Vibrocannons

[Abbo]

Can somebody explain how a battery of three vibrocannon works. The rules have me slightly confuzzled, mainly because of the example given

Any help would be appreciated

Abbo

[DoctorTom]

What part are you confused about? You get to roll to hit for 3 vibrocannons, but only draw one line as the rules say if you get a "hit" on any of the 3. If the line touches someone, follow the rules to see how many hits each unit under the line gets, and the strength of the hits will be modified based upon what the rules say to do when you have more than one vibrocannon.

[fidesratioque]

Right, above post is correct. Just to summarize and add some detail:
1. Roll to hit for each vibrocannon. If one hits, they all hit.
2. Roll 1d6 for each vibrocannon. This is how many hits you generate.
3. Adjust the S of the vibrocannon hit by +1 for every vibrocannon above 1 in the battery. In other words, if you have three vibrocannons, you get S6 hits.
4. Any vehicle touched by the line is auto-glanced.

So in the best case scenario you could get 18 S6 hits with three vibrocannons.

[Chrysis]

Right, above post is correct. Just to summarize and add some detail:
1. Roll to hit for each vibrocannon. If one hits, they all hit. Trace the line from any vibrocannon in any direction.
2. Roll 1d6 for each unit the line touches, this is how many hits it takes. Vehicles take 1 hit, don't roll the d6, and jump to step 4.
3. Adjust the S of the vibrocannon hit by +1 for every vibrocannon above 1 in the battery. In other words, if you have three vibrocannons, you get S6 hits.
4. Any vehicle touched by the line is auto-glanced without rolling for penetration.

So in the best case scenario you could get 6 S6 hits with three vibrocannons.

Fixed step 2 so you aren't cheating horrendously.

[Abbo]

Thanks guys, was confused about whether they actually added +1 strength if they missed, just wanted to make sure i ddin't cheat.
Abbo

[red_drake]

2. Roll 1d6 for each vibrocannon. This is how many hits you generate.
.

I wish that were true

[fidesratioque]

You guys are right -- that's really a shame. And for a moment there I thought vibrocannons were worth their points.

[DoctorTom]

They can be worth their points. A weapon that doesn't require line of sight that can affect multiple units, and even affect units in combat. From the FAQ:

Q. Can vibro cannons affect targets out of line of
sight? Friendly units? Units locked in combat?
A. Yes, they are rather indiscriminate weapons.

There aren't that many weapons that can do that. I've seen vibrocannons and D cannons act as deterrents for enemy units getting close, which can also be good if you have other units close to them that can keep shooting and not get locked in assault.

[Homer S]

I have always thought they should also be Barrage, with the "hit" coming from the line. What good is being in cover if the ground is doing a hula dance?

Homer

[BramGaunt]

I didn't want to open a new thread, therefor I'm ressurecting this one.

If I have a unit of 3 Vibrocannons and I hit a vehicle, does it suffer 1 autoglance or x, x being the number of cannons actually in the unit? I'm going for 1 per Unit, nor up to 3.

[Cabalistic]

Legitimate.

Full rules-text is:

[flufftext omitted] When firing a vibro cannon battery, roll to hit (the firer does not need to pick a target).
If any of the vibro cannons hit, draw a single 36" line from one vibro cannon in any direction. Any unit wich the
line passes through suffers D6 hits. For each vibro cannon in the battery after the first, add 1 to the strength of
these hits. For example, a unit of three vibro cannons rolls a 1, a 6 and a 4 to hit; they would draw a single line
from one of the cannon[sic! should be plural] and any unit it touches takes D6 S6 hits.

A target with an Armour Value that is hit by a vibro cannon always suffers a single glancing hit,
do not roll for armour penetration.

[weaponsprofile omitted]

My reasoning would be:

The example is explicit. It implies, that as long as you hit with one Cannon in the battery, all of them will have hit and you calculate the strength of the hit accordingly. However, the example only references the effect on infantry.

Against vehicles, if a target is hit "by a vibro cannon [it] always suffers a single glancing hit,"

Argumentation could be: The whole squadron rolls to hit but hits its target as long as one of its members pass their ballistics-test. This would be in accordance with the example given in the rules text and be equal to as many glancing hits as the battery has cannons.

The other argument is: The example is in reference to the effect on infantry. Vehicles will receive a glancing hit for every vibro cannon that hit them. Thus, while you still draw a single line as per the description of the weapon, you will only generate as many glances as you have generated hits during your to-hit-roll.


I am leaning to the latter, i.e. you roll to-hit for your battery, calculate the hits, draw one line and resolve against infantry in accordance with the e.g., while against vehicles you generate a glance for every hit.

[BramGaunt]

(...) a glance for every hit.

Yeah. But you have only one line, and therefor only one hit. The other two cannons don't draw lines and therefor don't provide any hits.

[Cabalistic]

You have not provided a valid argument for that

[Solonor]

just treat a vibrocannon battery like a single weapon and it should be fine

two vibrocannons 36"" twin linked line that does d6 S5 hits to units in the way or 1 glancing hit to vehicles

or

three vibrocannons 36"" tri linked line that does d6 S6 hits to units in the way or 1 glancing hit to vehicles (making vibrocannons the only tri linked weapon in 40k , unless im missing something)

[Nurgling Chieftain]

You have not provided a valid argument for that

By my reading, neither have you. Your argument is such a pick-and-choose reading that it doesn't actually make any sense at all. If you ignore so much of the rules for the vibrocannon that you don't generate a single hit, there's no rules left to let you generate any hits, so it's not even a valid interpretation in the first place. And then there's the larger problem: you're making an entirely unsupported assumption that rules which are not overridden by the vehicle-specific adjustment, are overridden by the vehicle specific adjustment, the text of which ("single") you then proceed to conveniently ignore.

I mean, there are two arguments for why it's a single glance: The first is because the rule directly tells you that it is so, and the second is because the rules that are not overridden (nor in any way non-vehicle-specific), notably the rules that allow you to get any hit at all, also specify a single hit.

[Solonor]

Taking into account the latest rumours for 6th edition, a vibrocannon battery can provide a good way to remove that last hull point to wreck a vehicle, if the chance presents itself.

[Cabalistic]

By my reading, neither have you. Your argument is such a pick-and-choose reading that it doesn't actually make any sense at all. If you ignore so much of the rules for the vibrocannon that you don't generate a single hit, there's no rules left to let you generate any hits, so it's not even a valid interpretation in the first place. And then there's the larger problem: you're making an entirely unsupported assumption that rules which are not overridden by the vehicle-specific adjustment, are overridden by the vehicle specific adjustment, the text of which ("single") you then proceed to conveniently ignore.

I mean, there are two arguments for why it's a single glance: The first is because the rule directly tells you that it is so, and the second is because the rules that are not overridden (nor in any way non-vehicle-specific), notably the rules that allow you to get any hit at all, also specify a single hit.

Except I aint - hit by a (=one) Vibrocannon suffers a single hit --> one hit per vibrocannon that passes the to hit...

[BramGaunt]

Hit by a vibrocannon does not automatically mean one hit for every cannon. The rule text says if you are hit by the vibro cannon (hit by "the line") you recieve one single hit.

[Cabalistic]

It does not "wich is hit by the line receives a single hit"

[...]A target with an Armour Value that is hit by a (! SINGULAR) vibro cannon always suffers a single glancing hit,
do not roll for armour penetration.

The Line however is 3 Vibro cannons shooting, not a Vibro cannon, but 3.

[BramGaunt]

But it doesn't say so, and if it really was three cannons fireing, the other units affected by the beam would suffer 3D6 hits. They only suffer one, though, because it's a fixed effect. There is no function to represent this. Vibrocannons work unlike any other weapons in the game. You roll x times to hit, x being the number of cannons you have. If 1 of them hits, resolve as it's been stated. If none of them hit, nothing happens.

Following your argumentation, one could claim a twinlinked Lascannon actually scores 2 hits, because it clearly is two lascannons, as you can see on the model. Game mechanics however tell us that you only produce one hit. Same goes for the Vibrocannon. We see three weapons fiering as one. Imagine them more like the Death Stars planet-blower-upper-gun: the three beams focus into one and then hit everything on their way. If one of them fails, it's strength is reduced, but it can still operate - weaker. Alderaan was not blasted by 8 small blasts, but one big. And definatly only hit once.

Also, last but not least - Warhammer 40k rules are not to be speculated or interpreted. Sometimes, things are unclear. Most of the times we get an errata/faq for this. If the rule doesn't clearly state that something is possible, it isn't. So, as the rules don't say "Vehicles suffer a single hit for every Vibrocanon in the unit fireing", they don't. You fire a single shot, for which you may roll to hit thrice. Thats it. An errata may change this in the near future.