Fortifications by Mark K.
Gronk lifted his head out of the trench line and squinted across the field. In the distance the dark shape of the bunker could just be seen in the gathering gloom. "Da humies wunt know what hit 'em." thought Gronk (which in itself took a considerable chunk of his brain power). In one hand he grabbed his bolter and in the other he grabbed a couple of unfortunate Gretchen who happened to be standing by and idle. "Keep close to da ground" grunted Gronk as he and his band of Grethen moved from shell hole to shell hole.
It was nearly night and the shadows would conceal the Ork " I'll just sneak up to da humies bunker and den toss a buncha stik bomz thru da door and BOOM! " mused Gronk. Now he was close, only about 20 meters away or so. Gronk almost chuckled at his crafty plan. Almost that is until the bunker's spot light blazed into his eyes and the sounds of Autocannon fire echoed across the field...
Well Gronk should have studied the humies a little more. Small fortifications have been used through out the history of war to provide cover for squads of men, often armed with heavy weapons, in the defense of a territory. It occured to me that W40K was missing something along these lines. Oh sure you can have the Bastion and Fire Base terrain sets sold by the folks at Games Workshop, but sometimes they just don't cut it.
I introduced a series of dome shapped bunkers in one of our W40K games a few months ago. The domes are based off of a line of models put out by Symtac for the Kryomek game system. I purchased a series of these models and have used them in several games. The units are fun and may be adopted for virtually any 40K army.
What follows are simple rules for incorporating small fortifications into your games. This is the first installment of a set of rules that I have used with my group. Follow the links below to view the Datafax for each Fortification.
All of the fortifications presented are essentially immobile vehicles. Consequently they have an Armor rating, crew, damage locations, and damage tables. You should use the rules for vehicles when possible during your games. We have found that they domes are well balanced as presented and should not need any modification. However, you are the best judge for what works best in your games. So here are some guidelines to help you in determining how a given situation should be adjudicated: