Avenger Strike Fighter
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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 S6 AP-2 D1 Heavy 8 gun around which the flyer was built, 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. Despite this shared characteristic, the Avenger's overall shape is more akin to a Ju-87 Stuka: both have inverted gull wings but the ones on the Stuka are more triangular. It is a ground-attack plane after all.
Like the modern A-10's cannon, the Avenger's Gatling cannon isn't all that great against battle tanks and similar vehicles because 40k game mechanics don't use side armour to resolve hits from flyers like they do hits from barrage weapons. Just like modern tanks, almost all 40k tanks (except siege tanks, like the Vindicator) would be side armour (AV10-12) on the top, and therefore quite vulnerable to the hail of S6 shots. That said, with the Strafing Run and Tank Hunter rules (the latter available only in the Horus Heresy version), its Gatling cannon is actually quite effective against AV 10 or 11 targets. Taking antiarmor hard points, though, allows you some tactical flexibility as you can use the big gun for mowing infantry while the hard points take out armor.
In 8th edition with the removal of AV, its namesake main gun struggles against most vehicles for a different reason. Unlike its big cousin bolt cannons the Castigator and Vulcan, with which it shares the same Strength and AP, its bolts do 1 damage each rather than 2. This seems to shift its use away from being an anti-vehicle weapon that can target infantry (like autocannons) and toward being an anti-infantry weapon that can target vehicles (like assault cannons). Its relation to the assault cannon is much like that of the heavy bolter to the big shoota: similar weapon, but firing bolts instead of bullets for improved penetration. However, focusing on what the main gun can do rather than what it should do, it does have impressive versatility. T7, 8 and 12+ are weak targets for it, but with it's AP -2 pretty much everything else is fair game. Ideally, you'd want to point it at dangerous armoured infantry, and on a flying platform that often means strafing their devastator/dark reaper equivalents. It's also good for bypassing necron quantum shielding. Barring that, you just point it at what few of your other weapons are good against. It's not overly bothered by T9 or 10, since many weapons will struggle to wound it anyway, and it's fine to tear up lighter vehicles, leaving the real AT to deal with the big tanks.
Forces of the Sisters of Battle | ||||||
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Command: | Triumph of Saint Katherine - Canoness Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave - Imagifier Ministorum Priest - Palatine - Dogmata Sororitas Command Squad | |||||
Troops: | Avenging Angel - Arco-flagellant - Battle Sister Squad Celestians - Crusaders - Death Cult Assassin Dominion Squad - Novitiate Squad - Retributor Squad Seraphim Squad - Sisters Repentia - Zephyrim Squad | |||||
Walkers: | Paragon Warsuit - Penitent Engine - Mortifier (Anchorite) | |||||
Vehicles: | Castigator Tank - Exorcist Immolator - Repressor - Rhino | |||||
Special Vehicles: | Pulpit of Saint Holline's Basilica | |||||
Superheavy Vehicles: |
Mobile Cathedral | |||||
Flyers: | Avenger Strike Fighter | |||||
Spacecraft: | Aquila Lander - Drop Pod | |||||
Saints: | Living Saint - Geminae Superia | |||||
Non Militant: | Orders Dialogous - Orders Famulous - Orders Hospitaler Orders Pronatus - Hagiolater | |||||
Allies: | Black Templars |