Ravenfeld Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I've been mulling it over for awhile and I was thinking of making a Blood Raven's force using the BA Dex. Not because they both have Blood in their names, not because I think the Blood Ravens have any attachement to the Blood Angels at all, but because the Blood Ravens like Librarians, and I feel that BA do a good job of portraying that, especially w/ Libby Dreads. Now, that being said I wouldn't mind having some beefy assault squads and cheap devastators! I was wondering, if you specialist folks were to make a list for the Blood Ravens for, say, 1500 points, what would you base your foundation on? What would you do to keep it fluffy but semi-competitive? I don't even know where to start really, save perhaps x2 Libby HQ? so all thoughts and insights are welcome! Thank you, Raven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sun Reaver Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 The BA codex is not a bad choice when wanting to represent the Blood Ravens. I would take tactical squads as troops instead of assault marines and if you want to take assault marines, just take one squad. Have a librarian lead the army, hell, take two of them! Get a librarian dreadnought as well. You could even make take Mephiston and name him after a BR librarian. Just stay away from the units that scream BA (DC, priests, baal preds, and sanguinary guard, e.t.c) and you will be fine. Good luck! I would love to see pics of the army when you start working on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenfeld Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 The BA codex is not a bad choice when wanting to represent the Blood Ravens. I would take tactical squads as troops instead of assault marines and if you want to take assault marines, just take one squad. Have a librarian lead the army, hell, take two of them! Get a librarian dreadnought as well. You could even make take Mephiston and name him after a BR librarian. Just stay away from the units that scream BA (DC, priests, baal preds, and sanguinary guard, e.t.c) and you will be fine. Good luck! I would love to see pics of the army when you start working on it. Thanks for the insight Sun, the army won't be forthcoming any time soon. These questions are more to sate my curiousity for the time being and help me decide where my next project will end up after I wrap up my Iron Hands finally. That being said I think you and I share like minds in regards to this, I would probably have a strong mix of devastators & tacticals, with a single assault squad to fill in the gaps. Then again, if I can come up with thematic ways to tie in units like the death company or sanguinary guard why not, right? Leaves a bit to think on, Thank you, Raven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnorriSnorrison Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Once the new SM codex is out, you'll probably be better off using that one instead of C:BA. The Blood Ravens are simply a codex chapter with no variation from the codex astartes, even the 'they like to field Librarians' is no divergency, it's a matter of taste and because they seem to have more brothers with psychic potential. Other than that one thing, they are 1:1 a C:SM chapter and I think they are presented better by C:SM than C:BA! Here's why: - Tigurius is a far better choice for representing a Librarian leading your force, and you don't have to come up with a wobbly excuse why your chief librarian can single-handedly tear a whole nidzilla-force some new ones. - The commanders in C:SM are actually good, the only 'good' commanders we have are the special characters. Others are simply support characters or....Captains. - You can ally in a Furioso Dreadnought, which is much easier than again coming up with some weird excuses why any other Chapter than a BA-successor would have Baal Preds, a dedicated close-combat unit with jump-packs and artificer armour when there's already an Honour Guard to guard the Chapter Master, mindless berserkers that rip terminators apart with their bare hands(which is quite unusual for Codex Chapters with no flaw in their geneseed) and, and, and. - Other than cheaper devastators and maybe the Furioso Librarian, there's little in C:BA that really fits the Blood Ravens. Blood Angels lay heavy focus on close combat, the Blood Ravens are more of mixed allrounders like the Ultramarines. My suggestion: Use allies to beef up your force with a Librarian Dreadnought, an Assault Squad and Devastators, if you wish. Your main department would be chosen from C:SM, with Tigurius to lead your force and even another Librarian if you're into that. This way, including things that aren't very codex-like as the Sanguinary Guard, the Death Company, Baals, etc isn't possible and you don't have to come up with strange excuses for why a simple codex chapter without a flawed gene-seed uses such units. Snorri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenith Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Agree entirely with Snorri. The only thing that they have in common is the word 'Blood' in their name, and the fact that that are Space Marines. Increased numbers of librarians are easily accomodated by double FOC at 2000pts.. The Red thirst isnt BR at all. neither are fast rhinos. The number of things you would have to not use in the BA codex to make a fluffy BR army makes it not worthwhile at all. You pay inflated points for things like rhinos, etc, and don't get to use the fast option. The only reason to take BA, as far as I can see, would be to get access to prescience. BR Space marine army, 2000pts 4x Librarian, All epistolaries, one jump pack, one TDA 3 tac squads, rhinos Assault squad Devsx2 Of course if you really, really want librarians, you use space wolves. You can get 8 of them in 2000pts, not including the potential to ally them in from elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenfeld Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Once the new SM codex is out, you'll probably be better off using that one instead of C:BA. The Blood Ravens are simply a codex chapter with no variation from the codex astartes, even the 'they like to field Librarians' is no divergency, it's a matter of taste and because they seem to have more brothers with psychic potential. Other than that one thing, they are 1:1 a C:SM chapter and I think they are presented better by C:SM than C:BA! Here's why: - Tigurius is a far better choice for representing a Librarian leading your force, and you don't have to come up with a wobbly excuse why your chief librarian can single-handedly tear a whole nidzilla-force some new ones. - The commanders in C:SM are actually good, the only 'good' commanders we have are the special characters. Others are simply support characters or....Captains. - You can ally in a Furioso Dreadnought, which is much easier than again coming up with some weird excuses why any other Chapter than a BA-successor would have Baal Preds, a dedicated close-combat unit with jump-packs and artificer armour when there's already an Honour Guard to guard the Chapter Master, mindless berserkers that rip terminators apart with their bare hands(which is quite unusual for Codex Chapters with no flaw in their geneseed) and, and, and. - Other than cheaper devastators and maybe the Furioso Librarian, there's little in C:BA that really fits the Blood Ravens. Blood Angels lay heavy focus on close combat, the Blood Ravens are more of mixed allrounders like the Ultramarines. My suggestion: Use allies to beef up your force with a Librarian Dreadnought, an Assault Squad and Devastators, if you wish. Your main department would be chosen from C:SM, with Tigurius to lead your force and even another Librarian if you're into that. This way, including things that aren't very codex-like as the Sanguinary Guard, the Death Company, Baals, etc isn't possible and you don't have to come up with strange excuses for why a simple codex chapter without a flawed gene-seed uses such units. Snorri Thanks for the insight Snorri. I see what you're saying and its true, Tigerius would be a solid fit for theme as a "counts as" character. The major issue here is because I, like you, really like to make sure my concepts fit the book I am using with them BUT I am aiming for a full Clan Company of Iron Hands that will be using the Vanilla Dex (unless my local store sanctions the IH fandex, which isn't looking like a go for tournies and the like). That is going to be roughly 110 soldiers + vehicles / drop pods of vanilla marines, so if I am going to get more power armor it needs to be from a different book. So half the objective is Blood Ravens, and half is making a force I like in using the BA Dex. I've thought about it a lot and I can't think of a successor I like for the chapter, and I'm actually not the largest of any "angel" chapters, so I thought I would stuff the square shaped Ravens into the rectangular Blood Angels and see what I could munge together. But who knows, maybe by the time I even get around to making this a realty the new BA Dex will be out, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mysteriousmaskedmystery Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 take tacticals and storm talons or preds or whatever else you want from C:SM with a chaplain or captain for your commander, then take an allied detachment from C:BA with a libby, furiouso lib if you want it, assault squad and dev squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveclark890 Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 Have you thought about the Puppies? 4 HQ choices in the 2 HQ slots = 4 Rune Priests who would be your libbies, long fang squads and any vehicles for heavy support and groups of Grey Hunters for troops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenfeld Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 I actually have a seperate concept that would make use of the Wolves, I'm turning them into Scottish Bears, but the point is the same! http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/270296-thunderwolvesbears-wolfbear-wing/ The General Consensus seems to be that the BA aren't the Dex of choice, which is a shame because I don't really need another C:SM army (Iron Hands / Minotaurs) or SW's (Sons of Ursolon), so that really only leaves BA or DA, and between the two I think BA is the better option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenith Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 Take all of this with a pinch of salt. You are free to use the rules of whatever army you like for your Blood Ravens, but asking which codex would best represent your codex adherent space marines will always, generally get the same answer... :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenfeld Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 What if I were to make mine based around the 8th company, utilizing more assault troops than a standard battle company. Hrmm. Oh don't worry about that Xenith, I ask for peoples opinions and that's what I expect to get. I suppose now that I've received that input, yet I still feel like moving forward, I should make a new post asking how to best "compose" an army using C:BA for Blood Ravens. That is probably where I should have started to begin with actually, hind sight, am I right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenith Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 In terms of making the army, add what you like, just avoid death company... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenfeld Posted February 5, 2013 Author Share Posted February 5, 2013 Aside from the glaring clash in fluff for fielding DC, is there any game reason not too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenith Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 Aside from the glaring clash in fluff for fielding DC, is there any game reason not too? Nope, I love them, they're an awesome unit! I guess you could call them berzerkers or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenfeld Posted February 5, 2013 Author Share Posted February 5, 2013 Aside from the glaring clash in fluff for fielding DC, is there any game reason not too? Nope, I love them, they're an awesome unit! I guess you could call them berzerkers or something. See that would not be cool, haha. Stuffing in good units where they don't fit isn't my style. If I make a BR list, its gunna be as true to BR as it can be while still allowing me to do what I want. I wouldn't use DC, even though I've always loved them. Probably pretty basic units w/ Libby Dreads & Storm Ravens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenith Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 If I were doing BR, I would start with a reasonable line company-esque base. Solid firebase with decent countercharge. 1-2 Tac squads, Dev squad, assault squad to flavour. Epistolary leads, with a jump pack if you include assault marines, if not, he presciences tacs/devs. Stormrave+libby dreadand you're probably pushing 1500pts. If you want, Sanguinary guard double well as a space marine honour guard (arty armour+special power weapons+bolters). But I'm going through a sanguard phase at the moment. Marines have a version of the flamestorm Baal, so including one isn't too much of a stretch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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