So wow, 3 posts in one day. In all fairness I meant to start this blog back on Wednesday of this past week. But instead held off until I had time today. Before I had even had a chance to play my game on Saturday I had started toying with a Raven Guard list. While the color scheme for Raven Guard is nice, I think I would go for a successor chapter to vary the coloring a bit.
Again, this is in preparation for BeakyCon. 1650 points, no Gargantuan, no Superheavies, ITC rules. Here's the list I am thinking about:
Talon Strike Force
Core - Battle Demi-Company
HQ - Captain (The Armour of Shadows, Jump Pack) - 140 points
Troop - Tactical Squad x5 (1x Meltagun, Rhino) - 115 points
Troop - Tactical Squad x5 (1x Meltagun, Rhino) - 115 points
Troop - Tactical Squad x5 - 70 points
Fast Attack - Attack Bike Squad - 40 points
Heavy Support - Devastator Squad - 70 points
Auxiliary - Shadowstrike Kill Team
Troop - Scout Squad x5 (1x Meltabomb) - 60 points
Troop - Scout Squad x5 (1x Meltabomb) - 60 points
Elite - Vanguard Veteran Squad x10 (Jump Packs, PF/SS on Sergeant, 1x PF, 2x SS, 4x LC, 2x Power Sword, 1x Power Axe) - 315 points
Formation - Skyhammer Annihilation Force (Salamanders Chapter Tactics)
Fast Attack - Assault Squad x5 (Jump packs, 2x Flamer, Veteran Sergeant, 1x Combat Shield, 1x Power Sword) - 125 points
Fast Attack - Assault Squad x5 (Jump packs, Veteran Sergeant, 1x Combat Shield, 1x Power Axe) - 125 points - 115 points
Heavy Support - Devastator Squad x5 (Drop Pod, 3x Grav Cannon) - 210 points
Heavy Support - Devastator Squad x10 (Drop Pod, 4x Heavy Bolters) - 215 points
Not too fancy. So I'm still not sure what to do with the Captain. In theory I want to join him to something but don't want to deploy him solo. He can't join the Skyhammer Assault Marines nor the Vanguard Veterans, so that means I could just put him in Cataphractii Terminator Armor, throw him in with a Devastator Squad, and call it a day. For now I just am using a placeholder of 140 points.
I kept the Battle Demi-Company fairly simple. I just need to "pay the tax" to get the other goodies. I gave my Scout Sergeants Meltabombs in case they need it. The real money maker are the Vanguard Veterans. I went with a squad of 10 and then opted to give my Sergeant a Powerfist and Storm Shield to deal with various threats. I have 2 Veterans with dual LC's. One Veteran has a Powerfist and a SS. The other only has a Power Axe (similar role for AP2). Lastly I have 2 stock Vets with a Power Sword and that leaves me with 3x "regular" Veterans meant to carve up whomever they need. My plans are to combat squad as needed and send one target to hunt elite or 2+ armor save targets. The others will go for "squishier targets".
Because Assaulting from reserves is the thing, I continued with the Skyhammer Annihilation Force. I opted for Salamanders Chapter tactics to give me re-rolls on Flamers but more specifically to mastercraft weapons. I think that I might change this to Ultramarines as Doctrines are far more effective at getting me what I need on any given turn.
One Assault Squad is meant to deal with fodder units and things that will succumb to AP3 attacks. I gave my Veteran Sergeant a Combat Shield to have a prayer in case he faces another opponent with AP3. The other Squad has a Power Axe to deal with slightly tougher enemies. I've considered giving them both Power Swords and Meltabombs instead however. I had to pay the Veteran Sergeant upgrade for the added attack.
The real interesting portions of this list are the Devastators. One squad is a static Grav Cannon Squad. 3x Grav Cannons in most situations are more than enough to wipe a unit or put enough wounds to make a stink. The other unit I blatantly copied from Reece from Frontline Gaming. The idea of pinning units using Heavy Bolters is huge, especially with so many assault units running around all over the place. In an ideal world I combat squad and let half of my larger Devastator unit push up and harass while the Heavy Bolters find some cover and control the middle of the board.
Pros:
This list gives me the ability to tie up at least 3 units in assault (overwatch not with-standing). It also lets me support by hurting 3 more units with pinning tests or at least denying overwatch. It give me plenty of scoring bodies. It provides some mobility on my ObSec units as well.
Cons:
While it can put a hurt on Tau and Eldar, it would suffer to other purely assault lists. It has no air support. But worst of all, it offers no real good answers to death stars. Even Psyker Deathstars aren't shut down as I didn't drop a Culexus Assassin in the mix. I don't know if it has enough offense to deal with the non-death star units and does not have enough units to feed said death star.
My next list will most likely be a play on the dreaded Iron Hands deathstar. I have some Iron Hands sitting on the shelf so building it would be relatively easy. Any thoughts?
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