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Started messing with using my corvus as an assault transport in hover mode rather than as a dedicated flyer, and it seemed to workout ok. What are some other ideas people have to maximize SM flyers during a game? The more out there the idea the better.

Marine flyers once had their good time in early 8th edition, but the good days of 3 Stormravens plus Guilliam had long gone after the points increase. And the surface of other codex armies making SM flyer looks fragile and over-costed for what they do. Then we had Fire Raptors plus Guilliam and Tiggy, which gives some significant firepower. But then the Fireraptor also received nerf bat and increased its cost by around 100pts.

So my suggestion of playing SM flyers? Don't take them. They are not worth it in the current environment. Any Astartes flyer are easy to shoot down within a turn or two, even the heavy flyers like Stormravens or Stormwolf/fang. Basically you are paying ~300+ points for doing nothing. The lighter flyers cost less but shoots much worse than the heavy ones, and also carries much less firepower making them not worth their near 200pts.

Vanilla SM flyers are overcosted, but Dark Angels have the excellent Ravenwing Dark Talon, which is one of the best flyers in the game that isn't Aeldari. One of my favorite tactics is to advance with one on the first turn, pop Speed of the Raven to allow it to act normally even though it advanced, drop the stasis bomb on something juicy, and then unload 24 bolter shots and the Rift Cannon on something also, probably something my opponent didn't expect. I once wiped out a unit of Lootas by jumping over them with a Dark Talon, leaving their Grots on the wrong side to protect them.

Is the Stormhawk Interceptor worth it as a dedicated anti-flyer?

For 163 points, you can get 12 assault cannon shots, 3 skyhammer missiles and 3 icarus stormcannon (or 2 lastalon) shots. All getting bonuses against units with FLY (so also Jump packs, Hive Tyrants etc).

Its okay against enemy units with FLY and less than T7 and no hard to hit, and there are many of those in the game. But pretty useless against real hard to hit T7 flyers. If you want a real anti air aircraft get a xiphon interceptor. Four LC hitting enemy hard to hit flyers on 2s, wounding them on 3s. Plus rockets also hitting them on 2s, but wounding on 5s, because of S6.

 p5freak wrote:
Its okay against enemy units with FLY and less than T7 and no hard to hit, and there are many of those in the game. But pretty useless against real hard to hit T7 flyers. If you want a real anti air aircraft get a xiphon interceptor. Four LC hitting enemy hard to hit flyers on 2s, wounding them on 3s. Plus rockets also hitting them on 2s, but wounding on 5s, because of S6.

Thanks, the Xiphon is indeed pretty nasty and it's even cheaper than the Interceptor...
I personally won't use it, because I try to stay away from Forge World units in fun games (it's just a personal thing of mine), but no doubt that it's way better as a flyer hunter.

I think the Xiphon is fairly reasonable in terms of its firepower and price, at 220 points. The stormhawk feels overcosted for what it does - which is not much. Stormtalon even more so. If they came in around 120 points they'd be far more reasonable.

Flyers that can hover are good for tying up non-flying units. If you have one charge something like a tank commander, then ideally pile in so it's in base contact with two of them, the amount of shooting that comes back at you is seriously reduced. I've done that sort of thing quite a lot. There are other units that can do it better but it's still a nice option to have.

Polkadragon wrote:
Is the Stormhawk Interceptor worth it as a dedicated anti-flyer?

For 163 points, you can get 12 assault cannon shots, 3 skyhammer missiles and 3 icarus stormcannon (or 2 lastalon) shots. All getting bonuses against units with FLY (so also Jump packs, Hive Tyrants etc).

They are no match to Eldar Crimson Hunter who is similarly priced. 2 Crimson Hunters can shot down 3 Stormhawks (which is all you can bring) within 2 rounds if they go first, and maybe only losing one in the return fire.

Has anyone experimented with using Stormravens in hover as faster transports? And when in hover, can it use cover to deny Line of Sight to enemy units? IE, Turn one in hover, inches from the ground behind a hill or building where direct fire weapon can't engage it if you don't get to go first, then use it's full 20" hover move to get close enough to a juicy target- drop a dread and a boatload of nastiness within 9", blast away and bum rush like a demon on crack. Hopefully, the enemy is too busy dealing with the sudden appearance of a dread reinforced by other nastiness to put too much into the flyer, and turn two you ramp it up and fly away blasting other targets as you go, or keep it there, and start engaging other targets of opportunity as the rest of your force closes with the enemies front lines.

You cant move the transport and disembark, you have to disembark before the transport moves. Unless a special rule says otherwise.

 p5freak wrote:
You cant move the transport and disembark, you have to disembark before the transport moves. Unless a special rule says otherwise.

Agreed, that is the way Transports work and nothing to do with the Storm Raven being in hover mode or supersonic.