Appendix III: Death from the Skies

Advanced Rules for Aircraft and Aircraft Weaponry

Targeting with Aircraft

Currently aircraft fall under the same targeting rules as ground vehicles and Super-heavy ground vehicles, ie, an aircraft without structure points must target all its fire at one unit. A Super-heavy aircraft can target as many different units as it likes.

These new weapon rules amend this slightly. A single weapon type must be used against a single target, ie, all hellstrike missiles launched by an aircraft in one turn must be fired at one target. All the bombs dropped in one turn must be on one target. In the case of Super-heavy Flyers these can be different targets for different weapon systems, so a Marauder Destroyer could target one unit with its bombs, another with its hellstrike missiles, another with its autocannons and a fourth with its tail turret. For standard-sized aircraft, all their firing must be against a single target as for standard-sized vehicles.

Bombs are barrage weapons. If more than one bomb is dropped, treat the attack as a multiple barrage. Even if an aircraft has line of sight, because of their speed and height, bombs always deviate two D6", taking the highest result rolled. Smart bombs may re-roll these dice.

Air-Dropped Weaponry

Bombs

Currently aircraft bombs are quite weak (equivalent to mortar or heavy mortar shells). For reasons of game balance this is OK, but aircraft bombs tend to be far larger than artillery or mortar rounds. 500 lbs of explosive creates a big bang, and bombers can drop far more than a single bomb. OK, so the wargame of carpet bombing your opponent's army with two Marauder bombers is not going to be much fun, so the following rules are a compromise, to increase the power of bombs, but also make them far more inaccurate weapons, which are only guaranteed to hit the ground, if not much else!

General purpose, high-explosive bombs

These are smaller bombs of around 500 lbs, designed for general destructive bombing against infantry, vehicles and defences.

A flyer can only target one unit (squad, vehicle, monster, bunker etc) per turn with its bombs (this includes Super-heavy Flyers). A plane can drop as many bombs as it likes in a turn. After the first bomb, each subsequent bomb dropped is treated as a multiple barrage. Bombs that scatter always roll 2D6 for the distance, taking the highest result.

Heavy general purpose, high-explosive bombs

These are larger bombs of around 1,000-1,500 lbs, designed for heavy destructive bombing against hard targets such as war machines, fortifications and buildings.

A flyer can only target one unit (squad, vehicle, monster, bunker etc) per turn with its heavy bombs (this includes Super-heavy Flyers). A plane can drop as many heavy bombs as it likes in a turn. After the first Heavy bomb, each subsequent bomb dropped is treated as a multiple barrage. Heavy bombs that scatter always roll 2D6 for the distance, taking the highest result.

Rare Bombs

Incendiary bombs

These are bombs filled with highly flammable material, such as promethium, which do most of their damage from setting targets alight, rather than by the size of the explosion.

A flyer can only target one unit (squad, vehicle, monster, bunker etc) per turn with its incendiary bombs (this includes Super-heavy Flyers). A plane can drop as many incendiary bombs as it likes in a turn. After the first bomb, each subsequent bomb dropped…