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So this Autumn's project has been de-looting Ork Dakka Jets into their Imperial counterparts. It's a fun little projects and honestly makes me wish GW would make an Imperial equivalent to their Dakka Jet kit. Lots of little options to change the shape or orientation of the wings and tail really make it a fun kit to play around with, and best of all the Orky parts are easy to leave off!



Anyway, so I ordered two more.

I'm thinking of turning one into a Lightning but can't figure out what the point is. It's supposed to be this great dog fighter (vs the Thunderbolt which is a fighter bomber but there's nothing in the rules to reflect it. It has fewer guns than the Thunderbolt, 2 lascannons & an autocannon, vs 4 AC and 2 lascannons and both can get missiles and bombs. They're similar points (90 vs 100) but once you add the guns the TBolt is more expensive. Other than that I don't see an advantage.

Am I missing something?

The Imperial Guard index from Forge World has its profil and cost.

 godardc wrote:
The Imperial Guard index from Forge World has its profil and cost.

I have that I just don't see why anyone would take it over the Thunderbolt other than the slight break in points. It's like taking a Predator if the Leman Russ is available.

Oh, sorry. Well, it's a gakky flyer for sure. We'll see if GW finally fix the FW stuff one day ...

IG FW units took a bit of a slap with the Index and Chapter Approved points increases.

In general most of them aren't worth fielding outside of fun and the rule of cool.

 Sentineil wrote:
IG FW units took a bit of a slap with the Index and Chapter Approved points increases.

In general most of them aren't worth fielding outside of fun and the rule of cool.

Is the issue points? Because the TBolt with 8 S7 shots and 2 S9 that can go anywhere in the battlefield seems really tasty.

Looking at the datasheets I guess the extremely situational advantage of the Lightning is that it can be kitted out with purely 72'' weaponry. So should you play on really large tables were you are able and willing to keep your distance above 48'' you don't have to pay for weapons that will be out of reach. But as I said: that will hardly ever come up

The problem with saying something's a great dogfighter is that you're then wandering into 40k, where ground-attack potential is the only thing that really matters and maneuverability for all aircraft is basically the same. There's a point to the Lightning conceptually in AI (it isn't out for new!AI yet but in old!AI it had Very High maneuverability and could make much tighter turns than a Thunderbolt) but if you want to represent aircraft on the scale of 40k there's no reason to use the Lightning at all. It's a P-51 vs. the Thunderbolt's P-47 when ground-attack firepower is the only thing the game cares about.

There's stuff they could do give it an invulnerable dodge save or -2 to hit vs the normal -1 or something. But yeah.

I'll probably still build a proxy, I really don't see myself needing more than 2 or 3 so the ones I have coming in are just gravy.

But then we're getting into logical difficulties, like why a Lightning (speed 2-6 acceleration 2 Very High maneuverability) gets the extra to-hit penalty but a Nightwing (speed 2-9 acceleration 3 Very High maneuverability) doesn't despite it having the same problem with existing in 40k, and if you give it to them Alaitoc Nightwings are going to be the new spammy hotness with -3 to hit built in and -4 with the stratagem...

 AnomanderRake wrote:
But then we're getting into logical difficulties, like why a Lightning (speed 2-6 acceleration 2 Very High maneuverability) gets the extra to-hit penalty but a Nightwing (speed 2-9 acceleration 3 Very High maneuverability) doesn't despite it having the same problem with existing in 40k, and if you give it to them Alaitoc Nightwings are going to be the new spammy hotness with -3 to hit built in and -4 with the stratagem...

Well the easy fix there is to say that after 30,000 years of fighting Slannesh the Eldar have finally gone extinct, solves a lot of other problems too