Feedback for homemade Apocalypse Lightning formations

[BB-Dawg]

I have an Apocalypse game coming up in a couple weeks and wanted to see the GW community thinks of a couple of formations I put together. I don't really care what kind of edits anyone wants to make, I'm just looking for balanced and playable formations.I'm playing an IG army with Daemonhunter allies and backed up with some air support. I tried to follow the fluff for these guys so I came up with a pair of formations that fit both roles. One role is air support and the other is ground.Anyways, off to the formations!Formation: Lightning Interceptor SquadronPoints: 125 +modelsRestrictions: The unit must consist of 3 Lightning Fighters, one of which is the commander. Since this is an interceptor squadron none of the fighters can be fitted with bombs. All fighters in the squadron must be similarly armed.Special Rules: Strike Force: All models in the squadron must be within 6" of the squadron commander.Interceptor: When targeting other flyers the Lightnings weapons count as being an anti-aircraft weapon (rolling to hit using the BS as normal instead of needing 6's).Flares and/or Chaff: Flares and Chaff are launched to fool enemy fire aimed at the aircraft. If any Lightning takes a Vehicle Immobilized result on the Flyer damage table then re-roll the result. The second result must stand even if it's another Immobilized result. The launcher only works once.At times during cataclysmic battles entire squadrons of Lightning fighters are brought to bear to wear down the enemy. A nearby airbase must be ready to re-arm and refuel large numbers of these fighters, but also be ready to adapt to the changing battlefield conditions. I planned this formation around one of the strategies in Apocalypse Reloaded. Normally when a strategy is used it is a one-time use. This formation gives the player at least one more chance to reload. If you think about it, flyers enter battle on turn two. If they completely use up any one-shot munitions in that turn, they can leave and attempt to re-arm in turn three. If the roll is successful they'd return in turn four. In turn five they leave to re-arm, and if successful return in turn six. This strategy is only good if the game lasts that long and the player gets lucky re-arm rolls. I pushed the points value up a bit because this also allows the player to re-fit their aircraft with different one-shot weapons than what they started with.Formation: Lightning Strike SquadronPoints: 200 +modelsRestrictions: The unit must consist of 3 Lightning Fighters or 3 Lightning Strike Squadron, one of which is the commander. All fighters in the squadron must be similarly armed.Special Rules: Strike Force: All models in the squadron must be within 6" of the squadron commander.Disengage and Re-arm: Instead of making a normal move the squadron is removed from the table to re-arm and refit. In the following turn's movement phase roll a die for the entire squadron that is "at the air base". On a 4+ they may re-enter battle with any one-shot weapons that had been used up now replenished with a different munitions load.For example: If a Lightning fighters load of bombs was expended it may now re-join combat with a complement of Hellstrike missiles. This roll also applies to the nose autocannon.If the roll is failed the squadron remains off-table again in the following turn to attempt a re-roll.Anyways, let me know what you think!

[jh316]

Please use some line breaks.

[kevin vanrooyen]

1. Use some line breaks
2. Seperate all of your idea's with subtitles for your paragraphs
3. I got about halfway through that and all lightnings coming in within 6" of eachother is too close, they're flyers so i'd make it 24".

And finally welcome to Librarium Online!

[034TH]

holy lacking paragraphs batman..

[BB-Dawg]

That's what I get for creating a word file then pasting it.Besides, it's my first post on this forum. I'll get better.:-)

[kevin vanrooyen]

Try using the preview post button (it's right beside the submit reply/thread) on your first couple posts until you get used to librarium online. This is especially useful because of the smaller screen in the reply to thread part of a post.

[RexTalon]

Originally Posted by BB-Dawg

That's what I get for creating a word file then pasting it.Besides, it's my first post on this forum. I'll get better.:-)

I like to critique home grown rules, but I refuse to try to read that hunk of text. Can you please post the text in this thread with line breaks?

EDIT: Aww fudge it! I'll do it...

I have an Apocalypse game coming up in a couple weeks and wanted to see the GW community thinks of a couple of formations I put together. I don't really care what kind of edits anyone wants to make, I'm just looking for balanced and playable formations.

I'm playing an IG army with Daemonhunter allies and backed up with some air support. I tried to follow the fluff for these guys so I came up with a pair of formations that fit both roles. One role is air support and the other is ground.Anyways, off to the formations!

Formation: Lightning Interceptor Squadron
Points: 125 +models
Restrictions: The unit must consist of 3 Lightning Fighters, one of which is the commander.
Since this is an interceptor squadron none of the fighters can be fitted with bombs. All fighters in the squadron must be similarly armed.
Special Rules:
Strike Force: All models in the squadron must be within 6" of the squadron commander.
Interceptor: When targeting other flyers the Lightnings weapons count as being an anti-aircraft weapon (rolling to hit using the BS as normal instead of needing 6's).
Flares and/or Chaff: Flares and Chaff are launched to fool enemy fire aimed at the aircraft. If any Lightning takes a Vehicle Immobilized result on the Flyer damage table then re-roll the result. The second result must stand even if it's another Immobilized result. The launcher only works once.At times during cataclysmic battles entire squadrons of Lightning fighters are brought to bear to wear down the enemy. A nearby airbase must be ready to re-arm and refuel large numbers of these fighters, but also be ready to adapt to the changing battlefield conditions.
I planned this formation around one of the strategies in Apocalypse Reloaded. Normally when a strategy is used it is a one-time use. This formation gives the player at least one more chance to reload. If you think about it, flyers enter battle on turn two. If they completely use up any one-shot munitions in that turn, they can leave and attempt to re-arm in turn three. If the roll is successful they'd return in turn four. In turn five they leave to re-arm, and if successful return in turn six. This strategy is only good if the game lasts that long and the player gets lucky re-arm rolls. I pushed the points value up a bit because this also allows the player to re-fit their aircraft with different one-shot weapons than what they started with.

Formation: Lightning Strike Squadron
Points: 200 +models
Restrictions: The unit must consist of 3 Lightning Fighters or 3 Lightning Strike Squadron, one of which is the commander. All fighters in the squadron must be similarly armed.
Special Rules:
Strike Force: All models in the squadron must be within 6" of the squadron commander.
Disengage and Re-arm: Instead of making a normal move the squadron is removed from the table to re-arm and refit. In the following turn's movement phase roll a die for the entire squadron that is "at the air base". On a 4+ they may re-enter battle with any one-shot weapons that had been used up now replenished with a different munitions load.For example: If a Lightning fighters load of bombs was expended it may now re-join combat with a complement of Hellstrike missiles. This roll also applies to the nose autocannon.If the roll is failed the squadron remains off-table again in the following turn to attempt a re-roll.

Anyways, let me know what you think!

As for changes, I would change the squadron rule to be as follows...
Strike Force: All models in the squadron must enter the board within 12" of the squadron commander.

I would either change the flare and chaff rule to read exactly as the Venerable Dred rule, or I would change it to a wingman rule.
I would also make sure the flare and chaff rule applied to both formations by listing it under each one.

I would remove the bit about refitting the squadron with different weapons. It seems a little too good to allow your fighters to change weapons that normally have to be decided before deployment. As a bonus to taking the formation I would give them something like a targeting array. Allowing them to reroll scatter for bomb drops and to hit dice for hellstrikes. I would also allow them all to be armed differently, just so long as it's the strike model, not the interceptor model.

I also think the squadron should be even numbers. One being the attacker and the other a wingman has been a long standing tradition in air warfare. Perhaps make it 2 to 4 aircraft?

Actually, now that I think of it, maybe you should just have ONE formation instead of two. How about this...

Formation: Lightning Fighter Squadron
Points: 100 +models

Restrictions: The unit must consist of 2 to 4 Lightning Fighters, one of which is the commander.
The Lightning Fighters normally fly in formations of even numbers. This allows one fighter to attack a target while the other flies aerial cover. However, there are exceptions to the rule depending upon mission needs. The fighters in this formation may be any combination of Lightning Interceptor or Lightning Attack craft.

Special Rules:

Wingman: When Lightning fighters fly in pairs, one of them acts as a Wingman, forcing the enemy to keep their heads down while the other makes an attack run. If a Lightning is fired upon, and there is a friendly Lightning Interceptor within 12", the controlling player may force his opponent to reroll any damage results on the vehicle damage table. The second result is always applied. Lightning Interceptors may not use themselves as a basis for this reroll, and no other Lightning may use the same Interceptor in the same turn as a Wingman.

Strike Force: All models in the squadron must enter the table within 12" of the squadron commander.

Target Lock: Specially modified Lightning craft are often flown by a Squadron Commander. Before entering play the controlling player may choose which type of targeting computer is installed on the lead craft. The special rules for Target Lock remain in effect for all squadron aircraft as long as the Squadron Commanders craft remains on the table.
Aerial Targeter: All weapons on squadron craft count as being anti-aircraft mounted.
Ground Targeter: Any attacks on non-aircraft targets with bombs may reroll the scatter die. Attacks on non-aircraft targets using hellstrike missiles may reroll the to-hit die.

(No, skimmers don't count as aircraft. I don't care what your fluff says.)

Then again, I'm just USAF, what the hell do I know about aircraft.

[BB-Dawg]

Excellent ideas!

My original strike fighter idea was based on....well, buying the "disengage and reload" strategy but your concept of wingmen and targetting rerolls stays within what's already been drafted for IG formations.

I like it!

I appreciate the input as I haven't seen a lot in the way of Apocalypse formations for Lightnings.

Thanks a bunch!

BTW I previewed the post this time before posting it. It looks good. We'll see if I did it right this time. :-)

[Tanith Ghosts]

cool, just don't use groups of 3 aircraft the British tried used that for most of WWII lets just say it didn't work as well as they thought.

[SimulatedSnowman]

I like the ideas of making air formations a little bit more "true to life" if such a thing could be said about a game that takes place in a fictional universe. If you wanted to really go all out, you could even make the rules not necessarily model specific but terrain specific kind of like in CoD, where having an airfield looking building allows your pilots to re-arm and re-fit, that way anyone could use them, not just Imperials. Plus it'd be neat to see what kind of modeling ideas people would have about what a Tau airfield or a Chaos airfield would look like. In any case, good stuff here.

Ah just as a fun idea here, it'd be cool if there were some kind of "Wild Weasel" rule... like ummm...

Wild Weasel- Some pilots specialize in destroying enemy anti-air positions, often putting themselves at great risk in order to do so. After being fired upon by an anti-aircraft weapon, a Wild Weasel pilot may return fire in the subsequent shooting phase and re-roll any misses. If an blast weapon is used, the player may choose to re-roll the scatter, though the second must be used, even if it is worse.

This would be more of a fluffy thing to me, since my admittedly limited experience in apocalypse games has seen only three flyers and no dedicated anti-aircraft weaponry. Still, I like the thought of pilots waiting to get shot at then making whoever poked their head up pay dearly.