Would people like to see vehicle upgrades, and if so, what kinds of upgrades should there be? Some thoughts:

-Ablative armour.

-Supercharged engine

-Increased fuel capacity

-Nitro boosters (he he he)

-Increased ammo capacity (or any listed ammo capacity, for that matter)

-Extra comfy seats

-Extra shiny gilded exterior

-Upgraded fire suppression systems

-Sensorium array

I realise most of these might be reflected by adding vehicle traits, but it would be nice to see some rules on how an enginseer, or a tinkering guardsman might accomplish these. Additionally, vehicle 'downgrades' could be made use of.

As an extra note, what about weapon upgrades that could be added to vehicle weapons. Some of the existing ones could be appropriate, although perhaps not a melee attachment.

Despite how awesome a battle cannon with a bayonet might be.

As much as it might be argued that one shouldn't be customising one's vehicles because, y'know, the Mechanicus REALLY don't like that sort of thing, I say that if there's room for custom modifications on a Line Infantry regiment's guns, there ought to be room for custom modifications on an Armoured regiment's Russes…

I am ALL FOR an extra shiny gilded plating option :-P. But ya, up- and downgrades would be nice to see in a future supplement, perhaps when they add the other vehicles everyone has been asking for.

Do they have the regular ones, like from the Codex? I would like my Sentinel to have the enclosed cabin, thanks. Sort of wonder how well cover and concealment help vehicles in this game. If I cover my Basilisk in tarps, branches, and stuff, will it be harder to find, for the big boom, and the horrendous explosion? I'm sort of sure most of our military tarping Howitzers, and such, is to hide them from air recon, and I don't expect most of the expected enemies have oh so much of that; Orks don't care, Nids don't care, and I'm not sure what else the book gives, to have knockdown, drag out battles with, rather than the quick skirmish with Eldar, before they escape, or the short battle with the Tau, before my tanks are nuked.

venkelos said:

Well, one, ideally self propelled guns fire, then relocate to avoid counter battery fire, as the big boom does tend to give them away. Orks have aircraft known as fighta bommas (and full on bommas) for a reason. So, yes, orks do care. Nids don't care much, but, again, artillery parks in fluff do get gargoyled, so even the hive mind recognizes the significance of artillery.

The real reason that armor, including SPGs get netted isn't just to foil aircraft, but to break up the outline of the vehicle, making them harder to detect, identify and to score penning hits, on at range. Weak points on tank armor tend to be very small, and if your vision is obscured somewhat, it's hard to make an accurate shot, particularly in brush or tree lines.

I'm working on some rules for vehicle and vehicle weapon upgrades. So far I have the ones in the codex done, however, there are about twenty more that are based on real world armor and weapons that I'm tweaking still. Without a doubt, certain, nameless, people will complain that it's too complicated to have separate crit tables for AP(DS), HEAT/HESH, and energy munitions, but…

BaronIveagh said:

Well, while move, fire, move could certainly work, I think I'd rather, at least in a full warzone, just erect some AA guns in my artillery's vicinity. And Orks don't have FBs to take out enemy artillery; they have them because they like making, and seeing things go BOOM!; if they actually hit anything, I believe that's just a bonus, and their BS supports me . Seriously, though, yeah moving after firing is probably best. Have to wonder if OW is realistic enough to work in establishment time, and such. I would imagine a Basilisk having to move, relocate, hunker back down, and then draw bead on some distant target, triangulating and plotting a firing solution, before launching a shell, and doing it all over again; a rather inefficient system in regards to sustaining fire, though accurate to the situation. Rather hope they don't have a setup time, something comparable to a reload time, just to be able to fire again, in addition to actually reloading the Earthshaker again, since that's a single-shot weapon (breach-loading?).

venkelos said:

When was the last time you heard of artillery doing sustained fire outside a siege? Typically self propelled artillery deals in fire support, or on rare occasions a walking barrage, rather the massive WW1 style artillery engagements, which is done with fixed emplacments and massive numbers of transports loaded with munitions.

And, believe me, when artillery gets hit, that's one BIG boom. Bigger is better, by ork lights, after all.