Thursday 23 April 2009

Valkyrie and Hydra


I have been looking in more detail at the IG Codex.

Valkyries are skimmers in a standard 40K game. They can't fly. This is an expensive, well armed vehicle with 12:12:10 armour,m i.e. very vulnerable, although they do get the extra-armour rule.

The one thing you won't do is put Stormtroopers in them as Stormtroopers can Deep Strike from the air, and get a free scatter reroll when on airborne operations.

So if there are no flyers, what is a Hydra for? Ah well, it has a special auto-targeting rule. Skimmers and bikes do not get the special fast moving 'cover' save against a Hydra. The Hydra has two twin linked autocannon with a 72" range. A battery of three which occupies a single slot will spew out twelve shots with reroll per turn.

Jetbikes, anyone?

If nothing else offers itself as a target, they will chew up armoured infantry and light vehicles.

Better get your order into Forge World (see photo) quickly, there is going to be a big, big demand.

John

8 comments:

  1. If only I could get some of those in my Marines either Valkyries or the Flak tanks to shoot them down.

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  2. Well well, I like the sound of Hydra's already. Still waiting on my copy of the New Codex. So Orks still get their "smoke cloud" save against it?

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  3. Great point about the Hydra. And, it doesn't hurt that it's an awesome model to boot!

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  4. My hope and expectation is that GW will eventually be coming out with a plastic model for the Hydra (perhaps as soon as this fall). With their (in game) price basically being cut in half compared to the Forge World rules they are now a good buy -- especially if you are playing Apocalypse.

    As for the Valkyrie I think it's main limitation is its real world price -- $58! Otherwise, it seems a good option. 12/12/10 is good armor, it has decent firepower, and the model looks great.

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  5. The Hydra will be insane in Apocalypse. Hell, I just want one because they're just cool!

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  6. It would be fun as hell to convert a Hydra. Maybe I should look into making one...

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  7. The problem with using the Hydra to target jetbikes (at least Craftworld Eldar ones) is that they have a 3+ Save and the Hydra is only AP4.

    What it's really going to be devestating against are Reaver jetbikes and Ork bikers.

    It's also a better choice for shooting down those 12/12/10 Skimmers than most anything else out there. I often play mech Eldar and these are going to be pretty darn high on my target priority list...

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  8. Actually you can deepstrike the Stormtroopers out of the Valkyrie - at least that was the read I had of the rule for deepstriking the Stormtroopers had. I believe you have to buy the Valkyrie separate though with the way transports are setup now.

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