Ravenwing

[jaqenhgar]

So after the first league game against Sam I am happy with my list so far, still a lot to learn on how to play them because I made a few mistakes. I changed the HQ to Azrael since I thought Sammael doesn't add that much. Azrael still allows Ravenwing as troops but he has to go somewhere other than a bike squad. I was thinking a landraider crusader with a command squad or a drop pod but settled on the latter as I felt the LRC could be one-shotted too easily and the drop pod gives some nice options:

HQ
Azrael (215)
Librarian - combi-plasma, terminator armour (101)
Deathwing command squad - apoth, banner of dev., 3 th+ss, champ with halberd (360)

Troops
RAS - 3bikes, 2 meltaguns, attack bike - mm (155)
RAS - 3bikes, 2 meltaguns, attack bike - mm (155)
RAS - 3bikes, 2 meltaguns, attack bike - mm (155)
RAS - 3bikes, 2 flamers, attack bike - mm (145)
RAS - 3bikes, 2 plasmaguns, attack bike - mm (165)
Taactical Squad - 9 marines, drop pod, plasmagun, combi-plasma (186)

Fast Attack
5 Black Knights - 1 grenade launcher (210)

1849pts

The Deathwing squad drops turn 1 which is an improvement on the ravenwing squad because a) it frees up the black knights to outflank instead of nursing the banner, and b) kepps the banner unit off the table if opponent gets turn 1 so it can't be targeted. I can also drop it precisely where I want it near my bikes and it is a massive combat threat (unless you're a daemon prince...).

The list is fast, has 2 or 3 combat threats (DW command, Black knights, Azzy and unit at a pinch), lots of dakka (banner and tl relentless bolters) lots of scoring units (11) and lots of AP2 and anti-tank (although short-ranged).

Sam's daemon prince chewed through 2/5ths of my army (!) because I dropped azzy and his squad too close and they got charged. DW counter-charged and by the time i got to swing there was just azzy and 1 terminator left...gulp! Must remember to shoot this thing next time!

Bikes were great, need to remember precision shots with my serge's which i forgot all game, and the black knights were awesome and single-handedly took on Sams entire firebase on their own (EDIT - with the help of a lone flamer bike who gets promoted for toasting a lot of the enemy) - might think about taking two of these units in future, but not sure what to drop to get them in...

Happy with Azrael even though he didn't get to shine. He made the tac squad a lot more durable so Sam had to throw a lot more at them to take them out, and picks his own warlord trait (i took reserve roll manipulation).

Taking a 1750pt version of the list to a small tournament in Colchester at the weekend so we'll see how it does there...last time I went there were a lot of fliers...