Aircraft

In Dropzone Commander, most armies take to battle via aerial assault. Whether through transporting troops and vehicles or through lightning-fast attack runs, the battlefields are awash with rapidly deploying aircraft.

Aircraft play slightly differently to ground- based units, and this section details some of the changes to the base rules that they use.

Aircraft are mounted on flying stands. These bases are ignored for the purpose of the game, simply measuring from the model in the same way as any other unit. Note that other models can be placed on top of the flight stand base if necessary (if the aircraft finishes its move directly over them for example). All flight stands should be between 50mm and 70mm tall.

Moving

Aircraft can move over or onto units or scenery pieces up to 8" in height, even Impassable scenery. Any scenery over 8" is Impassable to them. Aircraft ignore any penalties from scenery such as Tough ground, and gain no benefits from scenery like Exceptional ground.

When moving Aircraft, simply measure horizontal distances, much the same as any other unit. Aircraft may travel vertically (or diagonally) with no penalty to their movement.

For example an Aircraft on top of a 5" high building moves off of it. It doesn't have to move 5" down to the ground, simply using its MV value to travel horizontally instead.

Landing

An Aircraft can choose to land as part of its Moving action.

To land with an Aircraft, simply remove the model from its flight stand, and place it on the board in the same space.

If an Aircraft cannot be placed (due to impassable scenery or other units being in the way for example), it cannot land.

Once an Aircraft has landed, it is treated as a Vehicle for all intents and purposes, losing any other bonuses that Aircraft usually have. Unless otherwise specified, landed Aircraft cannot move. Landed Aircraft cannot carry or claim Objectives.

A landed Aircraft can choose to take off as part of a Moving action - simply place the flight stand back on the model, and treat it as an Aircraft again with its full MV value.

An Aircraft can land and take off as many times as it likes during a Moving action.

Wobbly Aircraft

It is often tricky to balance Aircraft models on the table, since they can move anywhere and their height can lead to a wobbly model. It is recommended to model scenery pieces with flat tops where possible to facilitate placing Aircraft models.

If an Aircraft can't be placed on a certain spot without fear of the model falling, use a token to represent the model, or simply take the Aircraft off its flying stand, and leave the stand there instead - no one wants their carefully painted miniatures to fall, but a clear flight stand can take a bit more of a beating!

In this situation, simply measure to the top of the flight stand as normal.

Shooting at Aircraft

Due to the elevation and speed of aircraft, only specially designed Anti-Aircraft (AA) weapons may shoot at them when in the air (see Weapon Special Rules for more details).

If an Aircraft is destroyed while in the air, it crashes to the ground! The controlling player rolls 1D3. On a 3 there is no effect, but on a 1-2, each scenery piece and unit (friendly and enemy) within that many inches (measured horizontally) gets hit by the wreckage and suffer that many Energy 10 automatic hits.

Passive Countermeasures and Body Cover may be used as normal against these hits. Other Aircraft are immune to these hits.

If an Aerial Transport has embarked units, they are hit by this damage instead of the damage outlined in the Shooting at Transports section. They then are placed on the board following the normal rules.

Small Aircraft

Some Aircraft are too small to cause much destruction. These are designated by the Aircraft-S type. When Small Aircraft are destroyed, they do not roll a dice, and are simply removed from the game.