A (not so) Humble Review of the Thunderbolt

[Master Antaeus]

The Thunderbolt fighter is a beastly sexy model.  It looks like an old-school muscle car with wings and is therefore a very tempting centerpiece for your army.  But is it worth the dollars and points?

 

In a word--no.  I will explain why below, but if you are one of those TL;DR types who hates in-depth explanations, you can skip to the next article.

 

Still with me?  Okay.

 

This review will not have a pros and cons section, because when I did the original draft, I found it repeated a lot of things from loadouts. So..

 

Special rules/non weapon wargear

-Supersonic: Now you can get off the table faster than ever before!

 

-Repair: If you are at locked velocity, you can (perhaps) repair it.

 

-Deep Strike: On a 6x4 table, there is nothing you can't reach with any flyer's normal movement and, at the cost of a land raider, you will want to slash your wrists on a deep strike mishap.

 

-Armored Cockpit: Nice.  Ignore shaken or stunned on a 4+.  However, with this thing's armor, any serious AA that is directed at it will delete it and a significant points investment fromt he sky.

 

Loadouts:

 

Stock: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon.  It's good at swatting aircraft and FMCs out of the sky.  It gets 5 TL shots at respectable strength (by the standards of flyer armor) and with average rolls, can probably down a Heldrake in two turns if, for some reason, the Heldrake doesn't get out of the way.  Costs is on par with a Leman Russ Executioner with plasma sponsons which, I would like to point out, the Thunderbolt would have a very hard time destroying.

 

Anti-Tank: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon, 4 hellstrike missiles

Hellstrike missiles are ordnance and... and.. I just can't.  I feel like the entire flyer should cost less points than stock if you weight it down with hellstrike missiles, but sadly, they make this flyer cost almost as much as 3 vengeance weapon batteries.  I know it looks cool, but don't.

 

Anti-Infantry: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon, 6 tactical bombs

Does anyone use bombs?  If you are looking for lots of small blasts, get a Vulture with rockets, or for ~30 points more, get 2 valkyries with rocket pods.  Seriously.

 

Anti-Air: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon, 4 skystrike missiles.

Finally, somthing the Thunderbolt is good at!  Not so fast.  For the same points, you could field 3 Hydras and have points left over to upgrade them.  Also, once the skystrike missiles are gone, the Thunderbolt's weight of fire drops off sharply, whereas the hydras can shoot targets as far away as the parking lot of your local game store for the entire game and for less points.

 

I should also point out that the Vendetta does what the Thunderbolt wishes it could do for ten less points unless you were crafty and bought the Vendetta out of the Elysians army list where its only 130 and still has Scouts and full transport capacity.  Happy hunting!

 

If the gunships based on helicopters (Vendetta, Vulture) lost their skyfire, the thunderbolt might become a viable option for highly mobile armies.

 

Upgrades

Still reading?  Well, okay, for the sake of completion, I will run through the upgrades.

 

-Chaff launcher: If this is your vanity model, by all means, protect it.

 

-Infra-red targeting: Cheap, might as well if you had enough points for this model, then you have 5 more.

 

Illum Flares: As was pointed out to me, this thing has to start in reserves, so will not have any opportunity to use these unless night fighting is part of the mission.

 

Distinctive Pain scheme: Here's one I'd do.  This thing is just begging for some eagle wings or a rubenesque woman in heels and garters arching her back, the flat, gigantic wings give you plenty of canvas to work with.

 

On a personal note, this model is incredibly beautiful.  I own one and, though I field it occasionally for nostalgia. However, when writing competitive lists my eye just slides over it on my shelf.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I think FW FAQ'd the Elysian Vendetta, and if they didn't, the scouts rule is moot since it starts in reserve (according to 7e rules). As for Full troop capacity, I take it empty as a CAS platform, or I put a min melta stormie squad in it. But as I no longer have a min sormie squad I just have it empty.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Scouts confers Outflank. Outflank lets you fly on from a side and nail a tank where it's least expected. I'll have to look up that FAQ, though.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Good point coffee!

[march10k]

The Thunderbolt fighter is a beastly sexy model.  It looks like an old-school muscle car with wings and is therefore a very tempting centerpiece for your army.  But is it worth the dollars not exactly the most relevant metric in a review of a FW model... and points?

 

In a word--no.  I will explain why below, but if you are one of those TL;DR types who hates in-depth explanations, you can skip to the next article.

 

Still with me?  Okay.

 

This review will not have a pros and cons section, because when I did the original draft, I found it repeated a lot of things from loadouts. So..

 

Special rules/non weapon wargear

-Supersonic: Now you can get off the table faster than ever before!

 

-Repair: If you are at locked velocity, you can (perhaps) repair it.

 

-Deep Strike: On a 6x4 table, there is nothing you can't reach with any flyer's normal movement and, at the cost of a land raider more like the cost of a demolisher with a hull lascannon, unless you pork it up with undesirable "upgrades" for rhetorical purposes, you will want to slash your wrists on a deep strike mishap. Deepstrike mishap?  Why would you hazzard one of those when you have 72" of table edge to come on from and plenty of movement?  

 

-Armored Cockpit: Nice.  Ignore shaken or stunned on a 4+.  However, with this thing's armor, any serious AA that is directed at it will delete it and a significant points investment fromt he sky.  Ah, the usual "it can be countered, therefore it's crap."  By that metric, there is no such thing as a good unit in any codex.

 

Loadouts:

 

Stock: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon.  It's good at swatting aircraft and FMCs out of the sky.  It gets 5 TL shots at respectable strength (by the standards of flyer armor) and with average rolls, can probably down a Heldrake in two turns if, for some reason, the Heldrake doesn't get out of the way.  Costs is on par with a Leman Russ Executioner with plasma sponsons which, I would like to point out, the Thunderbolt would have a very hard time destroying.  I don't fancy the Executioner's chances of destroying the Tbolt, either...but that's not the point.  The point is that you don't take a Tbolt to kill tanks, you take a Tbolt to kill planes.  If you want to kill tanks with a plane, look to the Avenger.

 

Anti-Tank: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon, 4 hellstrike missiles

Hellstrike missiles are ordnance and... and.. I just can't.  I feel like the entire flyer should cost less points than stock if you weight it down with hellstrike missiles, but sadly, they make this flyer cost almost as much as 3 vengeance weapon batteries.  I know it looks cool, but don't.  I agree that hellstrikes are terrible...but not as terrible as the idea of fielding an antitank Tbolt.

 

Anti-Infantry: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon, 6 tactical bombs

Does anyone use bombs?  If you are looking for lots of small blasts, get a Vulture with rockets, or for ~30 points more, get 2 valkyries with rocket pods.  Seriously.  Again, not what Tbolts are made for, so of course they suck at it!

 

Anti-Air: 2 TL autocannons, TL lascannon, 4 skystrike missiles.

Finally, somthing the Thunderbolt is good at!  Not so fast.  For the same points, you could field 3 Hydras and have points left over to upgrade them.  Also, once the skystrike missiles are gone, the Thunderbolt's weight of fire drops off sharply, whereas the hydras can shoot targets as far away as the parking lot of your local game store for the entire game and for less points.  A thunderbolt is good at killing other fliers.  And it's good at it without the skystrikes.  "once the missiles are gone?"  You have four of them, can only reasonably shoot one per turn due to only being able to shoot four weapons per turn, and come in no earlier than turn two, and might find yourself flying back into reserves.  I defy you to run out of missiles in a six turn game.

 

I should also point out that the Vendetta does what the Thunderbolt wishes it could do for ten less points unless you were crafty and bought the Vendetta out of the Elysians army list where its only 130 and still has Scouts and full transport capacity.  Happy hunting!

 

If the gunships based on helicopters (Vendetta, Vulture) lost their skyfire, the thunderbolt might become a viable option for highly mobile armies.  Agree that the vendetta and vulture have higher damage potential to offer and the vulture has vector dancer, but if saying that they're better makes the Tbolt unviable, then the demolisher's S10 AP2 pieplate makes all other variants of the leman russ obsolete.  The Tbolt is entirely viable...it's just better suited to APOC, for which it was designed.

 

Upgrades

Still reading?  Well, okay, for the sake of completion, I will run through the upgrades.

 

-Chaff launcher: If this is your vanity model, by all means, protect it.  Not especially useful...I guess it's good against jink-ignoring missilesides...but given that the Tbolt is an air superiority fighter and tau fliers are so stupidly useless that you'll never see one, blowing the points on chaff just in case you face tau is senseless, since you're starting out from the position that the Tbolt is a very crappy use of points when facing tau.  Leave this at home.

 

-Infra-red targeting: Cheap, might as well if you had enough points for this model, then you have 5 more.  Ok...this, like the choice below, is only useful if you're playing nightfight, and the nightfight is the end of the game, rather than the beginning...it's only five points, but it's a very poorly spent five points.

 

Illum Flares: As was pointed out to me, this thing has to start in reserves, so will not have any opportunity to use these unless night fighting is part of the mission.

 

Distinctive Pain scheme: Here's one I'd do.  This thing is just begging for some eagle wings or a rubenesque woman in heels and garters arching her back, the flat, gigantic wings give you plenty of canvas to work with. Yeah...more for showing off...but there's no reason you have to pay the points for the upgrade!  You can do the paint job and have it not be "counts as distinctive." One use for the cost of an autocannon, and relies on you being in LOS at the critical moment...too situational.

 

On a personal note, this model is incredibly beautiful.  I own one and, though I field it occasionally for nostalgia. However, when writing competitive lists my eye just slides over it on my shelf.  I don't often field my Avenger, either...but that's not because it's a bad choice.

 

Holy holey logic, Batman!  Here's what I get out of this review:

 

1.  Thunderbolt is bad because forgeworld models are expensive.

2.  Thunderbolt is bad because it's possibly to give it points-inefficient options.

3.  Thunderbolt is bad because it is not immune to anti-aircraft fire.

4.  Thunderbolt is bad because it has the option to deepstrike, and mishaps happen.

5.  Thunderbolt is bad because air superiority fighters aren't great at killing tanks.

6.  Thunderbolt is bad because it has access to expensive missiles that don't add much to its per turn firepower and might run out in a seven turn game.

7.  Thunderbolt is bad because air superiority fighters aren't great at killing troops.

8.  Thunderbolt is bad because Vultures and Vendettas are good.

 

Notice that none of those actually say that the Thunderbolt doesn't perform its core mission of sweeping the skies clear of enemy aircraft in a rather admirable fashion.  If you take it with no upgrades and consider missions other than air to air an afterthought not worthy of spending points, it's actually pretty good.  I don't own one, but I've proxied them.  They definitely work better in larger games, for two main reasons.  First, larger games often are played on a larger board, and proper aircraft are about as cramped on 6x4 as proper artillery is.  Second, the larger the game, the more likely you are to see enemy aircraft, which are the only target against which the Thunderbolt shines.  I've had enough success with proxying them (only when I know I'm facing enemy air) that I'll eventually buy two of them...and rarely field them...not because they're bad, but because air is a sideshow in 40k, it really belongs in APOC.  Until fliers start scoring while zooming, they're only marginally relevant, and not really worthy of a dedicated counter in an all-comers list.  If I know you're bringing hellturkeys, I'll bring Tbolts.  If I only know you're playing CSM, I won't.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

March, 

 

You're great bro, you remind me of the Currahee S2 I worked for one JRTC rotation, he taught me everything I know about MI. The zooming fliers (FW or not) are best relegated to Apoc, while those that can hover are better for the regular 40k environment. I have yet to play an Apoc game, but I have used my nephilim in regular 40k, and found it to be less than stellar since it flew off the board the turn after it came in. 

[Master Antaeus]

Never said it was terrible. Just that there are way better options for the same points. 3 Vengeance batteries hit harder, have more shots and better armor. Vendettas are cheaper, have higher quality shots, are good at hunting tanks and aircraft stock and have better armor. I could go on. Yes, it's perfectly serviceable as a flyer, but for a player who doesn't know all the options and is considering it, I would have to recommend against it as anything more than a vanity model.

[march10k]

You're technically right, "it's not worth the points or the money, and there's no reason to read any farther" isn't quite the same as "it's terrible."

Your review highlights all of the ways to make it a terrible choice (porking it up with ordnance missiles and then deepstriking it against jink-ignoring missilesides on a densely terrain-ed board) while deemphasizing the ways that it can actually be useful (no upgrades as an air superiority fighter, preferably in a larger game, even APOC). There are more points-efficient alternatives (although those aren't perfect either, with VWBs having to shoot the nearest target and at lower BS, and so on...the only one that Is clearly and dramatically superior is the vendetta), and it is a vanity choice, but I think in your litany of all of the reasons to run away from the Tbolt, the message that it can at all be used effectively is lost.

I didn't intend to start a fight, I just had serious issues with the objectivity of your review, it had a very anti-fanboy slant to it. Trust me, as an intel analyst, detecting bias in other people's assessments (and being aware of my own biased) is life and death stuff to me

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Just curious March, why do you say the Vendetta is a vanity choice?

[march10k]

I didn't, lol.  I agreed with antaeus that the Tbolt is one.

[librisrouge]

You missed on good point about the Thunderbolt, it is Heavy Support for IG. That means that, assuming I want to go flyer crazy, I can take three Valkyries, for moving troops, and three Thunderbolts, to clear the skies. Also, its side armor is better than the Avenger's so it has a small advantage there, especially since flyers often struggle to control what facing the enemy can see.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I didn't, lol.  I agreed with antaeus that the Tbolt is one.

 

I misunderstood what you said. I went back and read it and now it makes sense.

 

 

You missed on good point about the Thunderbolt, it is Heavy Support for IG. That means that, assuming I want to go flyer crazy, I can take three Valkyries, for moving troops, and three Thunderbolts, to clear the skies. Also, its side armor is better than the Avenger's so it has a small advantage there, especially since flyers often struggle to control what facing the enemy can see.

 

This is true. Multirole fighters are terrible. Sure some platforms might take to it well (F16 for example) but they'll always be better fighter than they are attack aircraft. Alternatively, an attack aircraft makes a lousy fighter (A10). As long as you know why you're taking the thing you should be able to use it effectively. If you want a tankbuster, take a vulture or vendetta. If you need anti-air, take the Thunderbolt. I didn't know it was a heavy support choice though. I'd have very little use for it. I still want one though...

[CyderPirate]

My big issue with the TBolt is the fact that its competing for heavy support slots. Its already pretty crowded in there!

[march10k]

Welll....I found that HQ tanks free up a lot of the pressure on HS slots, to the point that I sometimes only have a pair of solo demolishers in HS and one slot unfilled (wyverns are beneath me).  Also, you should be fielding more than enough troops to support two FOCs...so the only "tax" for getting three more HS slots would be an HQ...might I suggest another tank commander?  LOL

 

/edit/

 

That said, I haven't fielded a Tbolt since I finished playtesting it via proxy.  It's not that I don't think it's a decent choice for the points (I currently use a pair of VWBs for my air defense, they don't cost much less and are easy to decoy with ground targets), it's just that I HATE playing with unpainted models and proxies.  I'll only do it to test something expensive before buying it...again, though, the OP makes a valid point that a vendetta is better for cheaper.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Very true, though not in an air assault army like mine, my heavy slots are bare, it's my fast attack slots that are contested heavily.