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So my stormraven is finally in the mail and on its way to my house. How is this thing played correctly? I'm a BA player and will NOT be using it transport things after the first game.

The first game I'm going to load it down with the most expensive crap (12 DC w/JP and some expensive load-out and Fury Dread)... because I can.

I'm looking to just get the thread started, this will be the first flyer in any of our games and am just looking for SR tactics. Thanks sheeple.

A lot can depend on how well your opponent can counteract it. Being an AV12 flyer, it can be very durable, and even makes hover mode a viable option when needed. I'm a GK player, and I always set mine up as a "Dakkaraven" with hurricane bolters, TL heavy bolters, and TL assault cannon (the psybolt ammo buffs the strength on all of those, making it very deadly to vehicles and infantry alike). I forget what kind of missiles the BA version has (GK basically has frag missiles). The key to using any flyer is that you have to plan your movement at least one turn in advance. Look at where you, and where you go, and try to always maximize your target options along your potential flight paths.

Stormraven, I think is best used as big-bad anti-flyer. I pretend that it can't carry anything, even though i'm sure I pay for it. My loadout is pretty generic; MM, AC, and sponsons.

Martel732 wrote:
Stormraven, I think is best used as big-bad anti-flyer. I pretend that it can't carry anything, even though i'm sure I pay for it. My loadout is pretty generic; MM, AC, and sponsons.

^This. I've had good luck with the sponsons, as it can get inside 12" pretty easily for 12TL shot goodness.

I've had some luck running a dread out of mine as well. Pretty much guarantees the charge the turn after it comes in, and hopefully all of their strong anti-tank is dead by then so it won't pay for going to hover. If not, AV12 and 5+ jink isn't too bad, and it has enough time to unload two full rounds of shooting everything, including all 4 missiles. But it's high risk/reward whenever you put anything on board.

I like my dreadnoughts shooty from turn 1 or fraggy on turn 1 in a pod. I like them adding to armor saturation immediately. I just don't think the payoff is good enough putting one on the stormraven

Keep in mind that Jump Infantry count as 2 models for transport, so you can only have 6 jump-pack death company in the stormraven

As a Grey Knight player, my army lacks for dedicated anti-tank and anti-flier weapons, so when I use a Stormraven I use it in that role. I forgo the sponsons, because I can't bear the thought of having them and not taking the Psybolt upgrade (which incidentally makes the TL AC pretty awesome too) but that then makes the Stormraven extremely expensive. I tend to stick with TL Multimelta and TL Lascannon, fly it right up to whatever enemy vehicle is bugging me in particular, and blow that sucker up.

I've been experimenting with a unit of Purifiers being transported inside it with some success. By the time the Stormraven turns up, spends a turn blasting something, and then swaps to skimmer mode to drop off the Purifiers it's usually turn 4 (sometimes turn 5) and by then (if things are going well) I've presented the opponent with too many key threats, and if he blasts my Raven or Purifiers away, it means he has to ignore some other threat I've cunningly set up. Of course, if things aren't going well then it doesn't really matter what my Purifiers do!

As a BA player, I run it with TL-MM TL-AC and Hurricanes, plus the Bloodsrikes it always gets, most of the time empty. The thing is expensive, but the firepower is good.
Sometimes I throw 5 vanilla DCs in there and use them like a bomb or objective denial.

I've considered a unit of HTH scouts. But that is points that could be shooting on turn 1. So I've not tried that yet.

Henchmen - Fun times!

Remember that you have Power of the Machine Spirit. That nifty little feature turns a good flyer into a great gunship...you fire 5 weapons a turn while zooming, and use your MM/LC to target a tank while everything else wastes an infantry squad.

I always take my stormraven, and its always as a gunship. If i have points, i run MM/AC/sponsons/psybolt. MM crushes whatever armor or flyer needs dying, all other guns evaporate another unit. Otherwise i run it cheap with just MM/AC, still does the same role, just not as well

In BA, it's a great antitank vehicle with the MM and missiles, a great anti-flyer vehicle, and one of the only viable assault transports left in the game. Delivering Assault Terminators with Storm Shields you don't have to be too scared of being shot down, because they still get their 3++ save. Delivering anything else, you just have to excercise judgment about how much anti-flyer firepower you opponent has. If it's a lot, you can still have use as a transport for an assault unit by just dumping the guys out the back (via Skies of Blood) the turn you Zoom onto the table. up to 30" or so move up table is still pretty solid, even if you do have to take Dangerous Terrain test on everyone if the unit scatters.

I favor transporting a nice big unit of Death Company, like 8-12 on foot.

In GK, it's a great gunship with hurricane bolters, a silver bullet against enemy psykers with its missiles, and a good assault transport for just about anything (but most commonly cheap killy Henchman scoring units [thanks to Coteaz] who all have Invulnerable saves, due to being Assassins or warriors with Storm Shields.

 Kaldor wrote:
As a Grey Knight player, my army lacks for dedicated anti-tank and anti-flier weapons, so when I use a Stormraven I use it in that role. I forgo the sponsons, because I can't bear the thought of having them and not taking the Psybolt upgrade (which incidentally makes the TL AC pretty awesome too) but that then makes the Stormraven extremely expensive. I tend to stick with TL Multimelta and TL Lascannon, fly it right up to whatever enemy vehicle is bugging me in particular, and blow that sucker up.

I've been experimenting with a unit of Purifiers being transported inside it with some success. By the time the Stormraven turns up, spends a turn blasting something, and then swaps to skimmer mode to drop off the Purifiers it's usually turn 4 (sometimes turn 5) and by then (if things are going well) I've presented the opponent with too many key threats, and if he blasts my Raven or Purifiers away, it means he has to ignore some other threat I've cunningly set up. Of course, if things aren't going well then it doesn't really matter what my Purifiers do!

This ^^

If you use it as a transport, you risk everything inside if it goes boom, and you then have to hover to disembark, which means it will be a dead flyer. It makes a great gunship and flyer killer, however sometimes keeping a cheap squad inside to disembark right at the end can always be good.

Use it as a gunship and anti flier. Don't bother with the transport role. That's too many points in one basket. Anyway, it always has the option to pick up troops in later turns and transport them to objectives.

So, start your ground pounders on the table. Keep it empty. Your opponent then has to decide. Do I spend resources shooting an empty Storm Raven, who would have done a lot of damage already the turn it flew in? Or do I then try and ignore it the rest of the game, in which case it happily gets to shoot everything it has every turn onwards.

If you load it with something, you are panting a big target on the Storm Raven and telling your opponent to shoot it down no matter what, because he now gets a double payoff. He downs an expensive flier, and the troops inside are going to be decimiated by the crash. You also start getting confused about exactly how to deploy your storm raven because should it be positioned deal max damage or should it be positioned to transport and drop its payload of troops next turn?

Either way, you will probably end up not doing both well.

My friend plays with the storm raven and every time he brings troops, or terminators in it, he has usually never had a good experience, because so many points wrapped up in one AV 12 flier is just too tempting to ignore. The flier gets boom in one turn, and his troops inside suffer a str 9 hit.

One piece of gear a Stormraven can take is a Locator Beacon or Teleport Homer, which can be used to "transport" units from reserve to the field without scatter on a turn after the Stormraven has arrived. As a tool in your toolbox of flexible things that can be done in your army, its worth not overlooking a small option that lets you increase survivability of your army.

As always, one big box is a target, two big boxes are a tactic, and three big boxes are a strategy. If you are going to run one Stormraven, you need to keep in mind that if you don't want it to die fast, you have to saturate your opponent with equal value targets forcng them to chose which of your army is a greater threat. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a bad idea, but that doesn't mean you can't transport units safely with a Stormraven. Also, "equal value" does not mean equal point cost. A cheap unit that has to be dealt with has more value as a threat than an expensive unit that can be dealt with late or is not a threat right now.

Personally, I take the "Shock and Awe" approach by blitzing my opponent and getting into their decision cycle as fast as possible. The Stormraven I've recently added to my Ghostwing does that nicely, which I've been using in gunship mode with AC, HB, Hur, and Psybolts. However, the anti-tank config of MM/LC is looking nice. Also, ML/LC config seems like a neat sniper mode for picking off targets 4 feet away. Good thing I magnetized. : )

SJ

In bigger games 2k+ I find it funny to put the 110 psycannon inquisitor and a 10x purifier squad in the raven. Combat squad them and when I drop to hover mode, the storm raven and 5 psycannons can shot to all heck a couple of targets and the hammer/halberd purifiers ruin some unfortunate troop.

Ok, so I've decided to use it as gunship first and for most. Then by a cheap squad of Scouts, and if the Raven just happens to be alive the last turn. Hover, and drop them on a target. About a 300 point investment, not to bad.

I use my BA stormraven as a gunship personally. The 4 missiles with AP1 and a mm/ac setup help murder the crap out of enemy fliers and sometimes heavier land vehicles, while the hurricane bolters provide some dakka along with the ac to harass infantry. That said, I have not glued any of the weapon mounts, so I can switch it out, and I'm planning on doing a conversion to make it into a pre-heresy iron warriors heldrake (that'll be *fun*)

After playing many games, I have dumped the AC for a lascannon. I just find STR 6 to be unacceptable against some fliers and the rending nerf just did it for me.

Martel732 wrote:
After playing many games, I have dumped the AC for a lascannon. I just find STR 6 to be unacceptable against some fliers and the rending nerf just did it for me.

Hows it do against everything else? I just cant see switching an AC for the LC on a vehicle with 18-36 movement.

I can, because AP 2 and instagibbing T4 is the whip. Frankly, the more I play 6th edition, the lamer and lamer I find assault cannons. Plus, it's an oddball weapon to fire at a distant target with PoTMS as well.

I buy the sponsons for my Stormraven for troop dakka. Antiflier is job #1, and the AC doesn't cut it imo.