Monsters and Vehicles

MONSTER and VEHICLE models are the largest, most durable pieces on the table, and they follow a handful of special rules that let them shove past other models, measure from their hull, and keep fighting even while locked in combat.

Moving through other models

Bulk normally forces models to weave around one another. The biggest ones barge through instead. Whenever a unit makes a Normal move or an Advance move, any MONSTER or VEHICLE models in it may pass straight over friendly and enemy models as they travel. The one thing they cannot move through is another MONSTER or VEHICLE model. As with every move, they still have to finish somewhere legal: a model that crossed a squad cannot stop on top of it.

FRAME models and measuring

Most models sit on a base, and distances are measured to and from that base. Some large models have no base at all. Many MONSTER and VEHICLE kits fall into this category, along with certain other oversized models, and these carry the FRAME keyword.

When a rule cares about where a FRAME model sits relative to anything else on the battlefield (measuring a range, checking a distance, and so on), you measure to and from the closest point of the model itself, not from a base, unless a rule tells you otherwise. This holds even for a FRAME model that does happen to have a base.

FRAME models also pivot more freely. When you rotate a based model during a move, you are constrained by its base. A FRAME model without a base may instead be turned by any amount around its central axis, so long as you keep it upright.

Shooting while engaged

Being locked in Engagement Range normally shuts a unit out of the Shooting phase, and that remains true even when the enemy is a MONSTER or VEHICLE. A unit engaged with an enemy MONSTER or VEHICLE still cannot make ranged attacks against it, unless that unit is separately eligible to shoot while engaged, for example because it is using close-quarters shooting with its [CLOSE-QUARTERS] weapons.

The MONSTER or VEHICLE, for its part, can shoot back through close-quarters shooting, so these big models trade fire in melee where an ordinary unit could not.

Targeting engaged Monsters and Vehicles

The size of these models also makes them exceptions to a normal targeting restriction. In your Shooting phase you are allowed to pick an enemy MONSTER or VEHICLE unit as the target of a ranged attack even while it is engaged with your own units. You could not do that against a rank-and-file target caught in melee.

There is a price for shooting into that scrum. Each time a model makes a ranged attack against an engaged MONSTER or VEHICLE, subtract 1 from the hit roll, representing the difficulty of drawing a clean bead while your own troops are in the way. That penalty is waived for attacks made with [CLOSE-QUARTERS] weapons fired by models whose own unit is locked in combat with the target; those close-in shots are unaffected.

Two further points follow from the target being engaged. Because it counts as engaged, [BLAST] weapons cannot be aimed at it, so a [BLAST] weapon looking for a home has to pick a different, unengaged unit. And a friendly unit locked in combat with that MONSTER or VEHICLE can only reach it with close-quarters shooting: it may fire nothing but its [CLOSE-QUARTERS] weapons, and only at the very MONSTER or VEHICLE it is engaged with, not at anything else.

Playing them correctly

• Barging through models is a movement perk that stops at the end of the move; always resolve to a legal final position.
• Treat FRAME and "has a base" as separate questions; a FRAME model with a base still measures from its hull.
• The -1 to hit for shooting an engaged MONSTER or VEHICLE stacks with any other modifiers already in play, but never touches [CLOSE-QUARTERS] fire from an engaged shooter.
• Engagement blocks [BLAST] weapons regardless of the target's size, so keep those weapons pointed at unengaged units.

Frequently asked questions

Can Monsters and Vehicles move through other models in Warhammer 40,000?

Yes, but only on a Normal move or an Advance move; a Fall Back move gets no such perk, so a tank surrounded in melee still needs a gap in the ring (or Desperate Escape) to get out. The other big exception is bulk against bulk: two MONSTER or VEHICLE models can never pass through each other, so a Knight parked in a gap is a wall to another Knight.

What does the FRAME keyword do in 40k?

It swaps the base for the model's own outline as the thing you measure from, and it frees the pivot. In practice that means a Leman Russ's sponson counts for range and for Engagement Range, and a turret or wing that overhangs an objective marker can be the point that puts the model within reach of it. Check for the keyword on the datasheet rather than assuming: an oversized model with a base and no FRAME keyword still measures from that base.

Can you shoot an engaged Monster or Vehicle in Warhammer 40,000 11th edition?

Yes, with the -1 to hit that shooting into a combat costs. The engaged unit's own [CLOSE-QUARTERS] weapons ignore that penalty, and they are the only weapons it can fire at all. Note that the rest of your army may keep shooting the same target from outside the melee with every weapon it has, penalty included, except [BLAST].

Can a Monster or Vehicle shoot while locked in combat in 40k?

Yes, through close-quarters shooting, and its choice of targets follows the usual close-quarters rule rather than any special dispensation for size. The asymmetry cuts the other way: a squad of Intercessors tied up by a Carnifex cannot shoot it unless they are eligible to shoot while engaged, so tying a Monster up with a cheap unit does not silence its guns.

Can BLAST weapons target an engaged Monster or Vehicle in Warhammer 40,000?

No. The size exception opens up the target for ordinary ranged attacks; it does nothing for [BLAST], which is barred from any engaged unit. Point the [BLAST] weapon at another unit that is not in combat, or hold it.