Tactical Air Control is here!
FINALLY! We now have a set of rules that buff Imperial Navy flyers on the tabletop, and they are MEAN!
The new Psychic Awakening campaign book for the T'au, unimaginatively entitled The Greater Good features new rules for the Imperial Guard, and includes some surprising meat to Tempestus Scions. Those Scion buffs include several ways to bring Imperial Navy support to your Scions, and this blows the Tempestus Drop Force rules from the Vigilus Campaign book out of the skies!
Let's rewind in case you've missed this.
8th Edition hadn't been going long until Scions got hit with the nerf bat, and in three ways. Firstly, Tactical Reserves meant that any Imperial Guard in Valkyries did not count as being on the table, which meant that even though it was a model on the table- if your boys had not disembarked the Valkyrie then you could lose the game if all your other models were destroyed. This really put players off of using the Valkyrie, at best it became a one-off to support Leman Russ tanks. The second gutpunch was the ruling that any unit deployed via Aerial Drop or deployed by Grav Chute from a Valkyrie could not move that turn, which meant the whole point of the Valkyrie and Scions combo -their mobility- was now useless. Lastly, these deployments had to be made more than 9" from enemy models, which was the real ballbreaker when combined with the aforementioned lack of mobility. Basically, your melta guns were pretty much pointless and out of optimal range.
The Vigilus Defiant Campaign book back in December 2018 was a welcome refresh to the Scions, but it was only a small boost. Basically, you could now field a specialist detachment of Scions focused on drop deployment, the Tempestus Drop Force.
The Drop Force gives one unit per turn the ability to drop from the Valkyrie even it's moving at full speed, which would normally result in rolling for death by faulty parachute! A Valkyrie can also help overwatch a nearby infantry unit, which is nice but situational. It's also CP thirsty, with the Drop Force itself requiring a CP, and another for the Warlord trait if he isn't actually going to be your warlord. Anyway, all that's out of the window now. A new Precision Drop stratagem is around and it's bigger and better and syncs very nicely with a handful of other similar drop bonuses.
Your drop troops not only have the ability to drop out of a Valkyrie moving at max speed, but allows them to drop at 5" rather than 9" from your opponent's units. Ok, that's still one unit per turn since it's a stratagem, but for another CP a separate stratagem allows you to aerial drop without a Valkyrie at that same 5" range. This means you get 20 guys including 8 melta or plasma hitting at FULL WHACK!
So the key point here: Aeronautica Imperialis unit as a keyword. This means that not just a Valkyrie, not just a Valkyrie or a Vendetta, ALL Imperial Navy transports can drop your Scions within half melta range at full speed. This means that Forge World models are part of the mainstream game, specifically Navy flyers. You can see this in the other stratagems, the specified keyword is Aeronautica Imperialis. The Tactical Air Control stratagem is by far the most important buff that the Imperial Navy has had, probably ever. Until now, any other Navy flyer other than a hovering Vulture gunship with the Strafing Run ability had nowhere near the Ballistic Skill to make the points investment worthwhile. For example, a Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter with hellstrike missiles used to be over 300 points, about the same cost as the Marauder Destroyer which is a superheavy vehicle. The recent points decrease to hellstrikes means that the Thunderbolt is a realistic consideration, but only with the buff of the Officer of the Fleet, which is after all the only official Imperial Navy infantry model right now. The problem is that the buff only has an 18" range. This means that the mobility of your flyers is kind of negated by the need to be within reasonable range of your infantry character. For flyers with hellstrikes with that sweet 72" snipey snipey pew pew range, that sucks. But the Tactical Air Control stratagem gives you the ability to use the Officer of the Fleet's abilities from any Scion unit with a vox. I repeat, if your Scion squad has a vox you can use a stratagem so that they can target an enemy unit within 18" and that unit will get nuked by your aircraft. This is pretty huge for the Imperial Navy. Not only does the Officer of the Fleet buff ALL flyers, but has the Air Raid Requested ability which is basically an off-map artillery call. Now you can keep your Officers of the Fleet in the backline, nice and safe and your flyers can fire at maximum efficiency wherever your Scions can shoot.
Another nice stratagem is the Hammer Blow. Basically, all you need to do is kill at least one model from a unit with your Imperial Navy flyer and that unit is pretty much locked down. This is far more useful and effective than the Drop Force's Aerial Fire Support which was situational, this thing means that even a poor roll when attacking a unit gives it more of a tactical kick than most tanks. Let that sink in, Forge World flyers and Navy infantry models are now the bomb. Literally.
The new Psychic Awakening campaign book for the T'au, unimaginatively entitled The Greater Good features new rules for the Imperial Guard, and includes some surprising meat to Tempestus Scions. Those Scion buffs include several ways to bring Imperial Navy support to your Scions, and this blows the Tempestus Drop Force rules from the Vigilus Campaign book out of the skies!
Let's rewind in case you've missed this.
8th Edition hadn't been going long until Scions got hit with the nerf bat, and in three ways. Firstly, Tactical Reserves meant that any Imperial Guard in Valkyries did not count as being on the table, which meant that even though it was a model on the table- if your boys had not disembarked the Valkyrie then you could lose the game if all your other models were destroyed. This really put players off of using the Valkyrie, at best it became a one-off to support Leman Russ tanks. The second gutpunch was the ruling that any unit deployed via Aerial Drop or deployed by Grav Chute from a Valkyrie could not move that turn, which meant the whole point of the Valkyrie and Scions combo -their mobility- was now useless. Lastly, these deployments had to be made more than 9" from enemy models, which was the real ballbreaker when combined with the aforementioned lack of mobility. Basically, your melta guns were pretty much pointless and out of optimal range.
The Vigilus Defiant Campaign book back in December 2018 was a welcome refresh to the Scions, but it was only a small boost. Basically, you could now field a specialist detachment of Scions focused on drop deployment, the Tempestus Drop Force.
The Drop Force gives one unit per turn the ability to drop from the Valkyrie even it's moving at full speed, which would normally result in rolling for death by faulty parachute! A Valkyrie can also help overwatch a nearby infantry unit, which is nice but situational. It's also CP thirsty, with the Drop Force itself requiring a CP, and another for the Warlord trait if he isn't actually going to be your warlord. Anyway, all that's out of the window now. A new Precision Drop stratagem is around and it's bigger and better and syncs very nicely with a handful of other similar drop bonuses.
Your drop troops not only have the ability to drop out of a Valkyrie moving at max speed, but allows them to drop at 5" rather than 9" from your opponent's units. Ok, that's still one unit per turn since it's a stratagem, but for another CP a separate stratagem allows you to aerial drop without a Valkyrie at that same 5" range. This means you get 20 guys including 8 melta or plasma hitting at FULL WHACK!
So the key point here: Aeronautica Imperialis unit as a keyword. This means that not just a Valkyrie, not just a Valkyrie or a Vendetta, ALL Imperial Navy transports can drop your Scions within half melta range at full speed. This means that Forge World models are part of the mainstream game, specifically Navy flyers. You can see this in the other stratagems, the specified keyword is Aeronautica Imperialis. The Tactical Air Control stratagem is by far the most important buff that the Imperial Navy has had, probably ever. Until now, any other Navy flyer other than a hovering Vulture gunship with the Strafing Run ability had nowhere near the Ballistic Skill to make the points investment worthwhile. For example, a Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter with hellstrike missiles used to be over 300 points, about the same cost as the Marauder Destroyer which is a superheavy vehicle. The recent points decrease to hellstrikes means that the Thunderbolt is a realistic consideration, but only with the buff of the Officer of the Fleet, which is after all the only official Imperial Navy infantry model right now. The problem is that the buff only has an 18" range. This means that the mobility of your flyers is kind of negated by the need to be within reasonable range of your infantry character. For flyers with hellstrikes with that sweet 72" snipey snipey pew pew range, that sucks. But the Tactical Air Control stratagem gives you the ability to use the Officer of the Fleet's abilities from any Scion unit with a vox. I repeat, if your Scion squad has a vox you can use a stratagem so that they can target an enemy unit within 18" and that unit will get nuked by your aircraft. This is pretty huge for the Imperial Navy. Not only does the Officer of the Fleet buff ALL flyers, but has the Air Raid Requested ability which is basically an off-map artillery call. Now you can keep your Officers of the Fleet in the backline, nice and safe and your flyers can fire at maximum efficiency wherever your Scions can shoot.
Another nice stratagem is the Hammer Blow. Basically, all you need to do is kill at least one model from a unit with your Imperial Navy flyer and that unit is pretty much locked down. This is far more useful and effective than the Drop Force's Aerial Fire Support which was situational, this thing means that even a poor roll when attacking a unit gives it more of a tactical kick than most tanks. Let that sink in, Forge World flyers and Navy infantry models are now the bomb. Literally.
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