Vulture Gunship

Type: Flyer

Crew: Imperial Navy

Weapons: The Vulture is armed with a nose mounted heavy bolter.

Options: The Vulture has four wing hard points for mounting weapons. Each weapon is bought as a pair and a Vulture may mount two pairs of weapons. A Vulture must choose one pair of weapons from the Hardpoint 1 list (inner wing) and one pair of weapons from the Hardpoint 2 list (outer wing).

Hardpoint 1: 2 x External fuel tanks for free; twin-linked lascannons at +45 pts; twin-linked missile launchers at +45 pts; twin-linked autocannons at +30 pts; 2 x multiple rocket pods at +50 pts.

Hardpoint 2: 2 x External fuel tanks for free; 2 x bomb racks of 3 heavy bombs per rack at +60 pts; 2 x bomb racks of 3 heavy smart bombs per rack at +90 pts; 2 x missile racks of 3 hunter-killer missiles per rack at +60 pts; 2 x multiple rocket pods at +50 pts; 2 x Hellstrike missiles at +20 pts.

A Vulture may take any of the following Imperial Navy Aircraft Upgrades: Ejector Seat, Flare or Chaff Launcher, Armoured Cockpit, Infra-Red Targeting, Illum Flares, Distinctive Paint Scheme or Decals.

Special Rules

VTOL Hover Mode: Rather than leave the table as per the normal flyer rules the Vulture can choose to engage its VTOL Hover mode and remain on the table. The Vulture uses its vectored engines to hover above the ground. It remains stationary but can turn in any direction to bring its weapons to bear. Whilst hovering it may fire all its weapons.

For the purposes of being fired at, treat the Vulture as a moving Skimmer whilst in Hover mode. It can be targeted using the firer's normal BS. All hits are treated as glancing hits. If the Vulture is immobilised then it is destroyed. Whilst hovering, it cannot be attacked in close combat (it is too high off the ground), unless the attacker can fly or has jump packs, in which case it can be assaulted as if it was a moving vehicle.

At the end of its own turn, the Vulture may disengage VTOL Hover Mode, using its main thruster to fly off. It now reverts to being a flyer. It will return in the enemy turn on a 2+ as per the normal flyer rules. It cannot return in the enemy turn immediately after it leaves the table, but must miss that turn as it flies away to gain height and speed for its attack run.

Multiple Rocket Pods

Multiple rocket pods saturate a target area with rapid firing, small fragmentation missiles. They are an effective anti-infantry weapon used against swarms of lightly armed troops.