Avenger Strike Fighter

The Bastard offspring of the Warthog and the Stuka.

The Avenger Strike Fighter is an Imperial Navy close-range ground-attack aircraft meant for destroying armor and other heavy targets. It does this with the Avenger Bolt Cannon, the Strength 6 AP 3 Heavy 7 gun around which the flyer was built (also called the "Fuck Marines gun" because it ignores their power armor save and wounds them on a 2+), as well as 2 lascannons and 2 hardpoints that can mount anti-infantry or anti-vehicle weapons. Since it was supposedly used a lot by Sebastian Thor's forces during the Age of Apostasy, the Sisters of Battle see it as an instrument of divine vengeance (through superior firepower), so they use it a lot.

The Avenger model is produced by Forge World, released to coincide with Imperial Armour Aeronautica (the book containing the rules for it and other flyers, what with Warhammer 40,000 6th edition having flyer rules).

Forge World was very obviously inspired by the real-world A-10 Thunderbolt II (or "Warthog"), a ground-attack aircraft built around the tremendously powerful GAU-8/A Avenger Gatling cannon. It shoots 30mm depleted uranium shells so fast that it doesn't go "Dakka," it goes BRRRRRRT.

[s]Funnily enough, unlike the real A-10 which is like a death ray against armor[/s] No it's really not. The real avenger cannon isn't designed to kill tanks, it's designed to kill APCs, artillery pieces, AA vehicles and other really important but less glamorous vehicles. Think about it. If you could genuinely kill a modern tank with a 30mm round, why the hell do tanks all use 120mm guns? You can hold a 30mm round in your hand easily enough, while a pure kinetic energy tank round (you know, the ones that are designed to actually kill other tanks) are two feet long, weight 18 pounds and are fired with 15 pounds of explosives. The difference in energy delivered is astronomical. The GAU-8 is an awesome weapon for sure, but it's real purpose in life is to make the Warthog more versatile. If the hog you call in happens to be carrying the wrong kind of weapons for the situation, or has shot them all off, then it can still come in and wreck up a trench line or artillery park with it's cannon. A 30mm round is a kick ass round. There's a reason they use it. But it's not to kill tanks. It's to kill everything that is NOT a tank.

Ahem. So this one's gatling cannon is pretty realistically not that great against battle tanks due to only being S6 without rending. That said, with the Strafing Run and Tank Hunter rules (the latter available only in the Horus Heresy version), it's Gatling gun is actually quite effective against AV 10 or 11 targets. taking anti armor hard points though allows you flexablity as you use the big gun for anti infantry while the hard points take out armor.