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AA inflation

 Post subject: AA inflation
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:01 pm 
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Hi!

Recently there was a discussion about giving Squats more AA. They already have a 60cm AA 4+ unit. The other day I played against Baran Siegemasters with 4 AA units, that meant 12 shots of 5+ with 60 cm range. One of these units cost 100 points and they are 6 strong, albeit only 3 have AA fire.

Is it just me or do I notice an increase of AA. Every list seems to want to have super anti-air coverage. I hardly see bombers anyways, so what's the whole point in all these AA units?

In my original view of the game, Eldar were the AA kings. And rightly so I think, they're Eldar after all. But nowadays it seems any start-up alien race has better air cover than one of the oldest and most advanced races in the canon.

Or am I biased because I am playing the "bad" anti-air armies like Space Marines, Tyranids and Black Legion?


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 Post subject: Re: AA inflation
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:33 pm 
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The new Thurgrimm list replaces the old Demiurg and Squat lists which had even more AA coverage than the current list. Dark Eldar and Elysians have no flak whatsoever (only planes), and both lists are relatively new compared to the Squats. Necrons have exactly one unit that has AA. Baran Siegemasters was a GW release along with Feral Orks (which have ultra-cheap MACRO-WEAPON flak). And then there is plain Jane Imperial Guard, who can field massive flak if they want to. It could be that you are just not playing against a very large pool of players and therefore seeing a slanted version of flak.

What I do see happening is macro-weapon creep though.

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 Post subject: Re: AA inflation
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:38 pm 
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In regards to squats you forgot to mention that the AA belongs to a fairly squishy unit of 2 with movement 0. It really needs to have a long range to be usable at all. Squats also doesn't have acess to fighters.
But on the point I agree, in most cases the cost of having a AA unit isn't high as most of them are viable choices even if no air forces materialise.


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 Post subject: Re: AA inflation
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 5:26 pm 
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AA is great in part because it pulls double duty. You get the AP/AT shots in your activation, then you get AA fire against each and every AC formation that passes through its arc. Baran AA in particular plays into the army's strengths - as a cheap holding activation, one of the better AT scores the list posesses, and a reasonable AA score with one of the longest AA ranges in the game.

I don't think there's been a proliferation of AA units per se, but I do think that the proportion of lists (actual armies, not army lists) that include AC is growing. Air assault is a very common tactic in Ork, Space Marine, and Tau lists in particular. Fighters are the most efficient mop up formations there are due to their long reach. Players are wise to this, and the proportion of points that is spent on air defense is increasing as a result.

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 Post subject: Re: AA inflation
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:50 pm 
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@Spätauf: At our local meta there are lot of landas, vampire raiders, nightwings, Fighta-Boomas and so on. Even Hannes would have some t-hawks. The only non-air threating lists are Squats and, to a lesser degree, my IG.


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