Ravenwing Support Squadron: Best Land Speeder Varient.

[Rommel44]

Pretty straight forward question for you guys. For my bike list, I am most likely going to run with the Ravenwing from the Dark Angels. And from looking at the Codex and talking to people, many of them have suggested that I run the Ravenwing Support Squadron. While I do plan to field the Darkshroud, I am not sure which Land Speeder Varient I should run. To all of those who have had experience running it or have played against it, which landspeeder variant do you think would work best with this formation? I am considering the Typhoon for the long-range firepower, however some people have suggested one of the Tornado Varients would work as well, particularly the Multi-Melta & Hvy. Flamer combo. Anyways, appreciate any help you guys can give me.

[Vanguard06]

The Typhoon variant works well when it is able to maintain the standoff.  I have had some issues with being forced to jink for basic rapid fire weapons, ie bolters, when Imperial Fist deep struck.  The Tornado variant has been effective with the multi-melta and assault cannon as a close support platform for my Black Knights and Command Squad, I would be concerned with the flamer as it cannot snap-fire after you jink to survive being that close in the fight.

[SvenONE]

I think what you run is entirely based on what the rest of your list looks like.  That's sort of the beauty of the formation and the main reason I think it's one of the strongest entries in our codex.  If your list is a bunch of tacticals (lots of S4 shooting with limited mobility and a few special weapons), you probably want some typhoons to bring some high strength missiles to the battlefield.  If you're running say a Ravenwing List (mobile, durable, special weapons) you might want some high volume shooting in tornado patterns.  

 

The only one that I would kind of steer clear of is the heavy flamer, and that's only because it requires that you put the speeders close up and in danger.  Against say Orks, Nids or maybe some Bloodletters, go ahead and flame away.

 

The Darkshroud is excellent, but with the new and improved LSV, I'd say it's worth a mention depending on what the rest of your list is.  I won't say it's the greatest unit, but anything is better than what it was.

[Chaplain Lucifer]

For me it's a toss between Typhoon and Tornado. Like it was said, the Typhoon provides long range firebrand the Tornado provides anti infantry close support. If you have the chance to proxy it would probably worth it... Magnetize is an option if you can, so you can switch according to your needs.

[JLEAlloy]

I usually run a mix.  Two Typhoons and one tornado with he Darkshroud equipped with an assault cannon as well.

[Knight Angels]

Magnetize the weapons as lucifer mentioned and you can try out all setups. Simply learning by doing.

[Rommel44]

Appreciate the help. As it stands, I plan to field a Ravenwing Strike Force with Samuel, Command Squad, 2x Grav Bike Squads, 2x BK Squads, and a flyer to start. With that list I assume that a Tornado Varient with Assault Cannons would be best?

 

Model-wise, I was going to use the Land Speeder Tempest model and then magnetize a Hvy. Bolter on. Think that would work to be able to use it for both variations?

[Hidicul]

I like raking the vengeance in the formation, the plasma storm is amazing with interceptor. Other then that I run typhoons as anti-light armour and heavy infantry

[Elios Harg]

From a bang for your buck standpoint, heavy bolter & assault cannon are the most points efficient variant, followed by typhoon heavy bolter. Twin-heavy bolter, twin multi-melta and melta & missile are all somewhat less points efficient but very good at much more specialized roles (i.e. a trio of dual heavy bolter speeders is fairly inexpensive for a decent amount of anti-infantry firepower when points are tight). I would personally avoid flamer variants. I find it difficult to utilize all of of their weapons and they have to get far too close for comfort to be able to do anything.

[Tygwyn]

This might be a daft question and I'm away from my rule book/codex so could have looked it up, but is there anything stopping you linking a trio of Tornado pattern speeders with Sableclaw? If you could, from memory you'd get 16 Assault Cannon S6AP4 Rending shots (4TL) and 12 HB (I want To say S5AP4) shots (3TL) all from behind a Skilled Rider AV14, 4++ tanking platform for about 400(?) points that can basically be anywhere on the board with anti-grav up wash etc... Awesome anti-Infantry and anti light vehicles, especially with BS2 overwatch too. Is Sableclaw allowed to join a vehicle Squadron?

[Wrath of Bruinen]

This might be a daft question and I'm away from my rule book/codex so could have looked it up, but is there anything stopping you linking a trio of Tornado pattern speeders with Sableclaw? If you could, from memory you'd get 16 Assault Cannon S6AP4 Rending shots (4TL) and 12 HB (I want To say S5AP4) shots (3TL) all from behind a Skilled Rider AV14, 4++ tanking platform for about 400(?) points that can basically be anywhere on the board with anti-grav up wash etc... Awesome anti-Infantry and anti light vehicles, especially with BS2 overwatch too. Is Sableclaw allowed to join a vehicle Squadron?

That would be so cool, but sadly can't be done - sableclaw isn't allowed to join other squadrons. And the over watching landspeeders only comes from the support squadron formation - vehicles can't normally overwatch.

 

Sorry to disappoint :(

[Tygwyn]

Figured. What rule is it that stops it doing it?

[Wrath of Bruinen]

It's just because he's not an independent character, he can't join a unit

[Tygwyn]

I see. Rubbishly unfluffy that...

[Berzul]

What would be the best weapon to use when going for the Typhoon Missile Launchers?

 

I've read in a lot of places that if you run a Typhoon Landspeeder Squad, you should always stay at the longest range possible, (pretty much because you can) which makes the secondary weapon essentially useless. So from a points cost point of view, there is no reason to take the Multi Melta; since you shouldn't even be at 1 to 24 inch range.

 

But, I always used to think that multi meltas should pair nicely with the missiles, since at 24 inches, you can fire up to 3 S8 hits with each speeder. I've never tried it, but it just seems logical to me that this weapons should go together. You could have between 9 and 15 S8 shots in the Support Squadron, according to how many speeders you take. You can be devastating at close range, and if you find yourself without a close target (since you most likely took down whatever was stading near you), then you can still fire at something at 48 inches, while you move into a better position, rather than forgoing shooting for a turn to boost to a better side of the board.

 

Of course, this is an expensive variant. 85 points a piece is plenty, and I see the appeal in going for Tornado speeders with Assault Cannons instead. I actually run my one landspeeder as a Heavy Bolter + Assault Cannon variant to go along my ravenwing attack squadron.

 

But I've been planning to put together a support squadron, and this particular point I just can't solve yet.

[Wrath of Bruinen]

I think it depends on how you use the squadron. I initially had my typhoons kitted out with heavy bolters, for the reasons you gave. But I've been using my support squadron to shepherd a ravenwing command squad around the board (for the dark shroud's benefits), so they've been within 24" of some juicy targets anyway.

 

So if your plan is to have them hang out on your back line, stick with the heavy bolters. But if you plan on using them more dynamically, I've had some good experiences with the multi melta upgrade

 

Edit: I should also say that the best part about that debate is that the HB and MM are easily interchangeable. So you can try both out and see what you like

[Interrogator Stobz]

All the Typhoons in my RWSS have MMs, I find they are brilliant! The BS5 against non skimmer/flyers makes them fantastic at putting out the hurt on tough units (12 S8 AP3 and AP1 shots is nothing to sneeze at, the 8 Krak ones at 48" are good enough until things get dangerously close anyway).

I do have HBs on my single RWAS Typhoons as they really need to keep at range for survival reasons and their usual target selections as discussed by others above.

A good option would be to equip them all with HBs and magentize so you can swap in all the MMs you can afford in each game after you have filled your list with other stuff.

 

:D

stobz

[Chaplain Lucifer]

For instance, I use HB's so I can keep the Speeders as far away from harm as I can. At 36" only dedicated AT can usually reach them so they can jink the fewer shots easier, as opposed to 24" where they have to jink all sort of bolter, meltas and plasmas.