As in: Tanks! Use them! In some matches I'm the only one who bothers with actually getting a Predator. Which is weird, because a Predator is: * firepower * armour Just had a match where me and another guy teamed up in a Predator. We circled the perimeter around the capture-point and cleared it of enemy-transports. Always staying on the move, so the Melta-guys don't get you. For a few minutes we even had a third guy in a Heavy-Bolter side-turret (which can damage vehicles as well). It's nice to charge into battle. But sometimes winning the match is more important.
But vehicles EXIST for someone from another squad to borrow and drive off the map with. That is when they don't park them in the middle of the road and run off, leaving a roadblock. Even more fun when they do it on a bridge. Last night there were 5(!) allied Rhinos blocking the one open bridge into Agnathio and NO ONE bothered to try and blow any other gates. And yes, I used a Vindicator on them. (I brake for NOBODY!) Then I used the Vindicator on the enemy Predator that was just inside, I am sure it surprised the HELL out of him. (Surprised the hell out of the idiots cowering behind my tank! Yes, I got kicked for that. WORTH IT!) One thing, why does the Vindicator always drive like it is on ice? The Predator and Rhino don't.
Tank weaponaries are so shitty. Not explosive, so tracking infantry is a pain, might as well just melee them. Not good anti vehicle, Melta on a tactical kills things 100 times faster. Not good survivability, every power weapon and melta will get you in a few hits. What's the point? The only use of tanks is killing turrets with some safety.
IF the tank is fully crewed... IF the crew has a clue how to shoot things and not overheat their guns... IF the driver realizes that the gunners CANNOT hit ANYTHING while the tank is churning over the landscape and stops every so often for them to fire... AND IF the tank has anything REMOTELY like infantry support (even a single tactical can keep those pesky melta gun armed guys away) Tanks CAN be functional to some degree despite the claustrophobic maps. (They are far less claustrophobic than some WWII tank combat maps.) I have seen them done properly, but only a few times in ALL the games I have seen. That was ALWAYS by clanmates who SUPPORTED each other. (They used voice chat too. I asked) In real life, tanks usually get disabled or die fast when not supported by infantry. Mines, IEDs, anti tank rockets, the list goes on and on. 40K it is no different. They take more damage than a character, but they cannot take an infinite amount no matter WHAT some might wish. They are meant to SUPPORT infantry, not REPLACE it. There are no OGRES or Bolos in 40k. Even the superheavy tanks and titans are NOT invincible.
I feel the predator/battlewagon should give the driver access to the main gun. Not many people get in tanks. As much as following fluff on the amount of crew needed is nice and all, unless tanks double in durability, nobody will use them because you would be a slow moving multikill.
I think a more Fluff friendly and more game friendly way to do it is stabilize the main gun while the tank is in motion, If tanks could fire accurately on the move it would be much less problematic to have a crewman for the main gun and have a separate person driving, and makes more sense mechanically as well. If the driver gets control of any gun give them the Pintle mounted storm bolter
Eldar I can see having vehicles that can fire accurately while moving. Mobility is their thing. But would the Imperium BUILD a tank that can fire on the move? Would they CARE? Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines might or might not have tanks with stabilized weapons that can fire accurately while moving, but probably only as VERY rare relics. Maybe the machine spirits/demons for Chaos assist in aiming? Orks? Nah. It makes LOUD noises. Who CARES if you hit anything? (I do want to see Grot 'engineers' hanging on for dear life on the outside of them!)
