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(Im doing most of this by memory, so if theres gaps, sorry.)

750 pt WYSIWYG 40K Tournie

Gamers Guild
Clarksville, TN

20 Entries
Finishing Place: DEAD LAST!

This was my first tournament playing Raven Guard so I wanted to keep it simple. Heres my army list:

Chaplain w/ Jump Pack
10 man Assault Squad, SGT has Melta Bombs
10 man Tactical Squad, 1 Meltagun, in Rhino
10 Man Tactical Squad , 1 Lascannon, 1 Flamer, in Rhino

This was kind of a day just to get my feet back in and see if I remember the rules. Here goes nothing...

Game 1: Objective Mission (moving objectives), Dawn of War, Random Game Length
Oponent: Thousands Suns
Basicly, I screwed myself on this one. Assault Marines and Chaplain came in on turn 2... and rolled right off the board. 11 inch scatter. ugh... After that, his Sorcerers and AP 3 bolters picked me apart. We both had some good laughs durring the slaughter, so it wasnt a total loss.

Game 2: Objective Mission (4 total), Random Game Length
Oponent: 'Nids
This one wasnt as bad. Had some decent kills and was holding my ground, untill the "Big Nid" (sorry, I dont know the name) started putting out 10+ gaunts per turn. I dont care how good your dice are rolling, you cant keep up with all that. Just got over-run. Good game though.

Game 3: "Kick A** and Take Names" Mission, Random Game Length
Opponent: Plague Marines
This one was alot of fun. My oponent was kind of new to the game and we were both just looking to have fun. Was basicly just Victory Points straight up and down. There was an epic duel between Typhus and my Chaplain... and 8 Assault Marines. The boys made a valiant effort for 3 rounds untill finaly, Typhus came out on top. It was beautiful, seeing all of them piled on top of a bunker.

Game 4: Objective Mission (THE SKY IS FALLING!), Random Game Length
Opponent: IG
This was a very weird mission. Roll for every unit at begining of the turn to see if they get hit by space debris. There is a farce field around the objectives, so taking them was prime. Not a bad match. Really should have more to punch through all those damn tanks though...

Game 5: Battle Points, 6 Rounds
Opponent: Eldar
Used the battle points rules from 4th Ed (total of model costs, put into weird equation, get your end points). This one forced you to get in and try to do as much damage as posiable. Not a bad game, but I dont think I would play it again. The lack of real armor penetration on vehicles came into play again.

End Result: 3 Masacre Losses, 1 Major Loss, 1 Minor Loss

I caught a butt kicking in a big way, but in the end, I had alot of fun. Learned some of the grey areas in 5th Ed and met some really good guys. Painting and preping for next months 2000 pt tournie. Will have things alot more tuned and ready to go. Heres to hoping

That's harsh. I feel for you, I really do. For your 2k tourney, might I suggest Shrike and 20 assault terminators? That's a truly scary Ravenguards army.

yea... 800 points for 20 models? Not really my plan. But thanks for, um... yea...

Good to see someone else working Raven Guard.

At 750 you're always going to be struggling for something, I'm guessing the mech armies were just spamming armor on you though as you did have a fair shake of anti-mech on you. The big bug was a Tervignon - get use to seeing them in Nid armies for the foreseeable future (and man, that's a broken bug at 750).

What are your plans for the Raven Guard theme at 2,000?

Still keeping it kind of simple for the 2000 pt tournie. Heres what Im thinking so far, since I have most of the models.

Captain w/ Command Squad in a Razorback
Chaplain in Terminator Armour
Terminator Assault Squad (5)
Tactical Squad (10) in Rhino
Tactical Squad (10) in Rhino
Tactical Squad (10) in Drop Pod
Scout Squad (10) with Heavy Bolter
Scout Squad (5) with Sniper Rifles
Assault Squad (10)
Assault Squad (10)

I really like the "Take the fight to them" kind of idea. I know its not the hardest hitting army in the world, but I like to keep with the fluff. Even if I lose, Ill still put up a good fight. If you have anything to add, please let me know.

And before anyone says anything, Im not taking Shryke. Have too much time invested in the whole background of the Raven Guard 5th Company to replace the inspiring Captain Gate with anybody else.

The biggest I've run my Raven Guard is 1850. I don't use Termies and instead have a Librarian Gating around with Sternguard using locator beacons on multiple drop pods.

It's very aggressive and fluffy but has mixed results as far as W/L ratios go. Basically if there's something my Assault Squads and/or Scouts w. combat blades can't outfight I often get swamped since I don't actually mech up at all.

My advice if it is a kill pointy mission forget it but if objectives combat squad EVERYTHING, means the max they can kill with shooting is 5 instead of ten, i know they might run away but they regroup easy anyway.

I have heard multiple people talking about Lib Gating Sternguard around with good results. My problem is I have historically bad luck with Librarians. I don’t know what it is, but ever since I started playing (like, 3rd edition debut) if I roll a Lib, I lose. I don’t know what it is, so no to Librarian. Thanks for the tip though.

You seen any batreps where the traveling sternburys actually work? I am wondering because I really want to try that but have only seen it fail miserably.

I read stuff all over the place. If I come acrossed a working plan, Ill send it your way.

That would be awesome, thanks Sketchy Larry!

Somnicide wrote:You seen any batreps where the traveling sternburys actually work? I am wondering because I really want to try that but have only seen it fail miserably.

It's worked well for me. It's definitely a niche army though that requires you to be able to control distance very well


aaaaanyways, back to the OP.

Ravenguard like assault units (obviously) So actually the suggestion about the 20 assault terminators wasn't far off, however, since you seem to be going for a Mech army theme, I'd get 6-8 per squad and put them in a Crusader each. Stock up on Rhinos and Have your assault marines use the tanks as moving screens.

Shrike78 wrote:Ravenguard like assault units (obviously) So actually the suggestion about the 20 assault terminators wasn't far off

Though just in a pure fluff concept - the Raven Guard have less Terminator suits then most other chapters, and thus they are more rare for the RG to field.

Thor665 wrote:

Shrike78 wrote:Ravenguard like assault units (obviously) So actually the suggestion about the 20 assault terminators wasn't far off

Though just in a pure fluff concept - the Raven Guard have less Terminator suits then most other chapters, and thus they are more rare for the RG to field.

True... But they're also not supposed to have a great many tanks either

So while a truly fluffy RG army would include Drop Pods over... say... rhinos, the OP apparently wanted to go with a mech-ish army instead of an Alpha strike one... -shrugs-

Meh, I think either are fine - drop pods are good for an initial strike, but if you need to redeploy or press an advantage rhinos are much better.

Oh, the drop pods are coming boys . Im kind of just painting all I have now. My intent is to build a whole Company with 4 pods (4 tactical squads), 4 rhinos (2 tactical and 2 devestator squads) with everything else dropping in pods or jump packs. The 5 termies is as big as Im going to go with them. I like the Idea of that many claws mowing down the field.

Thor665 wrote:

Shrike78 wrote:Ravenguard like assault units (obviously) So actually the suggestion about the 20 assault terminators wasn't far off

Though just in a pure fluff concept - the Raven Guard have less Terminator suits then most other chapters, and thus they are more rare for the RG to field.

Shrike78 wrote:

Thor665 wrote:

Shrike78 wrote:Ravenguard like assault units (obviously) So actually the suggestion about the 20 assault terminators wasn't far off

Though just in a pure fluff concept - the Raven Guard have less Terminator suits then most other chapters, and thus they are more rare for the RG to field.

True... But they're also not supposed to have a great many tanks either

So while a truly fluffy RG army would include Drop Pods over... say... rhinos, the OP apparently wanted to go with a mech-ish army instead of an Alpha strike one... -shrugs-

I'm not so sure that either of these things are 'true anymore' as:

1) The big issue happened 10,000 years ago
2) The 'own' their own Forge World.

In fact, I'm pretty sure the latest Space Marine Codex goes out of its way to state that the Raven Guard are actually very well equipped indeed.

You're right about the TDAs - Raven Guard do have a full compliment nowadays (I was recalling old fluff). You're also likely correct about tanks and other vehicles as well though I see no particular notes one way or the other as regards their vehicle options except to say they have a very large Thunderhawk contingent.

On a fluff concept they just don't field Terminators or heavy tanks very often and usually deploy via drop pods. So though our reasons were wrong as far as force composition goes my Termie comment is accurate and Shrike's is reasonably accurate depending on your concept of 'heavy tanks'.

I don't see how anyone can run a serious tournament at 750pts and still use regular force chart. Its really a game of "Who's 2 troop choices are better for the points?" and that translates diretly to "Who's Codex is newer?". I'm a big believer that codex creep is not a big deal but one thing you can't ignore is the cheapening of the troops.

Too bad you got kicked around but I don't see my Mechdar doing any better in an objective game against a Tervigon. It's 200pts+ but it MAKES TROOP CHOICES. The 10-man Assault squad was a bit of a point-sink which only takes on one unit at a time and can be easily tied down.

I also play Raven Guard but the new codex took away CC wpns on Tactical Squads so they're collecting dusk. I just can't bring myself to paint more power armour.

You could run those CC tacs as assault marines in rhinos - I have been toying with that idea for my Crimson Fists, actually. There is a pretty nice synergy there with Pedro.

Didnt know I was going to start a big deal by saying I got my butt kicked. Thanks everybody for the comments. Keep em coming.