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So i've always wanted to have a more accessible flyer for custodes. They do have some in the fluff that never got put into table-top but im gonna try to design one here. Check out my take and please offer suggestions for balance purpose's.



Excelsior ASF
Abilities: Airborne, Explodes, Flare Shielding, Hard to Hit, Hover-jet, Supersonic, V-tol turn
Unit: Excelsior ASF
Weapon: Twin Illiastus accelerator Culverin, Twin lastrum Bolt cannon x2
Wound Track: Excelsior wound track 1, Excelsior wound track 2, Excelsior wound track 3

M----WS----BS----S----T----W----A----Ld----Save
*------6+-----*-------7----7----13----*----9------3+


7-13 M-20"-60" BS 2+ A-3
4-6 M-20"-45" BS 3+ A-2
1-3 M-20"-28" BS 4+ A-1

ABILITIES:
V-tol turn: After moving half of its max movement, the Excelsior can make a second pivot at 45 degrees whilst in supersonic mode.



13PL 240pts



The fighter is designed to shoot other fighters out of the sky, thus the reliance on Heavy ROF weaponry. Its going to be fairly manuverable thus the hover jet rule and its second pivot ability. It has comparible durability to the grav tank with shorter range on the main guns, but a second undergun so its gonna cost a bit more points.



Whats the verdict my friends?

It's just a Caladius with flyer movement, -1W, and an extra twin Lastrum bolt cannon for +15pts?

Pretty much. Does it serve its purpose you think? How would you design a custodes flyer?

I don't think any Custodes flyer today would be meaningfully different from just taking a Caladius. 9th has flattened statlines so much and made unit types so irrelevant that there's very little point.

Big point in having say 3 telemons and 2 fliers without taking an extra detachment or paying for a spearhead i'd say.

If it's meant to shoot other fighters out of the sky surely it should have some rule to help it do so, such as +1 to hit units with the FLY keyword?

That was a thing, till they started removing it from units (like the xiphon). High rof weaponry combined with custodes inate bs2 is good enough. 20 shots, even hitting on 3s should so some damage

 Eihnlazer wrote:
That was a thing, till they started removing it from units (like the xiphon). High rof weaponry combined with custodes inate bs2 is good enough. 20 shots, even hitting on 3s should so some damage

That's a good point. I personally would add some sort of special rule to distinguish it from a Calladius.

well we cant add too much or it quickly becomes OP. I thought with the extra mobility and hover mode it seemed fancy enough over a regular flyer, but i didnt want to make it too mobile and make admech flyers useless.

Mabey something added to the V-tol ability thats unique.

How does this sound:

V-tol Thrust-While in hover mode, models cannot get within 3" of the Excelsior during the movement phase.