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Morning all,

So I'm in the works of making a themed 1850 Raven Guard successor. The goal is to play like the fluff, but not gimp the army. To do this, I am using Raven Guard allied with White Scars.

This is what I have so far:

Raven Guard Detachment:
HQ:
Korvydae - 155

Elite:
Vanguard Vet Squad - 240
---5x Storm Shield
---5x Power Lance

Troop:
Tactical Squad - 180
---7x Bolter
---1x Plasma Cannon
---1x Plasma Gun
---Veteran Sergeant
-----Bolter

Tactical Squad - 180
---7x Bolter
---1x Missile Launcher
---1x Flamer
---Veteran Sergeant
-----Bolt Pistol & Chainsword

Scout Squad - 164
---10x Camo Cloaks
---8x Sniper Rifle
---1x Missile Launcher
---Veteran Sergeant
-----Sniper Rifle

Assault Marine Squad - 185
---9x Bolt Pistol
---7x Chainsword
---2x Flamer
---Veteran Sergeant
-----Bolt Pistol & Power Sword

Fast Attack:
Stormtalon - 125
---Skyhammer Missiles

Stormtalon - 125
---Skyhammer Missiles

Land Speeders - 170
---2x Typhoons
---2x Multimelta

Heavy Support:
Thunderfire Cannon - 100


White Scars Detachment:
HQ:
"Duelist" Captain - 180
---Bike
---Artificer Armor
---Sword of 1,000 truths (I forget the name of the uber sword)

Troops:
Bike Squad - 135
---5 man squad
---2x Grav Rifle


Total = 1849

So assuming I have the points right, I feel this is a pretty balanced list. I'd never take it to a tournament, so Korvydae would have Raven Guard tactics assuming my opponent agreed to it.


Tactics:
-Everything starts on the board, with a solid piece of terrain to fortify and place the scouts and Techmarine in.
-Scouts hold an objective and provide some anti-MC if needed. Not the best at it obviously, but they have the range to help out most anywhere on the board.
-Techmarine is there for crowd control, taking out hordes. T: 7 with a 3+ save and 4+ cover save is going to take a while to knock out. Barrage means I can hide it as well.
-The two tactical marine squads would hold a second home base objective that I would place in another ruin.
-The assault marines and vanguard vets would be the bullies of my army. With the scout move + their jumps they can easily be in my opponent's backfield on the second turn. From there they would be taking out any artillery or backfield objective campers. With the assault marines being scoring they can also camp out back there and hold my opponent's objective.
-My duelist captain would primarily be a counter charge and counter deathstar unit. They've got the speed to stay away from hammernators (with grav guns to take them out from range) or catch up to other fast units that can threaten my backfield.
-The stormtalons establish air superiority, then work on transport hunting.
-Finally, the typhoons hunt heavy vehicles and provide S: 8 goodness when I need it.


I would really like some critique on the army if anyone is willing; both the list and the tactics. This is the army I plan on running for quite a while, so avoiding clipping arms would be very beneficial haha.

I feel the plain old tactical squads are a bit squishy. No ADL, no rhino, no razor. Even cover isnt going to do much to help them versus a bunch of shots, or heaven forbid a few serpent shields.

If you are playing raven guard, why not go all out and put the tacticals in drops with melta or combi meltas and shove em into your opponents face?

Honestly I used to play them that way, and they always just got pasted because I never had enough pods come in. They always came in piecemeal.

I do own three pods, so if I could get 105 points freed up then maybe sticking the two tactical squads in them and assigning an empty one to the TFC? That way I'm dropping two full squads instead of one on the first turn. Seems like a lot of points for that though. Any suggestions on where to find them?

 rabid1903 wrote:
Morning all,

Elite:
Vanguard Vet Squad - 240
---5x Storm Shield
---5x Power Lance

I am taking a unit of 5 Vanguard myself, but where do you see that they can take power lances? I don't believe it's listed at all in the C:SM book.

I believe they can take "power weapons" meaning you can choose whichever type you want. If they can't, then hopefully the rule of cool applies and my opponent will let me use my guys. I'm pretty happy with their conversion

Power weapon = axe, lance, maul and sword so you are good.

I am really curious as to where people can help me free up 105 points for three drop pods. I think that's a good way to go, I just can't find the points.

Worst case scenario I bump this up to 2k points. I would much rather play 1850 as I feel games are more balanced there; however, the most important thing to me is to have a very nice and themed list.

Typhoons and multi meltas have little synergy. Melta speeders are suicide speeders that take down tanks. Typhoons support from afar or go on extreme wings to get side shots.
Thats me being really picky though.

I don't think your Assault and Vet Vanguard Squads can scout due to them being bulky or very bulky. I could be wrong though, I hope I am since I am very interested in running a similar list.

Poly Ranger,

That tends to be my take on them as well; however, I can tell that my list is lacking any real punch against AV 14 outside of Korvy'dae. I can glance it to death with a few other things, but I wouldn't have anything reliable to take it down. Though that'd be 20 points for me to potentially use elsewhere so it may be worth it.

Dustin V,

Wow I hope they can scout. That would be really lame if the face of the Raven Guard couldn't even use their rules.

If you are worried about av 14 why not go dual melta for 160pts for the two?
And i just checked the dex with the mindset that Dustin cant be right as the posterboy raven guard unit being unable to benefit from their main chapter tactic rule would be ridiculous... but it turns out he is 100% correct. What a load of utter s**t! There goes the idea of BA using 'counts as' raven guard until we get a fair dex!

Yeah, unfortunately I thought I read that right. It's lame but jump pack RG units didn't completely get the shaft, at least they'll be able to use their jump packs in the movement and assault phase and the reroll on HOW attacks will be nice.

What are your thoughts on the Stormraven Gunship? Thinking about picking one up and having it serve as a transport for an assault squad/vet vanguards and an Iron Clad Dread. Assuming it's able to come in by turn 2 I'll be able to assault with both units on turn 3. Just going to have to make sure I take out the quad gun and any other anti air/interceptor units before it comes in.

Quad gun isn't so much of a threat to the Storm Raven, that thing is a serious gunboat. I hate the model, so I'm not using them (I heavily converted my Stormtalons because I hated those too.) However, I definitely see they're strength; especially if the Stormtalon escorts the Stormraven. They compliment each other very well.

I'm still a little in denial about the assault marines... That just isn't right. Luckily I am currently only playing friendly games, so I may see if I can convince my opponent to allow it in exchange for something.

Stormravens rock my world!

Drop the speeders and add in rhinos to your tact squads, also add another TFC

Jpat,

I'm reluctant to do that as I'd have to buy a few more models, and I'm on a bit of a budget. Right now I just need to save up the money to get a TFC.

What I'm looking at doing now is dropping 5 from the Assault Marine Squad. Yes it makes them vulnerable, but the smaller footprint will hopefully make it easier to hide them. I'll also drop the veteran sergeants on the tactical squads. Doing this allows me to take my three drop pods.

What do you guys think?

I would be very interested to know what everyone thinks about where I freed up the points.

Jpat1213 wrote:
Drop the speeders and add in rhinos to your tact squads, also add another TFC

My thoughts exactly.

then its 2 bolstered buildings you can have and gain protection for the tac squads from the rhinos in case of helldrakes.

Also consider this for the tac squads gear:

melta, combi-melta, no heavy weapon and no vet sarg.

you then gain more ways to deal with AV14 either via drive by or getting out and leeting rip.

I could scout move the two Rhinos correct? Just want to make sure on that one. I'm starting to consider that more and more. I'll proxy it some time soon and try it out, because if it doesn't work then that's about $100 gone.

Everything I've seen suggests that you could scout the Rhino's forward. Seen a few strategies that suggested scouting the rhino ahead 6 inches and disembarking 6 inches to wind up in rapid fire range with a full tac squad by turn 1.

Interesting... I'd never thought about doing that. Plus, with a scout move you're given a ton of versatility. You can either scout up and into some solid cover if going second, or get right up into their face for some rapid fire goodness if going first.

I'll proxy this or try it out on vassal and see if I like it. The trick is finding the time to do that haha.

Thanks for the help everyone, I've got two lists to try out and I'll start a new thread in a few weeks if I still can't decide between the two