What have your Raven Guard done lately?

[Claws and Effect]

HUZZAH!

 

This day, May the Fourth, elements of the Raven Guard 4th Company tallied their first ever VICTORY!

 

VICTOROUS AUT MORTIS!

 

Made all the sweeter by the fact that I earned the win by killing the hated Tau.

 

My Captain on a bike with the Teeth of Terra (that I finished literally 2 hours before the game) was the undisputed MVP after ripping through a unit of Fire Warriors then killing a Broadside in CQC.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Claws and Effect

[Stoic Raptor]

Sometime soon I've got to get off my duff and set up the lightbox, but here's an off-the-desk shot of my Raptors Vanguard Librarian. I'm much more satisfied with the stippling method I used on the camo cloak, as opposed to my attempt at flecktarn on the Captain.

[thewarriorhunter]

Really nice job on the camo cloak. I've not been happy with how mine is turning out but had some inspiration over the weekend. I'm hoping to have some time to test it out and see if I can pull it off.

[duz_]

Relatively quiet on the RG (and hobby in general) front for me lately been travelling the last 2 weeks for work

 

I did however receive a bunch of these bases today

 

I had purchased some for my IG a month or so back and really liked how they looked so decided I would re-base my RG with them too.

If only i hadn't used plastic glue on their feet though....

[Stoic Raptor]

Really nice job on the camo cloak. I've not been happy with how mine is turning out but had some inspiration over the weekend. I'm hoping to have some time to test it out and see if I can pull it off.

 

Thanks.  It was actually fairly simple.  Get a drybrush that's soft, preferably round, but with a bit of firmness to the bristles (I use the old red-handled Citadel large drybrush.  Wipe the paint off almost as much as you would when drybrushing but instead of drawing it across the surface, jab it in.  Stippling gives a much softer, better blended effect than any other way I've tried before.

[Claws and Effect]

The 4th Company's Leviathan Dreadnought with twin grav flux just translated from the Warp.

 

Now to decide if he's going to be black, white, or some combination thereof.

[duz_]

I was gonna buy one when they announced the sale

 

Apparently I was too slow. :(

 

Clearly black with white arms. ;)

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

I was gonna buy one when they announced the sale

 

Apparently I was too slow.

 

Clearly black with white arms.

 

It took 2 days for mine to arrive. They announced the sale and I ordered within 5 minutes.

 

Got myself the Levi with 2x Stormcannons

I needed to get myself to the $120 for free shipping, so I tossed in a Legion Vigilator (I think ill use him as a stand-in Vindicare)

[Jacques Corbin]

I was gonna buy one when they announced the sale

 

Apparently I was too slow. :(

 

Clearly black with white arms. ;)

Or, white arms, black torso, and faded blue legs, cuz LEVIs... ;p

[Claws and Effect]

Today a kill team drawn from elements of the 4th Company won a single elimination tournament to celebrate my local GW stores birthday.

 

Took down AdMech and Ultras to do it. My team consisted of 3 Intercessors and 3 Infiltrators pretending to be Reivers for a day.

 

The AdMech had fearsome guns but withered under the return fire.

 

I just outplayed the Ultras (rolling 5 6s in a row at a crucial moment helped too).

[thewarriorhunter]

My combined forces of Raven Guard and Spectral Sicarii are preparing a small detachment for this week's 650 game. They are hoping that the newly anointed Contemptor Mortis will be a valuable asset on the field of battle.

 

The list is as follows:

 

 

++ Patrol Detachment (Imperium - Space Marines) [47 PL, 3CP, 650pts] ++

 

+ HQ +

 

Primaris Lieutenants

. Primaris Lieutenant: Master-crafted stalker bolt rifle, Storm of Fire, The Armour Indomitus, Warlord

 

+ Troops +

 

Scout Squad

. Scout Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Storm bolter

. 3x Scout w/Boltgun

. Scout w/Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter

 

Tactical Squad

. 4x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Chainsword, Storm bolter

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Missile launcher

 

+ Fast Attack +

 

Inceptor Squad: Assault bolter x2, 2x Inceptor, Inceptor Sergeant

 

+ Heavy Support +

 

Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought

. Two twin lascannons: 2x Twin lascannon

 

Devastator Squad: Armorium Cherub

. 2x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Boltgun

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Lascannon

 

 

Running a patrol so I can get more bodies in with the contemptor sucking up points. I'm planning on reserving my 3 CP for Wisdom of the Ancients and Hellfire Shells, and possibly an Auspex Scan (doubtful).

 

What usually hurts me in games is the devastators have been my only AT unit and once they're gone I get rolled because I can't kill anything. Hopefully with this list I don't face a horde... lol.

 

My LT is going to stay with my contemptor or devastators, depending on how the field looks. I can pop the dreadnought strat for rerolls on hits so if I can keep that and the devastators within 6 of each other that would be good, combined with the LT I should have some reliable shooting.

 

Scouts will hopefully be able to grab an early objective and the marines will move around to where I need them. Because they might need to be mobile I'm debating if I should swap out the ML for a plasma rifle or melta gun so there's no penalty to hit.

 

Inceptors will come down turn 2/3 to give fire support where I need it. If I end up moving my contemptor around he could be a potential LZ for them so I could pop the strat so they're rerolling all of their hits. If that takes place I would think whatever infantry squad they open up should evaporate with 18 S5 AP-1 shots going at them.

[thewarriorhunter]

Scrap my previous post. I've got my first ever custom scenario lined up for Thursday at 1250 points and I am really excited. Most people want to play 2k ITC Matched Play and that's not really my style. My opponent is bringing orks on wheels. We talked a bit and to help balance out his mobile army against my infantry we came up with a really cool scenario IMO.

 

Scenario: A derelict drop pod has been discovered by the Ork war party and they are racing through city ruins to 'get da lootz' that has been scattered around it from impact and previous fighting. A combined force of Raven Guard and Spectral Sicarii lie in wait to ambush the war caravan and destroy it before the orks are able to grab the marine tech and escape the battlefield.

 

VPs will be awarded for me by killing vehicles. My opponent will need to grab objectives and flee the battle field. We each will have a total of 8 potential VPs for this mission. We're going to throw down a lot of terrain on the table to make it congested. This will allow me to get to the 2nd floor and not get run over while giving my opponent cover during his approach. He will deploy first entirely, and then I will.

 

He's bringing two each of war buggies, scrapjets, and war trikes along with bodies in the war buggies.

 

I've tailored my list as best I can with the painted models that I have:

 

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [88 PL, 8CP, 1,250pts] ++

 

+ HQ +

 

Captain in Cataphractii Armor: Chainfist, Combi-melta, Storm of Fire, Warlord

 

Primaris Captain: Master-crafted auto bolt rifle, The Armour Indomitus

 

+ Troops +

 

Intercessor Squad: Auxiliary Grenade Launcher, Bolt rifle

. 4x Intercessor

. Intercessor Sergeant: Chainsword

 

Scout Squad

. Scout Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Boltgun

. 3x Scout w/Boltgun

. Scout w/Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter

 

Tactical Squad

. 4x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Boltgun

. Space Marine w/Special Weapon: Plasma gun

 

Tactical Squad

. 4x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant

. . Boltgun/Bolt pistol

. Space Marine w/Special Weapon: Meltagun

 

+ Elites +

 

Cataphractii Terminator Squad

. Cataphractii Sergeant: Combi-bolter, Grenade harness, Power sword

. Cataphractii Terminator: Chainfist, Combi-bolter

. Cataphractii Terminator: Combi-bolter, Power fist

. Cataphractii Terminator: Combi-bolter, Power fist

. Cataphractii Terminator: Combi-bolter, Lightning Claw

 

+ Fast Attack +

 

Assault Squad: Jump Pack

. 4x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Chainsword, Melta bombs, Plasma pistol

 

Inceptor Squad: Assault bolter x2, 2x Inceptor, Inceptor Sergeant

 

+ Heavy Support +

 

Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought

. Two twin lascannons: 2x Twin lascannon

 

Devastator Squad

. Space Marine Sergeant: Boltgun

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Plasma cannon

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Plasma cannon

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Lascannon

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Lascannon

 

I'll try and deploy where I can to have effective firing lanes with everything. My inceptors and terminators will stay in DS until T2 or T3 depending on how it's going. I'm going to try and keep the inceptors near the cataphractii captain for the rerolls and Storm of War. My assault squad may start on or off the table. I've gave the Sgt Melta Bombs hoping that they can get close enough to a vehicle to use them. The goal is to hide them behind LOS blocking terrain and then hop them out within 4".

 

I would love to make my Inceptors the plasma variety but adding those puts me 92 points over. I could drop the scout squad but then I still have another 28 points that I have to shave and I'm not sure where to do that so I think assault bolters is the order of the day. I also realize my terminators are slow so I'm going to have to find a point on the field that is going to force my opponent to come to them. Because once they've been passed they'll probably be out of position for at least a turn or two.

[thewarriorhunter]

The combined forces of Raven Guard and Spectral Sicarii were incredibly successful in their ambush of the Orks who were attempting to steal critical pieces of equipment and technology. The fact that Brother <redacted> was assigned to the ambush force in his Contemptor chasis was a deciding factor in the engagement. Scouts deployed in critical choke points to force the ork vehicles into kill zones that had been set up by the Raven Guard devastator squad and Contemptor. The Orks didn't know there was an engagement until one of their battle wagons was blasted to pieces in the opening volley of the engagement. From there chaos ensued and the Orks scrambled to race through the city under heavy fire. In the end the tactical precision and devastating heavy weapons volleys routed the Ork caravan. The marines stood strong having suffered minimal casualties and entirely protecting the objectives.

 

Hidden Content

 

TL;DR: A Mortis Contemptor with Twin Las Cannons in ruins/cover is good.

 

The game was a landslide victory for me. I enjoyed the game and my opponent was great but I felt bad that it was so one sided. I hate being on the losing end of stompings but the winning end doesn't feel much better. I'd have preferred a closer game but this was a custom scenario we put together. We both learned a few things and recognized some balancing issues mid game. Because we played in a ruined city and I had everything on the 2nd floor his vehicles were only able to shoot at me. My opponent said that normally he gets charges off and does a lot of damage but I mitigated most of that. Were we to set it up again I'd have less multi story ruins so that I would be forced to either be safe in a bad spot of have a good spot but risk getting charged more. I was doing so well that I considered not bringing my terminators and Inceptors on turn 3 but decided I should so I didn't let the game get away.

 

Here are is the army I took per my list in my last post:

 

 

He deployed on his edge and I deployed anywhere on my half of the table, Hammer and Anvil. I kept my Terminators and Inceptors in Reserve.

 

 

 

 

 

I went first and in turn 1 my devastators and contemptor took out one of his battlewagons. His orks all made it out and it didn't explode.

 

 

I had my scouts blocking off this part of the board to be a speed bump. It slowed his trike and scrap jet down because they couldn't advance past me. It forced them to either slow down or get in the sites of my heavy weapons.

 

 

Turn 1 after his movement right before he started shooting:

 

 

The scouts did there job and were gloriously chopped up. We didn't even roll for this combat, I just pulled them since 2 scouts were not making that many 4+ saves.

 

 

Turn 2 end of his movement. Note the lack of his second battle wagon... that too was destroyed by my heavy weapons. The Mortis Contemptor was such a beast in this game. It was hitting on 2s, rerolling 1s with the captain near it, and wounding everything on 3s and I was rolling really good damage. Against the second battle wagon I rolled 4 hits for 17 damage with my contemptor alone.

 

 

He brought in his storm boys and he payed CP to bring in a mob of 26 boys in my back lines.

 

 

 

Trikes and warboss moving up.

 

 

 

 

Turn 3 I brought in my reserves to bolster the mid-field. My cataphractii captain was hiding under that building giving Storm of War and reroll 1s to hit to that entire building... it was good for me, bad for my opponent.

 

 

Intercessors being overrun and calling for help and my opponent finally getting some charges off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The showdown between my Warlord and his Warboss. My captain used his chainfist to cleave the warboss in half.

 

 

My favorite shot of the game.

 

 

[duz_]

So pretty

Love the pictures and all the painted minis and terrain :D

[thewarriorhunter]

It was a great looking game and table. I'm very happy that I can field so many painted minis. I think I'm up to ~1350 painted now across both forces which is really nice. Slowly but surely my SS will take over and the RG will be less and less.

[longjohnsilver]

That's a brilliant battle report, thewarriorhunter.

 

I've found a Raven Guard Chaplain's Litany of Hate in a short story from issue 35 of Conquest (the one with the Primaris Chaplain) and this is it without the story:

 

(For the background Chaplain Lorcus of the Raven Guard and his marines are beset on all sides by beserkers and Khorne Daemons and after a chainaxe to the head he gets slightly annoyed and recites the Litany of Hate and then starts smashing everything with the Crozius or blasting it with his plasma pistol, so every line is a killing blow.)

 

I am vengeance! I am justice!

 

I am the bane of the heretic and the mailed fist of the Emperor!

 

I am fury given form!

 

I dispense His justice with each shot and strike!

 

Hatred is His gift unto me .. and in return I offer the blood of His enemies!

 

None shall stand before my wrath!

 

Forward, bothers[sic]! Death or glory awaits us!

[Claws and Effect]

Today the Raven Guard 4th Company engage an unknown foe.

 

The venerable Fire Raptor Wraithwind is joining them to dispense the Emperor's justice once again.

 

My background for Wraithwind is that it was rebuilt from the wreckage of 3 different Fire Raptors that were shot down on Istvaan V, and it has a machine spirit so ancient it is nearly sentient. This fact is a secret known only by the Techmarines and its chosen pilot. When the previous pilot is killed there is a selection process during which every pilot who links with the Raptor is asked if they feel anything. The ones who answer no are returned to whatever craft they piloted before. The pilot that reports a feeling of exultation that is not coming from him is immediately transferred to be the Wraithwinds pilot full time.

 

The pilots and Techmarines never use her designated name. They just call her the Dark Lady.

[duz_]

Pics or it didn't happen! :P

[thewarriorhunter]

My new job has a 9/80 work schedule so tomorrow I'm experiencing a first... a game during the day on a weekday! Going to open the game store against my last opponent so we can continue our little narrative event. We're figuring out mission details but the overview will be my marines have given chase to run down the Orks as they retreat from their last battle. Since I destroyed the majority of his vehicles in our last engagement I'll most likely be facing a lot of boys on foot. I'm taking mostly the same list as last time but I've tweaked it a bit to give me more shots and also fit the theme of the two games we've played. I've dropped my contemptor and added in my Primaris Ancient and Primaris Librarian and changed the load out on a couple units. This will be my first Psychic phase ever so I'm pretty excited to see how that goes.

 

 

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [91 PL, 8CP, 1,249pts] ++

 

+ HQ +

 

Captain in Cataphractii Armor: Chainfist, Combi-melta, Storm of Fire, Warlord

 

Primaris Captain: Master-crafted auto bolt rifle

 

Primaris Librarian [7 PL, 101pts]: 2) Might of Heroes, 4) Fury of the Ancients, Force sword

 

+ Troops +

 

Intercessor Squad: Auxiliary Grenade Launcher, Bolt rifle

. 4x Intercessor

. Intercessor Sergeant: Chainsword

 

Scout Squad

. Scout Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Storm bolter

. 3x Scout w/Boltgun

. Scout w/Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter

 

Tactical Squad

. 4x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Storm bolter

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter

 

Tactical Squad

. 4x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Chainsword, Storm bolter

. Space Marine w/Special Weapon: Flamer

 

+ Elites +

 

Cataphractii Terminator Squad

. Cataphractii Sergeant: Combi-bolter, Grenade harness, Power sword

. Cataphractii Terminator: Chainfist, Combi-bolter

. Cataphractii Terminator: Combi-bolter, Power fist

. Cataphractii Terminator: Combi-bolter, Lightning Claw

. Cataphractii Terminator: Combi-bolter, Lightning Claw

 

Primaris Ancient: Standard of the Emperor Ascendant

 

+ Fast Attack +

 

Assault Squad: Jump Pack

. 3x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Chainsword, Plasma pistol

. Space Marine w/Special Weapon: Flamer

 

Inceptor Squad: Assault bolter x2, 2x Inceptor, Inceptor Sergeant

 

+ Heavy Support +

 

Devastator Squad

. Space Marine Sergeant: Boltgun

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Plasma cannon

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Plasma cannon

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Lascannon

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Lascannon

[SyNidus]

I think your list lacks mobility. With only the assault marines and termies being "mobile" you'll struggle to meet changing objectives if you're playing maelstrom.

[thewarriorhunter]

We are not playing maelstrom, we've put a custom mission together using the open war deck.

[ShinyRhino]

I got another FLGS tourney yesterday. 2000pts, ITC format (it's all we ever do now).

I brought a Phobos Captain, two Primaris Lieutenants, two 5 man Intercessors, a 5 man Infiltrators, a squad of three DakkaSpeeders, a lone Typhoon Speeder, three Suppressors, a VenDread, a trio of Assault Centurions with flamers and hurricanes, a LasPred, Whirlwind, a lascannon Stormtalon and a 5man Hellblasters.

 

My first game was against triple Knights and a bunch of Mechanicus CP farmers. I got stomped, but we had fun playing.

 

Second was against Ultramarines with a lot of little squads, several Dreads, and a pair of Stormtalons. I won big on this one due to super hot dice rolling. I wad rolling buckets of hits and wounds and saving lots of improbable saves. My Infiltrators soaked a full round of shooting from both Stormtalons, plus anything else that could see them and survived with the sergeant alone. They were in a ruin.

RG chapter tactic gave the UM player fits. I don't think he had much fun.

 

Last game was against a MSU Sisters list with three Exorcists, tons of basic squads on foot, and like forty Seraphim. I catapulted into an early lead, with the Centurions, Speeders, and Stormtalon reaping a huge tally of infantry. But then I petered out as I lost models. He ended up winning 30 to 26. Good, fun game.

Exorcists inside the Invulnerable save buff bubble are annoyingly hard to kill. Again, Chapter Tactics saved me.

We played on a ruined city board using the ITC ruins-block-LOS rule, which is foolish on a board with lots of terrain. I can see how it's useful at a big, terrain sparse event, but at the FLGS where we've got a ton of terrain on the board it's too much.

 

The day was the maiden voyage for my Infiltrators and Suppressors. The Infiltrators didn't do a ton, though both the Ultramarines and Sisters players did have to plan around them. The Suppressors murder MEQ models really nicely. If you run them, plan to always be hitting on 4s, because they don't do well sitting still. You always have to reposition for ideal shots or to deny enemy fire/LOS. I can't wait until they can be taken in larger squad sizes.

 

Im going to add five more Infiltrators next to see if a larger footprint makes them exponentially better. After that will possibly be two more Lieutenants, because the wound rerolls were really helpful against the infantry heavy builds I faced. Or maybe just swap in sword LTs in place of my bolter variant LTs who never do anything with their guns.

[thewarriorhunter]

Great write up and thanks for your results and thoughts.

 

What list won the tournament?

[ShinyRhino]

Great write up and thanks for your results and thoughts.

 

What list won the tournament?

The Knight list I faced round one. Castellan, two other regulars, and the Mechanicus CP farm. House Raven. Standard GT list these days, as he's a GT player.

[thewarriorhunter]

My second game against my Ork opponent was rescheduled and I'm finally getting around to writing it up for everyone.

 

I. Got. Smashed.

 

This was a game that I lost in deployment, but the lesson was learned: when playing orks always deploy as far away as possible and castle up.

 

Er We Go!

 

Hidden Content

 

This was a continuation of our last game. My marines had routed the Ork's attempt to get the wrecked technology and were now pursuing them to the outskirts of the city. The narrative was that we wanted to inflict further casualties to hamper further Ork actions in the area.

 

We cherry picked from the Open War deck to make a custom mission. He deployed in the red and I in the blue, the idea being that I was moving out in a tactical formation while his Orks were rallying against me. The twist is what did me in. He already got +1 to advance and charge rolls for his Ork Chapter Tactic (I don't remember what those are called) so this made him really fast.

 

 

My list was mostly the same. I dropped my contemptor to add my Primaris Ancient and Primaris Librarian and swapped a few weapons around to get some flamers.

 

 

His force, stripped of their vehicles from our last game. The green tide.

 

 

Here's where I lost the game... deployment. I kept my Inceptors, ASMs, and Terminators off the table for reserves. I kept my devastators in the back and stuck my troops and other HQs up towards the front of my deployment in cover.

 

 

 

He got turn one and was very fast. He was rolling 5s and 6s for advances and moving something like 12-14 inches for most of his units. I got almost no shooting off round one because I positioned myself to let him get right into combat. He mobbed up one unit to make it 40 boys and Da Jumped another 30 into my back lines to get my devastators.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the dire situation after his movement in Turn 1. Not looking good for me.

 

 

He successfully charged his mob of 40 boys into about half of my deployed force.

 

 

My Primaris Librarian paid the new model tax by not getting to do a single thing before he was killed. I literally set him down and picked him up.

 

 

End of my movement Turn 1. He failed one charge so I got a little shooting off but not much. My devastators killed models but 5 or 6 kills doesn't mean a whole lot against this many bodies.

 

 

He closed in on my Devastators which were quickly removed He wiped my Intercessors and send his warboss after my LT. That line of models in the back are all of the slain, with my reserves wishing they could come in near the top of the picture.

 

 

More movement from him, closing in for the kill.

 

 

The final stand of my marines, desperately trying to defend the banner from falling.

 

 

I didn't take any more pictures because frankly the game was over. My Primaris Ancient was the only model to survive after his combat in Turn 2 so I was able to bring in my reserves. My Inceptors took out his weird boy and my terminators dropped his Warboss. My ASMs killed a few models and after my Turn 2 I called it. There was no way I was winning and his turns had taken some time from all of his movement and dice rolling.

 

It wasn't a very fun game, but I did learn and I still enjoyed the opponent. We're planning on playing again and hoping for a more balanced game. I think if I would have deployed further back and castled up I might have done a little better but I still don't think I would have one. I wasn't throwing out enough shots to really do much damage, and he had a mob of 20 boys that I knew he'd bring back once they got low.

 

There were a couple combats where I didn't make him roll dice because it was ~100 attacks coming at me so I just removed models. If it had been a closer game/tournament setting I might have made him figure out if any models were out of CC range and used terrain more to my advantage but it wouldn't have mattered and just prolonged the inevitable.