Death From the Skies Content Summary

i was able to skip buying it, and found a partial pdf file someone posted online. there's several missions, mostly they're there to let you play a game with only the flyers, really. "flyer A does this, Flyer B can counter with this, then flyer A does this..." unless you and your opponent own 3+ flyers, that part's not for you.

Fighter Ace
these are 50pt upgrades for any flyer you own, and after you roll for Warlord traits, you roll for these. multiple flyers can have the same ace trait.

Eldar/Dark Eldar
1-2 Dance of the Dawn - +2 to rolls to determine if you enter dogfight mode.
3-4 Dance of the Dusk - can pivot 180 degrees before moving.
5-6 Symbol of Khaine - all units from your codex within 12" of the flyer have +1 attack.

Space Marines
1-2 Arcane Target System - may re-roll 1s in the shooting phase
3-4 Defensive Flying - +1 front armor
5-6 Spirit of the Emperor - all units from your codex within 12" of the flyer gain Relentless

Blood Angels
1-2 Angel of Vengeance - +2 to rolls to determine if you enter dogfight mode.
3-4 - Grace of Angels - can pivot 180 degrees before moving.
5-6 - Aura of Sanguinius - single use only. declare activate at the start of your turn. all units from your codex within 12" of the flyer re-roll all failed to-hit rolls in both shooting and assault.

Space Wolves
1-2 Saga of majesty - all units from your codex within 12" of the flyer re-roll failed morale.
3-4 saga of the beastslayer - flyer can re-roll hits vs Walkers, MCs, FMCs, and anything Toughness 5 or higher.
5-6 saga of the iron wolf - at the start of your turns, roll a D6 for each hull point the ace has lost. on a 4+, he regains the hull point.

Dark Angels
1-2 Hunt the Heretic - may re-roll 1s in the shooting phase
3-4 Expert Redeployment - may move on from any table edge when arriving from Ongoing Reserves
5-6 teleport beacon - any Dark Angels unit attempting to Deep Strike onto the board within 12" of the flyer will not scatter.

Grey Knights
1-2 Mental Challenge - +2 to rolls to determine if you enter dogfight mode.
3-4 Third Eye - +1 BS
5-6 Psychic Pilot - instead of shooting, the fighter may cast Vortex of Doom, behaving as a psyker with Ld 8, and 2 Warp Charges

Imperial Guard
1-2 Covert Deployment - may move on from any table edge when arriving from Ongoing Reserves
3-4 Extra Protection - +1 Front Armor
5-6 Inspiring Presence - all Codex units within 12" gain Fearless

Tau Empire
1-2 Targeting Array - re-roll 1s to hit
3-4 Defensive Arrays - +1 to its cover saves
5-6 Marker Plane - instead of shooting, may add D3 markerlight tokens to every enemy unit within 12" of the flyer

Orks
1-2 Armor Plates - +1 Front armor
3-4 Extra Shooty - fire an aditional weapon each turn
5-6 Idol of Gork - all Codex units within 12" gain Feel No Pain (6+)

Black Templars
1-2 Challenge the Heretic - +2 to rolls to determine if you enter dogfight mode.
3-4 Cleanse the Heretic - re-roll 1s in Shooting
5-6 Inspire with Faith - all Codex units within 12" gain Crusader

Chaos Marines
1-2 Death Incarnate - ace gains Daemonforge, and may use it every game turn, not once per game.
3-4 Fuelled by Murder - if it's killed at least one enemy model (not unit, model), it can re-roll failed It Will Not Die rolls for the rest of the game.
5-6 Icon of Slaughter - all Codex units within 12" gain Rage

Necrons
1-2 Firing Subroutines - re-roll 1s in Shooting
3-4 Duel Subroutines - +2 to rolls to determine if you enter dogfight mode.
5-6 Resurrection Vessel - Codex units within 12" pass Reanimation Protocols on a 4+

here's the new way models disembark from Storm Ravens:
Skies of Fury:
passengers can still disembark if the flyer has moved more than 6", but do so as follows:

Nominate any point along the line the flyer moved, and use the Deep Strike rules for deploying the squad.

If the unit scatters, even if on clear terrain, every model immediately takes a dangerous terrain test.

If any of the models cannot be deployed, the entire unit is immediately destroyed, just like rolling Terrible Accident on the deep strike mishap chart.

Models that disembark in this way cannot assault in that same turn.

this is the same as the Valkyrie/vendetta's Grav Chute Insertion rule

Storm Ravens are for:
Space Marine - Heavy Support
Black Templar - Heavy Support
Grey Knight - Fast Attack
Blood Angel - Heavy Support

Storm Talon Gunships are for:
Space Marine - Fast Attack
Black Templar - Fast Attack

A 1-2 for necron fliers is completely useless. The destructors are twin linked, and deatheay doesn't roll to hit...

How bout the space wolves pilots, eh??

The book is a giant piece of shit. The only real change was the stormraven/stormraven.... Which should have been handled via faq. $35+ for 2 pages of use.

If your one of the people with an ipad version of those codices, the book isnt necessary at all. Since they updated all the ipad codices to reflect the rules, point costs, and unit entry changes. Mine showed the new storm talon costs and rule changes, as well as the addition of the storm raven the same week this book was released.

The fighter ace charts do have a couple lame results, but some are also pretty good. All the chaos marine ones would be useful, the vanilla marine ones looked useful, the tau had some good ones. It all depends on the codex. Some got a chart that was good on anything you roll, others got some that were meh. Getting the chance to activate daemonforge "every" game turn instead of once per game sounds really good. Bt i dont recall offhand what that does atm, so i might be wrong. The tau marker light disco ball result also looks good. Being able to drop that many tokens on say, a IG gunline is tempting.

what is dog fighting mode?

I would have a hard time playing against anyone who decided to take one of these upgrades on their fliers. Fliers are already really good. Seriously, it's silly to put out additional benefits for them.

i assume these are for use in the death from the skies missions in which both armies are going to need at least a few fliers each.
i can't see anyone just popping pilot ace rules into a random league game.

the book doesnt specify any restrictions on the fighter ace charts being restricted to that book's missions only. it appears if your willing to drop another 50pts on the model, you can use that chart, period. that's probably why its a point cost for the chart, rather than "if your playing these mission, you can also use this chart." that's why the dogfight results on some charts are useless, because they only really benefit you if you play the book missions.