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So I'm playing in an ITC RTT this weekend and would like some feedback on my list. I have gone 1-2 with it so far. Lost to a 30k Iron Hands army and a Tau Retaliation Cadre (I didn't have the assassin in those games though). Here we go:

Talon Strike Force:
Pinion Demi-Battle Company -
Chappy - Raven's Fury, melta bomb
5 scouts - cloaks, snipers
5 scouts - cloaks, bolters, bp/ccw/mb srg
5 tacs - melta, combi-melta
5 tacs - plasma, combi-plasma
5 tacs - plasma, combi-plasma
5 assault marines - srg melta bomb
5 devs - 4 lascannons

Raptor wing -
2x Storm Talons w/skyhammer missiles
Land Speeder w/HB & Typhoon rockets

Skyhammer Annihilation Force -
2x 5 assault marines w/melta bomb srg
5 devs - 4x multi meltas, pod
10 devs - 2x grav cannons, 2x HB, pod (combat squad on the drop)

Callidus Assassin

So I know a culexus would probably be better, but I have the callidus and she takes a LOT of pressure off of my army on the first turn infiltrating right up next to my opponents juicy target for a turn 1 ap2 flame. Snap shots against her first turn help a bit with survivability, even though she catch a snap-shot lascannon to the face last time out...If everything goes right I can get first turn, have the raptor wing and skyhammer come down and decimate my opponent with the dev/assault marine combo on turn 1. I might hold the flyers, but the auto come on turn 2, so if my opponents flyers are coming on after mine anyways I might as well get to shoot at something

What are y'all's thoughts? I know this list struggles against new tau and deathstars, but I'll just have to deal with it. My last win was against a clan raukaan libby conclave with the chains. Took him 5 turns to perils his warlord out. I dumped everything at the unit for 5 turns and killed a sang priest and that was it. Next time I ignore it, lol.

Thoughts?

Only change I would make is focusing that one Scout squad. Either optimize them all with CCW or give a bolter to the Sergeant. Other than that, lots of Alpha Strike potential. Best of luck Brother Raven.

Victorus Aut Mortis

Would have loved a bolter on the sergeant, but the box doesn't come with one! Thanks for the thought though. That squad actually chillin in cover for like 4 turns and then jumped out and ran about 24" (6" move + 6" run 2 turns in a row) to kill a drop pod and score me linebreaker on turn 7! That's why that melta bomb in on there

Thanks man!

Victoris Aut Mortis

Oh, and I'm sorry to say, but after checking the rule book; it seems that the Skyhammer Annihilation formation isn't included as an auxiliary choice in a Talon Strike force.

Only the Skyhammer Orbital formation can be taken. so you have to take the Annihilation force as a separate formation detachment.

They can definitely take the skyhammer formation, the raptor wing is his auxiliary force, the skyhammer is just a regular formation.

What squads are outflanking out of interest? I really wouldn't fancy walking them tactical marines across the table. If you could fit in more Grav-Cannons on the Skyhammer Devs you'd be in a better spot vs monstrous creatures, but the pinning heavy bolters aren't bad either. What chapter tactic are you running on the skyhammer force? (i.e are you a fluff bunny or going to run them as Ultramarines/imperial fists!)

@aedgar - Bryan is right, my TSF is fulfilled with Pinion + Raptor wing, so I can take the SAF separately.

@Bryan - I am being a fluffy (and practical) bunny running Raven Guard all the way across. I know other chapters would help the devs out, but RG chap tactics help the assault marines not just be 10 marine bodies flopping in the breeze. Being able to use my jump pack in movement + assault, they get HoW on the charge, where other chapters assault marines wouldn't. BIG HELP. Now, they won't do much anyhow, but it makes them a tad more tenacious on the charge.

I'd thought about more grav on the devs dropping in, but they are SO DAMN EXPENSIVE! At 35 points a piece, it's just too much to have 4 grav cannons in the pod, that literally equals 5 marines on the table. Also, with the heavy bolters I get weight of fire and another unit pinned with my skyhammer rules and combat squadding.

I'm going to be playing this list versus demons tonight, which will be a tough matchup for me. My buddy is a very good player and his lists usually feature fatey, a great unclean one, 2x11 horrors, nurgle beasts and like 3 nurgle beatstick DP's with wings (though he doesn't fly them, just uses them as jump). So it'll be an interesting matchup. My assault marines lose versus every DP he has except fatey I think, but I'm going to focus on him with my raptor wing. I'll just have to sacrifice units to the DP's and snag objectives and hope to stay alive lol

I'll write up on here and in the batrep forum probably tomorrow.

Great list Castellan! I'm eager to read your batrep. In particular, I'm curious to see how well the Dev from the SAF will perform. I've tried a close range loadout like yours and a long range load out with various weapons and found out that the ability to "pin" units for a good part of the game can be quite usefull. With the close range loadout, the units tend to make a big bang (or flop sometimes...) and then gets blast to pieces on the return volley - a shame for such a pricey formation.

Anyway, good luck against the daemons!

I appreciate the encouragement. I don't plan on ever expecting my skyhammer formation to live. They are there to bloody my opponents nose while I scoot around and snag objectives turns 2-4 before they die. Hopefully they do their job. They died completely on the next turn after dropping versus a Tau opponent, but I only had 2 squads of 5 in that game, so it wasn't all that optimized. Tau marker light and infantry support can be CRUSHED by skyhammer devastators and their 3d6 leadership on a 7. Snap shooting marker lights don't do as much. Unfortunately, even though I took out ALL of my opponents marker lights in our game, his retaliation cadre still smashed me. My army struggles against that army mightily. Tau in general kinda beat up on Raven Guard.

Anywho, Victoris Aux Mortis.

I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Yeah Grav cannons are really expensive, I mean they are totally worth it, but they add up quickly. How do you find your lists durability? I run a similiar type army, and have found that by the end of the game, I'll be running light on numbers, which is okay if I score objectives, just I notice your list is a touch lighter then even mine on boots on the ground.

Good to see you playing a full Raven Guard army now Castellan. I am a huge fan of a stock landspeeder for the Raptorwing as it turns into a jinx box. Saves you 25 points. I've had great success with running Lascannons in my Pinion Tacticals. 2x Tacts w/ Lascannon and 1x w/ Plasma Gun. I've always felt combis outside of a drop melta/combi melta is a waste. I would drop the Bolter scout squad for a bike scout squad w/ locator beacon as jinx first turn would be a 2+. Most people shy upon Plasma Cannons but my God, 4 Plasma Cannons with ignore cover is just awesome.

Just my two cents brother.

@wolverine you advice is always welcome. I'd love some scout bikes, but I don't have any yet...I will take the lascannons in tacticals to heart, but I do like popping armor at 48" with no cover. Gravy.

@Bryan - I am light on bodies, but against anyone except my opponent last night and a good Tau player I'll be fine.

I played this list last night:

Great Unclean One (ML3)
Demon prince - wings and etc (ML3)
Demon prince - wings and etc (ML3)
Demon prince - wings and etc (ML3)
Herald - stuff (ML1)
Herald - stuff (ML1)
10 plague bearers
10 plague bearers
2 nurgle beasts (t5, 4wounds - don't hate they didn't die)
2 nurgle beasts
Void Shield Generator - 3 shields

So needless to say to make a short miserable story even shorter, I called it bottom of 2. I lost all my skyhammer, assault squad, 2 tac units, bolter scouts, drop pod and the assassin by the bottom of 2 and I had only killed 1 model...Nurgle beast in combat with the assassin...unbelievable. Anywho, my buddy is a good dude and I knew he was bringing a hard list. Just didn't know that his army is basically indestructible after psychic buffs go off. I went first and thinking I could get some wounds on before he got them up I put all my guys 12-24" away from him...Demon Princes with wings get to jink on a 2+ with nurgles shrouded...very frustrating.

Tomorrow at the tournament I shouldn't face a nasty demon list like that. The grav cannons were terrible. No one in the whole army had an armor save, so I wounded on a 6 with them...Now I'm going to shake that off and get my head in the game for tomorrow. It will be nice to see how skyhammer is doing though. That'll save me buying 10 more assault marines. I might go the shadowstrike kill team route. If I do that I WILL get some scout bikes...scatter on the vanguard vets? No thanks.

Sorry I didn't have better news guys, Nurgle demons are kind of a HARD COUNTER to us sneaky Raven types. LoL

How'd you do this weekend? Have time for a batrep?

One of my friends told me like three guys were borrowing armies to play (white scars grav, retaliation cadre tau) and I got upset, so I brought my Eldar to the tourny. Now I played the scars round 1 and probably would have gotten rolled. I should have just stuck to my guns and gone with it, but I got upset that people were changing their armies tailoring (the guy who did watched me get destroyed by the demons last thursday - and thought he'd go borrow an army and roll me...) I played the scars guy round 1 and ended up losing in 7...I would have won turn 5 or 6, but the dice didn't like me in that respect. I deployed terribly and left my warlord (jetbike farseer) and his 5 scat bike buddies in LoS so he could shoot them off the board, despite being in 3+ cover...It is what it is. I played a very good game and deserved at least a draw IMO, but couldn't kill enough of his army in the end.

Now, while I got mad and swapped my army, I WON'T do it again! I will be playing my marines in all of my RTT's from now on because I want to take them to my 1 GT for the year. Haven't decided between the Iron Halo GT in OKC or Wargamescon on Austin, Tx. I'll let you guys know there when that gets closer, but for now I need to keep playing games. To have all my own models I need 2 drop pods, 1 storm talon, 1 land speeder and 10 assault marines. That would get me my 1850 list. I might try to go for the shadowstrike kill team. Love the name of that formation and the fact vanguards get a boost! I proxied it once and it was pretty good. I went true RG with all claws

I'll get y'all back here soon with another batrep.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So I just read an all knight list and it got me thinking - In my list I have the skyhammer annihilation force. It is a phenomenal formation that is solid. Now, it's not an auto-take or auto-win formation by any means. However, reading his list I did some quick math. I could drop my skyhammer annihilation force (which is 595 points btw!) and be able to fit this in:

Pinion:
chappy - raven's fury, melta bomb, auspex
scouts - cloaks, snipers
scouts - cloaks, bolters, bp/ccw/mb srg
10 Tacs - melta, combi-melta, mb
10 Tacs - plas, combi-plas, mb
10 Tacs - plas, combi-plas, mb
Assaults - jump packs, melta bomb srg
Devs - 4x lascannons

Raptor wing:
2x storm talons w/skyhammer missiles
land speeder - HB, typhoon

Assassin:
Callidus

Oathsworn Det:
Knight Paladin

1840/1850 - 10 points left

I LOVE the knight models and have been wanting to get one, but like my WK when I purchased it I needed a good reason and needed to save up some $$. This is more than my WK, which is kind of funny, but I think it'll be an awesome model to build/paint (even though I've spent about 5 hours on my WK and I'm like 50% done...damn grey primer...such a bad idea lol) and run on the table top.

What are y'all's thoughts? Knight over skyhammer? Not as fluffy as all the marines showing up without warning, but I am wanting to make the list a TAD bit more competitive. This would help with that a bunch. Thanks!

I think the Knight will be devastating against the right opponent. Just watch his back, be mindful of the Ion Shield positioning, and don't underestimate anything.

Since you've got the 10 poinst left, why not give your Chaplain Ex Tenebris? Keeps him nice and assault oriented.

Would love to but only 1 relic per model...He has Raven's Fury for those s6 rending HoW attack hits. I am going to proxy my WK as the Knight in my next game to see how I like it. Could be fun.

Thanks for the thought @Aedgar

Played the above list against a very centurion heavy space marine list. He had 2 grav centurion squads and a squad of assault centurions in a land raider crusader (that I blew up turn 1 with a lucky lascannon shot that ignored cover ) Ended up winning the game, but it was really bloody. He had 2 storm ravens (the grav guys in here), 2 storm talons, the raider and then 2 units of scouts in a bunker with a comms relay. We played ITC scenario 1 and I ended up winning maelstrom, we tied primary and then I had 2 bonus points to his 2. 6-2 win isn't bad. Didn't really like the knight though. He didn't do much of anything. He soaked up a LOT of fire, sure, but not much on the offensive side of things. Now I see why WK are MUCH more survivable than imperial knights.

Still working on the list, but I have kind of decided to cap it at 1500. With 30k raven guard going now, as well as my Eldar it'll be too much to get it up where I need it to be. I'll get another storm talon and a land speeder to make the raptor wing and use my RG for fun fluffy games.

Thanks for reading guys!

Just curious, where are you getting the 1 relic per model rule? I don't see it in either the SM codex or the raven guard supplement

K177Y wrote:
Just curious, where are you getting the 1 relic per model rule? I don't see it in either the SM codex or the raven guard supplement

I'm pretty sure it is in the codex but even if it's not it's in ITC/Adepticon for sure.