Peoples experiences versus Flyers

[christopher300]

Hi Guys

Flyers

What is the deal, I have not reread the flyer section of my rulebook. I have not come across flyers yet.

So I am asking from people's experiences of how things actually happen in battles.

How hard are these guys actually to hit and do they cause much hassle?

What are the likely flyer you would come across?

How useful are hydras and quad guns, i.e. how many ae needed to be effective and before wasting too many points on these units? After all I believe the hydra only fires snapshots at non flyer units.

[dangerrod]

I've played against plenty, the Blood Angels Stormaraven is possibly the best flyer in the game. Its armed with S8 Bloodstrike Missiles and can be fitted with Twin Linked Lascannons and Twin Linked Multi Meltas! It also has AV12 all round plus Ceramite armour which negates Melta weapons +D6 armour pen.

Plus it can split fire thanks to "Power of the machine spirit". I've seen one knock both of my Vendettas out of the sky in one turn!

Just about every other flyer is manageable, when it comes to shooting them down. Everything can snap-fire at flyers, I've dropped a Valkyrie with rapid firing plasma vets.

The Quad Gun is very handy but always be careful where you place it on the table before the game starts, be sure you can cover/see as much of the board as possible.

Hydras are good but they lack the interceptor USR which can hurt them, expect them to get picked on!

As for how much of a hassle they are, its rare (IMO) to see more than 2 flyers in a game (not including Necron Air Lists) Plenty of rapid firing HWT's using "Bring it down"should see most flyers taken down.

This is a dice game after all, roll enough dice and some 6's will show up! It only takes one lucky shot to knock down a flyer......

[gamma016]

The only fliers I have trouble with really are hive tyrant's with wings, they are tougher then a regular flier just because it's toughness six and four wounds so it can't be taken down with one shot. Also from what I understand chaos has the dirtiest fliers of all, the flying monstrous creatures with armour and templates that can hit fliers. Mass shots with bring it down is a good way to take out any flier.

[Ponen19]

Of all the flyers the ones you really have to worry about are the Stormraven (as mentioned above, though I will add that GK have a version they can teleport across the board), the Vendetta/Valkyrie (depends on your list), and the Necron Doomscythe. Everything else is more of an annoyance. The Doomscythe's biggest threat is its Deathray weapon. STR 10 AP1 and the number of hits varies. It also has an autocannon with tesla, but thats more of a situation weapon and mostly just screws with infantry.

CSM flyers are wicked, but mostly only against infantry with their flame weapon. Since they can't deepstrike, their autocannon shots aren't a huge threat to IG tanks.

Like Dangerrod said, the Quad-gun is handy as long as your smart about the initial placing. Just watch your opponent doesn't shot it down before his flyers make it on.

From what I've noticed so far, the best way to kill flyers is to have the Quad-gun, or have your flyers come on second. About 85% of the games I've seen with flyers, the second person to get a flyer will usually win the air war.

[grendel]

In our group, everyone has a flyer. Now someone got two ork fighters and it seems a bit overpowered. If you play against strangers I guess its all good but otherwise some of my friends complain its a buying war fueling GW pockets. Snap shots just usually aren't good enough and getting a skyfire nexus where its useful is very situational. So, I have one Vendetta and a Quad gun and will probably leave it at that for this reason. I know I could dominate with 3 flyers or whatever but it would kind of ruin the game.

Also the helldrake is ridiculously strong imo and for some reason GW goes and makes it stronger with a 360 fire arc!!! Makes me want to try out a hell hound for that floating template...

[WestRider]

Jan 17, 2013 10:06:48 GMT -5 gamma016 said:

The only fliers I have trouble with really are hive tyrant's with wings, they are tougher then a regular flier just because it's toughness six and four wounds so it can't be taken down with one shot. Also from what I understand chaos has the dirtiest fliers of all, the flying monstrous creatures with armour and templates that can hit fliers. Mass shots with bring it down is a good way to take out any flier.

The thing about Flying MCs, tho, is that they have to take Grounding Tests for every Unit that scores at least one Hit (not a Wound, just a Hit) on them. Once they fail one of those, you don't need to Snap Fire at them anymore, and can usually blow them away pretty easily. Especially since they're almost guaranteed to take another Wound from failing the Grounding Test.

Heldrakes are Vehicle Flyers, not Flying MCs. They can Vector Strike like MCs, tho, which can be nasty. Their BaleFlamer is really scary to Marines, since it's S6 AP3, but not that much nastier than a Heavy Flamer to us. The BaleFlamer can't be used against other Flyers (Template or Blast Weapons never can, even by Units that have Skyfire), so the Heldrake ends up being pretty mediocre as Anti-Flyer, but the amount of damage it can do the MEq Units is proving to be game-changing at the moment.

Massed TL Fire, whether from Bring It Down or an Allied Psyker with Divination, is a pretty good answer. Vendettas are also pretty much the best Anti-Air Flyers in the Game, so we come up pretty well in that regard.

If your Army can make good use of an Aegis Line or Bastion, taking one of the Weapon Emplacements is helpful, too. The Quad Gun is usually better, but if you have some way to TL the Icarus or get a BS5 Model manning it, it can be pretty scary, too, since it has rather better odds of one-shotting something.

[grendel]

Interesting...wonder if you can vector strike a flyer/flying mc then? Also (because I play DE too) wonder if a flyer/flying mc can be caltropped/bladevaned?

Icarus cannon is much better against the drake than the quad gun. Seems like the q-gun barely scratches that things belly...

[hendrik]

if it's hight strength anti-flyers you need you should think about taking some space marines as an ally. they have acces to the hyperios battery which are twin linked S8 AP3 heat seeker missiles (you get to reroll all failed to hit hits against flyers and fast skimmers.

and here's the best part of it, they are only 5 points more expensive then a basic platoon command squad

[treadiculous]

I'm a fan of the Hyperios too... cheap and cheerful!

I'm glad to see the introduction of flyers to 40k and the natural arms race adds to the game in my opinion.. I have a flyer, my opponents has a anti-flyer weapon.. therefore turn 1 has some focus on eliminating the anti-flyer weapon before my flyer arrives.

[WestRider]

Vector Strikes can be used against Flyers and Flying MCs. They don't generally do much to most Flyers, tho, since they're d3+1 Hits at S6-7 for most Units, AP3, and the Flyers that are problems have Side Armour 12.

Blade Vanes and such can't be used like that, Vector Strikes can only do it because it explicitly says so.

Why does the Hyperios have a rule giving it Re-rolls to Hit against a couple of Unit Types when it already Re-rolls to Hit against everything because it's Twin-Linked?

[hendrik]

the reasoning behind this i wouldn't know, but it has it anyway