Valkyrie's and Vendetta's

[Nyutorix]

Greetings fellow lads and ladies!

 

Ive always had trouble figuring out how to use Valkyrie's and Vendetta's. Unfortunately when i see someone using them they are glorified cannon fodder or they have so many of them that they replace all the tanks and other vehicles. My question here is how do you guys and gals like to use the Valk's and Ven's?

 

They can carry troops and have good mobility, but seeing how expensive they are I don't really see them working too well as today everyone has something that can obliterate fliers. 

 

Please tell me how wrong I am and how amazing Valkyries and Vendettas can be!

[Vash]

It runs down to army synergy mate. 

If you want your flyer to live, you need something on the table that takes the focus away from the flyer/flyers. 

Also, before the flyer arrives, make sure you neutralise the anti air threat as much as possible. 

 

And, I don't think its totally true that all comers lists have good anti air. Tau and AM might be the ones I can see have good anti air as a standard. But AM usually goes for other stuff than the AA vehicle. 

Tau is the main concern as they can shoot both air and ground targets with ease. 

The normal counter is flyers vs flyers. And here is a reason why I like going second in 90% of my games. 

First of all I get Counter Deployment. I can respond to his deployments. So if he has an anti air unit, I can focus my dedicated hunter unit on that flank. 

Secondly I get Secure objective. Meaning I can clear out objective markers and claim them for my self more safely than my opponent who goes first. Thus I can react to his movements to objectives, rather than I go after them and he counters me. 

Counter air, is the one we both are interested in here. If your opponents anti air is air support, he will arrive first. Meaning you can target his flyer with your flyer. Also, if he is keeping his anti air in reserve because you have suicide meltagun drops, he will arrive in "turn 2" and have no targets. You will also arrive in "turn 2" and can counter his anti air with your flyer. 

Last thing I prefer with going last Regroup. As we are not Space Marines, we need to regroup before the game ends. And going last is one way of securing this. 

 

 

With this said, its hard for us to really answer your question without knowing what you usually face. Is it a spam of anti air units? If s, he lacks ground fire power. If it is a spam of flyers of his own, then you gotta add tons of anti air on ground of your own. 

 

Were I play we usually run 1 or 2 flyers. Not more than that. After that we usually ask our opponent for permission. 

[scatmandoo]

I use the Vendetta for effective hull stripping/destroying targets on ground and air. Sometimes through a PCS or SWS to drop off on an objective if one comes up.

 

The Valkyrie, I use with Rocket pods and ML and transport either a PIS or VET squad to the other side as chimeras in my experience never make it past the mid ground.

It never does much gunning down itself normally, but it does reliably get the unit to where I want them. (Even if that means they're gunned down for being too close haha.)

 

Hope it helps and can go into more detail should you want me to.

[scatmandoo]

Vash speaks sense, with some good insight and I normally run one of each if I can afford it.

[WarriorFish]

Vash makes an excellent post :) The Vendetta is best thought of as a dedicated flyer and tank hunter, it'll put the hurt on MCs too and doesn't need any upgrade points spent. The transport capacity is a nice bonus if you have a small squad to play with, for example a cheap PCS to drop in for sneaky scoring or as a special weapon bomb.

 

The Valkyrie is a bit rubbish stock, the missile pods make it much more useful as an infantry hunter though which is why you'll see this configuration often. It can swoop in to drop off a squad in a prime location and then provide some useful support in taking down enemy units. The ability to put a squad behind enemy lines or vehicles is great as it's not an ability Guard has much of. Veterans make for a good unit to transport as they can reliably do some damage with their three special weapons and BS4.

 

Don't forget the ability to grav chute troops down as that can be very useful plus with good armour for a flyer you can go into hover mode if needs must without being guaranteed to be shot down next turn :P Of course you still need to pick your spot and timing but again always good to have options :)

[Nyutorix]

Usually I am faced against Dark Angels, Chaos Space Marines and Grey knights. Orks and Daemons aren't too rare either.

 

Also kudos to Vash for the awesome post, Insight in the tactics for flyers itself is very handy to know. Its nice to know these beauties aren't being left by the side line. I'm looking forward to trying it out. My main concern was whether to use them as hunters or transport, seeing how they can easily be used as both (even though the Vendetta can only transport 6) It never occurred to me that i can still use it to move around my smaller command units. Also that it doesnt have to stick around the unit it dropped off, it can just go get more reinforcements! :D  Thanks for the advice and once im able to get them into a battle ill let you all know how it went.

[Andhil]

I usually field a single Vendetta and 1-2 Valks for airmobile Vets.

Quick rundown of how I do it:

1) Target any serious AA-capabilities the enemy has in the first turn. Fully destroy or cripple should suffice.

2) Profit.

I said it would be quick.

In all seriousness though. All AA that's Str7 isn't that dangerous really. It's the Str8+ things that make the Vendetta sad.

[*Furyou Miko]

I use them to replace tanks in my army. ^^;

 

My key 'avoid the anti-air' strategy is to force the enemy to prioritise the fliers I don't mind losing - most of the time, that's the big, scary Vendetta, which lets my infantry, Valkyries, Vultures and Avenger come on without too much danger.