How many bikes in a pure Ravenwing Army?

[he_plays_guitar]

So, I've got a large amount of Ravenwing bikers, and about 8 Land Speeders, and I'm wondering...with a Ravenwing Army, how many bikes should I use? I play mostly 2000-2500 points with my gaming group. I've never really used bikers before, since I play Deathwing, but I was wondering if Ravenwing is even a viable army to play, and should I max out on bikes, or spend my points on Heavy Support, Dreads, etc...

 

Also, I have Sammael, and you need him to unlock the fast attack as troops, yes? So should I use him on jetbike or Speeder? Any opinions or strategies would be great :-)

[shabbadoo]

Ravenwing is viable, but it is not really an Assault army. A Ravenwing unit fights less effectively than a Tactical Squad in close combat, but shoots better than a Tactical squads. That right there points you in the direction you will want to go in- shoot stuff. If you must sacrifice a unit to protect other more important units, be prepared to do so.

 

It will usually be more effective to have task driven units rather than have different weapons spread out among units. Basically, put two meltaguns or two flamers in a unit rather than one of each weapon, and pair meltaguns with powerfists(everything hurts heavy armor/vehicles well) and flamers with power weapons(everything hurts infantry well).

 

The Land Speeders from the Ravenwing Attack Squadron being scoring is useful, but perhaps not as useful as instead taking some Land Speeder Typhoons with multi-meltas which are cheaper and will give you some much needed ranged firepower(I would run 2 of them as individual units). This will really depend on how you arm your bikes, if you attach an attack bike to them, and how you configure everything with regard to the Combat Squads rule.

 

Ravenwing are a fairly viable army, but they are tough to play. Any mistakes will cost you severely.

 

As to Sammael, I would run him in the Land Speeder. The Jet bike, sadly, is not very effective, and it is vulnerable to all enemy weapons while the Land Speeder is not. Just be sure to protect the narrow AV 10 rear arc of the Land Speeder.

[exsulis81]

I concur with Shabbadoo on this one. Though until the recent errata I'd consider it the easiest setup to play. That now goes back to TT/SS terminator armies.

[ilnar]

I've had good things from running speeders in 3's, one typhoon and 2 with MM

Works best when there's a lot of other armor on the field though.