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40K: More Flyer Rules Spotted!

4 Minute Read
May 3 2016
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GW-new flyers-horz

We’ve got another round of info about the mechanics of Flyers – come see the latest info from Death from the Skies!

Inq.Serge is back with more info on the mechanics from Death from the Skies.

via Inq.Serge, Warseer 5-2-2016

Well, With the book in hand, here’s a fun thing on dogfights (other than that you can kill off enemy fliers in reserve, and that the dogfight phase is less of a phase and more of a quick mini-game); If you have flyers in reserve, and your opponent doesn’t, you gain air superiority, which gives you +1 OR -1 in reserve rolls (Your choice) AND gives your opponent -1 to reserve rolls. If you have the flyer detachment, this bonus is increased to +2/-2.

Also; Who plays with more than 1 voidraven? Most of the bombers are rarely taken in multiples. Most of the flyers are rarely taken in multiples. Sure, I rarely play DE without my 3 RJF, and I occasionally add in 1 VRB, but most people do not spam flyers, especially not the same flyer. Thus, you will, most likely, never meet a proper attack pattern, and if you do, the opponent will be lacking in ground forces.

And the loss of skyfire, Considering that most flyers jink a lot, it’s not that much of a loss.

flyers1

And for -1bs against ground targets; Skimmers and jetbikes do not count as ground targets! Thus, 3 RJF in attack pattern can get Tank hunter when shooting Monoliths. And ignore cover against jetbikes!

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In my opinion; It’s a wonderful book, and I love it.

The tank hunter thing:
You must have 3 flyers (of the same sort, I.E: 3 valks, 3 RJF, 3 Stormhawks) in this formation (like a triangle, everyone looking at the same direction. Note; They are not a squadron, and all act independently, targeting independently. )

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(You have to put your planes in that formation).

marine-squadron-horz

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Fighters get Tank Hunter against flyers, FMC, Jetbikes and skimmers.

Attack craft against every thing else.

Bombers reroll failed to pen rolls, and may chose to reroll glances (However, it only applies to their bomb)

You can always ally in 2 stormhawks (or any other pair of fliers) in any army with the flier detachment.

Considering that the vendetta’s not even mentioned in the book, and FW’s already making a vendetta upgrade kit (have one myself); I think It’ll go back to FW-only.

And come on people, Unlike me, most of you do not use an average of 3-4 flyers in your 1850 pts armies, and even if you did, the sky isn’t falling down. Sure, the formations do not give voidravens 10″ stD blasts, but then again, the formations are free and the attack patterns are free-er, we all saw how pissed people got when marines got a free disintegration gun, making attack patterns and formations too good would make people go crazier than usual. It’s just a compensation for the lack of footsoldiers.

The dogfight subphase and the new roles and stats make flyers something more than poorly manoeuvred hard-to-hit skimmers. They’re more “gamble”-y, less overpowered (not that most of them where overpowered, just presumed to be), and still not mandatory.

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DeathFromTheSkies1 horz

Two Gamers have gotten their book and have been dropping hints at the contents all week. Those summaries can be found here and here. This one does seem like a big game changer… But I think Inq.Serge has a point about the number of flyers people own. Basically if you were using flyers already then this is going to be be a book you’re going to want to grab and use for your games. If you were ignoring flyers and just sticking to “the ground game” then this one may not impact you very much.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this shakes-up the meta at the big tournaments. Will they adopt it or ignore it? Will players even bother to “take advantage” of it? Time will tell.

 

I feel the need…the need for speed!

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Author: Adam Harrison
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