No, the 'fighters armour pierceing will not be able to work on the Dropship as per the dropship rules (the armour on those things is way to tough. However, Dropship vs. Dropship shooting should be able to work, if the question comes up)

I voted undecided, while I love the idea of aerospace fighters, under the current rules I don't think they would work(to small of a playing field to start). On the other hand as a separate game they could be fun.

@Crazy_Phil
Aerospace fighters should be able to pierce dropship armor, part of their job is to intercept the dropships before they land.

I agree with most of you. Fix what's broken before adding more layers. THEN proceed with care, wit and caution.

All you would have to do is make make Aerospace fighters only able to hit things that have not moved for a turn or two. In other words it would be very hard to hit something that has mov ed.

Hard to hit inf, and damage would be minimal to them if hit
Easy to hit slow moving tanks and
easy to hit slow moving mechs
average to hit something with a average movement
and so forth

And each player only gets to use them once per game.

it would work believe me. We have played with such rules at my game club i run. It works good.

We are having a discussion over on the WK site about this very issue.

Click Here If You Are Interested In Helping Us Come Up With A Balanced Aerospace Integration For MW

We agree that IF aerofighters are introduced that it must not become overpowering like arty has.

(I voted No by the way due to lack of faith in playbalance)

Some more random ruminations and cautionary tales.
GamesWorkshop put out Battlefleet Gothic as a seperate game because everyone wanted ship to ship combat for 40K. It ran okay for a while, then tanked. The have repeatedly stated that there was no balanced, uncomplicated way to introduce air assets into the tabletop tactical game.

Now, I'm not saying that's the final word, but GW is the only existing applicable model to base speculation on. Plus they tend to be more cautious about tossing in random rules and elements, as they have a longer track record, and have much more to lose if the game loses players due to balance issues.

I've not heard them say this dirrectly mind you, but WK seems to have the 'let's pump this out, copy other established games, tweek things enough to avoid the pitchfork and torch crowd, and if it goes legs up, we'll just make some other game' additude. Witness the cutting back of pins, participation LEs, more reprints per set, retirement, reduction of supported events, etc, etc.
Now they're putting out generic card games. They're playing it safe after a couple of losing innings, hoping to find something to put them back in the black. I'm hoping they realise that MW is still very viable, and increase the support, but I fear they might do a fire and forget 'Aerotech' expansion.
This game (and to a lesser extent HC) have been very good for WK, unlike all they're other launch failures. They killed off Mage Knight for all extent and purposes by alienating the player base. 2.0 is fun, but mostly it's being played by newcomers and is not nearly as successful as it's progeninator. A wise business plan would proceed strongly, but cautiously, so as not to fall into the same pitfalls. (Does anyone see evidence of a learning curve yet? I'm hopeful, but haven't seen enough in the plus column to balance the doh!s yet.)

Would I like to see Aerospace fighters? You bet! Is MW:DA ready for further rules? Unquestionably, no. Don't waste time putting another storey on this house until you fix its foundation.

No.

No no no no no no no no no no NO!

Let's fix the current game before we add any more easily abused units and game mechanics...

I came up with a rough draft of rules to follow simulate this. The fighter has a speed value of 1 to 6. The unit starts off the playing field. During your turn, you can choose to place the aero unit on the board. Roll 1d6 and multiply the result by the speed of the unit. Place the unit that distance from your side of the board, measuring in a straight line at any angle, facing the same way. The unit can then fire at any unit within its (very limited) front arc and range.
At the beginning of your next turn, remove the unit from the board. It cannot be placed on the board again until your following turn and must return from the same side of the board it left last turn.

Essentially, during your first turn, the fighter is called in, shoots at any targets of opportunity, gets shot at itself, and then is gone again while it lines up for another run.

the roll adds a random element to the units (decreasing their power). Maybe the pilot came in too slow or too fast to hit his intended target.

Give them average low damage, low attack values, high defense values, average ranges, and short dials with no salvage (a shot down fighter is considered blown to hell).

Height modifier applies to aero units as well as the AA ability of other units.

So, for example, my unit has a speed of 4. I roll a 3 on the dice. I measure out 12 inches at 45 degrees(my choice) from the center (again, my choice) of my side of the playing field. If possible, I shoot at an enemy unit within range.
My opponent then has the chance to shoot my fighter during his turn.
My second turn, I remove the fighter, noting that it would continue off the side of the playing field.
My third turn, I place the fighter after the dice roll, measuring from the side of the playing field it left last turn.

This gives aero units the chance to reach distant targets (like artillery) almost immediately while making themselves vulnerable at the same time.

As I said, a rough draft and completely unplaytested, but a good start I think.

@Crazy_Phil No if you have 2 dropships side by side they still cant pierce each others armor. The Dropship armor nullifies ALL AP.

@corrosion: Actually GW does have flyer rules in IA/VDR, however they usually dont allow them for tournies (The rules amount to fly on, get shot at, take your shots, fly off, wait for a turn or two to do it again.
However both E40k & E:A have great flyer rules based on combat missions, at a scale more appropriate for MWDA. E:A rules are available for free download at the specialist games website, you might want to check them out (both for the flyer rules and for the fact that GW finally put out a DECENT rules set. Their second one (MoW was the first))

I voted no- I just dont trust WK to do it right (though the styrene card/ single use "Arty strike" concept of Link_76 does sound interesting)

NO, please no.

IMHO, Aerospace fighters are out of the scope of game. There are still some rules areas that need to be addressed before adding further complication. I think some marketing choices on WK's part have done in play and interest. Perhaps people just end up buying whatever the unit-de-jour is, and forgetting the

I came from a wargaming background, and I was happy with systems that included an air option, but that really wasn't the focus of the game. A huge difference is that games such as Squad Leader, Russian Campaign, etc. weren't collectable, "choose your battleforce units", (other than special scenarios)

In this collectable-type of game, Someone would be bound to field an entire force of Whatzit Mk2 fighters, or as many as whatever lame fix would allow, (eg. you're allowed 2 fighters per 450 points of build), and then Mechs would be pushed further into the backseat. You think no? When arty came out, I think few people envisioned running into 4 Arrow IVs, but it happens, or at least it's possible.

I'm lucky, the venues I play at generally run a mixed force with at least a mech, and usually two mechs. Problem is, if more types of units / rules kill interest, the venue will die too. And then the game will follow.

If you like the concept, play the genre in some other game. (I can't imagine merging Air War with Squad Leader.)

Thanks for listening.

Keep in mind folks. If you talk about rules suggestions for aero units here WK can NOT use them! If you are going to post them here then be sure to go to doppelgangers thread link and post them there as well so WK has the option to use them if they see something they like.

Anyway ... I don't remember the rules I had cooked up earlier ... but I will try to remember them best I can.

Forgot to add. In a bombardment attack the center-dot of the pog must be on the line of movement. so it would look like

-----oo---->

Not

o
-------->
o

And remember the pogs have to be touching so you can't do:

-----o-----------o------->

Also, aero units are immune to their own pogs and artillery (i.e. cone-o-death does not apply).

Aerospace fighters would be nice addition to this game. In CBT and real life fighters are important part of warfare and least that WK could give us would be conventional fighters that were also includes in AT2(CBT's aerospace suplement).

Bring on the LAMS. Areotech only thing that will kill Arty armies.
Something this game need. Air cover. Poor Mechs getting chew up by Arties. This game needs something that should be immune to POGS attacks.
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