Welcome to the first part of my review on the new Death from the Skies supplement. This new supplement greatly expands the rules for flyers in 40k, providing new special rules for using these unique vehicles and introducing some interesting new scenarios for players to use. I wasn't initially intending to purchase this supplement, but I saw a copy going for cheap-ish on ebay and decided to buy it. I have a few tournaments coming up and thought I would pick up the rules just in case they were in effect at the tournaments and I wanted to know what they were all about.
This first part will look at some of the new rules introduced for flyers and the new flyer formations that have been introduced, known as Flyer Wings.
Flyer Rules
The new rules for Flyers build upon the rules already presented in the 7th edition rulebook.
Flyer Characteristics
The first new rules add additional characteristics for flyers in the game. These are Combat Role, Pursuit and Agility.
Combat Role splits flyers up into three distinct battlefield roles; Attack Flyers, Bombers and Fighters. Attack Flyers are for going after ground targets (how I would generally field flyers in a battle), Bombers are for dropping bombs (ironic, isn't it?) and Fighters are supposed to target enemy flyers.
The Pursuit value represents the speed of the flyer and is important for determining the attacker and defender in the dogfight phase (a new phase of the game that I will cover in the next review). Pursuit values range from 1 (for the cumbersome Astra Militarum Valkyrie) to 5 (for the sleek flyers of the Eldar and Dark Eldar).
The Agility value represents the manoeuvrability of the flyer and is important in the dogfight phase for forcing your opponent to turn (making it more difficult for them to fire) or allowing a flyer to jink. These values range from 1-5.
