.


When firing against an artillery unit, roll for each hit inflicted: on a 1-4 a gun is hit, on a 5-6 a crewman is hit. Roll to wound the crewmen and to penetrate the guns’ armour separately. 


If an artillery unit goes to ground, this has no additional protective effect on the unit’s guns. Artillery units cannot run in the Shooting phase.


Artillery units may not launch assaults as long as they include any gun models.


If they are assaulted, move the assaulting models in base contact with the crew and guns as normal, but from then on the guns are ignored. All engaged enemies roll to hit and to wound against the crew (even if they are only engaged with guns). Engaged crew models can of course fight back, but the guns do not.


For the purposes of Morale and other Leadership tests, and for combat resolution, always ignore the gun models, as if they were not there. Because they need at least one crewman per gun in order for the unit to move, if an artillery unit does not have one crewman per gun when it is forced to fall back, the gun models without crewmen are abandoned and immediately removed. The rest of the unit then falls back as normal. If an artillery unit is forced to fall back from close combat and the enemy is free to make a sweeping advance, then the artillery unit automatically loses the Initiative roll and is caught and destroyed by the victor.

Space Marines automatically pass tests to regroup, and can take such tests even if the squad has been reduced to less than half strength by casualties, though all other criteria apply. Usually troops that regroup cannot move normally and always count as moving whether they do or not, but these restrictions do not apply to models subject to this special rule. If Space Marines are caught by a sweeping advance, they are not destroyed and will instead continue to fight normally. If this happens then the unit is subject to the No Retreat! rule in this round of close combat and might therefore suffer additional casualties.


Units which include Servitors are still subject to this rule, providing that the unit contains at least one Space Marine.

A non-fearless Space Marine unit with this special rule can choose to automatically fail any Morale check it is called upon to take