Anti-Air Options

wanderingblade wrote:

I know its FW and not everywhere allows FW, but I'm surprised that the Nightwing Interceptor didn't make its way onto the list of allied choices, as it looks purpose built to dick over other fliers and is available from BiB allies.

Not seen the rules for that as I don't own any FW books. Can you give us a rundown (without infringing GW copyright)?

145 points, same as a Razorwing - the downsides in a comparison is you loose a Hull Point and loose all missiles (and night vision of course), the upside is that splinter rifle is upgraded to two Shuriken cannons and you gain Vector Dancer, Agile and Shrouded. Keeps the pair of lances

It should down a AV 10 flier a turn and has fair chances against AV 11. Of course, the downside is if someone as so much as sneezes as it you're going to hit Jink for your 2+ cover save - but you were probably doing that with your Razorwing; the Nightwing is more likely to survive with jink and then it can either just run off the battlefield to come back, or Vector Dance around to keep irritating them and having a go with snap firing.

Quick look round the net - which I had to do to collect all the right rules, what with it being in three seperate documents - and some people like them, some people think they're too fragile.

I might try one of those eventually. My anti-flyer strategy has always been to evade them, but I'm one of the few in my meta to run one, so I have no practical experience against them with DE.

@Thor - choose corner, come in almost completely facing the opposite corner on the same edge and move straight 18". There is no way that being in their 18" back field will protect you from being shot on the turn they came in.

That being said, your advice is solid and has convinced me to not run flyers of my own below 2k (edit when running raider rush, tallos smash is a different story)

Seshiru wrote:

@Thor - choose corner, come in almost completely facing the opposite corner on the same edge and move straight 18". There is no way that being in their 18" back field will protect you from being shot on the turn they came in.

The idea was never to stop them shooting on the first turn, it was to guarantee that they have to fly over you on their second turn, and therefore preventing them from shooting on their second turn.

Hope that explains it better.

Heldrakes with the baleflamer are now trickier to avoid, as according to the latest CSM FAQ(Jan 2013) they can now officially fire all round, measuring from the base. This means they can fly over a target (maybe vector strking it in the process) and then flame backwards using the torrent rule. So I think a Heldrake so armed could begin it's move right in front of a target, fly 18" over it and still be able to catch it with the template.

Opinions?

The flamer template is 8" long.

So unless the Helldrake's base is around 10" long then I don't see that as being an issue if you are right in front of it.

It certainly effects their threat bubble in annoying ways though.

Edit:oh, wait - torrent. No, then you're very much correct.

I would look towards Eldar allies in the form of War Walkers with Scatter Lasers, or Vypers with Shuriken Cannons for anti-air support. If you can get Guide up on them, even better. 3 Guided War Walkers will score an average of 3 glancing hits against AV12 - not a bad way to go.

You can prevent a flyer from shooting with a Quad gun... just saying.

BR19: The Black Buzzards VS CSM Triple Helldrake - 1500pts

Above is an example of winning against flyers by:

-Using positioning.
-Blocking their movement.
-Assault.
-Focusing on eliminating their ground forces.

Hope that helps.