It seems as if Aeronautica imperialis is not talked about anymore.

does anyone still play this game. i am getting into it and hope to bring it back.

Our club has a fair few planes and terrain. We played a few games early on but not again since. I fully intend to paint it all up and play some more games at some point but other things keep taking priority

i've read the rules but am yet to receive my planes and it already looks fun and exciting, it just seems its losing attention.

It is a fun game, although I haven't played since the last big AoS meetup in August last year. I will be bringing it again this year in case anyone wants to play.

I was kinda hoping you guys would tell him a bit about what you thought of the gameplay

I'll bring my planes to the next meet as well so I can finally play

Well he said he was "getting into it" which sort of implies he know what the gameplay is about. Oh well, here goes.

On the whole very enjoyable game, although the first turn or two tends to be just moving around trying to outflank your opponent. Once you get into the dogfighting it becomes very challenging to try to second guess your opponent, ideally you want to try to get on the enemy planes tails so that you can get a free shot at the start of the next movement phase, as well as normal shooting. However, watch out for aircraft with rearward facing weapons

Adding ground targets and bombing missions adds another whole layer to the game - without bombers the attacker won't be able to achieve their objectives, so you have to keep them alive long enough to hit the targets. Being fairly slow (unless you play Eldar!) this means your fighter escort is less able to take advantage of it's speed, as you need to keep close enough to shoot down enemy planes that get into good positions on your bombers. Luckily most bombers (unless you play Eldar!) have weapons that face in rear and/or to the sides, so they can defend themselves a little. By far the biggest problem with bombers is lack of turning ability - if you get out of position it's far too easy to find yourself flying off the table even when using the tighest turning cards available (and again, unless you play Eldar!).

Every aircraft has it's role on the battlefield. Fighters are generally quick, but can die quite easily (Thunderbolts are handy here with their extra armour save, and again the Eldar with their shields help a little), bombers are generally slow but lots of firepower, transports have little weaponry but can drop out troops, and occasionally pick them up, for capturing objectives. For instance, on paper the Valkyrie looks like a waste of points and time, but in a mission where you need to pick up a troop objective they are absolutely essential, and a Vulture escort can help keep them alive against ground fire (on the whole I'd avoid Vultures though).

I've played Imperial Navy, Eldar, and Tau. Eldar are a bit cheesy, although the changes in Tactica Imperialis helped to tone them down a bit (Vampires went up in price, they're undercosted in the AI rules). Imperial Navy have, IIRC, the largest number of different aircraft and options, but you'll normally only find yourself using Thunderbolts and Lightnings (the former as they have heavy armour, the latter as they're the only IN aircraft that can use the top 2 cards). For Tau the Barracuda is a good all rounder, with drones that can provide all round defensive fire, and the Tigershark can take a bit of punishment if you want something a little larger - avoid the AX-1-0 unless you're playing ground missions though as the main weapons cannot be used against aircraft.

It's also the only game where I can put a Tau Manta on the table, it's a hefty model but for a standard game it's completely overkill - it's points cost alone means in a 100pt game you have one slow aircraft, but for some larger missions it could be useful. I use it as a proxy Orca (the Orca is, IMO, the ugliest Tau model) where it works well for the transport missions but is otherwise fairly useless.

I have a friend who has a Chaos airforce, the Hellblades are basically TIE fighters - they whizz around a lot making noise and then die to single shots; but they are very cheap points wise so are good for filling out where you don't have enough points left for something larger. The Hell Talons are much more robust, and being dual role fighter/bombers are a good all rounder. The Harbinger is the big daddy bomber, but will rarely be used unless you have a lot of ground targets to take out in a small area.

So Deception, what are the chances of you making it to the AoS weekend in August? I'd be happy to run AI/TA games if anyone is up for it, I'll bring all my aircraft again (got plenty for at least 3 players, and can stretch to 4 or 5 depending on points and mission). I'd love to get some more games in

Sadly I think he might be US-based

Thanks for the write up though

Ah, confusion reigns supreme! Sorry, thought the recommendation from you in the new user post was a personal one (ie in person!), didn't realise Deception was on the other side of the pond. Doh!

Anyway, does the short overview help?

I did have loads of AI aircraft pics, but unfortunately most of them were lost in the great hard disk crash of '08 (or was it '09? I think half my memory was on that disk ...). I've still got a few though:

Various aircraft with rule for scale: gallery/v/Spack/Spack106/

I have both books and read through the first in detail and the 2nd (briefly scanned) quite awhile ago. Not played any games - no opponents or opprotunity in this neck of the woods.

However - I seem to recall whilst reading the rulebook that it would lend itself nicely to internet play? if I'm correct (and I could be very wrong since I've never played) the 'models' aren't important from a rules perspective, its the 'hexagonal bases' their position on the board and the stats on the bases (speed & altitude) being used by the rules. The models are just 'pretty' markers, is this correct?

If it is, it would be possible to teach the gameplay in a forum using a series of images (screenshots of a powerpoint slide)

I used to play 4th Ed 40K using a simliar system (Powerpoint, online diceroller, email account).

Yes, that's right Mort - the models are simply placeholders, they do not block LOS and the base is used for all LOS and measuring, and the two numbers on the base used for determining how far the model moves and it's height (used for determining targets, leaving the field, and crashing).

Spack wrote:Ah, confusion reigns supreme! Sorry, thought the recommendation from you in the new user post was a personal one (ie in person!), didn't realise Deception was on the other side of the pond. Doh!

Anyway, does the short overview help?

I did have loads of AI aircraft pics, but unfortunately most of them were lost in the great hard disk crash of '08 (or was it '09? I think half my memory was on that disk ...). I've still got a few though:

Various aircraft with rule for scale: gallery/v/Spack/Spack106/

yeah that was pretty helpful. But yeah i am very situated in the U.S. of A. and Aeronautica Imperialis (did i spell that right?) doesnt seem to be as popular as in the UK.

am glad though for all the responses i know this will be a great game. I orderd both books and some chaos and imperial planes, eventually i want to start collecting tau. and maybe eventually get orks or eldar.

The models are really, really nice. I'm not sure if they've fixed the Thunderbolt moulds, but the noses on all mine were a little misshapen, but a little hot water sorted them out. You'll also have to drill holes for the stands on most of the aircraft as they don't come with them - top tip, be careful with a Dremel, one of my Lightnings discovered it was possible to actually fly when I lost my grip with the drill bit at about 5,000 rpm

So far I've got quite a few models, if you want close up pics of any of them:

Imperials: 4 Thunderbolts, 2 Lightnings, 2 Marauder Destroyers (will proxy as Bombers, the model is nicer but the Destroyer nose weapons are mostly for ground targets only and it's a bit cumbersome for strafing runs), and 2 Valkyries, along with Hydras, Manticores, and Flak guns (basically Earthshakers).

Eldar: 2 Nightwings, 4 Phoenix, 2 Vampire Raiders, 1 Vampire Hunter (am tempted with more Hunters, the only reason I have 2 Raiders and 1 Hunter is because the Hunter model didn't come out for a long long time and I'd already bought the Raiders)

Tau: 4 Barracudas, 2 Tiger Sharks, 2 Tiger Shark AX-1-0, 1 Manta, 3 Skyrays


As I said before, the Eldar are just evil. Invulnerable saves against all shooting due to holofields, and even the bomber class aircraft (Vampires) are highly manoeuvrable so get to do tight turns making them hard to target.

I don't have a favourite air force, they all have their own little place in my heart - the Eldar for being almost unkillable, the Imperials for having plenty of variety and hardy units, the Tau for having all round fire thanks to the drones and of course the Manta being the biggest lump of flying resin you'll see

SWEET! I am a guard player at heart so the imperial navy is my first choice, and i really like the look of chaos fighters and bombers, and tau craft look pretty sweet as well. either that or orks look like fun.

Take a wander over to Airspace too: http://z8.invisionfree.com/Airspace/index.php It's a very quiet forum, but you may find it useful. If you can encourage them to come here and discuss AI then all the better too

Also look out for the base markers from Mageboltrat, I think I may still have an old copy on my PC at home if you can't find them, it's set of race specific aircraft markers designed to print out and then stick onto the bases making it easier to identify each aircraft in your force.

Yeah i already tried to apply there but never got an email back, i think they totally abandoned that forum. the markers are nice, but i am trying to find the alternate maneuver cards. do you still have them on a drive or something?