Ravenwing Army Breakdown Part 6: Allies (Battle Brothers)

Ravenwing Army Breakdown Part 6: Allies (Battle Brothers)

Following up on last week, here's how Ravenwing interact with their other Battle Brother allies.

Imperial Guard+Stormtroopers

Guard are a strange army at the moment, with a few good units and a lot of bad ones. Luckily this means they have something to offer almost every imperial army. Unfortunately, Guard are slow and have trouble keeping up with Ravenwing, plus Ravenwing typically don’t run vehicles besides a Darkshroud or two, so Guard vehicles will become a large target. Wyverns can add a good way to help deal with hordes or MSU armies which Ravenwing typically struggle with. Special mention goes to the blob of conscripts and Azrael for a fantastic tarpit, and with the bonus run/charge range warlord trait they are relatively fast for footslogging guys. Ultimately, Ravenwing probably make better allies for Guard than vice versa, making up for their lack of speed and giving them a more reliable way to get plasma and melee towards your opponent than anything Guard have.
Stormtroopers could be really useful allies for Ravenwing, if they came in from reserve more reliably. With a lot of Ravenwing armies you’ll find yourself struggling to contest every objective on the board or have enough units to target all the enemies you need. Deep striking hot-shot lasguns, meltaguns and flamers would be perfect for this. But due to the unreliability of their reserves, Stormtroopers just can’t fill that gap. If you have an easy way to reroll or add to reserve rolls, a CAD or Allied detachment of Stormtroopers may not be a bad idea.

"For once we landed without worrying about getting shelled by our teammates"

Sisters of Battle
Like Guard, Ravenwing probably have more to offer Sisters as allies than the reverse. Also like Guard, Sisters have a few good units and a lot of bad ones. Exorcists and Dominions are the best part of the Sisters army, and both can help make for a powerful alpha-strike. Scouting, ignores cover meltaguns cover a hole that normally needs to be filled by regular bikers, giving Ravenwing more room for black knights. In the same vein, exorcists give Ravenwing some long range support to cripple vehicles or soften up monstrous creatures to make sure your bikers don’t have to charge a Wraithknight except to finish it off.

Inquisition and Assassins
The infamous Inquisistar, made up of crusaders, death cult assassins, and priests, makes for a decent ally for Ravenwing. The Land Raider to cart them around will be a large target, but the star itself is a good way to deal with things like Lychstars and Wraithknights, which can otherwise give Ravenwing trouble. Otherwise the Inquisition don’t have much to offer Ravenwing, because their henchmen are mostly overpriced, slow, and don’t have objective secured.
Assassins don’t make for great allies for Ravenwing. Typically Assassins are only used as a Culexus in a drop pod to selectively turn off enemy psychic powers. Eversor and Vindicare assassins are overpriced and Culexus and Callidus are too vulnerable if they’re just infiltrating. Taking up an entire detachment on their own is usually something a Ravenwing army can’t give up for gimmicky units like Assassins.

"Xenos Henchmen, are you heretics?"

"Nice Watcher in the Dark"

"Right, let's kill some Tau"

Skitarii+Cult Mechanicus
When it comes to allying to Ravenwing, Mechanicus units are like a better version of Imperial Guard. They can provide you with good long range firepower, but also pack tougher basic units. Even better, their giant robots are monstrous creatures instead of vehicles, which are far tougher. Unlike Guard, Ravenwing and Mechanicus units both work equally well as allies for each other, Ravenwing give them fast outrider units, while Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus units give us longer range fire support or a big anchor unit to hold the center of the board. Cult Mechanicus units are the best non-space marine allies for Ravenwing, and if the GW FAQ prevents starting in battle brothers’ drop pods I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ravenwing used as fast objective cappers for a War Convocation formation.

Imperial Knights
Last but not least, a knight can fill a lot of holes in a Ravenwing army, giving them long-range firepower, stomps, and a bully unit that has no risk of randomly losing a wound or hull point to a bolter. The knight has similar problems to an inquisistar, where you’re putting a big vehicle on the field that’s going to be a large target for enemy anti-armor. The ion shield and being a superheavy helps a lot though. Ultimately knights make for good allies as long as you practice with them. They’re easy for your opponent to ignore and may struggle to make up their points if they’re avoided, but used correctly Ravenwing can remove major threats to them while they run rampant across the board. They probably make the best allies for Ravenwing after Space Marines and Cult Mechanicus.

We're knights of the round table

We dance when'er we're able

We do routines and chorus scenes

With footwork impeccable 

I've had a couple requests to post a few lists and breakdown how they're played. In lieu of xenos allies, next week and probably the week after will be dedicated to that. In addition to my own lists I'd love to review a few reader-submitted lists, so feel free to send me your Ravenwing tournament lists (1850, allies or primary) and I'll breakdown some of the best of them. Post them here on the blog or send me messages on reddit!