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Hi! So AoD has come out and introduced some really cool space marine decurions (Or re-released in a very convenient manner) and I have been trying to run each of them. So Far I have used the Iron Hands one several times and really liked it for the extra durability and double smash bros (However I will be avoiding using him in future games as he is a bit much. Surrounded by 20 enemy marines, 2 librarians and an enemy chapter master? Lol. He slowly whittled them down single handedly.) The Salamander one served me well as a more aggressive drive by burny squad and the strength D hammer had some fun moments.

I have not yet tried the Imperial Fist decurion or the white scars, but I want to eventually. Right now however I am really like the idea of the Raven Guard Talon Strike Force. Its very different from the other decurions in how its all about hitting hard and fast and feels very different for whatever reason. I have ran it one time and it was a battle demi company and a Shadowstrike kill team. The game was over turn 2 as the kill team just did too much damage and tied up the other guys forces too much for him to come back on both the fight and maelstrom. I would not like to run such a force again due to it giving my friend who I was playing with a rough game where he was largely defenseless. It was pretty much a meele skyhammer strategy.

The Pinon battle company at first came off to me as being just plain weak as I have in the past never really used outflanking or reserve useage in my armies. Ignore cover is nice, but when you are giving it to standard tactical or devastator squads its not all that impressive. Comparing its bonuses to even the standard battle company it seems to fall off a bit because the company offers that juicy objective secured, a free tactical doctrine and a wider variety of choices to choose from. Now what I was thinking where the Pinion could shine is with having minimal forces in my deployment and keeping nearly everything in outflank reserve with the scouts. This would be a very cool idea and would lend itself well to striking from the shadows and hoping for the best. The decurion bonus also lets them come in turn 1 on a 4+ which I would seek to modify for a more sure thing.

However my concern with this strategy is that all it does is bring in your forces piece meal and leaves it all up to luck if your forces can make it in the fight on the side of the board they need to and when they need to. I would love to try playing the Raven Guard decurion, but I find myself struggling to think of fun yet viable options for it.

What are your ideas on running it? Have you ran it or played against it in the past?
Victorus Aut Mortis

I've run it a few times and it did better than I expected.

Reserve shenanigans for getting flyers in turn 1 are nice.
Being able to fail morale checks at your discretion is handy as well.
The Ignores Cover is nice as I tend to run LSS scouts. So, the SGT gives the LSS its outflanking multi-melta ignores cover. We can talk about its never ending ability to miss at another time.

With that being said, it does give up some things you've already mentioned. But, if you're going to play it, it will give you a fluffy feeling Raven Guard army to play that has its own unique flavor and play style.

Frontline gaming have some good articles on the ravenguard and talon strike force.

If you're worried about reserve rolls, a small Raptors CAD and Lias Issodon as your warlord .(his rules are free to download from forgeworld)

Not only does Lias help with your reserve rolls, he applies a -1 to your opponents and can do lots of tricksy stuff like infiltrating himself and three other units.

You lose some Raven Guard rules with Lias and Raptors don't you, in exchange for the bonus to bolter fire? Like the ability to use jetpacks in the movement and assault phases. And you can't take a Talon Strike Force with Raptors, or can you? My friends have ruled I can take Talon Strike Force as a house rule tho, most people probably also allow it.

You can take a talonstrike force which must use the Ravenguard rules, and then take a small CAD with Lias Issodon, who is your warlord. You lose some of the pre game bonuses of the talon strike force, but I think Lias brings allot to the party.

A house rule allowing the Raptors as a descendent chapter of ravenguard to use the talon strike force is awesome! Pity forgeworld are so slow to FAQ things.

Btw, the interpretation of raptor rules depends, RAW, they have scout and stealth first turn instead of shrouding and +1 to night fight. The ITC runs it that way, but really, just pick one and run with it consistently as you can argue either way. Forgeworld will just tell you to discuss it with your opponent until they FAQ it.

I will say this: the Talon Strike Force is all about an alpha strike. You hard, fast, and first and you can outlast them. Cool thing about a lot of the reserve formations (my personal favorite being the raptor wing) is that they AUTO come in on turn 2. I can roll for my flyer formation with land speeder turn 1 if I want, but if they don't come in? No sweat, I don't even have to roll for the next turn. I have succeeded most with outflanking grav cannons in 2 tactical squads who come in with 2 scout squads packing camo cloaks, bolters and a mb srg. I have allied with a CAD of white scars bikers also throwing grav around. It can be a brutal alpha strike if it comes off. I played a tau guy in a local tourney last month and killed 1 of his 2 riptides and took the other down to 2 wounds left, JUST with the outflanking cannons and bike grav guns. Throw in the ignores cover rules from the scouts to the grav cannons and your lascannon devastator squad that you WILL take and that is just gravy. I killed his storm surge and 2nd riptide turn 2.

I also throw in a callidus assassin to take the pressure off my RG units as people are usually more afraid of an ap2 poison 3+ flamer template that infiltrates 1" away from you. They snap shot to hit her on the 1st turn which usually helps with survivability. Don't forget she's EW though, I've pulled her off from lascannons and rockets before a big after the game noting she should have just lost a wound. Other formations from the Kayoun book that are definitely good:
Shadowstrike kill team
raven hawk assault group (you get some elite troops in at the same time and where you want them)
Suppression force (Holy crap this thing did well killing pathfinders when playing against a Tau list - if you can get 3 whirlys to get the full bonuses then they are ridiculous!)
Skyhammer annihilation force (kind of self explanatory right?)
Skyhammer orbital strike force (nice bonuses to get you 3 podded tac squads where you want them and bonuses for shooting if you land where you mark on the board - not bad)

My 2 cents boss. I've had pretty awesome luck with the RG TSF formations, so good luck. It's all about going 1st though. rerolls for going 1st, deployment etc all help. I also include the assassin for the reroll to seize of I don't go first. I also play RG in 30k as well, so if you have any RG questions just ask

Victoris Aut Mortis

Pretty sure the Callidus is NOT eternal warrior as of the dataslate.