Duz does RG

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

@ duz_

 

Great responses overall, thanks for taking the time to respond to me, in the format you did. Glad to hear the rhinos/pods combination is working for you. I agree the 3 pod route as you move up in points is probably a good choice. I look forward to seeing that list more fleshed out.

[Shrieker]

 

Quick note: Any Raven Guard specific patterns should really be Kiavahr Pattern rather than Deliverance. Kiavahr is where all their special goodies are made.

 

Somethings are Deliverance Pattern. Somethings are Kiavahr Pattern, like one of the common combi-melta looks(which have 3 shots in lore). I'm betting it was just an 'oops' on FWs behalf, but you could take it as an opportunity for super secret Ravenspire tech.

Interstingly that three shot melta 's not made on kiavahr. The fluff is in the jacket of the LE novella 'ravenlord', alongside other nuggets like raptor heraldry and Arendi's classified post istvaan interrogation report where he confesses to errr.... wow.

It's a one off tailor made primarch sized special order from Corax to none other than Techno-Magos Arbal Godwyn himself, of Godwyn bolter pattern fame. Officially the Prototype Kiavahr-Pattern TG2-52M Combi-Weapon. It packs three shots as they could cram 3 fusion cells on the larger sized grip.

I know there was a reason i bought that immodestly priced book

Edited January 20, 2017 by Shrieker

[duz_]

Made some changes to the above list

 

Dropped the third scout squad to mount another in a LSS w/ h.bolter

This one will still be used to support the drop pod and now the scouts can move up to 12" in the movement phase in case the pod scatters too far away. Downside is they wont get shrouded first turn if they start inside the vehicle.

It also looks like my captain didn't have artificer in that list... now he does

 

 

Also long term I just got my company command squad and next week I'll get some DW bikes to mount them on.

My plan with these is to outflank them with scout bikes. I know I wont get ignores cover but outflanking bikes is still nice. Im trying to decide how to kit them right now I'm think

Apothecary

PF + SS + Grav gun

PA + SS + Grav gun

2x LC + Grav gun

Totals 290pts

Im wondering if I need another storm sheild in their or if I should drop the power weapons except the fist.

Its an expensive load out but does make them a very scary and somewhat durable Swiss army knife. This would be for more competitive games.

[duz_]

So I managed to fine a little bit of spare time this afternoon between house chores and flying out for work. It was just enough to finish off my termie squad! I also have another batrep to go up too.

[Claws and Effect]

How about power spears on your biker command squad?

[duz_]

RB I did actually think about that. I could use the GK halberds I have. Ill have to check the rules though. Im only familiar with the guard rough ride ones which are one use only.

Meanwhile another batrep installment.

I revised my previous list and had a game on Saturday.

I dropped the 3rd scout squad for a standard load out Land Speeder storm and also actually had the points for the artificer armour on the Cpt.

I played some traitorous Dark Angels.

He had a Lions Blade Demi Co.

It was a fairly basic load out with 3 maxed out tac squads with plasma guns and Sgts with power weapons and plasma pistols.

A cpt with power sword and plasma pistol, base chaplain.

A dev squad with 3 HBs and a Grav cannon.

Assault squad (forget their loadout they died the same turn they arrived. ;) )

5 man sniper scout squad.

This time we played on a 6x4 table. Still with heavy terrain. It was maelstrom mission 2: contact lost. One of my favourite maelstrom missions.

I deployed second, my opponent place his dev squad in a tall corner ruin on an objective. 2 tactical squads and his HQs in the centre ruin and a third on the far flank. The AMs were in DS reserve.

I deployed my two rhinos on the left flank facing off his one 10man squad. My devs and accompanying scouts took a ruin in the centre of my deployment zone. This gave them a good view of his devs and anyone dumb enough to emerge from the centre ruin.

My AM and cpt shred deployed on a ruined aquila in the centre of my deployment zone ready to bring the fight to them. My LSS deployed on the right flank. My 2nd scout squad infiltrated underneath (placed on top for ease of movement) a landing pad near the ruins his devs were in. His scouts infiltrated to the top of the centre ruin where another objective was.

During deployment I realised my first mistake. I had placed my objectives towards the centre of the field away from my deployment zone before I had checked what the mission was. For those who don't know in contact lost you only generate 1 maelstrom card for each objective you hold at the beginning of the turn. As it stood at the beginning of the game I was only holding 1 compared to my opponents 3. I was able to scouts my LSS to a second one. However the third was half an inch out of reach of my rhinos and I opted to keep them in cover and wait a turn instead of being a sitting duck in the open for his plasma gun to take me out first turn.

Moral of the story know your mission before place objectives!

First turn was uneventful for my opponent he didn't have much in range or LOS. He tried to shoot my infiltrated scouts but their 2+ cover save proved too much. His devs shot at my LSS but it jinked all his shots. Otherwise he moved his forces forward and scored a couple of points.

I went to place my drop pod behind the devs in the ruins. They needed to take out his devs they had a great view of the table and were going to generate a card for him each turn. Unfortunately I mishapped and my opponent placed the pod right in the middle of my deployment zone. So that squad got out and ran into some ruins. My LSS stayed where it was on its objective. My two rhinos flanked left to secure the 3rd objective. My AM moved forward to the ruins. My scouts ran into the ruins below where the devs were stationed.

In my shooting my opponent had placed both his lone HQs in the windows the the ruin in front of my devs. It was tempting to take WL and first blood in the first turn. However I decided given they were 2 individual ICs and not together as a unit I would take out his scouts holding an objective. Which with ignores cover and 6 hits from the two plasma cannon I did with ease. The two rhinos drop pod and a couple of marines too pot shots at his tac marines on his left flank dropping 1. My AM flamed and shot at his chaplain in the window then multi assaulted his cpt and chaplain. I lost a AM on the way in due to full BS overwatch from a plasma pistol. I issued a challenge his cpt accepted. First round was a drawn combat 1 wound each.

2nd turn his AM came in and scattered towards the landing pad right in front of my devs. He moved one squad to shoot the squad that came in via drop pod. Another squad moved to intercept my scouts. While the third consolidated into the ruins. The AMs ran onto the sky shield (4+ cover only ). His devs took out my LSS his grav immobilized it and the HBs finished it off.

He killed one marine in the ruins. In combat his captain lost a couple of wounds and his chaplain died. The combat remained though.

In my turn I moved the scouts a level below the devs readying for the charge. My rhinos held position as did everything else. The scouts shot at the devs killing one. The facts in the centre returned fire. The rhinos and co did the same as the previous run. My devs nuked the closely packed AMs with 8 AP2 ignore cover wounds.

My scouts made their charge winning combat by killing 1 dev and making them fall back.

The traitor captain fought for his life and survived another round.

Turn 3 my opponent ordered the closest squad to disengage my marines and assist the captain. The devs regrouped and took aim at my scouts. With another tac squad coming to support.

His shooting in effective that round killing one scout. In assault the second squad made their change. Just in time to see their captain killed and 3 more in the result. They held and combat continued with just my captain and 1 remaining AM making the traitors bleed.

In my turn I ordered a rhino to go grab the objective his sniper scouts had held earlier in the game. My devs twiddled their thumbs and the scouts advancing on his devs once again. The squads still in my deployment zone took pot shots at his flank. The rhino on its way to grab the objective got immobilized. The scouts shot at the devs and broke their will and they fled of the board.

In assault cpt shred destroyed all but 1 marine who fled.

At this point there wasn't much left. The final turn saw him finally kill the 3 remaining scouts (men of the match) that had caused his devs so much heart ache. And his other 2 remaining tac squads ineffectual.

We rolled and the game ended 9-4 to RG.

I was happy with how my revised list and tactics performed. My opponents list was far from optimized though and he made some odd tactical decisions. Such as having his chaplain and cpt (with just power armour and sword lead from the front by themselves? I guess they were the first wanting redemption).

I want to keep playing this list more. Its balanced and fun. It will wriggle against high toughness and grav heavy lists though.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Nice batrep! Glad to see Murderwings doling out the pain to those Dark Angel HQs! Look forward to more batreps! Each batrep I read gives me more positive vibes about your tactical squad use, especially the pod/rhino split you have been working.

[Claws and Effect]

Nice win.

 

I'm working on a list that features a BDC with a Contemptor and a maxed out Shadow Force led by Murderwings. I'll post it sometime soon.

[NiceGuyAdi]

Really liking these reports, Duz. Coming back from the game after so long away I'm getting a nice idea of using RG in practice from your write-ups. I see Plasma Cannons talked down a lot, but with ignores cover from the Pinion Scouts they look to be working well.

[Valaas]

Loving your fully painted city fight terrain!

 

I'm finishing off a wilderness snow board in my 'War Room' in the Ravenspire, then it's onto my 4x4 Zone Mortalis and a city board"

 

Seeing your Batreps on your board is definitely motivational to get some more terrain ticked off.

 

Cheers,

Valaas

[duz_]

Plasma cannons still have a place in the game. I love running my plasmacutioner in my guard lists (up to 5 shots per turn!). They get work done and super versatile. Ignores cover just makes them extremely effective.

Good to here Valaas, full disclosure that's my local GWs table top though.

Quick update I'm stuck on a work trip this week but brought some stuff to keep me occupied. Ill add heads when I get home as I need my bits box. Ill also add the antenna when I get home too. I don't want it snapping in transit.

Next to build is my bike command squad. ;)

[duz_]

So got a little bit of hobby progress done last week.

Got my tac squads up to a 3 colour minimum. I also managed to complete 2 of the Sgts (no pics of them atm)

I also received my 3rd party Assault cannons, I'm yet to assemble them though. As most my current lists cant afford Razorbacks, let alone ACs!

I also put together Greyfax! I plan on using her in a 1650pt game tonight against some Genestealer Cult.

Apologies in advance for any typos or poor formatting. I am doing this from my phone as my laptop wifi is busted and with where my router is positioned using a cable isn't an option.

Batrep:

So the mission was tactical escalation. Dawn of war deployment on the heavily terrained table you've all come to know. My opponent was Thousand sons. We played 1500pts. Deployment was hammer and anvil.

The lists:

So with the extra 500pts I was able to pad out to a full TSF with 1st co task force.

My pinion stayed more or less the same. Im quite happy with the build for what it costs and is a moderately powered take all comers list.

The modifications included just 2 close combat squad 5 man scout unit 1 with teleport hormer. The captain was just standard with a power sword. In future I will get a chaplain and use them for a bare bones HQ I think. Also the dev lascannons became multimeltas.

The 1st co task force consisted of

5 man thundernator terminators

5 man sternguard with full melta multi melta in drop pod

5 man sternguard with dual grav guns and sgt with combi grav rhino

My opponent took

Arhiman

2x 5 man TS terminators

2x 5 man rubric marines

And Im pretty sure that's all he could fit in his list. The terminator squad sgts were ML2 psykers. One had the AC the other the AP3 heavy flamers. That thing hurt!

My opponent deployed first.

Putting the two regular marines in his deployment zone. His WL trait gave him D3 infiltrators and he rolled a 6. So after I deployed he oddly placed 1 terminator squad in ruins near my assault marines. Arhiman by himself hiding in a small ruin in the middle of my deployment zone and the second terminator squad about 12" away from Arhiman in the corner of my deployment zone.

I opted to go heavy on 1 flank. Putting my devs in a well positioned ruin on objective. (Remember my error of objective placement previously). Their scout support hid out of sight at the bottom. My assault marines started in a ruin further forward. The two tac marine rhinos and sternguard rhino were in a closely spaced line towards the end of my deployment zone making the most of cover and positioning themselves close to any potential objectives. The terminators and 2 drop pods were in DS reserve.

Turn 1

I siezed!

I drop my 10 drop pod right on top of Arhiman and piled out surrounding him and making sure I was within 9" of scouts support.

My grav rhino pulled back towards the terminators in my deployment zone. My AM walked forward and my rhinos held position. The scouts in the ruins shuffled forward. Supported by the terminators which showed up first turn. Thanks TSF!

Thanks to terrible rolling by me even with ignores cover, melta, grav and the imperial SM I put 1 wound on arhiman thanks to some better save rolling from my opponent. Uhoh... so I thought

I scored my point for the turn.

My opponent pushed his terminator squad towards my AMs. He also shuffled his other terminators slightly closer to the action. The tacs stayed put. Arhiman came out of cover. Psychic phase could of been painful. For some reason my opponent rolled mostly technomancy powers trying to disable the grav rhino. He also possessed the drop pod squad and fired at the rhino too. Thanks to night fight and intervening cover my rhino escaped unscathed. I lost a man or two to the AP3 rounds from the terminators.

My AMs not realising these foul traitors had such warp tainted weapons died to the flamers giving up first blood. Ap3 heavy flamers are rough especially when the unit takes a toughness test afterwards which forces D3 more wounds with no armour or cover saves.

Pics:

Turn 2

This turn my meltaguard showed up dropping down next to the terminators that fried my AMs. The grav rhino disembarked its passengers next to the second squad or terminators. My terminators cleared the ruins and lined up for a charge against the marines holding an objective.

My meltaguard even with PE selected for that squad only killed 2/5... again cold rolls vs hot rolls. I did nuke Ahriman though and only 1 terminator from the gravguard. The terminators made their charge. However only killed 1 marine and the combat continued.

In his turn he killed my meltavets and wiped out 3/5 gravguard. I had hoped to get the better of them knowing this would happen if I didn't. But that's why we play this game the dice gods make it interesting.

In assault my marines finished off the marines and consolidated towards his other squad.

My next turn was more or less a mop up. The reason there is no more photos is because at this point because of some D3 cards I'd scored it was 8-1 and my opponent was running out of bodies. So he called it.

The game was a bit lopsided. He made some odd tactical decisions I had never played or met him before so I kept my input to a minimal. He acted like he knew what he was doing and I was unfamiliar with the army so I let him being figuring he probably had some nasty surprise coming. It didn't... the TS getting a 4++ is pretty nice though I wish my GK terminators would!

As for my list the first co task for is super expensive. I like being able to get my fearleas terminators in there though. Especially with teleport hornets.

Sternguard and vanguard still seem to be more miss then hit for me... I want them to work, but Im not sure for their price if they'll ever really achieve what I want.

Anyways I hope you at least enjoy the pics.

Edited February 2, 2017 by duz_

[Race Bannon]

Oh yes that turret!  Can't wait for pics of that on a tank.  A few plans will be affected by them ^_^

 

I love these game pics!

[duz_]

So batrep inserted.

 

I had an interesting and somewhat competitive game against GSC tonight.

 

No pictures for that one, but an insightful write will follow.

 

First time I played against them. Lots of lessons learnt!

[Furiyen]

Loving all this, Duz. Keep it up, the batreps are awesome to read.

 

I see a Stormraven in your future for those Sternguard.....

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Great writeup, also I am loving that Greyfax model. I really need to get one!

 

At 1500 points, that TSons list had virtually no mobility (short of the Infiltrate). The 1st Co TF seemed to do alright, were you pleased with the Terminators? It seemed like a decent matchup. I still want to try FCTF with 3 podding units and librarius conclave with a librarian attached to each, drop into the heart of the enemy and unload with Psychic Scream with that delicious LD penalty.

 

Looking forward to reading the GSC writeup!

[duz_]

Thanks!

 

Hrmm stormraven... if I did I would have to get one of those extended body kits! Its such and oddly proportioned kit! And expensive too (pointswise)!

 

Speaking of which, I order 4 sets of mk7 RG shoulder pads today! I should have them by the 20th ish. Yay! Now I just need to order some mk6 for my vets.

 

I was pleased with the terminators. Tbh I think they're a very underrated unit. Each time I've come actually them they have been quite formidable. Especially if they can get up in your face quickly. They've even tougher with fearless from FCTF. I think they may replace my second grav sternguard squad as a staple for that formation.

As for the 3 drop pod list. That's how I had initially started to run my 1st co.

2x 5 man grav units and 1x 5 man melta. What I found with that was although they could get close to their targets. There was always a chance they could scatter to a less than optimal position. And the biggest issue I had was once they were out if they didn't kill their target it was generally goodnight for them the next turn. Just like what happened with my melta vets against the TS.

I played like that for a bit and found that more often than not they got nuked the following turn. Even if they didn't they were stuck foot slogging with fairly short range weapons.

I find mixing in a some rhinos for mobility and durability really help with their overall effectiveness.

 

I am not going to do a full report on the GSC. We called the match after round 3 as we both had to leave. I lost 6-10 and it was looking fairly grim for me unless my talons started bringing the pain quickly.

 

Things to note however

 

1st my list

1650pts (it was originally meant to be 1500. I asked to goto 1650 so I could greyfax in. I think this may have been a mistake. A cheap inquisitor with servo skulls would have been better. My opponent got more for the extra points than I did.

Regular pinion demi co I've been rocking with

1 5man bolter scout squad with HB to support the plasma / lascannon devs

Murderwings

SSKT

2 5man ccw scouts with homers

1 5man VVs 1 SS/TH, 4 LCs

Raptorwing

2 talons ACs and the 3 shot MLs

1 speeder w AC/HB

 

On the SSKT I've been thinking for a while how to make the most of the 9" 2 scouts no scatter thing. I've come to the conclusion youre way better off spending the 10pts for the two homers. You don't have to place so close together and it gives you much more flexibility on where you can come in.

 

Lessons learnt with GSC

 

Deploy first and aggressively

Not having played the army before I wanted to see what my opponent did and try and counter deploy

Well he put his 2 non ambushing units down and was done

All I had done was conceded first turn. You want first turn against these guys!

 

If they use their formations units that have ambush get turn 1 shrouded and non vehicles get ambush

Being RG I know how handy T1 shrouded is and it did cause me some grief

He also got to roll 2D6 for his ambush rolls which gives him a 1/3 of assault from infiltrate or extra shooting too

 

He then rolled to infiltrate everything on the board

Greyfax helped to keep them at bay but seeing as this ability only works for deployment servo skulls are cheaper

 

His next turn he pretty much took everything off the board to reambush the next turn

 

GSC can summon with just 2 warp charges and they only perils on double 6s!

Not to mention the summoned unit comes on via ambush. So hyper mobile objective scoring potential

 

I think it was via wargear but all his non guard units had rending and swung I4 S4! So they're no slouches in CC. I was lucky he didn't roll many in combat

 

Now they do crumble to a stiff fart if they're not in combat

Flamers are their bane and even bolters if they're in the open will wreck their day

 

If I was to face them again I'd probably go demi co or gladius

They don't get obsec thank god and although they can crack open rhinos with rock grinders it means the next turn you can just toast them

The SSKT and murderfangs did do work, but were lucky they didn't have to face too many rending results

 

Raptor wing will get work done too

[ShinyRhino]

Did you run into any sizing issues with your FW Rhino doors? For a while, FW doors had a huge problem with being too small to fit properly in the Rhino doorways. Have they fixed that, or did you have to do some alterations to get them to fit?

[Race Bannon]

Aw man, they fixed that?  Wow, I have some really old FW doors.

[duz_]

Well tbh they're fauxworld...
I couldn't justify the 15£ price tag per rhino when I could literally get 6 doors for the price of 2 FW ones before shipping and conversion...
Normally I try to keep my business with GW and when I purchase my Mk6 helmets and shoulder pads they will be FW.
However this situation was I was either gonna have them or not and I really wanted to bling my rhinos (they're so dull otherwise).

To answer your question. If these are based off the current FW ones. They seem to fit OK. They're not perfect and in my last one there was a smallish maybe 0.5mm gap between the bottom of the front plate and the chassis. However its not super noticeable. As for the side doors they fit nice and snugly.
My first one I filled in the gaps and flushed the front plate with GS. I didn't bother doing that with my last 2 though.

[duz_]

So made some progress on my 2 other rhinos thanks to the event we are currently running!
Next up will be my land speeder for my Raptor Wing.

I also assembled the turrets I bought off ebay.

Overall impressions

The casts aren't the greatest, theyre a bit warped

1 of them I had 2 of the same piece so I couldnt complete the turret. I contacted the seller and they said they would send out a replacement.
I guess they will do for now, but in future I think I might use the Chapter house ones. They are comparable in price and come with magnets so you can switch between the 3 options!

Also these ones are a bit long compared to standard AC's. So I will probably see where the GW ones come to in length and measure from there so I dont get people complaining unfair advantage.

[duz_]

A couple of WiP shots of my landspeeder which I have vowed.

This forms part of my raptor wing.

I couldnt decide which camo to go with. This or the dazzle like my rhinos. I went the the digicam because this is a spotter vehicle and wants to be concealed. As opposed to dazzle which more about misperception.

Im stil deciding where the pilots will also have camo or plain black "flight suits".

The lazy hobbyist says plain. The my studious says camo. My only concern with having them in camo too is that it might be too much for 1 model. Although the marines patterns would be smaller.

Edited February 16, 2017 by duz_

[WAR]

Wow

[Race Bannon]

 Seconded.  I mean ...

 

'nuff said.

[duz_]

Thanks :)

There's a reason my drop pod has been sitting around with just one panel done for 6 months now ...

Made some more progress. Finished off the major patterns now to go back over and block them out more. After this then its some white scar dots to act as pseudo highlights.

Im thinking I will paint the crew in cam too.

If I get a solid painting session sunday I might get close to completing it?