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I've been playing a ton of DoW (both 1&2 plus expansions for both) and I might start up blood ravens I was just wondering what chapter tactics you think blood ravens would have (when the new book hits)

Kleptomania.

Being able to "aquire" equipment and methods from other imperial forces would be suitable, methinks .

Allow them to take 2 Librarians for each HQ slot

 purplefood wrote:
Allow them to take 2 Librarians for each HQ slot

Or just take two Librarians?

Bloody magpies: Roll a d6

That many pieces of enemy wargear of your choice are now distributed among your units as per your discretion.

Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

The fluff written on them suggests they're descended from loyalist Thousand Sons. Ranging from the quite subtle hints in the games to the "smashes you in the face with it" hints in the black library books.

I'd say use whatever ones you want.

They just steal the given tactics that will be needed at any given time.

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggests that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

"Officially", their founding Chapter is unknown. But all of the hints that've dropped pretty much outright say that they're Thousand Sons successors.

 Troike wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggests that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

"Officially", their founding Chapter is unknown. But all of the hints that've dropped pretty much outright say that they're Thousand Sons successors.

Ya I heard about that conspiracy stuff on the backround threads. I was just curious about what chapter to be a "successor" to for the purpose of chapter tactics

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

The name Blood as well as colours also suggest BA successors. Point of naming convention is moot

C:CSM.

UM, as the others are too heavily themed.

 Deadshot wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

The name Blood as well as colours also suggest BA successors. Point of naming convention is moot

They've made it obvious that the Blood Ravens are not Blood Angel successors. Playing through the DoW II campaign, they give blurbs about this in the wargear descriptions. The one I remember best is a bolt pistol they claimed to have gotten in a cerimonious trade of arms, which the Angels have no record of. Wargear from many prominent chapters finds their way into the hands of those Blood Ravens throughout the game.

@ OP; use whatever feels right, is what I'd do, so that's what I'll recommend. Look over the Chapter Tactics once you have the new dex, and choose what you feel would best reflect their fluff, as that's what I think you're trying to get at.

All the tactics have their benefits but when thinking about the Blood Ravens in context with the overall Dawn of War games I would go with the Ultramarines tactic. The Blood Ravens utilize Codex Astartes tactics (believe they mention using it in all games) and try to follow it as closely as possibe, with the only exception being the high number of Librarians in the army and their Chapter Master a Librarian as well (Ultramarines Librarian Special Character as your Chapter Master perhaps?). This way you get a good balance and it will make sense no matter what army you choose.

And if you make them UM, you can include Telion as a Cyrus

 Crevab wrote:
And if you make them UM, you can include Telion as a Cyrus

Give me my grenade-monster Tarkus please.

BladeSwinga wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

The name Blood as well as colours also suggest BA successors. Point of naming convention is moot

They've made it obvious that the Blood Ravens are not Blood Angel successors. Playing through the DoW II campaign, they give blurbs about this in the wargear descriptions. The one I remember best is a bolt pistol they claimed to have gotten in a cerimonious trade of arms, which the Angels have no record of. Wargear from many prominent chapters finds their way into the hands of those Blood Ravens throughout the game.

@ OP; use whatever feels right, is what I'd do, so that's what I'll recommend. Look over the Chapter Tactics once you have the new dex, and choose what you feel would best reflect their fluff, as that's what I think you're trying to get at.

Niether do the RG. BR also suffer none of their flaws or characteristics. They don't have Black Rage or Red Thirst either but they do have strong psykers like BA so point BA imo.

Either way, their parent is most likely Loyalist Thousand Sons. As for which Chapter Tatmctics, I play them myself and I think Ultramarines is the best right now comoared to othe others, but I will probably end up using all of them so I can use my special characters.

 gmaleron wrote:
All the tactics have their benefits but when thinking about the Blood Ravens in context with the overall Dawn of War games I would go with the Ultramarines tactic. The Blood Ravens utilize Codex Astartes tactics (believe they mention using it in all games) and try to follow it as closely as possibe, with the only exception being the high number of Librarians in the army and their Chapter Master a Librarian as well (Ultramarines Librarian Special Character as your Chapter Master perhaps?). This way you get a good balance and it will make sense no matter what army you choose.

Kyras is dead now.

Angelos is Chapter Master now.

The if you can get a thunderhammer, artificer armor, and iron halo on said chapter master then you're set.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 gnoise wrote:

 Crevab wrote:
And if you make them UM, you can include Telion as a Cyrus

Give me my grenade-monster Tarkus please.

And "Brutally violates entire armies with single slams of his fist or sweeps of his multimelta/assault cannon" Venerable Dreadnought thule.

The closest CT to Blood Ravens is the Raven Guard one, IMO.

In the fluff, BR use Librarians to find out all the information they can about the enemy and after they have enough, they form a battle plan that involves surgical precision raids and strikes.

Blood Ravens do not go into battle in wars of attrition if they can help it.

Saying that though, the UM and IH ones also have a fair argument...

UM - Use Telion as Cyrus and those one off traits are very similar to in game powers.

IH - Angelos is one resilient bad ass. He's mostly bionic now, so having this CT would represent a Chapter Master with many bionics who is as tough as a $2 steak. The IWND for Thule would work too as he was obscenely strong in the game and fluff. Finally the 6+++ could represent the force of will to carry on through injuries that the Blood Ravens seem to be able to do. Especially Tarkus - that guy frequently says about his injuries in battle, but still carries on.

 Kain wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

The fluff written on them suggests they're descended from loyalist Thousand Sons. Ranging from the quite subtle hints in the games to the "smashes you in the face with it" hints in the black library books.

Yeah, but the novels were written by He-who-must-not-be-named, the destroyer of fluff. Even Matt Ward shudders at the mere mention of him. Tremble mortal, for he is come!

Actually I am quite found of the 1k sons hints that are dropped around, the name and theme of "blood ravens" that connect them to BA and RG are probably red herrings set up by the IoM so they wont dwell on it too much.

As for chapter tactics, I agree that raven guard is probably the way to go. BR tactics, like 1KS is to use the librarians to get information on enemy positions, then set up for quick surgical strikes before the enemy has time to respond.

 Kain wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 A GumyBear wrote:
Hmm

I may have been a bit unclear on my wording.

I meant what chapter would best suit them to steal their tactics fron (I.e. ultramarines, I.Fists, Raven Guard etc.)

The name suggest's that the raven are a RG sucessor, so I'd I'd use their rules.

The fluff written on them suggests they're descended from loyalist Thousand Sons. Ranging from the quite subtle hints in the games to the "smashes you in the face with it" hints in the black library books.

I have read most of the heresy era black library books, but don't remember any mention of the thousand sons having successors, or any of them remaining loyal.

Could you point me in the right direction for the books with this information? I would be interested to read it.

Well, by and large there are 5 rumoured origins for the Blood Ravens



1. Blood Angels: Argument principally based around the Chapter's name and heraldry.

Using the Blood Angels Codex would be fine (and Librarian Dread would be flavourful).
--

2. Raven Guard: Argument principally based around the Chapter's name and heraldry.

Using Raven Guard Chapter Tactics would be fine.
--

3. Imperial Fists: Chapter has been known to maintain Primarch Rogal Dorn's weapon.

Using Imperial Fist Chapter Tactics would be fine.
--

4. Dark Angels: The "official" rumoured parent chapter from Index Astartes (http://web.archive.org/web/20070209053624/http://uk.games-workshop.com/spacemarines/bloodravens-indexastartes/assets/index-astartes-blood-ravens.pdf)

Using the Dark Angels Codex would be fine.
--

5. Thousand Sons: Whacky DoW / Black Library titbits.

Probably best done using Ultramarines and lots of Librarians for HQ.
--


Take your pick.

It's one of those awesome armies that you can play to your tastes and no one will hate you for it.

BA - would let you field each of the ingame units as troops. Nice dreads to match.

C:SM - UM - Telion as Cryus. Tactics work decently well.

Don't discount Salamanders - while the flamers don't really fit, the each-character-has-mastercrafted fits the Bloody Magpies. For completely different reasons than why Salamanders get it, though...

The rules would fit the fluff fairly well for the Blood Ravens that way, even though its for different reasons, and there is no (known) connection between the chapters.

Alternately, the UM CT is a great catch-all that can fit any generic chapter.

Ya I will probs go with UM or RG