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Hello. I've had a Raven Guard army in the works for some time now, waiting for Codex: Blood Angels to be released. It is my intent to field a Codex-style army (leaving out BA-specific entries) as much as possible. I will also offer to ignore Red Thirst and treat any priests as regular Apothecaries, if my opponents agree. Summing it up: I am playing Codex: BA for just the non-gak Assault Squads, since I believe that fits a chapter like the Raven Guard.

If you have issues with using Codex: BA for this purpose, please take it to another discussion.

Raven Guard combat doctrine is strictly Codex, with a heavy emphasis on Scouts, Drop Pods and Assault Squads. Scouts infiltrate and mark positions for Tactical and Assault Squads to drop in and capture. Fast, accurate and decisive alpha-strikes are their speciality.

I am looking at a 'core' of something like this:

Librarian
Jump Pack, Shield, Rage
125

10 Assault Marines
Meltagun, Meltagun, Power Fist
235

10 Assault Marines
Meltagun, Meltagun, Power Fist
235

10 Scouts
- 5 Snipers
- 4 BP/CCW, 1 Combi-flamer, Melta Bomb
155

750/1500

This takes up half my points, leaving me with a further 750 to spend. I'm lacking long-range anti-transport and could use some more objective campers. More close range melta wouldn't go amiss and some specialised combat support would be nice. I'm considering the following to support:

- Rifleman (2 x TLAC) Dreadnoughts, can support the Sniper Scouts
- Furioso (What screams 'Raven Guard' more than a Lightning Clawed Dreadnought?) with Blood Talons in Drop Pod
- 10 Sternguard (5 Combi-melta) in Drop Pod
- Honour Guard with Jump Packs (how should I configure these? I was thinking pretty plain, maybe 1-2 LC's and a SS?), to fly with Librarian
- Vanguard with Jump Packs (ditto)
- 10 Tactical with Melta, Combi-melta, ML in Drop Pod
- Another similarly equipped 10-man Scout Squad?

I'm just not really sure what to add next to build this into a rounded, balanced and competitive army.
Any ideas?

I really like the idea of using BA for Raven Guard as they really missed a trick in C:SM by not giving Shrike the ability to make Assault Troops scoring (remove fleet and have that as his Chapter Tactics I say!).

Anyway, to expand your list I think a Storm Raven is theamatic (I believe RG get their own flyer in the new IA book). In terms of Elite Troops I think Assault Termies and Sternguard are viable and which you take will depend on the tactics you want to use.

Just from my own thinking I would suggest the following for the remaining 750 pts

Sternguard - 195
(5) 2x Lascannon; Rhino

Sanguinary Priest - 50

Scouts - 165
(10) Combat Blades, Power Fist

Storm Raven - 215
Extra Armour

Dreadnought - 120
2x TL Autocannon

The Scouts go in the Storm Raven with the Priest as they really need Furious Charge to become dangerous (I'm sure it's not too much of a stretch to fit some fluff around this). Then you've got the Dread and the Sternguard to add some fire support to the Snipers, without it I think the sinpers would get toasted fairly quickly ... all it takes is a heavy flamer or two!

Thanks for your input! I have some reservations about the Storm Raven and Sanguinary Priest, personally. While I agree that it is entirely fitting for the Raven Guard to use the Storm Raven (it is explicitly mentioned that other chapters use them), there is no model. Scratch building one is a little beyond my ability.
If I was to use Sanguinary Priests, they would be 'Apothecaries', meaning ignoring the Furious Charge rule.

What I don't want to do is just build a BA army and paint it black - I want to retain the Raven Guard theme throughout the army, and that means sticking to 'Codex' rules as much as possible. The one logical exception is the Assault Squad entry, for obvious reasons.

I've seen a relatively simple Storm Raven conversion using only the Valkyrie box and a couple of missile pods from the Whirlwind, though you could easily do without those. No Plasticard required and it looks suitably different from the Valkyrie to make me want to have a go at it The Tutorial is on BOLS I think, I'll link it when I get home.

If you don't want to do the Furious Charging Scouts (though I do think that feels like it fits with theme) then you can swap the Priest and Scouts for an Assault Terminator unit. That would keep the list feeling vanilla, except for the Storm Raven (but as we said I think it fits the theme of the Raven Guard quite well anyway).

Good luck with the project and I hope to see some beautifully painted FW resin soon


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As promised, here is the Storm Raven Kit Bash:

http://www.mywargame.com/2010/04/29/crux-pattern-storm-raven-tutorial/

fudal78 wrote:Good luck with the project and I hope to see some beautifully painted FW resin soon

Thanks for the link and yeah, count on it. My bank account paid a nice visit to the forgeworld website this morning.