Aura, faction, psychic and wargear abilities, and plunging fire.
Abilities that affect models or units within a stated range are aura abilities, and are tagged with the word ‘Aura’. While a model with an aura ability is on the battlefield, it is always within range of its own aura ability. A unit can be affected by more than one aura ability at a time, but if a unit is within range of the same aura ability more than once, that aura ability only applies to that unit once.
Some abilities are common to each unit that belongs to a particular faction – these are faction abilities (also known as army rules), and are listed in the Faction Abilities section of a datasheet. Unless otherwise stated, a unit’s faction abilities only apply if the army faction you selected while mustering your army matches a faction keyword listed on that unit’s datasheet.
Abilities tagged with the word ‘Psychic’ are psychic abilities. If a psychic ability causes a model to lose one or more wounds, each of those wounds is said to be inflicted by a psychic attack (this can be important for the triggering of other rules).
Abilities that are gained when a unit (or one of its models) has a particular item of wargear are wargear abilities, and are listed i the Wargear Abilities section of a datasheet. If a unit has an item of wargear that has a wargear ability, that ability applies to that unit. If a model within a unit has an item of wargear that has a wargear ability, that model is the ‘bearer’ of that item of wargear and that ability applies until that model is destroyed.
Each time a model makes a ranged attack that targets a visible unit containing one or more models on ground level, if one or more of the following conditions apply, improve the BS characteristic of that attack by 1: ▪ The attacking model is on a section of a terrain feature that is 3" or more in height. ▪ The attacking model has the TOWERING keyword and the target unit is within 12". PLUNGING FIRE All of these attacking models are on a section of terrain feature that is 3" or more in height, and the target unit contains models on ground level, so Plunging Fire improves the BS characteristic of those attacks by 1. +1 BS This attacking model is on ground +1 BS level, but has the TOWERING keyword. The target unit is within 12" and contains models on ground level, so Plunging Fire improves the BS characteristic of those attacks by 1. AIRCRAFT fulfil a unique but limited role on Warhammer 40,000 battlefields. AIRCRAFT ADVANCED Hurtling through the skies while they duel one another, strafe ground forces or perform bombing runs, they are constantly on the move.