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Evening all,
ive been painting warhammer for about 10/12 years now but never played properly ( never had an interest). But im currently making a raven guard army, i own over half of these models, using forgeworld upgrades and using dark furies for vanguard vets etc. this is the army i intend on running pretty much, please criticise and steer me in the right direction if you can see any major faults that need rectifying if im going to start playing. thanks

HQ
capt
art armour,jump pack , power weapon - 140

[/b]Elites

5X vanguard vets
5X pairs of lightning claws, jump packs - 160

5X vanguard vet
4X pairs of lightning claws, jump packs, 1X thunder hammer - 170

sternguard vet X6 ( mor deythan with combis)
5Xcombi melta - 182

[b]Troops

6X tacs
plasma pistol,flamer -104

6X tacs - 84

8 X tacs -112

[/b]Dedicated transports
2X las/plas razorbacks - 150

Fast Attack

Stormhawk interceptor
las talon, typhoon missile launcher - 145

Heavy Support

6X dev squad
4X heavy bolter -124

6X dev squad
4X heavy bolter -124

Total = 1495[b]

This is what i intend on running, the math should be correct apologies if not. The plan is for tacs to push up slowly. im deliberately not drop podding any units ,sternguard in particular as the plan is to subdue whatever army i fight with overwhelming firepower, the melta combo's on sternguard are to counter any terminator equivalent drop podding/deepstriking behind my lines. vanguard vets will be there to mop up any units, they will not be attacking any CC units they will focus on support units and troops that are below 50% if all goes as planned.

please advise.
thanks

so no one got any pointers to help me, if i need more AT for example??

Welcome to Dakka and the Space Marines.

You are very light on AV fire. You have the razors (very fragile), the Hawk (might come in late) and the sternguard (melta on foot). A little in CC as well with the TH, but that’s not as reliable as I’d like.

You might also want to look into formations. Just as a quick start, if you put the veterans in a 1st company TF, rather then the CAD, they get some nice rules for no drawbacks. Taking advantage of others would require some list restructuring, but can often be worth it. If you dropped a dev squad and the hawk for an assault-type squad, you’d have a gladius with a demi-co and a 1st co TF.

Unit by unit:

Captain is fine. He’s got the basics. Don’t expect him to be able to go toe-to-toe with anything really nasty, but he should do OK.

I’d don’t want to tell a RG player to ease up on the claws, but some diversity in your VV squads would be nice. A SS or two to keep the plasma off would help them get across the table alive. Some AP2 to deal with the hard stuff. <pause> OK, I just looked at the Dark Furies on FW’s site, and they look awesome. Unfortunately they are a pure LC unit. How are you modeling skills? And how easy is that kit to mod? If you do need to keep them all with LCs, at least hang a melta bomb off someone’s belt. If you can do an arm swap or two, LC/SS is a decent built, as is TH(or fist)/LC.

I’d not invest the points in the c-meltas for the sternguard. Not if they are on foot. You are spending a lot of points for area denial, and I don’t think they are even going to do that job very well. Because they are just 6 guys in power armor on foot. At the very least, they should have one of the razors. That way anyone dropping into your backfield will need to pop the box before killing the vets. It would also allow them to be used offensively if they don’t need to be on guard duty. If you want to use those cool looking models, I might just run them as a bare-bones sternguard squad in a rhino. Move them up with your tacs to help take objectives. If you want some backfield protection, I might suggest a dread with a fist and a TLLC. He can still support the forward elements, but if something drops back, you punch it.

Plasma pistols are comically overpriced. Hate to say it, as they are the iconic sidearm of the IoM, but 15 points is about double what they should be. You would be better off with a combi weapon on your sarges. Matching one to the squad’s special is normally a good idea. I’d rather see some better gear then just raw bodies in the squads. Although in an ideal world, you’d have both. I’m also a firm believer that every tac squad should have a transport. You might want to go with 2 full 10 man squads rather then 6/6/8

I just finished building my hawk, but it looks good on paper. I’ve had good luck with my stormtalon, which fills a similar role.

I like HBs. Especially on power armor guys; they just look cool. But you don’t need them. They fill a very niche role (killing light troops in the open). Anything resembling that is going to be shredded by your VVs. You need AV. So I’d swap at least one squad out for 4xLC. If you don’t want to specialize that much, you could go 2xML, 2xLC. But you need some big guns, and this is a place to get them. I might just cut the second squad to free up points to invest elsewhere.

Thank you for the reply, i do apologise im not giving you much to work with i know but how would this go.

i dont want want to drop the sternguard purely because there FW mor dethyan with combis and personally my favourite models in the army similar with the HB they are forgeworld mars pattern bolters.
i have no excuse for the plasma pistol after looking in the codex i could see it was an utter waste of points XD. im trying to steer away from a mechanised army as such, just APC's no tanks is the what im after. do you think that if i dropped 1 unit of HB devs & the 8man tac squad, then replaced it with a 4 man lascannon dev squad and a drop pod for the stern guard would be more suitable?

or would you drop a vanguard vet squad instead of the HB devs? from what i can tell by looking in the book (as i said i have never played properly) HB would be more effective at clearing troops, due to the snapshots the vanguard would receive on the charge?

If you are running sternguard with multiple combis, you need to ensure they get the first shot in. Drop pods are the best tool for that job. They are just very expensive for guys no tougher then a basic tactical marine. If they start taking casualties before getting their one good shot with the combis, they are never going to make their points back. So if you already have them built with the c-meltas, a pod is the only way I’d field them. If you just have the guys with their fancy bolters, you could just treat them as better tactical marines. So could just stick them in a box and role them up the field. It would be less critical to ensure you get the alpha strike in.

I’d rather drop the HB devs then the VV, for a few reasons. One is that HBs are a little “meh” overall. You don’t generally see the things they are decent against. Most light troops are smart enough to hug cover, so the AP4 is not that relevant. S5 is not enough to threaten most vehicles or MCs stomping around the battlefield. So you end up with a static squad hammering fire downrange that might do a wound or two a turn if you are lucky. The results you get for the points you spend are just not that good. For a chapter like the Imperial Fists, with bolter drill and tank hunter devs, they might be worth it. Fielding one squad is not the end of the world. But I would not double up on them.

Vanguard vets are nice for a few reasons. CC, while a little rought these days, is not dead. Some things still need to be punched in the face. There are a number of lists that abuse cover saves, or have disproportionate levels of shooting. CC will ignore the first, and can normally stop/tie up the shooting for a bit. Plus jump packs are very Ravenguard. While your CT might not be the strongest out there, might as well take advantage of the perks you have.

Don’t worry overmuch about overwatch. Yes, you will occasionally loose a guy to it, but don’t let it bother you. The one exception is to watch out for the units that have tricks that modify it (Tau, Dark Angels) And even those can be worked around and mitigated to some effect.