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So we recently had a 1,000 point tournament here which attracted 20 gamers. I decided to try something different and put together a Ravenwing force. I posted the list here on Dakka but rather than making you search:

1 - Sammael - 205 pts
Landspeeder

6 - Ravenwing Attack Squad - 280 pts
2 x Meltaguns, Powerfist, Apothecary
1 - Attack Bike - 50 pts
Multi-Melta

3 - Ravenwing Attack Squad - 155 pts
2 x Meltaguns, Powerweapon
1- Attack Bike - 50 pts
Multi-Melta

1 - Ravenwing Landspeeder Tornado - 100 pts
Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter

1 - Ravenwing Landspeeder - 65 pts
Multi-Melta

1 - Predator Destructor - 95 points
2 x Heavy Bolters, Autocannon

My two practice games went well. Destroyed one Tau player to a man and got a draw against another, mobile Tau force. I didn't really relish going against any Ork Horde forces or Nids but against most other armies I thought I'd have a good chance.

My first opponent was a fairly new player with a Chaos force with two havoc squads with 4 lascannons each, 2 10-man Chaos squads with 2 Plasma guns and Typhus. We played an Alpha Level Cleanse. He got first turn but I deployed in such a way that he had to move to get any shots and effectively wasted his turn. There was a large woods in the center of the table that blocked LOS to my entire force.

My first turn, Sammael, the Tornado, and the Pred open up on one 10 man squad while still hiding from the Havocs and kill 6. He deployed poorly and I was able to position my attack bikes so that Typhus was closest and sniped and instakilled him while my 6 man Ravenwing went for the charge against the other 10-man squad. I won combat, he broke, and my bikes ran him down. Unfortunately this left my bikes out in the open facing 8 lascannons.

His second turn saw all lascannons point at the only real target they had and utterly destroyed my bike squad. My second turn I turbo boosted my 3-man bikes right next to one Havoc squad and targeted everything else at the second. I brought it down to 2 men.

His third turn he opened at my bike squad and fortunately my Inv. save stopped all of his shooting. I then returned fire and wiped out his force. I held two quarter (should've flown my multi-melta speeder to a third quarter but I thought I might get another turn).

Result: Massacre in my favor.

Will post the next two games...

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Second game paired me up with a good friend and a seasoned Tau Player. He took two 12-man FW squads (one with Fish), a hammerhead, 15 kroot, 3 suits (one of which was his Shas'o or whatever they are called, these guys deepstriked), and 5 stealth suits. In my practice games, I knew that Tau with their S5 weaponry could really put the hurt on my small bike force. We played a Gamma Seize and Control with 4 objective tokens. Two were on my side and two on his.

He won first turn (I never win this damn roll) and moved out to take on my bike force. His kroot moved up to rapid fire (I scouted closer to his force and his Kroot had infiltrated to a nearby woods), his hammerhead went out to drop an ordinance blast on my bikes and the stealth suits moved up to shoot. Overall his shooting was ineffectual thanks to poor rolling on his part, my high toughness, and my Apothecary. I may have lost one bike. My first turn I move out, take down his fish with my Attack bike, and wipe out his stealth suits (hate those guys). I assaulted his kroot, took no losses and they held.

His second turn he got all of his suits which landed behind my speeders and Pred. I saw this coming and tried to position Sammael in such a way as a rear shot would be hard to get. He scattered and landed in such a way as the 45 degree back arc bisected his suit's base in half. We really couldn't tell which side he was on so we diced off. He won and shot down my HQ. I was upset but he played it well so kudos to him. He also destroyed my Pred and one attack bike. The rest of his shooting was pretty ineffectual and in combat I killed some more kroot but he still held. My second turn I killed two of his suits with Melta shots, and began the chase for his HQ. Killed some more kroot, brought them to under half strength and they finally broke.

Third turn he started the real killing. He destroyed my LS Tornado, and opened up on my large bike squad. My apothecary helped, but he still brought them down to 3 men and half strength. His HQ killed one of my bikes chasing him and then assaulted the remaining bike! He felt that the safest place to be was in combat with my powerweapon-less bike (I chose to keep the meltagun earlier). We failed to do anything so the turn ended. In my turn I took down his Hammerhead with melta shots and hid my second speeder with multi-melta to shoot the lord once the combat ended.

His 4th turn he moved a unit of FW onto the ruins of the hammerhead and opened fire. Again, my apothecary saved me and I only lost one bike (but was now under half strength). The HQ and bike stayed locked. My turn I assaulted his FW and moved my attack bike to an open objective. In combat, I killed several tau but they held.

Last two turns saw me finish off the tau FW and went after the second squad on an objective. My speeder was on another and target the now-free Shas'o. I shot, he failed his inv. save and died. Here came my biggest mistake. I positioned my speeder in such a way that he could target it with his FW squad. He shot it down and denied me the second objective. In my assault I killed a couple but they held and kept the objective.

In the end, we each had one scoring unit (I still had the Attack bike on an objective) and I had about 50 more VP's than him. This ended the game in a draw. If I hadn't been careless with my speeder I would have had a second objective and won the game.

Next up, final battle vs. ORKS...

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Final game was against Orks.

It was Omega Recon. He had a 20-man slugga boyz unit, a 14 or so-man loota unit, a Shokk attack gun, nobz on bikes with al the gubbinz and a biker-boss tooled out. He starts with everthing but the bikes and I get my bikes thanks to the scout rule. He gives me first turn a I set up completely out of sight. I managed to stay hidden from his Shokk gun and take down 9 boyz in my first round of shooting. He returns fire with the lootas and takes down a bike (once again my apothecary saved me from losing two).

Second turn I get all of my reserves! I opened up and took down enough boyz and lootas to cause them to bread and fall back. He only has his Mek at this point and fails to get his bikes on. He manages to kill a bike with the shokk gun but that's his entire turn.

Third turn I kill his mek and position my self to take on his bikes. he gets them on, but his shooting is ineffectual thanks to my trusty Apothecary.

Last turns I open up and kill a couple of the uber-bike nobz and then assault. My fist brings another down but he wipes out all bikes except for the sergeant with the fist. His turn I manage to kill the remaining bikes before his warboss strikes me down. I open up shooting and take down his warboss and get 405 points of scoring units into his deployment zone. Game ends on fifth turn.

Result Massacre for me.

I ended up taking second overall. If I hadn't made the stupid mistake in the second game with my speeder I would have won. My prize was a box of new ork boyz (good for my new GorkaMorka gang...). Winner won the Apoc gamers edition. He played Blood Angels and completely destroyed his opponents every game. I already have the gamer's edition so I'm kind of glad he got it.

I was really impressed by the firepower and surviveablity of the bikes, especially with the Apothecary. He made his points back many times over in every game I played and with only 11 bikes he was essential. Except for the second game Sammael was fantastic. With is BS of 5 and twin-linked he never missed a shot and so caused 5-7 wounds every turn. Combined with the tornado and pred the amount of wounds caused meant that even space marines had to fear them. The bikes were quite good in combat with their toughness 5 as long as I avoided enemy's with powerfists. Their twin-linked bolt guns even put out quite a bit of firepower.

I'm now looking to expand to 1,500 points and see how I do in a more competitive environment.

Thanks for reading.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Everyone must be too impressed by my superior gaming to comment.

Any constructive criticism?

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Nothing constructive from me (), but thanks for posting the report. It was nice to read about some Ravenwing in action, particularly when they do so well. Definitely a cool army, and such a rarity ...

Luck getting up to bigger points, looking forward to future triumphs of the black bikers.

- Salvage

Take pictures next time (remember to remove dice, rulers, and other game impedimenta from the table before taking pictures as well).

True, I almost never see Ravenwing played much around my area. Enjoyed reading this one.