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As a new player I am really struggling to make the choice between the two. With a basic understanding of rules it is proving to be a very hard choice.

Everyone I speak to says to take the Hammerhead and railgun. However I just don't see it being that appealing with just one shot it seems to be all or nothing. Meanwhile the Skyray seems to be a durable markerlight platform.

Then we have the addition of the formations which just confuse me.

My plan is to have breachers and pathfinders with devilfish transports. Darkstrider will be joining a squad of breachers to make them even more deadly and possibly have them scout/flank onto the board.

Did the Codex release while I was playing Pillars of Eternity?

Wait for the Codex then decide... unless you think one looks cooler than the other, then do that!

Or you can use magnets and gak on the kit to make it go both ways.

Good news, the kit allows you to make both turrets and they pop off and on like hatches on a devilfish.

You don't have to choose But for the sponson weapons build smart missiles!

My vote would be skyray too, the hammerhead is a bit too all or nothing like you say as opposed to the skyray being able to wipe out a flying hive tyrant in one turn with ease or glancing other vehicles to death with unholy missile fury.

6 shots is plenty

So the skyray is better to shoot flying units. The sms doesn't require line of sight and it is a durable markerlight platform loaded with plenty of seeker missiles.

Hammerhead is a 1 trick pony...

Seems like the skyray is a better choice

I never heard anyone saying the hammerhead is a better choice.
Really ^^
A lot of people play the devilfish, however.

Skyray is awesome. Firing its missiles at fliers and then using ML support for the battle.

Hamerheads look cool but are ultimately too niche to be considered. Although with the Armored Interdiction Cadre bonuses they could find a niche in a casual game against a few armies IG as one example.

The new Armored Interdiction Formation from the new Codex (according to the News and Rumors thread) is pretty awesome for the x3 Hammerheads and the Skyray it can take. Basically you can pick a point on the board (could be anything even open ground) and any enemy target within 6 inches of it your vehicles get Twin Linked against them. This solves the biggest Drawback of the Hammerhead which is it only having a single shot and in regards to the Skyray this means if a Flyer is within 6 inches of that point it would get Twin Linked with its Missiles as well!

I don't think the AI formation is going to be that great. Enemy might simply avoid the point (which of course can be beneficial in itself), also it does not remove biggest problem of Railgun and other powerful one-shot weapons: IF you hit and IF you penetrate and IF enemy doesn't make a save...you only destroy the vehicle on 5+. Meh. Given that you have to take minimum of 3 Hammerheads to take advantage of the formation, seems kinda pointless. Against most targets, that is just not enough damage output.

Backfire wrote:
I don't think the AI formation is going to be that great. Enemy might simply avoid the point (which of course can be beneficial in itself), also it does not remove biggest problem of Railgun and other powerful one-shot weapons: IF you hit and IF you penetrate and IF enemy doesn't make a save...you only destroy the vehicle on 5+. Meh. Given that you have to take minimum of 3 Hammerheads to take advantage of the formation, seems kinda pointless. Against most targets, that is just not enough damage output.

The fact you would be Twin Linked and the point can be changed at any point over the course of the game makes this really strong in my eyes, even when using Hammerheads. Also if you can take the Hammerheads in a single squadron they get +1 BS on top of TL which would make them even better. Just give these guys submunition rounds or even Ion Turrets and they could do alot of damage to a wide variety of targets.

Longstrike makes all the tanks in the squad have Tank Hunter. Which might be worth it in a casual game.

 gmaleron wrote:

Backfire wrote:
I don't think the AI formation is going to be that great. Enemy might simply avoid the point (which of course can be beneficial in itself), also it does not remove biggest problem of Railgun and other powerful one-shot weapons: IF you hit and IF you penetrate and IF enemy doesn't make a save...you only destroy the vehicle on 5+. Meh. Given that you have to take minimum of 3 Hammerheads to take advantage of the formation, seems kinda pointless. Against most targets, that is just not enough damage output.

The fact you would be Twin Linked and the point can be changed at any point over the course of the game makes this really strong in my eyes, even when using Hammerheads. Also if you can take the Hammerheads in a single squadron they get +1 BS on top of TL which would make them even better. Just give these guys submunition rounds or even Ion Turrets and they could do alot of damage to a wide variety of targets.

I was under impression the point had to be pre-determined? It's of course more powerful if you can change it every turn.
AI formation requires 3 separate units of Hammerheads, so empoying a full squadron in conjuction with it would require quite a many Hammerheads...

9 Hammerheads + Longstrike and 3 Skyrays at max. 1530 points, more if you want all of them with the large blast shots.