Flyers a must?

Are DE flyers almost a must nowadays? Or is the hype about them a bit overrated? Haven't played in ages and as soon as the current army is finished i'm going to use it to start playing some games again. (my DE are the project of next year hoping to make it my 'main force' for the years to come)
But i don't think anyone locally uses them... unless that changed so far.

It depends, if the other guy has flyers, then yes. if he doesnt, they are ok, but we dont really need them.

Glad to hear it.
I think for now i'll stay away from the flyers.

I'm using mine again because my meta has gone flier heavy

I am thinking of using an allied Hemlock Wraithfigher with my Dark Eldar.

it depends on your gaming circle, for me flyer's are a must due to all the vendetta's, chaos turkey's stormravens, necrons getting around my area.

Some sort of AA is essential for me as I almost always face a Helldrake, Nightscythes and Stormravens. I tend to take ground-based AA however as I am not a fan of our own flyers as AA and whilst the Crimson Hunter Exarch is extremely good as an ally for taking out other flyers, it relies on you going second so that you can get a shot at their flyers. If you go first and it arrives before their flyers then you can kiss it's derriere au revoir!

I take two flyers in my list, always. I have to deal with lots of other flyers and quad guns and other associated air based activity, so I need my flyers. I also enjoy playing with them and love the models so it made it a no brainer. I also don't take any of the other heavy support options.

Hmmm i'm completely unsure whether to invest in them or not... >_>;

Anti-air is, typically, a must. This can come in the form of flyers, but doesn't have to. I have some FW models, so I already had easy access once they started hitting the pages of our codex.

Outside of taking your own jet plane, Eldar allies provide a fair number of AA options. There are a few things that can take dedicated Skyfire weaponry, although I tend to be a fan of the simpler "shoot a lot" strategy... I could spend a lot more points on a squad of warwalkers to get a few Skyfire shots, or I could just take dual Scatter Lasers, which have enough shots to be effective even when snap-firing (particularly when twin-linked). Of course, then you're banking on S6, but there are quite a few flyers that this will do reasonably well against.

A quad-gun is always an option, depending on your build. I have taken to running one large-ish squad on foot with a Heamy to act as an objective babysitter (good cover + FnP = surprising durability). So bringing my own cover, as well as another big gun, is a viable option. This may or may not be true of the builds you favor.

If you make use of Eldar allies, even a guided Ravager or two at least gives you a moderate chance of doing damage, depending on the flyer in question. Each one "should" give you one hit, at least. And then even stock, Ravagers and Blasterborn have a 50%+ chance of getting a hit with snapfires. Not good individually, but you should know your capabilities so that you can work the odds in your favor as a whole.

-K-

If you are unsure, its a no.
Their main role is to kill enemy fliers, we have better AT and AI.

If enemy fliers arent spanking you, you can leave them behind.

IMHO, I think 3 ravagers is an all round better option. If the Razor/void was in fast attack then maybe they would be better.

I've got a Razorwing, love the model, but at its points and compared to a ravager it does very little.
Plus if you say in your battle plan, that its job is AA and then your flyer comes in first you can kiss those 145+points good bye as AV10/11 is like the typical wet paper DE armour.

In a balanced army, to play a variety of opponents, 3 ravagers will do more damage, you just gotta keep running under flyers. Fortunately we have the speed to do so.

The Razorwings function is being fun to paint and put on your shelf, (if your wife/girlfriend doesn't kick-off having 'toys' on display)

Thanks for the info!

I just played in a local all-weekend tournament, can I give a shout-out to Mr Peter Cooke and the Brighton Warlords club? It was very competitive and I was the only person there who didn't have a 'meta build' list. I don't possess any Reaver Jetbikes or Ravagers. I knew it would be hard to win any games but thought, seeing as it was a 1650 point tourney I would just take another Razorwing and dominate the skies......
Erm, yeah. Most of the SM armies had those stupid IA Hyperios Missile Batteries and all the Eldar had fast-shot Exarch-manned emplacements, which were usually guided. My 2 'wings were dropped with one intercepting shot as soon as they arrived in both my games against Eldar, and by the Missile batteries in my one game against Space-Wolves (because Space-Wolves hiding behind a defence line ,guarding a row of automated rocket-launchers is so representative of them!)
I had a good time, and somehow even beat the one SM opponent who didn't have Hyperios, he had 4 Contemptor Dreds instead! I'm usually very happy with the performance of my single 'wing in friendly 1500 point games, in that sort of competitive environment the 2 were a waste of points. I haven't got the funds to go out and by 9 Reavers and 3 Ravagers, but I honestly think another Raider full of Wracks, allied Farseer and token unit of Rangers ( I have those) would have been more useful to me than the 2 fliers. The only army I faced that had fliers of its own was a double-dragon CSM list that I outmaneuvred easily enough, placing empty raiders to prevent vector strikes on useful targets and at least the Wracks get FNP from Baleflamers. That was a kill-points mission and believe it or not, I won with 1st blood from a Landraider! I ignored his 'drakes with my fliers and concentrated on pounding his ground units. I'd say it's very dependent on situation and opponent.

My anti-air has turned into twin-linking two ravagers with an allied Farseer. I find that in a game without anti-air or other flyers, my jets can usually make their points back. If they have intercept or skyfire...my jets just die...

The eldar fliers seem interesting...but as for allies...I'd rather take Warp Spiders than a jet.

I sort of agree with sheepy, if they were fast attack, they would see a lot more play. But as our ravagers seem to be our main point-efficient anti-tank, they just wont replace.