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Pre-list notes:
I have had a "Arrer Forz" (Air Force) theme with my ork army in 5th (because of deffkoptas), with 6th out and some dusty jungle fighters, I seek to keep the Air Force theme, but with Imperial Guard. The new flyer rules really gives me that actual aerial army influence and with almost nothing but flyers, I can muster a true Air Force to be reckoned with. I hope.
Yarrick
Shotgun Vets
Shotgun Vets
Vendetta x3
Vendetta x3
Vendetta x3
-1500

So this list is the pinnacle of spamming the same darn unit over and over again, but what can be concluded about this list? Is this a viable list? From what I have seen only two armies are prepared for this kind of flyer offense, Orks: Dakka-Ace and Imperial Guard: Hydra Flak. Tyranids can barely handle 1 or 2 flyers, with this it murders the guts out of Nidzilla in particular. I am thinking that there should be a few of those hellfury missiles and/or heavy bolter sponsons all around to allow Anti-horde aswell. To allow that addition, I would have to discard Yarrick and apply the upgrades and more Veterans to get more meat in this list.

Primaris Psyker
Veteran Squad w/ 3 flamers -85
Veteran Squad w/ 3 flamers -85
3 Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons -420
3 Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons -420
3 Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons -420
-1500

With all the fliers coming from reserve you'll want the officer of the fleet(I think that's the one) in a CCS to increase the odds of them making on the table.

The CCS with Officer of the Fleet, sounds fluffy/themey, and sounds wise. I could replace my psyker with that.

CCS w/ Officer of the Fleet
Veteran Squad w/ 2 flamers -80
Veteran Squad w/ 2 flamers -80
3 Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons -420
3 Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons -420
3 Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons -420
-1500

The original Idea though was to have all the foot units riding in the transports, which would prevent the officer to be on the board 1st/2nd turn. I could have the foot troops hiding in terrain with the officer and let the fliers come in with the benefits. If that was the case, maybe Grenade Launchers would be the better way to go instead of flamers on my vets along with lasguns instead of shotguns.

Looks very powerful. Just remember that there are ways to counter lists like this without using fliers or fliers defense. Horde armies can swamp the board with troops severely limiting your already limited maneuverability, even forcing you off the board. The list with the Heavy Bolters is better because without them you can't do much to a horde army. Eldar and Dark Eldar can also easily out maneuver you simply by Flat-Outing into the rear arc of your fliers where you can't hit them. Also remember that you have to have at least one model on the board at the end of turn or you lose.

In general, I think that a Hybrid list might be more viable than going with a pure Air Force. But if you're sure that's what you want to do, the third list you wrote seems like the best choice.

worth remembering that if at the end of any game turn you have nothing on the board, you lose.
so having an army all in reserve is an instant-loss
and having just a CCS is basically an instant loss against anything with early hitting power (drop pod/deathwing assault marines, and daemons in particular should be able to shred 6 t3 figures in one turn)

I do like my third list, as I only have a handful of troops available to me. Though in the third list, should I replace flamers with Grenade Launchers? OR spend the 10 points per squad on a heavy weapon instead?

As far as a hybride list you all wer talking about. I have some models available besides infantry at my disposal.

CCS w/ Officer of the fleet, camo cloaks, 2 flamers
Techpriest enginseer
Vet squad w/ 2 flamers, forward sentries
Vet squad w/ 2 flamers, forward sentries
3 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
3 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
3 Scout Sentinels
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons, dozerblade
1500

This list has more ground units to support the CCS and adds a lot of Anti-infantry power to play, all for the price of 3 vendettas.

Let me point out that the flyers are very difficult to maneuver. They have to move a minumum distance when zooming, can only pivot once and cannot end their move on top off or within a certain distance of other models. It's going to be really difficult to select targets when you have 9 vendettas on the board. They'll have to zoom in, shoot once or twice and then zoom back off into reserve.

Also. Remember that if at any time you have no models on the board you lose instantly. So since your flyers are all starting in reserve, you'll need to put your veteran squads on the board somewhere. Can you be sure your opponent wont kill them? Because it would suck if they died and then all of your flyers ended up zooming off the board because of the poor ability to maneuver.

Plus only 50% of your army can be in reserve, not counting units that must start in Reserve, like Fliers.

Since this is your latest list its the one I'm going off of:

Da Kommizzar wrote:
CCS w/ Officer of the fleet, camo cloaks, 2 flamers
Techpriest enginseer
Vet squad w/ 2 flamers, forward sentries
Vet squad w/ 2 flamers, forward sentries
3 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
3 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
3 Scout Sentinels
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons, dozerblade
1500

Astropath is the one that increases your Reserves rolls. Officer of the Fleet decreases your opponent's.

Your CCS, Techpriest, Vet Squads, Sentinels, and Leman Russ all count towards your total number of units for determining what you can reserve. The Vendettas get ignored. So you have 6 units that count, so you can reserve 3 of them if you wanted to. Keep that in mind. Its pretty much what kills any pure Air Cav lists unless you use things like Infiltrate, Scout, or Outflank to simulate it.

Troops are more important in 6th Edition than in 5th. Many missions have a lot of objectives (Scouring for example has 6!) and with a few exceptions, varying from mission to mission, your vehicles won't even be able to contest them. You need boots on the ground. 20 Guardsmen just isn't enough really.

Your Leman Russ will be in a little danger if you don't reserve it since it's the only real tank around. The Sentinels can die to any S4 shots that are in large number.

And your Vendettas... They can only fire at the same target their squadron is firing at. With the size of the thing, your Heavy Bolter sponsons are likely only going to be able to fire from one side. Frankly, Valkyries would be better if you are going to insist on a whole Squadron like that. Vendettas are better taken individually.

Also, maneuvering them will be a pain. Unless you go into Hover mode and lose your protection against non-Skyfire weapons, you have to move 18" minimum and can only turn up to 90 Degrees. Believe me when I say that can get tricky to do. Especially against a midfield army like Space Wolves or a horde list like some Orks/Tyranids.

At 1500 points, dealing with that many flyers will be annoying, provided they stay in Zoom mode (god I hate that name) and out of Hover. But they aren't that terrifying. The rest of your army can be shut down pretty handily with many lists I see, and you don't have much chance of winning without them. You just need more Troops I feel.

Yeah, I do have a lack in the troops, and I am full aware of this fact. Guess I gotta start pulling from ebay again. (The lack of infantry was due to my army being based around 500-700 point games.) Infantry is a must, I can put aside a few more vendettas or take off the sentinels/techpriest to make room for even more troops. Maybe bloating the troops section with them would be good. I do not like not running veterans, as I hate having hordes of infantry. (Then why do I play the two most hordey armies in the game? I have no idea, but I have a skill with hordes despite my hate for hordes.)

So Infantry should be added, take out 2 more vendettas or sentinels/priest. You are right, Pure air force lists are hard to make. Too bad that they are required to start off table, Vendettas did not use to be that way, shame.

The lack of movement of the fliers, could you not just circle the board like some twisted "Pole Position" Arcade game?

In the end, maybe the whole "Bringing back the air force due to new official flyer rules" is a bust. I guess I should limit the air force to a small support force of 2 or 3 vendettas. Though that very reason may endeavour me to make it work, afterall making things work is what I did with my orks and they have not let me down... too harshly.

The idea may not be great for competitive, but if you just want a fun fluffy game, I'd still say that the army list looks good.

Da Kommizzar wrote:The lack of movement of the fliers, could you not just circle the board like some twisted "Pole Position" Arcade game?

You can only turn up to 90 degrees at the start of your movement. Your guns only have 45 degrees of a fire arc. You'll be surprised at how you can maneuver to avoid flyers once you hit turn 2 or 3, provided the terrain and enemy troop movements agree with you.

Da Kommizzar wrote:In the end, maybe the whole "Bringing back the air force due to new official flyer rules" is a bust. I guess I should limit the air force to a small support force of 2 or 3 vendettas. Though that very reason may endeavour me to make it work, afterall making things work is what I did with my orks and they have not let me down... too harshly.

Its not a bad goal. But really, this isn't an air combat game. Its a wargame, and a futuristic one at that. That means what the US calls Joint Strike Forces. Your ground pounders are going in and taking territory, but to do it they need to have support. Some of its from different units attached to help them (tanks largely work like this), but there is always the air support.

And you can totally make an Air Cav list, but keep in mind that in real life such forces also have units that sneak ahead (Infiltrate) in order to identify targets, scout the enemy/objectives, and help when the fighting starts. So its not really out of character to have some units on the board that deployed via Infiltrate (or Scout since it puts you forward of your deploy zone).

You could also theme it with allies or within yourself. Have a small force that deploys normally that takes the role of the "beleaguered ground pounders" that your air cav is there to rescue. The phrase "the cavalry has arrived" sort of derives from this (though its older and meant actual cavalry not air "cavalry"). With fortifications you can even make a little outpost for 'em.

So don't be discouraged, I didn't mean to be discouraging. Just wanted to make sure you were aware of some flaws I saw.

Ok, thanks for the morale check, I have a game this weekend against Nidz. I am tempted by the 9 vendettas, but it might be better to take the list with lessened amount of the things and more ground units. Though to my knowledge, his list can barely touch any air cavalry. He plays a hybrid of nidzilla and genesneaks. Fewer guns and a lot of Sv3/2.

Since the game is short notice for me, I do not have the infantry unless I proxy in some of his tau. So I probably will only have a few squads. (Probably 3 without tau proxy)

CCS w/ Officer of the fleet, 2 flamers
Vet squad w/ 2 flamers
Vet squad w/ 2 flamers
Vet Squad w/ 2 flamers
2 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
2 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
2 Vendettas w/ heavy bolter sponsons
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons, dozerblade
-1350

Now, should I take for the last 150 points another 2 squads of veterans or take 3 chimeras. Another idea would to unproxy the tau and take tau allies as ranged support for the vets. Str5 can help put holes in the genestealers along with my battle cannon.
1)+ 2 Veteran Squads similarily built as previous (proxy)
2)+3 Chimeras
3)+ Tau allies >
Ethereal
Firewarriors x6
Fierwarriors x6

All three of the options have their advantages and disadvantages, but I am indecisive about which to use.

A few things for if you take tau allies. Firstly, not only don't you want the etherial, the crisis commander is 1+ meaning you have to take one. So no etherial.
Secondly, although they have S5 shots, FW are overpriced. Not massively overpriced, but don't take a tau ally detachment for them. Bring a squad, sure, but bring broadsides or crisis suits as well: They're the good parts of a tau army.