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Now this may just be a case of the new shiny but I am having more fun than I have ever had playing this game using the Raven Guard Chapter Tactics. After my first two games, using what was supposed to initially be an allied detachment for my Dark Angels, my RG army has expanded and I have sold off my other two armies: Dark Angels and Eldar. I've always enjoyed the close combat aspect of the game and that wasn't something I was getting out of the squishy Eldar or the terminator heavy Dark Angels. Sure the DW knights were awesome but it's a small unit and I was guaranteed to roll at least 5 1's if there were plenty of firepower thrown at them, and I have yet to have figured out how to successfully field bikes without them getting blown away half way through the game.

Raven Guard though, man, I love me some Raven Guard. The ability to re-roll missed wounds on HOW attacks is awesome, and coupled with what amounts to fleet while using your jump packs in both the movement and assault phase is just full of all sorts of win. Being able to scout all of your infantry based units and their transports is just the icing on the cake. I try to take as many jump pack units as possible and recently discovered the potency of having a Chaplain attached to an assault squad, rerolls everywhere. And grav guns...what can I say? I love grav guns, so much in fact that I refuse to take plasma guns now (mainly because I roll a lot of 1's, and nothing is worse than melting your own face off).

I definitely don't regret selling off my other armies to fund my RG army. I guess I wanted to hear from other RG players as to what kind of long range support do you use or is that considered blasphemy? One problem I never had with the Dark Angels and Eldar armies was the ability to pop vehicles at range. I am trying to play as fluffy as possible and I know that Land Raiders and Predators are rarely taken due to lack of mobility. Any suggestions other than take a DEV squad?

I know that in the Hunt for the Valdorus the RG were able to bring a Vindicator to the fray, and I'm sure a Stormtalon or Stormraven wouldm't be out of place at all. Those are little closer ranged than Predators and the like but if you seriously want long range firepower, while sticking to fluff, your best bets are Sniper Scouts with a Missile Launcher (for Light Armour and MC killing) or Dreadnoughts armed as needed, mounted in DPs as per fluff, the RG live on a small Forge World, or its equvilent, and have enough Drop Pods to handle most things.

I have an Iron Clad Dreadnought that I drop pod in, but I've only used it once and that thing has some staying power. I kitted it out with Dual H. Flamers with the idea to pod it in near some Tau Pathfinders and roast them or some other similarly annoying but potent target. I might want to put the Multi Melta back on instead.

I picked up a Storm Raven, but haven't put it together yet. Might want to go with the TL LC instead of the AC option.

get space wolves with loadsa GH in drop pods and thunder cav
or get some drop pods your self or get a few whirlwinds
or get 2 or more chapter masters and orbital bombard the enemies as they kill on 2's and invulnerable cant protect them

For the Stormraven, I highly recommend the AC over the Lascannon. I have been using the SR since the model came out for my Space Marines and built it with the Lascannon, and after a few games began just playing it as an AC (by refusing to put the LC on my army list as the AC is the default) and found the AC to be superior at killing everything except MEQ. Its got enough shots and punch to knock out any light vehicle and can take on AV14 better, and has the shots to take on infantry and MCs. It doesn't do MEQ so well as it can't ID them but you have a MM and Stormstrike missiles to deal with that. More versitility for no cost, and can still ferry around an Ironclad Dreadnough from A to B after it lands.

So the Stormraven is the way to go for popping vehicles then? Do you use it as a troop transport as well, or does that make it too tempting of a target? I need to get started on putting mine together.

Personally I use it as a troop transport for Tac Termies or Assault Marines with JPs if I'm facing a lot of guns but that's just me. I almost always load my Ironclad Dread as it means I can put Sternguard or Melta squads in my only Drop Pod.

Personally I find it to work well in my meta as no one really has gallons and gallons of AA, or flyers. The worst we've ever had was 3 speperate guys with a Heldrake each in a Apoc game. But at the same time people will tell you it is a big risk and should the Raven be shot down it can go awry. I like to put my faith in my dice rolls to see me through and adapt as nessecary. For your style I'd recommend the Assault Marines or even Vanguard if you want to go for a serious high risk, high reward Freight Train o' Death. It'll be a lot of wasted points IF it goes down but a hell of a lot of dead stuff if it works.

Yeah I like that. I think it has a transport capacity for 12, which means 6 bulky units. I'll throw in a chaplain on a pimped out 5 man vanguard squad to make sure that they actually hit and give it a run. Great advice, I really appreciate it. What are your thoughts on Thunderfire cannons or whirlwinds?

To me they don't scream Raven Guard. Whirlwinds pass as they are mobile artillery, as do Stalkers and Hunters, but TFCs not at all. Maybe if you mounted it in a Drop Pod, again, very Raven Guard, but the Cannon alone not even close.

The lascannon on the SR is better at getting destroyed results on Helldrakes, and ID's T4 characters.

I"m not a huge fan of the assault cannon in general. I'm not sure how much of a different it makes which one you use on the SR really.

 Deadshot wrote:
To me they don't scream Raven Guard. Whirlwinds pass as they are mobile artillery, as do Stalkers and Hunters, but TFCs not at all. Maybe if you mounted it in a Drop Pod, again, very Raven Guard, but the Cannon alone not even close.

I would disagree. While they have a particular approach to warfare, they're still a Codex chapter and would probably make use of everything in the book(though with an obvious emphasis on fast attack units).

And if for whatever you just *really* needed to come up with a fluff justification for every unit in your force, the case for thunderfire cannons would be an ambush element lying in wait, with the techmarine's bolster defences ability(for scouts in ruins, for example) also contributing the ambush feel.

 Vaerros wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
To me they don't scream Raven Guard. Whirlwinds pass as they are mobile artillery, as do Stalkers and Hunters, but TFCs not at all. Maybe if you mounted it in a Drop Pod, again, very Raven Guard, but the Cannon alone not even close.

I would disagree. While they have a particular approach to warfare, they're still a Codex chapter and would probably make use of everything in the book(though with an obvious emphasis on fast attack units).

And if for whatever you just *really* needed to come up with a fluff justification for every unit in your force, the case for thunderfire cannons would be an ambush element lying in wait, with the techmarine's bolster defences ability(for scouts in ruins, for example) also contributing the ambush feel.

That's a fair point I hadn't thought about. OP, might want to take this into account.

Bolster defense is a nice modifier to a large squad of snipers with a camo cloak, 2+ save without having to go to ground will make them pretty hard to knock off an objective by anything other than Tau. The ambush element is a perfect reason to justify the TFC and whirlwind especially since those two units do no require line of fire. I do have a couple of drop pods that I plan on using for some hard hitting units after I get my Stormraven pieced together, since that bad boy will be carrying my Ironclad. I am thinking of using the pods for a unit of sternguard and a tactical squad to drop in near an objective.

For those who don't like to use Shrike, use Korvydae. Having the power to have your assault squads in troop choice is a must. I run my RG with 2 small scout squads, 3 assault squads as troop and I have all my fast choice for speeders and stormtalons.

I'd love to use Korvydae, but I don't know anyone with the Imperial Armor book he's in and I am not dropping 70 bucks for it. So that will have to wait.

as a veteran Raven Guard Player, glad your enjoying our chapter. Im still working on a good 6th list. my main change is no more fleet CC termies but using more JP than i ever have before.

I use a Iron Clad with dual HF ever match and it really works well. in 5th, biker scouts worked well with first turn charges, now still working on trying several biker scouts with locator so ur drop pod and deep strike assault squads dont have to worry about scatter.

I keep getting confused between teleport homers and locator beacons. I know TAC squad sergeants can take a teleport homer but are scouts allowed to take locator beacons or is teleport homers? Locator beacons would be awesome, put those podded in Sternguard and Iron Clads right where I need them.

I am still experimenting with my lists, but my typical list consist of two 10 man assault squads, 1 vet vanguard squad, 2 10 man tac squads and a 10 man scout sniper squad. I just added a TFC, a whirlwind, and am building the storm raven this week. I have a ton of options to tweak my list with but so far the mainstays will definitely be the units with jump packs, just too much fun.

Sever14 how do you kit out your Vanguard unit and Chapter Master?

only scout bikers can take the locator beacon, regular scouts can only do tele homer.

I run shrike or master with art arm, burning blade and JP.
with vanguard with 1-2 LC's and 1-2 PF+SS and rest vanilla. works pretty well, i try to keep my vangard at 300 pts or less or they get too expensive for a unit that dies just like a regular tact marine.

Got it, looks like I'll be picking up some scout bikers in the near future. Do you take the PF over TH because it's five points cheaper or is there another reason? I have my Vanguard similarly kitted out but with TH instead of PF.

well i have 4 with PF+SS and one with TH+SS. mainly due to the bits i had when i modeled the vets and i only think TH are good on HQ characters or maybe the serg with challenges, else wise I try to save my pts, but like i said it was what i had on hand when i modeled the vets. I dont really think you gain or lose much by going either way.

Main thing is dont fall into the trap i see a lot of new raven guard players of well my pimped put unit of Van vets didnt work this game so i must build a bigger and better deathstar...and we know what happened to the deathstar. but sounds like you have it about right,

Think about a unit of CC scouts as well. They can infiltrate up and help tie up units or assault with the jump packs.

The issue im having is with flyers. i think i might have to get the stormraven to deal with this, and i run some landspeeders with multimelta for armor pop. How do you deal with heavy armor and flyers?

I am not dealing with armor well if truth be told. If I had to face off against a Land Raider or something similar I would have a hard time dealing with it. When I played Dark Angels I use to run a drop pod suicide veteran squad kitted out with a melta and 4 combi meltas to deal with anything truly nasty before it can do much damage. That did the trick more often than not, thinking about running a command squad and giving them the same role. I am trying to play as fluffy as possible so that may be something I am going to have a hard time dealing with in the future. How do you deal with Armor?

As far as flyers, surprisingly in my group I have only faced one over the past 5 games and it was a Tau Barracuda that I just ignored, mainly because it came in turn 4. I am hoping the Stormraven does the trick. I am trying to stay away from the Aegis Defense Line because that definitely is not the fluffy way to play Raven Guard.

well i use melta bombs on most sergs and a unit of 3 land speeders with MM and HB. that works fine with armor. Im toying with just using a dev squad with 4 flakk ML so i can at least shoot at flyers,

but I dont know if its just better to use stormraven and talon vs devs and thunderfire cannon. Both offer different uses but i feel that stormraven and talon are more raven guardish.

I'll give my Landspeeder squadron a run and see how they do, similarly kitted out but with AC's and 1 TML. I am going to take the Stormraven and the TFC, the Talon would come in get intercepted and die without doing anything. Lot's of Tau and Aegis Defense Lines in my playgroup.

Someone had mentioned earlier that the TFC could be justified by considering it an ambush element and would partner up perfectly with a scout squad thanks to Bolster Defense.

Correct.. Just place it with scouts or reg tac marines since they and devs get a scout rule and say they are in ambush hiding just like ur assault troops (but further back).

I love the MM on land speeders, deep strike in and boom pop goes the armor.

Here is Shrike and my Chapter Master with Burning Blade

Those look really good. I'll post my CM when I get home, I am quite proud of him, mainly because he's one of 3 Raven Guard I actually have finished painting. I'll be going with the white helmets on all of my vet sgt.'s and IC's too, the white on black looks really good. My Shrike's LC's got a little gimped thanks to just how fine "finecast" really is. I'll need to do something about that, might be time to experiment with some greenstuff.

I like Shrike, but I'll probably only take him in larger games since I love my CM and have recently discovered just how awesome a Chaplain is with a 10 man assault squad. Reroll HOW wounds, and reroll hits and that unit is going to take some hurt and even if they some how win they'll still be stuck in combat since they are fearless.

How do you use Shrike?

Well I have only ever Played as RavenGuard (in codex Space marines), though I'll admit, i have played VERY little Space Marine games ever (Ive buried a lot of them though!).

The Raven Guard were and are the only ones i find interesting enough to expend energy putting back together once in a while.

Glad to hear people are playing them. I personally also like that we can use the RavenGuard as Night Lords. I love night Lords and really wish the Black Legion book (or some other book) accentuated them. But who cares. Traitor RavenGuard can play as Night Lords, right? Hey why not. totally fits.

I read another thread talking about how face bashy Black Templars can still be. Was very excited to see a couple more melee oriented options join the meta. The more melee in the current meta, the better balanced forces will become again.

Well i think Shrike is a little over costed, and fear warlord trait is not all that, but I attach him to the assault squad so they hve more hitty power and the vanguard have a few power weapons so they dont benefit from him as much at the assaults do. also it doesnt put all my eggs in one basket. i have two sorta.

One issue I'm having while biilding an Assault heavy list is that I want to take Stormtalons (a fluffy choice that nets a few good all-rounder units), yet that means I can't actually take 3 Assault units. So I'm thinking about 1 Assault squad with attached IC, and 2-3 Vangard Vets, which allows space for 2 Talons. Kind of hate that Shrike doesn't unlock jump infantry as troops, actually make him worth taking in his own army.

SJ

Paying homage to Corax's original jump pack.

very nice, where did you get that JP from?

and to Jefferson...
Yeah I take one assault squad and the rest VV to free up fast attack as well. But right now experimenting with 1 Assault and 1 VV 10 man squads atm