We have all seen the new pictures, if you haven’t then what rock have you been hiding under lately they are everywhere! But we don’t seem to have had anyone posting scans of the rules yet for said fliers, are there any new flier rules? And are the new ships cheesier than a grey knight army painted yellow? These are questions that I wanted answering anyway and it just so happens I now have my hands on the white dwarf.
First of all let's get the obligatory pictures out of the way, just on the off chance you've not seen them -
Starting with the Necron flier (which I flipped for you, because I'm nice like that, many other blogs for some reason are leaving it on its side as the original image is which drives me nuts!) Which is clearly just a rip off of a Cylon fighter from the newer Battlestar Galactica series, no complaints about that though I really like the model and if i did Necrons I would have at least 1 for certain.
The Necron flier rules are nothing new and are detailed fully in their codex so I wont go into them here, its cheaper I believe than a ghost ark and favored by many Necron players for this reason, most probably not playing it just due to the lack of a model so expect to see some of these around!
Onto the best of the bunch the new Ork flier which I love, I'm getting one for sure, just because its funky. The choices are Blitza-Bomber, Dakkajet and Burna-bommer.
The actual rules for these are as follows -
Dakkajet - 110
Fast skimmer, BS2, FSR-10
Aerial Assault - (cruising speed can still fire all weapons)
+1 BS when shooting Artillery, beats, bikes, cavalry, infantry, MC's and vehicles that arent skimmers. Shots also cause pinning.
Supersonic - can move 36" flat out.
Waagh - when shooting during a waagh, the plane can shoot its guns twice.
Wargear - 2 twin linked supashooters (s6 ap4, assault3)
It can take an upgrade to allow it to also get +1 BS to skimmers and jet bikes for 10 points.
So the funky ork fighter jet, Have to say I'm not impressed really, armour 10 its going to get blown up pretty quickly though and the s6 gun, though twin linked and most of the time BS3 firing 6 shots a turn is decent for some anti unit fire. So what would you use this against, s6 really is too low for the majority of vehicles so its without a doubt meant for killing units, put some hurt on a marine squad and hope for a few failed saves? surely a waste for its hefty points price tag.
Which pretty much leaves it shooting at xenos, this plane in my opinion is a xeno killer. S6 is lovely for instakilling some scarabs or even just one shotting some necron warriors, will make dark eldar hurt obviously (both units and vehicles alike) but then so does everything. Nid monsters it should shave a few wounds off of each turn.
Blitza-Bomber - 135
Fast skimmer, BS2, FSR-10
Aerial Assault - (cruising speed can still fire all weapons)
Waagh - when shooting during a waagh, the plane can shoot its guns twice.
This unit has some crazy shooting rules, its basic wargear looks decent at first, it has the supa shooter that the fighter has but only 1 of them, but thats a tacked on weapon, its main item is the boom bomb which to you have to fly in the movement phase (not flat out either) to 1" of your target unit then roll 2d6 and find out what happens next.
The weapon itself is strength 7 with 2d6 pen, so that's not bad however its method of deployment in my opinion is awful.
2 - bomb (which is small blast) scatters 2d6 then explodes but at the increased strength of s9 ap2 (sounds good but whats the odd of rolling double 1 then another double thats low enough to still hit your target with a small blast?
3-4 you blow yourself up at s9 ap2, which is a tad lame.
5-9 goes off as normal with d6 scatter
10-12 lands with no scatter plus some other rules regarding being able to shoot your supa shoota at the unit as well
Note all this is done in the movement phase not shooting so you can still shoot after.
I did like some of the rules for the jet but as with most ork things it's just too random, plus with only av10 all round, that ork plane is going boom as soon as someone else see's it. Dark eldar only get away with having av10 vehicles by spamming them, the cost of these ork planes is way too high to spam them effectively.
Burna-bommer - 125
Finally the burna bommer, which in a nutshell is the exact same as the other planes stat wise and special rules, the only difference being it has some s5 large blast 1 use missiles, you know the drill, its your typical anti swarm anti ork weapon.
Orky Conclusion:
What orks needed more than anything really was some anti tank, they have everything else they need, but all ork anti tank currently is either getting a nob with a power fist into combat and hoping to get a 6 to hit, or lootaz which though good, aren't exactly long fangs good in a world full of tanks. None of these vehicles fill that void well enough for the points, they are all way too many points for what you get out of them.
Marine time and lastly we have the new Stormtallon gunship, most of the internet hates it with a passion, I though quite like it the more i look at it, its very marine, just like the storm raven which i liked as well.
The Stormtallon is 130 points for a fast skimmer that's av 11 all round, which really in my opinion isnt as good as a land speeder. The ship can upgrade its side guns (HB's to begin with) and can upgrade to twin linked lascannons, a typhoon or a new gun called the skyhammer (s7 heavy 3). You have to keep the assault cannon.
It has various special rules, an escort rule that lets it come in along with another non deep striking unit, its supersonic and has aerial assault too. Its last rule is stand and shoot, become a regular skimmer for a turn and become bs5, not too shabby really.
So what is the stormtallon for, well you can leave it at its 130 points variant and use it to kill troops /heavy infantry with some heavy bolter/assault cannon action or simply purchase your choice of either of the heavy weapons and go tank hunting.
The lascannon option isn't bad, bs5 and twin linked so its essentially NOT going to miss baring the worst luck on earth. I prefer the Typhoon though, weighing in at 155 points you get 2 Missile shots, at bs5 when hovering so should be hitting most of the time. The sky hammer i don't really like, it's just an extra shot autocannon and for the same cost of the missile launcher I'm happy to lose 1 shot in exchange for +1 strength and the frag option.
End of the day I think the stormtallon is too pricey purely because its av11, it has too many guns on it, its going to get blown up hard and fast, all people will do with this ship is put it in reserve, hope when it comes on its shooting makes its points back and then watch as it gets removed from the board.
That's it folks, any questions let me know, so what is your opinion of the new fliers? I say fliers, I mean fast skimmers of course. The only hope for these new ships I think is that in 6th, skimmer oval base units will have some kind of extra special rule to help them not instant die all the time.
Will I buy these models, well I really want the ork plane, purely because of how awesome it looks, the marine one, not so much, firstly because its codex space marines only (though it doesn't technically say that, it says adeptus astartes followers) its pretty much implied that other armies cant take it and since I play blood angels, I don't recon I'm going to be getting it.