How best to use a Thunderhawk in Apocalypse?

[pinky_si]

Hi there,

I've finally gotten round to scratch building myself a Thunderhawk (I will post pictures when it's fully finished, detailed and painted), and I was just wondering what other people's experience of using them in games of Apocalypse were.

I'm thinking that as a delivery method for a deathstar unit is probably the most viable tactic, and am debating whether it would be better to go with;

a) Careful Planning, so it can arrive from reserves as a Flyer in turn 1 into the enemy's backfield, blow some stuff to hell and back (complete with bombing run on entry), then go to Hover mode on turn 2 to disgorge it's payload of assault terminators and characters

or

b) Flank March and Careful Planning, for the same backfield deployment, but with a T1 assault

I can see advantages to both methods, a) gives the chance for greater fire-saturation on T1, and lessens the chance of the Thunderhawk taking damage unless the enemy brought AA weapons, b) gets the fists flying faster, but leaves the Thunderhawk vulnerable a turn earlier - I'm guessing that it'll be a huge fire magnet (especially as we don't get many superheavies in my local group).

Other considerations that I'd welcome advice on are;

Payload - who rides the Thunderhawk? My gut says cram it full of terminators (maybe with Masters of the Chapter Formation too?), but it's Apoc, so I can stuff multiple squads in and am thinking that dropping 3 separate squads (Sternguard maybe?) might be a better use

Armament - Turbolaser or Cannon, Bombs or Missiles? Either way, I can foresee launching as much of it's payload on T1 as possible, better to get use out of the missiles or bombs early just in case...

What to support it with? I tend to play a homebrew vanilla chapter, the Grim Avengers, and can put a full Battle Company in rhino hulls on the table, along with associated support vehicles and some elements of the 1st and 10th companys.

Locally, games tend to be in the 3-5k size, although we have played 2 player/10k per side in the past.

Thanks in advance for your advice

[Mad Cat]

I think and Ironclad dreadnought would be a great passenger since they often have to wade through enemy fire to achieve something other than a few stormbolt shots and it would be nice to avoid all that and just get stuck in. Then go for a scoring unit such as Tac squad to claim the objective nearby and another elite unit such as sternguard or termies to eliminate choice threats.

Careful planning makes a lot of sense and will go well with any drop pod attacks you also have to lend a little fire support. Flank march is very powerful and we often ban it or restrict it to a max of 1500 points worth of forces using it.

[pridgener]

They are extremely powerful and innovative, which has grabbed the attention of people who are looking for something specific in terms of gadgets that hover around. These are those kinds of preys for which everyone is much excited and has indulged themselves in learning their abilities.