Ravenwing 101

I have had three games so far with my Ravenwing using the pure list composed of the Ravenwing Strike Force and Ravenwing Support Squadron I posted. It is a nice break from rolling with super friends army lists. Ravenwing is the new White Scars because overall they collectively have better rules. For example you don't have to waste any points on a mediocre HQ to scout. It makes sense for GW to make Ravenwing better than White Scars so players will want to buy new models. I am hoping Tau are toned down and they fix msrkerlights. Tau have three things that break the game:

- Ignore Cover
- Interceptor
- Skyfire

They have these abilities in spades and it's all automatic plus undercosted. Tau are not popular anymore though because as a whole the army is not highly mobile and they are no longer battle brothers with eldar. The lack of mobility is very detrimental for Maelstrom missions and they lost the broken combos with eldar such as the batsuit joining a Riptide.

7th edition fixed many of the problems with 6th edition which also was a nerf to Tau. As an example assault is much stronger now since central tenants to the game such as challenges work properly helping a choppy army versus screwing them. Assault armies are much stronger now as a direct result which overall helps to better balance the game.

Tau is one of those armies that has always got really strong codices upon the initial release and is not easy to balance since they are devoid of strong meleecentric units. I am sure they will get new formations and detachments to bring them in line with the new edition which they need but I am hoping they are more balanced overall rather than relying upon game breaking rules to be competitive. Tau do not need gargantuan Riptides and D to win.

So back to Ravenwing... These are the best rules for Dark Angels ever and I'd hate to see the codex ruined within a few months of its release by the next codex to drop. As a pure army they do not have the uber over the top melee abilities. Sammael is a good HQ but not a total beast like Smashfecker. I enjoy playing the pure army so I can more fully flesh out the army and play a more tactical game. Ravenwing can beat Tau versus the abundance of ignoring cover due to high mobility and over saturating an area with many units as opposed to a super friends army that has an overall low model count and relies upon the deathstar to do all the heavy lifting.

I like a mix of Black Knights and Ravenwing biker squads as the core of my army. The Black Knights are specialists while the Ravenwing biker squads are more generalists. Combined together they are strong. I took what I learned from playing White Scars to design my Ravenwing biker squads:

Sergeant - melta bombs
4x Ravenwing biker - 2x grav gun
Attack Bikd - multi-melta

Two squads of Black Knights on average will delete a Wraithknight or scatter bike squad in one turn so versus eldar it's all about the Divide and Conquer tactic to concentrate a larger percentage of your army to eliminate key enemy units. The high mobility is key.

I was going to present a battle report for my recent game versus a heavy drop pod Imperial Fist Gladius Strike Force but unfortunately we discovered the Imperial Fist army list was illegal due to an oversight regarding which formations it can draw from collectively to design it. The mission was Contact Lost from Maelstrom and was hard fought due to all the drop pods being able to control objectives since they are objective secured. The game ended in a draw after six turns but would have most likely been a win for Ravenwing if it had gone on to a final seventh turn. I had another game versus a Salamanders Gladius Strike Force and it came down to the final turn... Brilliant game and I might write a batrep for that one.