# How to equip a vulture gunship?



## kiro the avenger! (Nov 8, 2010)

So I'm looking for a flyer to add to my blood angels. I was thinking the imperial guard had the answer for both fluff, looks and rules as I hate the storm raven look (I think I can decide till i build it )
I've considered the vendetta, but I think it lacks anti infantry
And I think the vulture looks awesome, on all but that price tag plus I prefer gunships as opposed to transports.
It will need to fulfil both AA and ground strafing roles although AA not so much. And will support probably 2 10man assault squads in a 1250pt game
So how would you kit it out? Punisher cannons? 2 missile pods and lascannons? 4 missile pods? Missile pods and auto cannons? Missile launchers?
Or is a vendetta just the better choice? As I could fit a vet squad in there too...

Edit: I'll have ~500pts for the whole detachment at most, so what would you recommend? I was thinking commissar, melta vets and a bird...


----------



## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

There is always the Valkyrie with it's rocket pods....


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Punisher Cannons. Tl'd BS4 S5 can shred transports and flyer's rear armour. It's awesome utility. Cover, oddly, has no effect, courtesy of AP-, meaning that standing in cover has no benefit for the enemy unit, so feel free to gun it down.

It can destroy a transport a turn, or kill half an MEQ squad, so have fun. The enemy then has to decide between a tough mediocre threat (the Vulture) or a High threat Vendetta, etc.

The only problem is being a Fast Attack, it should be Heavy Support. 6th edition update fucked up Elysians to unplayability once more.


----------



## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

I use a Vulture with the twin Punisher Cannons, and it brings me much joy, except against terminator armies when my opponents can't seem to roll any 1s. Vulture has shot down storm talons, a dark talon, a ceastus assault ram, enemy valkyrie/vendettas and torn up ork, marine and cultist squads. 

I highly recommend this setup.


----------



## kiro the avenger! (Nov 8, 2010)

Vaz from your post it sounds like your saying the vendetta is the better flyer...
But isn't the punisher S5? I which case it can't hurt the storm raven... Or is it rending?
And is it really a good idea to use guard for air support? I could bring tau along but guad are more fluffy
But would a storm raven just be better? And would a Valkyrie make a decent proxy?


----------



## Creon (Mar 5, 2009)

Storm ravens actually are worse point for point than Guard AirCorps. And Storm Ravens are significantly ugly.

I'd go with a Valkyrie with rocket pods, and build it out in a Hind Helicopter variant


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

kiro the avenger! said:


> Vaz from your post it sounds like your saying the vendetta is the better flyer...


It is. It can transport troops, and it can hurt Armour/MC's equally effectively. It's Point for point, the best AV - and AA in the game. It's severely undercosted, and I could see it getting at least a 40-70pt Price rise. For what a Vulture can bring in AA/AV, it just cannot match the Vendetta. That was why it was good that they didn't share FoC slots - in the 6th ed update, they became Fast Attack rather than HS; why, I have no idea, as now they are sharing FoC slots with Elysians only real effective AV; Tauros Venators and Vendetta's.

The Vulture has two "unique" set ups; the Punisher Cannons (Strafing Run, Twin Linked, very accurate; seriously, about 18 hits, and 12 wounds again T4, 15-16 wounds against T3) and 4x Multiple Rocket Pods. When I played Elysians, I had enough MRP's on my troops, so went for TL'd Punishers. Punishers got the tag as "terrible" weapons, because of the lack of AP, and despite the high RoF, were penalised by BS3 (50%); TL'd BS4 on a Punisher turns it to 89% accuracy.



> But isn't the punisher S5? I which case it can't hurt the storm raven... Or is it rending?


Nope, neither. But why would you need to hurt the Stormraven? Unless other people play with it. I seriously think that the best you could do is bring in some SM allies - a Stormtalon and Hunter are decent AA for what they bring. Of course, it won't help against an AirCav list, but then again, not many armies can. And not many people would turn up with 12 Flyers anyway.



> And is it really a good idea to use guard for air support? I could bring tau along but guad are more fluffy
> But would a storm raven just be better? And would a Valkyrie make a decent proxy?


*Stormtalon* allied in. No need to paint it any different. Perhaps a Hunter or Stalker as well. I prefer the aesthetics of a big fuck off missile launcher, but either "work"; they do lack Interceptor.

The truth is; what do you need?

Anti-Air? Then Vendetta.

Anti-Armour? Then Vendetta.

Anything else? Pretty much any vehicle with AI weaponry works. The Punisher Vulture is capable of flanking/rear armour hitting enemy light armour, and glance it to death (18 hits = 3 glances on average). With Vulture, in any Elysian List, you get 1-3 Vultures in a squadron as a FA choice, rather than 1/slot.

If you have access to some FW kit, the Storm Eagle or a Relic Fire Raptor might provide some more oomph to your army; or a Caestus which is pure filth. If the Caestus is a choice; then I like the idea of taking some Scoring Terminators; either Dark Angels, or via the Space Sharks SC (FW pdf).


----------



## kiro the avenger! (Nov 8, 2010)

Right, so I should look to a storm talon then?
Although at my local meta there's (thank god) not really any flyers, save for on circus
So the strafing is the more important of roles so if I take a Valkyrie with MRPs and lascannon?


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

If the results are more important than the modelling, proxy it in. I can't give you a definitive answer as a) I don't know your list b), Blood Angels are terrible, c) I don't your meta.

I cannot tell you how to use it well; just get practise games in with it, proxied in.


----------



## kiro the avenger! (Nov 8, 2010)

My list should be in the space marine list somewhere- basically x2 10 assault squads, Libby, 2 priests and 10 TH/SS nators (which I intend to drop to find the allies)
My meta is basically grey knights, orks, tau and a danger of smerfs, so everything really


----------



## Jdojo18 (May 8, 2012)

You can easily glance a stormtalon to death with a punisher vulture. I've done it before. You only need 6's to glance it, and with AV11 on all of its facings, you don't need to worry about getting behind it to kill one.


----------



## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Vaz said:


> If you have access to some FW kit, the Storm Eagle or a Relic Fire Raptor might provide some more oomph to your army; or a Caestus which is pure filth. If the Caestus is a choice; then I like the idea of taking some Scoring Terminators; either Dark Angels, or via the Space Sharks SC (FW pdf).


While I agree with the rest of your post, just had to point this out. The Caestus is terrible. It doesn't work - Supersonic prevents it from Hovering, so you can't use it's Transport Capacity and just have to use it as an indestructible flying Magna-Melta for silly points.


----------



## kiro the avenger! (Nov 8, 2010)

I don't really have access to some of the more expensive forge world kit, I may be able to manage a flyer, but a big one is a bit much 
The looks of a storm taken I'm fine with- I'll just use the nephillium which I think looks bad ass, must be the wings :shrug:
But I don't really won't to sink ~200pt into a back ground unit, but if I took a anti ground vulture with say 4 MRPs, I could sit the gaurd squad behind an aegis line, good? I don't even want to think about the £££ now though uke:


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

This is likely a case of them not knowing what the rules does. However, in the event of rules, I'm in favour of specific overruling general, which is this case.

It is a Flyer with the Hover type. 

FW's own rules explicitly state that it only gains Supersonic when Zooming, http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/v/vehicle6thupdates.pdf - so there's that.

Also, the latest rules for them (HH; Betrayal) has actually lost the Supersonic rule; however that's 30K, so not kosher.

Long story short, the Caestus works.

And ramming is fucking hilarious. Roll 2 dice and choose the highest, +1 for being a tank, +3 for armour; meaning you need to move 27" to autoglance, although it's rare more than 18-21" will be needed. Of course, melta is always more preferable, but with +1 to damage rolls, you're in with a shot of damage.


----------

