Best Ravenwing Support Squadron Loadout ?

[Brother_Darius]

Questilnis straight forward but answer may not be. Personally I only have one Darkshroud/Vengeance kit, sothe RWS is how I'm getting the DS on the field.

 

When you could break your speeder off into a single unit the Typhoon was king. Now that the speeders all need to be fielded together, I'm not so sure. Plus, the DS (IMHO) needs to be close to the field so I think that may dictatae loadout for this unit.

 

So give me your best two loadouts

 

1) 3-5 SPeeders lead by the Darkshroud ?

 

2) 3-5 Speeders lead by the Land Speeder Vengeance?

[IndigoJack]

I really like the DS + 3x typhoon speeders still because of how flexible it is. Just watch out for deep strikers behind the unit, as you can't intercept what you can't see.

[Centurio]

The Darkshroud has Shrouded, which will make the entire squadron Shrouded. So I think it is better than the vengeance in this formation. I'm doing 2 squadrons... 1 with a Darkshroud with assault cannon and 3 speeders with assault cannon and heavy bolter, the other with a Darkshroud and 3 speeders with 2 heavy bolters each. Finally a use for all those speeders I have!

[MoonPhoenix]

The Darkshroud has Shrouded, which will make the entire squadron Shrouded. 

 

Yep, and he give Stealth to spiders, which will make the entire squadron also Stealthed :)

[swartsengagger]

I think I'm going to try 3x speeder with assault cannon and the vengeance(with AC) first. Gives you 16 S6 AP4 rending shots, 9 S5 AP4 shots and the plasma blast of 3 shots.

I'll be using them to cover my Ravenwing Command Squad "death star" unit. And the big plasma blast is awesome on intercept ^^ byebye terminators :3

 

I'm just a bit worried about the Gets Hot! but well, you've got to risk it to get the biscuit.

[TheAvengingKnee]

I have had great luck with assault cannons on my speeders, with interceptor from the formation it allows them to kill most things that will drop in. to try and attack my other units. I have 2 kits that could make Darkshrouds/LS Vengance, 1 is already a darkshroud I am debating if I want to build a vengance or just make the 2nd one into a 2nd darkshroud and get a couple more speeders to field a 2nd formation of them. 

[Liberame]

 

The Darkshroud has Shrouded, which will make the entire squadron Shrouded.

 

 

Yep, and he give Stealth to spiders, which will make the entire squadron also Stealthed :)

Ahhh stealthy spiders!!!

 

I'd personally run a bunch of assault cannons but keep the shroud with its bare bones heavy bolter

[SvenONE]

You can still break a speeder off from a RWAS so all is not lost.

 

I think a Darkshroud is always going to win out.  While the cost, HP, and range of the LSV all changed, the 7th edition Jink changes really hurt it.  It's counter productive to field a unit whose only means of survival limits its very offensive output.

 

Darkshroud + any number of speeders in my book.  I think what armaments you take is always going to depend on the rest of the list.  With the amount of Grav/Melta you can take on normal bikes, I think Heavy Bolters and maybe Assault Cannons peppered in are a nice use of support squadrons.

[Chaplain Lucifer]

One more voice to Dark Shroud + Speeders. LSV is cool, but I prefer survivability over firepower. The longer the speeders last, the more damage they can do over time.

[SnakeChisler]

Its going to depend on tactics

 

3 HB speeders to shield a Vengeance as wounds putting some on or near cover

 

3 HB Speeders to shield a Dark Shroud against ignores cover

 

1 Dark Shroud in Cover to Shield 3 Typhoons

 

Given the fact that the Dark Shroud Buffs the Pants of the Ravenwing I think its going to be standard to take 2 anyway 1 as Support Squad 1 running with the bikes

[Pigshead]

I played my first game with the new codex yesterday, I took a Dark Shroud and three Typhoons in my list. Imagine my surprise when my opponent turned up with 3 bloodthirsters, a huge unit of bloodletters and a soul grinder.

Anyway, I can't recommend this unit enough. Thankfully there wasn't much in the way of shooting coming at them, and by backing away and letting other units take the charges of the blood thirsters I kept the speeder unit unharmed. They killed 1 blood thirster outright, and took the majority of wounds off the other two, as well as killing about 60% of the bloodletter unit.

I can't recommend them enough.

[WellSpokenMan]

It's expensive, but I am going to run it with a DS and 3 Typhoons.  I'll put MM on at least 2 of those and the entire Squadron will follow my RWCS on the initial charge and Spam Str 8 shots on something I think needs to die.  After the Black Knights get into CC, I will back off, Jink like crazy,  and get into position to lob long range shots at my opponent.  The DS might not survive that initial run, but the Typhoons should.  At maximum range they should be fairly safe, very little of the Str 4 and 5 shots that can shred a Speeder will reach that far.

[Kr80gZ]

Ran DS + 3 Speeders on the weekend.  Loved it!  I had Meltas on them but going to swap them out and just kit everything with Heavy Bolters next time due to the Overwatch assist rules.  :)

 

Might try Typhoons... as I have little to no Anti-air support in the list currently...

[Loar]

I think overall the synergy and force multiplyer makes the darkshroud loadout the best most of the time.

 

HOWEVER, I do see one aspect of the vengeance that people are neglecting, the fact that its plasma battery is on a turret, meaning it gets 360 degree field of view.  This means no matter where someone is deepstriking/reserving their unit in from it won't be safe from a large blast plasma interceptor shot as long as it is in range and has LOS, which is pretty big for 360 degrees and 36 inch range.  Much of the interceptor ability of the support squadron is limited by what most the time is a 45 degree field of view from all the hull mounted weapons, a clever player can DS in around that and not worry about the interceptor hitting back.  The vengeance says absolutely NO to that, and if it gets a single shot off in this fashion it has a good chance of paying for itself right then and there.

 

Overall I still think the darkshroud is gonna be seen most the time.  But if I had to break them down into two seperate squads it would be:

 

x3 landspeeders with typhoons (maybe MM upgrade if I have the points elsewhere) with Darkshroud

 

x3 landspeeders with x2 HB with Vengeance.

 

In these two scenarios the darkshroud should be in front to tank for the typhoons and give its other benefits to bikes in front of it.  In the other loadout the HB landspeeders should be in front to protect the vengeance, giving a huge amount of weight of fire for peppering squads/overwatch and letting the vengeance do its thing.  An interesting list would be fielding both of these in fact as that is a lot of support firepower to backup your other bikes, and each one would still be able to compliment and support the other.  This in fact would be a pretty deadly foil to the dreaded deepstriking wraithguard/DE allies units everyone is afraid of (either in a raider or no scatter warpfield).  The typhoons pop any transport, and the vengeacne proceeds to just delete the whole squad inside.

[Brother_Darius]

I was initially think a DS with 3 dual HB in one squad. Clearing the runway for the DW

Second squad Vengence with three Typhone's. Providing long range cover, antitank, and interceptor duty.

 

now I'm not so sure

[Jazzhands]

Two things

 

Firstly I believe that 3 land speeders is the minimum for this formation so why not take more?

 

Secondly regarding ds units behind the formation don't forget that they don't all have to be facing the same way! Cut down on shots in your shooting phase but I found it takes care of pesky haywire loving swooping hawks nicely

[Elios Harg]

I like the idea of running two squadrons in tandem. One with an AC dark shroud with hb/ac speeders, the other with vengeance and hb/tml speeders.

 

By running them in close proximity, the vengeance squadron gets the advantage of stealth. You may also be able to use one squadron to provide a 2+ non-jink cover save for the other. They get to cover each other well with ravenshield. And they create a disgusting anti-reserves zone.

[Jazzhands]

Yeah I'm saving up for this now!

[SvenONE]

Long ago I said one of the ways the LSV could work is by allowing it to roll with the RWSS. Now that thats possible I'm not so sure I am any more inclined to run it. The change to jink in 7th hurt it too much I think.

 

I think it's still worth it to try, like a lot of you have said.

 

But, the fact the Darkshroud can be brought in a squadron is just so good. Thats something no other codex can do. Until the rules get clarified, RAW that speeder squad is getting stealth and shrouded and I think its worth it to double down on your squad and go a full 5 with all the bells and whistles that your army might need.

[Syphid]

I was thinking of running Assault Cannon + Heavy Flamer speeders with a Darkshourd as a close support unit for an assaulting unit.  Either that or a Vengeance with Typhoons to lay down lots of blast templates at range.

[Jazzhands]

So far I'm mixing two assault cannons with two tml and heavy bolters around. Add the dark shroud and you have enough stopping power to take on any enemy