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As the title says, dose anyone have any experience running this monster of a model? I love the model and I would be willing to shell out to get this thing at Adepticon but I want to know if it is any good game play wise.

Depends on your list. I am running 2 with SoB (In process of converting 3rd). I love the model, but converted a pair of Nephelims from DA with extra immolator pilots crewing so there are sisters piloting. It is a beast, and has single handedly taken out entire squads of marines in one pass. Great against Meq, hordes, and armor. Plenty of optional weapons to suit to taste. The only downside is the reserve roll, kinda random. I use them to replace Exorcists.

Do you use weapon upgrades or leave it as is?

I like to run it with missile launchers. Gives me the option of going after both infantry and vehicles. With infantry I just use the Avenger cannon and drop two frag missiles on the group, while with high armor vehicles can then use the lascannons and krak missiles instead.

The Avenger is an excellent unit. Sure, it's not a Vendetta, but by that standard every flyer in the game is terrible (and most non-flyer units too). It's cheap, reasonably durable (AV 12 offsets only having 2 HP), and brings a lot of firepower (don't forget BS 4 from strafing run). It has the volume of fire to hurt infantry, and is a decent anti-vehicle unit, especially if you can get into side/rear armor where the main gun is most effective.

As for weapons, IMO the hellfury missiles are the best option. The limit of only being able to fire four weapons at full BS makes most of the guns a poor option, you're paying the full price for two weapons but only one of them will be firing at full BS (since most of the time the standard guns are better than the upgrade ones). For example, sure an extra krak missile is nice against vehicles, but usually you'll want to fire the main gun instead of the second krak missle, so you're overpaying significantly for the one full-BS missile. Hellfury missiles, on the other hand, are cheap and make it a much better horde killer. And in the situations where you want to use the missiles you don't have to feel bad about giving up a single LC shot.

So the avenger is good, but what about the Thunderbolt? 2 TL autocannons, upgraded with 4 hell-fury.
Autocannons wreak the transports, and the hell-furies take out the marines/hordes.

Sorry, forgot to reply to this earlier.

 Alpha wrote:
So the avenger is good, but what about the Thunderbolt? 2 TL autocannons, upgraded with 4 hell-fury.
Autocannons wreak the transports, and the hell-furies take out the marines/hordes.

The Thunderbolt is terrible. It costs significantly more than a Vendetta, and has much worse firepower, weaker armor, and no transport capacity. Now that GW (stupidly) made ground-attack aircraft into AA units in 6th the only flyers worth taking are the Vulture, Vendetta, and Avenger. The Thunderbolt and Lightning are 4th edition relics in a game that has moved on and left them behind.

Also, as of IA:Aeronautica the Thunderbolt can no longer take hellfury missiles.

 Peregrine wrote:
The Avenger is an excellent unit. Sure, it's not a Vendetta, but by that standard every flyer in the game is terrible (and most non-flyer units too). It's cheap, reasonably durable (AV 12 offsets only having 2 HP), and brings a lot of firepower (don't forget BS 4 from strafing run). It has the volume of fire to hurt infantry, and is a decent anti-vehicle unit, especially if you can get into side/rear armor where the main gun is most effective.

As for weapons, IMO the hellfury missiles are the best option. The limit of only being able to fire four weapons at full BS makes most of the guns a poor option, you're paying the full price for two weapons but only one of them will be firing at full BS (since most of the time the standard guns are better than the upgrade ones). For example, sure an extra krak missile is nice against vehicles, but usually you'll want to fire the main gun instead of the second krak missle, so you're overpaying significantly for the one full-BS missile. Hellfury missiles, on the other hand, are cheap and make it a much better horde killer. And in the situations where you want to use the missiles you don't have to feel bad about giving up a single LC shot.

Okay, so hellfurys are the way to go if I upgrade. Two more questions then:

1. Can I run it stock, or are the hellfurys required?

2. How many hard points come in the kit? It looks like it has two empty and two for the lascannons, so four, but I just want to be sure.

 Happygrunt wrote:
1. Can I run it stock, or are the hellfurys required?

Not absolutely required, but they add a lot for a very low price so you'd have to be really tight on points to skip them.

2. How many hard points come in the kit? It looks like it has two empty and two for the lascannons, so four, but I just want to be sure.

No idea. I've proxied a Lightning as one (the poor neglected Lightning finally gets to be good!) when I've used it, I haven't bought the real model yet.