In addition to all the special rules for Monstrous Creatures (Fear, Hammer of Wrath, Move Through Cover, Relentless, Smash), FMCs have Jink and Vector Strike.
There are two flight modes: Swoop or Glide. You declare which you are using at the start of your movement phase. You cannot declare a charge on the turn it changes flight modes.
Deployment: A FMC that starts on the board starts in Glide. If it arrives via Deepstrike, it starts in Swoop. If it arrives via Reserves, it can choose to enter either Gliding or Swooping.
Gliding: It moves, runs and charges exactly like it had a jump pack. This means you can elect to "jump" in either the movement phase (move 12" instead of 6") or assault phase (re-roll charge dice) and jump over difficult/dangerous terrain.
Swooping:
- At the start of movement phase, it makes a pivot up to 90 deg. Then it must move at least 12" and up to 24" in a straight line.
- It can fly over terrain and models.
- It cannot charge or be charged while Swooping.
- It can never fall back while Swooping.
- While moving, it can Vector Strike a unit that it moves over that is not in melee. This inflicts one hit at the FMC's unmodified strength and AP2 with no special rules like Rending. It inflicts d3 hits to fliers. This counts as one of the two weapons fired during a turn.
- Shooting: FMC can fire two weapons in the shooting phase (unless it used a Vector Strike). They can elect to use Skyfire on all weapons (allow them to shoot at fliers normally instead of as Snap Shots).
- Being Shot At: Like other fliers, any unit that does not have Skyfire can only fire Snap Shots at at a Swooping FMC (this means they need a 6+ to hit).
- A Swooping FMC can move off the edge of the table. They go into Ongoing Reserves and come back on from any table edge next turn. They cannot leave the same turn they arrived.
- If a FMC takes an unsaved wound, you take a Grounding Test. On a 3+ it stays in the air. If you fail, it is Grounded and takes a S9 hit with no saves allowed and counts as being in Glide mode until the start of your next turn. This means it can be charged and it can charge in your next turn. It loses Jink until the start of your next turn.
Jink: When being shot at, you can declare if it is Jinking (before any to-hit rolls are made). If it Jinks, you get a 4+ cover save until end of turn, but it can only make Snap Shots (hit on a 6+) on your next turn.
Charging: If the FMC is Swooping, it cannot charge that turn or the next. On the second turn, you have to declare you are going to Glide. Then, the turn after that, you can charge. But if you get grounded in your opponent's turn and start the turn in Glide mode, you can charge.
Very cool. I see the appeal of flyers. I also see how an army w flyers can have a strong advantage vs one without, especially if they are heavy flyers. I light fighta w just a couple big shootas wouldn't unbalance a game but a harridan swooping around blasting stuff w bio-cannons (str 10 large blast!!) would do a disproportionate amount of damage for it's points cost since it'll be so hard for it's targets to fight back. Plus, once flyers start appearing it forces everyone to purchase anti-flyer units. Swooping flyers can pick on melee units without reciprocation as well, another blow to close combat armies.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that a Swooping flier cannot be killed by close combat. You need shooting to knock it out of the sky first. However, the big downside to Swooping is that you cannot hold objectives or table quarters. So you need to come out of the sky to accomplish missions and that is when the enemy can strike.
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