Inspired by the discussions that got kicked up in one of the old Black Legion threads concerning the stats for what a chaos aircraft should have versus a thunderbolt i must say i've become one of these people who are unhappy with the fact that Chaos fighters have ended up being listed as having bolters (of all things!) but ALSO that most other aircraft don't have true gun at the moment. I'd like to suggest a few things that i don't think have been mentioned or explored before.

Firstly there seem to be several issues concerning several of the
aircraft in the game:

1) Incorrect listing within the official rulebook and the handbook of weapon systems that the planes have within  
2) Many people do not like the 15cm ranges on a lot of AA weaponry for aicraft and see no reason why they are this short
3) In some cases armour saves and the way in which aircraft operate

I intend to tackle points 1 and 3, point number 2, I believe , has a logical reason behind it even if one is to change all aircraft to true gun.  The reason is in fact multitude and has to do with:

a) Weapon Convergence
b) "Real life" Aircraft speed.

Let us take our good old Imperial Thunderbolt as an example; using true gun stats from Aerenautica Imperialis.  Firstly you've got the Quad Autocannon, now normally an Autocannon has a range of 45cm in epic; just like a lascannon right? So how come in Aeronautica it's only got a range that's 2/3rd of that? The answer; weapon convergence; as we all know aircraft weaponry is designed to be effective at a particular range; a point whereby aiming is easier and the stream of fire from multiple weapons 'converge' after that point aiming becomes erratic and the stream of fire begins to radically disperse.  A Thunderbolts Autocannon have had to be balanced to be effective for ground attacks and for shooting other aircraft, it's lascannons on the other hand cannot put out a stream of fire that is fast enough to catch fast moving targets nearby and so they converge at a longer range; also making them an easier choice for ground attacks or sniping at far off enemy aircraft.
So; the next factor to consider is speed.  By now you're probably asking why it is that, in that case, the thunderbolts CURRENT weapons (if they're supposed to reflect what it's ACTUALLY armed with) don't go out to 45cm (multilaser/lascannon) and 30cm (stormbolters/autocannon) respectively.  My argument is - even if we give aircraft true gun - that aircraft weapon ranges should be kept short both for reasons of in game balance and for reasons of "logic".  Now; if we were to give the thunderbolt 45cm range on it's lasers (the same runs true of all aircraft) then  it becomes far too easy for it to escape flak and start sniping more effectively, flak would become less effective and therefore we would be forced fiddle with points costs; this is something that should really be avoided.  Secondly consider the sheer SPEED of aircraft in the 41st millennium! These things are hurtling around at up to 10's of 1000's of kilometers an hour! If you're coming in for a ground run then by the time you've fired something like a lascannon then in those split seconds you're already a lot nearer the target then you were before hand and THEN you've got to pull a manouvre  to get out of there! In epic a fighter might be able to pull a 90 degree turn on the spot but that's just a simple abstraction; the point is that even if you're at maximum range of your weaponry your manuevre is still going to get you closer to the target! And so the weapons ranges are shorter. Following these arguments may i then present my suggested alternate true gun stats for a thunderbolt

Speed: Fighter Bomber     Armour 6+

Weapons          Range           Firepower          Notes
Quad Autocannons     15cm            AP4/AA5
Twin Lascannon       30cm            AT4/AA5
Rockets              30cm            AT4

As you can see there really aren't too many differences; Stormbolters have been replaced by Autocannons and have lost their AT6+ attack BUT Multilasers have been replaced by Lascannons which have a better AT attack (4+ not 5+).  The effect is that the Thunderbolt is now better at range against armored vehicles; though loses the potential of though loses one of it's weapons systems potential to harm infantry (the multilaser).  I'm not very good at pure maths (so someone else can do them!) but i don't think that statistically this makes the t.bolt any more or less powerful over all! One may wish to change the autocannons to AP3 but i see no need seeing as it gains better AT value, one will also note that it retains EXACTLY the same ability versus aircraft.

Now onto something that may be a little more controversial; proposed stats for a swiftdeath fighter

Speed: Fighter         Armour Nil

Weapons          Range           Firepower          Notes
Twin Autocannon     15cm            AP5/AA5
Twin Autocannon     15cm            AP5/AA5

SLIGHTLY better against aircraft (but with reduced range), exactly the same against infantry.  Loses it's armour save; i'm afraid i stick to the fact that, yes, even though they're pretty manuevarable they've still only got one hit in AI; a thunderbolt has 2 AND a reinforced cockpit. I would suggest that you could fix this by either decreasing the points to 150ish OR by allowing 4 in a formation; though i can imagine neither of thse would be popular, in which case we should just be happy with the fact that we get 3 fighters which can rip up other planes with ease!

TO ROUND OFF!
I'm actually quite happy with how the majority of other aircraft work in Epic at the moment but would be keen to hear what other people have to say about things; i seem to recall that the tau Barracuda can sometimes be a bone for contention!
Thoughts and opinions welcome, cheers for putting up with so huge a thread!
Yours
Ryan

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Leaving aside comments on your rational - that thunderbolt is worth more. Does more damage vs my two favourite targets, lv's and mech formations, my chanes to hit just went up, and vs high value AT targets i also have more chance.

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yes...yes i can see that now (though it it now less effective vs infantry right?); what would you suggest? Are there any blatant flaws in the rationale?

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Being less effective against infantry isn't too much of a problem, I don't usually send my Aircraft after them anyway.

Also, aircraft should be awful at shooting people, they're tiny targets.

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