Salut tous le petit monde! It is I, the Frenchman, coming back to you with something sneaky, dirty and will terrorize (oh I know this could almost be the start of a cruel French joke! Too soon?).Be sure to check the Tactics Corner for more great articles.
I found a Reecius’s Talon Strike articles and bat repts inspiring and while I did a review on the Scarblade Detachment of my favorite SM Chapter, the White Scars. I wanted to see if I could test my mettle on List Building with the other SM codex that got a lot of love in the Damocles Campaign, the Ravenguard. I have a few friends from the Northwest which are pretty hardcore Ravenguard Players and I wanted to build a list that would be tactical, competitive, and fun to play against or with. So I put together this little gem.
Raptor Allied Detachment:
Lias Issodon – Warlord ( I will cover why he is in a Warlord in an Allied Detachment)
Scout Squad of 10 with Bolters.
Relic Scorpius Whilwind with the Battle of Keyek Legacy
Talon Strike Force:
Demi-Battle Company:
Captain with Artificer Armor, Thunderhammer, Auspex, Raven’s Fury
Tactical Squad of 5 with Meltagun, Combi-Melta in a Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon
Tactical Squad of 5 with Meltagun, Combi-Melta in a Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon
Tactical Squad of 5 with Meltagun, Combi-Melta in a Razorback w/ TL Assault Cannon
Assault Squad of 5 with 2 Flamers, 1 Meltabomb and Jump Packs
Devastator Squad of 5 with 2 Grav Cannon in a Rhino
Shadowstrike Kill Team:
Scout Squad of 5 with Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks
Scout Squad of 5 with Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks
Vanguard Squad of 5, 1 with Powerfist, 1 with Lightning Claws, 2 with Meltabombs and Jump Packs
Vanguard Squad of 5, 1 with Powerfist, 1 with Lightning Claws, 2 with Meltabombs and Jump Packs
Alright let me first clarify what I meant by Lias Issodon [FW has his Rule for free on Page 8 of this Link] as Warlord in an Allied Detachment by first going over who Lias Issodon is. He is the Chapter Master of the Raptors from the Badab War and he has a plethora of rules and mechanic that works great with the Talon Strike Force. He has a Chapter Master statline with 4 Wounds, he comes with a 2+ but no Invulnerable Saves, a Power Sword, Grenades, a named Bolter that is 30” Str 4 AP5 Salvo 2/4 that use Sternguard Ammo and finally he comes with a Locator Beacon which becomes important for some elements of the list. While his wargear is lackluster, he has a ton of special rules such as that he comes with Shrouding, the ability for his army to reroll reserve (success or fail), modifying enemy reserve rolls by -1, before the first game turn starts he can inflict D6+3 wounds to a unit with saves allowed or D3 Haywire hits to a Vehicle and finally his last rule is that Lias must always be the warlord and he starts the game with the Master of Ambush’s Strategic Warlord trait (Warlord gains Infiltrate and 3 Units of your choice). I interpret that last rule as overruling the Rulebook restriction on Warlord not being chosen from the Allied Detachment since Lias forces your hand. The Raptor Chapter tactics [Found here] grants all models Scout and Stealth on the first turn unless the models are bulky and if any Raptor unit stands still may choose to gain Rending on their Boltgun at cost of changing their firing type to heavy 1.
The Ravenguard chapter tactics grants you +1 on Night Fighting rolls as well as the ability to use Jump Packs for both movement and assault phase while also gaining the ability to reroll to wound rolls on Hammer of Wrath hits.
Most of everyone already knows the amazing benefits of Demi Battle Company which include every model in the formation gaining objective secured and the Tactical Doctrine.
The Shadowstrike Kill Team formation allows the Vanguard Squad to autopass any reserve rolls they take, it also allows them to charge on the turn they come in and finally if they enter the board within 9” of two Scout squad from the very same formation they do not scatter.
Now to explain why the Locator Beacon is important. If you have not seen Reecius’ article on the Talon Strike Force than let me recap to you the major benefits of it. It allows you to reroll deployment sides dice, reroll the dice to see who gets to choose to go first or second, your units in reserve can come turn 1 on a roll of a 4+ and finally you can choose to auto-fail morale tests. Those bonus are pretty great in unison with Lias which allows you to reroll your first turn reserve rolls, the fact that the Vanguard from the Shadowstrike Kill Team can enter on turn 1 and using Lias Locator Beacon or the scouts can accurately land and charge.
I envision using Lias Master of Ambush warlord trait to grant the Tactical Marines in the Battle Company Outflank (Through Infiltrate). I would place Lias in the Devastator to grant them Scout (or Outflank). This would effectively turn the army into a Pinion Company, since I could effectively start the entire army in Reserve and come in with a Rerollable 4+ (except the Raptor Tactical Squad) but I would prefer to deploy the Dev with Lias, the Raptor Scout Squad and the Scouts to allow me to effectively maximize my first turn pressure with the Vanguard and hopefully most of the rest of the army. The Captain will be attached to the Assault Squad since I consider him as mostly as a throwaway threat.
The tactical flexibility of maximizing your odds to pick your side and going first while retaining the ability to completely null deploy or having an army that can perform effective surgical strikes and mobile objective secured units. I think the army does not necessarily pack an extreme punch but it does have a lot of tricks and can really spring a trap on some opponents.