Friday, October 21, 2016

Fliers in AoS 40k

As this post will demonstrate, I'm well on my way to having Necrons up and running with a full complement of warscrolls (I'll put them up sometime in the next week or so after I finish proofreading them).  So what's next? (Besides of course finishing the battle traits for about half of the armies)


There is one type of unit that you may have noticed is missing from even my "finished" battletomes; the fliers.  That is because I have been hesitant to introduce them for interplayability reasons.  While playing AoS vs. 40k has not been my primary concern (I think that 40k armies will come off as pretty OP in any sort of head to head because every model basically has a ranged attack), I've been aiming for it to be doable.  Fliers could easily be completely incompatible since in 40k they can only be harmed by shooting, and then only just.  I needed to take a slightly different approach with them in AoS, and it took a while to figure out what that would be.

Aerial Support:  This model cannot be attacked during the combat phase except by models with the ability to fly.

I settled on this because while normal AoS armies lack shooting, flying units are at least somewhat plentiful.  I also really like the cinematic idea of a Bloodthirster chewing up a flier, or some Judicators flying up there to beat on it with hammers.


The effectiveness of this rule will depend heavily on how you like to play.  I generally prefer to measure from the base as though it were part of the model, which means that a unit on the ground could easily have range to a flier during the combat phase.  However, by the stock rules, a unit of Assault Marines is unlikely to have reach to a Night Scythe unless they're standing on top of a mountain (or on top of the Night Scythe?).


So as I update armies and whatnot, I'll now be doing so with an eye toward getting all those fliers I missed on the first pass.

2 comments:

  1. Hi. What are your thoughts about limiting the manoeuvrability of flyers as per the original rules? Perhaps through limiting the number of turns and when they can occur plus a minimum move distance?

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    1. I won't likely implement those sorts of restrictions. They don't really mesh with the simplicity of AoS. That said, I think it'd be cool to see a more involved set of rules (kind of like my Age of Warhammer stuff but for 40k) that brings in vehicle damage charts, proper flyers, and other such mechanics.

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