Need help building competitive Raven Guard

[BlkRseFenix]

Hi all, I've been playing for almost 20 years and have never been much of a competitive player. My circle of gamers and I play fluff army lists. I've only played a dozen or so games under the current rules. My local store is going to be holding a tournament for 1850 pts. and I was hoping I could get some input on what is a viable tourney list.

Here's what I have so far:

Pts. Unit
185 Shrike
130 5 Scouts- Missle Launcher, Sargeant w/Melta Bombs, Land Speeder Storm w/Multi-Melta
130 5 Scouts- Missle Launcher, Sargeant w/Melta Bombs, Land Speeder Storm w/Multi-Melta
177 6 Assault Marines- Vet Sgt. w/Power Axe and Plaspistol and Melta Bombs, Flamer, Plaspistol
184 7 Assault Marines- Vet Sgt. w/Power Fist and Plaspistol and Melta Bombs, Flamer, Plaspistol
Storm Wing Data Slate
240 Storm Raven- w/Twin-Link Lascannon, Twin-Link Multi-Melta, Hurricane Bolters, and Stormstrike Missles, Locator Beacon
145 Storm Talon- w/Twin-Link Assault Cannon, Twin-Link Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missle Launcher
145 Storm Talon- w/Twin-Link Assault Cannon, Twin-Link Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missle Launcher
225 5 Terminator Assault Squad- 5 Thunderhammers
280 3 Centurion Devastators- Lascannon and Missle Launcher

1841 Total


What do you guys think? I normally run 3 Tactical Squads and 20 Assault marines, so this is a little outside the norm for me. Any input would be appreciated.

[DarkLink]

Frankly, Assault Marines are terrible. Ravenguard are also generally outclassed by the other CTs, but you can do funny stuff with it. Namely, take ~60 Tactical Marines in Rhinos and combat squad everything. You don't have much offensive output, but that many Marines that can Scout in your face puts a lot of pressure on an opponent and you'll have 10+ scoring units, so it's surprisingly effective. Throw in a few Drop Pods, Thunderfire Cannons, etc, and you have a solid army.

[Anggul]

For a start, Plasma Pistols suck. Get rid of the lot of them. You could give the Assault Marines a second Flamer instead, two of those would be nice. Also I think I would go with Power Swords for challenge purposes, and you aren't going to be wanting to fight anything with 2+ armour except maybe Centurions which aren't going to put up much of a fight regardless.

I can't see Scouts with a Missile Launcher doing much of anything. If they're going in the Speeders they aren't going to hit, and if you leave them on objectives backfield they're better off as Snipers. One BS3 Missile per turn isn't worth paying all of those points for. Raven Guard really need to suddenly drop a load of damage on the opponent, and putting points into Scouts and Speeders just so they can sit on objectives makes that a lot harder.

You have so many units that don't benefit from Raven Guard chapter tactics. Raven Guard can be really good but you have to think about making use of their chapter tactics as much as possible, which means flyers, Terminators and Centurions should be used a bit less. Scouting Tactical Marines in Rhinos (remember Scout means they can Outflank if you want them to) and scouting Devastators getting into good positions with their heavy weapons with first turn Stealth are both nice.

[xTHExCLINCHERx]

I agree with the points that Anggul makes. Take a Thunderfire Cannon, and scout some devastators into a fortified piece of terrain (which is often partially in your deployment zone so you can reinforce it, but the good 4+ part of it may be just a bit out.. a building wall for example). Also, since you will be up a bit further than regular deployment, this lets you take heavy weapons with a slightly less range than the standard lascannon load-out (missile launchers, plasma cannons, and even multi-meltas!)

Also, lots of rhinos with tac marines shooting multi-meltas into stuff can hurt. If you combat squad them too, you could have heavy weapons in the back in-range, and a special + combi firing from a scouted rhino turn 1... ouch.

I like the idea of a Stormraven with a beastly Chapter Master with Jump Pack in it for a crazy assault range (I think Raven Guard get to use their jump pack rules in assault too?). You can really reach out and charge someone just about anywhere on the board with him; could be neat.

I honestly wouldn't take scouts... they already have what the Chapter Tactics give you... so might as well replace them with Tactical Marines.