Horus Heresy: The Care and Feeding of Your Sky Hunter Squadron
Games Workshop has released the plastic Sky Hunters: Age of Darkness. But how exactly should you use yours?
WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE. For Horus Heresy enthusiasts, we’re finally starting to see some models that aren’t plastic boxes, alla Space Marine tanks. With the Sky Hunter squadrons released its a great time to be a legion player. If you’re looking to add some Easy Riders to your force, act soon. Word on the street is that many FLGS’s have been heavily allocated and boxes are very limited.
*A small note, the main weapon on Sky Hunter can easily be magnetized for weapon swaps. I highly recommend the minor time investment so you can get maximum flexibility from your model.
Loadouts
Some Legions take better advantage of the Sky Hunter squadrons than others. However, it shouldn’t be ruled out of any Legion’s list as they are fast vehicles that can outmaneuver most units and hit your opponent where they are weakest. Weighing in at a base cost of 105pts with the option to add an additional bike for a mere 30 pts you can take them in a maximum unit of 10 with 1 Sargent. Regardless of how you opt to kit the unit, the Artificer Armor upgrade on the Sargent is critical to enhancing their durability. This will allow you to tank incoming AP3 shots on your Sergeant. I would also recommend either a Power fist or a Power weapon. Either close combat option is good, especially the power fist if you’re running a larger squadron that can absorb more incoming melee damage until the Power fist can lay into your opponent’s unit at Initiative 1.
Unless you’re running a theme-army such as Ravenwing or White Scars bike list, I think they are best utilized as a combined arms unit with infantry and armor support. Giving your opponent options to shoot at will help them survive over the duration of the game. Seeing the transition between HH 1.0 and 2.0 Jet Bikes have generally lost a step in durability. Their statline is somewhat fragile. They are incredibly susceptible to Str 8 AP3 shooting which can quickly decimate the unit as they are now T4, 2W with a 3+ save. Any legion that can improve its durability makes for a good home for Sky Hunter Squadrons.
I recommend the melta option on your bikes as this will make them both excellent at vehicle hunting and more effective against hard targets with 2+ saves such as terminators or dreadnoughts.
*A small note, make sure you read the Wargear option for the Sky Hunter Squadron as it indicates that each model gets a Legion Scimitar Jetbike which also confers a 5+ shroud to the model when it “runs” as well as Firing Protocols (2), Hammer of Wrath (1) and Deep Strike.
White Scars
As a legion that prides itself on its mobility and lightning strikes, White Scars utilize the same Mongolian cavalry tactics that their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan mastered on his homeworld of Chongoris. In nearly all of their lore, White Scars are depicted as skilled riders and hit-and-run specialists. Analogous to their real-world Mongolian counterparts, White Scars bike lists are both fluffy and potent. I dare say that the White Scars bike list might be one of the most competitive theme-lists as their Legion Trait, Rite of War – Chogorian Brotherhood, Advanced Reaction, Golden Keshig (WS Only Bike Unit) and Primarch all enhance the effectiveness of the Bike Scars list. If screaming across the stars Lobo style with your power-armored Mongolian cavalry army in tow is your jam, White Scars are going to be hard to top.
Advanced Reaction: Chasing the Wind – This is an amazing advanced reaction that can be used as a panic button to move your beloved Bike Scars away from a unit that your opponent brings within charge or melta range of your models. Use this advanced reaction as a board reset to displace your opponent and delay critical units from getting involved in the game. Sky Hunters can move up to 16 inches so a nearly complete board reset is possible if you plan it correctly.
Legion Trait: Swift of Action – Gives you an additional +1 inch of movement and an additional die when seizing the initiative and dropping the lowest. As a fast assaulting alpha strike army, you definitely want the advantage of going first so you can race toward objectives and essentially re-deploy your forces to get out of range of medium and short-range weapons. You’ll also be looking to use your Advanced Reaction early to get even more movement out of your bike squads. Consider baiting out your opponent and then re-deploying your forces to one of their flanks where you can push with an overwhelming force. Bonus points if you can cause enough chaos for your opponent that many of their heavy guns are stuck behind armor out of line of site. Always be looking to utilize your opponent’s vehicles as shooting mitigation.
Rite of War: Chogorian Brotherhood – This ROW allows you to take an ungodly number of bike units. Not only does this allow you to take Sky Hunters and Legion Outriders as Troops and Elites, but it also grants Line to those that occupy your troop slots.
Golden Keshig – Oh, you wanted a jetbike…but turned up to 11? With a Str 10, AP 1 lance hitting at Initiative 8 (Sudden Strike (4) and Brutal (3)), the Golden Keshig are there to put down anything that needs putting down. Knights? Like a hot knife through butter. Pesky terminators? These are a bowling ball looking for pins. Golden Keshig will knock down just about any unit that is unlucky enough to be found in their charge radius. Watch out for that overwatch though, it can be awfully sad to lose these guys before they get to inflict damage. I recommend pairing them with either Jaghatai to absorb the impact of overwatch or running them in tandem with another charging unit so they get in and can unload their limited but lethal attacks.
Jaghatai Khan (Mounted) – It can’t be stated how much of a boon Jaghatai is to a White Scars bike list. The synergy he brings ties together all of the other fantastic things the army has going for it with the Legion Trait, Warlord Trait, Golden Keshig, Advanced Reaction, etc. Not only is he lethal in close combat, but he is a force multiplier for your list. His Warlord trait, Sire of the White Scars, grants Infantry and Cavalry Furious Charge (1) but also an additional reaction during the movement phase. Beyond that, he allows any unit that he is a part of to automatically come in from reserves without a roll…or any Flanking Assault that he is a part of to come on without rolling along with the other included units.
*Hit and Run – This is a an excellent but also risky USR when it comes to your bike units. Not only does this allow you to get out of a bad situation and leave combat, but it allows you to wheel around on the subsequent turn and retain your charge bonuses as you charge units or shoot them down. Just beware of your opponent’s requisite return fire and overwatch reactions. Your best bet is to try to draw out this reaction on a tough unit before engaging with your squishy bikes
*Born in the Saddle Warlord Trait – This is a must-take if you’re running bikes without Jaghatai. It’s never good to lose your precious space choppers, but it doubly sucks when you lose them to dangerous terrain checks. Born in the saddle grants you a 4++ when you inevitably fail a dangerous terrain check on any of your army’s models and lets you ignore the effects of dangerous terrain. The cherry on top of course, is allowing you to make an additional reaction during your opponent’s Movement phase.
Like an onion, the White Scars compile layers of synergy onto the Sky Hunter and Outrider units in their army. If you’re looking for thematic lists that offer hobby opportunities as well as a competitive edge, you’ll want to be scooping up a bunch of these new bikes and building a force of White Scars.
Dark Angels
So you wanted to live your Hells Angels fantasy? Cut, check. Skulls, check. Chopper, check. All in black, check. Dark Angels are one of the OG’s of the Warhammer bike force. They make solid use of the Sky Hunter Squadrons and have an entire wing of their Legion dedicated to fast-moving, lightning assault tactics. Handed the speediest of speeders and the baddest of bikes by Big E at the onset of the Great Crusade, the DA are no joke when it comes to the all-bike list.
Rite Of War: The Seeker’s Arrow – This heavily thematic ROW allows you to take an absolutely gross amount of jet bikes and Ravenwing-themed units. It’s such a specific force that it only allows for Cavalry and Infantry units, and more specifically, the vehicles must include the Fast, Skimmer, or Flier keywords. Beyond that, you get access to a single Heavy slot entry. The major benefit is that your entire army gains the outflank special rule, and any Independent Character (must be keyword Ravenwing) gets Rampage (2). While your Sky Hunters are considered troops, they oddly enough don’t get line, which makes objective capture a challenge. Be sure that you’re taking some troops to move onto objective points that your fast-moving bikes and speeders clear from your opponent’s clutches.
Ravenwing Hexagrammaton offers further movement to an already lighting-fast strike force while also bolstering your survivability with the re-roll to any failed Shroud roll. You will be able to get Shroud on the jet bikes simply by “running” your bikes.
Final Thoughts
The Legion Sky Hunter squadron is an excellent unit that offers tactical flexibility in a fast and nimble package. While they have definitely lost a bit of their durability from HH 1.0 to 2.0 they are still effective at harrying your opponent’s units or catching out-of-position units flat-footed. If you’re looking to play a bike-heavy army, I highly recommend choosing a faction such as White Scars, Dark Angels, or maybe even Death Guard that offers specific benefits to that unit. Unfortunately, at this point, the Sky Hunters don’t have a ton of middle ground. They seem to be best taken as either a whole army where you build around them or as a small supplementary unit to a more balanced force where they are used to pick off objective sitters or specific targets you have in mind for their loadout. I don’t think there is much middle ground when it comes to bikes.
So what’s next? Well, on the horizon, we’re back to Tanks with the Typhon and Cerberus variants of the Spartan that were previewed in late 2022, and of course, we saw our first look at the Traitor-aligned demon “Assassin” today. With Adepticon around the corner, I’m confident we’ll be seeing even more sneak peeks for Horus Heresy as the range expands further into plastic. We’ve also seen quite a few units disappear from the Custodes and Sisters of Silence range on Forge World. While we don’t have anything official, my Heresy sense is tingling, and something tells me we’ll be seeing plastic variants from the Emperor’s Talons emerge over the next few months. I’m personally hoping for a 10-man Aquillon Terminator box and maybe a Caladius Tank.
How are you going to equip your Sky Hunter Squadrons?
