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I recently got a furioso dreadnought and some blood Angels assault terminators. I was looking through the rules and saw that, in theory, I could put both the assault termies and my furioso into the stormraven, fly them straight into the enemy and drop them (blood Angels stormravens can drop troops even if they move over 6 inches, correct me if I'm wrong) and have them unleash all hell on whatever I drop them on. Since the stormraven has 12 spots I was also considering throwing in a sanguinary priest and captain for added bonuses and an enemy character killer. If this is in fact legal, would it be a terrible idea? If so how could I adjust it to make it work better. Thanks for the help!

If you use the Skies of Fury rule to disembark after moving more then 6" then you can't assault because you count as deep striking.

ok, I'll keep that in mind. other than that am I missing anything

Being a Flyer you have to reserve it so it won't be on the table until turn two at the earliest (assuming you roll a 3+ for its reserves). And when it does arrive it has to move on zooming so has to move at least 18" so if you want to disembark you have to use Skies of Fury (so no assaulting that turn either) so those units can't even try to assault anything until turn 3 at the earliest if you get lucky.

You could also use a skyshield landing pad upgraded with Ready for Takeoff and start the Stormraven on the board turn 1, but now we're talking more points (though the skyshield landing pad is a pretty decent fortification after the fact if you have some shooting elements that could use an invul save).

I personally use a stormraven with a tactical squad and a furioso, which obviously doesn't hit like a sledgehammer, but is good for harassing specific targets or claiming objectives while also not being a big deal if it doesn't come on the board right away. The stormraven usually flies on the table, shoots whatever target makes sense, and then, the following turn, hovers and deploys at that point. It allows the assaults and people usually don't expect you to drop into hover mode (so you will find easy side and rear armor shots).

I have started hovering the stormraven every game. I don't care if it dies as long as its empty.

Martel732 wrote:
I have started hovering the stormraven every game. I don't care if it dies as long as its empty.

how is it working out for you?

Hard to say, really. I'm only using a Stormraven because I've switched over to archangel sanguine wing. So my particular Stormraven is just a taxi for Sternguard with free combis. Honestly, most opponents have been way more distracted by the 20 vanguards armed with free power weapons and the Stormraven has lived 3/5 times. But 5 times is not enough to say anything. I think that if people want it dead, it would die, but it's just not dangerous enough to prioritize.

How does one start a flyer on the board turn one without a skyshield landing pad? It automatically starts the game in reserve and enters play zooming once rolled?

I don't have my rulebook with me, but can a flyer start the game on the board turn one if it's in Hover mode? That's a new one on me if so.

Just figured I'd ask. Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

 Red__Thirst wrote:
How does one start a flyer on the board turn one without a skyshield landing pad? It automatically starts the game in reserve and enters play zooming once rolled?

I don't have my rulebook with me, but can a flyer start the game on the board turn one if it's in Hover mode? That's a new one on me if so.

Just figured I'd ask. Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

You don't (Unless you're taking the tyranic veterans formation or whatever it's call with cassius, a command squad and 0-6 stormtalons, they get special rules to start on the board in hover). Only FMC's have the choice to start on the board, everyone else has to go into reserves. Some stuff gets to roll turn 1 (BA do, I think GK can if they ever took stormravens in their formation, the FW elysians get a version of drop pod assault where they get half of their fliers arriving by deep strike turn 1, I think one of the SM strikeforce ultra variants gets to roll from turn 1 as well and that's got a Raven full of terminators and a dread). Those're the only ones I can think of unless the ravenguard have a formation-in-a-formation that can start rolling turn 1.

So yeah, other than that handful, it's either a skyshield with ready-for-take-off or go into reserves and hope for 3+'s from turn 2 onwards.

That's what I thought, Drasius.

One thing I will note, your flyer doesn't HAVE to come on the board in Zooming mode according to my BrB. It states that if the flyer has the Hover type, you can declare that it is entering play in hover mode instead of zooming when it comes on table from reserve.

This is actually pretty awesome, as you can fly your storm raven in up 12", hovering, deploy the contents out of it on that turn (up to 6" away) and then charge in with them thanks to being an assault vehicle. So a 5 man squad of death company with an attached chaplain (or Lemartes) can deploy out of the Storm Raven after it enters play from reserves, pile out (at around 18" in at that point) and then charge in another 2D6 (Average 7") using their jump packs to assist the charge in the assault phase with re-rolls to the dice and also gaining hammer of wrath. Assuming you still roll average with your jump pack assault distance re-roll, that gives a 'threat range' of around 25 to 26 inches, possibly further if you get a good assault distance roll. At very least you can zoom in turn 2, hit hover mode on turn 3, and then push an assault unit all in.

Granted, it takes a Storm Raven to allow one to do this, which isn't exactly cheap (points, or $$ wise) but it does mean you could, in theory, get a turn two assault off if you get a good reserves roll and have an enemy unit close enough. Also, thankfully there's a way to get re-rolls fairly easily via warlord traits rolls (Or just take Dante) or abilities such as Corbulo's re-roll, or lucky Psychic chart rolls, etc. Hell, ally in a small guard contingent for a CCS with a Master of the Fleet and a Veteran squad to hold back objectives and give you 2+ reserve rolls for ~150 points or so.

I'll be trying this out later I think. Certainly does have merit as an option to put pressure on a list that brings the fight to you.

Thoughts to ponder. Take it easy everyone.

-Red__Thirst-

Im quite sure you can only move max 6" with a vehicle to be able to disembark and charge. Even with the assault rule.

Also, you can't assault if you've entered from Reserves that turn. Blanket rule (Unless you have special rules to change that, of course)

Ah, you're both correct, I just double checked myself. So turn 3 is the earliest one could assault from a storm raven unless of course you bring a skyshield & pay for the ready for takeoff.

Heck it might be worth it to bring a skyshield. No idea what they cost though, or what the Ready for Takeoff upgrade costs.

C'est la vie. Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

My experience with trying Death Company + Furioso in Raven was that my opponent focussed entirely on the Raven, it fell out of the sky, and killed everyone and often damaged the Furio in such a way that it couldn't move. Auto-Pen rear armour, and 50% of the damage results either prevent moving the next turn, permenantly, or destroy it. :(

Sometimes I'll run Assault Termies, as they get their Invul if they get shot out of the sky. Having moved to Vanilla Marines, I'll also use the Raven to transport a solo Dread, as Vanilla Dreads get 4 A base plus heavy flamer plus gun... so they're a legitimate Bully unit all on their own. With a weaker payload, the Raven drops in priority, and sometimes even pays off.

The archangel sanguine wing formation puts shooty troops in the Raven, so Skies of Blood is a real option.

Skies of Blood? Do you mean Skies of Fury (Current codex wording)? All that does is allow the models to still disembark if the Storm Raven moved over 6", though they cannot charge of course. Being a shooty unit, I realize this isn't important but I mention it purely for completeness's sake.

That doesn't allow the Raven to start on the table turn one in hover mode as you said earlier.

It is possible to, in theory, get a turn one assault off with the Storm Raven + Skyshield & RFTO rule IF your opponent deploys/pushes forward aggressively or has infiltrators near your lines.

Fly the storm Raven forward 6", deploy the Jump Pack squad out 6" from the front of the hull, then use Jump Packs to charge 2D6" with re-rolls. Average distance will be 19" if you roll the ~7" average on 2D6. Obviously with the jump pack charge re-roll odds are decent you'll get at least an 8" to 9" charge distance on average, so 20 to 21" threat range is very likely with a maximum threat range of 24" if you roll boxcars on the charge dice (Unlikely, but possible).

Granted, it's kind of an expensive thing to run, but would be rather awesome to get a hard hitting Death Company Squad + attached character (Chaplain) into combat early and relatively unmolested. Skyshield with the RFTO is 80 points, after all.

After you deploy out of the Raven, you can Jink any shots that come in away (hopefully) and then just go into zooming mode from that point onward and strafe targets. I'd personally run one with a Twinlinked Multimelta and a Twinlinked Assault Cannon and just use the thing to hunt armor down for the rest of the game and harass your opponent's army till it gets shot down or the game ends.

I think I might be using this tactic with my Blood Angels from here on out. We'll see though. Skyshield models aren't cheap, but may well be worth it in the long run.

Just my thoughts. Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-