Tau flyers. Are they worth it?

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Simple question really, are they worth using?

The Sunshark has the Pulse Bomb, which is ok. Im not sure what stats a standard bomb has, but 5/5 doesn't seem amazing. It can reload itself aslong as you don't roll a 1 which is a nice improvment over the standard single drop.

It also has Interceptor Drones, which are very handy. They can remain attacted and act as secondary weapons, or they can detatch and act as escorts or a somewhat small hammer in a Hammer and Anvil style attack.

Now, the Razorshark has a Quad Ion Gun in place of the Pulse Bomb Generator, a very nice weapon, good range, good S and good AP. It can also be overcharged for an S8 large blast. This is where (unless I am reading it wrong) it seems to fall apart. You can't fire a large blast at flyers. And as it doesnt seem to have interceptor, you can't fire the blast at the ground because firing at not flying targets would count as Snap Shots, and you can't fire Blasts as Snap Shots.

Of course is I AM reading it wrong and you can fire the Large Blast at the ground, then doesn't it actually make a more effective bomber, than the actual bomber? Slight more risk thanks for Gets Hot! but a great deal more punch and better AP.

[Waaaghpower]

I was under the impression that Interceptor was an anti flyer rule? And that all flyers could hit ground units as normal.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

I looked in the rule book and it just says that Flyers have the Skyfire rule as default. I didn't see interceptor anywhere.

[Waaaghpower]

I looked it up.
Flyers can shoot at ground units normally. No penalties.
Intercepter lets the gun fire at units who come in from reserves right when they appear from reserves.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

In that case, why would you ever take the more expensive but less effective bomber?

[Waaaghpower]

Um... because...
I've got no idea. I don't own the codex. Aren't there penalties with the overcharge thing?

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Only Gets Hot! You can try to use it every turn you are on the field garenteed, and there is a little more scatter to deal with, but it can ID Marines and murder Hordes.

[knightperson]

I'm actually thinking the bomber is the better choice. They both have missile pod or equivalent and a pair of seeker missiles. The fighter has a burst cannon that can be swapped for another missile pod, but that's all it gets. The bomber gets a reusable large blast pulse bomb, networked markerlight, and a pair of detachable drones that carry twinlinked ion rifle. That's pretty good for the fairly small points increase.

EDIT: The more I look at it, the less certain I am of the above. I still think the bomber has the edge since the fighter only gets two weapons (not counting seeker missiles), but the overcharged quad ion turret is pretty nasty. If you kit a fighter for antipersonnel, you can have a S8 large blast and 4 standard burst cannon shots. Still, the bomber can have 6 twin-linked missile-pod-equivalent shots (within rapid-fire range), plus the bomb (most of the time) AND the markerlight! If you're willing to risk up to 4 Gets Hot rolls you can have 4 S8 small blasts.

[InsaneTD]

How do twinlinked blast work and how does that interact with gets hot?

[Chicop76]

The bomber to me is a better choice to take due to the same reasoning as knight person said.

my question does jink effect the drones. if done right the flyers can have a +3 jink save which is nice to have due to stealth. Also besides the skyray this is the only unit you have that can fire markerlight with skyfire. I am thinking that the bomber with the skyray would be nasty anti air and gives you 8 missles that deny cover saves. Although your stealth suit upgrade charac ter can have a marker light and can skyfire as well.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Is it me, or does the bomber make a better fighter and the fighter makes a better bomber?

[InsaneTD]

Yeah, that's been everyone comment so far.

[salamut2202]

Is it me, or does the bomber make a better fighter and the fighter makes a better bomber?

I've sorta been thinking of this, but just looking at the pure offensive potential of them.

In normal shooting :
Sun shark - 4-6 strength 7 shots which can all be twin linked (noting many og those shots are bs 2)
Razor shark - 6 strength 7 shots or 4 strength 7 shots and 4 strength 5 shots.

Ground exclusive shots
Sun shark - Strength 5 pie and two strength 8 cupcakes
Razor sharks - Strength 8 pie

From that I would say that the bomber was a bomber and the fighter was a fighter.

From the two fighters I lean towards the sun shark, the fact it can put out that many s7 shots which can be all twin linked, even without the seekers taken into account, is enough to combat other air threats and it has the bonus of also putting out some pretty good anti ground fire at the same time. Also, it has a marker light.

Now for their overall worth....
....but there's cooler fast attack choices. Those flyers could be a unit of markerlight drones that hang around my commander or a squad of piranhas or a handy unit of vespid. I don't think I need an air presence because skyrays and velocity trackers. Broadsides and crisis suits can bring the strength 7 and hammerheads and riptides have the heavy ion weaponry covered in the razorshark's case. As for the pulse bomb, do we need more 5/5 anti personnel stuff?

[The Allfather]

How do twinlinked blast work and how does that interact with gets hot?

Doesn't twinlinked for Blast weapons just reduce the scatter? I don't even have the 6th edition rules, but that's what would make sense to me.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

TL BLast means you can reroll the scatter dice. And if you roll a 1 for Gets Hot! you can discard it and roll again. If you roll a seconds 1 though, it stands.