Death from the Skies

I think the latest White Dwarf mentions something about Death from the Skies.

As I own a couple of Vendetta gunships (going to be 3 if I ever get round to building my 3rd one, which is still stuck in sprues and stuff), I guess I'll be keeping an eye on this. The problem?

Well, let me summarize Death from the Skies for you first. Basically, you have this new flight phase called Dogfight where you declare a challenge, and if your opponent declines, you both roll off to see if the Dogfight takes place at all. It can only take place if you both have flyers in reserve, so if they're already on the table and out of reserve, no Dogfight for you!

Um, there seems to be four sub-phases, with the interception phase determining who is the attack and who is the defender. And also a manuver phase or something. Anyway, beware. Anything destroyed in Dogfight phase is destroyed for good, so no arriving on reserves after it has been shot down by an enemy fighter!

For an Imperial Guard player like me, uh...well, looks like there's nothing for me to do because my Vendetta gunships aren't aerial superiority fighters. Yeah, triple twin-linked lascannons are awesome, but they aren't made for dogfights. If I want one, I'll get a Lightning Fighter from Forge World, but I probably won't. As for my Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus army...well, yeah. Nope. No flyers at all.

So this Dogfight phase and Death from the Skies expansion isn't going to take flight for me.