Aeronautica Imperialis: Taros

[gilt_imp]

^ Yes, it’s all interesting!

I was curious myself with the transport capacity for Valkyries and if there would be any/much difference between them and the Vendettas. Also, the Arvus has the same transport capacity as the Vendetta.

 

Maybe I’ll be building Vendettas instead of Valkyries lol.

 

Anyway, I caved in and ordered the Skies of Fire box set and the Tau Tiger Shark AX 1-0 Fighter-Bombers. The Imperial half is for myself, the Tau stuff well… I‘ll be painting it up and giving it to a friend as a gift later in the year (he loves planes and the tau style, apparently) without him knowing of course 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I was curious myself with the transport capacity for Valkyries and if there would be any/much difference between them and the Vendettas. Also, the Arvus has the same transport capacity as the Vendetta.

I think between the multilaser and missile pods on the standard Valkyries, you'll be looking at ~8 firepower at mid range (abstracting from the Vulture's 2 pairs of rocket pods), which is likely to be the difference.   

 

Also, the Arvus has the same transport capacity as the Vendetta.

Yes, that's interesting.  They are super-cheap, and can auto-escape after dropping their payload off, though

 

the Tau stuff well… I‘ll be painting it up and giving it to a friend as a gift later in the year (he loves planes and the tau style, apparently) without him knowing of course 

Ah, I see your plan!

Edited June 6, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[Beren]

Does anyone know if Valkyries were already present at the time of the Horus Heresy? I didn't found any info about that yet.

Valkyries are used by Mechanicum Skitarii in the Cybernetica novel.

[Mendi Warrior]

Thanks guys! I guess that means I'll buy some which will eventually show in my AT stuff 

[Mandragola]

Not at all sure what to get. I think maybe just the starter for now, plus accessories... of which there are many.

 

I wonder if the ground stuff will be in resin this time. Or maybe they'll even suggest using the Civitas stuff from AT. Some of the diagrams show AT buildings, it seems. It would seem to make sense to make terrain useable for both games.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Not at all sure what to get. I think maybe just the starter for now, plus accessories... of which there are many.

I was tempted to be unhelpful and say "all of it", but ... whilst the cards are nice to have, you can make a fully-functional roster with strike-through boxes for structure & ammo in Excel/Libre Office Calc in about 15 minutes, which may actually be more functional as it'll likely be a fair bit more compact if you use upgrades (especially for larger games), and you can always add identifiers to each line (e.g. Thunderbolt "Yellow 1").  Obviously, that assumes you have access to a printer ...

 

The dice ... if you're unlucky, the Imperial Navy dice (either set) could be hard to read depending on how the swirls go.  The Tau dice look nice, though (but obviously aren't "needed").

 

I wonder if the ground stuff will be in resin this time ... Some of the diagrams show AT buildings, it seems

I'm hoping that there'll be a follow-up wave next week or something with ground assets in it (but that is nothing other than me hoping).  I missed the diagrams showing AT buildings - do you have a link?

Edited June 7, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[Burni]

Personally I don’t think the starters are a great buy. You don’t get the main book or a full board and the half a box worth of units mean you have to buy a box of the units you want anyway. And then you probably have too many! Obviously this is from the point of view of someone who isn’t splitting it with a mate though.

[Mandragola]

Here's the image. Something from the GW Facebook I think, though I found it in the AI facebook group.

 

 

Anyway those are top down views of AT buildings. The advice to avoid flying your plane into them is sound. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Thanks, Mandragola. :)  It being on Facebook explains why I missed it ...

 

Dog-fighting around the spires or cranes would have a somewhat cinematic look ...

[Mandragola]

I agree, and having terrain in general should be an improvement. A blank board with clear lines of sight tends not to be the best thing in any game. Even x-wing makes a point of having obstacles. The AT stuff, particularly the spires and cranes, is perfect.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I agree, and having terrain in general should be an improvement. A blank board with clear lines of sight tends not to be the best thing in any game. 

That's true.  I must admit, it's not something I'd considered, because the only things that tend to be in the sky are clouds. :blush: 

 

I suppose you could house-rule line-of-sight-blocking clouds into regular games, ably represented by cotton wool, if you didn't want to limit yourself to low-level games? (although I suppose it could get complicated if you wanted to have them at certain altitudes only, etc...)

[Arendious]

 

 

I agree, and having terrain in general should be an improvement. A blank board with clear lines of sight tends not to be the best thing in any game.

That's true. I must admit, it's not something I'd considered, because the only things that tend to be in the sky are clouds. :blush:

 

I suppose you could house-rule line-of-sight-blocking clouds into regular games, ably represented by cotton wool, if you didn't want to limit yourself to low-level games? (although I suppose it could get complicated if you wanted to have them at certain altitudes only, etc...)

Clouds are definitely a factor in dogfighting, I was a bit surprised they weren't included Day 1. (Much like X-Wing's asteroids, as pointed out.)

 

As for altitude, draw the altitude on the clouds base with an Expo marker. Or, just rule that all clouds are part of a 'deck' at a given altitude. Then, when choosing targets, if there's a cloud between you and the target reduce firepower by one.

[Firedrake Cordova]

As for altitude, draw the altitude on the clouds base with an Expo marker. Or, just rule that all clouds are part of a 'deck' at a given altitude. 

That'd work. :)  I think I was over-complicating it in my head by having clouds spanning altitude levels (some cloud types are tall).  Then, there's the interesting side-effect of low cloud and strafing/bombing ...

[Mandragola]

Someone has posted an unboxing of skies of fire: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MHm42RQ3Dlw

 

You can see the rules for the planes in the box. To be honest I find them a bit worrying. The lightning and barracuda are both very expensive for 2-hull planes. The vendetta looks excellent though, with 6 lascannon shots on a 21 point plane - along with 3 structure and 3 transport. Tiger sharks look pretty interesting, and generally good all-rounders, probably very like marauder destroyers in play.

 

It’s good news for Imperials, who now have their transport. The Tau fleet looks ok, though I do wonder if people will just field tiger sharks and little else. I’m undecided whether to just get myself a box of valks or if I should get the starter. I can’t really see myself using Lightnings and I don’t really need a third fleet. On the other hand, I actually have a Tau army in 40k, and not either of the others.

[Perry]

Personally I don’t think the starters are a great buy. You don’t get the main book or a full board and the half a box worth of units mean you have to buy a box of the units you want anyway. And then you probably have too many! Obviously this is from the point of view of someone who isn’t splitting it with a mate though.

As a casual and small point gamer of AI I've now got a pretty decent force of Imperials from buying both starter boxes and enough Orks and Tau for 100point games.

 

But I'm probably buying more for the models.

[Firedrake Cordova]

My pre-order of the Taros book and the Imperial models turned up today.   Annoyingly, I won't be able to do anything with them until tomorrow (doh). 

 

Happy to answer questions once I've leafed through it, though (if someone hasn't got there first, obviously ).

 

 

The lightning and barracuda are both very expensive for 2-hull planes. .

The Lightning's cheaper than I thought it would be, largely due to misreading the ace variant in the card pack on GW's site as the regular version.  *facepalm* 

Edited June 13, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[Burni]

Got my delivery too. The Lightnings looks great, going to build one tonight and looking forward to reading the book later. They should let the people who do the AI dice design all of GW’s dice, they are expensive but excellent.

 

By the way, do we know if the Avenger is going to be plastic? I found the WHC article and it doesn’t say (but it does specifically say the Arvus and Vulture are resin).

[Mandragola]

My pre-order of the Taros book and the Imperial models turned up today.   Annoyingly, I won't be able to do anything with them until tomorrow (doh). 

 

Happy to answer questions once I've leafed through it, though (if someone hasn't got there first, obviously ).

 

 

The lightning and barracuda are both very expensive for 2-hull planes. .

The Lightning's cheaper than I thought it would be, largely due to misreading the ace variant in the card pack on GW's site as the regular version.  *facepalm* 

I still think it's very expensive for a 2-hull plane. The same goes for most of the 2-hull planes in the book to be honest. They all come in at around the same price as a fury, which is tougher and shootier. I really don't see the niche for lightnings in particular. It's crazy how much more firepower even a standard TB has over a lightning - literally more than double the damage output. And a standard thunderbolt is cheaper than a lightning strike. Speed and manoeuvres do count of course, but with TBs out-activating lightnings it's tough to see what they'd be supposed to do. You can stick a lot of missiles on a lightning... and nearly as many on a TB.

 

There's some very interesting stuff in the book though. Vendettas are awesome. The Avenger is just a worse thunderbolt, but at least it has nearly as much firepower and costs roughly the same - even if it also has 2 hull. The Jink rule makes Vultures pretty interesting, and they have respectable firepower for their cost.

 

It'll be interesting to see whether the Arvus or Vendetta is the best way to land troops. The valk's throttle of 1 is a pretty big hindrance for landing. It'll make them have to come in slowly and predictably, which is kind of a death sentence in a dogfighting game. Enemies might be able to overfly them to avoid the lascannons and then drop in behind. They'll do well at clearing ground defences though.

 

The Tau stuff is weird. The barracuda is seriously expensive for a 2-hull plane, but at least it has pretty good firepower. It'll still lose dreadfully head on against a TB. The tiger shark might just be a much better plane, with good stats pretty much all round and very significant upgrades to firepower and toughness, compared to the Barracuda. That throttle of 2 makes it a better lander than the vendetta, again.

 

The AX-1-0 is bizarre. It doesn't look a lot better than a standard tiger shark to me, though the plasma option is interesting. You can kind of beat up anyone who tries to bully your long-ranged stuff, I guess. I'd be kind of interested to see what happened if someone took three of these at 100 points.

 

Remoras might be the thing that makes Tau work as a fleet. A few 14 point planes to eat up activations are just what the expensive, agile barracudas want. 

[optio16]

I'm still waiting for the boxed set but curious to know what will everyone use to represent landed troops/jump troops.

What size base? and whether to use actual figures or just a marker?

[Arendious]

The AX-1-0 is bizarre. It doesn't look a lot better than a standard tiger shark to me, though the plasma option is interesting. You can kind of beat up anyone who tries to bully your long-ranged stuff, I guess. I'd be kind of interested to see what happened if someone took three of these at 100 points.

 

 

What's the likelihood of one-shoting a TB or other fighter-class target? And outside of autocannon/bolter range?

 

If it's decent, I could see setting up a grinder in a board corner. Two AX-1-0s, turning so that one is always in arc, and just blast away. Maybe a couple Remoras to punish a bum-rush.

[Mandragola]

The chance of one-shooting a thunderbolt with a 1-0 is small. It averages just over 1 damage with its railguns at long range. Two of them might do it.

 

The issue is that a standard tiger shark’s railguns are almost as good at medium range as a 1-0’s are at long. And the other weapons like the missile pods want to be at medium range, so it ends up being way more effective at that point. The 1-0 could be named for the number of shots you should expect to get at long range in a game - somewhere between one and zero.

 

Of course, the end,y will also usually be more effective at medium range than at long, so there’s a lot to be said for killing them before they get there. 5he 1-0 just isn’t particularly good at that. A standard tiger shark with a seeker missile bay (which the 1-0 can’t have) will do more damage at long range than a 1-0 will, once, and continue to beat it at medium and close as well. It’ll also be cheaper and have a transport capacity.

 

This is why the plasma option is interesting. It’s basically unique in that it’s most effective up close. With CIB drones on the wings, the plasma 1-0 is a real threat, which could be very useful when the enemy gets in your face, as they surely will.

[Firedrake Cordova]

For those who don't have the book yet, but are curious...

 

I didn't spot any obvious changes to the core rules, although I only skimmed them quickly.

 

There's a couple of new game types:

• Low Altitude: includes rules for colliding with terrain, and mid-air collisions.
• Rolling Board: played on 3 2' board sections in a line, with rules for falling behind.

I'm not sure if it's just semantic disambiguation being used by the rules writers, but there may be further boards coming for the above.

 

There's 5 scenarios in the book:

• The Dogfight
• The Chase
• Subterranean Assault
• Canyon Attack Run
• Skyfortress Assault < Ever wanted to build one of the giant zeppelins the Phantine used?  This is your chance!

The Imperial ground assets are a Hydra and Basilisk (to replace the Manticore).  The Hydra looks more in line with the Hydra vehicle turret (the barrels are more separate than in the old book/set).

 

I mostly skipped the Tau, as they don't interest me.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I'm still waiting for the boxed set but curious to know what will everyone use to represent landed troops/jump troops. What size base? and whether to use actual figures or just a marker?

Unless I've misread it, jump troops don't have in-game representation (they can just jump out with a risk of going squish as the aircraft goes over the target)

[Fajita Fan]

“ Skyfortress Assault < Ever wanted to build one of the giant zeppelins the Phantine used? This is your chance! biggrin.png”

 

Whoa whoa whoa whoa, an opportunity to model something stupid so that I have a reason not to paint? Sign me the hell up, tell me more! Since I can’t get orders shipped to my GW so they get credit I’ll probably order the rulebook on amazon when the prices drop after preorders.

 

What is this, how big is it, where is the fluff written?

Edited June 14, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Firedrake Cordova]

What is this, how big is it, where is the fluff written?

It's only really a one-liner in the mission description (it says floating construct, giant aircraft, or similar).  In game terms, it occupies a hex, plus all of those adjacent to it (and those can have AA batteries in them). 

 

I read it, and my mind went to the giant (1km long) dirigibles used by the Phantine in the novel The Guns of Tanith as airborne bases to carry the troops and planes (I am a bit of a Gaunt's Ghosts fan...).

 

(sorry, not 100% sure what your question related to, so tried to cover both angles)

 

++EDIT: It looks like the entry for the Ligtning/Lightning Strike has the weapons around the wrong way, as the card conflicts with the description, unless I've misread it. 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova