Flyers

[Yarbicus]

I only have a few games of 8th under my belt and haven't faced any flyers yet.  Most of my 40k experience was 3-6 editions so scary flyers were extremely rare.

I play Space Marines so what I should I be concerned about?  What are my options for dealing with them?  Which ones should I consider for my own lists?

[peter.cosgrove]

The nasty flyers are the ones with the 18" flamethower. Auto hits.

[WestRider]

Options for dealing with them vary. Since it's just a -1 rather than needing 6s, just spamming regular firepower can work on many of them. For the ones that are harder to deal with (Hemlock Wraithfighters, etc.), the Hunter looks pretty nice, and also still decent at hitting ground targets if there aren't any Flyers. The StormHawk Interceptor is also good against Flyers and has the flexibility to be a solid gunship as well.

The Storm Raven is one of the best Flyers in the Game, possibly the best, so that's definitely worth thinking about. The StormHawk is also quite good, and very versatile. The StormTalon is unfortunately kind of badly overpriced. Point-for-Point, the StormHawk actually works out better as a ground-attack plane if it's not loaded entirely with the anti-air setup.

[Yarbicus]

Good info.  I do have a Storm Raven and have been looking for an excuse to take it.

[happycamper]

Vultures with Punishers.  Heavy40 str5 shots that hit ground targets on 3s if in hover mode, 4s if not.

14 wounds

all for 160pts

[Steel Angel]

If your ok with forge world this baby rules the skies Xiphon Pattern Interceptor. It has (with all be it good rolls) taken out in one turn both a stormraven and a baneblade.(not in same turn)

It has 4 lazcannons and a heavy 3 rocket launcher, it can move and shoot heavy weapons with no penalties and gets 1 to hit flyers

[Yarbicus]

Yeah, not really ready to commit to a Forge World model.

[SPaceORK]

As stated before, with only a -1to hit, just shoot a whole bunch.

[Steel Angel]

one landspeeder and a whirlwind can hurt flyers bad. They have a strat. called datalink that lets the whirlwind autohit if the speeder is with in 12" of target.

 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Yarbicus said:

I only have a few games of 8th under my belt and haven't faced any flyers yet.  Most of my 40k experience was 3-6 editions so scary flyers were extremely rare.

I play Space Marines so what I should I be concerned about?  What are my options for dealing with them?  Which ones should I consider for my own lists?

2 big changes to fliers this edition:

1st, the penalty to shoot a flyer is only -1. So expect traditional AT weapons to get pointed at your flyer (like melta guns and lascannons). And that penalty is only shooting, melee and psychic powers are unaffected by "hard to hit"

2nd, and I think the biggest change, any unit with the "fly" keyword units can assault flyers in this edition. So Jump Infantry, for example, are able to directly attack a flyer in melee (jump infantry have the fly keyword in this edition). The main defense here is that the flyer can move quickly and over enemy models, so getting out of melee is easy and you should be able to outrun most melee units (but that doesn't mean you can afford to ingore models with the fly keyword). 

[Yarbicus]

16 hours ago, SPaceORK said:

As stated before, with only a -1to hit, just shoot a whole bunch.

Pretty much my answer to everything.

[Kremmet]

2 hours ago, Yarbicus said:

Pretty much my answer to everything.

That's the ork answer to everything (even though their 5+ BS actually makes the proliferation of shooting modifiers problematic from a design standpoint).

[WestRider]

3 minutes ago, Kremmet said:

That's the ork answer to everything (even though their 5+ BS actually makes the proliferation of shooting modifiers problematic from a design standpoint).

Some kind of rule where they usually or always ignore modifiers to their hit rolls might actually be interesting for Orks. Base it just on the fact that their shooting is less about shots with the target's name on them, and more about way more shots addressed "to whom it may concern."

[VonVilkee]

1 hour ago, WestRider said:

Some kind of rule where they usually or always ignore modifiers to their hit rolls might actually be interesting for Orks. Base it just on the fact that their shooting is less about shots with the target's name on them, and more about way more shots addressed "to whom it may concern."

Maybe they always hit on a max of six regardless of modifiers?

[Kremmet]

Honestly I'd rather just see a return to BS 4+ for the orks. They were put at 5+ in an effort to stop gunlines being the most effective way of playing them in editions that didn't use modifiers. Putting them at 4+ with no access to the same force multipliers for shooting that IG, SM, Eldar, etc. have access to will already make them worse without removing the core of the game or requiring the faction to work counter to everything else. 

[Yarbicus]

Hey, quit hijacking my thread!!

How do flyers work as transports?  Specifically, what are the rules for "landing" and disembarking?

 

[WestRider]

Same as any other Vehicle for the most part. Disembark before it moves. No requirement that they go into Hover mode or anything like that.

The one exception I'm aware of is the Valkyrie's Grav-Chute Insertion, which lets you Disembark at any point in its movement, as long as it's more than 9" from enemy Models, and if the Valk moves 20" or more that Turn, you have to roll for each Model and on a 1, it dies.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing that adds any further restrictions on the Unit's movement afterward with Grav-Chute Insertion, so the 9" requirement is kind of a lame duck restriction, since they can seemingly take a full move after.

[Yarbicus]

13 hours ago, WestRider said:

Same as any other Vehicle for the most part. Disembark before it moves. No requirement that they go into Hover mode or anything like that.

 

I guess that explains why I can't find any special rules!

Thanks.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, WestRider said:

Same as any other Vehicle for the most part. Disembark before it moves. No requirement that they go into Hover mode or anything like that.

Hover mode just grants the option to not move the transport. Also would allow you to pivot on the spot, instead of having limited arcs of movement.

 

14 hours ago, WestRider said:

The one exception I'm aware of is the Valkyrie's Grav-Chute Insertion, which lets you Disembark at any point in its movement, as long as it's more than 9" from enemy Models, and if the Valk moves 20" or more that Turn, you have to roll for each Model and on a 1, it dies.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing that adds any further restrictions on the Unit's movement afterward with Grav-Chute Insertion, so the 9" requirement is kind of a lame duck restriction, since they can seemingly take a full move after.

The main logic here would be if the Valkyrie is surrounded in melee. Normally, your units couldn't disembark because they can't move through enemy models and likely can't be placed within 3" of the valkyrie (which would destroy the models that can't be placed). Grav Chute allows them to disembark anyway, just outside of the melee area. 

As for the 20" or more, that basically means you choose between hover mode and regular mode, in this instance. Hover mode is the only way to travel less than 20" in a turn.

Grav Chute also means that you could advance 65" and basically deep strike your transported unit anywhere.