This is not news. Most folks that have not been living under a rock avoiding playing 6e have either used or been used by the seemingly endless waves of Doom Scythes, Vendettas, Stormtalons, or Fateweaver...who seems to have earned himself a higher place on the Flavor of the Month Totem Pole. I just want to put my thoughts on virtual paper to help clear my head on how this affects me and mine. So, in other words, this will be another rambling Bob post that doesn't really go anywhere. Good luck!
First, I think that it's fair to say that Flyers (as in the Vehicle) have a bit more going for them than Flying Monstrous Creatures. I say this primarily because Flying Monstrous Creatures can be forced to stop flying simply by being hit. (Note: there are some that interpret the "grounded" rule to mean that the FMC is assaultable, but still hit only on 6s. I call BS...he's grounded, he's hit like normal. I expect this will be corrected in the upcoming FAQ we've heard so much nothing about...) Admittedly they can then come down to ground level and assault you and eat your face, but this makes them vulnerable to all your nastiness...whereas the Flyers just keep right on flying until they're dead, laughing at you as you fail to roll any 6s.
Moreover, Flyers can switch to Skyfire mode and blow FMC out of the sky with ease, whereas FMC are limited to Vector Strikes. (Another note: the Vector Strike rule very specifically says the model's "unmodified Strength"...so why are people applying the Strength Bonus from Unholy Might to Vector Strikes? Sorry folks, but until the FAQ says otherwise, Vector Strikes from your Daemon Princes are at S5!) It seems to me that most flyers are AV11 side, and even S6 FMC are going to struggle there, and will be laughed at by IG players as their swooping attacks do nothing to the Vendetta's AV12.
I've enjoyed using my FMC...I think my army is colorful (mono-Tzeentch) and has enough shooting that I can just Swoop around all day and pick apart things with shooting while staying safe...but I don't think they compare nor compete with strong Flyer armies.
So why do I think Flyers are so damned good?
Well, first of course is that the vast majority of things shooting at them will be shooting Snap Shots, hitting only on 6s. Twin-linking helps, of course, but even then getting a 6...when you really want one...just doesn't happen that often, right? Everyone's favorite TL-AC Dreadnought only averages a little over 1 hit/volley. Same with the seemingly ubiquitous Quadgun. Does this really help out that much against a flyer? I guess it's better than nothing, which is, sadly, what many armies have to deal with them.
Second, whether they're going first or second, Flyers are going to get to shoot at you before you get to shoot at them. Since they come on reserve, and move pretty much wherever the hell they want, they're going to get to shoot at you. Moreover, if they don't like their odds over the table, they can just fly away and come back next turn!
Third, and this one is minor to some but major to others, they can't be assaulted. Many armies really like to deal with enemy vehicles by assault (which by and large got more effective in 6e), and they are utterly helpless against mass Flyers. I'm looking at you, Nids!
A possible 4th, that I haven't really thought too much about, but doesn't the extreme height of the model make Melta weapons far less useful?
Some Flyers just fly around and blow stuff up. That they can do this with near impunity is bad, but you could get away with more or less ignoring them, or outmaneuvering them since they have limited turning, though outlandish speed.
Some Flyers, though, will be transports, carrying squishy (or not so squishy!) troops to be deposited on the objective least convenient for you. These can not be ignored...well, I guess you could ignore them and hope to kill the squishy beings that come out, but wouldn't you much rather they get out somewhere less convenient for your opponent and more convenient for you? Like...in a smoking crater where they all die? Yeah...that's what I thought too.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, there's three types of Flyers you should be thinking about...FMC, Flying Shooty Things, and Flying Transports (that are very nearly as shooty as the Flying Shooty Things).
Not every army has all of those, of course.
FMC will primarily be Daemons, though some brave and masochistic soul may surprise you with some Flying Tyranid beasties. Daemons, though they have some really awesome units (Screamers are really SO good!) they do suffer from their own inherent weaknesses (Daemonic Assault!). The Daemon FMC will invariably be led by Fatweaver...he was hard as hell to kill before, now that he's only hit on 6s he's even worse! Anecdote: my first game using him he was shot, wounded, grounded, wounded again, and failed his first Ld test, flying away. Bastard!
You won't always get that lucky, though. In fact, he's such a pain to get rid of he's one of those things that it may be better to just ignore! That's one of those things that I like to call "Bad Choices", as you have to choose if you want to put a ton of fire on him and hope to get lucky, or endure the added resilience he gives to all the nearby Daemon units.
Flying Shooty Things are something that most armies have access to now. I can only think of Tau and Eldar off the top of my head that don't have some kind of air force to throw around. Some are better than others, but they all laugh at you as you try to roll 6s to hit. Some of them are outright obnoxious: the Doom Scythe in particular is very affordable and can wipe out units at a time, as well as vehicles and/or flyers (and unless I'm reading something wrong, the Death Ray is a weapon that can engage both at the same time, as it hits all under it's line, flyer or ground...I could be wrong with this). The Dakkajet can spit out a truly awesome number of shots on the Waaagh! turn, but is otherwise somewhat pedestrian.
Flying Transports are pretty common and available (at least as allies) to pretty much everyone...Storm Ravens, Vendettas, or Night Scythes will be the things you'll expect to see the most of. The Vendetta in particular stands out due to it's low cost, good AV12, and fearsome triple-TL-Lascannon armament.
So with all these things flying around, what do you do about them? All your fancy guns on your little ground-pounding troops and tanks don't work so well against them...and you can only bring one Quadgun (which will be targeted and destroyed PDQ). So, what's an aspiring 6e player to do?
Well, it seems to me GW wants you to spend money on flyers of your own. Since Flyers have the Skyfire rule, then can bypass the greatest strength of the enemy's Flyers...hitting them on normal BS! This works out better for some armies than others...Eldar are screwed, Orks don't really want to spend points on the Dakkajet, but Necrons will gladly take all the flyers they can!
Other than feeding the corporate greed, what else can we do? Orks spam Lootas...an already great unit that shits out enough fire they're bound to roll some 6s! Lots of Twin-linking in other armies can mitigate a small bit, but really it doesn't help that much.
So what's my final advice? Suck it up and expect flyer-heavy armies to tear you apart. They get to shoot you before you get to shoot them, and shooting at them is HARD.
I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Here's the idea I have for my Dark Eldar...
Baron Sathonyx
3 Trueborn (Blasters)
Venom
3 Trueborn (Blasters)
Venom
5 Warriors
Venom
5 Warriors
Venom
5 Warriors
Venom
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)
Voidraven (4 Shatterfield Missiles)
Voidraven (4 Shatterfield Missiles)
Voidraven (4 Shatterfield Missiles)
So the idea would be to win the die roll with help from the Baron, and choose to go second...thus allowing the Voidravens to come on after enemy Fliers and hopefully shoot them out of the sky. I like the Shatterfields as they're useful against troops or vehicles, and the Bomb is probably not worth much (but might make for an amusing moment if playing against Paladins!) Low on troop count, but lots of Splinter shooting and passable melee unit (with Hit and Run, which I think is an incredible power).
This does bring up something that I see as a weakness to Flyers (something FMC do not suffer from, at least not inherently)...they MUST start in reserves. While reserve rolls are much more forgiving now, there will still be those games when your stuff just refuses to show up until turn 4. Can your army survive without the firepower they provide? I mean, my "normal" DE list excels because it usually gets to go first and kill a lot of things before they get to shoot at my (tissue) paper airplanes. I really miss having those Ravagers out there to lay down fire and glance shit to death!!
So one last thing I want to ramble about is what I see being the new Flavor Of The Month "Power Build", and that's the Necron Flyer spam.
4+ Flyers, some transports with troops, zipping around annihilating your entire army 3d6" at a time, while you shoot at them in vain and watch as the Wraiths come to eat you. If you go to tournaments, or play competitively, this is the army you need to be prepared to face. From what I can tell, there are no good counters to this yet. Fingers crossed for something from GW to help even this out...Flak missiles would certainly help, as the ubiquitous Missile Launcher Marine would become the bane of Flyers (and FMC!) everywhere! This wouldn't help my Daemons, though, who have absolutely no answer to Flyers at all, but the change it would inspire in the meta would, I think, reduce the number of Flyers everywhere.
You know what I'm hoping for? A 'supplement' from GW that has Flyers and anti-Flyers for all the factions. We wouldn't have to wait for new army books for everyone. GW wouldn't have to release models for everything...I'd rather have rules that we can use to balance things out an have us make up our own models for it.
It would be really cool if every army had a Fighter-type (think Dakka-jet), a Bomber-type (like the Blitz-bommer), and some ground-based anti-Flyer vehicle/artillery (eg Hydra) and troop-based (eg Flak Missile)
So what are your thoughts? How many Flyers are you using? How do you plan to deal with Flyer spam? What do you see on the horizon for 'balancing' things out?
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