Brief overview of Elysian Drop-Troops?

[WraithGuardian]

Its actually very convenient, since you can include aircraft in any drop troop army without haveing to take any kind of doctrine, beacuse aircraft does give quite a huge advangate is you know how to use it right and not let it get shot down the 1st turn. The only problem is throwing away over $100 just on one single model depending on what you buy. Vulture is anywhere from $100 to $140, valkyries are about $120 to $160. Also, flier models are a bit more difficult to make, since its diffirent plastic and usually you need to be an experienced modeler to make it turn out good. You cant really compare a valkyrie to a leman russ in the time it takes to built one as well as the level of difficulty. Anyway, there is plenty of ways one can collect a drop troop army, elysians is only one of them.

[Anticitizen]

What is the most effective for drop troop armys? Transport? Gunships?Bomber..?(<==Little pricey)

[WraithGuardian]

Well depends, I mean strictly drop troop armies include troops, fliers, sentinels and gun emplacements (if allowed). It totally depends on your strategy, whats good about fliers is you can move them where ever you want. You can just hover on the table edge and just launch missile after missile while your opponent can do nothing to shoot it down(12" above the board), on the other hand bombing runs are risky since bombs are usually G48" so its a little hard to hit exactly what you want. On the other hand, you can remain 48" away from an enemy shooter while he need a 60" gun to hit you, and no ordnance barrages vs fliers. Unless there are AA enplacemnts on the field, the fliers can wreak some serious havoc among the enemy lines.

Vulture is usually a good hvy choice, and its points cheap as well. The good thing about fliers is there isnt a whole lot of upgrades so you can get more of them as long as you have the money.

Valkyrie is probably the best transport, a simple flying chimera with lots of guns at a higher price. 2 door mounted HBs with turret lascannon, and 2 choices of under wing weapons or fuel tanks in which case it can drop a sentinel and a gun emplacement.

I was never a big fan of super heavy fighters, they are huge, fragile and can be seen and hit from any point on the battlefield. Plus they are expensive, thunderhawk gunship is over $700 bucks so ... good luck earning all that money.

Generally, in my opinion you should have some mean of transportation for ANY drop troop army. Valkyrie is a tool for that, for heavy support, vuulture is a usefull tool but most drop troop armies relly on heavy weapon platoons, its cheaper and probably more effective. Sentinels are quite nice for drop troop armies, fast and hard hitting especially with hunter killer missiles. (A fer days ago my dream tank-hunter sentinel configuration went up in smoke, I thought hardened fighter sentinels can shoot twice)

So there, I think you will have tons of fun with airborne regiment, but before you collect anything I suggest coming up with a strategy (I have had a hard time winning lately with mine)

[Cheredanine]

Gah, ok maybe I didnt make it clear:

Valkyries are naff, engaging VTOL is a surefire way to get killed (light skimmer armour and stationary? byeeee). Unless you have flier rules from IA3 then you have to do this to drop off troops, IA3 will let you use the orbital lander rules but you are still wasting your first turn with the aircraft. since it aint gonna be on till at least turn 2 most games, this means it will be turn 3 at the very earliest before it shoots, its has half the hard points of a vulture, and you could have deep strike that unit any way, so valks are naff, exclent for fluff but vastly over priced and ineffective

Vultures make nice fire support, but you need to decide on purpose for the weapons fit, for anti tank, take 2 las cannons and Hellstrikes or HKs, anti infantry options look like roket pods, heavy bombs and auto cannons, however, I use a vulture cos it is fluffy for elysians, to be truely effective take aircraft

Both lightening and thunderbolts are very effective, the thunderbolt being more so, although costing more. Again you need to decide on role for weapon fit

Marauders? never tried super heavy fliers, look to be good anti hoard

[WraithGuardian]

Originally Posted by Cheredanine

Valkyries are naff, engaging VTOL is a surefire way to get killed (light skimmer armour and stationary? byeeee). Unless you have flier rules from IA3 then you have to do this to drop off troops, IA3 will let you use the orbital lander rules but you are still wasting your first turn with the aircraft. since it aint gonna be on till at least turn 2 most games, this means it will be turn 3 at the very earliest before it shoots, its has half the hard points of a vulture, and you could have deep strike that unit any way, so valks are naff, exclent for fluff but vastly over priced and ineffective

A flier can engage VTOL where ever it wants so no it doesnt mean death, it counts as being 12' above the ground and with HK missiles with unlimited range they can stay on the board edge 60" away from the nearest enemy unit and just keep pounding them and there wont be anything they will be able to do about it. Most long rang weapons in most armies are 48" range(Heavy) so if you hover at that distance you will be fine. Races line Necrons and tyranids dont have weapons of the needed range to shoot down fliers from far away.

Fliers are optional, their main purpose is not to win you the game but to make it more fun cause with fliers, its usually harder to win especially if you relly on them a lot, like elysians for example.

[Anticitizen]

So, Instead of lemans i could use thoes taranchula enplacements? Can the rules for full drop troops armys be found in any of the imperial armour books?

[WraithGuardian]

No, I think most info about elysians can be found in the 6th volume, the one with a tyranid trygon on its cover.

[Anticitizen]

Is there a real army list for Droptroop Ig? Is it in the FW book? Becuase i was gonna order stuf ffrom there anyways.

[WraithGuardian]

Do you mean elysians or simply a drop troop IG army? Elysians have specific rules about them, on the other hand standard drop troop IG can be customized which ever way you want, yet you might want to follow some basic guidelines to keep you army ... well ... drop troop, meaning no demolishers, russes and etc.

[Anticitizen]

Yeah, i was wondering...instead of using tanks the tarantula empalcements...And alot of IN, as transports ECT.There is a drop troop ig list in the FW book "The Taros Campagn" WOuld you happen to know anyting about that?