Battles between Loyalists and Traitors during the Horus Heresy didn’t only take place on the ground, you know. Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Aeronautica Imperialis takes the fight for the Imperium into the skies, and gives you all the tools you need to play out deadly dogfights between your favourite Space Marine Legions.
Although all 18 Legions were Space Marines at their core, each had a distinct modus operandi. Now, with a suite of Legion-specific upgrades coming to Aeronautica Imperialis, you can make your aircraft reflect the flavour of your chosen Astartes.
There’s a wide range of abilities on offer, so we’ve picked our eight favourites to showcase the new options available to your sky-borne Space Marines.
8. Shadow Bird – Raven Guard
The idea of a craft with jet engines sneaking up on you might sound absurd, but if anyone can manage it the Raven Guard can.
7. Red Hunter – World Eaters
The World Eaters haven’t quite figured out how to get their planes into close combat yet – the Heldrake is a few thousand years off – but the next best thing is blasting away at super-close range.
6. Aegis Pilot – Imperial Fists
Love building walls? Then why not build walls around your aircraft, in the air? The Imperial Fists can’t quite lift a fortification that high, but they can bolt sophisticated protective modifications onto their fighters, and we’re assured that’s the next best thing.
5. Anguish Engines – Night Lords
How do you frighten the life out of people above the din of aircraft engines? Make those engines sound like the tortured screams of the damned, that’s how. It’s hard to concentrate with an unholy wailing in your ears.
4. Alaris Pilot – Ultramarines
Tactics aren’t just for the groundpounders, as the Ultramarines prove by putting some of their finest strategic minds in the pilot’s seat. The enemy might have more planes or bigger guns, but they’ll never out-think you.
3. Hullbreaker Missiles – Iron Warriors
The Iron Warriors love to break things, whether they’re on the ground or in the sky. They’ve also discovered that you can pack extra explosives into krak missiles and break things even harder than before.
2. Ravenwing Veteran – Dark Angels
The Dark Angels maintain entire wings of these incredibly skilled pilots, and often form a complete squadron from the cream of their crop.
1. Corvidae Initiate – Thousand Sons
Some would say that being able to see into the future is cheating, but they’re just jealous that the Thousand Sons can combine precognitive powers with an already excellent aircraft.
These Space Marine Legions might just be able to take on the might of an Ares Gunship – the Adeptus Custodes’ very own airborne hunter-killer. Constructed from the finest technology available to the Imperium and packing a devastating array of weapons, it’s every bit as dominating in the air as the Emperor’s bodyguards are on the ground.
Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Aeronautica Imperialis will be released soon, alongside the Ares Gunship, bringing high-speed airborne combat into the Age of Darkness.