Off to NOVA!

Off to NOVA!

Sorry about  the lack of a tactics post this week guys. I've been busy getting ready for NOVA and finishing up summer classes. I won't be around next week either so normal tactics/tournament posts will return the week of the 5th.

This will be my first GT and I plan on playing in all 8 rounds, in addition to the trios tournament on the first day. I've had a ton of fun writing this blog and interacting with readers so I wanted to thank you guys for your readership, support and participation. I only started playing competitive 40k in November but the entire community has been so refreshing and fun to interact with and I've managed to put up some good results, so I feel like I owe to both myself and you guys to have a good showing at NOVA. I'm gunning for a 4-4 result, and I'll make sure to let you guys know how I do.

Here's my list, I'll be running. I posted a deeper analysis on it a few weeks ago but feel free to ask any additional questions about it if you have any:

Ravenwing Strike Force:
Librarian, Bike, Eye of the Unseen, Auspex
6 Black Knights
6 Black Knights
6-Man Command Squad, Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher
Darkshroud

White Scars Librarius Conclave:
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe

White Scars Combined Arms Detachment:
Chaplain, Bike, Auspex
3 Bikers
3 Bikers, 2 Grav guns, combi-grav
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta

I'm not a great painter and I'm also getting an entire Iron Hands battle company ready for the trios tournament, so I got 3 colors on my guys and color-coded the squads, which is enough for me. I won't be winning painting competitions anyways.

See you in a couple weeks!

Ravenwing Tactics: Psychic Powers

Ravenwing Tactics: Psychic Powers

I’m not going to go through each psychic discipline and explain each spell. Instead I’m going to talk about the strengths of each discipline and when you want to roll on it. While these are meant for Ravenwing players, most of the broad strokes apply to any army.

Divination
One of the better general purpose disciplines, only the last power in this list is bad for a ravenwing army. Black knights don’t benefit much from prescience for shooting, but grav bikes and multi-melta attack bikes do. Ignores cover is amazing, and a 4+ invulnerable save isn’t a game-changer but if it saves a couple black knights it’s probably paid it’s cost. Overwatch at full BS actually overrides the stipulation that Grim Resolve has on jinking, making you terrifying to charge. Divination suffers from not being the best against any individual any army, but if you’re running a large number of psykers and already got the powers you need you probably won’t go wrong with this discipline.

Interromancy
Ties with Divination as the best all-rounder discipline, and definitely has more strong powers. Mind Wipe is overcosted but it can work as a discount invisibility and allow you to beat enemy death stars, and aversion works in a similar manner. Righteous repugnance is pretty good and can help you get an important round of combat off with your black knights or an allied unit. Trephination is pretty bad and seed of fear is situational. Mind Worm is usually not worth it but combined with the Eye of Vengeance you’ve got a decent chance of sucking someone’s brain out, especially a monstrous creature like a riptide.

Telekinesis, Geokinesis, and Pyromancy
I’m including this entry so people won’t say I forgot three disciplines. There’s nothing in them that you need and can’t get better somewhere else. Don’t bother with them.

Daemonology
Both types of Daemonology have some things to offer Ravenwing, but they really aren’t worth it due to the higher chance of perils. I could see a case for hammerhand and banishment when playing against daemons, but you’re probably better off with librarius for that.

Biomancy
Dark Angels don’t have access to it, but it’s easy to ally in some Space Marines who do. -1 toughness and strength can be pretty good, same for 4+ feel no pain to keep your boys kicking. The shooting attacks are mostly useless, so there aren’t a lot of times I’d recommend this over another discipline because there’s too many bad powers and not enough amazing ones.

Telepathy
Speaking of amazing powers, Invisibility is the best power in the game. I don’t think I’ve heard a single good argument for any power being better than it. Even in ITC format where it’s nerfed, it’s still powerful. Unfortunately the rest of the table is only ok, only being useful against people susceptible to leadership shenanigans like Tau or Eldar. And those are exactly the two armies you’re pretty much always going to use this discipline against. Shriek is great for killing wraithknights and riptides, terrify can run units off the board and spare you the shooting, and invsibility is going to make most your units unkillable. Against other armies this is a toss-up. It can be useful against drop pod alpha strike space marine armies, but I would never use it against daemons, especially sceamers who don’t care at all with their automatic hits. But for daemons we’ve got…

Librarius
Invisibility may be the best power, but Librarius is a strong contender for best discipline. There are few bad powers in here. Null Zone and Veil of time are amazing, the shooting attacks are decent for their warp charge cost, and Scourge can potentially really mess up other psykers. This is the discipline you want against daemons and death stars. Invisibility helps in melee but being able to drop the invulnerable save of thunderstars or reroll your saves against sceamer drive-bys is incredibly important. Might of Heroes is also fantastic if your librarian needs to head off on their own to go decapitate a riptide or something.

Technomancy
Once in awhile in the first round of a tournament you’re going to play against some guy who decided to run a dozen walkers or three knights. That’s really the only kind of person you’ll need this discipline against, because regular vehicles are weak and easily picked apart in melee or with plasma by our bikes.

Fulmination
The Telepathy of alpha-strikes. Most of the powers in this discipline are situational or bad, until you get to electrodisplacement. Unfortunately every tournament format so far has nerfed this power to not allow you to charge after using it, so there’s no reason to take this discipline.

I think I've covered the most requested topics now. If you've got anything else you'd like to see for next week let me know. Otherwise I'll try and cook something up myself.

Ravenwing Army Breakdown: Reader Submitted Army Lists

Ravenwing Army Breakdown: Reader Submitted Army Lists

This week I’m reviewing two lists submitted by readers. If you guys like the idea I’ll definitely take more of these. I chose these two lists because they both offered some interesting ideas and discussion points.

Submitted by Reddit user The_Shreckoning

Ravenwing Strike Force:
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Shroud of Heroes, Auspex
Interrogator Chaplain, Bike, Digital Weapons, Mace of Redemption
6-Man Ravenwing Command Squad, Banner, Champion
6 Bikes+Attack Bike, Multi-Melta, 2 Grav Guns, Combi-Grav, Melta Bombs
6 Bikes+Attack Bike, Multi-Melta, 2 Grav Guns, Combi-Grav, Melta Bombs
3 Black Knights
Darkshroud

Ravenwing Attack Squadron:
3 Attack Bikes, Multi-Melta
Land Speeder, Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Ravenwing Support Squadron:
Darkshroud
3 Land Speeders, Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Analysis:
This list is an admirable attempt at an all-ravenwing army, but unfortunately reveals a lot of the issues ravenwing have on their own. The first thing I notice is some odd weapon choices, especially the large amount of meltas and typhoon missile launchers. Unless your local meta is full of people spamming land raiders or soul grinders, you really only need one or two units with melta weapons. The attack squadron with multi-meltas should be just fine for this purpose (and that speeder should probably grab a second multi-melta) so I would drop the extra multi-melta attack bikes. The support squadron having missile launchers strikes me as a strange choice as well, because a darkshroud is a close-support unit, but now you’ve paired it with long range-firepower. I’m not a fan of the support squadron, but if you insist on using it you should definitely give it close range weapons like assault cannons so you aren’t losing all the benefits of the darkshroud. 

With this few black knights I could even see a case made for a land speeder vengeance in the support squadron (especially because now it’s not a waste to throw prescience on the unit), but a second darkshroud is never a bad idea either. Also this is a minor gripe, but I don’t like the ravenwing champion and lack of grenade launcher in the command squad. 5 points for +1S and AP3 is nice, but he has to accept challenges, so it makes attaching a character to the squad a bit problematic. Finally there’s a striking lack of black knights in this list, which just feels like a massive missed opportunity for a pure-ravenwing army.
This list doesn’t really solve any of the problems inherent to ravenwing armies like no obsec, (and no troops at all will hurt in NOVA where you give up 2 points for that) and not enough models to deal with MSU armies. This list compounds these issues by not running any way to deal with stars. So you’ve got a fast army with decent teeth, but lacking any way to kill the big scary units like wraithknights or thunderstars. The auspexes are a good buy, but there really won’t be enough ignores cover here without more psykers or a hunter’s eye either. This list is probably close to the best you can get to a pure-ravenwing army (barring the few strange weapon choices I mentioned above and few black knights) but is crippled by ravenwing’s lack of tools.

Submitted by Reddit user sizzlebutt666
Dark Angels Combined Arms Detachment:
Techmarine, Bike, Auspex
Command Squad, Drop Pod, 4 Grav Guns, Flamer, 4 Storm Shields, Sacred Standard
Deathwing Command Squad, Apothecary, Champion, TH/SS, Plasma Cannon, Chainfist, Banner
5 Scouts, Camo Cloaks, Melta Bombs
5 Scouts, Camo Cloaks, Melta Bombs
2 Attack Bikes, Multi-Meltas

Ravenwing Strike Force:
Interrogator Chaplain, Bike, Auspex
3 Black Knights
Dark Talon

Assassinorum Execution Force:
Callidus Assassin
Culexus Assassin
Eversor Assassin
Vindicare Assassin

Analysis:
This list has a lot of cool ideas but not much cohesion between them. It’s a good example of why you can’t just take the “best” units and throw them into an army together, you’ll often lack a clear win condition and purpose. The drop pod command squad, culexus assassin, and ravenwing strike force to bring the dark talon in aren’t bad ideas. Even with those there’s a few missed opportunities, like fitting a drop pod into the CAD to give to the culexus. Now you can precision-drop a culexus assassin near an enemy death star to follow it up with a stasis bomb for the dark talon.
Onto the bigger problems, the lack of a ravenwing command squad and the terminators are very odd to me. Terminators are really suffering in the current meta, and without a reliable way to pass their reserve roll you’ve got a slow assault unit that could potentially not be able to charge until turn 5. They can be easily replaced with a ravenwing command squad to give that interrogator chaplain someone to hang out with (I’d probably give him a power fist as well), and I’d swap him with the techmarine so the techmarine is off the board to start. I’d change out the 3 black knights in the strike force for 3 regular bikers with grav guns. Black knights are more survivable in the open and outflanking grav guns are gonna scare some people.
The execution force made me go back and take a look at the assassins codex again. While I still don’t like the Eversor or Vindicare, a second look at the Callidus makes me think it’s an ok unit. I don’t think that makes the whole execution force worth it but I’ve seen it used before by players putting up good tournament results, so other than snagging a drop pod for the culexus I’ll leave it alone in this list. Scouts are meant to be cheap troops, so there’s no real reason to give them camo cloaks and melta bombs. Just keep them cheap and hide them or hold them in reserve and maybe they’ll snag an objective or tie something up in combat. Speaking of excess points, the loadout on the command squad could be a lot cheaper. They’re probably going to die shortly after coming in, so those storm shields and flamer can be dropped to save points and bring a 5th grav gun. Lastly I’d try to get a librarian on foot in the CAD to hang out with them. Prescience will be huge for their alpha strike, and a ⅓ chance of ignores cover could turn a game around if you get that.
That’s a lot of if’s and changes, but what does this list do well? It’s got a very funky alpha strike that is going to catch some people off guard. Like the first list it will still struggle with MSU armies, but this list has a pretty good way of precision-targeting and removing important units, forcing them to stay in reserve or risk dying early. With a few of the changes I recommended above I could see this list turning into a solid one-two punch army that can force people to change up their playstyle turns 1 and 2 or risk getting tabled.

I don't have anything planned for next week, so let me know what you guys would like to see. I could definitely review more reader-submitted lists, or go over other tactics.

Ravenwing Army Breakdown: Army List Examples

Ravenwing Army Breakdown: Army List Examples

As requested by you guys, here's two example lists that I’ve run in tournaments. Next week I’d like to review some user submitted lists, so send me your Ravenwing tournament armies!

Ravenwing supporting a deathstar
Inquisitorial Detachment:
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Power Armor, Liber Heresius, Psychotroke Grenade, Level 1 Psyker, Rad Grenades
Inquisitor Coteaz
Henchmen Warband, 5 Crusaders, 4 Death Cult Assassins, Psyker, Priest w/ Eviscerator, Priest. Land Raider Crusader Transport, Psybolt Ammo, Dozer Blade

Ravenwing Strike Force:
3 Black Knights
3 Black Knights
Darkshroud
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta
6-Man Command Squad, Banner, Apothecary, Champion, Grenade Launcher
Librarian, Eye of the Unseen

White Scars Librarius Conclave:
Level 2 Librarian, Axe
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Wrath of the Heavens, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Axe

Analysis
This is an older list I ran in my first few tournaments. As the title says, this is a good example of using Ravenwing to support a death star. The librarian on foot joins up with the henchmen warband to give them hit and run, while the other librarians have far enough movement to move in and out of range to channel to him, depending on how much you need to get his spells off. Death stars give you a lot of board control and this one can easily go toe-to-toe with similarly costed death stars like lychstars. In general 3 black knights can handle small units such as tactical marines, but you could split the command squad into the other two units to have either 3 units of 4 or 4 units of 3 if you need to.
With all lists, you should consider your win condition. This isn’t playing out a turn-by-turn imaginary game (a practice I think has very little value due to the inherent randomness of the game), it’s looking at the missions for your format and figuring out how you win them. For this list, your win condition is going to be using the star to control the board while your bikes claim objectives (either turn by turn or at the end, you can do either depending on your matchup). This means you may need to play a little conservatively with your bikes if you need to score at the end, because it's far more important that they survive to snag objectives at the end.
This list works well in both NOVA and ITC and matches up well against most other deathstar focused lists and ones that rely on monsters like gundam tau and flyrants. It has an ok (50-50 probably) matchup against Eldar, both scatterbike and warp spider spam. Daemons, Khorne Daemonkin and Battle Company will give them the most trouble, which is a common problem for all small, elite lists. The reason I personally stopped running this list is because I found it was too vulnerable to bad luck (or “shenanigans” as i refer to it). Obviously luck always matters in a game involving dice, but it only takes one lucky shot to cripple the land raider and force the star to footslog. Lack of troops also gives your opponent a free secondary in NOVA format matches, which may or may not be a problem.

An old picture from when I ran this list, as usual sorry for the blurriness

Ravenwing as the core of an army
Ravenwing Strike Force:
Librarian, Bike, Eye of the Unseen, Auspex
6 Black Knights
6 Black Knights
6-Man Command Squad, Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher
Darkshroud

White Scars Librarius Conclave:
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Sword
Level 2 Librarian, Bike, Axe

White Scars Combined Arms Detachment:
Chaplain, Bike, Auspex
3 Bikers
3 Bikers, 2 Grav guns, combi-grav
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta
Attack Bike, Multi-Melta

Analysis
Barring any major changes or revelations, this is the list I’ll be taking to the NOVA GT this year. After briefly trying out a knight to replace the Inquisistar (he works fine, but I still had no troops and didn’t like giving up free points) I settled on just maxing out black knights and bringing some stuff to support them. This list lacks long-range units, but is incredibly mobile, making it great for ITC and score-at-the-end NOVA. Typically I roll the chaplain and 2 librarians up into one star with the command squad, while the DA libby and 2 other librarians join other black knight squads or bike squads. Having troops was important, and obsec has certainly helped a few times while practicing with this list. The multi-melta bikes could definitely be replaced, but having some disposable units who have longer range than the rest of my stuff is nice, especially because I am lacking melta everywhere else.
This list is all about the black knights, and the win condition is using the black knights well. They’re fast, hard to kill with shooting, have excellent shooting, and have decent melee plus hit and run. The conclave, chaplain, and other bikes all exist to support, clean up after, or score for the black knights, because they will be able to take on almost every similarly-priced unit. This list can do both score as you go and score at the end missions, but is a bit better at scoring at the end of the game thanks to its speed and the number of small units.
In terms of matchups, this list also has an ok matchup against both popular flavors of Eldar. Deathstars and tau are good matchups. As I said above, MSU armies like Battle Company, Daemons, and Khorne Daemonkin are a tough matchup for any small, elite army and are definitely this lists worst matchups. Ultimately this list gives more room to outplay your opponent than the inquisistar, but will be less forgiving both for and against less experienced players (running a star/gargantuan/superheavy against an inexperienced player often causes them to do very stupid things). This list also won’t be affected much if GW’s FAQ removes chapter tactics when DA models join a Codex Marines unit, because the black knights already have hit and run, so at worst you lose hit and run when the DA libby joins a White Scars unit.

I’m still taking submissions for next week’s viewer-submitted list review. Show me your best 1850 tournament list that includes Ravenwing! Comment here or message me on reddit!