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Good morning/afternoon/evening/whatever is applicable,

I'm just getting back into 40k after a couple month long break and have been contimplating what to play. Overall my gut feeling is telling me to play dark angels, more specifically ravenwing and i can't find that many tactics for them given the new codex and i was wondering could anyone here help with supplying some ideas on them? More specifically tailoring of a squad and list structuring? Whatever you can say to help would be great and i look forward to hearing back from you all.

Your moderately friendly
Marit Lage

PS if you could also offer any basic tactics or ideas that'd be great. I'm up against Tau, Grey Knights, Space wolves, and guard.

Between Dark Shrouds, Black Knights, Devastation Banner & FNP Banner, melta & plasma spam and MSU shenanigans you should be able to figure something.
I think the common idea now is to get 2 HQs, sammy and a librarian/chaplain/techmarine (on a bike) to unlock 2 RWCS, sticking them at 5man (due to FAQ) then giving them a banner each. Darkshroud in the FA slot and then spam RWBs (with a mix of weapons and attackbikes & landspeeders).
Use the black knights to bully things you will destroy in close combat, use the banners to make each of your bikes FNP and shoot 4 bolter shots a turn and hope you don't face heldrakes.

However there's a guy here somewhere who claims to have a massive w/l ratio, he'll probably have something better to say.

 Blaggard wrote:
Between Dark Shrouds, Black Knights, Devastation Banner & FNP Banner, melta & plasma spam and MSU shenanigans you should be able to figure something.
I think the common idea now is to get 2 HQs, sammy and a librarian/chaplain/techmarine (on a bike) to unlock 2 RWCS, sticking them at 5man (due to FAQ) then giving them a banner each. Darkshroud in the FA slot and then spam RWBs (with a mix of weapons and attackbikes & landspeeders).
Use the black knights to bully things you will destroy in close combat, use the banners to make each of your bikes FNP and shoot 4 bolter shots a turn and hope you don't face heldrakes.

However there's a guy here somewhere who claims to have a massive w/l ratio, he'll probably have something better to say.

Generally good advice. I ahaven't played the new codex yet either, but I have been playing with Ravenwing (and all Dark Angels for that matter) since 3.5 edition. So, what I can say is that the HQ core of above is really really good. Not sure that you need to do the FNP banner AND the Dakka banner, as that's a lot of points and bikes are generally immune to small arms fire already.

Basically, black knights kick the out of stuff. Thei plasma talons are great, their hammers let them hit hard in close combat, T5 and skilled rider ensures they get there, and hit and run ensures they can escape and/or charge multiple times if need be. In my opinion they are THE Ravenwing unit. Ravenwing Bikes are going to be the backbone of your army and you can basically season them to taste. I know a lot of people like metla spam but I am going for a 2:1:1 ratio of plasma, melta, flamer, as I will already have plenty of melta from the MM attack bikes that you should buy with them. Throw in some land speeder typhoons for long range zippy shooting and you should be good to go. The great thing about ravenwing is that they are fast, hit hard, and can survive pretty well, especially with a dark shroud. They are all troops due to Sammael and can score because of it (which is awesome). They do take some finesse to play correctly, but I think that they are one of the viable and competitive "fluff" armies out there right now and that's good to see. I also think that they are the most viable single wing variations the DA have right now. All DW or all greenwing lack in some departments and rely on each other for support. RW seems to be doing pretty well on its own.

Look out for Helldrakes, bc they are OP stupid hellturkeys and nobody likes them...

- VardenV2

Ravenwing would be an extremely fun armylist to run if there weren't so many freakin heldrakes out there. One way to minimize damage to your squads is to take a company master with artificer armour and two techmarines. give them all PFGs and bikes and stick them into you valuable squads. With a little bit of luck, the heldrake will be closest to your IC and that way you can use their 2+ save to soak up most of the damage it does. If this fails, you at least have a 4++ to lean on as well.

 ironhammer2194 wrote:
company master with artificer armour and two techmarines. give them all PFGs and bikes and stick them into you valuable squads.

Dont have a codex handy but I could of sworn that a Company Master couldn't take a bike.

 General_Chaos wrote:

 ironhammer2194 wrote:
company master with artificer armour and two techmarines. give them all PFGs and bikes and stick them into you valuable squads.

Dont have a codex handy but I could of sworn that a Company Master couldn't take a bike.

This is correct. Company Masters cannot take a bike as that character is already Sammael. He is the Company Master of the Ravenwing, so there are no other Company Masters that take a bike (making them part of the Ravenwing). You can take a librarian or chaplain on a bike and take techmarines though, as they are considered to be Ravenwing Chaplains, Librarians and Techmarines etc.

- VardenV2

Apologies for my lack of posting back, ive been busy lately. Any who what's everyone's thoughts on deathraven? Is it still viable or is it just too many points in an already elite army. If it could help would you guys think it be benefitial of me to post a list idea?

Thanks for all the responses so far,
Marit

I'm a fan of the Ravenwing, they make for a hard hitting and fast moving army.

Just a note of a really strong unit to consider (one which I run most games, though I play greenwing) is 4-5 landspeeders, either tornados with 2x Hv. Bolter or Typhoons with a hv bolter.

Ride a techmarine on a bike with them with a power field generator, fixing hull points whenever applicable.

& run a librarian on a bike (in a RAS nearby) using prescience on them for rerolls to hit.

30 Hv. Bolter shots (5 speeders)
or 10 missiles (frag or krak) + 15 Hv. bolter shots

With rerolls.

It's SO fun. The power field generator gives them a lovely 4++ (for me I prefer this to a darkshoud, but only because I don't have enough FA slots for a darkshoud the way I play)

 VardenV2 wrote:
This is correct. Company Masters cannot take a bike as that character is already Sammael. He is the Company Master of the Ravenwing, so there are no other Company Masters that take a bike (making them part of the Ravenwing). You can take a librarian or chaplain on a bike and take techmarines though, as they are considered to be Ravenwing Chaplains, Librarians and Techmarines etc.

You can however give Company Masters Terminator Armour, which would make them Belial... I would have preferred consistency in the entry but hey ho.