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Long time 40k vet looking into GT/ITC play. This is a list I came up with a while ago and posted on Warseer, but since the site appears to be in a coma yet again, I figured I'd just go ahead and post it here for more comments and suggestions. The theme of the list is Reserve Manipulation combined with the TSF's ability for T1 Reserves.

Talon Strike Force:

Demi-Company:

Captain w/ Cataphractii Terminator Armor - 120

Command Squad w/ 5x Meltagun + Drop Pod - 175

5x Tactical Marines w/ Plasmagun + Drop Pod - 120
5x Tactical Marines w/ Plasmagun + Drop Pod - 120
5x Tactical Marines w/ Plasmagun + Drop Pod - 120

5x Assault Marines w/ 2x Flamer + Drop Pod - 115

5x Devastators w/ 4x Grav-Cannon + Drop Pod - 245

Raptor Wing:

Land Speeder w/ 2x H. Bolter - 50

Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer Missiles - 115
Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer Missiles - 115

Raptor Wing:

Land Speeder w/ 2x H. Bolter - 50

Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer Missiles - 115
Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer Missiles - 115

Imperial Guard CAD:

Company Command Squad w/ Officer of the Fleet - 80

10x Veteran Guardsmen - 60
10x Veteran Guardsmen - 60

Imperial Bunker w/ Comms Relay - 75

1850/1850


The basic principal is that the combination of the Talon Strike Force, Comms Relay, and Officer of the Fleet (which does carry over), give me 3+ re-rollable OPTIONAL turn one reserves. I have more than enough pods to hold out for a turn two drop if my opponent is hiding any juicy targets in reserve, and an increased chance to pick who gets the first turn.

Which lists do you think this army would have trouble against, which do you think it could handle fairly well?

Jesus dude, that is some A+ alpha deepstrike mayhem you've got going. I can genuinely see the affects of the reserve manipulation.

My only concern is that since Stormtalons no longer have Skyfire, you now have ZERO anti-air in this list.

I'm also not sure where you Terminator Captain will go. I would have said with the Dev squad but he won't fit in the pod.

He has enough room for the cataphractii with his Devs in a Pod.

Having said that, I would seriously drop the Plasma in favor of Grav Cannons in your tacticals. I would also drop one of the Raptor Wing. I don't know the list just doesn't scare me much. One of the strengths of Raven guard is jump packs, ignore cover and shrouded first turn which none of your units take advantage of.

The most successful list that have been winning or at least placing high in GT and tournament play is Skyhammer+Pinion+Shadow Kill Team. You don't need reserve shinnagans as you put it with Pods, first turn drop from the Vanguard and Skyhammer coming in first turn and then half your pods from your pinion.

I just didn't think you were allowed to put Terminators in a drop pod.

 Spacewolverine wrote:
He has enough room for the cataphractii with his Devs in a Pod.

Having said that, I would seriously drop the Plasma in favor of Grav Cannons in your tacticals. I would also drop one of the Raptor Wing. I don't know the list just doesn't scare me much. One of the strengths of Raven guard is jump packs, ignore cover and shrouded first turn which none of your units take advantage of.

The most successful list that have been winning or at least placing high in GT and tournament play is Skyhammer+Pinion+Shadow Kill Team. You don't need reserve shenanigans as you put it with Pods, first turn drop from the Vanguard and Skyhammer coming in first turn and then half your pods from your pinion.

At 1850 that's really not possible without running bare tacs or seriously gimping your kill team (which makes 0 sense) at 2000 it becomes more workable.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Aedgar Perri wrote:
I just didn't think you were allowed to put Terminators in a drop pod.

You can - they take up 2 spots is all. Catapraci bestows SnP to the unit so pretty powerful with 4 grav cannons.

what happens against riptide wings with intercept galore?

people will start running more and more ion accelerators, and those are going to hurt like hell (as will the stormsurge's str 10 plate). the only threat you have to them is the grav squad.

It's a strong list, dont get me wrong, although I think you may come unstuck against an invis star, Fist of medusa or similar, as well as the above.

Are you playing the DFTS expansion rules or not? that makes your list a lot stronger if you are.

Trazer985 wrote:
what happens against riptide wings with intercept galore?

people will start running more and more ion accelerators, and those are going to hurt like hell (as will the stormsurge's str 10 plate). the only threat you have to them is the grav squad.

It's a strong list, dont get me wrong, although I think you may come unstuck against an invis star, Fist of medusa or similar, as well as the above.

Are you playing the DFTS expansion rules or not? that makes your list a lot stronger if you are.

First turn shrouding is pretty powerful - you will probably be at a 3+ cover save if you place your units beside your pod. This list has a high probablity of going first too - which is when you can beat invis stars.

Trazer985 wrote:what happens against riptide wings with intercept galore?

people will start running more and more ion accelerators, and those are going to hurt like hell (as will the stormsurge's str 10 plate). the only threat you have to them is the grav squad.

It's a strong list, dont get me wrong, although I think you may come unstuck against an invis star, Fist of medusa or similar, as well as the above.

Are you playing the DFTS expansion rules or not? that makes your list a lot stronger if you are.

Basically Riptide Wings are my Kryptonite, there's really not much I'd be able to do to them at all, but I believe that's true for basically everything SM baring a full Battle Co in a game were kill points are not a factor, and whichever squad is currently being protected by a 250+ point Chapter Master.

I'm actually not overly worried about the FoM or invis star, mainly because I have good odds of dropping in before invis goes off, and if he reserves his deathstar, he's putting himself at a major T1 disadvantage, delaying assault till T3 at best. And the Command Squad of Eternal FNP can be dealt with fairly easily by podding grav, just deploy them so the Apothecary gets targeted before the CM and the squad will lose a huge chunk of their toughness. The CM will still be around, but he's a lot less scary with the bulk of his biker buddies dead.

Also not running DftS, but I'm okay with that. Keeping Skyfire is big, and IMO worth the trade.

Xenomancers wrote:First turn shrouding is pretty powerful - you will probably be at a 3+ cover save if you place your units beside your pod. This list has a high probablity of going first too - which is when you can beat invis stars.

I unfortunately don't get Shrouded, it doesn't work after you've disembarked, so basically my RG bonus is taking the TSF and that's it.

Aedgar Perri wrote:Jesus dude, that is some A+ alpha deepstrike mayhem you've got going. I can genuinely see the affects of the reserve manipulation.

My only concern is that since Stormtalons no longer have Skyfire, you now have ZERO anti-air in this list.

I'm also not sure where you Terminator Captain will go. I would have said with the Dev squad but he won't fit in the pod.

Thank you!

As above, ITC has decided to not use DftS, so I do keep Skyfire, happy days!

Spacewolverine nailed it on the Captain, he's there to let the cannons annihilate something when they land.

Spacewolverine wrote:He has enough room for the cataphractii with his Devs in a Pod.

Having said that, I would seriously drop the Plasma in favor of Grav Cannons in your tacticals. I would also drop one of the Raptor Wing. I don't know the list just doesn't scare me much. One of the strengths of Raven guard is jump packs, ignore cover and shrouded first turn which none of your units take advantage of.

The most successful list that have been winning or at least placing high in GT and tournament play is Skyhammer+Pinion+Shadow Kill Team. You don't need reserve shinnagans as you put it with Pods, first turn drop from the Vanguard and Skyhammer coming in first turn and then half your pods from your pinion.

I would go for the Cannons, but I just don't have the points and I don't think it's worth dropping a Raptor Wing.

The Skyhammer is obviously feared, for good reason, but I'm not sold on the Pinion. Outflanking Grav Devs is nice, but not nearly as reliable as a pod. Also no ob-sec really hurts, huge for Drop Pods.

The Shadowstrike Kill Team has never really impressed me, really that's because Vanguard have never impressed me. They can't take care of anything I'm that worried about and it's very easy to protect units from them with bubblewrap.



I am thinking about some changes though, just minor for now. Going to drop the extra H. Bolters on the speeders and give the Captain an auspex and maybe try to find a way to worm a Storm Shield onto him.

The demi company prohibits a Captain cannot be in Terminator armor. Does your area allow for Cataphractii Terminator Armor as it is not explicitly the same as Terminator Armor.

 Sarigar wrote:
The demi company prohibits a Captain cannot be in Terminator armor. Does your area allow for Cataphractii Terminator Armor as it is not explicitly the same as Terminator Armor.

You're thinking of pinion demi-company, this is a battle demi-company.

2 big weaknesses to your list(having run a very similar one at tournaments) 1 not giving the cataphractii captain the shield eternal makes him pretty much not worth taking, you will run into interceptor, you will lose the entire squad to any s8 weapon because you will fail the 4+ with a 2 and he's a huge part of mitigating weakness 2. you have no staying power, that squad goes down without doing enough damage and you're toast.(side note, you will nevee get the apoc against an even mildly competent player and even if you did 20 grav shot will probably not be wnough to kill him in that unt)

I recommend dropping the second raptor wing for the shield eternal coteaz and an inquisitor with servo skulls coteaz can pick sanctuary with no roll and get a 2++ rerollable on the captainand dropping the guard cad for a sm cad with some more pods, or scouts for first thurn objective camping.

You might wanna consider not running 2 Raptor Wings and just run 1 Air Supremacy formation from the new Death from the Skies book. You can run 2-4 Talons in a single wing and up to 3 wings. Considering you are running 4 Talons and want them all to come in on Turn 1, you can simply use them. The Air Supremacy rule (assuming you have more flyers in reserve than the enemy with 4) allows you to get +/-2 to your reserves. That's a 2+ on every thing in your army without bringing the IG tax.

Just some food for thought. I don't like the speeders as they are easy marked targets (as I play Nova missions almost exclusively). As well as immobile IG tax/fortifications.