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I just finished building my first Stormraven (red, not gray), but I've realized (belatedly, I know) that I'm not entirely sure how to use it. I've heard many conflicting reports about the Stormraven: "it's a great way to add non Deep Striking elements to a DoA list," "no, it's actually great support for a mech list," "that's true, but where the Stormraven really shines is in the rare hybrid Blood Angels list," "well actually the Stormraven is best used as the centerpiece in its own kind of list, but you need at least two of them..."

And so on.

As I know own (and spent about a month on, between assembling and painting) one of the freaking things, I suppose now it's time to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to do with it.

So, oh you enlightened Dakkavets, pass on to me the Wisdom of the Stormraven.

My bother uses it to get his Death company and Death dread into the middle of my army so that I either have to scatter and ruin my plans or concentrate my fire to wipe them out. This gives his FAST vehicles enough time to deliver their payload with little fire coming their way.

I've never used it but my thoughts on it are...

...use it however you like. Judging by the comments of everyone else who says you should 'use it this way or be turned into spawn' it seems it can play out a variety of ways.

Do you play competitvely? Or narratively? If the former, get some of your own games under your belt with what you've got and decide what works amongst your gaming group. If the latter, design a force around the SR that you think fits well with the fluff of the army.

Sorry I couldn't be much help on it, but that's the way I would go.

Experiential learning is always better than theoretical learning

I run gunline Necrons, so to me a BA Stormraven is a giant bullseye that says "shoot me first before I get anywhere close". However, this in itself lends utility to your army: if I'm concentrating on making sure that the Stormraven gets nowhere near my troops, the rst of your army is getting at least a turn to find some cover, or advance up the board with fast vehicles.

My SR is red. And I do not play BA.

My personnal tip :
1. Load with heavy hitting CC unit (I'd say assault termies?) + heavy hitting CC dread (Furioso with blood talons?).
2. Light a candle
3. Pray Sanguinius it does not drop on the first turn
4. Instant assault / target saturation / fun

(As Alt-1 : field an adequate 'other' target : other SR, LR...)

The math strongly suggests that the Stormraven doesn't work well as a gunship. I've always thought they seem to work best in multiples, but such lists have obvious problems with needing to go first and a scarciety of Elite slots.

I do wonder if a single SR may not be a decent, at least semi-competitive element for mech lists. You would plan to go flat out (from reserves if going second) and hope to survive a round of shooting. At the very least, the cargo would end up at midfield, which may be enough, plus the giant target would draw fire from other scary stuff, like say a pair of Vindicators and maybe Mephiston. The idea would be that your opponent wouldn't possibly be able to deal with it all at once.

One thing that is hilarious is reading GW's official articles that discuss Stormraven uses. One hysterical list uses three Stormravens, one of which carries a DC and DC Dread (reasonable), the others carry a Furioso Libby and two Tactical Squads (not so much). I know GW army lists are always terrible but that particular suggestion seems to be about the worst possible way to use Stormravens.

I run one at 2000 points.

I run it to accompany my DoA, and fill it with 5 assault termies and a sang priest.

I've not used it much but in the games I have used it I've found it dies fast. In a mech list it's a target priority, but so are lots of things. If you make sure there's enough armour on the table such that your stormraven isn't the only thing to shoot then it'll be ok.

In my list I have to kill or tie up all anti-tank if I want it to live. However, this is worth it, because of the punch it brings to my doa and the gaps it fills in my list. Long ranged anti tank to finish off those pesky skimmers or backfield rhinos and anti MC/deathstar in the form of fnp termies.

I think SR can work but not as a gunship, more as a delivery option. And you've gotta play it clever.

As you might have guessed by the lack of consensus, its role isn't very clearly defined.
It's an expensive but fragile gunship, it can lay out some decent firepower though.
Unless you want to quickly get a unit across the battlefield, in which case give it a Land Raider so it can survive and actually shoot something.

As far as I've seen, there are two good ways to use the BA SR.
1. Carry hard hitting assault units to the front lines. DC, Sang guard, etc. As well as a dreadnought. The problem with this is that you run the risk of exposing yourself to all of your opponents high strength, low range firepower. The SR itself helps mitigate this by having AV 12 all around and ceramite plating, and a flat out cover save.
2. Hang back and support your firebase with long range firepower. The BA SR comes with some excellent firepower options which is supplemented by the Blood strike missiles. The problems with this is that you are then losing a heavy support slot and you are not using it's excellent transport capacity.

My favorite use of the stormraven is in mech lists. Take a single stormraven.

Now what I do thats a bit different, is I only put a single furioso dread into it, no infantry. The dread, stormraven, and extra armor come out to 340 points.

Expensive, but not so much so that losing it will cripple you... and yet it provides enough whallop to bring down almost anything in hand to hand... the few things it can't deal with in close combat are normally very low model count units, which lascannons from your razors / predators can handle.

Yeah move it flat out to deliver mephiston, dreadnought, or other CC beasties. Then fire it's guns until it explodes. I wouldn't overload it w pricey ranged weapons. It's a delivery platform imo. Played a a pretty decent BA player a few weeks ago and that was all he did w it. It's to get the tough stuff up front.

Mephiston has the ability to move and assault 19"-24". He doesn't need the SR to get him to where he needs to go. Death Company & a DC Dread is the way to go, because that unit must get close to the enemy in order to avoid being led astray.

One can work. The trick is to keep it simple. One furioso inside is enough. If you wan to makeit more powerful Add in Mephiston and a libby dread with wings so you can turbo from reserves to the 24 inch line. Even if the thing blows up on your opponents turn you will have Mephiston and the libby dread available to hit virtually anything on the board on your turn. A land raider with assault terminators will help draw enemy fire and make more likely one of them will make it into the enemy lines.

To play devils advocate, if you do make a list and take 3 pod them, I can see a tactical squad in one. The idea is that while two of the ravens head for the enemy lines, the third stays back to deploy a tactical squad on an objective and hand back to fire a twin lascannon and blood strike missiles across the board. I'm pretty sure that raven would live for a while while two others are in the enemies face.

Horst wrote:My favorite use of the stormraven is in mech lists. Take a single stormraven.

Now what I do thats a bit different, is I only put a single furioso dread into it, no infantry. The dread, stormraven, and extra armor come out to 340 points.

Expensive, but not so much so that losing it will cripple you... and yet it provides enough whallop to bring down almost anything in hand to hand... the few things it can't deal with in close combat are normally very low model count units, which lascannons from your razors / predators can handle.

This.

I do the same except I add a second SR and run it as a gunship. It's great for a last minute pick up to get to an objective

Interesting!

Stormravens can be a lot of fun. It is a great feeling dumping 12 DC and a dreadnought into guard lines. Most players will target it first as it is can be a threat. I have tried various ways to protect it, shield of sanguinius, flat out cover saves, reserves, etc, but it never really works how I have it planned in my head. I don't think it fits in the mech BA list or the DoA BA list. If you play hybrid, like me, then you are doomed to failure against good players (or more likely its just that I'm not a very good player).

In the end, I say the SR is NOT optimal, but is can be fun.

Enjoy!

What does Dakka think the best weapon load out would be for a BA SR?

I was intending to build mine with TL MM and AC, but I'm also considering going for a PC instead.

Thoughts?

Plasma Cannon has fared excellent for me, and MM is a good choice as well, considering you can move flat out 24 inches and possibly pop a powerful enemy tank or something of the like with it.

AC is also good though, I must say, but it depends on the situation, really, I just say what works for me

Its tricky,
MM is, imho, a no brainer, as its an excellent anti tank weapon who's main drawback (range) is offset by being bolted to a SR.
Typhoon is a good option in that slot too, but my list doesn't have the points spare, so will have to wait until I add SR No2!

So, AC, LC or PC for other weapon.

For a Melta heavy list (as mine is) the extra range of the LC is a good option that means I have some anti tank without having to get close. PC offers solid anti heavy infantry/light tank, but, as with the LC, is a mismatch in range to the MM (although POTMS helps with that I guess)

The AC is the best match for a MM in terms of range, gives some anti infantry/light tank/transport ability, but does neither as well as the other option!

Gah!! I keep talking myself in circles with this!

I think AC or PC is better than LC for BA's SR, because it already has 4 S8 AP1 72" missiles----when you want to pop one more vehicle, shoot it with these missiles

AC is a good compliment, for sure. I've also never tried LC, although I might consider saving that for if I face lots of tanks and end up wanting lots of firepower. One should also not necessarily always count on keeping those guns, as the entire raven can blow up very soon :/

The best loadout for a BA SR is a Furioso and Death Company. Anything else is just a nice thought that will likely never get to do anything.

Why a furioso over a DC dread?

Dok wrote:Why a furioso over a DC dread?

AV13 is just hell to deal with in CC, unless you get 2d6 armor penetration.

The AV13 really helps. I finally got to try my double SR list last night, against SW, and the AV13 definitely made the Furioso more resilient against the darn LF than my regular MM dread. It also halved the odds of a power fist hurting me in HtH.

Plus with Furioso, you dont need to bring some DC

azreal13 wrote:What does Dakka think the best weapon load out would be for a BA SR?

I was intending to build mine with TL MM and AC, but I'm also considering going for a PC instead.

Thoughts?

I'm tempted to try that combo.. on one & the TL LC/Bolter combo on another other

Agen wrote:

azreal13 wrote:What does Dakka think the best weapon load out would be for a BA SR?

I was intending to build mine with TL MM and AC, but I'm also considering going for a PC instead.

Thoughts?

I'm tempted to try that combo.. on one & the TL LC/Bolter combo on another other

The great thing about the actual model is that the HB and the MM fit in the slots without having to be glued and they hold there pretty well.

As for the AC/PC/LC, if you don't mind not having that "guard" on the weapons all those are changable as well

My friend has 3, and actually sprung for a painted one. He has used them a total of 0 times.

They seem great at both being a gunship and transporting killy stuff.