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Hello fellow Dakkites,
I've been tooling around with a general tactics theory for my (as of yet) untested Raven Guard. Below is a basic picture that I envision my forces utilizing in the field.

Please leave some criticisms on the validity of this plan, so I can begin the play testing with more then just whimsical thoughts.

Dude, without an army list we can't help you out.
That aside you 5 minute in paintshop is cool and everything but I highly doubt that is how you plan on deploying every game. Terrain and armies make that impossible.

This is a GENERAL layout...


And, the army list is in the paint pic...

2 Tac squads
2 Sniper/scout squads
1 Pred Destructor
3 Land Speeders (1 squadron)
2 Assault Squads
1 Devastator Squad
1 Terminator Squad (shooty)

I just want peoples opinions on the base outline before I get into the details of flamers vs meltaguns or Missile Launcher vs Hvy Bolter.

As a general rule, meltas are more useful than flamers. And as for the ML vs. HB goes, it depends on what kind of squad you put them in and what other weapon mix you're running. Considering the fact that you've got a Pred Destructor and 3 Land Speeders (which you'll do better running as 3 separate units rather than 1 squadron), you don't really need any more anti-infantry firepower. You need some anti-tank, though, so I'd recommend ML over HB.

Brightside makes a good point in that you can't plan to have a single deployment for every situation. Maybe if you got first turn every time you could, but you can't rely on the same terrain or even similar terrain. Your diagram is missing something very important - the enemy. Without know the enemy's disposition, we can't give any input on that starting deployment. Heck, you could get first turn and your opponent's entire army could be infiltrated - or in reserve for Deep Strike. While it's good to make plans, it's even better to be flexible with them.

There are alot of people out there that would tell you to use blood angels instead of raven guard (even though Shrike is awesome)
Well talking abstract tactics I imagine raven guard falls under assault or counter attack strategies.

For assault, take as many assault troops as you can (simple enough.) Then make sure you have enough firepower to to down long range threats or crack open transports.

Counter assault is more SAFH, which I think you are going for according to your list. Take some las plas squads for you anti tank, then you can take whirl winds or HB devastators & preds
You can either try to pull of a flank, or wait till shot up squads make their way to you and counter assault.



BTW
Are you taking a drop pod for your termies? Are the Assault termies?
Snipers kinda suck in 4th. You can find better fire support, or more assault marines.
Who's your HQ?

Also a good heuristic for 40k is redundancy.
Take alot of tanks, or not tanks.

gdurant: I think you may be forgetting the major drawback which the ravenwing have as their chapter traits, it restricts the use of such things as predator annihilators and land raider crusaders and, if I remember correctly, allows only 1 tank

Additionally, taking transports for squads takes up a fast attack slot.

You could of course play them as codex I suppose. But then they are just Black and white smurfs.

I'm not forgetting the drawbacks, But he can choose his own. Nothing is really binding him to use Raven Guard how they are presented in the codex. All he has to do is take what he know about them fluff wise which is that they love to infiltrate and pull of lightning fast raids.
So as long as he's using lots of assault marines I'd say you have a pretty good looking raven guard list. If he wanted to raise the fluff anti he could even take Shrike.

That said I have a friend who plays "Raven Guard" ala Blood Angles. He modeled his Death company & Chaplain to look like Shrike and retinue. Past that the B. Angels list has everything a Raven Guard Player could want.

It reminds me of the stuff you see with the new eldar Dex. No one can be Ulthwe anymore. But I can still take seer councils and paint my space elves all sad looking. Besides when the new SM dex comes out (no idea when) traits are being left out. If I where going to make a Raven guard army I'd start thinking about how I could use it in the future.