Rolla 101

Ok the deathrolla’s been around for a while.

The FAQ clarifying the ramming has been around for a while.

But I only started playing with them in my army recently.
Set in my ways? me? nah.

Since starting to use ‘em I’ve discovered that they do kinda strain some of the 40K base rules and more importantly it’s easy to mis-use them. The sections of rules that they are working from are generally sideline. Lots of players will play for months, never carry out a ram attack or a tankshock.

So I figure a quick 101 might be useful.

Before going any further grab your rules and read the tankshock and ramming section. Yes RTFM. It’s the best way to learn. Think yourself lucky you’ve got a rulebook, in my day you had a rulebook and 20 White Dwarf updates. <grumble>

So all ready?
STEP 1
Lets have a squint at the deathroller in basic mode.
Tank shock or ram a unit and in addition to the normal rules, there are D6 str 10 hits.

Things to remember

  • The units hit still get armour saves
  • Str 10 instakills lots of stuff
  • Low Ld armies do not like having to take Ld tests

STEP 2
Slightly more complicated mode.
The unit decides to death or glory.
Things to remember

  • Take your Ld test before declaring your death or glory
  • Only models that were rolled can elect to death or glory
  • The unit takes 2D6 Str 10 hits, even if it stops the battlewagon
  • The Gloryhog has to stop the battlewagon moving or die. There is a reason tankers call infantry “squishies”

Only models being rolled getting the glory option is why Ork players tend to try and snipe a model that doesn’t have any nasty meltabombs or stuff like that.

There’s a bit of debate on how the instakill and the 2D6 work. As far as I’ve been able to figure it’s all simultaneous.
This means you have to use wound allocation.

1 SQUISH on the Gloryhog( if it fails)

2D6 str 10 on the unit

So depending on the unit size and number of hits the wounds can wrap around.
“Why do I care it’s all instakill ?” Well if you’ve an IC in the unit you’re probably going to want to try and keep them alive or limit the wounds they take.

STEP 3
Ram a vehicle
Things to remember

  • Hits are against the facing of the target you’re ramming.
  • You have to blow the rammed vehicle up or you stop moving.
  • If you pop a transport you’ll get to roll over the contents as well.

“What cheese is this Murphy!?!” I hear you ask.
The reason you get to squish the contents as well as the can are as follows.
Exploded vehicles drop their transported unit where the vehicle was.
Unless you’re just clipping the vehicle or your opponent gets lucky they will not be able to put the squad in that footprint without getting tankshocked.
The tankshock rule states that all units get hit, you don’t have to target them.

STEP 4

Things to remember

Walkers are different ( of course)

  • Treated as infantry with Ld except if you hit ‘em from behind it can’t death or glory
  • If it fails a death or glory  it gets it in the rear armour

Imagine, 20 boys in a battle wagon trying to sneak around the back of a dreadnought going “Shush, I don’t think he’s seen us. Get ready…. ready….. floor it!!”

General tips

  • I recommend pivoting the ramming vehicle, and then measuring but not actually moving anything until you work out all the effects.
  • Remember to take your difficult terrain checks going over debris.
  • Only the models that would be under the rammer/tankshocker at the END of the move must be moved out of the way. 1″ from enemy units, shortest distance and preserve coherency.
  • Remember that technically you cannot even move other models in the affected squad as that can make a big difference to where the displaced models can go.

I have no idea what to do if you tankshock in such a way that you might break a squad coherency. It hasn’t happened so far for me so I’ll cross my  fingers.

That’s it folks the quick guide to Rolla’s

So what did I miss? Reply below————–