Deb wrote:
You should find that you could do the same maneuver with a thunderhawk gunship which I believe is a bomber and a war engine, drop off say a formation of Devastators backed up by a Dreadnought upgrade, and then sit them in cover. The thunderhawk leaves after it finishes it shooting attack, and then gives you another aircraft to strafe enemy forces in later turns.
Not quite correct Deb. Air-transports including the Slavebringer and THawk must
land to disembark their contents (the only exception to this are WE transports that are permanently 'popped up' like the Tau Manta, which are assumed to have technology to get the troops onto the ground). They are classed as an aircraft of type "bomber" to indicate their movement capabilities when approaching and disengaging from the battlefield.
You can land beside cover to allow some troops to disembark into it, though you may find that you cannot get all the infantry into cover because of the 5cm disembarking constraint. I would not recommend actually landing in the terrain as the transport will take a DT test on landing and another on take-off, giving a 1:3 chance of a point of damage, which can be really chancy in a DC2 transport if you suffer an AA hit on the way in as well (leave that to Marine Landing Craft, which with DC4 can afford to lose a point or two
)