Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is my first list and my first go around with Warhammer, so I'm still quite new to the entire process and tactics and strategy.

Here's what I came up with:

3 Stormraven Gunships (+Hurricane Bolters)

Stormraven A will carry:
5 man Death Company (+Power Fists, +Jump Packs)
Lemartes
Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons

Stormraven B will carry:
Librarian (+Jump Pack) (Blood Lance/Shield of Sanguinius)
5 man Assault Squad
Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons

Stormraven C will carry:
Mephiston

In addition to the 3 Stormravens, add:
1 Baal Predator

This comes out to 1975 points.
(optional add a Meltagun to the Assault Squad, Melta Bombs to Assault Squad Sergeant, Hunter-Killer Missile to the Baal Predator)

-------------------

My intentions are to use the Death Company Raven (and DC Dread) as a Tank/Elite Hunter.
Use the Assault Squad Raven (and Furioso) as an Infantry Hunter with support from the Baal Predator.
And Mephiston's Raven as general support and to cause overall Chaos (and sneak in Hero assassination duties).

What do you think?

I'm not entirely sure this list is even legal. From my understanding, all fliers must start in reserves and can begin rolling to come into play at the beginning of your 2nd turn. Since you don't have any models on the board during turn 1, you would automatically lose.

I think everyone on here will also agree you should get some more troop choices that count as scoring units (not death company).

Edit: I didn't see that baal predator you had there. There's another rule stating that you can only keep up to 50% of your units in reserves, excluding those that must start in reserves. So add up all your units, minus the stormravens, and half of them have to be on the table when the game starts.

NoneSuch wrote:Edit: I didn't see that baal predator you had there. There's another rule stating that you can only keep up to 50% of your units in reserves, excluding those that must start in reserves. So add up all your units, minus the stormravens, and half of them have to be on the table when the game starts.

So maybe like the Predator and two (cheap) Assault Squads + Rhinos. Then I would have 3 vehicles (2 with squads) and 3 flyers, the 3 vehicles being 50% of units in reserve?

You still have the issue of keeping too many units in reserves. Minus the stormravens, you have Mephiston, the 5-man DC, Lemartes, Librarian, a Furioso, two Assault Squads, a Baal, and a Rhino (are you sure you don't mean Razorback?). That's 9 units. You need 5 units on the board at the beginning of turn 1.

Edit: I'm mistaken. Looking up the rules does help. "A unit and its dedicated transport are counted as a single unit for these purposes" So with the Baal, you would only need 1 other model on the table since the rules let you round up as well.

NoneSuch wrote:You still have the issue of keeping too many units in reserves. Minus the stormravens, you have Mephiston, the 5-man DC, Lemartes, Librarian, a Furioso, two Assault Squads, a Baal, and a Rhino (are you sure you don't mean Razorback?). That's 9 units. You need 5 units on the board at the beginning of turn 1.

Edit: I'm mistaken. Looking up the rules does help. "A unit and its dedicated transport are counted as a single unit for these purposes" So with the Baal, you would only need 1 other model on the table since the rules let you round up as well.

Ok, so these are the units in the Ravens:
HQ Unit - Mephiston (Raven A)
HQ Unit - Librarian (Raven B)
Troops Unit - Assault Squad (Raven B)
Troops Unit - Death Company (including Lemartes who is not an Independent Character) (Raven C)

And these are the units on the Ground:
Troops Unit - Assault Squad (Razorback)
Troops Unit - Assault Squad (Rhino, not enough points for a 2nd Razorback)
Fast Attack Unit - Baal Predator

(Does the Librarian with the Assault Squad count as one unit? If so then I've got a 50/50 split. If not, then I'll have to rework things a bit.)

Compared from above, I dropped the DC Dread and the Furiso and added a 6 man Assault in Razorback and a 6 man Assault in Rhino. This brings the total points to 1,996.

Every BA list that has DC gets hated on for not having enough scoring units. Everyone was excited about the buff to rage but not excited enough to actually use them...

That 5-man assault squad will get butchered. You need more man power in that squad to infantry hunt.

"A unit and its dedicated transport are counted as a single unit... IC's are also counted as a single unit regardless of whether they have joined another unit or not."

1) I'm not 100% sure the stormraven actually qualifies as a dedicated transport in the first place. I would personally let you use it as such, but as it's a heavy support choice and not included within the dedicated transport section of the codex, you could run into some problems.

2) Looks to me like the rulebook wants you to count the IC and his assault squad as 2 units. That's unless the stormraven is in fact a dedicated transport and both units are inside the stormraven when they deploy. In which case the SR, librarian, and assault squad all equal 1.

Beyond the technicalities of your list, maybe you should look into deep striking your assault marines. They do have the rule where they only scatter 1D6 instead of the normal 2D6. Also, Blood Angel land raiders can deep strike and they are assault vehicles; its passengers can assault on the same turn they disembark. They're 40-50 more points than a stormraven though. But don't let me discourage you from fielding your stormravens. No point in playing if you're not going to have fun.

tflewis wrote:That 5-man assault squad will get butchered. You need more man power in that squad to infantry hunt.

Quoted for truth. I tried running three 5 man squads (one of which was DC). It did not end well.

ianj253 wrote:Every BA list that has DC gets hated on for not having enough scoring units. Everyone was excited about the buff to rage but not excited enough to actually use them...

The issue is that people bring DC like troops choices, they need to be considered more like Elite choices for the role they fill.

If you need help with the 50/50 reserves split, keep your 3rd SR empty. Assault marines being delivered by a SR (even when they are 10-strong) is not a huge threat.

I see some problems here.

Firstly, your Stormravens should have lascannon and multi melta - they can deal with enemy flyers and ground vehicles easily.

Another problem is that half your army can only stop in reserve. Flyers start in reserve and do not count, but with over half your army in flyers, you would have to start with more stuff on the board. I believe I.Cs count towards this number.

Also, Mephiston doesn't need a flyer of his own - he has wings.

Then you've got the single Baal Predator, which is the only ground vehicle.

mercer wrote:Also, Mephiston doesn't need a flyer of his own - he has wings.

He can summon a jump pack via wings of sanguinis but he doesn't have wings... (which is of course what you meant.)

But I think there's something to be said for Mephiston in an assault transport, especially as a surprise. I can imagine him assaulting out of a SR and just watching my opponent's eyes widen in fear. If you're bringing a SR anyway and need to find things in the board, I say leave Mephiston in the SR. He at least could take the str 10 hit if things go awry (if I recall how the flyer down rule works). Put something you're ok getting shot up on the board.

Thanks for all the great suggestions and comments.

Coming from a perspective of only having played 1 sample game, and only having the Blood Angels Codex, and not having read the main rule book (although I am purchasing the 6th edition today), and not owning a single model yet...

[sorry that was a lot of qualifications...]

I want to build a competitive, yet fun (and maybe a bit non-traditional or quirky to catch "traditionalists" off guard) army list. I know I like versatility and mobility (that's why I lean towards the Stormravens). So what's more fun to play: a bunch of tanks/mechs or a bunch of Jump Pack squads and Elite squads?

KefkaZ wrote:

mercer wrote:Also, Mephiston doesn't need a flyer of his own - he has wings.

He can summon a jump pack via wings of sanguinis but he doesn't have wings... (which is of course what you meant.)

But I think there's something to be said for Mephiston in an assault transport, especially as a surprise. I can imagine him assaulting out of a SR and just watching my opponent's eyes widen in fear. If you're bringing a SR anyway and need to find things in the board, I say leave Mephiston in the SR. He at least could take the str 10 hit if things go awry (if I recall how the flyer down rule works). Put something you're ok getting shot up on the board.

Obvious troll is obvious .

Having Mephiston in a expensive vehicle really is a waste of points. It certainly isn't a surprise, as you have to declare to the opponent which unit is inside which vehicle, so no surprises there. Having two expensive units together, is just wasting points, add that Mephiston has wings, the Stormraven isn't required.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

TigerLightning wrote:Thanks for all the great suggestions and comments.

Coming from a perspective of only having played 1 sample game, and only having the Blood Angels Codex, and not having read the main rule book (although I am purchasing the 6th edition today), and not owning a single model yet...

[sorry that was a lot of qualifications...]

I want to build a competitive, yet fun (and maybe a bit non-traditional or quirky to catch "traditionalists" off guard) army list. I know I like versatility and mobility (that's why I lean towards the Stormravens). So what's more fun to play: a bunch of tanks/mechs or a bunch of Jump Pack squads and Elite squads?

I have both a Razorback and jumper B.A army. The Razorback is more fun for me, because I am a shooty player and I like my vehicles. Both armies are fast, though the Razorback list is faster and more durable. I would say the Razorback list is more competitive as it's more of a all comer list, while a jumper list would get the smack laid down on it by Deathwing for example.

I'm doing a similar army for 1850 points, using astorath. Basically its 3 ravens, 2 with 10 death company in each, the third carrying terminators. The rest of my points go into guard allies + aegis line with comms. The guard can hold objectives (have 30 scoring bodies behind 4+ cover, with a banner on the command squad to re-roll failed morale tests) and the comms ensure my ravens come in on turn 2.

About 50% done painting the army, should be fun when its done.

mercer wrote:

KefkaZ wrote:

mercer wrote:Also, Mephiston doesn't need a flyer of his own - he has wings.

He can summon a jump pack via wings of sanguinis but he doesn't have wings... (which is of course what you meant.)

But I think there's something to be said for Mephiston in an assault transport, especially as a surprise. I can imagine him assaulting out of a SR and just watching my opponent's eyes widen in fear. If you're bringing a SR anyway and need to find things in the board, I say leave Mephiston in the SR. He at least could take the str 10 hit if things go awry (if I recall how the flyer down rule works). Put something you're ok getting shot up on the board.

Obvious troll is obvious .

Having Mephiston in a expensive vehicle really is a waste of points. It certainly isn't a surprise, as you have to declare to the opponent which unit is inside which vehicle, so no surprises there. Having two expensive units together, is just wasting points, add that Mephiston has wings, the Stormraven isn't required.

No trolling, serious.

It comes down to a matter of strategy and knowing your opponent. I've run Mephiston in a sr and what happened was that it drew a lot of fire. But both the sr and Mephiston came out fine. This let my squads do a lot of damage. I agree it isn't REQUIRED, but it is a strategy that has worked for me. There are a lot of "death star" lists out there and this would be one.

To the OP, you are going to tweak your strategy a lot as you play and get a sense of what you like and what you don't. Some of my most successful (and fun for both sides) games were when I went with a non-competitive list and just ran with it. (dreadnought cc spam was one of my favorite all time games.)

Just having a joke about the troll comment , dude

Depends on how many shots the opponent has to fire at the Stormraven, depends if the first shot took it down or the last shot. A lot of random factors. With it down and out the picture, Mephiston and can still get into assault pretty easily and now a 200 point + Stormraven has gone. I wouldn't say Meph and a Raven is a deathstar either.