Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Common complaint: "Why is the Vendetta so good at anti-air?! It's a ground support craft!"

Well, because of the rules. So, here's a proposed fix;

The following Fliers gain the "Strafing Run" rule:

Valkyrie, Vendetta, Doom Scythe.

The following Fliers gain the "Sky Hunter" rule:

Lightning, Nightwing, Night Scythe, Razorwing (and probably others, but not the Thunderbolt, because it's a dual role fighter-bomber)

Sky Hunter: Each turn, the flier may choose between a +1 bonus to their Ballistic skill when using the Skyfire rule, or a +1 bonus to their Cover save against shots fired by enemy fliers.

This just makes the problem worse. The new Vendetta isn't any worse at killing other aircraft, but now it's even more powerful against ground targets and an even more obvious choice. To fix the problem you need to combine it with making the ground attack aircraft worse against flyers. For example, give them strafing run but make them BS 2 by default. Now the Vendetta keeps its current firepower against ground targets, but gets significantly worse against other aircraft.

And of course this doesn't fix the Lightning at all, but that's a problem with it being a neglected 3rd edition design, not your specific changes.

Alternately take the route 4e Apocalypse did with Flyers and don't give them Skyfire by default, require them to have weapons with the AA rule to take on other planes (Necron Flying Circus and Guard Air would be a lot less scary if they had to rely on dedicated AA planes instead of cleaning up with Vendettas and Doom Scythes against all targets).

Why add complex rules when increasing the point cost would be a simple way of fixing the issue?

With 3 twin-linked LC and transport capacity + whatever more it has, bump up the cost to about 150'ish pts. This would be a more balanced cost compared to the other codices.

However, even with the point increase, if you compare the following:

Vendetta: flier (forcing opponent to bring AA), 3 twin-linked LC, 10 men transport capacity - 150 pts
Predator: vehicle (forcing enemy to bring anti-tank), 1 twin-linked LC, 2 LC - 140 pts

The Vendetta is still vastly superior since the it forces the opponent not only to bring anti-tank (which is standard) but also anti-air.
For this reason I would like to see all fliers in all codices getting their points bumped up by about 50 points (except for the fliers that already are over-priced).