Building for the Blood Ravens chapter tactic

[templargdt]

Frater-

 

So, I have been building and painting Blood Ravens since 2010.  It's neat to see them have a Chapter Tactic, since I started in 5th edition and missed them having one in 4th.  However, on initial inspection I was seriously underwhelmed.  That said, I'm determined to give it a shot, and I would like thoughts on my initial theoryhammer.

 

Problem statement: How to build around ignoring 1's or 2's on a wound roll and reroll 1's on psychics?

 

Analysis: rerolling 1's on psykers means I need librarians, fluffy for the chapter.  Unfortunately the librarius discipline is lackluster.  Perhaps the Obscurus discipline with Vanguard will help or in combination be more useful (potential combo: psychic scourge +  hallucination + mind raid, possibly in combination with company banner for leadership buff.  D3+1 MW on any target within 18".   Plus additional benefits.)  

 

For the wound benefit, we're talking about either STR 8+ against T4, STR 10+ against T5, or STR 14+ against T7 dreadnoughts.  Since STR 10+ weapons are almost nonexistent, I chose to set that aside here.  Therefore, we're looking at STR 8 against infantry.  What infantry would most benefit from a bonus against STR 8+?  In my mind, the answer is primaris and other multiple wound infantry like terminators.

 

What do you all think?

[Dracos]

I think ... the would thing is superficial bonus but to take "advantage" of it then focus hard on Infantry so they have to "waste" those high Str shots against single wound models?

[SkimaskMohawk]

All parts of the tactic lend itself well to primaris. Plasma and Las are especially effective against them due to the 2 wounds, so some mitigation is nice.

 

As you noted, the vanguard powers are way better than the standard librarius ones, so making one fake-jonah orion is the better choice. Though, you only get to deny an extra power, not cast one, so your proposed combo wouldn't work.

 

Finally I guess there's angelos. His enhanced reroll is pretty good for stuff that wants to throw out a lot of shots and kind of be close so he might get to hit stuff with his hammer, so repulsors kind of fit the bill for that.

[templargdt]

All parts of the tactic lend itself well to primaris. Plasma and Las are especially effective against them due to the 2 wounds, so some mitigation is nice.

 

As you noted, the vanguard powers are way better than the standard librarius ones, so making one fake-jonah orion is the better choice. Though, you only get to deny an extra power, not cast one, so your proposed combo wouldn't work.

 

Finally I guess there's angelos. His enhanced reroll is pretty good for stuff that wants to throw out a lot of shots and kind of be close so he might get to hit stuff with his hammer, so repulsors kind of fit the bill for that.

I was thinking of using both a standard librarian with a jump pack to deep strike in combination with a Vanguard librarian.  

 

Angelos has the terminator keyword so I don't think he can ride in a repulsor.  I would just deep strike him as well.  

 

I'm thinking of a bunch of Infiltrators.  Might be fun.  I have a bunch of terminators I could use too.

[Panzer]

The only way you can build around ignoring 1s and 2s to some degree is by not taking high toughness units which obviously doesn't make that much sense. It's a more passive chapter tactic that reacts to the opponents list more than it influences your own list.

Primaris and Terminators would be the ones who'd benefit the most from it since multi-damage ruins their day and it would at least mitigate the S8 part of supercharged Plasma weaponry.

 

The psychic part of the chapter tactic is just generally good. Take a Librarian in Phobos armour, potentially give him the Warlord trait for a third power since 4-6 are generally useful even if you don't have any units with Phobos keyword in your list, and a generic Librarian for the Codex discipline and you are good.

[Lemondish]

The only way you can build around ignoring 1s and 2s to some degree is by not taking high toughness units which obviously doesn't make that much sense. It's a more passive chapter tactic that reacts to the opponents list more than it influences your own list.

Primaris and Terminators would be the ones who'd benefit the most from it since multi-damage ruins their day and it would at least mitigate the S8 part of supercharged Plasma weaponry.

 

The psychic part of the chapter tactic is just generally good. Take a Librarian in Phobos armour, potentially give him the Warlord trait for a third power since 4-6 are generally useful even if you don't have any units with Phobos keyword in your list, and a generic Librarian for the Codex discipline and you are good.

It's a good force to go triple Librarian for Empyric Channeling, which you can activate in your opponent's psychic phase as well.

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

 

All parts of the tactic lend itself well to primaris. Plasma and Las are especially effective against them due to the 2 wounds, so some mitigation is nice.

 

As you noted, the vanguard powers are way better than the standard librarius ones, so making one fake-jonah orion is the better choice. Though, you only get to deny an extra power, not cast one, so your proposed combo wouldn't work.

 

Finally I guess there's angelos. His enhanced reroll is pretty good for stuff that wants to throw out a lot of shots and kind of be close so he might get to hit stuff with his hammer, so repulsors kind of fit the bill for that.

I was thinking of using both a standard librarian with a jump pack to deep strike in combination with a Vanguard librarian.

 

Angelos has the terminator keyword so I don't think he can ride in a repulsor. I would just deep strike him as well.

 

I'm thinking of a bunch of Infiltrators. Might be fun. I have a bunch of terminators I could use too.

I meant footslogging it up in the middle of a repulsor brick, since he basically just runs when he can't charge.

 

Terminators need to be able to get combi weapons, plain and simple.

[zero88]

Building for the Chapter Tactic: Take all T4 units. Autocannon equivalents will be your bane but it provides really good protection vs supercharged plasma, which a lot of armies rely on for heavy lifting. So yes it's situational, but it's relevant.

 

EDIT: A random thought. Phobos Captain with Purgatus and the marksman honors WL trait.. As he moves up the field he can take potshots with his 3 damage rifle, then once he closes in his pistol is 2 shots of S5, AP-3 and 3 damage with re rolls to hit and wound

 

Building for the list: Gabriel is an auto include, not only to save 3CPs but the Cawl-style reroll all hit rolls aura is what makes him shine. A Phobos Librarian with the target priority warlord trait is REALLY strong already, so that's basically an auto include too. If you run just Phobos Librarians don't forget about the Librarian relic.. the additional power you get from it is from the generic discipline so you can cast temporal corridor on yourself to scoot up next to your enemy, then cast null zone and laugh as Hellblasters with target priority obliterate whatever their pointed at ignoring invulnerable saves.

[MegaVolt87]

Lightning claw tartaros termi's in a land raider of some sort as a death star, backed up by intercessors, devs/hellblasters? 5 man basic cataphractii units to deep strike in the back field to shoot stuff up with the new bolter rules? Dreadnaught spam list? What about as a primaris 17 detachment, 2 lieutenants 15 intercessors as a CP battery for SM/ (I know, not as good as the traditional ones). Sorry too much coffee... 

[SkimaskMohawk]

There's one thing I cautioned a lot in 30k for list building and ill mention it here too.

 

Don't use bad units to try and get a slight benefit from the chapter/legion rules. It's a waste to give night lord terminators power axes to get a talent for murder, because powerfists are so much better. Similarly, terminators arent good units, and land raiders also aren't great; don't over invest to get a marginal benefit.