What have your Raven Guard done lately?

[thewarriorhunter]

Kill Team Monsoon was inserted into a derelict warehousing sector this evening in an attempt to recover abandoned archeotech. Drukhari were reported to be in the area and were eventually met and engaged with. Despite the Drukhari suffering losses in excess of 75% of their forces they were able to disengage with the archeotech in their possession. The Sicarii suffered minimal casualties but were unable to fight there way through the horde of bodies that were being thrown at them.

 

Hidden Content

Had an amazing game of Kill Team tonight against a fellow Frater. My Sicarii went up against his Drukhari and it was quite the game. His list was (roughly):

 

Klaivex

4 Incubi

6 Kabalite Warriors

 

I shared my list earlier in the thread of Kill Team Monsoon:

 

 

I didn't take a lot of pictures and wish I could have gotten one of the entire board but it was a great layout. Lots of terrain, and a lot of it vertical. I believe the mission was called Shifting Tides. Basically 4 objectives are placed and each turn you roll to see if they are removed or replaced from the table. I deployed conservatively but did get my Eliminator outside of my deployment zone to be ready in a good lane of fire.

 

T1 was some general shuffling around but not a lot of action. My Eliminator completely whiffed on his first shot, rerolling a one into a one, then a CP reroll into a 2.

 

T2 the objective on my side of the board was removed, giving my opponent control of the other three. My terminator was able to mow down two Warriors to get them off an objective. His Klaivex charged into my Combat Specialist and I counter charged with my Reiver. He split his attacked and missed my specialist and took a wound of my Reiver. My Combat Intercessor then proceeded to put his power fist right through the Klaivex's face and killed him.

 

T3 his other Incubi charge my Infiltrator and Combat specialist while he continued to hold objectives. The terrain made it difficult for me to get on any of them because I was essentially move/charge/terrain blocked. I put some more flesh wounds on warriors and then pulled some trickery worthy of the Drukhari in the Fight Phase. I popped the interrupt tactic to fight first with my Infiltrator and then used the Combat Specialism tactic to let them fight after a friendly model. I put my power fist through two more Incubi faces and consolidated towards objectives to contest them.

 

T4 we continued to move around but at this point it was clear I was not going to win. The score was something like 12 - 1 at this point because I could not get on any objectives. The removal of mine on T2 really favored my opponent and my only real option was to table him. By the end of the turn he finally killed my Combat specialist and my Leader, but I had taken out more warriors and his leader. For the last two turns several of his models had been shaken but they weren't on objectives so they didn't really matter. I think the final score was something like 13 - 3.

 

All in all a great game and it felt really good to roll some dice. We're already talking about getting some crusade games in.

 

 

[Alcyon]

Congratulations on your purge of the foul xenos. They may have escaped with their prize, but each casualty is a terrible loss for that ancient race.

 

The Revenants tastes victory for the first time this week, defeating the rage-crazed Blood Angels as the Defender in Assassinate and the perfidious T'au in Supply Drop for our Crusade Campaign. I ran:

• Phobos Captain w/ Ex Tenebris
• 5x Veteran Intercessors w/ Power Fist
• 5x Hellblasters w/ Assault Plasma Incinerators
• 3x Eradicators

First game, the BA had Sanguinary Guard with an Ancient and Death Company with a Chaplain (no punches pulled at 500pts!) I was the defender and castled up pretty hard on one table edge, being very conscious of charge distances. He didn't end up putting anything in reserve so the Captain's Omni-scrambler didn't end up mattering.

 

He split his forces to attack from two sides, which I think was a mistake - I kept my units close enough together that if he'd been more familiar with the rules he could've chain-charged/consolidated into everyone. As it was, he locked my Captain (his assassination target) in combat twice after wiping the Intercessor screen. I used Desperate Breakout for the first time to escape encirclement, risking the whole mission on a 1 but made it, and then the second time he was able to break out by killing off a Sanguinary Guard with his combat knife.

 

Falling back let the other guys shoot the rest of his army off the table and the Captain executed the lonesome Ancient with his relic bolter. Captain kicked ass that game so I Marked him for Greatness and gave him the Laurels of Victory crusade relic for +2 CP while he's alive. Eradicators got Grizzled (6+ FNP) as the victory reward.

 

Second game the T'au had a Crisis Suit team with Missile Pods, a Commander with Fusion Blasters, bunch of drones and a 9-man Warrior squad. I think he was fairly new to the game, I got to pick Defender again and managed to get a table edge with all three objectives on it. From there it was just a game of staying in Dense Cover and plinking away.

 

His Fire Warriors came in from Strategic Reserves near the Hellblasters and got absolutely roasted by Auspex Scan, and the Intercessors finally distinguished themselves by wiping the drones to expose the Commander to shooting, then charging him and carving out a chunk with their PF. The Eradicators did some damage too but got wiped by enemy fire, I was too aggressive with them especially after giving them my Survivor agenda. Should've SftS'd them and brought them on to handle the long-range Crisis Team. 

The Captain was again the MVP, holding multiple objectives by himself while the Hellblasters cowered in Dense Cover, gunning down Crisis Suits and finishing off the enemy commander with, again, nothing but his combat knife. Definitely going to look to give that +1 Str with a weapon upgrade once he gains another rank.

 

Takeaways:

• The RG CT is very strong and I wish I'd taken it over Successor Tactics. Dense Cover is few and far between and really limits your ability to take objectives, so being able to make anything grant you -1 to hit is huge. I will be going with Inheritors of the Primarch or whatever it's called when the new Codex drops and I'm allowed to rejigger my CTs. 
• The Captain's six wounds and a 4+ invuln is quite tough, and the damage output of 5 attacks base plus Shock Assault and Combat Knife at WS2+ is impressive even at S4 AP0. I still shouldn't be charging into combat with him in most cases but I shouldn't be afraid to get stuck in with him if there's a good opportunity.
• Turn 1 often features zero shooting unless someone has LOS-ignoring guns, so bringing things in from reserve is a good use of CP - one I haven't been using enough. Kind of begs the question of what units do I want on the table turn 1? There's a guy running a very strong combo of Ork Battlewagon & Weird Boy which makes Eliminators tempting.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Alcyon

[Dracos]

Kind of begs the question of what units do I want on the table turn 1?

My 2k list is designed to bring 1k of Gravis (Aggressors, Eradicators, Inceptors) in from Reserve. The rest is Infiltrators for early mid board ObSec, Assault Intercessors to support the mid board possible the Infiltration Strat, and Eliminators and unit of Stalker Bolt Rifles in my deployment zone to block out opponent reserves and backfield ObSec.

 

That all should vary depending on mission and opponent. I find I’m using Eliminators as (for Primaris) cheap/durable-ish Action Monkeys. Same with the Infiltrators.

[Espresso]

I was not at their helm, that honor belonged to my friend who played his fourth game with them and is now hooked...; well my boys in black have today fought the Tau. The Raven Guard lost for 10 points but by turn five there were only the Phobos Lieutant and the Tau Commander exchanging blows in the center of the battlefield.

[Dracos]

Nice table Espresso

[Espresso]

Nice table Espresso

 

Thank you. We try to always have three thematic tables. Seaside/Riverside Residential; Forge World and Hive City. The terrain and the tables are of my game club and every year we add more elements to the collection. In all those year we have literally boxes of stuff. 

[thewarriorhunter]

Ho boy, my Sicarii are salivating over that new speeder. Makes the ATV look even more 'meh' to me. The more units I see the more I feel like I'll be able to design a list that is fast, mobile, and packs a punch.

[Alcyon]

The new speeder is definitely pretty exciting. Weird that it has a degrading stat line with so few wounds though. And that it has WS3?

[MajorNese]

Statline degrades at 10W or more. And it has 10W.

 

Well, I won't commit to any new units until codex+supplement are out. I'm done with the constant rules overhaul making my WiP unit a suboptimal choice when I'm only halfway through.

 

Hello AdMech, my lazz0r is charging already - prepare to be engraved...

[mertbl]

The new speeder is definitely pretty exciting. Weird that it has a degrading stat line with so few wounds though. And that it has WS3?

Speeders have always fought well. I think its to represent the crew hanging out and fighting.

[Dracos]

Points and durability are everything. With the smaller boards the Gladiators and Storm Speeder winner will depend on points. Storm Speeder has an advantage in that at least it’s not a Heavy.

[thewarriorhunter]

Have a game of KT tomorrow and am changing my list up a bit to try out some other things:

 

Hidden Content

++ Kill Team List (Adeptus Astartes) [122pts] ++

Leader

Intercessor Sergeant: Auto bolt rifle, Bolt pistol, Chainsword, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Raven Guard
. Leader: Level 1: Resourceful

Specialists

Intercessor Gunner: Auspex, Auxiliary grenade launcher, Bolt pistol, Bolt rifle, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Raven Guard
. Demolitions: Level 1: Breacher

Tactical Marine Gunner: Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Heavy bolter, Krak grenades, Raven Guard
. Heavy: Level 1: Relentless

Vanguard Sergeant: Frag and krak grenades, Jump Pack, Melta bombs, Raven Guard, Storm shield, Thunder hammer [8pts]
. Combat: Level 1: Expert Fighter

 

Non-Specialists

 

Infiltrator: Bolt pistol, Frag and krak grenades, Marksman bolt carbine, Raven Guard

Reiver Sergeant: Bolt carbine, Combat knife, Frag grenades, Grapnel Launcher, Krak grenades, Raven Guard, Shock grenades

 

 

Going to see what Sir Smashalot can do in the game. I'm thinking of bringing my infiltrator in from reserves so he an pop the smoke strat for my VV to get into position T1, then T2 try and get some charges off to wreck face. He'll have 4 attacks on the charge and I think everything my opponent will bring will disappear if the TH connects.

Edited September 14, 2020 by thewarriorhunter

[thewarriorhunter]

The Farsight Enclave were met by my Sicarii Kill Team Monsoon last night. When the marines saw that a Crisis suit was on patrol and supported by several pathfinders and breachers they scattered and sought any cover they could find to remain unseen. In the initial volley a pathfinder fell.

 

The suit reposition to the center of the board to claim the objective and the Sicarii again positioned to remain unseen by the suit. The Infiltrator popped smoke to hinder shooting from other pathfinders and allowed the Veteran to close distance with the suit. The Heavy Bolter extended himself to present a distraction and draw fire in order to aid the Veteran.

 

The trap was sprung and the Veteran charged the suit and brought it low with the might of his Thunder Hammer. The force of the blow was so strong that the accompanying shield drone was overloaded and destroyed as well. Seeing their main offensive unit decimated caused the remaining Tau infantry to break in fear and become shaken, but not before a breacher was able to kill the HB Marine with a blast of plasma in the back. The Sicarii were able to begin securing objective resources and mop up remaining enemy contacts.

 

More objectives were secured and enemies slain and ultimately the Tau broke entirely and fled the field. The Sicarii worked quickly to recover their wounded, both armament and geneseed, and left the field with a victory in hand.

 

 

Hidden Content

Last night was a phenomenal game that was close, thematic, and pretty tactical.

 

I forget the mission but there were four objectives around the board and one in the center. In order to score you had to own the center to 'activate' the perimeter objectives and be on them. We deployed 'dawn of war' in a small box. My deployment was the shiny pink square and he mirrored me across the board.

 

T1 he had initiative and move his suit to high ground on the side of the board. I responded by hiding everything from the suit. Only a couple of his pathfinders had shots. My Heavy Bolter took out his Rail Rifle pathfinder which apparently really hurt him. I didn't even know that was a good weapon, it was the shot I had. I moved my VV into a position where if I had a 3 inch charge T2 if I went first (old FLY rules FTW, lol).

 

T1 after movement:

 

 

What his suit saw:

 

 

T2 he had initiative and his suit moved into the center of the board to claim the objective and activate the two perimeter objectives he was on. I swung most of my infantry around the corner of the building to get out of LOS of the suit. My VV joined them because he again had a 3 inch charge for next turn. Infiltrator popped smoke to make them all obscured since they were in the open within 12. My HB was able to kill a pathfinder on one objective. His suit killed my HB but I used the Death Denied Tactic to keep him alive. Seriously, save 3CP for that if you can, it's so powerful.

 

He scored one point and was up 0 - 1.

 

 

T3 I had initiative and declared my charge. He used Decisive Move to move first, so I had to as well and won the roll off for it. He could only fall back at that point. I had declared a charge against everything on the center board so I could get into combat with something and not be shot. I failed my charge roll against the suit (needed an 8) and used my last CP to reroll and just made it (whew).

 

 

I had readied my HB to shoot his drone but he used Decisive Shot on a breacher he snuck up behind my marine. The marine was killed and I was sad because I was hoping the 3 shots would have taken out the drone. In KT wounds are passed to the drone without a roll so I was worried about all of my hammer roles being passed off. I did get a flesh wound on the drone from my Infiltrator shooting it (drones have flesh?). Combat rolls around and my VV rolled 3 hits and 3 wounds. One wound was passed to the drone but thankfully it failed it's 5+ and I killed it on the injury roll. Another wound was saved but one got through and at D3 that was all I needed. Rolled a 5 on the injury roll and the suit was laid low.

 

After that his team broke and then all but one model failed their nerve checks.

 

I scored one point and we're tied at 1 - 1.

 

T4 was mop up action. I got on both of my objectives, stayed on the center to score, and charged his one unshaken model. My VV had consolidated into a different pathfinder on T3 and took him out with the hammer. CC didn't kill his unshaken pathfinder so my intercessor was locked in combat. He failed all of his nerve checks at that point and his entire team was shaken and fled the field.

 

I scored two points and won 3 - 1.

[Alcyon]

Badass! That really makes me want to try Kill Team. I'm actually trying to decide between Tau and Tyranids for our next Campaign so maybe I'll try making a KT of each over Xmas. 

[thewarriorhunter]

Kill Team is a lot of fun. I actually prefer it over 40k but 40k has more play in my area. I love skirmish sized games. If you want to play fast you can get the game done in ~1 hour. We took our time and probably played for about 2.5 hours with setup and chit chatting.

[War of the Eagle]

Played a 50PL game against necrons with my Raptors. Went second and lost on points. He balled his entire force up in the center and held the two middle objectives. I assassinated all 3 of his HQs but my rolls vs his warrior squads where appalling.

 

My phobos captain killed his Scorpth lord in hand to hand which was surprising but then died to a scarb swarm.

 

The game ended with him having 2 almost full strength warrior squads left and a wraith squad vs my 1 5 man infiltrator squad and a storm talon with 2 wounds left.

 

Was an exciting battle but just couldn't budge him from those objectives.

[Dracos]

I played 5 games in the City Circle 40k Team Tournament and went 3-2 . . . with Knights :( How does that apply to the Ravenspire? Only one player per team could play Astartes. We were a filler team so I the host offered to let one of us play his Knights or Imperial Guard. As much as I would have preferred to play my beloved Warhawk in my first tournament since 2004/5 I was the best choice to play an unfamiliar army. The host made the list. I did about a week or Knight research and had fun.

 

So .... 2 of my 5 opponents were Raven Guard Successors. 2 of my 3 wins were against Raven Guard Successors. I thought I would share some pictures and do a summary analysis in a separate thread to give others an idea of what to expect from a Knight in a tourney setting. 

[thewarriorhunter]

Traitor. The door is that way... *cold glare*

[Dracos]

 *cough* tyranids *cough*

 

Call it oppositional research ;) It was real eye opener seeing how we work from the other side of the table. I'd have much rather played my Warhawks, but this weekend is going to make me a better tournament player. I have a habit of defaulting to a counter-puncher style but in 9th I see I need to be much more aggressive than my norm. It still has to be a precise application of force and I think that's why I prefer to spend CP resources for movement over Army points aka Impulsor.

 

I'm confident my Warhawk army would have won these same games, just in a different manner. I also believe I'd best the Custodes player in a rematch with either army. I would not have table the Tau'nar army but I'd have won. The Monster mash of Papa/Red/ and 3 Keeper of Secrets would still have crushed me though. That's a nasty list :)

[jpwyrm]

My Raptors took to the field against the hated Eldars yesterday. My buddy who usually plays Tau wanted to try an army that can act in more than two phases of the game, so he dusted off his Eldars for a 2000 pts game.

 

Here's what I played :

 

Phobos Captain, Hero of the Chapter (Shoot and Fade)

Phobos Lt, Ex Tenebris

Phobos Librarian (Mind Raid, Hallucination)

Apothecary (Warlor), Chief Apothecary, Selfless Healer, Master of the Tri-Fold Path (Master of Ambush), Healer's Aegis

5 x boltstorm aggressors

Invictor with Incendium Canon

2 x 5 man Infiltrator units

2 x 5 man Scout units, 3 x sniper, 1 heavy bolter in each

6 x Plasmaceptors

3 x Suppressors

5 x Grav Devastators + Cherub

3 x Eliminators

3 x Eradicators

Drop pod

Land Speeder Storm

 

Here's what he played (from memory):

 

2 x Farseers on bike

3 x Warlocks on bike

3 x 5 man Avengers squads

4 x Signing Spears

3 x Vypers with Shuriken Canon and Bright lances

3 x Wave Serpents

3 x Falcons with Shuriken Canons, Pulse Lasers, Bright Lance

 

Here's what happened :

 

We played Scorched earth, I took Assassinate, Raze and Scramblers, he took Raze, Scramblers and Psychic Ritual. I put the Inceptors alongside the Lt in Reserves, Devs in the drop pod, everything else on the board. My opponent deployed all his army on the board. I had the Invictor and Scouts on one flank ready to capture one of the middle objective, one Infiltrator squad and Librarian on the other flank for the same maneuver. I won the roll for first turn and elected to go first. I borught the Aggressors right up on his face, landed the pod with the Devs beside the Libby and Infiltrators, though he blasted 3 of them out with some Eldar improved version of Auspex Scan. Between his movement and Shoot and Fade, I was able to position my captain to support both the remaining Devastators and the advancing Eradicators.

 

My first shooting phase was okay, I blew one of the Wave Serpent, obliterated the passengers with the Aggressors and chipped wounds here and there. In the assault phase, I locked a Falcon in CC with the Aggressors but did not damage it. They killed the Warlord though so that was something. In the Eldar first turn, he brought my Apothecary down to 2 wounds remaining and killed an Aggressor. The Elminators and one Scout unit were also destroyed.

 

My turn two, I scored two of the Primary objectives and then the riptide crashed on the Eldars. We stopped before my Plasmaceptors could even fire - at this point, there were no Avengers or bikes to speak of, only the second Farseer was left alive but facing a very painful charge from the Aggressors and the three remaining vehicles were about to get tagged in CC, one with very low chances of survival against the Invictor.

 

All in all, a very decisive victory, but one that left a bitter aftertaste. I mean, most of my recent games have lasted three turns or less, with my opponent loosing both on victory points and on models count. I'm struggling to see where GW is going with this edition's balance... Anyone's having the same feeling?

 

[Alcyon]

I've found the games to be generally quick and brutal so far, but I think with the small table sizes and high power level, the margin for error is pretty small and so people have to play really tight and bring good units. I think the balance is there but you have to know your opponents capabilities and try to deploy/play around them. CWE I don't think are in a great place right now and his list sounded especially vulnerable to being hemmed in by all the deployment shenanigans RG can bring to bear (plus Drop Pods.)

 

That said it's been hard to gauge for me in the past 6-7 games I've played since it's a campaign and the variation in competitive is pretty high. I got destroyed pretty early on by Necrons(!) and Blood Angels while I was figuring out the army, then since I figured out my list and how to play to objectives I'm undefeated in my last 4 games against Tau, BA, Orks and Death Guard. I expect Thursday's match against Custodes to be pretty tough.

[Dracos]

My Incursion (44 x30) battlemap arrived today :)

 

I've never been happier with the colors I chose to for my Chapter's colors. They were suppose to suggest a camouflage scheme without actually being one. The army green and desert yellow work perfectly on this mat. I'll post some pics after I finish the Assault Intercessors later this week. 

[thewarriorhunter]

I have a 1k point game lined up for next week against my Kill Team buddy. We want to get a few games of 9th under our belts to understand the rules/mechanics and then we'll probably start actual crusade forces. I'll be facing off against AdMech.

 

List:

Hidden Content

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Raven Guard) [50 PL, 6CP, 1,000pts] ++

 

+ Configuration [6CP] +

 

**Chapter Selection**: Raven Guard

 

Battle Size [6CP]: 2. Incursion (51-100 Total PL / 501-1000 Points)  [6CP]

 

Detachment CP

 

Gametype: Matched

 

+ HQ [9 PL, 175pts] +

 

Librarian in Phobos Armour: Mind Raid, Tenebrous Curse, Smite

 

Primaris Lieutenant: Ex Tenebris, Master of Ambush, Warlord

 

+ Troops [27 PL, 555pts] +

 

Infiltrator Squad

. 3x Infiltrator

. Infiltrator Helix Adept

. Infiltrator Sergeant

 

Infiltrator Squad: Infiltrator Comms Array

. 4x Infiltrator

. Infiltrator Sergeant

 

Intercessor Squad: Auto Bolt Rifle

. 4x Intercessor:

. Intercessor Sergeant: Thunder hammer

 

Tactical Squad

. 7x Space Marine

. Space Marine Sergeant: Chainsword, Combi-plasma

. Space Marine w/Heavy Weapon: Missile launcher

. Space Marine w/Special Weapon: Plasma gun

 

+ Elites [9 PL, 180pts] +

 

Redemptor Dreadnought: 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, Heavy flamer, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Redemptor Fist

 

+ Heavy Support [5 PL, 90pts] +

 

Eliminator Squad

. Eliminator Sergeant: Instigator Bolt Carbine

. Eliminator with Bolt Sniper: Bolt sniper rifle

. Eliminator with Bolt Sniper: Bolt sniper rifle

 

 

I started building this with a plan but as I look at it I realize it's really disjointed... lol. I have nothing that can go into reserves for free but this is all painted which is one of my personal requirements. The only other painted units I have that I could swap out are a Primaris Ancient, MK IV Apothecary, Phobos Captain, Phobos LT, Primaris Librarian, Smash Captain, or a drop pod (was considering but given the small board size it will be really easy to zone it out so I consider it a liability at this points level).

 

I want the phobos libby to stay because playing in the psychic phase is good, and if Mind Raid goes off on HQs it helps shore up my CP.

 

I'm considering dropping some tactical marines to make room for my slash/smash captain. I would run him as my Warlord with MotTP (The Imperium's Sword, Shadowmaster) and the Teeth of Terra. He'd get 8 STR6 attacks on the charge, AP-2 D2, rerolls charges and can't be overwatched. I'm presuming I'll be facing a lot of infantry based on past games and he should chew through them. I could roll with a Thunderhammer or Powerfist but that's sucking up a lot of points. There won't be any Kastelans but there might be some dunecrawlers or sydonian dragoons to deal with.

 

What probably won't change is putting my Infiltrators on the midfield objectives and hoping they can sit there and survive. If I keep it as is the LT will MoA himself into a good position and probably move my intercessors up the board as well. Eliminators will hopefully eliminate things (not likely since it's only one squad) and I gave the Sgt the carbine because given the small board I thought it might be usefull for them to be able to fall back if they're charged. My Redemptor will apply pressure where it can and be use as my (non-efficient) AT along with the Missile Launcher from the tactical squad.

 

I'm open to suggestions on anything I should tweak or change. I can mix up my tac squad a bit and I have the HQs to move around.

[thewarriorhunter]

Update: We swapped lists and he is bringing a Dunecrawler and the transport so I'll probably be putting a Smash Captain in so I can deal with that. His list has some of the new flying infantry and the doggos so he's more mobile than me. I'm going to have to hope I can tank the damage and score my secondaries.

 

EDIT: Completely forgot about my Mortis Contemptor. I'll probably slot that in somewhere and not take the captain. The captain would be on his own and have no support so being able to keep a contemptor in the backfield is probably the better choice.

Edited September 25, 2020 by thewarriorhunter

[Dracos]

Potentially combat squad your tacticals. Use them and the eliminators as action monkeys. Raise the Flag combines nicely with ObSec units grabbing primary points. M