My initial thought on that is that it seems a bit cumbersome, but I cannot explain exactly how. I'll have to ponder that for a while.

In reference to scream above asking why would people still take ground based AA instead of just Flyers, well, they probably wouldn't quite as much. Not that there is much of it to take anyway. Still, there should be reason for ground based AA weaponry. Perhaps we could change such weapons away from needing to be activated as such, and instead say that they provide a "Flak Zone" within their Range value that causes that hemispherical area to count as difficult terrain for Flyers and Floaters. At the very least, it would mean that F&F models would move at half-value through the Flak Zone. We could also say that any such model that ends it's move within the Flak Zone automatically takes a hit with the weapon's TSM. For making the Orders of AA models matter, perhaps the Flak Zone covers out to their Range value if on Advance, their Range +25cm if on First Fire, and no Flak Zone when on Charge (or Fall Back) Orders.

Hi all,

what's Peter proposed is interesting (and not far away from a rule I proposed few years ago ).

I think it's possible to tweak it a bit:

"Charge" order would become "Air Patrol": Flyers with a charge order create a Zone of Control that extends to X*cm around them. Any enemy flyer entering this Zoc are submitted to an aerial attack from Air patrolling units.
Resolving the "Air patrol" combat: each flyer has a number of dices equals to its Caf value: ie Thunderbolts fighters with a +4 caf get 4 dices, Marauder Fighter-Bomber with a +2 caf get 2 dices). Both players sums the number of dices and roll the according quantity of dices. Each dice scores on a 6+ at TSM 0. Units with "Air Patrol" order get a +1 to-hit bonus (so no need to add an "Interceptor" ability). Once the number of successful hits is determined, each player roll for armor save (no TSM modifier) and removes as many models as armor roll failed.

"Advance" become "Ground attack": as actual advance order. Units with this order can fire at ground units. They can also shot at flyers units with their "Air-to-air" noted weapons if they have some.

"Charge" become "Deploy mission": as actual charge order but:
A flyer with "Deploy mission" inflicts a -1 to-hit bonus to units in "Air Patrol" trying to hit it. This makes them harder to be hit.

Example: Player 1 activates a Thunderbolt Squadron (3 models) with an "Air Patrol" order and resolve the squadron move. Player 2 activates a Bomma squadron (3 models) with a "Ground Mission" order. The squadron enters the Thunderbolt Zone of control, immediatly resolve the "Air Patrol" attack from Thunderbolts.
Player 1 with 3 Thunderbolts has 12 attack dices (3 TB with a +4 caf)
Player 2 with 3 Bommas has 3 attack dices (3 Bommas with a +1 caf)
Both players rolls attack dices:
- Player 1 get a +1 to-hit bonus, bringing to-hit value to 5+ and scores 4 hits
- Player 2 does not get to-hit any bonus so to-hit value is 6+, as the Bommas are on "Ground attack" order and score 1 hit
Both players rolls Armor save:
- Player 1 has to roll for 1 4+ armor save (TB has a 4+ armor save) and failed it: he removes 1 model
- Player 2 has to roll for 4 2+ armor save (Bomma has a 2+ armore save) and failed 1: he removes 1 model

Players 2 can continue the Bommas movement to complete their "Ground attack" order.


How to protect from Flyers "Air mission":
- pick some ground AA and snap fire at enemy flyers before they take position in the air to prevent your bombers from their mission.
- pick some Flyers with high Caf and activate them before your opponent to create your Air Patrol Zone of control

X*(size of the Air Patrol Zone of Control):
- Proposition 1: fixed value of 15cm radius around
- Proposition 2: As flyers have to move at least half of the movement, we could imagine the Zone is computed by dividing by 2 the amount of max move range left. Example: Player 1 with its TB in "Air Patrol" moves them by 50cm. With a max movement of 100cm, there's 50cm left of standard movement. This means that TBs create a Zone of Control of 50cm left / 2 = 25cm radius.
A problem with proposition 2: it becomes quite complicated when you have several detachments in Air Patrol that have moved with different ranges.

I think this changes in flyers order would not much impact current NetEpic "meta-game".

Maybe those flyer rules would become "Advanced flyers rules" or something like that. About Floaters, their case could be easily solved later.

Let me know what do you think about it.