Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The Vulture gunship , the Swiss Army knife of the flyer world much like the Apache Attack helicopter or for you old fellows a Cobra , I recently picked one of These bad boys up and was wondering what everyone thought a good multi-role craft would have in this case , I personally was thinking auto cannons with 6 hunter killer missiles or perhaps missile launchers with MRP s but on any day of the week what is your guy's preferance on Loadouts ?

Twin linked punisher cannons. All day, every day.

 gpfunk wrote:
Twin linked punisher cannons. All day, every day.

This, because anything less would be uncivilized.

TL-punisher cannon. With vector dancer it has exactly one target it is not goo against; AV12+ rear armour. Against most flyers and vehicles (rear armour 10) it will glance a whole squad to death and against infantry if will put down ~16 wounds (T3) or ~12 wounds (T4).

Plus it looks great.

Loadouts?

There's more than one?

 Ailaros wrote:
Loadouts?

There's more than one?

Technically you can take a whole bunch of different weapons (and some of them would even be decent if the Vendetta didn't exist). It's nice to magnetize your Vultures so you can swap guns when your opponents start complaining about the punisher cannons.

The Punisher Cannon seems nearly overpowered. I'm a bit hesitant to buy one because I feel like I'll be TFG lol

The punisher is balanced by it's high point cost. It's a very powerful unit and an excellent value for it's price.

 schadenfreude wrote:
The punisher is balanced by it's high point cost.

And it's inability to crack heavy armour.

I've only used a Vulture a couple of times, but I rather like the 4x rocket pod loadout, especially against horde armies. At the very least it makes the squads spread out making them harder to utilise.

I have 3 Loadouts (and have 2 Vultures + 1 Valk used as Vulture)
TL-Punisher > obviously very good
TL-AC + 6 HK > kinda crap but looks good
4 MRP > very decent and looks good

NB: I don't use Vendettas because of a personnal and "solemn" oath. Stupid? Yes, but that's how it is

schadenfreude wrote:The punisher is balanced by it's high point cost. It's a very powerful unit and an excellent value for it's price.

?

How can it be both fairly balanced because it's expensive and very powerful because its cheap for its killing power?

Its price is comparable with a leman russ punisher - a weapon that gets worse speed (which actually matters for a weapon with only 24" range), isn't that much more difficult to kill, isn't twin-linked, isn't BS4, and doesn't get anything remotely like vector dancer.

It would still be worth taking at 300 points, much less its current cost.

tybg wrote:
The Punisher Cannon seems nearly overpowered. I'm a bit hesitant to buy one because I feel like I'll be TFG lol

It's very good, but I wouldn't really call it OP, the other weapons options mostly are just bad, and for comparisons to the Leman Russ Punisher which also largely is bad.

that said, the quad rocket pods could be useful

Ailaros wrote:
It would still be worth taking at 300 points, much less its current cost.

Nobody would take a Vulture with punisher cannons at 300pts, nor even likely at 200pts. Comparing it directly to a tank that has never been considered good isn't a great comparison.

It may be slightly undercosted, but then you see the Vendetta and those things go out the window.

Compared to the Vendetta, its just right and more than fair for the cost.

 Flinty wrote:
I've only used a Vulture a couple of times, but I rather like the 4x rocket pod loadout, especially against horde armies. At the very least it makes the squads spread out making them harder to utilise.

This is the only decent alternative to TL-Punisher Cannons, and even then, unless you're fighting a huge horde army, it's around a 5/10 to the TL-PC's 8/10 in damage output.

Plus, compared to TL-PC, the 4xMRP struggles against single targets and vehicles much more.

 Ailaros wrote:
How can it be both fairly balanced because it's expensive and very powerful because its cheap for its killing power?

Because it's entirely possible to have a unit that is powerful and balanced. For example, melta vets are a powerful unit (like the Vulture, because they're cost-effective), but I don't think you can make a sane argument that they're unbalanced.

Its price is comparable with a leman russ punisher - a weapon that gets worse speed (which actually matters for a weapon with only 24" range), isn't that much more difficult to kill, isn't twin-linked, isn't BS4, and doesn't get anything remotely like vector dancer.

That's because the LR Punisher is a mediocre unit. Complaining that the Vulture is overpowered because it is better than the Punisher makes about as much sense as complaining that the Hellhound is overpowered because it's better than a flamer SWS.

It would still be worth taking at 300 points, much less its current cost.

No, it really wouldn't be. Even if you magically make the Vendetta go away (a 300 point IG flyer is never going to go in a competitive list when you can take two Vendettas instead with points left over) you're still paying 300 points for a single vehicle that dies just as fast as a 150 point flyer against proper AA units. At 155 points it's just barely cheap enough that you can justify taking them instead of Vendettas.