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Well, I started a Guard army, and figure on using a Valk to represent a Stormraven sometime soon. What I wanted to know is what tactics have worked best for you? I'm assuming Deep Striking is a must...don't like the idea of scooting down the field with that 12 armor. However, what should one carry? I'm tempted to do Death Company and a chaplain, but am morbidly curious how much more effective this is than piling them in a drop pod.

Finally, what's the best Dread to take? A librarian to maximize assault radius?

Treat the Stormraven like a VERY expensive valk carrying EXPENSIVE cargo. plus think whether or not you could use such a beast or just drop pod/DS the dread/squad

dont think its a flying land raider, a hydra would make mince meat out of that thing

for a deathstar unit run five DC with lemartes and a death dread with either talons or a magna grapple (depending on what you equip your DC with)
for general use go with an assault squad (but thats something of a waste for 200+ points...)
for tricky/arguementative use Vanguard Veterans and have them DS with descent of angels and heroic intervention! and put a librarian dread in the back so that he can zap stuff

I wouldn't reccomend Deep Striking. Your models inside can't assault, and the Storm Raven really just is a glorified transport. Use those cover saves and Turbo Boosts to get your models where they need to be, and then ASSAULT. If your Raven gets to shoot that's just candy.

I load my Stormraven up with a Librarian with 10 vanguard vets (misc weapons lightning claw and Power fist usually, and melta-bombs on one of them) and a furioso dread with dual lBlood Talons on the back, first turn i flat out and TL multi-Melta the opponents big bad vehicle (Thanks to Power of the machine spirit) and second turn i move 6" drop what needs to be dropped and hit the TL multimelta again on another vehicle while the Twin Linked Assault cannon shoots something else.
or drop cargo and use all the weapons (Bloodstrike missiles as well) then i take what i didnt drop, move them to the other side of the board and drop the rest. works well for me.

Edit. I do not deep strike either, hate not having my Stormraven untill the 2nd, 3rd or 4th turn, you will never make its points back then.

yes I concur, with no way to outflank DSing is pointless
still tho heroic intervention out of one can reeeeeaaally piss of your opponant, but death company are usually the best option with a death dread

@dbsamurai: DC+DCDred have relentless is that why you chose them as best in a SR? Does this mean they can disembark and assault after moving less than 12.1" out of the StormRaven?

You might want to pm Avariel she was testing some Blood Angels lists with 1-2 Storm Ravens and could give you a better analysis.

When I played against her with my mech guard she had 2 Storm Raven with the first having unit of Honor Guard and 1 furioso dread and the second one had a fuioso and an assault squad.

Both the Honor Guard and the assault squad had their own dedicated transports to deploy in if she did not get first turn.

if she did not get first turn the Storm Ravens would reserve and come on 6 and fire all 4 blood strikes at one target and the tl las cannon at a second usually wrecking a vehicle and maybe a second.

IMO army was too small and too light on troops only 3 assault squads in razors backs.

Death company sound bad because they aren't controllable once they get out of transport.

syypher wrote:@dbsamurai: DC+DCDred have relentless is that why you chose them as best in a SR? Does this mean they can disembark and assault after moving less than 12.1" out of the StormRaven?

No sadly relentless does not allow an assault off deep strike as i recall...Rather they're best because they're just as mutable as Vanguard vets but they hit harder in assault and are more survivable with FNP

In addition, the storm raven is the only vehicle that can carry models with jump packs, which is key if you want the bonuses lemartes provides to your death company, as well as the fact that JPs mean they can move on their own after disembarking

The DC dread is there to counter what your death company cannot, be it vehicles or MCs, in which case give it a magna grapple and keep the fists (which is usally what the DC aren't tooled up for) or to aid your DC by acting as a roving shield and heavy hitter (in which case give it talons and a heavy flamer)

Don't deep strike a storm raven. If you're going first, those 4 str 8 AP1 missiles can actually be quite a devastating opening salvo, or if you think you need to get your cargo somewhere fast, you can go flat-out and still fire one weapon thanks to the machine spirit.

If you're going second, put it into reserves, but never, under any circumstances deep strike it. When it comes on the table the cargo can assault any unit that's pushed it's way into your lines, or you can move onto the table 6" and fire its formidable firepower at the enemy.

Wait...you can fire all 4x Bloodstrike Missles at once? Really?

As long as you're moving less than 6, a fast vehicle may fire all of its weapons.

yea unless I'm mistaken I believe you can actually death blossom turn 1 and just fire everything you want to if it hasn't moved...i don't think its like a manticore where it can only fire 4 times once per turn i think its more like the sky ray where it can fire all its missiles at once if it wants

Honestly you the only time the StormRaven should come out, if you can go first, other times you should just deepstrike

Wow! I didn't know that. I knew it could fire all the other ones if it didn't move but I thought BS missles were all 1 thing so only 1 missle a turn. That's awesome!!! Must..fit..in army..

It is a fast vehicle, it may fire all of its weapons if it moves up to 6.

The last few times I've used a Storm Raven, Ive put in a Furioso with blood talons and 5 TH/SS Termies with a Sanuinary priest in terminator armor. Even if it gets toasted after its first move, dumping that kind of cargo right in the enemy lines can make a lot of opponents make mistakes out of panic.

Hmm how does the FW Ram compare to a storm raven anyways? you dont get a dread or assault cannons but a melta blast looks nice. Plus carry a full squad of termies who could move 36"