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Hey everyone, i just started on my all death company blood angels army. And I have hit a rock. What do you guys prefer, Land Raiders or Storm Ravens.

My list consists of
2x 9 man squads of death company,
2x Dreadnoughts
Asorath the Grim.

No this army is not competitive but id like it to be semi competitive. So heres the Pros and Cons of both (this is off the top of my head)

Land Raider
Pros:
-Armor 14
-Can sit on objectives very well
-Has 3 Variations
-10 to 16 Crew Capacity

Cons:
-Only 12 in movement
-Can't Carry Dread
-250 pts

Stormraven:
Pros:
-Can Carry Dreads
-Marines can have Jump Packs
-200 pts
-18 to 24 in movement

Cons
-Armor 12
-Not very good at defending objectives
-Maximum 12 Man Capacity

Any and all comments help Thanks

Land raiders are cooler.

Haha!! This mayb true, but that doesnt settle the point on hand

landraiders. dreads can run, and if your lucky they can keep up with the raider. besides, cant beat there rapest weapondry! 2 twin linked lascannons, and there other variants are great! go for the raider

The difference between AV 12 and AV 14 is huge. Land raiders pretty much guarantee that you can deploy the contents inside wherever you want them to be.
By the time someone gets close enough to melta them (which is the only real viable way to stop them), the LR has already dropped off its contents, and now its just mobile cover.

Alternatively, they can be used to sit back with a troop inside them to secure the hell out of an objective.

Where is Grim going if you go with land raiders?

arent there 5 or 6 variants?

The land raider will give your opponent something to chew on while your dreds marchup field untouched

Land raiders tank shock. And there is nothing more satisfying then tank shocking a unit until it falls back off the table edge.

Seriously though, the landraider is going to draw a lot of fire: which is not hitting your dread.

There are other good points, but most of them involve Power of the machine spirit, and I know that gets changed drastically from codex to codex. If your codex has a decent version, then the whole being able to fire a weapon even after something stuns you is pretty good.


Edit - yeah, mind blank.

In the middle of building my flesh Tearers up for 1000pts to 1750 and I also hit this conundrum. Glad you asked. Death Company squad is going to be taking alot of fire. Even more so if there is a dread in the transport! So I too am leaning tward a LR redeemer, since im going to be in there face anyway might as well have flamestorm cannons

I actually like the raven, it is putting your eggs in a basket but being able to move flat out and still shoot a multi melta or assault cannon and get a cover save is a nice bonus. Sure it might get blown up deep in enemy turf but then you have your dc and a dread in the zone smashing faces post haste.

I am also a BA player and this is a good debate. I havent made the Bloodraven yet and I have only used a LR a time or 2. I personally like the idea of the Bloodraven. Its very mobile, has a very large weapon base, and as mentioned will carry a dread. With a 72' range on the missiles, the option to go with a TLLC over the TLAC (auto cannon)... FOR FREE! Thats huge IMO. BUT... one the other hand, it is only AV12 and will get popped faster. I do, however, also like the Bloodravens "Skies of Blood". Being able to drop a unit right in their face.. and a dread.. who can assault right away is a plus!

Overall... I would go with the LR. I know I ranted about the Bloodraven but the LR will ensure the survival a lot better. Also you could think about getting a Drop pod for the dread.

Well the idea was to run either a land raider AND a drop pod or just the stormraven (bloodraven?) either or not both.

@whoever asked the question about grim. Hes probably going to run either by himself, or with a small squad of death company

You could just go with drop pods for everyone though. (except Grim again) Much of the same effect as the Stormraven, delivering your men right into the enemy, and then play no further role in the battle. (stormravens will die fast)

Saves you a lot of pts, pts you can spend on stuff that can go to work on your opponents transports.

The problem with the drop pod delivery method is that anything assault based will get shot at for one round until your next turn. BA pods(for some lame reason) only can hold 10. If you put a priest with an assault unit, then you would have to take a 9man unit. You would benefit greatly from the FNP and would boost their survival dramatically. Also, pods are 1)easy KP in specific missions 2) are not actually useless. They do come with a storm bolter with a decent range. You drop a unit in with a melta or 2, pop a transport, and then get a couple more shots at the unit. They are also decent at contesting objectives. Drop right on it and then they have to devote something to it in order it claim.

But still I would go with the LR due to the fact it has armor 14. The load out of the stormraven(excuse my calling it the wrong thing, bloodraven sounds cooler) is much better IMO but it will get popped faster.

Agreed blood raven does sound cooler, the only reason im leaning towards the land raider is becuase of the troop capacity and armor 14, the troop capacticy can be any where from 10-16 plus in a storm raven, they have 1 target to shoot while in a LR and DP scenario they have more and the target which they probably will shoot (LR) wont die very easily

Dont forget, to win with that army you have to table an opponant.
So to make it half decent you need to know how to use it.
You have nothing to capture objectives, or hold them.


Power for points though, i'd go raider every time.
The fire power alone is a good enough point.
The AV14 just makes it an even more solid choice as some armies really do struggle against it.

Against orks you wont want to rush into them, FNP or no, weight of numbers and sheer volume of attacks means the orks will do alot of damage.
Simply tank shock about the board firing off flamestorms (redeemers rock against massed orks) then assault thinned out units.


Keep in mind you wont have a ton of vehicles on the table, so all anti-tank will be aimed at the main ones.
The ravens will be downed in turn 1 if your not careful, turn 2 if your keeping them clear, or turn 3 if your lucky. (this is against decent lists)
The raider has a good chance of surviving the whole game.

A blood angel dread should obliterate any ork squad it hits with blood talons. But on topic, I think one thing with the raven that's often overlooked is the ceramite plates, protecting it from meltas special effect. It is still more vulnerable to lascannons and the ilk but i think the cover saves are a fair trade.
I'm not sure which has more of a psychological affect on an opponent though...

Stormravens are an awsome idea, and if they were either a dedicated transport, or fast attack, I would consider them. I have proxyed a list which was something like 2 ravens, 2 death comp dreads, Astorath and death company to fill them. In testing, either won huge or died a horrible horrible death. Can they win, yes, if you want to reliably compete, Land Raiders all the way, and with the close range assualt of blood angels, I would go crusader or redeemer depending on what the commen army's are that you run into.

I missed the fact that raven's have ceramic plating... this does increase their survivability (a little bit)

I actually had the codex out while debating this lol. I didnt over look the plating. I dont think that making yourself less vulnerable to the #1 anti tank weapon(melta weapons) and more vulnerable to everything else is better. I mean everything is going to have a problem with av 14, meltas just do it easier. AV12 is vulnerable to everything, especially meltas.

This is a really tough debate. I mean you have to think that your also taking a heavy slot for the Raven. BA power is not in the heavy slots. Its the fast and elites. So for some thats not a huge issue. Again, this is a very debatable topic.

According to the codex ceramic plating melta gun dont get the extra D6. That makes storm ravens sound less tempting. If it made the stormraven immune that would be another story

Dashyl wrote:According to the codex ceramic plating melta gun dont get the extra D6. That makes storm ravens sound less tempting. If it made the stormraven immune that would be another story

Well that would be broken ,lol.

I just realized something. If the stormraven is always flying far above the ground, how would you ever get in melta range anway? I doubt it would be 6 inches above the ground....

It works the same way like the Imperial Valkyrie or Vendetta, measure distances to the base not to the model, as stated in the IG FAQ

Agreed with above. Land Raider just seems to be the overall favorite

Also, price wise, I think a stromraven is a bit expensive. The conversion materials needed top make a good one are probably more expensive than a land raider.

Land raiders really make your army feel big,don't they? My chaos army looks like a midget without my land raider!

Well since the armies I play arent very "large" having a land raider seems to brings some muscle to the field

Dashyl wrote:Well since the armies I play arent very "large" having a land raider seems to brings some muscle to the field

Like this?

Just a little bit more i think