After having this new edition of the game since its re-release, I finally managed to get my first game the other night against a mate (Mike) and his Eldar aircraft.
Being the first game, getting to grips with the manoeuvres was frustrating especially as Mike was very adept with his Eldar and they can practically go where they want and JINK is highly annoying.
As I had finished painting my Space Marine Aircraft in a White Scar Chapter scheme I put together the following squadron:
2 x Xiphon Interceptors, one with Hunter Killer Missiles
2 x Storm Eagles with Armoured Cockpits
1 x Fire Raptor with Tech Marine
Mike's Iyanden Craftworld Eldar
3 x Nightwing Fighters
2 x Phoenix Bombers
Pretty much all of them had holo fields (again annoyingly frustrating) which can force you to re-roll hits at various ranges.
We played the classic dogfight scenario and from the off my manoeuvring was constantly countered by the Eldar and their speed as well as them being able to jink into advantageous firing positions. After a couple of turns I had managed to shoot down one Nightwing but the Eldar had shot down my Xiphon with the missiles, which I never actually got to fire, and put damage on most of my other aircraft.
Using my Tech Marine, I managed to repair the damage on the Fire Raptor and negated one damage on a Storm Eagle using its armoured cockpit. The Eldar were still hurtling around the sky, firing off Shuriken cannons at short range and chipping away at the Ceramite of the White Scar aircraft, whilst I was mostly just trying to counter their speed and trying to stay out of short range.
The Scars pilots were soon getting the measure of their opposition and after another Nightwing spiralled out of the sky, shredded by Heavy Bolter fire, they soon gained the upper hand and with only a few stray Eldar shots hitting but not causing much damage the White Scar aerial hunters eviscerated the Xenos flyers, downing all their remaining aircraft in one devastating turn.
Aeronautica is a cracking game and I cant wait to get some more games in. I was a bit underwhelmed with the Storm Eagles in a Dogfight role and would probably look at replacing one with another Fire Raptor or maybe a Xiphon depending on the scenario.
Eldar aircraft are highly manoeuvrable. Can be devastating at short range, but collapse like wet tissue paper if you hit them.
