Well, yesterday mixed into the necron news was another flyer rumor, the Thunderbolt. The rumor if you missed it, was that a plastic model for the Thunderbolt to be released by GW was in the works. This always brings me to wonder exactly what is it?
The Thunderbolt has been around for awhile, so it didnt take too much information to dig up exactly what it is. Released sometime ago by forgeworld, they are nice looking models with great weaponry. It would be something to see these on the tabletops of standard games. We will see what happens, and I'm not counting on anything. Here is some information on what exactly this heavy fighter is.
The Thunderbolt is one of the two main fighter patterns used by the Imperial Navy, the other of which is the Lightning fighter. While not as fast or agile as the lighter Lightning fighter, the Thunderbolt is more heavily armed and armoured. As such, it is more commonly used as an air superiority fighter, while the Lightning is usually relegated to a reconnaissance role. While the Thunderbolt is capable of operating in the vacuum of space, it is more often used by the Imperial Navy solely for in-atmosphere operations as it lacks the maneuverability required to be a truly outstanding asset in space combat. The Imperial Navy prefers to use the Lightning and particularly the Fury space superiority fighter for trans-atmospheric space superiority missions.
Thunderbolts are armed with 2 twin linked autocannons and a twin linked lascannon. It can also add up to 4 Hellstrike missles or 4 bombs. At 180pts it is F10 S10 R10 BS3.
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| Thunderbolt by Mordian7th |
