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What do you guys think the best flyer is in 6th taking into account the following considerations:

damage output
manouverability
flexibilty / utility
survivability
points costs / ability to spam
special abilities

Feel free to include all types of flyers but would prefer views on vehicles rather than Flyrants etc.

Vendetta?
I don't think anything is better than a vendetta point wise.

Standard Armor but 3 twin-linked lascannons in a squad of 3 for the points it's asking for is just insane.

Vendetta. Overpowered as fack.

Heldrake with baleflamer

I would also say the heldrake with baleflamer but obviously the vendetta is also exceptionally good.

So just take some chaos marines along with your IG and you can have both! This is sure to make you popular at the store/club.

The Vendetta. I say this as a Guard player who owns three. It's ridiculous. Though to be fair, at least personally, I feel having it available to contribute to a turn 1 alpha-strike/assault units was in many ways worse.

The Heldrak with Baleflamer post FAQ is close behind, along with the Night Scythe.

Night Scythe hands down.

the Vendetta, it was underpriced when it wasn't a flyer. When it got hit on normal BS and could be assaulted.

Then it gained all the Flyer rules for basically free.


Every other flyer was actually designed with the upcoming Flyer rules in mind, so they were at least priced to match their eventual abilities.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Vendetta. Overpowered as fack.

This a thousand times

The Heldrake with Bale Flamer. That 360 degree fire arc is just such a ridiculous boost. Vendettas and Night Scythes aren't too far behind though.

I vote for the Vendetta because of it's combined firepower and ability to drop Vets right where you don't want them.

The Heldrake is a close second because of it's ability to clear an objective and increased durability.

I really like the Heldrake though because it makes Marine players understand how my Firewarriors have felt for so long.

Nightwing interceptor, 2 bright lances, 2 shuriken cannons Vector Dancer, shrouded, and good ol bs 4. good at pretty much everything.

Vendetta, easily. Any other army usually pays around 75 points for the 3 lascannons alone, without the twin-linking, flying, AV12 platform and other factors.

Then you remember that it's a transport that can bring specialists in, has the top-end AV for aircraft, can be squadroned for uber FOC efficieny and is cheap as talk...

The Helldrake is strong, but much easier to shut down. Hell, one Weapon Destroyed result and it can often be ignored, while a Vendetta remains a threat until it's smoking in the ground.

Vendetta. Even if you think the Baledrake is better, it's 40 points more expensive.

The fact that the Vendetta is 130 points just wins the day for it, point for point.

 Ratius wrote:
What do you guys think the best flyer is in 6th taking into account the following considerations:

damage output
manouverability
flexibilty / utility
survivability
points costs / ability to spam
special abilities

Feel free to include all types of flyers but would prefer views on vehicles rather than Flyrants etc.

Damage Output (Points): Vendetta
Damage Output (Overall): Heldrake, Stormraven
Maneuverability: N/A or anything with Vector Dancer
Flexibility/Utility (Points): Vendetta
Flexibility/Utility (Overall): Stormraven
Survivability: Stormraven
Point Cost: Vendetta
Special Abilities: Stormraven

I might be wrong, but that's what comes immediately to my mind. Forge World adds a lot of devastating flyers.

The Storm Raven is flexible as hell, especially if you take the hurricane bolters - thing makes a land raider look lightly armed. It can soak up decent punishment and puts helldrakes right into the earth, especially if you have them withing 12" of your deployment when the helldrake comes on for no vector strike.

I don't know if it's the best, but I like it a lot as an SM player - I feel like my army has teeth again.

I'd put the Night Scythe in there for special abilities. The portal rules + Invasion Beams are just stupid good. And you can take them as Dedicated Transports. And you get two of the damn things for the same price as a bare-bones Stormraven.

Vulture gunship. Vendettas are nice, but a little one-dimensional. The punisher cannon Vulture, on the other hand, kills hordes efficiently and still turns tanks into flaming wrecks even faster than a Vendetta (vector dancer = rear armor = average of 6 HP per turn against most vehicles). And with AV 12 the Vulture is winning a dogfight against everything but Stormravens.

+1 for the Vulture or the Avenger

If we're doing purely codex fliers then:

damage output: Vendetta for anti-tank, Heldrake for anti-infantry
manouverability: Heldrake; it gets all the manoeuvrability of other fliers plus Meteoric Descent and a torrent template weapon with 360 LoS. They might not all be completely under the banner of manoeuvrability, but they all give the Heldrake more manoeuvring options than other codex fliers.
flexibilty / utility: Stormraven.
survivability: Heldrake again, simply because it has the It Won't Die! rule and a 5+ invul on top of being AV12 front and side. The Stormraven comes a close second due to being AV12 all around and being immune to the melta rule.
points costs / ability to spam: Vendetta, followed by Night Scythes and then Heldrakes.
special abilities: Night Scythes followed closely by Heldrakes.

Imperial Guard Vendetta.

130 points for three twin linked lascannons on an AV12 Flying frame that can also transport twelve models, and can squadron up to three into a single FOC slot

/thread.

EDIT: Some marine players will say the Heldrake is the best because they hate seeing their power armour ignored by the AP3 baleflamer, but keep in mind that roasting marines is pretty much the *only* thing it can do. It is useless against vehicles, hordes, 2+ saves, etc (And it's 40-50 point more expensive).

I just played a game against someone bringing 2 vendettas to a 1000 point game,
They are RIDICULOUS
Heldrakes are a pretty close second in my opinion

Damage Output (Points): Vendetta, no contest
Damage Output (Overall): Versus infantry only, the Heldrake; ignoring points entirely, the Stormraven is the most flexible and has the hardest-hitting weaponry
Maneuverability: Imho, Heldrake, merely because they can hover
Flexibility/Utility (Points): Vendetta, obvs
Flexibility/Utility (Overall): Stormraven
Survivability: Stormraven or Heldrake
Point Cost: Vendetta
Special Abilities: Stormraven or Heldrake

Vendetta is the clear winner, followed by a tie between stormravens and Heldrakes. Night Scythes come in third for their cheap cost.

With having some experience of recent with the vulture i'd have to agree with Peregrine, despite the tw punisher vulture only having a str. 5 gun I've killed more with it than i have my two vendettas of late, less vehicles et all. 155pts total for vector dancer, strafing run and a heavy 20 gun with twin link and an extra HB yes please

The vendetta. I have nine and a vulture lol.

I don't use them though because my elysian army is eight kr multicases and a pain to transport.

Then I have to stick the wings on, and magnet all the weapons......it makes for a boring game lol

I'm anticipating some points increase on the vendetta, considering the standardization costs that are appearing in the new codexes (20pts for lascannons for anyone, 40pts if twin-linked etc) hence why I chose the vulture, it's had its 6th edition update and I likes it.

All depends on what is being used for but all in all the vendetta gets it over the drake

Well if were including forgeworld units then Thunderhawk gunship hands down...

 sierra 1247 wrote:
Well if were including forgeworld units then Thunderhawk gunship hands down...

The Manta would like to talk to you about that...