How to play the Stormraven Gunship

[Berzul]

Hey everyone.

 

So, I got a Stormraven Gunship for my birthday, today. Awesome gift from my gaming group.

 

Thing is... I have N O idea how to play it. Hence, how to build it.

 

Please, any advice?

[tychobi]

Two schools of thought.

 

Classic is load it up and fly into the teeth of the enemy to disgorge hitty melee passengers. Arm with assault cannon and heavy bolters or multi meltas and hurricanes.

 

Pros: aggressive power play.

 

Cons: you are going to get shot down in a hurry

 

Sniper load out is typhoon and lascannon. Hug your rear and use range to keep yourself alive while pouring high str firepower downfield. Only close when threats are thinned with incidental passengers.

 

Pros: raven might survive until late game

 

Cons: will not help with map control early on. Still fragile

 

Either way Stormraven is a pricey platform for some serious firepower. I have personally had more success with the long range set up with hurricanes. Full utility of the models versatility is needed to get great value out of the Stormraven. Charge block terrestrial models, hover and charge enemy armor to quiet their guns, fly over advancing characters to maintain aura buffs, drop next to enemy characters and assassinate with brutal efficiency, there are so many slick moves you can make. GOOD LUCK!

[Mitsarugi]

Flyers are not good in 8th Ed, they are too easy to shoot down. -1 is not going to save them. Unless you have a few of them or have bigger threats that you opponent has to shoot at.

Tychobi  game you good advice for it.

[Grimdark_Garage]

Take a Darkshroud for -2 to hit. Great delivery system for Terminators with Asmodai

[ValourousHeart]

Take a Darkshroud for -2 to hit. Great delivery system for Terminators with Asmodai

 

TL; DR - Possible, yes.  Practical, no.

 

It will take practice and favorable terrain setup, but it is possible to keep Stormraven in range of the Darkshroud for multiple turns.

You will zig zag your Stormraven from one side of the Darkshroud to the other, while the Darkshroud moves straight forward.

That alternating diagonal line will keep the Stormraven moving a minimum of 20 inches while keeping its forward progress between 13 - 18 inches which is as fast as the Darkshroud can move without burning through CP.

 

Down sides to this pairing is that you slow your cargo delivery by at least 1 turn, which means your opponent will have more chances to shoot you down.

Also you telegraph where your dropping your cargo, combined with the extra time it takes you to get there means that your opponent can move assets to reinforce that part of the table.

This second part might not be a big issue, because often your opponent will put all of their eggs in one basket... which is kinda what you are doing by adding the Darkshroud to a Stormraven filled with DWT/DWK and Asmodai.

You might also be tempted to drag a Dreadnought with you.

 

But against a strong list that doesn't rely on a linchpin, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

[Berzul]

I was a actually thinking of using it as a long to mid range gun platform, to deliver one full man, or two smaller, tactical squads at midfield objectived.

 

Arm it with twin lascannons, hurricane bolters, and typhoon missile launchers. Load up 10 tactical marines and a close combat dreadnought, then take sweeping advances from my back field.

[sneakybamsen]

The times I have brought one, and faced one, it's been shot down pretty quickly.

 

As a delivery system it will crash and burn before you can deliver the guys where you want when you want.

 

Gun platform might be the best option. I might need to have a look at mine and see if I can fix the typhoon in place with the twin las instead of the dakka loadout it has right now.

[Helias_Tancred]

Two schools of thought.

 

Classic is load it up and fly into the teeth of the enemy to disgorge hitty melee passengers. Arm with assault cannon and heavy bolters or multi meltas and hurricanes.

 

Pros: aggressive power play.

 

Cons: you are going to get shot down in a hurry

 

Sniper load out is typhoon and lascannon. Hug your rear and use range to keep yourself alive while pouring high str firepower downfield. Only close when threats are thinned with incidental passengers.

 

Pros: raven might survive until late game

 

Cons: will not help with map control early on. Still fragile

 

Either way Stormraven is a pricey platform for some serious firepower. I have personally had more success with the long range set up with hurricanes. Full utility of the models versatility is needed to get great value out of the Stormraven. Charge block terrestrial models, hover and charge enemy armor to quiet their guns, fly over advancing characters to maintain aura buffs, drop next to enemy characters and assassinate with brutal efficiency, there are so many slick moves you can make. GOOD LUCK!

A very educational post! Kudos Brother.

[Berzul]

Reviving this thread just for a moment, because I am gearing up to building my Stormraven Gunship.

 

I am thinking of using this vehicle as part of a deathwing force, and as a pair to a Landraider Crusader. With the ground transport taking care of the infantry forces with its hurricane bolters and two assault cannons, and providing small anti armor fire with the multi melta; while the airship takes care of armored units with the twin lascannons and typhoon missile launchers, while providing small anti infantry fire with the hurricane bolters.

 

I've considered a lot of the pros and cons of the ship itself, as a long range sniping barge, or as a close contact transport, and in the end I find that you can bring equal amounts of heavy firepower for less points, when comparing the Stormraven to other units. It has mobility, sure, but it can also get shot at from everywhere and WILL be a bullet magnet, so it WILL go down quickly.

 

At the same time, playing it as a transport for models does not seem to me that it may require you to go full anti infantry, as you can get anti infantry from other units that compliment the gunship, or position yourself to bypass infantry lines to drop units to the ground. On the contrary, it seems to me that Deathwing suffer from a severe lack of Anti Tank firepower, and the gunship can supply that.

 

My thinking is that the Deathwing can use its infantry to bring many storm bolters and a lot of hammers and maces, which makes the units a mid to close range force that needs to to cross the gap quickly to be effective. Their only contribution to anti tank is the cyclone missile launcher, which is not all that good since it will be firing at a -1 constantly, and is few shots in total. The Landraider Crusader, for its own part, is a great transport for a good and aura supported squad of models, and is fixed as an anti infantry transport. So, that would leave the Gunship as a good choice to build something that can fill in the spot of anti armor; as it moves in to deliver some units, before retreating to safety or dying in a blaze of glory.

 

I have envisioned the ship in a list (that I share here for reference), which would include:

 

Belial, leading 5 deathwing terminators with storm bolters

Asmodai, leading 5 deathwing knights, plus a deathwing ancient with the relic banner

A ven dread with a powerfist and a multi melta, leading another 5 knights

 

I would drop the terminators with Belial through deepstrike, to use deathwing assault with rerolls,

While I bring in asmodai and his team in the Landraider, as it is the one transport with enough space.

LAstly, I'd bring the dread with the other knights on the gunship.

 

That, at 1748 points.

[aura_enchanted]

I steal a page from the ravenguard and use it to sand blast as an area clear of enemies as a hyper mobile fire team

 

So here's the juice:

 

Storm raven built for anti heavy so anti tank guns, anti elite infantry weapons, etc.

 

Ven dread or contempor with multi melta or lascannons or autocannon

 

5 devestators with grav cannons

 

This used to actually be a formation in 7th called the ravenhawk strike force. Except you'd use the sternguard instead and you could use veterans, that is true.

 

Basically you air drop them in on an exposed flank and clear cut as many high value targets in one go as you can, they sets up great for follow on deepstrikes of stuff like land speeders, terminators, or infiltrations from well infiltrators or scouts.

 

If you know your up against a specific target u can drop them in kitted for that specific enemy instead say a baneblade and deal a lot of damage suddenly in a lump sum. And then scatter or relocate for another round two turns later.

[Berzul]

I'm thinking, if I build the gunship for anti armor, and use it to deliver a good block of melee terminators, along a support dread, before going back to a sniping position, it could work as a good combination to my deathwing, which always struggles with heavy armor.