How do you Kit Out Your Stormraven?

[ElectricPaladin]

At the moment, I've been fielding mine for close-up work - multi-meltas and assault cannons - and having it carry a squad of tactical marines to drop on the objectives that it helps to clear out. However, I have been considering a couple of factors - the other options available and the fact that my army struggles to take out armor - and now I'm wondering...

So, let's have a conversation. How do you equip your stormravens? What do you put in them? What kind of work do you expect from them?

[Garradh]

BA - I take TL lascannons and TL multimeltas. Traditionally I stuck a squad of Assault Marines with JP in them and a Furioso Librarian hanging out the back. Now I just let it act as a gunship without worrying about infantry inside it.

[Patrick Boyle]

I haven't gotten a chance to try it out yet, as the model isn't quite done yet, but I'm planning on M. Melta, Twin Las, Hurricane Bolters and a locator beacon, carrying Sternguard vets + Tigurius. If my understanding is incorrect, please let me know, but as I read the rules with the locator beacon I should be able to Skies of Fury my way out of the Stormraven withing 6", even while zooming, and not scatter due to the beacon. If so the general plan is, if enemy AA is still heavy, burn on the full 36", drop the Sternguard out back, and having Tigurius trigger his warlord trait to have them twin-link something down. Or if AA is mostly taken care of, maybe hold off a turn so tigurius can buff the unit up with whatever powers he rolled first before dropping onto a target somewhere. Either delivery method the raven is primarily itself going to be doing anti-flyer duty. Power of the Machine spirit will me let me come in, M. Melta one and dump the las cannon and a couple stormstrikes into another target. The bolters are a backup if there aren't any good AV weapon targets.

[kire]

TL assault cannon and TL multi melta for max anti aircraft. and if skys are clear go after some tanks. i find the lack of rang is meaningless on such a fast platform. i prefer cargo that has MTC so that i can drop them at high speed with no worries

[DWest]

TL Assault Cannon + TL Multimelta; it gives me the best anti-armor, and for each slot, those are the best weapon choices imo.

Nose weapons: Heavy Bolter / Typhoon Launcher / Multimelta: Heavy Bolter is not impressive, and Typhoon Launcher costs extra. I know the Stormraven is the "flying Land Raider" but I don't want it to cost as much as a Land Raider.

Turret weapons: Assault Cannons / Plasma Cannons / Lascannons: 1 Plasma Cannon is not a make-or-break, especially on a platform this big and expensive; TLoS also says that the wings and hull block a significant amount of shots against nearby targets. I can provide the math if anyone is interested, but statistically speaking, an Assault Cannon has a better chance to score at least 1 Penetrating hit than a Lascannon against AV 12-14, although the Assault Cannon lacks AP2.

[Anggul]

TL Assault Cannon, TL Multi-melta, Hurricane Bolter sponsons.

[Bob821]

Twin linked Las and multi melta. I rarely put anything inside since 5th but if I have a few spare points 5 assault marines with a flamer and maybe a power weapon to grab a late objective of at least contest one.

Every now and then I fill one up with Death Company and Dreadnought just for giggles.

[Demonus]

TL Assault Cannon, TL Multi-melta, Hurricane Bolter sponsons.

With Psibolts :)

[ElectricPaladin]

I'm not sure I get the trend of fielding stormravens empty. A humble tac squad with cheap weapons - heck, even a cheap 5-man tac squad - makes it into a vector for putting a scoring unit almost anywhere on the board. Given the way 6th Edition games are won, I can't see how that's a problem.

[DWest]

I would run a cheap squad in my Stormraven, probably 5 Tacs w/ a flamer to grab an objective, but I didn't consider that in my earlier post, as I still haven't tried shoehorning the beast into my current build.

[DarkLink]

I'm not sure I get the trend of fielding stormravens empty.

Eggs in one basket. In a basket that prevents you from effectively utilizing those eggs if you also want to effectively utilize the basket, and if you kill the basket you kill the eggs as well.

[ElectricPaladin]

I thought I'd share my typical layouts, just in case anyone's interested.

My list has four variants at present. I haven't decided which I like better.

• Variant One (list includes a vindicator): assault cannons and heavy bolters - stressing number of shots, since the vindicator can take out armor.
• Variant Two (list includes a vindicator, but other cuts give me more points): assault cannons, multi-meltas, hurricane bolters - addition of hurricane bolters let me drop the lackluster heavy bolters in favor of something with more punch.
• Variant Three (list includes a predator): assault cannons and multi-meltas - with the predator to provide dakka, I can focus on penetrating fire.
• Variant Four (list includes a predator, but other cuts give me more points): lascannons, multi-meltas, hurricane bolters - same thing, but the points for the hurricane bolters let me skew it even more heavily in favor of anti-armor.

All versions carry a ten-man tactical squad with heavy bolter, flamer, and sergeant with a power fist and a furioso dreadnought.

I'll let you know how the eggs/basket thing goes. So far, I haven't had any problems, and the capacity of the stormraven to drop a versatile scoring unit and a deadly close-combat walker exactly where I want it is pretty good.

That said, I kind of like the idea of cutting it down to a five-man squad... there are a number of things I can do with those 80 points...

[DarkLink]

I wouldn't put too many points into it. Then it's like a Drop Pod that doesn't reliably come in when you need it. But in the right situation it works, and you can always use the deepstrike out the back rule, whatever it's called for SMs. Shadow Skies for Grey Knights.

[ElectricPaladin]

I wouldn't put too many points into it. Then it's like a Drop Pod that doesn't reliably come in when you need it. But in the right situation it works, and you can always use the deepstrike out the back rule, whatever it's called for SMs. Shadow Skies for Grey Knights.

It's worth noting here: a little-recalled fact is that all the "deep strike out the back" rules got combined into a single rule. The new version strips any benefit to jump pack troops jumping out, which is why I went with tactical marines.