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HQ -

Chapter Master - On a bike, Artificer Armour, and Burning Blade
Chaplain - Terminator Armour

9 man Honor Guard - With Chapter Banner and the Champion has a Thunder Hammer. Mixed with swords, mauls, and axes.
5 man Command Squad - 4 Plasma Guns and an Apothecary on bikes

Troops -
5 man Scout Squad - In a Land Speeder Storm w/ Heavy Bolter with Hellfire rounds
10 man Scout Squad - Sniper rifles and Camo Cloaks
10 man Scout Squad - Sniper rifles and Camo Cloaks

Fast -
10 man Assault Squad - 2 Flamers, Vet Sgt. w/ Power Fist

Heavy-
Land Raider Redeemer - W/Melta Gun
Predator - 3 Lascannons
Storm Raven - Melta and Assault Cannons

Just wanted to share a fun list. I've used this list a few times and not only have I found it competitive but it's just a lot of fun to play with. I had underestimated the value of sniper scouts until they took out a Wraith Knight and helped take down a Riptide in one game. Now I try to take at least 2 full squads. And Honor Guard, man I love my Honor Guard. It's so nice to actually have a dedicated assault unit, throw in the Chaplain for Hatred and the Chapter Banner for the extra attacks, tuck them safely into the Land Raider and you are bound to make short work of whatever you tackle in close combat. The bike squad is just good fun and plasma guns are good for terminators and light vehicles, but I need the Apothecary....I roll a lot of 1's. And the Chapter Master is just brutal with the Burning Blade.

The main Raven Guard elements are of course the heavy use of scout squads and a fast assault squad. It's a shame that our Chapter Tactics are so under whelming. This may not be the fluffiest list on the planet but it can hang with the big boys......so far. I am holding out hope that we are going to get an RG supplement with more fluffy rules, until then this is my list with some variant here and there.

Dustin V wrote:

Chapter Master - On a bike, Artificer Armour, and Burning Blade
Chaplain - Terminator Armour

9 man Honor Guard - With Chapter Banner and the Champion has a Thunder Hammer. Mixed with swords, mauls, and axes.
5 man Command Squad - 4 Plasma Guns and an Apothecary on bikes

Don't have the Dex in front of me, but isn't the Chap required to be on a bike to give his command squad bikes? Not sure, but I don't think this looks correct.

Nah. That's only If you want bikes as troops. Command squads can take bikes whenever.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And it's the chaplain that gives access to the command squad, not the cm.

A Chapter Master is always a good choice. Bikes don't seem very Raven Guard-ish though. If you want bikes, best to go with White Scars. If you want Raven Guard, Assault Marines are key. (That's for people who adhere to fluff like Ultramarines adhere to the Codex Astartes.) Otherwise, do as you wish.
Next, why so many Scouts? For starters, they've got a crap BS. 4+ to hit? Never really happens for me. And Sniper Scouts too. If you get hit by a Deathwing force, say good bye to those Scouts with Sniper Rifles (true story). Tactical Squads tend to fare better for me. Tougher and better at claiming objectives.
You spend lots on Honour Guard + Command Squad. Take one. Why? Because you just wasted a crap ton of points. You don't need both. Even then, why mount the Command Squad on bikes if your Chaplain is in Terminator Armour? Oh, wait. Let me guess. You're gonna put the Chapter Master in the Command Squad? WHY? He's meant for the Honour Guard. Place him in there and dump that Command Squad. Spend the spare points on a Tactical Squad or something.
You need the Command Squad for an Apocothery? I can't seem to do anything about that other than to just get rid of the Command Squad, since Nartheciums only help squad members.
Overall, it probably needs a few improvements.

A Chapter Master with a jump pack and Artificer Armour would still need to take an Eternal Shield so he could avoid getting one shotted. Put him on the bike and there are very few weapons he has to worry about thanks to the increased toughness plus he is relentless and can move and launch Orbital Bombardment without sacrificing his move. I do not want a bike army, just a fun unit to play with, which is what a command squad on bikes truly is. They can hold their own in combat, threaten light vehicles and anything with a 2+ armor save and they serve as ablative wounds for the chapter master that get a second chance to save with feel no pain. The apothecary is a bonus, not the reason I take the unit.

Don't underestimate scouts, sure their BS is terrible but they can strip wounds off of a Riptide or Wraith knight far better than a tactical squad can. Precision shot is also not to be underestimated, target a squad with some troublesome options in and watch those options disappear and effectively neuter the squad through 2 rounds of shooting. Plus they are ideal campers for backfield objectives, especially when within ruins getting a 3+ cover save and they are still marines with a T4.

The honor guard aren't actually that expensive, they are about 260 with the Chapter Banner included. The Chaplain rolls with them because he grants Hatred to the unit, which allows them to reroll all misses to hit during that first round of combat, which is a must for me because my rolling is bad. It makes sense to take them in a Land Raider since they are going to be attracting a lot of fire. They are a dedicated assault unit in an assault vehicle. Doesn't make much more sense then that. Probably the main reason I don't put the CM in that unit is because they can't be given jump packs or bikes and I like to keep my CM mobile.

Tactical Squads are great and all but they seem to fall short on a lot of things. Their weapons have a 24 in range, which puts them in range of whatever they are trying to shoot at as well and they fall just as easily to dedicated firepower as the bale flamer from a heldrake. Their bolters are only S4 which means that they are truly only effective against enemy troops, which is fine except when you are facing off against Taudar alot. My issue with TAC squads as that they die too quickly due to their short range and their armored transports typically give up first blood.

My army list puts out a lot of close combat threats on the table between the CM and the command squad he's attached to and the Chaplain and the Honor Guard he's attached to. The 10 man assault squad at times gets marginalized and they are dangerous in their own right thanks to the RG tactics allowing for rerolled charges and HOW attacks. Plus it can hold it's own in regards to Heavy Weaponry between the Predator, Land Raider, and the Storm Raven. My scouts usually weather the storm due to the sheer amounts of serious threats on the table.

I thought that the Command Squad was only unlocked by the Captain?

Chaplains, Librarians, and Captains can take command squads and Chapter Masters unlock Honor Guard.

Dustin V wrote:
A Chapter Master with a jump pack and Artificer Armour would still need to take an Eternal Shield so he could avoid getting one shotted. Put him on the bike and there are very few weapons he has to worry about thanks to the increased toughness plus he is relentless and can move and launch Orbital Bombardment without sacrificing his move. I do not want a bike army, just a fun unit to play with, which is what a command squad on bikes truly is. They can hold their own in combat, threaten light vehicles and anything with a 2+ armor save and they serve as ablative wounds for the chapter master that get a second chance to save with feel no pain. The apothecary is a bonus, not the reason I take the unit.

Don't underestimate scouts, sure their BS is terrible but they can strip wounds off of a Riptide or Wraith knight far better than a tactical squad can. Precision shot is also not to be underestimated, target a squad with some troublesome options in and watch those options disappear and effectively neuter the squad through 2 rounds of shooting. Plus they are ideal campers for backfield objectives, especially when within ruins getting a 3+ cover save and they are still marines with a T4.

The honor guard aren't actually that expensive, they are about 260 with the Chapter Banner included. The Chaplain rolls with them because he grants Hatred to the unit, which allows them to reroll all misses to hit during that first round of combat, which is a must for me because my rolling is bad. It makes sense to take them in a Land Raider since they are going to be attracting a lot of fire. They are a dedicated assault unit in an assault vehicle. Doesn't make much more sense then that. Probably the main reason I don't put the CM in that unit is because they can't be given jump packs or bikes and I like to keep my CM mobile.

Tactical Squads are great and all but they seem to fall short on a lot of things. Their weapons have a 24 in range, which puts them in range of whatever they are trying to shoot at as well and they fall just as easily to dedicated firepower as the bale flamer from a heldrake. Their bolters are only S4 which means that they are truly only effective against enemy troops, which is fine except when you are facing off against Taudar alot. My issue with TAC squads as that they die too quickly due to their short range and their armored transports typically give up first blood.

My army list puts out a lot of close combat threats on the table between the CM and the command squad he's attached to and the Chaplain and the Honor Guard he's attached to. The 10 man assault squad at times gets marginalized and they are dangerous in their own right thanks to the RG tactics allowing for rerolled charges and HOW attacks. Plus it can hold it's own in regards to Heavy Weaponry between the Predator, Land Raider, and the Storm Raven. My scouts usually weather the storm due to the sheer amounts of serious threats on the table.

The only things I don't like about your army list is that it has way too many Scouts. You may argue that they can take down tanks, but what if you're facing an army that arrives by massed DS? (e.g. Blood Angels, Deathwing) Pop goes the Scouts. This actually happened to me before, on TURN 1.
Why would you need the Chapter Master on a bike if he has the Shield Eternal? EW should do the job well by reducing the chance of him dying on the first few turns. Toughness 5 won't make much of a difference when facing STR 7 or higher. Better to give him a Jump Pack to jump around with your Assault Squad. Plus, it goes nicely with the fluff.
I actually like the Honour Guard. Don't remove them.

Scouts are pretty vulnerable to deep striking flamers, but while they are back there trying to knock out my troops I'll be in their section of the table taking theirs out. The close combat element is pretty damn fast and I have 3 squads of scouts, 2 10 man sniper squads kept pretty separate from each other so the opposing force will have to be split to deal with them. The third squad is on the Land Speeder Storm and is usually kept in reserves for an objective grab later in the game. They move 12 inches and flat out 18 as a skimmer, I believe.

I do have a CM variant with the jump pack, shield eternal, and a thunder hammer that is fun to play with but he goes down a lot quicker than I'd like in close combat, the difference between toughness 5 and toughness 4 when the average strength you are facing in close combat is a 4 is pretty substantial. I don't put the Shield Eternal on the bike CM, huge point sink. He'll be vulnerable to being one shotted but there is not much out there that he has to worry about except monstrous creatures. I'll eventually put together a CM with the burning blade and Shield Eternal and see how beastly that combination is.

Heavy use of scouts is actually playing to the Raven Guard fluff, as they make heavy use of their scouts during battle. Truth be told a 10 man sniper squad with camo cloaks costs about the same as a 10 man tactical squad before upgrades. I could run 2 tac and kit them out but I'd have to sacrifice the late game objective grabber scout squad. I'll try the variation see if it makes more of an impact damage wise.