Understanding Tank Shock

Vehicles and rightly so have long been a major part of the 40k world. But without insulting you the readers intelligence I have found that people tend to be woefully ignorant on how tank shocking and ramming actually works.

To this end I realising I didn't understand it as well as I would have liked went and actually read the rules and surprise, surprise there were parts that screamed... "exploit me Ben, exploit me.."

On to the article:

The main thing to remember is that if you tank shock you cannot then disembark in that phase. As scoring units cannot claim OR contest if they are in a vehicle or fortification this becomes very important.

Scenario: There is an objective which you hold with your troops choice, however in his next turn he will get out with his far superior troop choice and shoot you off the objective, lets say your a squad of guardsman and there's a unit of purifiers in a rhino.

Right, in this scenario the green has blockaded the blue rhino to cover the important area's 1. you need to ensure you have a model within an inch of all access points, this prevents them disembarking. B. you need to have a model on each edge so to force a tank shock else they can just drive off.

Scenario will go something like this: your opponent "I'm going to tank shock your unit"
You: I pass the leadership I don't death and glory (The last thing you want is to destroy the vehicle!)
Them: Right I'm now disembarking.
You: No your not, if you tank shock you can't disembark...

Undoubtedly your opponent will then look this up.. but in 6th edition with units not being able to claim inside a vehicle this can become a lot more relevant and allows you the cunning player to trap their unit in a transport for that vital turn :)

The trick is to force the tank shock and then neatly get out of the way and laugh as they are unable to use 200pts of their army as it's stuck in a rhino :)

Tip: Don't be afraid to assault the unit just because you can't hurt it. It allows you to A. Go within an inch of their rhino and stay there and B. Allows you an extra 2d6 move! If you do somehow wreck it the rhino and the contents will be destroyed as per the failure to disembark due to conflicting control zones rule.

See: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Playing%...ut%20the%20luck 

for full details on this until I can update this blog to the same level.

As ever followers and comments welcome

C-Hydra