I've had a few one-on-one games to learn the rules, but we had our first go with the game 'en masse' last night.
Essentially a free for all, everyone deployed facing the centre of the board at Power 3. Anyone shot down rolled a scatter die and placed their power die at the point on the board edge indicated, moving on at whatever power they liked in the following impulse; the goal (in the finest deathmatch traditions) being to score as many kills as possible and to try not to die too much.
In addition to the above, a second Stormtalon joined in partway through the first turn. The total roster was:
~ Stormraven (Red) with Turret-Mounted Assault Cannons, Hurricane Bolters and Nose-Mounted Heavy Bolters
~ Stormraven (Black) with Turret-Mounted Assault Cannons and Nose-Mounted Multimeltas
~ Stormtalon (Red) with Six Skyhammer Missiles
~ Stormtalon (Black) with Typhoon Missile Launcher
~ Dakkajet with Three Twin-Linked Supa Shootas
~ Crimson Hunter
~ Doom Scythe
~ Razorwing Jetfighter with Four Monoscythe Missiles
~ Heldrake with Hades Autocannon (Proxied Hive Tyrant)
The game was really good fun and very bloody (with so many fighters in the sky and casualties respawning, pretty much everyone had an attack every turn).
The Stormravens made a big impression in the first impulse - those 30" range Stormstrikes mean you've got a good opening punch; one of them winging each of the Eldar flyers. The Night Shields on the Razorwing helped keep it from taking too much damage, but the Crimson Hunter took a couple of nasty hits. The black Stormraven powered courageously into the centre of the board - which as everyone who's ever played a free-for-all knows, is about the worst thing you can do as everyone immediately lines up on you as an easy target. This time-honoured tradition continued here unabated.....
Whilst ending up with the Blaze Of Glory award for being shot down the most, it's hard to criticise the Ork Dakkajet pilot. He did enough damage that - had it not been spread across several fighters - he'd probably have got at least one kill, overflying everyone and delivering both strafing runs and classic orky "
Flyin' 'Eadbutt" attacks with accidental collisions. In fact the first 'kill' of the game was his attempted strafing run across the black Stormraven - shooting it for a small amount of damage, avoiding it as he overflew it, but suddenly finding the Crimson Hunter coming the other way on the far side and plowing into it head-first at some speed. The Dakkajet had several structure points left. The Crimson Hunter, having taken a Stormstrike volley and a bad danger roll, didn't, and bits of it pattered harmlessly into the flank of the Stormraven as the Dakkajet crashed through it.
The Stormravens are definitely contenders for 'toughest thing in the sky'. The Doom Scythe had been tailing it for a couple of activations - hammering it with Death Ray and Tesla fire. It lined up again, and caused a 'Flying Debris' result; another structure point off the Stormraven, but also a structure point off the attacker if they are tailing within 5". This was a bit of a blow as the Doom Scythe had lost four structure itself and was on its last hit point - a large chunk of the Stormraven's tailplane was sliced cleanly off and pinwheeled back, embedding itself in the cockpit of the Necron flyer and smashing it out of the sky.
To add injury to insult, the Razorwing on the right in the first picture then pulled a Reverse manoeuvre and lined up its splinter cannon and dark lances, hoping to finish the Space Marine flyer off and cheekily steal the kill....and got another Flying Debris result, winging it, too. Fortunately it was more or less intact and survived the hit, but clearly flying behind a steadily disintegrating gunship is not an especially safe pastime.
Despite the punishment, the Stormraven managed to survive long enough to pull a Stall Turn (losing yet
another structure to a failed Danger Roll) and lining up on the Crimson Hunter, blowing it out of the sky before finally getting taken down by the increasingly frustrated Razorwing.
The game was really, really good fun. Thoughts on the individual fighters:
Stormraven: Damn - these things take some killing. However, they do turn like a cow at medium to high speeds. I would suggest, in hindsight, either sticking to low speeds (Power 2-3) or ramming the throttle right through the gate to Power 5 (only an option if you've not taken Hurricane Bolters). You're even less manoeuvrable at Power 5, but at least you get to do two moves chained together in the majority of activations, so you can get your nose around, albeit in very large circles. Hurricanes are very effective, but you want to fly slower than maximum power if you've got them, so you've got a fighting chance of pulling off Stall Turns - your only real option for rapid manoeuvre. The Stormstrike Missiles are good - I'd use them as a throwaway weapon for a first pass on a gunship with Hurricane Bolters. Your other guns mostly only reach out to 10", so you're likely to be firing the Stormstrikes only - you might as well fire off the lot of them as they need a 5+ to hit. If you haven't taken sponsons, then hang on to them to fire alongside your other guns to try and rack up enough damage to get a Copped It! or Riddled result.
Razorwing/Crimson Hunter: Agile and Fragile. The lances on these things are precise and they hurt. With Power 6, they dance around the board like crazy, and Reverse is amazing - Level Flight then Reverse dropped them in Tailing a target so many times. The Razorwing's Night Shields didn't do too much, but that's more a feature of a big free-for-all than a problem with the rules - the sky is so crowded everyone's usually firing at short range where they don't do anything. They did pointedly stop a Stormstrike hit in the first attack of the game, though, turning what would have been a Copped It! result into a minor Engine Damage critical. Missiles for the Razorwing are an interesting choice; I would recommend firing Monoscythes the moment you've got a shot with them (needing a 3+ to hit you can realistically use them Head-On) whilst Shatterfields are probably best reserved to be fired in pairs along with your energy weapons once* you get on someone's tail (because despite the same average damage they need a 5+ to hit so a +1 or -1 makes a much bigger difference) - you only need fire 2 against most opponents because if you can tail someone you should get three-and-a-bit damage easily off your regular guns - firing off all four Shatterfield Missiles is probably wasting damage against a lot of opponents.
* If you can't get onto someone's tail in a Dark Eldar interceptor then I humbly suggest
You're Doing It Wrong.
Heldrake: Nearly as tough as the Stormravens and much scarier at close quarters with those talons. It only got a rake off twice, but both times really hurt - overflying the Stormtalon, causing one point of damage with the Collision (admittedly to both) and then delivering two more damage and a Fire! critical with the talons. The fight was slightly unrepresentative of a Heldrake's normal capabilities as it was very slow in this game - the Hive Tyrant being used was on a smaller base, which (since base lengths are used for movement) cut into its speed.
Dakkajet: Unsubtle but brilliant fun. One thing to note; the game's 'impulses' represent quick snapshots of time - a single manoeuvre and a snap burst of fire. Flyers only move a couple of times their own base length and come round 45' or so. Except, of course, for this thing. In its most impressive strafing run, the Dakkajet (which had finally got up to Speed 5 - taking triple shootas really cuts into your ability to accelerate) pulled off two Waaaggh! manoeuvres in sequence, zooming up 2/3 of the length of the board and shooting the hell out of the red Stormtalon which thought it was safely out of the fight.
