Stormraven in the gunship role?

[knife&fork]

It seems to me like people tend to only see the "assault vehicle" part of the entry and not really bother with the other options.

 

How about not loading them up with 600 pts worth of units and instead use a couple primarily as gunships and secondary as transports for a plain tac or scoutsquad, maybe just add the locator beacon?

 

I suspect that they would take a lot less incoming fire if you run them in this way.

 

 

Any experience using them similar to this?

[Ushtarador]

Well, basically you're paying 200pts. for a rather fragile assault cannon, a multimelter and 4 1shot missiles. It will not be shot at as much because it is not that dangerous maybe. I believe it is not worth it, at the very least load it with a Furioso do apply some pressure.

[Leksington]

When I think about doing this, I ask myself: would prefer a SR, or a significantly cheaper devastator squad?

I find myself leaning towards the devastators, and that shoots down (no pun intended) any thoughts of running a SR as a pure gunship.

[shortysl]

I suspect that they would take a lot less incoming fire if you run them in this way.

 

Honestly? I don't think they would take any less incoming fire. They're imposing models, and opponents are going to want to take them down regardless (maybe even especially, given their role as gunship). The points you spend on two or more of them seriously limits the kind of firepower you're going to muster with the rest of your army, and let's face it, their points value does take into account their amazing transport capacity. Why pay so many points when you're going to ignore half of a unit's capabilities?

[pararanger]

I've ran one in a purely gunship role a few times. First time it did fairly well, withstood a lot of hostile fire while orbiting an objective in an overwatch for the Tac Marines holding it. Second time it took the enemy a fer turns of firing half their army at it before it went down, they lost focus on my Preds and Assault troops moving in up their backside.

 

The catch is you have to know how, where and when to use them. I just took cues from the 82nd Aviation guys I know and applied those here.

[Mezkh]

Internet logic says you have to load 600 points of units into them, but the empty raven in a gunship role is more than valid in my experience.

 

Missle Dev squad is so different in application

the comparison of points value is silly.

[knife&fork]

Well, basically you're paying 200pts. for a rather fragile assault cannon, a multimelter and 4 1shot missiles.

 

Which could be swapped for a TL-LC and typhoon if you want guns for a standoff approach.

 

Points are starting to pile up, but add the sponsons and you have 2 defensive weapons.

[JMac]

Well, basically you're paying 200pts. for a rather fragile assault cannon, a multimelter and 4 1shot missiles. It will not be shot at as much because it is not that dangerous maybe. I believe it is not worth it, at the very least load it with a Furioso do apply some pressure.

Do not underestimate these missiles. They are 4 **AP1** 1 shot missiles. It is the equivalent of an unlimited range melta gun. Pretty damn useful when you have paladins running around everywhere... The best part is, you can fire them all in one turn if you move 6" or less, including all your other weapons.

 

I used two SRs before, I have never used three SRs before, but have written up some pretty cool lists with them.

[DominicJ]

never done it, no strong feelings against it.

 

Have considered it, but having too much fun dropping mega death for now.

 

Could cetainly see the fun to 24" up the flank, then poppoing tanks side armour with 6 krak missiles

[mysteriousmaskedmystery]

i generally drop my units off on turn one, or turn two, and it becomes a gun ship after that as the units are stuck in amongst their gun line or being swamped by waves of oncoming guants or some such thing, so after that what can it do but fly around trying to get the +3 save and shooting things with one gun a turn.

[Deschenus Maximus]

I just don't see the point, aside from "for the lulz". If you are looking for a firesupport element, autolas preds, rifledreads and missile devs are so much more points-efficient.

[DominicJ]

if you compare it to three mm speeders, the raven doesnt look that bad really

[Deschenus Maximus]

How so? 3 Speeders are 3 different targets able to engage 3 different vehicles, and are still 20 pts cheaper than a single Raven, so... ?

[Brother Xeones]

Personally, I'd agree with those that say you are wasting a lot of the Stormraven's potential by not using its transport capacity. However, I don't think that you necessarily need to tool up a deathstar unit to put in them either. I've not done this yet, but my eventual plan is to run two ravens each with an Assault squad in them. Each ASM squad will still purchase a Razorback and I'll use these as light tanks so I can still make use of the points discount for the ASM. I'll also be running a pair of Furioso Dreads. Both will have pods but I can also choose to transport them in the SRs and drop the pods empty to screen the SRs in the first turns of the game. Pods are big enough that if you drop them directly in front of something, they will block LoS even for a SR.

 

Anyway, back to the gunship thing. If you are not running a big, bad deathstar, you won't always have the burning need to rocket the SR forward and shove its cargo down your opponent's throat --meaning that you may occasionally find it advantageous to sit back and shoot something from afar instead. This is perfectly fine --smart even-- since it gives you some flexibility and makes you less predictable. For this "occasionally a gunship" mentality, you really only need the missiles since you're probably only slowing down long enough to use them for a turn or two --either just before, or just after you've unloaded your choppy stuff. For most lists that I can think of however, planning on using the Stormraven as a gunship for its primary role means that you are not using it at peak efficiency and, likely, there are other choices that will fill your needs better.

 

As to your idea of running a tactical or scout squad in one, I wouldn't. Here's why: in a gunship role, your SR will be hanging back in your own deployment zone most of the time. If you need scoring troops back there, they don't really need a transport for mobility because there's no where they need to get to. Second, since the Stormraven has no fire points, those troops will be doing nothing other than scoring. That seems inefficient to me. If you simply want to make your backfield SR scoring, I'd say between scouts or tacs, stock CC scouts or shotguns are likely your best options here since they are cheap and you can make some use of the assault ramp if you ever feel the need to commit them to actual combat. But then, if you are going with scouts for objective camping at all, why not just outfit them with sniper rifles and a missile launcher and not use the SR at all? With tacticals, you probably should have just stuck them in a rhino. At least then it could sit somewhere and have a couple of guys shoot out of the hatch --plus, you'll have one more thing for someone to shoot at instead of your Stormraven. IMO, if you've got just a few more points you can spare, a stock 5-man ASM squad would be better than either the tacs or the scouts because you could buy a discount razorback for an extra tank hull and more AV saturation will keep your Stormraven healthier for longer. I'm not saying this is a great idea, I'm just saying that if you are already going to put some sort of scoring unit in the SR, a stock ASM squad would be best I think.

 

So yeah, IMO its not that a Stormraven can't be used primarily in a gunship role, but in that role it has a lot more competition with other [arguably better and/or cheaper] units in the codex than it does in its aggressive fast transport role.

[DominicJ]

they are also armour ten and without machine spirit.

Didnt say it was a slam dunk.

[DominicJ]

a thought.

Sr bombs across the board, and in turn 2, drops off a devestator squad.

Enemy then has to split his forces to engage you, or allow your heavies shots into his rear armour.

[Leksington]

a thought.

Sr bombs across the board, and in turn 2, drops off a devestator squad.

Enemy then has to split his forces to engage you, or allow your heavies shots into his rear armour.

Your Devastators aren't a threat until turn three at earliest. You've potentially lost 2 turns of devastator fire.

 

This thread has convinced me that the SR NEEDS Aerial Assault. It really needs to be both a gunship and a transport, and it is hard to be much of a gunship if you are moving like a transport. I'm hoping the monstrous price hike is a sign of a SR buff to come.

[Brother Xeones]

I'm not so sure that it really needs aerial assault. It can't shoot all weapons while moving 12" like many other aircraft, but its the only aircraft that I can think of that can fire any one weapon no matter how far it's moved. Depending on what rules fliers get in 6th edition, being able to move, say, 36" or more and still fire your multi-melta or similar could be quite handy. I'd say wait until 6th to see what we end up with before we start wishing for something else.

[Brother Captain Kezef]

Check this out, I wrote ita while back and should help

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...p;#entry2624462