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Hi guys!

I'm looking to start a raven guard army for a tournament that's coming up in September.

I was thinking of using the skyhammer website formation and a CAD based on drop pod assault.

I currently only have 10 scout snipers, but was hoping to keep things fluffy with lots of jump packs and drop pods.

With the Dev/assault squads in the formation I was also considering sternguard vets kitted out with heavy bolters and a dreadnaught kitted out for anti-vehicle with melta/power fist.

Any suggestions would be amazing as I'm yet to pick up the new codex.

Thanks in advance,
Jabba

So I was thinking of running a CAD with snipers and a Librarian HQ with two Ironclad Dreds in drop pods along side the skyhammer list - the ironclads would be anti-vehicle/MC while the dev squads would be anti-elite. Was also considering a drop pod of Sternguard to come in after the skyhammer/Dreds to deal with elites/heavy infantry.

Any thoughts?

Post a list and we can give advice.

LISTS..... WE WANT LISTS......

In my opinion, skyhammers passable for sure, but sternguard don't exactly feel raven guard-y to me.

Could take shrike + vanguard vets, infiltrate along with scout bikers + locator beacon. Reliable landing for pods, make yourself a little melee star with the ironclads and vets. Then there's also the formation which will be doing its thing. I'd be inclined to take dual HF on the ironclads, taking gav cannons on the devs can do anti vehicle well enough. Or at least better than one meltagun on each ironclad will be. Landspeeders with dual MM could be decent if you chuck some locator beacons on the pods or grab another unit of scout bikers. For my RG my general idea is a bunch of MM or HF landspeeders and some ironclads guided in by scout bikers with assault marines jumping around doing stuff (typically not a huge amount, just min squads with 2 flamers and korvydae to make them troops).

If you do take sternguard, leave the heavy bolters out. Straight bolters with some combi weapons in the mix. A heavy flamer in there is also decent. It an easily expensive unit though.

Even though you are wanting RG, I wouldn't take RG chapter tactics on the formation. On the CAD, sure, but for the skyhammer, just ultramarines for the doctrines. TL devs one turn, almost TL devs second, not too shabby.

The other thing is taking two pods out of the formation will mean one will come down out of turn with the rest. Inevitable when running more than 1 pod though. If you wanted the 2 ironclad pods id look to take a 3rd pod with something in it. Idk what, a death storm one for the laughs maybe.

Thanks for the help, are ravenwing bikers Ravenguard-y?
Sorry to be such a noob!
The list is for 40K but with plans to turn to 30K further down the line - my RG list currently is:

CAD:

Librarian, (105)
power armour, level 2 psyker, jump pack, boltgun, force axe

Elites:
Iron clad dread x2, drop pods, heavy flamers (170 each)
Vanguard vets x10, jump packs, sergeant has 2x Lightning claws (230)

Troops:
3x scout bikes, locator beacon (64)
10x scout snipers, camo cloaks (139)

Skyhammer formation: (610)
1 dev squad with 2 grav cannons (x2)
Each assault squad has an eviscerator and 2x flamers

Total: 1488

So just over 350 points left to spend... Any idea where I should go from here?

At that point level, I think skyhammer might be a bit too expensive. Either that or your accepting that your playing rock/paper/scissors and a tau Firebase cadre is just going to be kryptonite.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wait, are you building for 1875 like in the title (sorry, I only looked at your posted list), or 1500 like the posted list?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually, total reading fail on my part... Lol
So with the 350 you definitely need 1 more pod somehow so you can drop 4 pods and 2 assault squads in turn 1 and overwhelm interceptor tau shenanigans. So a question would be can you add a third source? An additional FA drop pod plus a culexus assassin would really help against psychic Death Stars, then you can decide if you want to drop the culexus+dread on turn one or two dreads.


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Maybe use the rest of the points to stoke out the dev squads in the skyhammer.

Ravenwing is dark angels, despite the raven part of the name. Raven Guard is a sort of ambush/guerrilla type style with limited cover saves across the army (shrouded first turn) and then lots of infiltrating/scouting/outflanking units (which are more due to the units you take than the chapter tactics), and jump infantry which are common but not essential to the theme. Can do a raven guard army with nothing but scouts completely fine. Dark angels are grimdark emo's who are all very grim about the fallen and particularly dark. They are highly mobile on the table top and have all this swirling darkness manifested from their personalities (not really just shrouded all over the place). Not a fan of dark angels myself but they work better on the table.

The devastators are your main source of damage from the skyhammer, invest in them first. So I'd leave out the eviscerators on the assault squads, and put a melta bomb on them instead if points permit.

A full vanguard squad is unnecessary and a lot of their damage output comes from special weapons that they lack. I'd drop them to 6 and take 2-3 storm shields to take AP hits coming their way and with either a claw or maul on the shield bearers. Plus some melta bombs on the basic guys.

Astarte's grenade launchers are a good addition on the scout bikers. Give them a little bite than just a few more boltguns. Units of 4 are nice, locator on sarg, 3 AGLs on the others. They're also FA so you need another troops unit

Other options could be to get a land speeder storm. Snipers arent great, even 10 of them. If you want some units to stay in your dz then just take 5, they're also expensive at 14ppm. Storms are pretty versatile, I typically run shotgun scouts in them with combi sarg to match the storms weapon. Can fit it for anti tank or infantry well enough, and its only 100-120 points for the whole unit.

My battle scribe seems to think scout bikes are troops? How odd. That'll serve me right not to buy the codex haha.
Ok I've made the adjustments to the vanguard squad and given 4 grav cannons to one dev squad and 2 plasma & 2 bolters to the other?
I was thinking of loading one iron clad up with melta and the other with flamer, so one will go anti-vehicle with the grav cannons and the other will go anti-elite with the Bolter/plasma dev squad.
Thanks for clearing that up concerning ravenwing - I think I knew it was dark Angels just strange given the name...

I like the jump pack units but I want to build towards tournaments (30 and 40K) and feel like I lack decent anti-air... Could you recommend anything on that front?

Yeah there's the odd issue with those army builders, they're good, but not perfect.

Are those dev squad still min size? If you are taking 4 heavies, you want some ablative bodies. Go for 10 so you can combat squad (which sounds like what you were intending). Not so keen on heavy bolters myself, taking 4 plasma cannons could be pretty metal though. Aside from flyers, hordes can also be an issue, a plasma cannon will do more on average against them than a heavy bolter will. Assault marines dont help much with hordes either, they can't win attrition wars with 1 base attack.

Drop dreads like an ironclad are more just big distractions. You've only got one meltagun to make a hit with it. If trying to melee vehicles you really only hit them if they let you, they've got a turn to drive away. If you want a drop melta dread take a venerable for the BS5 and multi melta, range + reliable hits. Ironclads are good for getting in the way, krak grenades can't touch them which its pretty significant.

Depends with flyers, can be ignored if theres not that many but you don't have many obsec units... so there's also stalkers. 3 for 225 that has interceptor and don't care if they jink. You got the heavy support slots for them, I wouldn't bother with the formation unless you lacked slots or wanted it as an auxiliary to a gladius.

What's the plan with the librarian. With ML2 on him he's the same cost as a chaplain. Having a fearless, hatred units pretty nice and so is a 4++. I'm guessing it's a prescience thing for the skyhammer devs? If so the ML2 may not be that necessary if 25pts can go better elsewhere.

Sweet thanks man.
This is my first SM attempt, coming from eldar and imperial guard so just figured I needed some form of psyker in there haha. Yeah I'd noticed I hasn't filled a single heavy slot in my CAD... I was originally planning the HQ to be with the vanguard vets and get in my opponents face ASAP and cast on the skyhammer formation units (by all means correct me with this!).

Would a flyer work better then ground anti air fluff-wise for a RG force?

So to summarise; add 5 extra bodies to the dev squads for wounds, 4 plasma on one and 4 grav on the other, change the melta dred to venerable and add a flyer (which one?) for AA, and maybe add some scouts in a land speeder storm to fill out troop choice instead of snipers? (Coincidentally battle scribe doesn't show the option for shotguns either... )


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+++ RavenGuard (1747pts) ++

Chapter Tactics * [Raven Guard]

+ Formation (800pts) +

Skyhammer Annihilation Force (800pts)

Assault Squad (120pts) [2x Flamer, Jump Packs, Eviscerator, 4x Space Marines]
Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Chainsword]

Assault Squad (120pts) [2x Flamer, Jump Packs, Eviscerator, 4x Space Marines]
Space Marine Sergeant, [Bolt Pistol, Chainsword]

Devastator Squad (325pts) [4x Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, 9x Space Marines]

Drop Pod (45pts) [Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter]

Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Boltgun]
Devastator Squad (235pts) 4x Plasma Cannon (60pts), 9x Space Marines]
Drop Pod (45pts) [Locator Beacon, Storm Bolter]


++ Space Marines: Codex (2015) (Combined Arms Detachment) (947pts) ++


Chapter Tactics * [Raven Guard]

+ HQ (80pts) +

Librarian (80pts) [Mastery Level 1]
Force axe, jump pack, power armour

+ Elites (505pts) +

Ironclad Dreadnoughts (170pts)
····Ironclad Dreadnought (170pts)
Chainfist [Heavy Flamer]
Drop Pod (35pts) [Storm Bolter]

Vanguard Veteran Squad (165pts) [Jumppacks]
Veteran [Lightning Claw, Storm Shield]
Veteran [Lightning Claw, Storm Shield]
Veteran, [Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Melta Bombs] Veteran [Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Melta Bombs] Veteran Sergeant [Lightning Claw, Storm Shield]

Venerable Dreadnoughts (170pts)
Venerable Dreadnought (170pts) [Multi-melta]
Venerable
Drop Pod (35pts) [Storm Bolter]

+ Troops (287pts (including bikes because battlescribe...)+

Scout Squad (70pts) [Camo Cloaks 4x Scouts, 4x Sniper Rifle]

Scout Squad (120pts) [4x Boltgun, Camo Cloaks 4x Scouts]

Land Speeder Storm (55pts) [Assault Cannon]
Cerberus Launcher

Fast Attack

Scout Bike Squad (97pts)
Scout Biker Sergeant
Locater Beacon

Heavy Support (75pts)

Stalkers (75pts)
····Stalker (75pts) [Icarus Stormcannon Array]

So that's what I've got currently, after some vigorous deleting points values for upgrades/generic rules haha. How does that look?

Yeah the HQ with the vets is fine like that.

Guess there's some appeal to having an armourbane powerfist on a non-character model, but overall I'd rate a meltabomb over an eviscerator still. 1/5 the price and twice as likely to blow a vehicle in one go (eviscerators are ap2 iirc), both 1 attack as well. So could loose those on the assault squads.

Venerables are 125 so in a pod should be 160

I wouldn't bother with camo cloaks in a storm

A 3rd pod in a CAD is advisable so you can drop 4 in one turn. Even if you just take an empty on as an FA slot. Or a min tactical squad in one for an obsec pod and unit that will come down later.

For anti air, one of anything won't do much. 1 stormtalon, even a 1 stormraven. Same with the stalker, so I'd at least take 2. If taking 2, in separate HS slots, or if taking 3 all in one unit

So I'd look to add another stalker and a cheap pod of some sorts. If there's a couple points left over a second heavy flamer on the ironclad, some AGLs on the scout bikers and an auspex on the librarian.

I know its the theme and all but ultramarines would work a lot better on the skyhammer. Rerolls on HoW dont count for much, shrouded possibly if the assault squads fail a charge but unlikely. Having the doctrines will probably free up your positioning on the dev sqauds. At the moment you'd probably feel like you need to place them so that they are in range of the librarian T1 for his buffs. So its nice to give a bit more freedom.

Sweet okay, I'll give skyhammer ultra doctrine (but I'll still paint them RG :p).
Ive got rid of the eviscerators for melta bombs and got rid of the 4th Scout bike, while adding a second Stalker and tactical squad with drop pod (sergeant with combi-flamer and melta bomb, 1 flamer).
This gives me (with battlescribes seemingly skewed points values) 1874 points. I should mention there's two tournaments coming up, 1 is 1750 which I think now we're good for(?), the other is 1875.

The fourth tactical squad will hopefully help more with horde armies, and if I'm facing tyranid/imperial guard etc will probably drop with the iron clad to try and clear out infantry while negating cover saves.

Thoughts?

Sounds fine, I think someone mentioned a culexus before to go in a pod. Cant remember cost offhand for whether it'd fit, but could be worth looking into. The tactical squad wont do much, just couldn't think what else to do with it at the time.

The culexus is 140 according to scribe, which is the same as the combi-flamer, flamer and plasma cannon tac squad and their drop pod, dyou think it'd be worth finding 35 points from somewhere to put him in a pod instead of the tac squad? Cheers again

Yeah could be, one of those things were if there are no psykers its a bit meh, but if there are it'll be good to have. And if there's lots, great.