Making stormtalons work

I have a love-hate relationship with stormtalon gunships. I like the model itself – it's modern and slick (which is an appearance I prefer for my chapter), it's an actual gunship which I feel fits marine fluff very well, and it's sized correctly – and I believe a flier like that would really fit the versatile rapid-strike playstyle of vanilla marines. However, its rules are goddamn awful and I just can't afford to buy expensive models that will spend most of their career gathering dust on some shelf.

Let us ignore the lack of survivability compared to other fliers, or the fact they're overpriced for what they do (they should be 20-30 points cheaper). The main problem lurks behind your everyday aegis defense line. A BS4 quad-gun will score 3-4 hits with its interceptor fire, at which point all your opponent needs is to do is roll 4+ on two of his 3-4 penetration dice, and your 150 point flier is toast.

This is why I have given up on stormtalons until the next vanilla codex (hopefully) makes them worth their points... Until today! Deus ex Ferrum from Bolter & Chainsword has suggested using a droppoded dreadnought to take out/disable the enemy quad-gun. With 6^th edition shooting rules and a well-positioned deep strike, the dread should be able to zap the dude manning the quad-gun, forcing the enemy to move other guys into base contact with the gun, which counts as moving with a heavy weapon, so at worst the gun will only be able to fire snap shots for a turn. At best, your dread will kill the gunner, survive the return fire, commandeer the gun (in gun emplacement rules, the rulebook states “one model in base contact with the gun can fire it”, so walkers should be able to do it too), and then use it to shoot at arriving enemy fliers. In fact, this is so packed with Rambo-style awesome that I just have to try it, with or without the stormtalons!

Anyway, here are the two lists I came up with that utilize this tactic:

Captain – bike, artificer, shield, relic blade

Tactical Squad (10 men) – missile launcher, flamer, combiflamer, rhino

Tactical Squad (10 men) – plasma cannon, flamer, combiflamer, rhino

Bike Squad (8 bikes + attack bike) – multimelta, meltagun x2

Ironclad Dread – replace storm bolter with heavy flamer, drop pod

Dreadnought – twin-linked autocannon x2

Stormtalon – twin-linked lascannon

Stormtalon – twin-linked lascannon

Vindicator

Vindicator

Aegis Defense Line – quad-gun

Missile combat squad mans the quad-gun. Plasma cannon combat squad and the rifleman dread keep them company behind the defense line. Everything else rushes forward. The ironclad and the drop pod need to cause as much annoyance as possible, with the drop pod giving cover to your advancing vindicators, bikers, and rhinos, while the dread targets enemy quad-gun crew, flakk missile havocs, hydras, etc. On turn 2 you should be popping enemy transports and dropping pieplates on his infantry, while your stormtalons get side-armor shots at opponent's vehicles, or take out his fliers. If you play it right, almost every unit (both yours and opponent's) on the table should be dead or seriously hurt by the end of turn 3, and you should have air superiority. Fun times.

And another:

Vulkan

Tactical Squad (10 men) – flamer, missile launcher, rhino

Tactical Squad (10 men) – flamer, missile launcher, rhino

Hammernators (5 men)

Dreadnought – heavy flamer, drop pod

Stormtalon – twin-linked lascannon

Stormtalon – twin-linked lascannon

Vindicator – dozer blade

Vindicator – dozer blade

Land Raider Redeemer (or Crusader) – multimelta

Aegis Defense Line – quad-gun

5^th edition deathstar list, now with fliers! This one is even more stupidly aggressive and one-sided, so you'll either be stomping people into the ground or losing horribly when your LR gets immobilized on turn 1. You want to be shooting at full power and assaulting on turn 2, so don't be afraid to move 18” with your tanks (terrain and the droppod should give them cover if you place it correctly and scatter dice doesn't screw you over). Feel free to have Vulkan assault squads on his own, while the termies go for a different target. Try to get the outflank warlord trait, or the one that makes him scoring. Aside from the combat squad manning the quad gun, you're probably better off reserving and/or hiding your crappy troops so they can live long enough to grab an objective. I picked Redeemer/Crusader because it's going to die no matter what, and any damage it inflicts is a bonus. I added the vindicators because they're super-fun and their presence will divert fire from your land raider, but you can easily replace them with the more conventional attack bikes, deep-striking speeders, or sternguard.

Of course, neither of these lists is going to be winning any tournaments. Then again, I'm not sure any pure vanilla army can accomplish that, not at a serious event anyhow. Either way, these armies should still be quite nasty, not to mention make for helluva fun, quick games due to the hyper-aggressive playstyle. Fun fact: you can make lists that are virtually identical to these two with the new Dark Angels codex, only better!