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I'm selling off multiple armies on Ebay and planning on starting up a Ravenwing army. I want my army to be able to play competetively although I'm aware that DA aren't the strongest codex for winning games.

In short, I want to play my Ravenwing for fun but don't want to be embarrassed by getting smoked over and over. Casual Play and tournament play both. I'm also not really interested in expanding into other codexes so I would like to avoid allies...Space Marine Codex might be a possibility however. I can always paint my allies in Ravenwing colors.

At any rate, I think I've got a basis for my army. I'm not sure what point value is most common, 1850 I suppose. My initial list is dakka oriented and looks something like this....

RAVENWING ARMY BEGINNINGS:

HQ

Sammael

Lv 2 Librarian on Bike (Divination?)

2xTechmarine on Bike (to bolster the command squad with two AV 2 models)

Ravenwing Command Squad
-Apoth
-Champ
-Standard of Devestation

TROOPS

(6)Ravenwing Bikers
-MM attack Bike

(6)Ravenwing Bikers
-MM attack Bike

(3)Ravenwing Bikers w/2xMelta
-MM Attack Bike

(3)Ravenwing Bikers w/2xMelta
-MM Attack Bike


Still under 1500 pts right here.

What would you change/add? Is there too much Melta? What sort of CCW's would you advise? Do I need a big unit of Knights for the inevitable Close Combat? How would you equip them? I was also thinking of adding a Dark Talon to also take advantage of the Standard of Devestation as it comes on the board with 24 twin linked bolter shots!

Anyway, I might be ready to start picking this up in about a month, so let me know what you think I should add/take away.

Since you're not using any of the Ravenwing specifiic things (Darkshroud, Knights), you could pretty easily build the same list but better with C:SM.

Disagree with the above, as your army is clearly attempting to maximum potential out of Standard of Devastation.

First thing to note is that the Command Squad can have 2 extra Black Knights due to this Errata / FAQ: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m3180051a_Dark_Angels_v1.1A_APRIL13.pdf

I really dislike the Champion upgrade in RW or Greenwing command squads (although the DW one is awesome), but that's personal choice.

Look at some Power Field Generators. They're great in the command squad because it's going to be attracting alot of attention and more reliable than hoping on Forewarning from Divination. The invulnerable save will protect you from Heldrakes and it's another thing to stand you apart from a White Scars army.

I'd avoid the Dark Talon, getting it within SoD range (measuring to the Hull) will block off your own units and is really a one-trick pony (going into Hover mode to get a second turn with it will see the Talon destroyed with ease). There's some argument to the Nephilim against lighter aircraft, but against the scary stuff (Heldrakes, Storm Ravens etc.) it's unimpressive and overpriced.

If you decide to go with Black Knights, you could get command squads instead. They'll cap out at 5 instead of 10, but are 2 points cheaper each and have access to an Apoth.

Beware of First Blood with the Attack bikes though.

{Edit} +1 for the thread title though