The third part of my review will look at the rules for the new flyers and their formations that have been introduced in Death from the Skies.
New Flyers
Stormhawk Interceptors
Space Marine armies have a new flyer of the Fighter type to take on their foes. The flyer is based on the Stormtalon chassis and I really like the look of the new model (I may even consider picking one up in time).
The Stormhawk has a higher front armour of 12 compared to the Stormtalon, but the rest of the stats remain the same. This gives the Stormhawk a bit more durability compared to the Stormtalon. It is also a fighter, giving it some great bonuses in the Dogfight phase (it even gets a bonus to its Pursuit and Agility values in the Dogfight phase).
The flyer comes armed with a twin-linked assault cannon, Las-talon and twin-linked heavy bolter, so has a decent amount of firepower. The Las-talon is a shorter ranged Lascannon with an extra shot, so pretty good for taking on other flyers or ground tanks (albeit hitting on 4's thanks to being a Fighter). The Las-talon can be upgraded to an Icarus Stormcannon, which has the Interceptor and Skyfire, making it very useful in the Dogfight phase. The heavy bolters can be upgraded to either a Skyhammer missile launcher or Typhoon missile launcher. The options for the Stormhawk's weapons allow you to either target armour or infantry as you choose. The only downside is that the Stormhawk suffers a -1 BS penalty to shooting a ground targets, so may diminish its firepower slightly.
The Stormhawk also comes armed with an Infernum Halo-Launcher, giving it re-rollable Jink saves to get in on some of that sweet Ravenwing action.
I like the Stormhawk Interceptor. It is a great looking model and comes with a lot of firepower for such a cheap flyer. It does suffer a bit against ground targets, but should perform very well in any dogfights.
Wazbom Blastajets
This new Ork flyer is based on the chassis of the Dakkajet (and its varients) and shares the same profile, so armour 10 all round and 3 hull points. As such, it is not the toughest of flyers available.
It comes armed with a twin-linked Kustom mega kannon, smasha gun and stickbomb flinga. The Kustom mega cannon is essentially a strength 8 plasma cannon so will be great for taking on normal marines or terminators. The blast helps mitigate the Orks' poor ballistic skill, but gets hot is risky for damaging your own vehicle. The smash gun is strength 5-10 and AP1, so potentially great for taking out vehicles if you can roll high enough. The stickbomb flinga provides you with a 5+ invulnerable save against one glancing or penetrating hit each enemy shooting phase. A decent save if you take the risk of not jinking against non-skyfire weapons in case your opponent gets a lucky hit. Though with its poor armour of 10, many weapons in the game potentially pose a threat to the blastajet.
The Kustom mega cannon can be replaced with a Tellyporta mega blast, which has essentially the same profile, but has a lower range and any rolls of a 6 to wound inflict instant death or an auto penetrating hit. The Stickbomb flinga can be replaced with a Kustom force field, giving the plane a 5+ invulnerable save against all shooting attacks. You can also give it a turret supa shoota that gains the Interceptor rule. All these upgrades can get expensive, taking them all makes the flyer cost almost 200 points, which I think is pretty expensive for the damage output it can provide.
It also has rokkit boostas. A once per game bonus that boosts its pursuit value at the expense of its agility, helping it out in Dogfights.
I'm not wild about the Wazbom Blastajet. The Kustom mega kannon is decent enough but is not going to do a huge amount of damage with the small blast. The smash gun could be a useful anti-tank or monstrous creature weapon, but if you want this I think you would be better served taking a unit of Mek guns. For 50 pts less than the flyer, you could get 3 mek guns with the added bonus of not only 3 shots, but increased ballistic skill, toughness 7 and a 3+ armour save, as well as additional ablative wounds in the form of extra crew. For me, the Blastajet simply does not bring enough to the table to justify its points cost.
New Formations
Strike Wing
This new formation for Space Marine flyers consists of two Stormtalons and two Stormhawk Interceptors.
The only special rule for this flyer wing is that it has two Wing Leaders, so two rolls on the bonus table. The formation can also form two Vigilance patterns made up of the Stormtalons and Stormhawks. The special rules state that as long as both pairs of flyers are in the attack pattern, then they gain the vigilance attack pattern rules no matter how far apart the pairs of flyers are. I'm not sure I understand what the bonus is for this. Does it mean that you can form two separate vigilance patterns or that you would gain the Vigilance rules if you were in, for example, the Indomitable attack pattern? To me, the wording is not too clear and I am not sure what the bonus for this formation is. If anyone out there understands the wording, please let me know.
Ravenwing Abductor Squadron
This flyer wing consists of a Dark Talon and two Nephilim Jetfighters. This flyer wing gives the Dark Talon the Vigilance attack pattern rules when the flyers are in any formation.
I'm not sure what the bonus for this formation is. The Dark Talon already has strafing run and will hit ground targets on a 2+, so the +1 BS bonus of the Vigilance wing is useless. The +1 to jink save is useful (especially with Ravenwing re-rolls), but the Jinking Dark Talon will be unable to fire its rift cannon or drop the stasis bomb, so will be snap firing two hurricane bolters. I think the Ravenwing Silence squadron formation grants more of a bonus, and even then, it is still not a great bonus for taking three quite expensive flyers.
Ice Storm Assault Pack
This formation for the Space Wolves consists of two Stormwolves and 2 Stormfangs. The flyer wing gives units that disembard from the Stormwolves Fleet the turn they disembark and has the option to freeze enemy units that suffer unsaved wounds from helfrost attacks, making them stationary and WS1.
This flyer wing is obviously geared towards getting units into combat, of which the Space Wolves have a wide variety of units that could take advantage of this. Getting fleet on the turn they deploy is great for ensuring that your units get into combat and ensuring that the unit(s) they are fighting are WS1 will also significantly help with their damage output (the helfrost attacks are either S6 AP3 or S8 AP1, so you should cause wounds unless your opponent is very lucky with their cover or invulnerable saves).
When going into Hover to allow the units to deploy and assault, the Fortitude attack pattern would be great, providing a 4+ invulnerable for your flyers against enemy shooting and combat counterattacks in the following turn.
My only concern with this formation is that it costs 870 pts base before any upgrades or unit to put in it are taken into account. This would only likely be used in massive games or where you want to make it the main focus of your army. As such, I'm not sure how often it would be used or be seen on the tabletop. Saying that though, there are likely some crazy Space Wolves players out there ready to give it a go (all Space Wolves players are close to frothing maniacs anyway, not refined and elegant like us Dark Angels players in our fabulous robes........)
Blackheart Talon
This Dark Eldar formation consists of two Razorwing Jetfighters and two Voidraven Bombers.
This formation provides the Razorwing Jetfighters' weapons with the Interceptor rule and prevents the bombers from being targeted in a dogfight if their are Razorwings in reserve. In addition, the flyers get to pick a priority target in the enemy army and gain Preferred Enemy against the unit.
A pretty decent bonus for the flyers in the formation, but again, pretty expensive to buy the four units for flyer wing.
Shroud of Kurnous
The Eldar also get their own flyer formation consisting of one Hemlock Wraithfighter and 2-3 Crimson Hunters.
The formation's special rules boost the psychic defence of the formation. Any Crimson Hunter within range of a Wraithfighter gets +2 to Deny the Witch rolls. I assume this is only against attacks targeting the Crimson Hunter, but the rules do not specify this. I'm not sure how useful this would be, how often are flyers targeted by psychic powers? In addition the Hemlock Wraithfighter gets the Shrouding power in addition to any other psychic power.
Opressor Flight
This Necron formation consists of a Night Scythe and 2-3 Doom Scythes.
The formation gets a pseudo-preferred enemy against enemy HQ units and allows a single friendly Necron vehicle to deep strike without scatter close to the flyer wing if they are in a formation. This provides a nice bonus for ensuring that other Necron vehicles arrive when and where you want them to, given the large range that flyers have in the game.
Ork Skwadron
This huge formation consists of 3 flyer wings consisting of either a Blitz-bommer wing, burna-bomber wing or dakkajet wing, so at least 6 flyers in the army.
The Best of Da Best rule allows you to pick one flyer wing to get some bonuses, including +1 BS and the skilled rider rule. This could potentially give the flyer wing a 2+ Jink save if the appropriate attack formation is chosen and give you BS4 Orks with the correct formation!
Da Big Wing allows you to use all the flyer wings in an attack formation, granting them the ability to move flat out and shoot.
I think the first bonus is more useful than the second, as flyers can generally cover much of the board in their movement phase, but could come in handy in certain situations.
Kustom Wazmob
This formation consists of a Wazbom Blastajet (which must take a kustom force field) and any three other Ork flyers. This formation only gives one special rules, but its a pretty good one. While in the Fortitude attack pattern, all flyers in the wing gain a 3+ invulnerable save.
This is a pretty good bonus for the Ork flyers, giving them a better than Jink save and lots of firepower for the four flyers. You could build this formation for just below 500 pts, giving you a lot of firepower and a seriously durable flyer wing in the absence of any significant skyfire weaponry.
Air Caste Support Cadre
A Tau formation consisting of 2 Razorshark Strike Fighters and two Sun Shark Bombers. This formation gives you a slightly worse It Will Not Die and a special rule giving them the potential to ignore Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned rolls. Pretty good for keeping your shooty Tau flyers firing each turn and taking on enemy threats.
Air Superiority Detachment
This detachment consists of one compulsory flyer wing, with two optional additional flyer wings.
For taking the flyer wing, you receive a number of bonuses.
AIR COMMANDER- This ability gives you some nice bonuses in the Dogfight phase and some great reserves manipulation. If you have Air Superiority and the Wing Leader is in reserve, you get to add or subtract 2 from your reserve rolls. This practically guarantees your reserves will arrive or give you a good chance of delaying them. In addition, your opponent subtracts 2 from their reserve rolls, meaning reserves only arrive on a 5+, quite a significant hindrance if your opponent has a reserves heavy force.
COMBINED FORMATION- All wings from the formation can roll a single reserves roll if you wish.
OBJECTIVE SECURED- All transports that can hover gain the objective secured rule. In order to benefit from this rule, you would probably need to place the flyer on the board without its base, as most flyer bases will force the flyer to be outside the range to claim any objectives.
Overall
I like the new Stormhawk, it is a great looking model and brings some decent weaponry to the table for Space Marine players. It will also do very well in the Dogfight phase.
I'm not so wild about the new Ork flyer. The model looks nice enough, but the rules just don't jump out at me as being particularly impressive. It is, however, necessary for one of the better formations in the book.
The new flyer formations give you a nice way to field your flyers and gain some nice bonuses to the army. The one that stands out to me is the Air Superiority detachment. You can take this with only two flyers and if your opponent has no flyers, will give you some massive reserve advantages. For a space marine player, you could significantly hinder your opponent's reserves and boost your own for as little as 220 pts. A pretty good bargain in my opinion.
So that is some of the new formations available to flyers from the new Death from the Skies book. Any that stand out for you? Are you rushing out to buy any new flyers in order to take advantage of the new formations?
DEATH FROM THE SKIES REVIEW
Part 1- Flyer Rules and Flyer Wings
Part 2- The Dogfight Phase
Part 3- New Flyers and Formations
Part 4- Air War Missions
Wazbom Blastajets
This new Ork flyer is based on the chassis of the Dakkajet (and its varients) and shares the same profile, so armour 10 all round and 3 hull points. As such, it is not the toughest of flyers available.
It comes armed with a twin-linked Kustom mega kannon, smasha gun and stickbomb flinga. The Kustom mega cannon is essentially a strength 8 plasma cannon so will be great for taking on normal marines or terminators. The blast helps mitigate the Orks' poor ballistic skill, but gets hot is risky for damaging your own vehicle. The smash gun is strength 5-10 and AP1, so potentially great for taking out vehicles if you can roll high enough. The stickbomb flinga provides you with a 5+ invulnerable save against one glancing or penetrating hit each enemy shooting phase. A decent save if you take the risk of not jinking against non-skyfire weapons in case your opponent gets a lucky hit. Though with its poor armour of 10, many weapons in the game potentially pose a threat to the blastajet.
The Kustom mega cannon can be replaced with a Tellyporta mega blast, which has essentially the same profile, but has a lower range and any rolls of a 6 to wound inflict instant death or an auto penetrating hit. The Stickbomb flinga can be replaced with a Kustom force field, giving the plane a 5+ invulnerable save against all shooting attacks. You can also give it a turret supa shoota that gains the Interceptor rule. All these upgrades can get expensive, taking them all makes the flyer cost almost 200 points, which I think is pretty expensive for the damage output it can provide.
It also has rokkit boostas. A once per game bonus that boosts its pursuit value at the expense of its agility, helping it out in Dogfights.
I'm not wild about the Wazbom Blastajet. The Kustom mega kannon is decent enough but is not going to do a huge amount of damage with the small blast. The smash gun could be a useful anti-tank or monstrous creature weapon, but if you want this I think you would be better served taking a unit of Mek guns. For 50 pts less than the flyer, you could get 3 mek guns with the added bonus of not only 3 shots, but increased ballistic skill, toughness 7 and a 3+ armour save, as well as additional ablative wounds in the form of extra crew. For me, the Blastajet simply does not bring enough to the table to justify its points cost.
New Formations
Strike Wing
This new formation for Space Marine flyers consists of two Stormtalons and two Stormhawk Interceptors.
The only special rule for this flyer wing is that it has two Wing Leaders, so two rolls on the bonus table. The formation can also form two Vigilance patterns made up of the Stormtalons and Stormhawks. The special rules state that as long as both pairs of flyers are in the attack pattern, then they gain the vigilance attack pattern rules no matter how far apart the pairs of flyers are. I'm not sure I understand what the bonus is for this. Does it mean that you can form two separate vigilance patterns or that you would gain the Vigilance rules if you were in, for example, the Indomitable attack pattern? To me, the wording is not too clear and I am not sure what the bonus for this formation is. If anyone out there understands the wording, please let me know.
Ravenwing Abductor Squadron
This flyer wing consists of a Dark Talon and two Nephilim Jetfighters. This flyer wing gives the Dark Talon the Vigilance attack pattern rules when the flyers are in any formation.
I'm not sure what the bonus for this formation is. The Dark Talon already has strafing run and will hit ground targets on a 2+, so the +1 BS bonus of the Vigilance wing is useless. The +1 to jink save is useful (especially with Ravenwing re-rolls), but the Jinking Dark Talon will be unable to fire its rift cannon or drop the stasis bomb, so will be snap firing two hurricane bolters. I think the Ravenwing Silence squadron formation grants more of a bonus, and even then, it is still not a great bonus for taking three quite expensive flyers.
Ice Storm Assault Pack
This formation for the Space Wolves consists of two Stormwolves and 2 Stormfangs. The flyer wing gives units that disembard from the Stormwolves Fleet the turn they disembark and has the option to freeze enemy units that suffer unsaved wounds from helfrost attacks, making them stationary and WS1.
This flyer wing is obviously geared towards getting units into combat, of which the Space Wolves have a wide variety of units that could take advantage of this. Getting fleet on the turn they deploy is great for ensuring that your units get into combat and ensuring that the unit(s) they are fighting are WS1 will also significantly help with their damage output (the helfrost attacks are either S6 AP3 or S8 AP1, so you should cause wounds unless your opponent is very lucky with their cover or invulnerable saves).
When going into Hover to allow the units to deploy and assault, the Fortitude attack pattern would be great, providing a 4+ invulnerable for your flyers against enemy shooting and combat counterattacks in the following turn.
My only concern with this formation is that it costs 870 pts base before any upgrades or unit to put in it are taken into account. This would only likely be used in massive games or where you want to make it the main focus of your army. As such, I'm not sure how often it would be used or be seen on the tabletop. Saying that though, there are likely some crazy Space Wolves players out there ready to give it a go (all Space Wolves players are close to frothing maniacs anyway, not refined and elegant like us Dark Angels players in our fabulous robes........)
Blackheart Talon
This Dark Eldar formation consists of two Razorwing Jetfighters and two Voidraven Bombers.
This formation provides the Razorwing Jetfighters' weapons with the Interceptor rule and prevents the bombers from being targeted in a dogfight if their are Razorwings in reserve. In addition, the flyers get to pick a priority target in the enemy army and gain Preferred Enemy against the unit.
A pretty decent bonus for the flyers in the formation, but again, pretty expensive to buy the four units for flyer wing.
Shroud of Kurnous
The Eldar also get their own flyer formation consisting of one Hemlock Wraithfighter and 2-3 Crimson Hunters.
The formation's special rules boost the psychic defence of the formation. Any Crimson Hunter within range of a Wraithfighter gets +2 to Deny the Witch rolls. I assume this is only against attacks targeting the Crimson Hunter, but the rules do not specify this. I'm not sure how useful this would be, how often are flyers targeted by psychic powers? In addition the Hemlock Wraithfighter gets the Shrouding power in addition to any other psychic power.
Opressor Flight
This Necron formation consists of a Night Scythe and 2-3 Doom Scythes.
The formation gets a pseudo-preferred enemy against enemy HQ units and allows a single friendly Necron vehicle to deep strike without scatter close to the flyer wing if they are in a formation. This provides a nice bonus for ensuring that other Necron vehicles arrive when and where you want them to, given the large range that flyers have in the game.
Ork Skwadron
This huge formation consists of 3 flyer wings consisting of either a Blitz-bommer wing, burna-bomber wing or dakkajet wing, so at least 6 flyers in the army.
The Best of Da Best rule allows you to pick one flyer wing to get some bonuses, including +1 BS and the skilled rider rule. This could potentially give the flyer wing a 2+ Jink save if the appropriate attack formation is chosen and give you BS4 Orks with the correct formation!
Da Big Wing allows you to use all the flyer wings in an attack formation, granting them the ability to move flat out and shoot.
I think the first bonus is more useful than the second, as flyers can generally cover much of the board in their movement phase, but could come in handy in certain situations.
Kustom Wazmob
This formation consists of a Wazbom Blastajet (which must take a kustom force field) and any three other Ork flyers. This formation only gives one special rules, but its a pretty good one. While in the Fortitude attack pattern, all flyers in the wing gain a 3+ invulnerable save.
This is a pretty good bonus for the Ork flyers, giving them a better than Jink save and lots of firepower for the four flyers. You could build this formation for just below 500 pts, giving you a lot of firepower and a seriously durable flyer wing in the absence of any significant skyfire weaponry.
Air Caste Support Cadre
A Tau formation consisting of 2 Razorshark Strike Fighters and two Sun Shark Bombers. This formation gives you a slightly worse It Will Not Die and a special rule giving them the potential to ignore Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned rolls. Pretty good for keeping your shooty Tau flyers firing each turn and taking on enemy threats.
Air Superiority Detachment
This detachment consists of one compulsory flyer wing, with two optional additional flyer wings.
For taking the flyer wing, you receive a number of bonuses.
AIR COMMANDER- This ability gives you some nice bonuses in the Dogfight phase and some great reserves manipulation. If you have Air Superiority and the Wing Leader is in reserve, you get to add or subtract 2 from your reserve rolls. This practically guarantees your reserves will arrive or give you a good chance of delaying them. In addition, your opponent subtracts 2 from their reserve rolls, meaning reserves only arrive on a 5+, quite a significant hindrance if your opponent has a reserves heavy force.
COMBINED FORMATION- All wings from the formation can roll a single reserves roll if you wish.
OBJECTIVE SECURED- All transports that can hover gain the objective secured rule. In order to benefit from this rule, you would probably need to place the flyer on the board without its base, as most flyer bases will force the flyer to be outside the range to claim any objectives.
Overall
I like the new Stormhawk, it is a great looking model and brings some decent weaponry to the table for Space Marine players. It will also do very well in the Dogfight phase.
I'm not so wild about the new Ork flyer. The model looks nice enough, but the rules just don't jump out at me as being particularly impressive. It is, however, necessary for one of the better formations in the book.
The new flyer formations give you a nice way to field your flyers and gain some nice bonuses to the army. The one that stands out to me is the Air Superiority detachment. You can take this with only two flyers and if your opponent has no flyers, will give you some massive reserve advantages. For a space marine player, you could significantly hinder your opponent's reserves and boost your own for as little as 220 pts. A pretty good bargain in my opinion.
So that is some of the new formations available to flyers from the new Death from the Skies book. Any that stand out for you? Are you rushing out to buy any new flyers in order to take advantage of the new formations?
DEATH FROM THE SKIES REVIEW
Part 1- Flyer Rules and Flyer Wings
Part 2- The Dogfight Phase
Part 3- New Flyers and Formations
Part 4- Air War Missions