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Hi !
So, I have used a stormraven a few times now, and I appreciate his firepower and durability.
But I pay for its transport capacity and its assault transport rule, and I want to use it at its best (200 points isn't cheap).

However, I don't want to put a terminator assault squad or something high priced, because:
- I don't play fortification (so no relay, no Skyshield)
- I don't play special characters (no reliable reserve manipulations)
so I'm afraid that nearly 500 pts will come too late, and leave the rest of my army alone.

Thus, I only put scouts in it, and dropped them with the special rule (I don't have the name in english).
But it was very "meh", for my storm was very busy hunting tanks/aircraft, away from objectives, or was exploding in the blue sky.
I used an Inquisition unit once, it worked well.
So, now, I wonder if a cheap assault unit in C:SM could do well, assaulting from the storm in the late when the ennemy is weak.
Being cheap will avoid the biggest issue, and, even if it still can be destroyed with the unit inside, it's the game, and won't be an autoloose.

-I thought about: vanguard veterans with 3 powers weapons: 110pts, and lot of (power) attacks
-Honour guard (85 stock !), I think it's a great unit, and have a good synergy with the assault transport rule (the most of AP2 is from shooting phase, so avoiding it is good). Still a lot of (power) attack, 2+, can be cheaper than the vanguard, but it is not fluff (where is the chapter master ?!).
- Scout with veteran sergeant, power weapon (or combi-flamer ?) and bolt pistols for the unit ?

Or someone ever put a shooty unit in a stormraven, landed and shot ? Did it work well ?



Sorry for the long post !
Thanks !

My favorite is blood angel Baal strike force close combat scouts. 10 of them are only 110 points and 30 s5 i5 attacks do pretty well at dicing up any unit that isn't cc focused. If you lose em in a crash, oh well. If you think you will almost certainly lose your Raven to a crash on the turn it comes on, you can always have it hover on and then flat out to get up the board. Just getting wrecked or exploded is a lot less painful for the passengers.

^ this. Throw in a chaplain for rerolls to hit!

It's a trap! Don't use Stormravens. But if you do, certainly put nothing in them. Ever. Unless it's a shooty unit you will dump immediately with grav shute. But then, your unit is still not shooting for at least one turn. So why bother? Reserves are the devil.

11 Arco flagellants and a psyker from the inq book. Pray for hammerhand, then watch your 175 point unit throw out 55 st7 ws5 attacks at i5. Love charging that unit into tank companies.

I would suggest Death Cult Assassins and Crusaders from Inquisition instead. Those ladies will tear stuff up, and the Crusaders can tank wounds for the girls while they slice n dice. If you want, run the Inquisitor with them; can give him Rad grenades to make them kill even easier.

Yep, Death Cultists are the best thing to stick in a Storm Raven. Back them up with a Priest and suddenly you have 36 WS5 S4 AP3 attacks that reroll to hit on the first round of combat (hatred), reroll to wound every turn (war hymns) and, with a second priest, reroll their invulnerable saves. Add an Inquisitor with rad grenades in and they become effective S5.

Yeah death cults are a good call, might have to try that out myself...

Aren't the arco-flagellants more versatile?

DCA, even without rerolls, 24 of your 36 attacks hit, and 12 wound, which is slight overkill against a full tac squad.

Arco-flagellants -- 38 attacks hit, 33 wound, still 11 kills against a AP3 T4, but MUCH better against pretty much everything else in the game.

I've always had great success with the flagellants which is why I'd not considered the death cults. At base s5 though the flags can glance most tanks to death, which the death cults can't do without hammerhand.

I agree with the Death Cult Assassins as a good slice and dice unit. However, with Scouts now being BS/WS4 in the new SM codex they are a lot better to charge out of a Stormraven now.

Another option, if you wanted to stick purely with the SM book, is a command squad. In the new book they will be Elites. They are cheaper than Terminators, can sweeping advance any losing unit, plus the apothecary will give them FNP. If just for assault, I would give them all power weapons and charge them out.

 Slaphead wrote:
I agree with the Death Cult Assassins as a good slice and dice unit. However, with Scouts now being BS/WS4 in the new SM codex they are a lot better to charge out of a Stormraven now.

Another option, if you wanted to stick purely with the SM book, is a command squad. In the new book they will be Elites. They are cheaper than Terminators, can sweeping advance any losing unit, plus the apothecary will give them FNP. If just for assault, I would give them all power weapons and charge them out.

How are scouts better? Both flags and death cults have a higher ws, I, more attacks, can fill the troop capacity of 12 and are only 15 points. 10 scouts charging a meq unit would have 30 attacks striking simultaneously, 15 hit, say 8 wound, two dead Marines, three tops.
12 death cults gives 48 attacks, 32 hit, 16 wounds with power swords, 16 dead Marines.
12 flags charge, 60 attacks, 40 hit, 27 wound, 9 dead Marines. And both units would strike first.

Actually - just put a 100 point dread in it now. 5 str 10 attacks on the charge and blast a MM in their face on the way in.

Not much reason to ever put a shooty unit in a SR.
#1 shooting units are capable for the most part of doing dmg every turn and a SR must start in reserve - so it cripples their damage potential.
#2 for short range shooters a drop pod almost always is going to be the better option anyways - comes in first turn if wanted and less chance of mishap.

The most success I've had with an assault unit out of a SR is Gk purifiers. They hit like a truck. it is expensive 240 points without any upgrades.
10 man unit - combat squaded can drop two cleansing flames - 20 bolter storm bolter shots and then hit with 30 str 6 power weapon attacks or 30 str 4 force attacks because they have hammerhand and force.

as a 5 man unit though its only 120 points.
Give you 2 psykic power
Cleansing flame
2d6 str 5 ap4 ignore cover shots
10 storm bolter shots
then assualt with 15 str 6 power weapon attacks at I4. Pretty efficient unit.

Yep a Dread is a Great one to use Though id prefer to splurge a bit and go for the Ironclad. only for the Immunity to Krak grenades.

ITs fun when you get locked into combat with some fearless unit with no ways of killing the thing.

Another silly option would be a Techmarine and some servo guys.
Thats a lot of powerfists.

Designate a techmarine as your warlord, and just keep him in the stormraven for the entire game. The enemy will have a hell of a time trying to get points for Slay the Warlord. Add a servitor to get better repair rolls. On Turn 7, use skies of fury to drop next to an objective.

If you have allied space wolves, then Murderfang is a good choice. You can avoid all shooting until turn 3, and then get a reliable charge against a high value target.

Dreadnoughts are a good choice and I'd go with the Ironclad for AV13. If you play BA I'd go with a Furisio. Throw in a five man scour squad so you have a scoring unit that can get to hard to reach places and give the sergeant a power sword.

Yeah I'd forgotten about the points drop for Dreads now. They'd be another great candidate for that Raven. I'd also concur with others and go with an Ironclad; AV13 is pretty dang good. If your Raven gets blown up, you'll likely lose just a HP instead of the whole squad.

In my double raven list i usually just run 5 or 6 close combat scouts with a combi melta, using BA baal strike force. Dont EVER ru that without some kind of reserve manipulation, but when they reliably come in turn 2, you can drop into hover turn 3 and let the scouts assault something like a small scoring unit or a tank. Ive been able to take out 4 to 6 units in 2 turns.

I find that turn 3 assaults are often too little too late.

Best bang for buck IMO is either an honor guard unit + your HQ beat stick. (Expensive)

Or, a vanguard vet unit. Take about 8-10
Throw in a few storm Shields
A few power weapons and you are golden for most anything.


IMO when building with assault units, you want to consider what you want them to fight.

In my lists, I want my assat units to be at dropping big, tough enemy units,
(MC, knight's, deathstars, etc)

So I build my shooting elements around taking out other things.

I see a lot of ideas here, that's great !
Yes, I when I spoke about "an Inquisition squad" that I used, it was Death Cult assassins, it worked well.
thanks, Dakka