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Background
This week, long-time foe Titan Atlas made his way to Canada and we finally got to throw down the gloves in person (no Vassal batrep for once)! Unfortunately he only brought a couple squads of troops, so he had to proxy the rest using my Space Wolves. I was originally going to battle him with my Wolves, but since he was using so many models I decided to secretly put that idea to rest and bust out my Tyranids for their first match of 6th edition. I had been looking forward to trying them out and had a few new tricks up my sleeve that I wanted to give a try...

Hive Fleet Maliades


Atlas' Blood Host


DEPLOYMENT
We rolled for Mission/Deployment and got The Relic and Hammer and Anvil. My last game against Atlas had actually been the exact same set-up (although I'd been playing Space Wolves at the time). We rolled for our Warlords' (Dante and the Swarmlord) traits and got Master of Manoeuvre on the Swarmlord (bleh) and Immovable Object on Dante (usually great, but Atlas wasn't exactly lacking scoring units anyway). We also rolled for psychic powers. Atlas got Hemorrhage and Hallucination for his Epistolary. The Broodlord got Warp Speed and Life Leech (which, unfortunately, he can't cast since he has BS0...). The Swarmlord got Smite, Endurance, Life Leech and Enfeeble (no Iron Arm? Blast!). We also rolled and determined that it would be Night Fighting for the first turn of the game.

We rolled to see who would go first and Atlas won the roll off. He decided that he did want to go first, so he set up his forces. He reserved Dante, Atlas, a squad of Sanguinary Guard and an Assault Squad, while placing the rest of his forces behind cover. When he was finished, I put the Gargoyles at the front of my forces to act as a screen, the Carnifexes as LOS-blockers for the Hive Guard and the Venomthropes covered the Swarmlord and Fexes. Finally, my Genestealers infiltrated just behind the relic to counter-attack any foolhardy units that got too close.

As the game was about to begin, I rolled to seize the initiative and...








Turn 1 – Tyranids
The Gargoyles surged forward to cover the rest of my forces as they advanced. The Genestealers, originally intending to counter-attack any foolhardy attackers, changed roles on the fly. The Broodlord grabbed the relic (a Sister of Battle in this case ) and ran. I couldn't shoot or assault on the first turn (due to poor range, although Night Fighting didn't help either).







Turn 1 – Blood Angels
Trying to make up for the loss of the first turn, Atlas sent his infantry forwards. The Sanguinary Guard used their jump packs to fly over the Gargoyles and land in front of the Venomthropes. Meanwhile, the Assault Marines moved to open fire on the Gargoyles and thin out the horde somewhat. In the Shooting Phase, the Assault Marines fired their bolt pistols at the Gargoyles but only managed to kill 4. The Sanguinary Guard were split between firing at the Swarmlord, Venomthropes, Genestealers or Carnifexes, and ended up choosing the Venomthropes (to help out his other forces later). They easily blew them away with their Infernus pistols, earning Atlas the First Blood secondary objective. Meanwhile, the top Devastator squad fired at the Genestealers but failed to cause any damage thanks to Night Fighting. The bottom Devastator squad fired at the Warriors but also failed to do any damage (once again, thanks to Night Fighting).



Turn 2 – Tyranids
I rolled for my reserves, and both the Doom and Devilgaunts arrived. The Doom landed right between the Assault Marines and Devastators, ensuring a very nasty Spirit Leech when the Shooting Phase rolled around. Meanwhile, the Devilgaunts went after the other Devastator squad and prepared to unleash hell. Elsewhere, my Gargoyles moved to attack the Assault Marines while the Swarmlord prepared to annihilate the Sanguinary Guard.

In the Shooting Phase, the Doom's Spirit Leech sucked the life out of 3 of the Devastators and 4 of the Assault Marines! The Devilgaunts weren't to be outdone, annihilating the Devastator Squad they shot at. The Assault Marines continued to take punishment, losing a further 2 squad members from the Gargoyles' fleshborers.

In the Assault Phase, the Gargoyles attacked the Assault Marines while the Swarmlord charged the Sanguinary Guard. The Assault Marines whiffed, killing only a single Gargoyle, while the Gargoyles killed 3 Assault Marines in return. The Swarmlord also easily managed to decimate the Sanguinary Guard, while his Tyrant Guard destroyed the remaining enemies.

Well that was a destructive turn of events. Unfortunately, Atlas still had plenty of reserves to try to turn things around with...







Turn 2 – Blood Angels
Atlas rolled for his reserves and, despite having a reroll for Descent of Angels, Dante and his squad of Sanguinary Guard failed to arrive. However, Atlas and the Stormraven (proxied using my Stormeagle) did successfully enter the battlefield. Atlas moved to strike against the Carnifexes, but had a bad scatter and his squad ended up on the 2nd floor of a nearby building. Meanwhile, the Stormraven came in and prepared to do a strafing run on the Genestealers and Doom of Malan'tai.

In the Shooting Phase, Atlas' squad targeted the nearby Tyranid Warriors, killing 2 of them with their meltaguns. The Devastators (which luckily passed their Spirit Leech test) failed to kill the Doom, while the Stormraven fired at the Genestealers and used POTMS to fire a Bloodstrike Missile at the Doom. It managed to kill 6 Genestealers, but the Doom was unscathed once again. In the Assault Phase, the Gargoyles finished off the last Assault Marine and consolidated to bubble wrap the Genestealers. With 3 Blood Angels units still running around, I wasn't going to let them near the relic without a fight!









Turn 3 – Tyranids
The Devilgaunts failed their instinctive behaviour roll and went for cover inside a nearby building (they spent the rest of the game in here). The Gargoyles and bubble-wrapped Genestealers moved to find some cover and avoid the Blood Angels, as the Hive Guard, Warriors, Termagaunts and Swarmlord moved to cover them. The Doom also moved towards the remaining Devastators to Spirit Leech them. Finally, the Carnifexes moved to engage Atlas' squad. They were too far away to charge them this turn, but they'd at least buy the Genestealers some more time.

In the Shooting Phase, the Doom of Malan'tai easily wiped out the remaining Devastators with Spirit Leech. The Hive Guard decided to take a potshot at the zooming Stormraven. Surprisingly, I got a hit and actually managed to get a penetrating hit off of it. Unfortunately I only immobilized it, so the Stormraven's velocity was locked at combat speed. This meant that it couldn't enter Hover Mode either (if this was the wrong interpretation, can someone please chime in and let us know), so I could attempt to out-manoeuvre it.



Turn 3 – Blood Angels
Dante's unit arrived this turn, landing just a few inches away from the Carnifexes to unleash some punishment. The Stormraven and Atlas and his unit also flew over to blast them – Atlas wanted some revenge for the poor show his troops had been putting on thus far! In the Shooting Phase, they let the Carnifexes taste their rage. They pounded the Carnifexes with melta weapons from all 3 units, but failed to actually kill any of them. They did, however, severely wound 2 of the Carnifexes, softening them up for the assault. A Genestealer was also killed by a POTMS hurricane bolter.

In the Assault Phase, Atlas and his unit charged the Carnifexes. They killed 2 of them before the beasts were able to strike back. The last Carnifex was finished off by the powerfist sergeant, but not before it slew 4 Assault Marines with its crushing claws. The Assault Marines consolidated towards the rest of the Tyranid forces in hopes of attacking the bubble-wrap and pulling out a come-from-behind win.







Turn 4 – Tyranids
The Genestealers and Gargoyles continued to move towards cover to protect the relic, while the Doom of Malan'tai joined the escorts to dissuade anyone from trying to get close – if they did, they'd have to face the wrath of Spirit Leech! The Swarmlord, on the other hand, moved to intercept the Assault Marines. He was pretty far away, but there was an outside chance he could launch an assault if he got lucky.

All that happened in the Shooting Phase is that the Hive Guard tried to hit the Stormraven, but missed. In the Assault Phase, the Swarmlord rolled his charge distance, but failed to make it into combat with the Assault Marines.





Turn 4 – Blood Angels
Atlas decided that the Stormraven wasn't going to do much good in its current predicament, and disengaged it – it would come back next turn and do another strafing run. Meanwhile, he sent Dante's unit around the pyramid to make a move on the Genestealers before the game ended. The Assault Marines, however, decided that go after the Swarmlord himself. In the Shooting Phase, the Assault Marines fired, killing the lead Tyrant Guard, wounding the Swarmlord and the other Guard once (due to Look Out Sir)! I wasn't quite expecting that much damage!

In the Assault Phase, the Assault Marines charge the Swarmlord and the Sanguinary Priest challenged him. The Swarmlord accepted and (predictably) destroyed him. However, this meant that the Tyrant Guard was forced to take on everyone else. The wounded Guard was killed, but managed to tear down an Assault Marine in the process. The Tyranids won the combat, but the Blood Angels stayed and continued to fight. Atlas wanted to keep the Swarmlord held down so Dante could move about with impunity.







Turn 5 – Tyranids
This could be the last turn (and I was kind of hoping that it would be, although the longer the game went, the better my chances of securing it would be), so I moved to secure my position. The Genestealers and Gargoyles moved to fortify a ruin and get the maximum cover they could (especially since the bloody Stormraven was going to strafe them next turn inevitably). The Termagaunts surrounded the other half of the building, just in case the Assault Marines broke from combat or the Genestealers fell. The Warriors also hung around close-by in order to grab the relic if it was dropped. Meanwhile, the Doom moved up a little bit to try to destroy Dante's unit.

In the Shooting Phase, the Doom fired Cataclysm at Dante and his unit. The Hive Guard and Warriors also joined in, killing a grand total of 3 Sanguinary Guard. In the Assault Phase, the Swarmlord was challenged by the Assault Marine Sergeant, which he once again killed with ease as the Blood Angels continued to tarpit him.





Turn 5 – Blood Angels
The Stormraven showed up just in front of the Genestealers and prepared to blast the last Genestealers away – my bugs needed some luck or they were gonna get squashed! Dante and his unit hung back to avoid the Doom, since they weren't going to get the relic this turn anyway – I think Atlas was hoping to just knock the relic away at the last moment and deny me my VPs.

In the Shooting Phase, the Stormraven fired everything it had at the Genestealers. Predictably, the combined firepower of a twin-linked multi-melta, twin-linked plasma cannon and 2 hurricane bolters annihilated the Genestealers (and a Gargoyle), knocking the relic out of my grasp at the last moment! In the Assault Phase, Atlas sacrificed himself to continue to tarpit the Swarmlord, buying his comrades 1 more turn unscathed (plus I was probably going to be open to being shot after wiping out the last Assault Marines too).

I needed the game to go for another turn, because at this moment I was actually losing (1VP for Linebreaker vs 2 VP for Linebreaker and First Blood)! We rolled for a Turn 6 and...







Turn 6 – Tyranids
With the relic now out of my hands, I moved the Tyranid Warriors to secure it. They just barely managed to catch it, and I wasn't about to let it fall again. The Termagaunts, Gargoyles and Hive Guard all moved to build a living wall around it, although I wasn't able to close a very small gap in it. I hoped that Atlas wouldn't have enough space to charge though...

In the Assault Phase, the Swarmlord (predictably) finished off the last of the Assault Marines and consolidated to help out the defenders.



Turn 6 – Blood Angels
The Stormraven had to move 18”, so it moved to strafe the Swarmlord... uh oh, I wasn't expecting that. Meanwhile, Dante broke off from his unit to deal with the Doom of Malan'tai, while his unit went to secure the relic. They just barely fit inside the gap in the living wall, much to my dismay!

In the Shooting Phase, the Sanguinary Guard failed to shoot the Warriors to death (thank God), but prepared to launch an assault. Dante also passed his Spirit Leech test, but failed to kill the Doom with his Infernus Pistol. Meanwhile, the Stormraven shot the Swarmlord with everything it had, causing 3 wounds... and a bit of confusion. A little background – when I play 40k, I mark wounds remaining with a dice that I put in base contact with a model. In this case, there was a dice beside the Swarmlord that looked like it was being used as a wound counter, and it had a 3 up. However, I couldn't for the life of me remember the Swarmlord being wounded twice – he was definitely wounded once, but I couldn't recall him being wounded another time whatsoever (he had spent half the game swatting people in challenges or walking around looking menacing ). Atlas had also had a bad habit of picking up wound counters during the game when he needed dice which didn't help at all... Anyway, I didn't really want to lose the game if he got Slay the Warlord because of this uncertainty, so I argued about this for a little while. However, eventually I relented after being a bit of a dick... the Swarmlord was down for good.

Anyway, in the Assault Phase, Dante charged the Doom. However, it was like an immovable object vs an unstoppable force – neither of them could really hurt the other significantly. Elsewhere, the Sanguinary Guard charged the Tyranid Warriors, but totally whiffed. Luckily for them, the Warriors couldn't break through their armour, so the fight continued. Regardless, I was just thankful that I was still in control of the relic. We rolled to see if there would be a Turn 7 and...





Turn 7 – Tyranids
I had felt the sting of Turn 7 losses before and didn't want this to be one of those. I dog-piled the remaining Sanguinary Guard, while the Hive Guard prepared to help the Doom squash Dante. However, they didn't have to – Dante failed a Spirit Leech roll pretty badly and was killed! The sheer weight of numbers from the Tyranid horde also resulted in the death of the Sanguinary Guard, who whiffed again and only killed a Gargoyle.





With all of his units dead except for the (basically useless at this point) Stormraven, Atlas called it a game.

Total VPs:
Tyranids – 5 (Relic, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker)
Blood Angels – 3 (Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Linebreaker [if the game had gone another turn, his Stormraven would have been in my deployment zone])

VICTORY FOR THE TYRANIDS!!!

AFTERTHOUGHTS
...ouch. I didn't expect the game to go like this at all. Atlas just had bad luck from the start with me seizing the initiative and then destroying most of his units by Turn 2. Getting Night Fighting also really helped keep my bugs alive during the first turn. And it didn't help that I had a living wall of bugs to keep him away from the objective. Bad luck was also a factor at times...

From my 2 games played with it, the Relic is kind of an annoying mission. As long as you're getting secondary objectives, you can easily get a come-from-behind win even if you're being annihilated all game (which is exactly what happened the first time I played it). Just blow away the relic-holder on the last turn and you're probably going to win, regardless of how well either player played. I guess that guarantees tension, but it makes good performance pretty meaningless... and this is coming from someone who prefers playing for fun over being super-competitive. I mean, I like having fun, but I'd prefer if I didn't win/lose by dumb luck...




Anyway, gripes about the Relic aside, I really enjoyed Tyranids in 6th. I'll need to come up with a more reliable method to kill flyers, but it's nice to know that they can be just ignored at times, and exploited at others (eg, forcing them to overshoot a target). While Broodlords will get crappy powers half the time, the risk is worth it – if they get something good, it's infinitely better than their old powers. The Swarmlord is also more of a beast than ever, I'm probably going to run him a lot in the future. As for the Blood Angels, Dante is just plain cheap – he can just Hit & Run out of combat automatically (since he's I6) and sacrifice a Sanguinary Priest to avoid being challenged, making him very difficult to kill. And he's only 225pts! Thank God he can't debuff my Nids, but against my Wolves he's a constant pain in the neck.

After this game, Atlas wanted to give his Angels a shot at redemption... so we prepared for battle once more...

You can view Part 2 HERE.

If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out my other battle reports!

haha, cheap, yeah...it's a boner of an ability but when I use it it's for strategic purposes mostly, and in many cases it's almost a desperate move.

But yeah, looking forward to pt 2

Hey storm ravens are not denial or scoring units - they do not count towards the line breaker VP.

 tetrisphreak wrote:
Hey storm ravens are not denial or scoring units - they do not count towards the line breaker VP.

Ah ok, good to know, I'll have to remember that for future battles.

You're welcome, good sir.

Long live the swarm!

For the record I don't even think I was the one who was suggesting I had that in the first place lol

Yeah we didn't even consider it in game, it just occurred to me afterwards.

Oh another rules niggle - Dante will still fail a hit'n'run if he rolls a '6'. All characteristic tests fail on a 6 regardless of the stat being rolled (leadership tests being different, of course, using 2d6).

 tetrisphreak wrote:
Oh another rules niggle - Dante will still fail a hit'n'run if he rolls a '6'. All characteristic tests fail on a 6 regardless of the stat being rolled (leadership tests being different, of course, using 2d6).

Ok that is also good to know. I thought there was an auto-fail result, but when we were playing I skimmed the rulebook very quickly and didn't find that entry. Makes him a little less scary, but I'm still gonna have to figure out some way to keep him down...

Hey again, no problem. I enjoyed the batrep, and i'm looking forward to the 2nd one.

Also I'm pretty sure you can only challenge once per close-combat, so your swarmlord shouldnt have been tarpitted for that long (pretty much after the priest died he should have been able to go hog-wild on the rest)

From my understanding, it's once per round of close-combat. I reread the challenge rules to check, but it didn't change that impression.

Yea a challenge can be issued every phase of cc. Swarm lord is less good vs large squads with multiple ICs for that reason - he is better at destroying elite assault units.

Ahh, bummer yeah then he would be

Either way sounds like it would work, fluffily speaking, but I'll agree with Andilus and Tetrispeak on their analysis, as that's what I figured. Plus, it helped in that game, but it should be noted, that was purely out of desperation to prevent aforementioned hog-wild running.


Damn devastators, going and dying so early. The stormraven being hit didn't help things either lol

Great report, looking forward to the second. Are you going to use the same lists or mix things up a bit?

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:

 tetrisphreak wrote:
Oh another rules niggle - Dante will still fail a hit'n'run if he rolls a '6'. All characteristic tests fail on a 6 regardless of the stat being rolled (leadership tests being different, of course, using 2d6).

Ok that is also good to know. I thought there was an auto-fail result, but when we were playing I skimmed the rulebook very quickly and didn't find that entry. Makes him a little less scary, but I'm still gonna have to figure out some way to keep him down...

I suppose Lash Whips could help, but as characteristic tests in 6th take the highest value in the unit instead of the majority, you'll have to be in base contact with the entire unit at the end of the assault phase to make them test on Initiative 1. But at least constricting the attached ICs would mean the unit would test on I4, making them fail Hit & Run twice as often.

That's a possibility I suppose, but I'm not sure if Lash Whips work with Hit and Run.

Don't they make you strike at I1? Pretty sure they don't magically change their initiative base value besides, the tyrant guard (when he uses swarmlord, that is) rarely survive long enough to get into the assault so the lash whips aren't as much a concern. If he played a Hive Tyrant instead, yeah, it'd be something to think about, but I'm still pretty sure lash whips won't affect Dante, and there's no guarantee I'll put my potentially most powerful unit into combat with an even scarier assault and validate its inclusion into his list

Hmm... it actually might be right actually. Lash whips make you Initiative 1 until the end of the Assault Phase, but like Redemption said you'd have to be in base contact with everyone for it to work perfectly. Hit & Run happens at the end of the Assault Phase, so it'd still be subject to the I1 debuff... Interesting.

But like Atlas said, the situation would be pretty rare - the only Lash Whips I use are on Tyrants, Venomthropes and Tyrant Guards sometimes, and they don't typically last very long.

btw Redemption, in the 2nd report we change up our lists slightly. The report should be up sometime tonight, as long as my connection doesn't cut out again.

Yeah, Lash Whips actually count your Initiative as 1 in the Assault phase, so I think it would affect Hit and Run just fine. But yeah, I in no way intended it was some sure fire way to stop it. But if you manage to Lash Whip at least the I5+ characters in the group, you reduce his chances of succeeding from 83% to 66%.

You might want to give Tyranid Warriors or Shrikes with Lashwhips a try sometimes, they can be lots of fun. Shrikes are mobile enough to have a decent chance of assaulting their target of choice. Perhaps even a Flying Hive Tyrant with Lash Whip, although I'd normally run those with devourers instead. Wouldn't want to list tailor just for Hit & Run.

On to read report 2.

Greatsword; (first thanks for the play by play. Very nice.)

Did you consider tossing a cataclysm at the stormraven? Or were you saving for Dante?

 hivepdktyrant wrote:
Greatsword; (first thanks for the play by play. Very nice.)

Did you consider tossing a cataclysm at the stormraven? Or were you saving for Dante?

Unless the storm raven was hovering cataclysm cannot hit it - Zooming flyers are immune to blasts and template weapons.

 tetrisphreak wrote:

 hivepdktyrant wrote:
Greatsword; (first thanks for the play by play. Very nice.)

Did you consider tossing a cataclysm at the stormraven? Or were you saving for Dante?

Unless the storm raven was hovering cataclysm cannot hit it - Zooming flyers are immune to blasts and template weapons.

Exactly...

wow..... 6th Ed may be worse that I was origionally thinking. Blasts are a basic AA defense. Is there a similar rule in 5th? Maybe it just hasn't occured in our games.

Seems the GW rulemaker never went waterfowl hunting. Even the USN developed shotgun shells for their aa guns...timed fuses.

An aircraft flying through a cloud of shrapnel.... well unless its an A10.....but then sucking admantium into a turbofan still kills it.

 hivepdktyrant wrote:
wow..... 6th Ed may be worse that I was origionally thinking. Blasts are a basic AA defense. Is there a similar rule in 5th? Maybe it just hasn't occured in our games.

Seems the GW rulemaker never went waterfowl hunting. Even the USN developed shotgun shells for their aa guns...timed fuses.

An aircraft flying through a cloud of shrapnel.... well unless its an A10.....but then sucking admantium into a turbofan still kills it.

I think the idea is more that blast weapons explode when they actually hit something, until then they're just a shell/plasma ball/etc flying through the air. Plus making blasts and templates hit flyers is a little silly (since they're supposed to be a couple kilometers above the battlefield), and would wreck the balance (why take regular guns when you can just fire a blast weapon or template at it?). That said, GW needs to introduce some more options for skyfire weapons, because flyers are too difficult to hit at the present time for a lot of armies.

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:

I think the idea is more that blast weapons explode when they actually hit something, until then they're just a shell/plasma ball/etc flying through the air. Plus making blasts and templates hit flyers is a little silly (since they're supposed to be a couple kilometers above the battlefield), and would wreck the balance (why take regular guns when you can just fire a blast weapon or template at it?). That said, GW needs to introduce some more options for skyfire weapons, because flyers are too difficult to hit at the present time for a lot of armies.

Perhaps if they went to a couple HMGS cons and watch Dr Zeppy or some Command Decision battles they might get an idea.

I suspect flyers could be delt with with a few die rolls. Obviously a template should only work on a hovering/ landed craft.

A common element of anti-air is altitude. Very low, Low, medium alt. that effects both gun and target.
for playability and simplicity, you could use an old convention of an AA rating for a weapon, 1-6.

Say a venom cannon is a 4, devourer a 2, plasma cannon a 3. fleshbore, pistol, flamer NE. Add up the points of your army on the board - do not count units in assault.

Depending on your total, you get to roll inderdiction dice. Maybe one dice for every fraction of 10. 5 or 6 hits. You at least get one die roll - harpy sprains shoulder, engine failure....

Then you roll for effect based on altitude: Low = 1 miss, 2 miss, 3 stunned- loops around for next turn or hovers, 4 target missed by 2 d6, 5 damaged - next damage leaves, 6 shotdown (you could plot crash - Large blast s-6)
V Low = 1,2,3 miss, 4 target missed by 1d6, 5 damaged, hovers or loops, next damage, shot down, 6 blown out of the sky.
Med = 1, 2, 3,4 miss, 5 target missed by 3 d6, 6 damaged (roll 4,5,6 shot down- off board) 1,2,3 next damage, shot down.

Something like a hydra would be 4x6 or 24 for three dice.

 hivepdktyrant wrote:

 Andilus Greatsword wrote:

I think the idea is more that blast weapons explode when they actually hit something, until then they're just a shell/plasma ball/etc flying through the air. Plus making blasts and templates hit flyers is a little silly (since they're supposed to be a couple kilometers above the battlefield), and would wreck the balance (why take regular guns when you can just fire a blast weapon or template at it?). That said, GW needs to introduce some more options for skyfire weapons, because flyers are too difficult to hit at the present time for a lot of armies.

Perhaps if they went to a couple HMGS cons and watch Dr Zeppy or some Command Decision battles they might get an idea.

I suspect flyers could be delt with with a few die rolls. Obviously a template should only work on a hovering/ landed craft.

A common element of anti-air is altitude. Very low, Low, medium alt. that effects both gun and target.
for playability and simplicity, you could use an old convention of an AA rating for a weapon, 1-6.

Say a venom cannon is a 4, devourer a 2, plasma cannon a 3. fleshbore, pistol, flamer NE. Add up the points of your army on the board - do not count units in assault.

Depending on your total, you get to roll inderdiction dice. Maybe one dice for every fraction of 10. 5 or 6 hits. You at least get one die roll - harpy sprains shoulder, engine failure....

Then you roll for effect based on altitude: Low = 1 miss, 2 miss, 3 stunned- loops around for next turn or hovers, 4 target missed by 2 d6, 5 damaged - next damage leaves, 6 shotdown (you could plot crash - Large blast s-6)
V Low = 1,2,3 miss, 4 target missed by 1d6, 5 damaged, hovers or loops, next damage, shot down, 6 blown out of the sky.
Med = 1, 2, 3,4 miss, 5 target missed by 3 d6, 6 damaged (roll 4,5,6 shot down- off board) 1,2,3 next damage, shot down.

Something like a hydra would be 4x6 or 24 for three dice.

Dude...That is WAY too complicated for a tabletop wargame. If i wanted all that I'd just play Battletech.

Good batrep, I dont know much about BA, but i liked it.

How do you create the maps for your battles like you did?

That's Vassal 40k:
http://vassal40k.wordpress.com/

For dealign with Fliers--

There is a power in the tables somewhere called Obscurum mechanicum (i think - i play 'crons so havn't even bothered prperly reading the psyker stuff!).

If you manage to get it it can deal haywire hits to vehicles, i think i have also read that it doesn't need LOS, just has a range!