Ok we gave a short introduction last time about flyers, let's go over the most common seen flyers really quick so you have an idea what to expect if you aren't already running into several of these across the table from you. Just a quick run down of the units that we see most often.
Imperial Guard - The Vendetta
If you thought this was under costed before 6th came along this plane must really make you mad now. It is a very solid choice as always. Armor 12 with triple twin linked Lascannon, the ability to take troops, and possibly also a pair of heavy bolter sponsons. Most often you will see just the triple Las cannon load out making this plane a problem for any other planes or vehicles you have on the board.
This is a flex unit and if you have armor this will be killing it, also this plane is normally pretty good at taking out a flyer a turn with average rolls. With the heavy bolter sponsons it also can put out pretty solid damage to any foot unit, plus it could be carrying troops. Judging the threat level of this plane is going to really depend on the mission, and how the opponent is running the thing.
Grey Knights - Storm Raven
The GK Storm Raven isn't seen overly often on the table top, from what I have seen. If you aren't using it to transport troops onto the table it's not really as good as other flyers because it doesn't have solid Anti flyer ability. The Mind Missiles are a fail for anti flyer, they are nice for sniping out psykers in 6th and providing some ground fire but GK's don't have the best anti air support honestly. Again if you see this plane most the time it's what is in the plane that is the real threat so you basically treat this thing much like a LR.
Blood Angels - Storm Raven
The BA Storm Raven has the Missiles which makes it a more solid choice in my book. It allows more flexibility to deal with other flyers and vehicles. The main Draw Back to both Storm Ravens is cost these are not cheap planes by any means. you can basically get two Vendetta's for the price of a Storm Raven.
Necron - Night Scythe
Next to the Vendetta this is the most common flyer you will see on the table top. The Twin linked tesla destructors fire off str 7 hits, and because they become 3 hits when you roll a 6 normally people are not shy about evading and having to snapfire in order to get the cover save when you are shooting at them. The Night Scythe is currently the only plane in the game that doesn't have a risk involved in carrying around troops. These are only armor 11 and only have the one gun, which is the only draw back ..The Crons can take 9 of these things. plus 3 other flyers for a total of 12 if you had the points..
Necron - DOOM Scythe
This is a plane that shoots a freaking laser, normally you see one of these. Once in awhile 2 but normally only one. The laser is a 3 D6 line of STR 10 AP1 pain though. Plus it has the torrent ability so they can start the line 12 inches from the gun. This plane tears through vehicles and is used much like a alpha strike it comes in and kills heavy armor or a line of vehicles then normally it dies to focus fire because most people just don't want this thing to live.
This thing is full of str 6 shooty is all you need to know and that when they use the waaagh ability it gets double shots. This plane is actually very good at killing the Cron planes, and just putting out a great amount of firepower toward things. It was named well. Most Ork lists will be running two of these now because they are such a great utility in the sucky fast section of the codex. However since they are armor 11 like the cron planes normally you can take them down without too much pain.
These are just the most common planes you will run into The Dark Eldar have planes but I seldom see them in playing or in battle reports, Also the Space Marines how a flyer but I don't see it show up overly often personally either. Also I haven't talked about Flying MC's at all which are a different threat but have many of the same issues when dealing with them as flyers do.
However the goal is to keep these parts light and easy reading, now that we have an idea what we are facing I want to talk about how you deal with flyers in 6th in my next post and really get some thoughts on paper for you to consider next time you are list building or playing against flyers.