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HQ Sammael=200
HQ Ravenwing Command Squad=160
2 additional black knights
HQ Librarian=150
bike, psyker lvl 2, power field generator


Troops Ravenwing Attack Squadron=181
2 meltaguns, 3 additional bikers
Troops Ravenwing Attack Squadron=181
2 meltaguns, 3 additional bikers
Troops Ravenwing Attack Squadron =181
2 meltaguns, 3 additional bikers


FA Ravenwing Black Knights=210
2 additional knights, grenade launcher
FA Ravenwing Black Knights=210
2 additional knights, grenade launcher

total= 1498

any advice is highly welcomed due to the fact that i still need to buy all of this and have never really used a bike army before

RW takes a long time to master. I played them for awhile and my loses where through the roof until I learned them. You might want to add a Libby on bike with a PFG. Or a dark shroud for the BK. Other then that you pretty much nailed the list.

It's a good start. Keep the bike squads intact if you are using the banner, it will make it easier to get the salvo off. The banner affects units so if you combat squad them it is hard to get them all in range of the banner and you will be major template bait.

I'd drop the Typhoons for an apothecary and a night shroud. I think the points work out on that. I like typhoons a lot, they are good choices in general, but having four hull points of AV 10 on the board isn't enough to dilute anti tank firepower and you'll get blown out very quickly. Just proxy one of them as a night shroud for a few games and see how you like it.

The black knights are good, you have a strong number of them. Make sure you are taking a grenade launcher in each squad for the radiation goodness. The stronger build is all-black knight spam, but the dakka pole is a good list as well, it's just very vulnerable to flyers, especially the helldrake.

I'd start with almost everything on the board. With the night shroud you should be able to tuck up into cover and have a pretty good cover save if you don't get first turn. Leave one troop squad off and combat squad them when they come in for late turn objective grabbing. Throwing an attack bike in with them will help if you have the points.

Attach Sam to a troop squad to give them skilled rider and bump up the cover save. Keep the bolter bikes together and close to the banner and the Night shroud. With both their shooting and Sam's cannon they should wipe out most medium level stuff. The command squad will probably only single tap, don't get too aggressive with them, and protect the banner. Either deploy the black knights on the other side or reserve them and try to bring pressure on a different part of the board with them. Usually I start on the wings and try to converge when I play this type of list.

The typhoons are unfortunately not troop choices. Sorry. But 150 points is the exact cost of a mastery level 2 librarian on a bike with a power field generator. Now that is probably going to serve you much better!

thank you for the ideas

Silverthorne with your idea of taking out the typhoons and relacing them with a darkshroud and apothocary that would leave 40 points that i am unsure of what to do with, what would you suggest to fill those points?

Khaine's Wrath thanks for the heads up, i was confused about them because the attack squadrons got switched to troops. And I do like psychic powers so a libby on a bike could be loads of fun.

They are pretty fun! Can also help keep the banner alive with the PFG. It would also allow you a second ravenwing command squad, which at 5 bikes is 10 points cheaper than a black knight squad. You could upgrade one to a champ to accept challenges you don't want Sammy in, and give the Libby melta bombs or something!

List looks good. There is one big problem here though. Why is your command quad so weak?

Take the extra 2 riders (FAQ) and the apothecary. This will double the durability of the squad, meaning your banner will last longer.

Oh thanks i didn't even think of looking at the faq about the command squad. I thought it was weird that in the codex it doesn't say anything about having more than 3 bikes
ill check it out

Standard of devistation is a trick. Not what you want for your bikes. It sounds great, but its not.

 namiel wrote:
Standard of devistation is a trick. Not what you want for your bikes. It sounds great, but its not.

You'll have to expand on this. It's a viable tactic, and one that sets RW apart from other SM bike lists.

 Big Blind Bill wrote:

 namiel wrote:
Standard of devistation is a trick. Not what you want for your bikes. It sounds great, but its not.

You'll have to expand on this. It's a viable tactic, and one that sets RW apart from other SM bike lists.

Black Knights sets the RW apart from other bike lists. The standard of devistation does nothing for your command squad, causing your other bikes to bunch around it. So if you are paying for that bolter drill and the moment you need to move to get into place you have to decide where that command squad should go.

Any black knight units on the table should be trying to get into cc as much as possiable anyway. Using hit and run along with the plasma talons to soften the blow before you charge getting hammer of wrath and str5 rending cc attacks.

RW are not a shooty army and bolter drill isnt even that great even with that many shots. You need to get up close and personal asap fudge the shooting.

The SOD bike army kills swarms great, but for all comers I have had much better success getting into cc

There is more than one way to play RW. Black knight spam works, so does devastation banner.

RW are not a shooty army

lol. One of the best alpha strikes in the game is not a shooty army? no.

what would you suggest Namiel?

Pandapoots wrote:
what would you suggest Namiel?

I would consider dropping an entire attack squad bringing you down to only 2 scoring units but adding attack bikes to them with MM. I have found that the attack bike with a mm goes much further then to meltas on the bikes. Flamers or plasma on the regular bikes and meltabombs. Also im a huge fan of speeders on the troops choices. Great harassment units.

You have units of 5 black knights in your FA slot...make them 6 and take 2 grenade launchers. either you will be able to ID T5 units or ID t4 units then hit them with -1ws and -1int when you charge.

For the command squad people rag on the company champ but he keeps challanges off of your apothocary or character in the unit.

The libby.....all of your shooting is already twin linked so presience is half useless. ML2 is unnecesary but an auspex.....great use of 5 points when outflanking with units that can ignore armor and cause instant death by lowering a units toughness. Keeping the PFG is a solid choice but also adding a darkshroud instead is also a solid decision.


I like that list with a few things changed but simply if i needed to get under 1500 i would drop the banner, add an apothocary and auspex on the libby make your libby level 1. Using your math that should put you at 1498

I agree with MM attack bikes, they can be useful, but be careful on kill point missions.

either you will be able to ID T5 units or ID t4 units then hit them with -1ws and -1int

I think you are saying here that the grenades will lower toughness by 2 if you hit with 2 grenades, I'm afraid they don't work like that.
1 or more grenades will lower the units toughness by 1. Personally I think 1 GL per squad is enough.

Libby lvl 2 is optional, remember you can always roll on telepathy and hope for invisibility. The other powers on there have their uses too.

You could consider dropping the banner. If you do then the emphasis of your lists falls to your black knights. This is perfectly fine, but build your list accordingly.

 Big Blind Bill wrote:
I agree with MM attack bikes, they can be useful, but be careful on kill point missions.

either you will be able to ID T5 units or ID t4 units then hit them with -1ws and -1int

I think you are saying here that the grenades will lower toughness by 2 if you hit with 2 grenades, I'm afraid they don't work like that.
1 or more grenades will lower the units toughness by 1. Personally I think 1 GL per squad is enough.

Libby lvl 2 is optional, remember you can always roll on telepathy and hope for invisibility. The other powers on there have their uses too.

You could consider dropping the banner. If you do then the emphasis of your lists falls to your black knights. This is perfectly fine, but build your list accordingly.

Those are just my opinions and how RW has worked well for me in the past. And yes you are right i forgot they did not stack but either way i would still bring 2.

Namiel talks a LOT of sense. Listen to him. MM attack bikes are boss. Especially when out flanking. And black knights are the future. The dev banner does work, if you build round it. But I found it uber restricting. Which is not what you want in a bike list! You want & need mobility! Black knights are epically good. With the Libby in the force you can take a second command squad, they're cheaper than the fast attack choice by 10 points AND give you options.

Also, consider this - 6 Ravenwing bikers can take 2 melta guns and an attack bike. BUT 3 Ravenwing bikers can take 2 melta guns and an attack bike. Which means 2 units of 3 bikers can take 4 melta guns and 2 attack bikes! Just food for thought.

 Khaine's Wrath wrote:
. BUT 3 Ravenwing bikers can take 2 melta guns and an attack bike. Which means 2 units of 3 bikers can take 4 melta guns and 2 attack bikes!

These are good suicide units to pop that landraider or monolith. Either way its a decent strategy because they will come on the table outflanking as 2 units. So if they are ignored they keep shooting with the meltas OR they absorb 2 units shooting for a turn taking that off of your other bikes who will come into charge range.

hmmm i like the idea of attack bikes, and i was thinking of using them but i'm trying to be economical about this army and stay as cheap as possible while still being highly effective and fun... so every time i think of buying new things my wallet starts crying like a small child

Easiest way to save money is to convert your own black knightsusing plasma pistols on the front

Or sell the stuff you don't want to use to fund the new. Attack bikes and knights aren't the be all and end all. But knights are definitely the dex's strongest unit!