DA ravenwing allies for my BA

[John_f]

Hello Brother Marines!

 

I have an assault oriented BA army and since bikes/attackbikes and characters on bikes got a boost in 6:th I'm looking to get some for my army. Now with the introduction of allies I don't have to limit myself to BA and so I was thinking that Ravenwing might be the way to go since the models are so cool and the color scheme would work great with my current army. However, I don't know the fiirst thing about Ravenwing and so I was hoping you would help me out. What are the characteristics of the ravenwing? How do you use them? Are they troops choises? What DA characters go great with ravenwing?

 

Any information is useful here. Thanx!

[Raztalin]

Hey John,

Basically you take Sammael, on either his Jet Bike (TL Storm Bolters and P.Cannon) or on his Speeder (TL AssCannon + TLHBolter) this unlocks the Ravenwing bikers Attack Bikes and Speeders as troops.

 

There are better people out there than me though to suggest the best setup, but I personally like the MM Attack Bikes and Typhoon Speeders as support for my Deathwing.

 

Hope that helps somewhat

 

Raz

[Grand Master Belial]

Currently Sammael unlocks the Attack Squadrons as troops so him and a squadron or two makes up your allied force. The support squadron is all speeders and that is where the typhoon and tornados are available. I haven't played any 6th Ed games yet but I liked when you can combat squad the Ravenwing and have that one particular land speeder sit back to make the last minute objective grab because it is a troop unit.

 

I'll have to check the FAQ's to see if that is still legal nowadays.

[IanSturrock]

To pair well with an assault army, I'd take Sammael (on his jetbike, if you have no other vehicles, or on his landspeeder if you do have other vehicles), and two Ravenwing troop squads. The Ravenwing troops are mostly taken to unlock scouting / outflanking multimelta attack bikes.

 

So, at a bare minimum you have

 

Sammael (205)

Ravenwing squad (3-man), with multimelta attack bike (170)

Ravenwing squad (3-man), with multimelta attack bike (170)

 

Add special weapons to the 3-man bike squads, to taste -- in 5th I liked 2 meltas per squad, but I'd be more inclined to go with plasma in 6th, as it's even more useful than ever, now. 2 meltas on 1 squad, plus 2 plasmas on the other, might be a good compromise. I'd consider meltabombs on the sarge too -- nice and cheap, and you can throw them as well as shooting the 2 special weapons.

 

I like to add the Ravenwing Apothecary to one squad, as he's cheap and gives them FNP.

 

Neither squad is particularly good at assault, and tooling either one up for assault is expensive and still not that effective. However, if you wanted to make the squad that has the Apothecary a little more viable for assault, grab a power weapon or powerfist for the sarge, 3 extra bikes for numbers, and a banner for +1 attack.

 

If you still have points left, consider a 3rd squad in the Fast Attack slot. If you have other vehicles in your army, consider one of our super-cheap 75pt multimelta/Typhoon missile speeders instead of the 3rd squad.

[John_f]

Thank you for the advice so far! Looking forward to the new codex and new models!

[BigGumbo]

Just a quick point of clarification:

 

Speeders are categorically not scoring units any more and cannot contest objectives either in 6th. In 4th they were scoring, which carried over to 5th thanks to the age of the 'dex until it was FAQ'd out in, I think, Jan this year (although it might have been in Jan '11). Taking Tornado speeders in your attack squadrons will also prevent you from outflanking, as they do not have the Scout special rule (which is ridiculous IMO, but there it is), so there is a definite firepower/flexibility trade-off in using fully loaded Attack Squadrons. Drop the speeders, though, and you can combat squad your six bike/one attack bike squadron into three separate scoring units for objective grabbing/contesting late in the game.

[Cactus]

Drop the speeders, though, and you can combat squad your six bike/one attack bike squadron into three separate scoring units for objective grabbing/contesting late in the game.

You can still do that if you take the tornado, unless there's been a crazy 6th edition change to combat squads that I've overlooked. I do agree that the land speeder usually isn't worth it unless i) you don't mind losing the option to outflank with the bikes, ii) you've already filled all your fast attack slots so can't take one there and iii) you really really want a land speeder tornado.

 

John_f, it's well worth getting your hands on a copy of Codex: Dark Angels if you can and reading pages 17, 26-27, 44-45, 79 and 85. Here's a summary:

 

The Ravenwing are an elite scout/recon force (the Dark Angels' 2nd company) that exclusively use bikes, attack bikes and land speeders. What isn't known outside the highest levels of the Dark Angels' labyrinthine command structure is that their primary purpose is to hunt down the Fallen Dark Angels before using their teleport homers to guide the Deathwing in.

 

The Ravenwing have two unit types, the Ravenwing attack squadron (RAS) riding bikes, with options to add an attack bike and/or over-priced land speeder, and Ravenwing support squadrons that consist entirely of land speeders. In game terms all the bikers have the fearless and scout special rules, and carry a teleport homer. Their company master is Sammael who rides either a land speeder with a force field or a jetbike with a plasma cannon. If Sammael is in your army Ravenwing attack squadrons can be taken as troops choices as well as fast attack, and one attack squadron can be upgraded to include an apothecary and/or company standard bearer.

 

The Ravenwing battle force is very good value. In fact you could build Sammael on his land speeder and two minimum size Ravenwing attack squadrons plus an attack bike from that box alone. The only thing lacking is any flamers, meltaguns or plasma guns, and it's a rare attack squadron that doesn't max out on one of these options.

 

Also, they look extremely cool. :huh: Welcome to the Unforgiven.

[IanSturrock]

Ooh, great call on the Ravenwing box, Cactus! :) Yeah, it's probably one of the best-value battleforces out there, because everything in it is so useful. Comes with a stack of extra bits too...

 

For adding plasma guns, I found the cheapest bet was to pick up some spare Space Wolf plasma guns from bits sellers -- for some reason they seem a lot cheaper than regular plasma guns. They do come with furry and/or runic bits but it's pretty easy to cut them off or fill them in. :) Meltas are ALWAYS in short supply though!

 

Another thing I've done with a couple of my bikes is to make a special weapon holster on the side of the bike itself, modelled after the shotgun holsters of the Old West, using a thin piece of foam and the handle end of a plastic melta gun. Then I still have the barrel end to use to make a combi-melta for one of my special characters.

[march10k]

The only thing is...they're still not good melee units! And isn't that your idea behind taking them?