Flying Circus

Not to be confused with Monty Python's Flying Circus.

You know the expression, 'As Fun as a barrel of flying monkeys'? Well,the "flying Circus" is a bit of 40k slang which refers to an army which has a lot of flyers. The name seems a bit random but there is a good reason for it. The term "flying circus' originally referred to the World War 1 military unit "Jagdgeschwader 1" which was lead by the famous Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. As his nom de guerre may imply, Manfred's unit was brightly colored and would be constantly transferred up and down the line like a traveling circus the unit became known as the "Flying Circus", which is where Monthy Python got the name for their own Flying Circus.

As can be implied from it's origins, in 40k a well done flying Circus can make your opponent rip his hair out. Since flyers are so hard to hit to begin with, and AA weapons being inequally spread across the various 40k armies, flyer-heavy armies can cause a lot of damage. But there are big problems with this. One is that you need boots on the ground in any kind of objective mission, and if your ground units get shot up you'll won't be able to take objectives. As such the archtypical flying circus is not made of flyers but flying monstrous creatures of either the Daemon or Tyranid variety. These creatures can land, take or at least contest objectives, and do massive damage in assault as well. As such the Original Flying Circus are choas marine lists listed below, but Tyranids can defintely make a play for gold in the Air show.

Now all you need to do is practice your best wicked witch of the west drag act and scream 'fly my pretties' as you unleash your horrors across the board.

How to make the flying circus

To Create the flying circus you need a few things:

• 1 - "Daemons", "Black Legion" and "Chaos Space Marines" codexes.
• 2 - Ally together either team. Add them all if the games big enough. Here's a look at using the CSM codex with allies.
• 3 - Daemon princes, spend points on all of them! Cheap daemon princes. Best to buy dirt cheap troop units. (I'm looking at you cultists)
• 4 - Wings!!!
• 5 - Power armor (4 wounds with a 5++ save wont take you far, maybe against an assault army?)
• 6 - Appropriate marks for the right job: See the different flavours of chaos below.
• 7 - No mastery levels (keep dat shit for the wizards in squad protection)
• 8 - No Daemon weapons (Do you really need Daemon weapons if you've got a sky full of daemon princes?)
• 9 - No gifts no war gear. Only take wings and power armor
• 10 - Get a good look at your opponent's miserable face while you deploy them.

While considering your mix of elements above, you should also consider what flavour of Chaos you will be. Like with different types of Pokemon, Chaos types are good against certain things!

• Nurgle (shrouded and slow & purposeful) wings eliminate slowness while providing cover, and now that FMCs can jink while gliding you have 2+ cover save at all times - GOOD AGAINST SHOOTY ARMIES
• Tzeentch (re roll all 1's on any saves) no explanation how that's useful - GOOD AGAINST ANYTHING
• Khorne (furious charge) you're a Strength 6 monster. Only use if you're against heavy creatures/vehicles - GOOD AGAINST TANK/MC ARMIES
• Slaanesh (fleet, +3 inches to the run move, rending) only take if you're not making a "FLYING" circus - GOOD IF YOU DON'T HAVE WINGS

Example of a Flying circus

First Example:

1200 point game

• 10 cultists (50 pts)
• 10 cultists (50 pts)
• Daemon prince of khorne, power armor, wings. (220 pts)
• Daemon prince of khorne, power armor, wings. (220 pts)

• 10 blood letters (100 pts)
• BloodThirster of khorne (about 250 pts)
• Daemon prince (heavy support) of khorne, power armor, wings. (about 220 pts)

Total is = 1110 pts. 90 extra points for anything you want.

Another Example of the Flying Circus: 1700 pts

The Flying circus is much more effective if your primary army was the "Daemons" codex

• Bloodthirster (about 250 pts)
• Bloodthirster (about 250 pts)
• 10 bloodletters (100 pts)
• 10 Bloodletters (100 pts)
• Daemon prince of Khorne, armor, wings. (220 pts)
• Daemon prince of Khorne, armor, wings. (220 pts)
• Daemon prince of Khorne, armor, wings. (220 pts)

• Daemon prince (CSM daemon prince) of Khorne, power armor, wings. (220 pts)
• 10 cultists (50 pts)

Total is = 1630 pts. 70 extra points for anything you want.

Another Flavor of the Flying Circus Using Nurgle: 1000 pts

• Daemon Prince (Black Legion) of Nurgle, power armor, wings. (220 pts)
• Daemon Prince (Black Legion) of Nurgle, power armor, wings. (220 pts)
• 10 Cultists (50 pts)
• 10 Cultists (50 pts)

• Daemon Prince (Daemons) of Nurgle, armor, wings. (220 pts)
• 10 Plaguebearers of Nurgle (90 pts)

Total is = 850 pts. 150 extra points on any upgrades you want (The Skull for one Prince and Spineshiver on the other is recommended).

Extra notes: Things to remember

• Not many things are as satisfying as fielding SIX!!! monstrous creatures

• Don't forget to add an evil laugh when its your turn to deploy!

• Enjoy grounding tests though. 1700 points can bring out enough dakka from your opponent to have you smash into the ground until they can punch you out. So don't forget actually getting into combat to not die. Ever.

• Now in Tyranid flavor! Look at sky-blight swarm under data-slate formations.

• Thanks to 7th edition an assault FMC has to stand a whole turn with a huge bullseye on its chest before it can do its thing.

• Thanks to 7th edition shooting FMC laugh at grounding test (not agaisnt orks gretchins).

• Thanks to 7th edition you don't even NEED infantry, go all flying, all the time.

An alternate technique

This was a completely unrelated and very short lived tactic that showed up near the end of 40k's 7th edition. One of the last supplements released for 7E introduced four psychic disciplines for Chaos Space Marines, the one of interest to us is the Geomortis discipline, specifically its sixth power: Worldwrithe, which allows you to move a terrain feature, and every unit wholly atop it, up to 24" during the psychic phase. This form of flying circus consisted of using that power on a skyshield landing pad which had both the payker casting the power, and various dakka heavy units (Forgefiends supported by Warpsmiths were the go to choice) riding atop the landing pad, gaining a 24" move that didn't actually count as moving and a 4++ invuln save. This tactic is completely unrelated to the traditional flying circus, is extremely difficult to pull off due to the nature of 7E psychic powers, and depending on who you ask can be seen as either less or more cheesy than a real flying circus. Speaking from experience: it's definitely more fun to play against just for the sheer ridiculousity and probably the closest we will ever get to fielding the Silver Tower of Tzeentch in 40k.

The Other Flying Circus

There's a tabletop game by this name which is, surprisingly, not about Monty Python, but is instead a weird Powered by the Apocalypse game where you play gay fantasy German pilots of WW1 style biplanes. It's got a stupid complex dogfighting system somehow and its weeb as fuck.