THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE RAVENWING By Jay Winton |
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Unit Composition One of the biggest things about ravenwing is that each unit has a very specific role. Bikes strike hard and fast against enemy troops. Attack bikes swoop in and destroy tanks. Land Speeders pick off targets that would either take the bikers too long to reach or would be too dangerous to confront (I.E. Close Combat Troops like Khorne Berzerkers and Howling Banshees). Therefore it is very easy for an experienced opponent to totally disable your army by destroying only one or two squads. Against imperial guard, it would be very easy for them to roast your attack bike squad and make it impossible for you to win in a firefight. Against tyranids they could just shoot down your landspeeders then rip you to shreds with their genestealers. Same goes with orks. This inherent property of very defined roles can be the road to defeat for a ravenwing army unless you prepare for it by "versatilizing" your units. First of all, all bike squads should have at least one weapon capable of destroying a tank, I.E. Melta-Gun or Plasma gun. If you have enough, it's nice to have attack bikes join each squad, but it's far more important that you have at least one attack bike on it's own to hunt down tanks. Due to your limited numbers you will have to be very careful on what you shoot at. A bike squad faced with a hoard of Ork Slugga Boys and a Dreadnought is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Therefore, it's always good to have that one attack bike hold itself back then go after whatever armored threat presents itself while the rest of your army can focus on what it's good at: mowing down troops like there wasn't any tomorrow. If your opponent presents more than 1 armored threat, I'd reccomend having 2 separate attack bike squads. In most cases it's better to use the points you'd spend giving your bike squad an attack bike on an attack bike all on its own. In addition, always give your veteran sargeant a master-crafted power sword. I will explain this later. Also, give your Master of the Ravenwing at least one landspeeder in his retinue, but other than that it's best to have your landspeeders fight separate. Deployment How you deploy can determine whether you win or lose. If you deploy right, you have a better chance of winning. If you deploy wrong, you are guaranteed to lose. There is NO WAY TO WIN with a bad deployment. Unlike a normal Space Marine army that can hammer down the enemy even with a thoughtless deployment, deploying ravenwing is like trying to stack champagne glasses in a nice neat pyramid. It's like a fine art. If you deploy poorly with ravenwing, you'll get vaped within 2 turns by the enemy's heavy weapon squads (I learned this the hard way from a squad of chaos havocs destroying an entire bike squad on the first turn because I deployed them badly). First of all, you have to learn to utilize every inch of cover you can get. By deploying out in the open you open yourself to the enemy's heavy weapons. Since you don't have the numbers that other armies have, one volley from a squad of devastators/havocs/zoanthropes/dark reapers/snipers can totally obliterate a squad of bikes. Therefore, it is best to deploy your bikes behind a hill or building to keep them out of line of sight from the enemy.When playing a mission like cleanse, you'll want to have one bike squad ready to head out to each of the corners not belonging to your enemy. Since they will slowly spead out their forces and their faster (more expensive) elements will reach these quarters first, you should be able to destroy some of their more point-intensive units easily. It's not hard at all to pick off a squad that tries to venture out of their starting quarter. Also, try to keep your landspeeders (especially the master) out of line of sight. Since you move so fast, it is no problem to bring yourself out of hiding and into position on your turn. Every time you play you have to assume that the enemy is going to go first. Because if you deploy like you are going first, and then the enemy goes first, you will lose very swiftly. I prefer not to rely on a fickle 50/50 chance. All in all it's best to have your entire army behind cover, but if there's not enough, try to conceal the most important unit against your enemy. In other words, hide your attack bikes versus imperial guard, hide your bikers versus eldar or space marines, and hide your landspeeders versus tyranids. In some ways, with a good defensive deployment it is possible to make going second a GOOD thing. Your enemy closes into range on their turn, not being able to see any of your guys. Then, on your turn, you zoom out from behind your cover and deliver a vicious strike to the forward elements of their army. It's great to charge your chaplain into a group of terminators first turn and hack them to bits. I will elaborate on this later. Movement The biggest strength of a ravenwing army is speed. The ability to move everything from point a to point c without ever having to stop at point b. But it is unwise to speed toward the opponent head on guns blazing. That will put your army in the state we like to call "existance impaired". When I first started playing ravenwing that was the biggest mistake I made. Never, EVER, speed at the guy head on unless you are confident you can crush what you're headed at. There is a fine art to controling a ravenwing army, and that is distance. To most armies, distance is simply "Can I shoot him, can he shoot me, can I charge him, can he charge me". To ravenwing it should always be "Can I shoot him without him shooting or charging me" or "Can I charge him and eat his ass for breakfast". 5, even 10, space marines equipped with bolters will lose in close combat to a bike squad who has a sargeant with a master crafted power sword. First law of distance: Optimum distance. This section is bike strategy only. Don't try this with landspeeders. I'll get to those later.There will usually be an "optimum distance" for your bikes to be at. Within charging range of any close combat capable squad (12 or 18 inches depending on if they got jump packs) is not optimum distance. This is what we call "don't move here or you will get pasted". By close combat capable I mean a unit with close combat weapons over 50% of it's starting strength that isn't genestealers. Never get near genestealers. Even if there's only one of them. Genestealers are scary. I charged my Eldar Wraithlord at one only to have the lone genestealer fell my mighty, 200 point wraithlord. Back to the subject at hand. Optimum distance, however, is always within range of your bolters. Ideally, it is to be able to shoot at them without them being able to shoot at you. 18.5 inches away from a squad of eldar guardians means they can't touch you but you can sure blow the living sh^t out of them. The firepower behind 5 bikes is truly frightening. Once you weaken the enemy at long range, until they are no longer a threat at close combat, it is safe to move into the "danger zone" and pump them full even more dakka. In all cases here I am referring to averagely equipped squads, not devastators or terminators. I will cover that, too, later. If you keep the right distances with your bike squads for the whole game victory is yours no matter how many times you can't jink. I have a very simple theory on warhammer 40k strategy that is the simplest way to win. Bring more of your army to bear on the opponent than he can bring to bear on you. This is very simply put, but it is the way to win this game. When you kill a devastator squad, you are reducing the amount of the opponent's army they can bring to bear and also you are increasing the number of units you have that can stay alive and keep shooting. Law of Distance Number Two - One Sided Fight. If the enemy has guns coming at you that can totally roast a squad of bikes with no hope of effective retaliation, run away. Yes, you have the speed, so run away. Go behind a hill. My friend calls me a coward for doing this, but what's the use of bravery if you're dead anyway? better to run away so you can pump some dakka into other enemies than die being a dumbass and getting into a showdown with some terminators. Just get yourself out of the way and go somewhere else in the fighting, while an opponent's unit is now off in the middle of nowhere away from the fight. I mainly mean this against enemies trying to get line of sight to you so they can blow you apart or a vicious squad of hormagurants waiting to charge you in close combat. remember, each bike of yours is as valuable as 5-10 of the other guy's troops, so you have to value the life of each one especially high. CLOSE COMBAT AND YOU - How the Ravenwing Deals with it Close Combat. The two words that strike fear in the heart of any experienced ravenwing commander. The worst thing that can happen to you. Well it doesn't have to be! <fanfare> Introducing, the Ravenwing Self-Help Close Combat Guide. As you well know, bikes have never been known to do especially well in close combat. With only one attack in their base profile, a bike squad of five doesn't have the "oomph" of a tactical squad of ten. Heck, most of us wouldn't even charge a tactical squad into close combat, let alone bikes. But sometimes you will be forced, one way or another, into bringing your average bike squad into close combat. Maybe the enemy has one of the fallen in their ranks. (This happened to me yesterday. My friend's chaos lord turned out through the dice roll to be the fallen, so I had to fight through 9 khorne berzerkers and a lord with a master-crafted spiky bitted axe of khorne). And sometimes, very rarely, it would be to your advantage to charge the enemy. Below I will outline the art of close combat and ravenwing. |
TACTICA RAVENWING |
