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Hey all, I was wondering with the release of IA13 and the updated rules for the Chaos Fire Raptor if anyone had any suggestions or thoughts on the most effective load out for this flyer.

The rules are pretty similar to the Forgeworld PDF that was out previously: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/F/fire-raptor.pdf

IA13 adds the options to take Balefire missiles in place of the Hellstrike Missiles as well as take "Maelific Ammunition" for the Reaper Autocannon battery and Quad-Heavy bolters.

The Balefire look like a good take for 15pts. They are Heavy so you don't hit the issue that you're never firing the Hellstrike missiles due to being Ordinance and you get four S5 AP6 Large Blast Ignores Cover missiles for it. While I don't think the Fire Raptor needed much help killing Hordes I think it's a worthwhile upgrade.

The Maelific Ammunition adds rending to the ball turrets. It's very expensive on both types of turrets but it does provide the Reaper with the chance to glance and pen armour 14. Possibly worth it but with it the flyer is starting to creep up to Land Raider/Kharibdys (sic?) points territory. It would also be nice to have some option on the Flyer to take shots at 2+ Armour Saves with some hope of putting a wound on them.

The other changes are additional vehicle options from Codex: CSM such as Dirge Caster, Warpflame Gargoyles. I don't honestly see these two ever being taken. Daemonic Possession is down 5 pts from the PDF and given that everything is twin linked the lose of BS might not be a major deal to ignore Stunned Results on a 2+.

The Raptor retains the option to take Armour Ceramite as well. It's not something I've considered taking as I don't often see flyers get Melta'd to death.

Is it still a fast attack option for chaos?

DaKKaLAnce wrote:
Is it still a fast attack option for chaos?

Nope Heavy Support so it doesn't compete for slots with the Heldrake or Spawn/Bikers.

Would help if you were going flyer heavy but I don't know if it'd be worth taking Heldrakes in tandem with this. With the FAQ to the Heldrake arc of fire and the Independent ball turrets the Fire Raptor probably beats the Drake for pure area of the battle field it can affect.

Looks like something I might look into.....

Malefic ammunition is overpriced on everything in the book, although this is one of the few units where it's at least a little tempting.

Swapping the quad heavy bolters for reaper autocannons, is a no brainer, especially since after those experimental rules came out the proper loyalist ones appeared in IA2 2nd edition and they still don't get them and anything we can rub in the loyalists faces is a must have! I'd also say the missile swap is worth it, better to have something you can at least use.

I would probably grab warpflame for the hell of it since it's so cheap, if nothing else it compliments the hellstrikes well and it's not exactly breaking the bank, but a lot of people do seem to hate keeping track of soulfire.

Stunned results aren't something I get very often on fliers, more often than not they die of hullpoint loss rather than pens especially as even the rear is 12, and like you say meltas are rarely going to be firing at you.

Honestly overall this and the hellblade are really shining as must haves from the book, so hopefully they won't have enough AA to deal with it all if you're bringing those and heldrakes.

I think this will be a nice way to get a unit that is on par with the stormraven.... Would be nice to have a nice flying gun ship that can dish out loads of firepower.

IT isn't able to transport is it?

Nah zero transport capacity I'm afraid, then it really would be silly, the storm eagle is covering that angle, but I'm not such a big fan of that one.

Well either way...It makes a great gunship to have around.... I might consider having it added to my collection.