With the Crimson Hunter added to the mix, AV10 flyers are suddenly being taken seriously again. I’ll be doing a comparison of Flyers in an article soon, but in the meantime it is time for a look at the Orks and their own AV10 flyer, the DakkaJet, and their other best hope at AA firepower, Lootas.

“Death from the Skies” gave the DakkaJet a upgrade called Flyboss that gives them back the chance to buy BS3 against flyers that was taken from them when their previous ‘Fighta Ace’ upgrade was limited to working vs enemy skimmers. With that back, DakkaJets return to the air as a surprisingly effective anti-flyer unit -and that’s not a bad thing for a codex with no other Skyfire options!

Lootas – Dakka-Dakka with a side order of Dakka!

Starting with Lootas, their reliability is severely hurt by the fact they fire a random amount of shots each turn, but there are two things that make them stand out as an above average AA unit.

They have low Ballistic Skill – one of the issues Skyfire rules have created is they punish high skilled models more than low skilled ones, but this pays off for Lootas.

They can now move and shoot their heavy weapons – and against Flyers, lose nothing by doing so.

A good armour isn’t factored into their cost, and they can go to ground in terrain or behind Aegis walls – and against Flyers, lose nothing by doing so.

The table below shows their probability to roll 1, 2 or 3 shots each turn, and their probability to remove at least one hull point or kill a flyer with each amount of shots.

The ‘Chance to Kill’ includes both the chance to remove all the target’s Hull points, and the chance for any of the individual hits to get a ‘Destroyed’ result.

Each of the four most common Flyers are represented; the AV10 flyer with 3 Hull Points (eg a Crimson Hunter), the AV11 with 2 HP (eg a Storm Talon), the AV11 flyer with 3 HP (eg a Nightscythe) and the AV12 Flyer with 3 HP (eg a Heldrake).

All results include the target getting a Jink or 5++ Invulnerable.

Taking the top line as an example, while the results vary from 10 Lootas firing 1 shot each having a 12.2% chance of killing an AV10 flyer to the same lootas firing 3 shots each having a 54.97% chance, the number 33.39% in orange shows the probability of scoring the kill at the start of any given turn before you find out how many shots your green lunatics with big guns feel like blasting into the air.

150 10 Lootas Number of shots 1 2 3 Total Probabilty to get that number of shots 0.3333 0.3333 0.3333 AV10 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 12.20 33.02 54.97 33.39 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 53.68 78.55 90.06 74.09 AV11 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 7.60 20.71 37.11 21.80 Probabilty to destroy 2HP 15.71 38.69 58.67 37.69 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 43.54 68.12 82.00 64.55 AV12 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 3.57 9.55 18.14 10.42 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 31.44 52.99 67.77 50.73

To put this into perspective, here’s a comparison against another codex that is low on native Skyfire, the Space Wolves. If you ever wanted to see how badly the way Skyfire rules penalise races with higher ballistic skill by reducing all models to hitting on sixes, this would probably do it.

10 Lootas have a 33.39% chance to kill an AV10 Flyer, 6 Longfangs firing 5 missiles have a mere 6.81% chance.

140 6 Longfangs with 5 Missile Launchers Target: AV10 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 6.81 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 38.48 AV11 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 4.97 Probabilty to destroy 2HP 9.05 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 31.94 AV12 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 3.24 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 24.86

It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Longfangs. Well, almost.

The point is that Lootas are very, very good against Flyers for a non-Skyfire unit. However, the lean, mean, green gunfire-machines on the ground are completely eclipsed by the crazy flyboyz screaming over their heads.

DakkaDakkaDakkaJets

There is only one sane way to run a Dakkajet, and that is with the upgrade to buy a third Supa Shoota and the Flyboss (BS3) ability. All the maths in the below table are based on that.

The Dakkajet gets two sets of numbers, the first is for a turn when there is no Waagh, and the second is for the glorious turn when the Waagh rules double the amount of shots this craft put out.

This is usually turn 2, when the Flyers arrive and the troops on the ground need the extra boost to assault range, so it’s the most common way they fire, and the numbers are fantastic: 3 twin-linked supa shootas fire 3 strength 6 shots each, which results in 18 twin-linked shots during a Waagh.

130 Dakkajet with 3 TL Supa Shootas and

Flyboss (BS3) Target: No Waaagh! Waaagh! AV10 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 54.52 92.57 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 92.49 99.44 AV11 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 28.02 69.49 Probabilty to destroy 2HP 52.15 86.57 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 80.62 96.24 AV12 Probabilty to destroy 3HP 3.32 18.54 Probability to remove 1 HP+ 54.3 79.12

Dakka vs Hunter

On turn 2, with a Waagh letting it fire 18 shots, a Dakkajet has a 92.57% chance to take down a Crimson Hunter even after it jinks, an 86.57% to kill a Storm Talon and a 69.49% chance to destroy a Night Scythe.

The gun is only S6, so its kill rate declines against AV12 flyers like Heldrakes and Vendettas, but even then the volume of fire it puts out is second to none, and with that much lead in the air something has to stick. Having almost a 20% chance to destroy a Heldrake just by glancing it to death is an impressive feat for an Ork Flyer.

Conclusions

Orks are better shooters than most people give them credit for, and have Lootas in particular have benefited from the blanket BS1 skyfire rules relative to other codexes.

The Ork Dakkajet has been improved by the addition of ‘Flyboss’, and while not overly resilient is an extremely deadly Fighter. It has strengths that may not be obvious, like the fact many players prefer to go first against orks (which improves the Ork’s turn 2 dogfighting), that twinlinked guns with volume of fire lose less by jinking, that opponents don’t take the dakkajet as seriously as many other flyers, and that an Ork with multiple dakkajets can also build an army that allows multiple Waaaghs.

During a Waagh, this under-rated fighter is better at aerial superiority against AV10 and AV11 than most other Flyers in the game, and in the top tier even against AV12 simply due to volume of fire.

Sometimes Quantity has a Quality all its own.