How effective are Valkyries?

[Vulshra]

Hello all, I am building up my Astra Militarum force, and I was wondering if Valkyries were considered a good choice. There is a moderately competitive meta at the local gaming store, and as I am coming from Space Marines, the Valkyrie's weapon's options looks like what I am most used to in regards to anti-tank, but I know that the guard does things differently. So what is the consensus? Yeah or Nay?

[Halfpint100]

Valkyries are best used as a deployment system turn 1 and then harassment. Several people have had good experiences with dropping 4 bullgryns our for a turn 1 charge

[oldmanlee]

3 are the backbone to my air cav list they have never let me down I run mine with rocket pods and heavy bolters I've never tried the bullgryns as I fill mine up with special weapons teams and command squads. They are not top tier but they are good

[Diagramdude]

If you go the four Bullgryn package, make one of them an Ogryn Bodyguard with Slabshield and give him the Deathmask of Ollanius. Deliver him turn 1 into your opponent's lines and cackle as he tanks everything with a 2++ invuln and can heal D3 wounds once with the relic. And he can't be shot at if the other three Bullgryns or  Valkyrie are closer to the enemy.

[Wassa]

If you go the four Bullgryn package, make one of them an Ogryn Bodyguard with Slabshield and give him the Deathmask of Ollanius. Deliver him turn 1 into your opponent's lines and cackle as he tanks everything with a 2++ invuln and can heal D3 wounds once with the relic. And he can't be shot at if the other three Bullgryns or  Valkyrie are closer to the enemy.

 

Unfortunately an Ogryn Bodyguard can no longer tank wounds from other Ogyrn/Bullgryns :(

[Tirak]

If you're using valkyries as a transport then go for rocket pods and a multilaser. If you want a gunship then Valkyries and Vendettas are a terrible choice. Hitting on 4s only when using roving gunship is a recipe for disaster as Hard to Hit is your primary survival technique.

 

Unfortunatly Chapter Approved neutered Guard anti tank flyers, so you're better off with Russes there. I took 4 flyers to Adepticon and did alright (2/2) but I can't say they're competitive.

 

Here's a small list of Guard AT flyers:

(Efficiency based on T7 3+)

 

 

Lightning Strike Fighter (305)

4x Hellstrike, Twin Lascannon, Long Barrel Autocannon

In my opinion the only AT flyer we have left that is semi ok. The problem is that it's drastically over priced, it used to be 65 points cheaper. It can annihilate almost anything in a single round of shooting but negative to Hit modifiers cripple it and at the end of the day is she better than two russes? No.

Efficiency: 47.66ppw 6.4wpt

 

Thunderbolt (335)

4x Hellstrikes, Twin Lasnannon, 2x Twin Autocannon

Zorg's oldie but goldie, the Tbolt used to be our go to flyer before Chapter Approved. Everything the Lightning could do the Tbolt could do better and at a competitive price. When the hellstrike price nerf and the increase in chassis price hit it just pushed it up to being too damn expensive to field in an army that wanted ground presence. You might think only 30 points isn't so bad and it is technically more efficient, but when you've got no doctrines and still need a normal army at the end of the day, that is too high a price to pay.

Efficiency: 42.41ppw 7.9wpt

 

Avenger Strike Fighter (254)

Avenger Bolt Cannon, Defensive Heavy Stubber, 2x Lascannon, 2x Hellstrikes

The first of the 'Budget Line' that only rock 2 Hellstrikes, the Avenger suffers from a similar problem to its real life counterpart, the big gun isn't so good at tank busting. Losing about 30% of its anti tank firepower compared to the Lightning it's also around 30% cheaper, but at 254pts that's too high a price to pay in a world where the Punisher Vulture exists.

Efficiency: 51.60ppw 4.92wpt

 

AT Vulture (220)

Heavy Bolter, 2x Lascannon, 2x Hellstrike

The cheapest of the flying gunships Unfortunatly suffers from the fact that the Punisher variant is leaps and bounds better and that it is the worst AT flyer we have other than the Vendetta (which isn't even worth discussing at 59.14ppw 3.89wpt) too low on weapons though it does have a neat trick when it hovers, you'll find that it is vulnerable and with so few weapons prone to whiffing.

Efficiency: 52.76ppw 4.17wpt

Hover Effiviency: 39.55ppw 5.56wpt

 

Stock Leman Russ (152)

Battlecannon, Heavy Bolter

 

Just for comparison, this is the AT Flyer's main competition. Before Chapter Approved, Flyers could out gun and out efficient russes though couldn't hold ground. Now? Not even close.

Efficiency: 45.24ppw 3.36

Catachan Efficiency: 37.74ppw 4.03wpt

Cadian Efficiency: 38.76ppw 3.92wpt.

[antique_nova]

Just for anyone wandering what Tirak's acronyms mean:

 

PPW: Points Per Wound - For example, let's say a space marine predator with 4 lascannons cost 190 pts tries to hurt a T7 +3 target. It's going to hit 3 times out of 4 (rounding up) and then wound 2 times out of 3 hits. That means it caused 2 wounds. (Not counting damage yet). If a 190 predator caused 2 wounds per turn, then you divide the points cost by the number of wounds. Meaning that that predator costs 95 pts per wound to wound a T7 +3 target.

 

WPT: Wounds Per Turn - I assume that this is including damage. Using the example above, in PPW, 2 lascannon shots wounding will deal 7 damage wounds per turn, because the average of 2D6 (each lascannon causes D6 wounds) is 7.

 

So, if I format it the way Tirak has done, but rounding up, it would look like this.

 

Space Marine Predator Annihilator (190)
Twin Lascannon, 2x Lascannon Sponsors.

Efficiency: 95ppw 7wpt

 

However, just because it has a poor ppw ratio compared to the rest. It has two factors in it's advantage. The fact that it has one of the higher wpt and that even though it has a higher ppw, it has one of the lowest unit point's cost. Making it a better unit than most to deal with T7 +3 units, as they normally have high wound counts, but this is before taking into account if any enemy units have invulnerable saves, which changes things a lot.

[duz_]

As others have said Valks make great transport and are absurdly durable

As a gunboat they're eh

Rocketpods and Multilasers is definitely the way to go. Heavy bolters are nice if you have the pts.