Skimmers and Bases: when do you use them.

[Lord Azaghul]

Ok: So I'm getting a valk for christmas, and I popped over the read the skimmer rules.

The rules say that the only time you remove the 'flying base' is: when the skimmer is destroyed/wrecked and when your turn is done. Now I can only assume you remove the base at the end of your movement phase...
This pretty much leads me to my real question: why do you have a base in the first place?
IE When I deploy or come in from reserved. I'm on my base.
When I done moving, I removed the base.
Skimmer sits there for the whole turn.
I place the base back on - move the model - take the base off...???

Am I missing something? Espeically becaues it seems like a never see other players with skimmers remove their bases/stands?

[DarkLink]

Since when did you have to remove a skimmer base when your turn was done?

You only take it off if the skimmer is immobilized and/or destroyed.

[ColCorbane]

Yeah, that's the way I always thought it worked. I've never seen anyone take a base off while the skimmer was still in play.

[Lord Azaghul]

I don't have my book with me at the moment. But It mentioned something about the skimmer 'landing' -at the end of its movement phase. And I below that it mentions the whole wrecked thing - and it says something to the effect of 'these are the only two times you remove the base"

Perhaps i'm misreading it - I'll quadruple check it when I get home!:confused:

[Old_Paladin]

There is a clause that a skimmer cannot land, unless it has a special rule or gear that allows it to do so (such as Tau landing gear; or some dropships in Apoc).

[Lerra]

You can choose to land some skimmers if you wish (ex: for LOS purposes). You are never forced to land a skimmer. Even when it's wrecked, you can keep it as a floating wreck if you can't remove the base, or don't want to.

[MVBrandt]

You must remove the base if you can, that's explicitly stated, with the exception written that if it's not possible/feasible, you can leave it on and have it assumed to be still hovering by a trick of its design.

You can't remove them from their bases willfully ... obviously that would be absurd for already-potent vehicles like the Valks anyway.

Basically, consider the base as crucial to the model as any other 40k model's base, with the exception that if it is destroyed or immobilized and you CAN remove the base, you are permitted to. I find the valk bases (I have 9 of them, and one of my 2k lists is 6 valks and 3 vendettas) especially useful b/c they fasten on pretty well w/out adhesives, so you can take the valks off easily without them being unstable in-use. Easy to use the base as the crater on an exploded, or just take it off and place the valk down on an immobilized or wrecked.

[Fizyx]

Skimmer bases are one of the areas I feel 5th edition is severely lacking.

The only reason, besides quasi-realisticality (I just made that word up,) is TLOS purposes, which are so hotly debated that I repainted a D6 with ME over the 4,5,6's and YOU over the 1,2,3's just for TLOS arguments.

The big issue I have is there is no stated length for the stand of a Skimmer in the rule-book. Therefore, I can put my devilfish on a 3" flying base, claim you get no cover save because none of your model is obscured by my skimmer, then land at the end of my turn and say I get a 3+ hard cover because 99% of my unit os obscured, if you can even see me at all? Hell no, people. Jim doesn't play by those rules.

I play Tau, and luckily all my Devilfishies, and other skimmers that share the same hull, have landing gear, which is where they sit. I don't evebn play FoF at all anymore because I was spending too much time going over TLOS for friendly games.

TL;DR version: I play without unless someone really wants me to put one on.

[Lord Azaghul]

Thanks lads. I just trying to make sense of the skimmer paragraph (probably shouldn't have tried after large turkey dinner!)

[slxiii]

Skimmer bases are one of the areas I feel 5th edition is severely lacking.

The only reason, besides quasi-realisticality (I just made that word up,) is TLOS purposes, which are so hotly debated that I repainted a D6 with ME over the 4,5,6's and YOU over the 1,2,3's just for TLOS arguments.

The big issue I have is there is no stated length for the stand of a Skimmer in the rule-book. Therefore, I can put my devilfish on a 3" flying base, claim you get no cover save because none of your model is obscured by my skimmer, then land at the end of my turn and say I get a 3+ hard cover because 99% of my unit os obscured, if you can even see me at all? Hell no, people. Jim doesn't play by those rules.

I play Tau, and luckily all my Devilfishies, and other skimmers that share the same hull, have landing gear, which is where they sit. I don't evebn play FoF at all anymore because I was spending too much time going over TLOS for friendly games.

TL;DR version: I play without unless someone really wants me to put one on.

I don't play with flying stands on my tau for the simple reason that they break all the damn time, and it's a pain to try and remedy that. Once I thought it would be cool if I replaced the plastic rod with a custom metal one, so i spent the better part of an afternoon cutting and filing down a piece of metal until it was the approximate size and shape of a flying stand. The fist time I used this stand, my opponent(someone I hadn't played before or since) accused me of mounting my tank on custom rods so that I could get better LOS over my other tanks. Later, when I moved my vehicle behind a small building, he accused me of mounting it too small to give it a cover save(cause a disruption pod isn't enough). Needless to say I never played him again, but in general i will never mount my skimmers, because the people I usually play don't care-the skimmer rules are BS anyways.

[BDub]

Seems to me that it's the nature of skimmers that they can hover and change altitude as suits them - hence they can elevate when they need line of site and de-elevate when they need cover. Otherwise, why else have a specific vehicle type for them?

If you were playing me and said my skimmer can see over that wall and target you, I would say great!, have at'em. Then if you claimed the wall blocked LOS from that same unit I would suggest taking it off the flying stand and lets have a look. If he cant take it off the flying stand I would hope he would be sporting enough to use the TLOS and eat the retaliation.

The point is - this is a game of table top combat using models. The TLOS rules are there to preserve and even foster that spirit. If you want to leave your skimmers off of flying stands do so, but respect the TLOS. If you have flying stands, make sure they are removable before you start claiming cover. If they aren't removable just expect to get shot at alot. I just chalk it up to different flight characteristics or pilot skill with regards to how the skimmers are flown. It adds flavor and shouldn't be used as an excuse for abusing your opponents.

With that said, I do think GW should have had a maximum height for skimmer stands and perhaps a minimum for Flyers so they could be differentiated and their interplay with the terrain better illustrated for LOS purposes.

Have fun.