Air Warrior Tactica

[Tutteman]

Basically after reading a REALLY GOOD ;) water tactica by Silent Requiem which included a bit about the intelluctual style of "Air Warrior" I wanted to know more. (I want a change from my time honoured tactic of marching a bunch of Assault terminators down the centre with the Chap and Lib, plus it's boring)

 

Sorry, it could be my seach fu but I can't find one :) (It doesn't help that Air is below the five character limit).

 

So could someone ethier please direct me to one or write one. Thanks in advance.

[Silber]

You couldn't find one because there is none. Silent Requiem was AFAIK the first one to come up with the "elemental" system, and he only wrote the water tactica. There's a couple of threads written by others, building upon it. For other elements there's a "flame" tactica by Melissia in the spirit of Silent Requiem, but that's it.

 

So it's not your search-fu - you'll have to wait for someone to write it.... :lol:

 

 

 

EDIT:

This might be interesting for you. Although it's written for 4th edition it's somehow an air tactica barring the "Air" label....

[minigun762]

Part of the issue is that Marines aren't really geared for Air. Earth is easy for us thanks to our superior save and solid toughness. Fire works too because by our nature, we're good at getting close to the enemy (look at Drop Pods).

Water works obviously, just look at the Tactica.

 

The closest thing we have for Air is probably a Biker/Speeder heavy army as the defining element of Air as I know it, is mobility and Marines lack units with inherent mobility other than the above mentioned ones. We also lack anything thats a fast vehicle (other than Speeders) so unlike Tau or Eldar, we can't reposition nearly as fast or as far.

 

I'm not saying its not possibly, but I'd look to Biker/Speeder armies for Marines and even review some Xeno tactics to get an idea of how an Air army works.

[Silber]

I think marines can make pretty well Air tools.

 

The key to the air style is mobility. It's important to understand, though, that it is sort of it's own end in this style. Other armies make use of high mobility units, too, but air armies win with mobility alone. Well, they kill you, too. But they win with mobility.

The difference between a fast fire army and an air army, for example, is that one uses it's mobility to get up close and personal and punch your face (not necessarily in hth) before you have a chance to stop them while the other one, the air army, uses it's mobility to outmaneuver you and eat you chunk by chunk. As far as I can see much depends on how you use your army, as opposed to what it's composed of.

 

So how can you do that with marines? Bikes as troops are obvious. Other appropriate choices are Land Speeders, Scouts in LSS, Attack Bikes and possibly Assault Squads / Vanguard or even gating Sternguard or Tactical Terminators. Scout Bikes seem more appropriate for fast fire armies but could be of use. Ravenwing is another good option - the scout move sounds airy to me. The rest is tactics, and that's the tricky part. Basically you need to achieve local superiority. Choose a part of the enemy army and wipe it out. Try to avoid return fire and counter attacks as much as possible. Repeat as neccessary.

 

As far as I can tell. I'm not an air expert....

 

 

EDIT:

Most of this is paraphrased from Master Silent Requiem. Just thought it'd be fair to give him credit :)

[Tutteman]

Thanks guys (and girls). I know it might be weird for Marines but I wanted a challenge. Plus I wanted to try this out in a tourny at my School club. Lots of Orks and only 500pts so I thought picking off bits of the enemy would be better than charging into the middle of 50 Orks. (More thought out too).

 

Nice to know my Search fu wasn't at fault. I try out the advice you gave Silber and I shall check out those Xeno Scums tactics :D

 

Thanks peeps.

[General Retreat]

To second the previous posts, Marines really aren't made for Air. However, the addition of the Land Speeder Storm provides at least some viability to the idea. Drop Pods are clearly Fire to me, as they get you in position fast, but have no further mobility, so either they burn you, or fizzle out quickly. Using a full complement of Storms, you could create all sorts of interesting baits and traps, which is the hallmark of Air. You have to tempt the enemy to separate to come after your disparate elements, then reposition faster than they can to concentrate your force.

 

I would still only call the Storm a nod to Air, not a cornerstone unit, but in a small game, I'll bet it could be devastating to have your Recon force consist of fast, flying, and infiltrating scouts with just a few typical Water assets to draw on (like Rhino/RB mounted tac squads). Call it the Gale Force, or the Tsunami battlegroup. :)

[minigun762]

Call it the Gale Force, or the Tsunami battlegroup. :ph34r:

 

I like that, mixed element armies haha.

 

I think Marines could do a good Fire/Air army. Drop Pods and LRCs are hardcore Fire units supported by Bikes, Attack Bikes and Land Speeders as Air.

[Deathwing]

The elemental system as described by Silent Requiem is very reminiscent of Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings. Whether he took inspiration from that I don't know.

 

As for as Air armies, I'd suggest you look for a Ravenwing tactica or as posted above Bike Tactica as those armies are the closest a Marine army would be to the Air style.

 

Off topic, I wonder if anyone has tried a 'void' style army that incorporates all 4 elements. I wonder if it would be even possible at 1500-1700 point games.

[Brother Veritas]

Off topic, I wonder if anyone has tried a 'void' style army that incorporates all 4 elements. I wonder if it would be even possible at 1500-1700 point games.

 

The Book of No-thing covers an element unto itself. Frankly, I consider Warp Angel's KillHammer articles to be the closest analogue to the Book of the Void, since that book attempts to formulate a mindset.

 

To the OP: Frankly, Ravenwing or White Scars are the best ways to go about making an Air Marine army. I've never really gone down that road, but hopefully that's a starting point.

[Tutteman]

Right, I shall check out the Bike tacticas as suggested. But really this is for use in a small 500pts tourny at my school club. I was thinking of something that was really mobile and hard to pin down. I was thinking a tactical squad with a gateing Lib and two five man assault squads.

 

Never thought about the Storms. I LIKE IT. :lol: