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Hi all,

I really love the Ravener models, and want to use them in conjunction with my Trygon Primes, emerging on the same turn from the Trygon tunnel. I know these guys are essentially non-scoring warriors with a 12" charge range, but are they any good? (Bear in mind that I'm playing in a semi-competitive, semi-friendly enviroment. Army variety is pretty wide, no SW MSU spam...)

Ravagers are, on the whole, very weak. The entire Tyranid FA slot is tbh. The HQ, Elites and Troops are where the "Power Units" are (Z and V Thropes, Hive Guard and Tervigons).

The lack of Eternal Warrior for nids now, coupled with an inability to assault after Deep Strike, and no way to get close to the enemy without dying before they get there, and the lack of power weapons makes them poor at what they do.

If you deepstrike them, chances are pretty good they will die.
If you don't deepstrike them then you may as well just take more hormagaunts or genestealers instead.

I think the only real place for them is in a trygon heavy deepstrike list where your opponent will have much bigger things to worry about.

They are godly if you kit them for shooting. GODLY. Especially against eldar or other nids.

Don't deepstrike them...spinefists are insane for them...combined with the power of onslaught....oh sweet goodness.

Everyone and their mother tells me Raveners are next to worthless.

But they've got such kickass looking models, when I actually start playing Nids, I may have to buy a few, if nothing else, just to paint them.

Use them as warriors?

I am using Raveners as my Primes actually...

ductvader wrote:Use them as warriors?

I am using Raveners as my Primes actually...

That is a kickass idea.

Mhmm...There are a bunch of Hive Fleet Jormungandr armies out there with the snake them...I have even seen Trygon/Swarmlords.

Yeah I would just use them as warriors. They are terrible rules-wise but look awesome. Such a shame.

Bullet magnets.

If the enemy is foolish enough to let them get into H2H there will be trouble.

So use them to shield something else.

The ridiculously high cash cost of the models discourages Tyranid armies from containing lots of Raveners.

About the best use I can imagine is for Raveners to emerge from a Trygon tunnel behind enemy lines. Unfortunately as Beasts they are unable to do so.

They were pretty good on that battle report assault on outpost 13 as i recall. Nids vs Salamanders and some very convinient legion of the damned turning up just when they were needed.

I thought they were the same as warriors, except no legs

nickmund wrote:They were pretty good on that battle report assault on outpost 13 as i recall. Nids vs Salamanders and some very convinient legion of the damned turning up just when they were needed.

A white dwarf battle report where something looked good? Well now we know they work if you giggle the dice to get the results you want.

I don't play 'nids, but I can see them useful if played right. Obviously thats a hard thing to do and as such, there are generally better things. BUT, they have awesome models pretty cool rules and, lets face it, when those things pop up behind your lines an unexpierianced opponent or an opponent who isn't prepared for such a thing will have a "O ****" moment" allowing your weaker models a turn or two of free movement.

Gonna sound weird considering how nasty the models look, but they're best used as a shooting unit and melee cleanup.

They'll take a decent amount of firepower to bring down (that third wound helps) but lack the armor to be able to freely move out of cover, unlike warriors who can at least survive bolter shots.

If you gear for them, however, they can serve you well. Such things are tervigons with onslaught (that alone will make your opponent worried), devourers or spinefists. IMO never leave home without rending claws, but you may need the points.

What, exactly, makes them good shooters?

ductvader wrote:Mhmm...There are a bunch of Hive Fleet Jormungandr armies out there with the snake them...I have even seen Trygon/Swarmlords.

Have a look in my gallery

I like Raveners, stick 'em behind a screen of Horms to give them some protection and give them some guns. I also wanted a mostly snake army, but couldn't be bothered to convert horms or stealers in the end, so if anyone has any ideas... Don't rely on them to take on heavy armoured stuff, and try not to spend too many points on them as they can prove very squishy with their light armor. However, they are good against light vehicles with a high number of re-roll attacks and really clean up against light troops because of good init and average strength. I run two squads of 4 and use them as flankers, because of their good speed.

Kilkrazy wrote:
About the best use I can imagine is for Raveners to emerge from a Trygon tunnel behind enemy lines. Unfortunately as Beasts they are unable to do so.

Basing any sort of battlefield decision at all on the availability of a Trygon tunnel is a horrendous mistake. The tunnel is only available the turn after a Trygon comes up. This means two horribly glaring faults. If you fail the Trygon's reserve roll nothing in your army can use the tunnel to begin with. If you do pass the Trygon's reserve roll and have the opportunity to use the tunnel available at all, the units you want to use the tunnel must fail their roll. Then pass it the next turn. In order to use a wildly unpredictable rule in the first place you have to hope you delay the arrival of your own units, breaking your army up into nice bite-sized chunks for the opponent to obliterate.

Many people I talk to have completely forgotten the rule because it's so worthless nobody even mentions it exists, much less uses it on the table. Ditto with the Lictor's abilities.

It's actually worth trying because if you have to walk on the board with raveners your threat range is still horrendously large. The buggers are fast...it's probably the only unit you should consider for the tunnel...

Doesn't matter because Ravs can't use the tunnels.

As to how useful are they, I love em, but they can be hard to utilize. I run them in units of 5+ with rending claws and no guns (if you want shooting, take warriors and a prime. Same guns, better BS, synapes providers, and they are scoring). Keep them behind cover or screened with other units till you can setup a charge lane (19"-24" charge range is a beautiful thing) They can make quite handy light vehicle killers due to the rending, weight of attacks, and charge range. Be wary of squads packing a lot of melta or S8+ weaponry and S8+ Blast weapons. They are definately a finesse unit that you have to be careful with, but they can be devestating if used well.

The only way I can see them being useful is if you screen them with Gants (for a 4+ cover save) or with a Venomethrope. Otherwise they will die before getting anywhere CLOSE to the enemy.

They arent that bad..

Keep them behind some guants for a cover save.

get within 19"

Use Tervigon and put FNP on them.

Move, Fleet Charge 12" with Rending.

Have FNP for a couple turns.

Have a unit tied up until the rest get there next turn.

VS shooty armies, they are great for hitting a unit and keeping them in combat while you wait for help.

The basic Ravener puts out a good number of attacks (especially when coupled with Scything Talons), and if they can get a charge off a mid-sized unit can put a real dent into anything from a Guard blob all the way up to a tide of Slugga Boyz. Throw in Spine Fists if you absolutely know you'll be facing infantry-heavy Guard (each throwing out four twin-linked shots ignoring Guard armour). A unit of five weighs in at just 150 points (175 if you went with the ranged option) and if they get their chance to strike they'll make you proud.

Rending Claws are an interesting option. On the one hand, you'll perform a little better against MEQ (five Raveners should put out 1-2 kills extra on a charge if they have Claws instead of twin-Talons - five getting you 3.7 kills without Claws, 5.2 with), and score about the same against lighter infantry. It's also worth noting that Claws make the Raveners into much more effective vehicle destroyers (especially given their ability to cover ground quickly). In a heavily mechanised environment they can be a nasty surprise for an opponent, either by taking out armour on their own or using their longer charge range to assault a unit that has been forced out of a transport, taking it out of the picture before your opponent can save it.

The way I see it there are three main ways of using Raveners:

1) Fast flanking support for Trygons, Winged Tyrants and Shrikes. Raveners compliment the heavier Tyranid fast choices rather nicely, being able to scythe through large numbers of weak foes which might seek to tarpit your monsters. This option mitigates the light armour of a Ravener by placing it next to a far more inviting target (Trygon), meaning that S8 firepower is likely to be aiming higher.

2) Counter-assault for your main advance. Raveners are a sorely under-estimated Tyranid unit, especially when stood against Hive Guard, Tervigons etc. What people (Tyranid players and opponents alike) often fail to notice is how wonderfully a brood of Raveners compliment the (current) traditional Tyranid units. The Tervigon wall with Hive Guard support is all well and good, but is vulnerable to enemy assault units. Raveners which have been kept behind your lines can enter the fray late in the game and mop up units which have made it to your monsters, and make excellent flank/rear guards. Keeping them behind your lines until you are ready to use them keeps them off your opponent's priority target list as well.

3) Surprise strike from Deep Strike. This is a more risky move, because of the issues that come with Deep Striking (unless you're brace enough to use Lictors or Deathleaper), but a brood of Raveners can unleash punishing firepower and present a very real threat that your opponent simply has to deal with at once. Good if you've got other units arrive at your opponent at the same time, else they are too fragile for this.



I use a brood of five Raveners with Rending Claws in my standard 1,500 point all-comers list, and they rarely under-perform. In a similar vein to Lictors, you have to be a little more cautious with how you use them because they don't have the luxurious T6 that many people seem to feel is he make or break feature on what makes a good Tyranid, but they definitely fill a niche like nothing else in the list.

Of course, you will have off-days when that Long Fangs squad insist on pumping two turns worth of firepower into them and wiping them out, but hey that's cool, it means a Tervigon elsewhere is still alive and kicking (spawning?).

I played a 1200 point game last night against a Slaanesh CSM army and used a squad of 5 raveners with rending claws. They helped take out his Daemon Prince first turn, 2nd turn they were charged by a unit of 5 terminators with lightning claws and took them all out in 2 rounds of combat, carnifex helped out to take out the last 2, and for the rest of the game they were mopping up infantry squads until the very last turn.

To me, the 12" charge with fleet is worth its weight in gold. Rending claws just makes them that much better in combat that I will most likely have them as a mainstay in my army from now on.

omgnowaiii wrote:I played a 1200 point game last night against a Slaanesh CSM army and used a squad of 5 raveners with rending claws. They helped take out his Daemon Prince first turn, 2nd turn they were charged by a unit of 5 terminators with lightning claws and took them all out in 2 rounds of combat, carnifex helped out to take out the last 2, and for the rest of the game they were mopping up infantry squads until the very last turn.

To me, the 12" charge with fleet is worth its weight in gold. Rending claws just makes them that much better in combat that I will most likely have them as a mainstay in my army from now on.

The ability to charge 24" is better than genestealer. Both have same armor save but the Raveners have 4 base attack plus charging and you get total of 5 attack. Plus each model has 3 wounds.
I had a game with an Eldar player. On the first turn, my 7 Raverners charged into his Wraithlord and managed to destroy it. Imagine the look of his face. (Yeah I know Wraithlord is cheap anyway. The problem is its T8, which is hard to kill without poison attack for any S6 M.C model).

Another way to use Raverners is give them the ability to outflank (from the special rule 'Hive Commander', courtesy of Hive Tyrant). Even thought they might be out of synapse range by the time their arrive, because of their IB-Feed, they have to charge into the nearest target and assault it. Topped-up with the possible 24" charge range, and Rending Claws, you get the idea.

I love raveners, they're oh so fun if fielded right.

Oh just oh don't deepstrike them... How many times did I made the mistake and the little buggers missed the whole planet ;] (Deepstrike Mishap FTW)

I'm with Gwar on this one. Raveners are another one of those units that seem really good until they hit the table. It's a shame, as I agree that the models are really fantastic, but that's pretty much the way it is. Simply put: they will rarely, if ever, make anywhere near their points back.

streamdragon wrote:I'm with Gwar on this one. Raveners are another one of those units that seem really good until they hit the table. It's a shame, as I agree that the models are really fantastic, but that's pretty much the way it is. Simply put: they will rarely, if ever, make anywhere near their points back.

I beg to differ, it all depends on the deployment and tactics use of the player.
If use correctly, even a 'crappy' unit is able to turn the tide of a game.

old tread is old?