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I watched all 3 episodes of Aeronautica Imperialis on Warhammer TV streaming, and enjoyed it. It's a story of the Imperium against the Aeldari as they fight for control of a planet that's been claimed by humanity as a forge world. But really it's a story about revenge, obsession, and ultimately even more obsession. Most importantly, the music is by Jonathan Hartman, and honestly I'll happily watch anything as long as its soundtrack is by Jonathan Hartman. This is my review of the show, first with no spoilers and then, after a spoiler warning, some major spoilers.

My short review is that it's a good series, and if you like Warhammer 40,000, aeronautical combat, Top Gun (probably?), or just the trench battle from Star Wars, then you'll probably enjoy Aeronautica Imperialis.

Story

No spoilers yet, but the premise of the show is that the Imperium has a forge world that's the subject of flash strikes from the vile Aeldari. The Aeldari appear seemingly out of nowhere, do some airstrikes, and then disappear. The Aeronautica Imperialis, lead by Korda Romas, is doing its best to defend the forge world facilities, but so far it's been a losing battle.

After her team is all slaughtered by Aeldari, a pilot named Kae is recruited to Romas' defenses. When she and Romas first meet, you get the sense that she's not entirely clear what the war is for. To her, it seems like a bunch of people die, and then more people arrive to take their place, and then they die. Could it be that war is ultimately pointless?

This is a bold question to pose within Warhammer 40,000 and I'm not entirely sure I love that it occurs to anyone in this setting. In real life, the more anti-war the better, but Warhammer 40,000 can't afford it, or else the game goes away. It's a setting built for war, and I don't want to be made to feel either bad or noble when I revel in pretend-slaughter of my pretend-enemy. I don't want to think about their pretend-families and pretend-lives. I just want to spill their pretend-blood, free of guilt or remorse.

For Kae to hedge toward war being pointless is a dangerous thing for a Warhammer 40,000 character, and it had me shouting "heretic!" at the screen. To my surprise and disappointment, nobody echoed my sentiment within the show.

There are some moments during the series that I feel are meant to be emotional or poignant, which I do feel are misplaced. It's all about the losses endured during war, which for the real world is all too true, but for the 40k setting seems trite at best. I don't think it's possible, as such, to have a setting designed for war and then also to flirt with the idea that actually war may be bad. It is bad. It's the worst. But only in real life. In a wargame, it's the driving motivator, so there's no point in moralising. That would be like having a tomb raider say that the artefact he's just stolen belongs in a museum.

Next, we meet the Aeldari pilot, who's also not feeling great about all the war. He ultimately decides that the best way to make the war stop is to kill all humans, which is exactly the kind of blind hatred I like to see in Warhammer 40,000. This is a character who understands the game.

They roll for initiative, and the fighting begins. I guess it turns out that the Aeldari character is the same Aeldari that killed Kae's friends. I couldn't quite tell whether she just decided that for want of a target, or whether she actually recognised the specific Wraithfighter (or whatever the Aeldari ships are called). Whatever the case, she decides that the Aeldari character is the Aeldari she needs to kill in order to exact revenge, and so her obsession begins.

Dogfights

The real star of the show, as you would hope in a show called Aeronautica Imperialis, are the dogfights. I'm not overly excited about dogfights or aerial combat. I grew up around fighter jets and have sat in the cockpits of several different kinds (F/A-18 mostly, but also F-16), but on the tabletop I just never felt the same excitement as, for instance, the trench battle from Star Wars. Maybe I'll try again once we have model airplanes that actually hover in the air. Predisposed to not care about 40k planes, I did find the first 2 episodes a little dull during the parts with planes (which is most parts.) But then the third episode hit, and suddenly I was a fan of dogfight fiction again.

By the third episode, you're invested in the characters of Kae and that one Aeldari guy whose name I don't know. The problem is, you're invested in both of them. Or at least, I was. I was sympathetic to them both, in part because they both seem to share a distaste for war. Neither of them actually wants to be there, and both are only fighting because they've lost loved ones.

I fully expected, and wanted, for both of them to accidentally fly into a webway portal and end up on a quiet planet where they could meet, talk, and live out the rest of their existences in a cabin on the edge of a cliff overlooking a peaceful mountain range. That's the ending I'd envisioned so lucidly that I was convinced it was where the series was headed, as if my will could have influenced the authors in retrospect.

It's not much of a spoiler, I think, to reveal that the series does not end in peace. This is, after all, still Warhammer 40,000.

Most of the final episode is a dogfight, and for the emotional investment you have in the characters and the masterful choreography of the combat, it's on-the-edge-of-your-seat intense.

"Stay on target. Stay on target."

"I have you now!"

I was quoting Star Wars the whole time.

There's even a trench fight, when a portal appears deep within a snowy canyon.

You can almost feel the G-force as the pilots weave in and out and up and down and around their enemies. I don't think I took a breath for most of the final battle sequence.

In the end, the sanctity of [fictional] war is preserved. Through their shared obsession for revenge, one is destroyed and other's faith in war is renewed. It's Warhammer 40,000 so there is no other correct conclusion but continued fighting.

Good Warhammer

This was a good series, with some exciting dogfights in the end. I think it would be even more entertaining for someone who genuinely enjoys dogfights. I imagine someone familiar with aviation would have all manner of critique about some of the manœuvers this show tries to pass off as realistic. I'd watch it again, mostly for the Jonathan Hartman score. I don't anticipate getting into aeronautical tabletop games having seen this series, but I'm glad I saw it, and I'm glad it's out there.