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.

I had a fun game of Aeronautica Imperialis the other day, and damn I wish I got in on that game when I could.

I was thinking I might like to make a flyer heavy army for 40k as a big long term project. I've not really played since the start of 4th and this flyer malarky is new and exciting, however I'm a bit lost. Which 40k army has the best or most competitive flyers, including all the tasty goodies from Forgeworld? Obviously I'd still need support elements, but I'm happy to use FW for that as well.

Not sure if I'd like to go for some Xenos they appear to be a bit lacking locally, but I'm so enamored with most of the 40k flyer aesthetic (damn boxy stormraven) it doesn't bother me.

Any advice appreciated.

Probably Necrons or IG since they're the two that can take good flyers in multiple FOC slots and therefore get more than three in an army.

i have a necron army, including the night shroud bomber from FW they are a blast! can run upto 9 fliers given enough points.

I do like Space Marine fliers as far as the assualt ram, and stormeagle and fire Raptor go but the stormraven looks like garbage to me, but its just personal preference.

stormoffires wrote:
i have a necron army, including the night shroud bomber from FW they are a blast! can run upto 9 fliers given enough points.

I do like Space Marine fliers as far as the assualt ram, and stormeagle and fire Raptor go but the stormraven looks like garbage to me, but its just personal preference.

The Storm Raven rocks, its not as stupidly underpriced as the Vendetta, true, but for 200 points you can have a TL MM, TL AC and four stormstrike missiles.

That's a S8 AP2 melta shot (TL), two S8 AP2 shots for two turns, and four S6 rending shots (TL). It's better against MC's, can tackle infantry quite a bit better, has AV12 on the rear so it isn't as vulnerable to AA from behind.

The Fire Raptor and Storm Talon decimate infantry, with the latter being able to fly behind another flyer and hit it on its rear armour with its 360 arc cannon if need be.

Elysians and necrons are probably the best flyer armies, followed by space marines and ig. Other armies can run flier heavy, but without flier transports, it doesnt feel like a true flier army.

ABG allied with Elysians! Multiple Vultures, multiple Avengers, multiple Valks, and lots of tanks. Can't go wrong.

I'm not sure if your talking apocolypse or not but in apocolypse chaos can take their flyers, space marine flyers, and imperial guard flyers (as long as they look chaos). Otherwise Elysian is a airborne army so I would go that route.

Dark angels by far. XP

Id say necrons due to massive spammability

Definitely tau bomber spam (ya the broken one that can regenerate non-existent bombs but needs to drop one to make one)

Or the new AS, definitely, since they have the best flyers in game


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In all seriousness though if we are including IA then Elysians since they can have an entire army of just flyers with no need for ground troops which crons need to do in order to survive t1

Number one would be necron either pure wraithwing with 4 nightscythes or necron/csm with 3-4 nightscythes and a helldrake.

Number 2 competative would be storm raven spam, Grey knights to be specific, coteaz, 2nd inquisitor with no upgrades 3 servo skulls, 3x3 man crusader squads in GK Storm ravens, allied to SM chapter of your choosing for a 4th storm raven, a storm talon, and something to put on the table to wait for the ravens to come in, my vote would be a thunderfire cannon and 200-300 points of either more crusaders or more space marines.

3rd would be Imperial guard, other than forgeworld artillery I.G. have really suffered because they don't have the 6th edition special rules, they can still take vendetta's and valks, but they just don't have the quality or quanitity of shots to deal with the competative armies.

There are essentially 4 really fantastic flyer armies that can be fielded; necrons (nightscythes - DT and bombers), IG (vendetta, vulture, and avengers), Elysians (vultures, vendettas, valks - DT, avengers), and Eldar (Phoenix and Nightwing).

The real secret to flyer armies is understanding that you really cannot have more than 6 flyers acting as flyers at any one time and that you need a tough units to hold out turn 1.

This is part of what makes necrons so good as wraiths and AB are a good tough units to start on board.

The armies I listed are all good in different ways;
Necrons - wraiths and AB take care of everything else and the nightscythe is the best transport in the game.

IG - Sabre platforms and platoons gives you a solid board presence that is not only tough but can contribute real killing power unlike most flyer armies. The vulture and avenger are great anti infantry and can kill any AV10 rear vehicle in the game with no problems. Vendettas are the 3rd best tranport in the game and one of the best anti flyer and anti tank in the game. You also have 50 pts 4x flamer PCS squads to drop from those vendettas

Elysians - If you want an all flyer army that doesn't auto lose then this is THE army. Valks are dedicate transports and half of them drop turn 1, get 3 or 5 and take the rest of your points in vendettas, then vultures, and then avengers. The valks will probably have to drop down into skimmer mode mid game but they are still very good transports.

Eldar - The nightwing is probably the best dog fighters in the game and can get an incredible cover save. Phoenix's are brutal anti infantry and every flyer has vector dance so they can fire at the angle you need to kill what you need. The troops can be wave serpents which make them brutaly tough and decent firepower and you can get jetbikes for some late scoring. If you go this route get a farseer to roll all out for scrier's mirror. This lets you have absolute control of your reserves if you get it.

i think he meant nightwing above. (in the Eldar Section)

Thanks for the catch, I just wish my eldar had nightscythes.

It's also possible to build a competitive Flyer build using Daemons or Daemons/CSM. At 2000 points I can run 5-6 FMCs (2x Greater Daemons, 3x Daemon Princes), if you're using a mix of Daemons and CSM you can include Helldrakes as well.

Necrons have some pretty cool flyers and (the FW Night shroud has 5 1-use str 10 ap 1 5" blasts if im not mistaken ) and the troops inside the night scythe dont get hurt if it blows up. As for the death ray, theres no other name for it!