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.
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.
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.
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