Not sure if this is needed but whatev I decided to make a thread where the more experienced players can pass on some wisdom to the newer people in the hobby. It's tough to buy into such an expensive hobby then have no idea what to do once you're there. I'm about to get a 500pt marine army done and it will hit 1,000 not too long after. This is my first army and I haven't actually learned to play yet. I enjoy the hobby and know I'll learn soon. To start off, I had a question about elites. I have a box of veteran assault marines. I'm building Raven Guard so I'd like to put lightning claws on them all but that's like 150 points in only lightning claws. Is it wise to pour so many points into one squad mainly for the fluff value? I've checked out the numbers I can understand and it seems usable, especially with my HQ. I'm just worried about all my points getting blown away with a few good shots from an opponent.
Good idea for a thread, although there is not activity in this section. Well, I dunno anything about marines so I cant say, but having a fluffy army is often more fun than any other army. But I cant see too much harm in a few marines not having claws. Maybe they want to wear something else than every other Raven Guard!
Yea, I considered leaving two with different weapons so they could actually get a few shots off before going into melee. Or I could give the sergeant a relic blade and keep his pistol. That actually saves 5 points.
Well there's no reason not to have a fluff centered army that can't be effective. It's simply a case of planning your strategies around your army as apposed to building your army to suit your strategies. So in terms of vanguard veterans with dual claws just make sure that you pit them against valid targets, even if they die. Provided that they kill their equivalent worth. Stick a chaplain with them and they'll cut their way through pretty much anything. Of course it's never a good idea to build your entire army/strategy around a single unit. No plan survives contact with the enemy.
The veterans are the last units I've built. I have a about 7 sniper scouts, two squads of tacticals, and a squad of regular assault. I do have the jump pack chaplain in there as well. I have the Shrike model but haven't assembled it. Not sure if the point cost is worth it at this point.
Just from looking a from looking at what you have you seem to be lacking in anti-armour capability, the obvious answer to that is melta-bombs in your assault and vanguard squads. Even your tactical squads would benefit from those seeing as the raven guard special ability allows most of the army to outflank. Otherwise I'd say that the vanguards are a good choice. They can use the lightning caws with shred and AP3 to chew through large squads of grunts especially with the chaplain. Nasty monstrous creatures like Hive Tyrants, Carnifexes, wraithlords and daemon princes shouldn't be too much of a problem due to a relatively low initiative and little to no inv. Be wary of high initiative foes though as they can dent your offensive capability before you have the chance to strike.
I have a meltagun and a combi-melta on one of the tactical squads. I've probably throw a few melta bombs on the veterans.
Good old predator destructor with 2 side sponson las cannons and a twin-linked las on top. Stubborn enough to hang around, not quite scary enough to take notice of. I use 1 in my mobile infantry army (both Chaos marines & Sm) for the specific purpose of eliminating lightly armored transports. Why? Guarenteed victory points. And if your opponent thinks your using it incorrectly they will most likely ignore it. Better yet? They forget its Armor 13 in the front and waste a lot of ammo remembering it the hard way. Low and behold, thanks to the twin-linked shot, I often plug a flyer or 2 with it as well. 1/6 chances of rolling a 6 after all -and you have 4 chances to do it in!
This tactic has nothing to do with raven guard but my best (and favorite) tactic can only be done with Dark Angels. Sure Dark Angels got he short end of the stick on flyers and maybe the land speeder tempest is a bit of a joke and overall they are a bit lack luster with a few exceptions. 1, Sammael- he rides a jetbike and has relentless, a twin linked storm bolter, AND A PLASMA CANNON, this is truly were he shines in my humble opinion, sure he has an ap2 power sword, skilled rider, and a teleport homer but a mobile T5 BS6 Plasma cannon is nothing to scoff at. 2. Ravenwing bikers/command squad/black knights, Sammael unlocks a command squad and it can take "Banner of Devastation" making all bolters within 6" salvo 4/2 (basic 10 man marine squad gets 40 boltshots if they stay still!). Black knights get their awesome twin linked 18" plasma talons. and with sammael, bikers are troops choices as opposed to fast attack, that's T5 twin linked boltguns with hit and run(all ravenwing carries teleport homers and have the scout rule), again something few should ever scoff at. 3. The Deathwing, all Deathwing are terminators, not only that, these terminators can take PLASMA CANNONS on top of normal termie equipment. but what really makes these guys awesome is their special rule of "deathwing assault", in a nutshell they can choose to automatically (as in no (t)rolling for reserves) deep strike in on tun 1 or 2 and they have the twin linked special rule on the turn they deep strike via deathwing assault, this I would call very scary. We have a combo of fast and slow but teleport homers are truly what make this work, if you have first turn with this kind of army deploy your ravenwing as close to the middle of the board as possible, scout 12" (and pray that your opponent doesn't steal initiative) next move an additional 12 inches (you should be on the border of line breaker now) and deep strike those terminators within 6 inches of your bikers and you will have zero scatter. Those deathwing termies will then be able to dakka dakka, and if they need to in turn 2 smash and krump. This is also supported by Ravenwing bikers (who can take 2 plasma, melta, or flamers per squad) and whatever else is in range by any heavy support (I like plasma devastators). this makes for a very powerful first move and can easily knock down some big nasty ugly critters before they can wreak their havoc (Tau Riptide, Eldar Wraithknight) You have turn 2 though? no biggie hunker those bikers down in some nice cover (line of sight blocking preferable and DO NOT SEIZE INITIATIVE, let the bad guys move up. then when it is your tun move up to them and drop your Deathwing in (remember you have 2 turns to deathwing assault so try to place them carefully even if you need to wait).
