FlyBoyz: Bad Moon Fightah-Bomba

Da Flyboyz have a new toy to add to da squadron's  OOB: Da Bad Moon Fighta-Bomba with lots uv Dakka.


Hur, hur, hur....

Black Ork Down

I am making a real effort to finish my Orky Airborne, Da Green Devils now that we have flying rules in 40K.

This is the infamous Black Ork warcopta, two supablastas, twin-linked rocket launcher and two grot turrets with big blastas. It also carries ten boyz. Use as a fast 'closed' skimmer.

Sorry about the rubbish photos. We are deep in the North European winter light and so I have to use flash.

Evil Sunz Bommer Boyz

When you want to make a splash, hur, hur hur.....

Da Giant Copta

Forge World's latest Orky release. I can see myself making one of these for my Orky Flying Circus. It strikes me that a Deffcopta could make the front and the rear could be scratchbuilt. Hmmm. Must cogitate (it's not illegal, honest).

Da need fo Speed

Anuvva Orky Fighta.

Da Mek has been eksperimentin wiv a new sorta fighta for da Flyin Circus. He felt da need fo speed so dis one has been made from a flyin Barrel. Da wings, tail bits an rudda have all been reduced. Ir was fast but completely unstable. Da flyboyz don't mind that too much as they like a bitta manooverbility but it kept fallin out of da sky before shootin up da enemy.

Da Mek came up wiv da solutshun employin da Orky know wots. He attached wires from da control surfaces to a grot in the fusalage. When da fighta started to go out of control da grot gotta da eletric shock from da wire. He could only turn it off by pushing a control stick in da right direction. Dis left da flyboy in da cockpit to point da nose any direction he wanted and da grot sorted out da airydynamic.

He calls it da 'fly by wire' system.

Air Raid

My regular opponent, Shaun, and I have been working on a new scenario - Air Raid.

The idea is to set up a base, could be an airbase, a fire support base, HQ, supply dump or some combination.

The base is attacked from the air, including a number of flyers using the Apocalypse flyer rules. Non flyers have to be delivered by air, including jetbikes, teleports, deep strike etc. The defender should have air defence weapons. Winning and losing is about the amount of damage inflicted, depending on the scenario. The attacker has the first turn.

The game only last three turns. Air raids are quick in and outs. Apart from anything else, the planes run out of ammo and fuel.

Organised forces, such as Tau and Eldar use programmed entry. They write down, which turn their assets will appear. Only half can appear on the first turn.

Everyone else uses the reserves rule, with the proviso that you start rolling on turn 1, bumping all the probabilities up one turn.

We did a simple scenario to test the concept in our Sunday game. Basically it worked. I used my Flying Circus and rolled amazing dice throughout. All assets but the fightabomba arrived on turn 1. Shaun had his usual bad luck.

Six Deffcoptas swept across the base and un loaded on the Hydra, knocking it out on turn 1. That was critical. Three fightas shot up the Basilisks, knocking one out and the Black Baron strafed the Imperial flyers to no effect. The return fire from the shocked imperials went wild and failed to hit.

The fightabomba arrived on turn two and rocketed the Gorgon, but missed. The deffcoptas split into two squadrons. One took out an ammo crate and the other a Basilisk. The fightas all missed.

Leutenant Sparky, hastily put the spark plugs back in and drove the base's second Hydra out of the servicing depot. It took out a fighta with its first burst.

On the third turn the fightabomba dropped its full bombload on the parked Vulture - hur, hur, hur - a most satisfying bang. No other major damage was inflicted. In reply the Hydra took a second fighta down and an AA autocannon on a Salamander took a third.

The Circus decided to disengage at this point.

So the Orks lost three fightas.

The Imperials lost a Vulture, two Basilisks, a Hydra and a supply crate.

The Orks had a tactical victory but, strategically, I am not so sure. The orks lost three planes taking out three strategic assets. Counting a squadron of deffcoptas as equal to a plane that is three out of seven ‘units’, a loss rate of 43%. That seems high, even for Orks.

Conclusion: The scenario is great fun and all over in a couple of hours. We could easily double the size of the forces. The Imperials needed more firepower (which is why we brought the Hydra back).

John

PS Sorry about poor photos.

Those Magnificent Orks

Those Magnificent Orks In Dair Flying Machines.
Day Go Up, Tiddly, Up, Up.
Day Go Down, Tiddly, Down, Down.
Day Enchant All Da Speed Freaks An Steal All Da Scenes
Wiv Dair Up, Tiddly, Up, Up
And Dair Down, Tiddly, Down, Down.
Up! Down! Flying Aroun’.
Looping Da Loop An Go Straffin’ Da Groun’.
Day're All, Frightfully Keen
Those Magnificent Men In Dair Flying Machines.
Day Can Fly Upside Down Wiv Dair Feet In Da Air.
Day Don't Think Of No Danger. Day Really Don't Care.
Da WarBoss Would Think He Had Made A Mistake.
To See Flyboy Orks And Da Chances Day Take.
Those Magnificent Orks Wiv Da Blood On The Wings.
Day Go Up, Tiddly, Up, Up.
Day Go Down, Tiddly, Down, Down.
Day Enchant All Da Boyz Wiv Der Bombin’ Routines
Wiv Dair Up, Tiddly, Up, Up
An’ Dair Down, Tiddly, Down, Down.
Up! Down! Flying Aroun’.
Looping Da Loop An’ Go Straffin’ Da Ground.
Day're All, Frightfully Mean.
Those Magnificent Orks, Those Magnificent Orks, Those Magnificent Orks In Dair Sho-oty Ma-chines!

My thanks to Sean who made these models from 1:72 Zeros back in the Gorkamorka days and then passed them on to me.

Da Black Baron

The Orky Air Force continues to expand.

Here is the personal plane of dah Black Baron himself. He wanted a bronze ram on the front, which gave the mek some issues. The first flight ended after ten metres wiv a large hole in da runway. The solution was to put da worky bits in the tail to balance it out. Da mek struggle wiv da fuel tank but made a special seat tank for da Black Baron to sit on.

In da MkII vershun, the air intakes were underneath the bow but they kept getting body parts in da turbines so da mek had da genius idea of putttin' 'em behind the pilot. Provided da Baron rams his hat on tight da jobs a gud'un.

Da fighta ain't so fast but it can turn on a grot's buttocks. Note the vectored thrusters under the tail (courtesy of Old Crow - see sidebar).

I used a SMER 1:48 scale Fokker DVII as the basis of the model, lowering the top wing. This is a robust child's model that is great for kitbashing. Allsortsemporium sells it for under a fiver (see sidebar).

The turbines are off a drop pod and the rockets are Robogear. Everything else is off GW Ork sprues, bikes, wartrucks, etc.

I took the plane into action this afternoon with my track-boyz. Da Baron shot up some guardsmen and slammed two rokkits into a Basilisk. Unfortunately, they failed to go off. Da Baron then ran into the massed fire of twelve pintle mounted storm bolters. Only one burst hit but it took out the fighta's single engine. Da plane would still dive OK but had da trouble pulling up.

I won't reveal who won. After all, the honour is in the taking part, not winning.

Da Big Red'Un

My Ork Fighta-Bomba is a kit-bashed Chinese MIG 19 from Trumpeter (1:35 scale: as an aside, 40K works better with 1:35 than 1:48 even though the latter is the theoretical best scale). The rockets are Old Crow.

It is equipped with two sets of twin-linked big-shootahs, in pods under the wings and slung under the nose, a set of rockets, and an internal bomb bay. A twin-linked big shootah in a turret behind the cockpit guards the tail.

Not the aftaburna pipes in the tail and the ventral, vectored thrusters.

This example is flown by Flyboy Buggles and his trusty grot-gunner, Algy.

Bugguls is famous for inventin the reverse, tail slip immulman slide - now known as a bugguls spectacular.

This came about when, in his excitement, he forgot to remove the guard squig from the cockpit before taking off. Flyboys often leave guard squigs in their planes' cockpite when they are on the ground to prevent unscrupulous gits from twoking their ride.

The squig attempted to chew Buggul's right leg off when he was being chased by an Eldar fighter. He opened fire in retaliation wiv his slugga down into the cockpit, shooting away some of the stabalisation controls before he subdued the squig and tossed it overboard. His plane incenerated the overshootin tree-huggar wiv his aftaburnas.

Several flyboys have attempted to emulate the feat, stuffing their cockpits wiv attack squigs and shooting up their conmtrols at random, but the results obtained have been disappointing.