Ravenwing

[jaqenhgar]

So I went to a tournament at the weekend in Colchester, 1750pts and I took my league list minus an attack bike, 2 plasma guns and a tactical marine.

Three good games against friendly opponents, first I was facing the new Tau - what's called a 'Farsight bomb' which was nasty - three special characters in there, including a libby with gate and null zone, had lots of tricks up it's sleeve, a tonne of gun drones and a tonne of crisis suits - the unit came to just shy of 1200pts I think! Managed to pull off a draw in seize the relic game which i was very happy with, and had a chance at a win but his warlord passed a 4++ save... that unit is atrociuos and i barely scratched it, but i mnaged to wipe out all his other units bar an immobilised skyray - crucially the farsight bomb isn't scoring.

Next up I was playing venom spam dark eldar with lots of venoms, 3 ravagers and a masiive beatmaster unit with 19 khymearas. Dawn of war, killpoints - he had more killpoints than me available but his shooting was so incredible and it was only my second time facing dark eldar...I lost 11-8, I got bottled up in a corner and made a couple of mistakes including forgetting to fire my flamers etc, but still a good game. He was also the eventual winner of the tournament so I didn't feel too bad.

Game 3 and I was facing an easier list of Blood Angels, a stormraven (first flyer of the day!) with 10 death company and a chaplain, then a load of rhinos/razorbacks and a furioso dread.Big guns never tire and hammer and anvil - my best deployment due to the bikes. I seized and shot up the board, plasma'd his Dread to death and assaulted his Aegis line turn 2 before the death company arrived - had control of the quad gun when his flyer came in which was fun although i only glanced it. It was all over really after turn 3 as he had lost too much and i had lost 1 attack bike and some tactical marines i think. His death company did wipe my command squad - ouch - but by the end i had 3 objectives and contested another so finally won a game!

Was a bit disappointed with the Terminators and not sure i have enough tl bolters to make the dakka banner worthwhile really - am considering switching to pure ravenwing again, but overall the list fared pretty well and i had a great time, plus learnt a lot about different builds i'd never faced (or even heard of!) before.

[manrogue]

Lol, Did the farsight bomb go the full hog and have 7 bodyguards with plasma, missile and shield gens?
Been tempted to run it myself, but prefer more versatile lists.

[Simian]

This is making me want to try a ravenwing list for the double tournament.

as the resident bike expert can i get thoughts on this?

Sammael
RavenWing Command Squad (5 bikes) with Banner of devastation
6 Ravenwing bikes - Flamer
6 Ravenwing Bikes - 2 Melta
Dark Shroud (i need to paint this)

supported by Nick and his Blood angel assault marines.

[jaqenhgar]

Yeah the farsight thing was massive, think he maxed it out. the rest of his list was just two skyrays, 3 x 9 firewarriors and a scout squad with snipers.

list looks fine but hard to tell without knowing nicks bit. personally i'm not sure the darkshroud is worth it, especially in such a small list and i would spend the points on an apothecary for the command squad and drop the flamer to take an attack bike with multi-melta. 1 more scoring unit that can come in from outflank. The darkshroud is only going to be useful if you are going to get hit with ap3 or better, and even then it's only increasing your chance of saving by a small amount. no protection against small arms fire but your t5 is. The apothecary will probably save more wounds on the command squad than the darkshroud, and the normal bikes should be hanging back and shooting with the dakka so can be out of range of all but the enemies long-range shooting, at least to start with. The flamer isn't worth it cos Nick can take flamers on his assault squads and they are the ones that should be getting up close.

[Simian]

Good logic and works for me. Cheers.

i'll give it a go. should be fun!
i need to build and paint an Apothecary now.

[jaqenhgar]

Nice one, ravenwing are great fun to play, let me know how you get on!

[Embolden]

Congrats on the tournament!! Dark eldar only fall down in the troops section, so facing them in anything like kps, relic or emp will is rough!! Sounds like you gave it a good go mate.

As soon as you mentioned farsight bomb I new Vince would perk up :p

I think pure ravenwing could work up until helldrakes, but there are ways around them and other flyers, I look forward to facing your list!!

[jaqenhgar]

Ok after my game against Nick I am going to tweak my tournament list a bit. The FNP banner is too vulnerable and not that great and the rhino and drop pod don't work so here is the black knight bomb list Mach 2:

HQ (605)
Azrael 215
Int chaplain on bike with mace of redemption160
Ravenwing command - Apothecary, 5 strong 230
Troops (445)
Ravenwing squad - 3 bikes, 2mg's, attack bike - mm 155
Ravenwing squad - 3 bikes, 2mg's, attack bike - mm 155
Ravenwing squad - 3 bikes, attack bike - mm 135
Fast attack (420)
10 ravenwing black knights - 2 grenade launchers 420
Allied Brazen claws (330)
Chapter master - artificer armour, thunder hammer, bike, shield eternal 250
5 tacticals, melta gun 80
Total 1800

50 points left I'm not sure what to spend on, maybe some flamers for the third bike squad, not sure what else. Could drop the 3rd bike squad for 5 more black knights....hmmm...

Azrael picks the warlord trait giving his unit FNP within 6" of an objective, and doesn't accept challenges from psykers...

I also realised I need to make some markers for the rad and stasis grenades because I used them on nicks centurion squad and then totally forgot about them, which would have made tiggy -1 t, -1 I and -1WS meaning azrael would have struck first, hitting on 3's and instant Death-ing him with his S6 sword so no FNP saves...

Lots to remember but great fun!

[Embolden]

Brazen claws?? - What chapter tactics are those?

How about a Rhino for the 5 Tactical Marines... or Drop the Marines, take 5 Scouts in a Storm?

With pts spare, I'd give the 3 Bikes with no weapon upgrades some weapon upgrades :p either will work imo.

[jaqenhgar]

Brazen claws have the iron hands chapter tactics, so the master gets I will not die and 6+FNP. They're a second founding chapter.

Why the land speeder storm? If it's just for the speed I don't think it's needed with all the bikes in the list.

I could just about scrape together enough points for a tech marine on a bike with a power field generator to go in the command squad, giving them an inv. save - badly needed with all the ignores cover around.would have to drop two more mg's, a multi melta from an attack bike and drop the tacticals to some bare scouts to do it though.