40K: Pure Ravenwing Tactica
Hi everyone ! It’s your friendly neighborhood Black Blow Fly here with some thoughts on fielding a pure Ravenwing army.
I have put my Super Friends aside for now and want to focus on playing one faction. Here’s what I’ve been running for the past couple weeks:
+++ Ravenwing (1850) +++
++ Ravenwing Strike Force (1625) ++
+ Fast Attack (930) +
Ravenwing Bike Squad (215)
4x Ravenwing Biker – 2x Grav Gun
Ravenwing Attack Bike – Multi-Melta
Ravenwing Sergeant – Melta Bombs
Rules:
Grim Resolve – Hammer of Wrath – Hit & Run – Outflank – Ravenwing – Scout
Ravenwing Bike Squad (215)
4x Ravenwing Biker – 2x Grav Gun
Ravenwing Attack Bike – Multi-Melta
Ravenwing Sergeant – Melta Bombs
Rules:
Grim Resolve – Hammer of Wrath – Hit & Run – Outflank – Ravenwing – Scout
Ravenwing Black Knights (205)
4x Black Knight – Ravenwing Grenade Launcher
Huntmaster – Melta Bombs
Rules:
Grim Resolve – Hammer of Wrath – Hit & Run – Outflank – Rad Charge – Ravenwing – Scout – Skilled Rider – Stasis Anomaly
Ravenwing Black Knights (200)
4x Black Knight – Ravenwing Grenade Launcher
Huntmaster
Rules:
Grim Resolve – Hammer of Wrath – Hit & Run – Outflank – Rad Charge – Ravenwing – Scout – Skilled Rider – Stasis Anomaly
+ Elites (215) +
Ravenwing Command Squad (215)
4x Black Knight – 2x Ravenwing Grenade Launcher – Ravenwing Company Banner
Ravenwing Apothecary
Ravenwing Champion – Blade of Caliban
Rules:
Feel No Pain – Grim Resolve – Hammer of Wrath – Hit & Run – Outflank – Rad Charge – Ravenwing – Scout – Skilled Rider – Stasis Anomaly
+ HQ (480) +
Interrogator-Chaplain (170) – Auspex – Power Fist – Rosarius
Rules:
Deathwing – Fear – Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines) – Zealot
Crozius Arcanum – Shroud of Heroes – Space Marine Bike
·
Rules:
Feel No Pain -Hammer of Wrath – Shrouded
Librarian (110) – Psychic Hood
Rules:
Deathwing – Grim Resolve
Force Axe – Space Marine Bike
Psyker Mastery Level 2
Sammael (200) – Iron Halo
Rules:
Grim Resolve – Outflank – Ravenwing – Scout – Skilled Rider
Warlord Trait:
Rapid Manoeuvre
Corvex (Jetbike) – Plasma Cannon
Raven Sword
Rules:
Eternal Warrior – Fearless, Gets Hot – Hatred (Chaos Space Marines) – Hit & Run – Mastercrafted – Swift Vengeance
++ Dark Angels Formation Detachment (225+95) ++ Ravenwing Support Squadron
Rules:
Grim Resolve – Interceptor – Ravenshield – Strafing Run – Support squadron – Anti-Grav Upwash
Ravenwing Land Speeder – Heavy Bolter – Typhoon Missile Launcher
Ravenwing Land Speeder – Heavy Bolter – Typhoon Missile Launcher
Ravenwing Land Speeder – Heavy Bolter – Typhoon Missile Launcher
Ravenwing Darkshroud (95) – Assault Cannon
Rules:
Deep Strike – Fear – Icon of Old Caliban, Jink – Outflank – Ravenwing – Scout – Shrouded – Stealth
++ Selection Rules ++
Anti-grav Upwash:
With at least 3 Ravewning Land Speeders, a Speeder can move an additional 6″ when moving Flat Out.
Grim Resolve:
A model with this rule has Stubborn and therefore ignores negative Leadership modifiers. In addition they may never choose to fail a morale check. Allows overwatch to be resolved at BS2.
Hatred (Chaos Space Marines):
Reroll all misses in the first round of each close combat.
Icon of Old Caliban:
All friendlies within 6″ have Fear and Stealth. Units beginning their assault phase within 6″ are not subjective to Overwatch.
Rad Charge:
On a to-wound roll of 6, two wounds are caused independent from the targets toughness.
Ravenshield:
May fire overwatch if another Ravenwing unit within 24″ is being assaulted.. To fire a template weapon, they must be within 6″ of the charged friendly unit.
Ravenwing:
Reroll failed cover saves when jinking.
Stasis Anomaly:
Every model of a unit hit by one or more weapons with this special rule suffers a -1 penalty to their Weapon Skill and Initiative, to a minimum of 1, until the end of the turn.
Swift Vengeance:
Sammael may fire up to two weapons.
Warlord Trait: Rapid Manoeuvre:
Your Warlord, and any unit he joins, can either roll 2 dice when they run, using the highest roll, or can add D6″ to any Turbo-boost they make (or Flat Out move, in the case of Master Sammael on his Land Speeder).
Zealot:
Automatically pass all Pinning-, Fear- and Regroup tests and Morale checks. Cannot go to ground or use the “Our Weapons Are Useless” rule. Unit re-rolls all failed To Hit rolls during the first round of each close combat.
I have played several games versus Tau as I feel they are my toughest matchup. So far so good. The basic concept is to scout up and bum rush the filthy xenos and it’s working. One of the nice things about playing the pure faction is having the points to flesh a bigger army.
New Kids on the Block
Ravenwing is the new White Scars because overall they collectively have better rules. For example you don’t have to waste any points on a mediocre HQ to scout. It makes sense for GW to make Ravenwing better than White Scars so players will want to buy new models. I am hoping Tau are toned down and they fix markerlights. Tau have three things that break the game:
– Ignore Cover
– Interceptor
– Skyfire
They have these abilities in spades and it’s all automatic plus undercosted. Tau are not popular anymore though because as a whole the army is not highly mobile and they are no longer battle brothers with Eldar. The lack of mobility is very detrimental for Maelstrom missions and they lost the broken combos with Eldar such as the Commander with drone controller joining a Riptide.
7th edition fixed many of the problems with 6th edition which also was a nerf to Tau. As an example assault is much stronger now since central tenants to the game such as challenges work properly helping a choppy army versus screwing them. Assault armies are much stronger now as a direct result which overall helps to better balance the game.
Tau is one of those armies that has always got really strong codices upon the initial release and is not easy to balance since they are devoid of strong melee-centric units. I am sure they will get new formations and detachments to bring them in line with the new edition which they need but I am hoping they are more balanced overall rather than relying upon game breaking rules to be competitive. Tau do not need gargantuan Riptides and D to win.
So back to Ravenwing… These are the best rules for Dark Angels ever and I’d hate to see the codex ruined within a few months of its release by the next codex to drop. As a pure army they do not have the uber over the top melee abilities. Sammael is a good HQ but not a total beast like a Chapter Master with Shield Eternal. I enjoy playing the pure army so I can more fully flesh out the army and play a more tactical game. Ravenwing can beat Tau versus the abundance of ignoring cover shots due to high mobility and over saturating an area with many units as opposed to a super friends army that has an overall low model count and relies upon the deathstar to do all the heavy lifting.
I like a mix of Black Knights and Ravenwing biker squads as the core of my army. The Black Knights are specialists while the Ravenwing biker squads are more generalists. Combined together they are strong. I took what I learned from playing White Scars to design my Ravenwing biker squads:
Sergeant – melta bombs
4x Ravenwing biker – 2x grav gun
Attack Bike – multi-melta
Two squads of Black Knights on average will delete a Wraithknight or scatter bike squad in one turn so versus Eldar it’s all about the Divide and Conquer tactic to concentrate a larger percentage of your army to eliminate key enemy units. The high mobility is key.
I was going to present a battle report for my recent game versus a heavy drop pod Imperial Fist Gladius Strike Force but unfortunately we discovered the Imperial Fist army list was illegal due to an oversight regarding which formations it can draw from collectively to design it. The mission was Contact Lost from Maelstrom and was hard fought due to all the drop pods being able to control objectives since they are objective secured. The game ended in a draw after six turns but would have most likely been a win for Ravenwing if it had gone on to a final seventh turn. I had another game versus a Salamanders Gladius Strike Force and it came down to the final turn… Brilliant game and I might write a batrep for that one.
Sometimes people ask did GW really intend for there to be a 2++ re rollable save or was it simply an oversight. If we look to the new Dark Angels codex the answer is obvious. The Ravenwing special tells us these units can re roll their jink save.
The basic jink save is 4++.
Black Knights have Skilled Rider so they have a 3++ jink save combined with the Ravenwing special rule.
The Darkshroud is a skimmer that is shrouded conferring 2++ to itself and its unit (i.e., Ravenwing Support Squadron). The Darkshroud also has the special rule Icon of Old Caliban which confers the special rule Stealth to any friendly units within 6″. Therefore the Black Knights can have a 2++ re rollable jink save since if one model is shrouded then it is conferred to the entire unit. So even a basic Ravenwing biker squad within 6″ of the Darkshroud has a 3++ re rollable jink save. This is one of the reasons why the Ravenwing Support squadron is so powerful when combined with a Ravenwing Strike Force. Stealth is conferred automatically so it’s always there unlike cover saves conferred by psychic powers such as Shrouded from the Telepathy lore which must be cast. Just think how powerful Dark Eldar would be if they had a mobile unit with a stealth bubble to protect their skimmer craft.
Ravenwing biker units also have the universal special rule Scout so they can outflank. Note that if you run the Ravenwing Strike Force all units in this formation must either be deployed at the beginning of the game or all be held in reserve. If you elect to run a small strike force this is a great option however if you run a large formation it’s best to deploy. The Ravenwing Support Squadron is a separate formation so you can elect to hold it in reserve versus enemies that have strong alpha strike potential. This gives you some nice options.
If the Ravenwing Strike Force is deployed they can turbo boost the first turn, jink then shoot at their full ballistic skill the next turn. This is very powerful when combined with the scout move.
So there you have it. I find pure Ravenwing to be strong but not on the same level as say a super friends army. By playing a single faction I can hone my skills. They are a fun army too but not over the top.
