Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

======Forge World======
*'''Aquila Lander:''' Priced like a Valkyrie, but plays more like a Flying Drop Pod. Not as durable, armored, and only has a capacity of 7. It can but itself and cargo on deepstrike, landing a heavy weapons team and Commander close to the enemy on turn 2.

*'''Arvus Lighter (FW Index: Astra Militarum):''' This thing went from completely useless to pretty useful. Like most of these flyers, it is pretty expensive at 115 points barebones, but thanks to advanced clown car physics you can somehow cram 12 models into it now (no Ogryns though). With T6 and 8 wounds it is more fragile than a chimera but it can fly and move 30"/20" when hovering. It also has the ability to regain a wound on a 6+ and has no characteristics modifiers. It can also deepstrike, so just put it behind some LoS blocking terrain and unload your flamer/melta/plasma squads on the next turn. It can also take one or two additional models in the same slot thanks to the squadron ability. It must be purely by coincidence that Forge World started producing this model again, and they were even kind enough to jack up the price a good bit.

*'''Avenger Strike Fighter (FW Index: Astra Militarum):''' Brrrrrrrrttttt! With T7 and 14 wounds, the Avenger is pretty tough and will probably stay on the table a while. Comes stock with two lascannons, an 8 shot S6 AP-2 D1 bolt cannon, and an 8" heavy stubber that rerolls hits against FLY units. It can also take tactical bombs or a pair of the following: autocannons, hellfury missiles, hellstrike missiles, multi-lasers, or missile launchers. Like most of the Forge World flyer your de facto ballistic skill will be 4+ (3+ natively, but all of its weapons are heavy). As cool as the Avenger is, there are more point efficient flyers out there.

*'''Lightning Strike Fighter:''' Hard hitting little thing that brings a ton of anti-tank for a reasonable cost. It comes stock with a twin lascannon and a long barrelled autocannon. In addition it can take tactical bombs or x4 hellfury missiles, x4 hellstrike missiles, x6 skystrike missiles, or it can remove its long barreled autocannon and take x6 hellstrike missiles. While the price of the hellstrike missile weapon profile (as opposed to hellstrike missiles) being fixed in CA2019, the lightning with x6 missiles and loss of its autocannon (mourned by no one...) is actually a point efficient tank killer! You can fit the Lightning with anti-air (could be good) or -infantry missiles (much worse than vultures), but being a tank killer is where the Lightning can now really shine. 

*'''Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter:''' The frame itself costs 5 points more than a lightning and for those 5 points you get 1 more wound and 6+ repair. Not huge additions, by any means, but quite good value for 5 points. This guy also carries more guns, 4 autocannons and two lascannons. Has slightly more restrictive payload options than the Lightning, though the only option you miss out on is anti-infantry missiles, so no-one cares. The Thinderbolt is suffering from the twin lascannons' and autocannons' point values not keeping pace with the CA2019 point values for the single version of those weapons.
**Against multi-wound models, the anti-tank missiles are definitely better, doing more than twice the damage per shot with 2/3 the shot volume and 8/9 the points; even after accounting for the BS3->BS4 or BS4->BS5 penalty, the anti-tank missiles are going to be better in general against whatever flyers you are trying to bring down.  Against single-wound models you should be fielding a Vulture instead.  

*'''Vendetta (FW Index: Astra Militarum):''' ''She's back, boys and girls!'' The premier tank-hunter of the galaxy is back, and she's ''pissed''. Carrying half a dozen lascannons and a nice, fat troop bay for 12 models (even keeping Grav-Chutes!) the Vendetta is a fine transport and gunship both. You pay a premium for her - you have to buy every one of those six lascannons - but it's worth it. God-Emperor, is it worth it. Keep in mind that Heavy Weapons impose a -1 penalty on a roll to hit if you moved, and you ''must'' move as a flyer unless in Hover mode. This means your beautiful (and expensive!) lascannons are fired with an Ork BS of 5. If you feel safe from assaults or you have already disembarked its cargo, go into Hover mode and unleash hell. Take the slap on the wrist; with the miracles it can pull in the field of transportation the lousy shooting is the only thing keeping this from being outright cheese. Alternately, keep the Vendetta as a scary bastard zipping around the board. It's expensive, but when you roll good, it's damn good. Or go Hover early, wipe something out, then zip around soaking fire for the rest of the game. Heavy bolters are fun to throw some extra dice out to keep attention on your Vendetta.

*'''Vulture (FW Index: Astra Militarum):''' Sorry, did we say the Vendetta was a fine gunship? Well, okay, it is, but ''this'' is the exemplar of the role. A Valkyrie's statline with a tasty Strafing Run rule (+1 on roll to hit if target has no <Fly>) and 4 weapon pylons, carrying rocket pods, missiles, autocannons, multilasers and tactical bombs (a special one-time use ability that's great against units with lots of models and deals mortal wounds on a 5+)... yeah, okay, fine. We know why you're here. The ''Twin Punisher Cannon'', a Heavy '''''40''''' S5 dual-minigun man-muncher that will turn anything you point this bird at into paste. How it even manages to fly straight spitting so much dakka is a mystery. Scratch the paint and make sure it's not an Ork...
**In terms of weapons, the Twin Punisher Cannon is better than every other weapon vs most units and is only worse than the Skystrike Missiles vs units that can FLY. Hunter-Killer Missiles are also almost always better, but are one use only; while Tactical Bombs are rather gimmicky. If for some reason you aren't taking the Punisher, the following loadouts are best for the following roles:
***'''Pure Anti-Tank:''' Twin Lascannon and Two Hellstrike Missiles
***'''Pure Anti-MEQ/TEQ:''' Twin Autocannon and Two Missile Pods or Four Missile Pods
***'''Pure Anti-GEQ:''' Twin Multi-Laser and Two Hellfury Missiles
***'''Mixed Anti-Tank and Anti-MEQ/TEQ:''' Twin Lascannon and Two Missile Pods
***'''Mixed Anti-Tank and Anti-GEQ:''' Twin Lascannon and Two Hellfury Missiles
***'''Mixed Anti-MEQ/TEQ and Anti-GEQ:''' Twin Autocannon and Two Hellfury Missiles or Two Missile Pods and Two Hellfury Missiles
***'''Anti-FLY:''' Take relevant loadout and swap the Hellfury/Hellstrike Missiles or Missile Pods for Skystrike Missiles.