Aeronautica: Returning Sanity to Flyers

[Formerly Wu]

As I see it, 6th Edition has two major flaws to its implementation of flyers.

1) All flyers can utilize Skyfire.

This is the big one. It gives flyers with hover mode a distinct maneuverability advantage over dedicated interceptors, while not impeding their firepower. It makes heavily armored gunships and transports like the Vendetta a deadly threat to supersonic fighters. Logically, slower and heavier ships with heavy ground-targeting firepower should be more vulnerable to fighters, but this isn't the case.

2) The Interceptor rule ties air/ground firepower to reserves interception.

This constricts the options for future weapons by making it impossible to have a versatile weapon that isn't also an AA interception system.

To fix this I've come up with two new special rules and a few pieces of errata.

New Special Rules
Gunship
Some flyers act in a dedicated ground-attack or transport role. While still capable of fast, high-altitude flight, these heavier ships are slower and more vulnerable to air attack.
Flyers with the Gunship special rule may not choose to use Skyfire, unless they have weapons that specifically permit them to do so.
Targeting Spirits
These weapons utilize advanced technology to guide their fire. They are as agile and dangerous to those in flight as they are to those on the ground.
Weapons with the Targeting Spirits special rule may choose whether or not to use the Skyfire special rule at the start of each Shooting phase.

Errata
Valkyrie: Add the Gunship special rule.
Vendetta: Add the Gunship special rule.
Vulture: Add the Gunship special rule.
Hellstrike Missile: Add the Targeting Spirits special rule.

That takes care of the more egregious offenders. I think cases could be made for the Storm Raven/Eagle, the ork Blitza or Burna Bommas, the new Avenger, and several of the Forge World super-heavy flyers as well. I'm not as familiar with the rules for them, however, and am disinclined to list every single combination. I figure common sense can generally be used here:

If a flyer is not a fighter, it's a gunship.
If a gunship is equipped with air-defense weapons, those weapons have Skyfire. If they can be used as either air defense or ground attack, they have Targeting Spirits.

Let me know what you think.

[Bubble Ghost]

I agree with the sentiment, that's for sure. It's all the bigger of a cock up because of how totally unnecessary it is - to be fair to them, there's aren't many things in 6th ed that seems to only be the way it is for sales reasons, but this is definitely one of them.

Instead of adding a new special rule, could you not just tie your gunship change to Hover? i.e., if it has the Hover rule it's obviously a gunship? I'm not sure, I haven't searched through for the implications of that, just a thought.

[Formerly Wu]

Instead of adding a new special rule, could you not just tie your gunship change to Hover? i.e., if it has the Hover rule it's obviously a gunship? I'm not sure, I haven't searched through for the implications of that, just a thought.

I did think about that. But not all ground attack craft necessarily have Hover. Take the Marauder Destroyer: by rights, it's a ground attack craft (it's a bomber, after all). But it's got multiple nose-mounted autocannons that would make it a devestating air-to-air combatant, all the more so for being a super-heavy.

Giving it the Gunship rule would solidify its ground attack role. You can then give its turret-mounted autocannon and tail-mounted assault cannon Skyfire to represent its air defenses.

[Bubble Ghost]

Fair enough!

Then... how about, instead of adding a Gunship rule to ground attack craft, instead adding an Interceptor rule, to which craft the skyfire option is limited? Trifling perhaps, but that way you only have a single additional rule (flyers use the normal shooting rules, except Interceptors which have skyfire option) - with a Gunship rule, you have one exception (all flyers can use Skyfire) then an excepton to that (except the ones that can't), which is a bit fiddlier.

I honestly dunno if I'm thinking about this clearly, it's early.

[Formerly Wu]

Fair enough!

Then... how about, instead of adding a Gunship rule to ground attack craft, instead adding an Interceptor rule, to which craft the skyfire option is limited? Trifling perhaps, but that way you only have a single additional rule (flyers use the normal shooting rules, except Interceptors which have skyfire option) - with a Gunship rule, you have one exception (all flyers can use Skyfire) then an excepton to that (except the ones that can't), which is a bit fiddlier.

I honestly dunno if I'm thinking about this clearly, it's early.

That... makes a lot of sense, actually. It's also early for me, but I'll noodle over that over the course of today. Good thoughts.

[Gaargod]

I'd certainly echo your sentiment that the Interceptor rule should not be tied to the ability to choose Skyfire or not. Clearly, Interceptor should be a separate rule (just the ability to fire at incoming reserves, which is cool), and there should be a second rule called, perhaps, Advanced Targeting, or something like that, which allows you to choose.

I'd agree there should be a difference between flyers though, but I disagree upon how they should be separated. I'd like something like Fighters and Bombers/Gunships. Fighters get Skyfire automatically, Gunships get Strafing Run automatically. For example. Or perhaps Vector Dancer and Strafing Run, respectively - Vector Dancer is actually a really brutal rule. Considering a lot of guns don't have huge firing arcs, it would instantly make fighters very capable of staying out of a Gunship's arcs whilst still filling them full of shots.

Hmm, actually quite like that idea.