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So the ravener has always been my favorite model in the tyranid line. So I've been trying to come up with a good way to use them. The new book saw them virtually unchanged, only now we can mix weapon options.

What I have been thinking is keeping them cheap and non shooty, running them forward en mass to get a turn 2 (or 1 if the opponent advances) assault. Other ideas involve combining chest weapons and naked raveners to soak shots but actually have some death spitter on a deep strike.

Also have been advised with my first idea to convert to shrikes as they cost the same and have the same stats but gain all the perks of being a synapse unit. Only they lose the beast rule.

What so you think Dakka? If you were to take raveners/shrikes which would you go for? And how would you recommend running them? As they are the mold that made me want to try out Nids, I'm going to need to find a way to run them

If they can take the electroshock grubs as their chest weapon they should have a very nice roll in the new codex as vehicle destruction and infantry harrassment units.



Scything talons, rending claws, and electros for morphs. Mabey add adrenals if your going up higher toughness armies.

They pop up, haywire a LR or other hard vehicle, then charge whatever infantry is nearby the following turn.

Eihnlazer wrote:
Scything talons, rending claws, and electros for morphs. Mabey add adrenals if your going up higher toughness armies.

They cant take electros or adrenalin glands.

I run them cheap, either with rending claws or bare.

Edit: and as for Shrikes, they seem better than Raveners, sadly. The added synapse is so needed.

I don't really see much reason to ever take raveners over shrikes now that they cost the same. You're basically trading synapse for 1 point of initiative.

Yeah, sadly cheap seems to be the way to run things. I'm likely to run a full squad and just push forward fast. Rending claws.

Shrikes also could be a bit more useful with more gun options, but even here, 35 pts seems like the most I could pay for T4 with a 5+

I have been searching for a way to use Raveners so that I would have an excuse to buy the models...so far I've come up with nothing that I could do with them that could not be done better by another unit for cheaper, or at least more reliably.

Does anyone run Raveners regularly to great effect? I'd really like a reason to buy the kit, but I just can't justify it if they'd never see the table.

A lot of good points have been made.

Let us look at the upsides:

Ravaners are never slowed by terrain (except on the initiative).
The Shrikes will take a lot of difficult terrain checks. (Not so dangerous in 6th edition.)
Shrikes can not move 12, use the re-roll on the charge, and get impact hits. It has to move 6" or not get the re-roll and the impact hit.
The Ravaners do not loose an attack when they take shooting weapons.

All in all Shrikes are not objectively better then Ravaners, but they often come out on top. If you like the models I say go with it!

I run them both. Ravenors make nice pop up units and could be nice to add to a Mawloc/lictor list another DSer. especially since they can pop up in terrain with out worrying about a DT. I find this makes the Deathspitter builds nice for tagging rear armor.

Step 1. Glue some Gargoyle wings to your Raveners
Step 2. Call them Shrikes
Step 3. Realise Raveners/Shrikes are terrible and just field Gargoyles.

barnowl wrote:
I run them both. Ravenors make nice pop up units and could be nice to add to a Mawloc/lictor list another DSer. especially since they can pop up in terrain with out worrying about a DT. I find this makes the Deathspitter builds nice for tagging rear armor.

Am I missing something? Because, yes they do. Point 3 of Deep Strike (page 36) says treat all difficult terrain as dangerous terrain. Raveners don't have any specific exemptions in the codex either.

edit: NM, beasts have Move Through Cover