Traitors Hate: Raptor Talon Review
Blog for The Blood God here to take the Chaos Marines’s new Raptor Talon Formation for a spin. How good is it?
Howdy Heretics! Dean from Blog for The Blood God here with a new weekly review / Tactical article series for the formations found in the new Traitors Hate Chaos Space Marine Suppliment! If you have any ideas / tactics you wish to contribute / discuss head over to my Facebook Page and shoot me a message! Without further adue lets get into the Third installment!
RAPTOR TALON
Units:
1 Chaos Lord, must be equipped with jump pack for free.
3 -5 units of Raptors or Warp Talons in any combination.
Rules
Predatory Warriors – can charge the turn they arrive from Deep Strike, but count as a disordered charge when they do.
Cacaphonic War Cries – enemy units that are charged by 2 or more units from this formation reduce thier LD by 2.
Loadouts:
First lets discuss the units, what to take and how to equip them.
Warp Talons have no real upgrade options, so no need to discuss them here. I also highly prefer the Raptors in this formation for several reasons, mainly thier flexibility and ability to perform multiple tasks.
Raptors, these guys will put out plenty of damage on any unit of basic troops like guardsmen or fire warriors etc. So when equipping them I go for tank hunters, give them 2 melta guns and combi melta & melta bombs on the champion.
I do not suggest taking flamers for a few reasons, First, you are not likely to deep strike within optimal range due to potential scatter. Second, you do not want to kill too much of the enemy unit with shooting and hurt your chances of making it into combat. Third, if targetting hordes you want to charge the turn you arrive but not destroy your enemy, this way you get to fight and destroy your opponent in thier turn which protects you from thier shooting. Fourth, Raptors already dish out damage to the same types of units that flamers hurt so the flamers are not strictly needed.
As for plasma guns, while they are very powerful, firing rapid fire weapons prevents you from charging. So plasma completely defeats the purpose of the formation.
Now for the Chaos Lord there are several very strong builds and ways to equip him. Since we have established the Tank Hunter Raptors are the optimal loadout I suggest pairing your lord with similar equipment. A combi melta is a great starting point. There is no need to give him melta bombs as the Raptor champion has those so we now have to decide what close combat weaponry the Raptor Lord wants. Personally I would keep it simple and just go with the good old power fist. You could go with the Axe of Blind fury but that requires the mark of Khorne. Since the unit counts as making a disordered charge the mark of Khorne is a waste of points and also stops you from taking the other, superior marks on the Raptor unit.
Speaking of marks, I suggest leaving the unit unmarked and saving the points, going for minimum upgrades will allow you to take more units and this increase your damage output and durability. That being said mark of Nurgle is pretty strong on any unit so definitely worth considering.
Thoughts:
So is this formation good? In my opinion it is the best in the book, and short of the Cyclopia Cabal it is the best formation Chaos have access to. Kit it out for anti tank, deep strike in, pop transports and then assault the occupants. This will ruin Demi Companies, Guard formations etc.
Weaknesses:
This formation, as with all formations has some glaring weaknesses. For this formation it is reserves and scatter rolls. These two combined can spell doom for the RaptorTalon so I suggest taking a bastion or aegis defense line with a comms relay, this will help your reserves. If you want to protect against mishaps check out this chart for advice on deep strike placement.
Conclusion:
So what are your thoughts on this formation?
Have I missed any fantastic uses? How would you equip them an what tactics would you use? Chuck some comments below or join the conversation on Facebook. Lets show the false emperors lackies what the power of chaos can do!
-Dean Sinnbeck
