Raven Guard used to be the red-headed stepchild of the Space Marine codex, but with the updates in the Kauyon book, this is no longer true. But after the initial flurry of discussion, no one seems to be making any use of them, and I have to wonder why- because they’re actually quite strong.
Damocles War Zone: Kauyon got a lot of attention when it dropped, and rightfully so; not only did it include a major update for the Tau army with some very interesting formations (even if most of them have turned out to be a bit lackluster, in no small part because of the ITC ruling on the subject) but it also contained the Hunter’s Eye, an absurdly-good relic that could give any unit in your army Ignores Cover for a token price. With White Scars already being a major tournament force with the Gladius Strike Force it’s no surprise that they got the lion’s share of attention.
But as it turns out there was another Marine faction included in Kauyon, the Raven Guard. Now, most people would be forgiven for forgetting about them, since up until this point Raven Guard were… a questionable choice, to put things kindly. However, for those paying attention Kauyon completely changed all that. Their Chapter Tactic stayed the same, which is unfortunately not a particularly exciting thing, but to help them function they got a fantastic Decurion-style multiformation called the Talon Strike Force.
But for some reason no one has been talking about it much, despite it getting a lot of the stuff that defines strong armies in modern 40K. You want Ignores Cover up the wazoo? Talon Strike Force has got you covered, buddy- and not just for one unit, but for a significant portion of your army! You want reserve shenanigans so you can play the first-or-second game? Talon Strike Force plays that game with the best of ’em. Want strategic options so you can control the flow of the game and play the mission? Talon Strike Force has that in the bag, friend. The only real downsides to the Talon are that it typically lacks much Objective Secured (though that is usually by choice, since it is potentially available) and that you’re forced to use the shitty Raven Guard tactic- though even there the TSF makes it surprisingly-useful.
What Was Missed
But forgive me, dear reader; perhaps some of you aren’t familiar with- or simply don’t recall offhand- what the Talon Strike Force (and, just as importantly, its core component the Pinion Battle Company) do. That would be wholly understandable, given the flurry of releases over the past few months- it’s practically a full-time job just to keep up with them all. So let’s go over things recount the details of why it’s so good.
The Talon as a whole grants several abilities that, while not game-breaking, work extremely well when taken together. It can reroll the dice on most of the pre-game rolls- picking deployment zones and taking the first turn being the big ones. Theoretically it can reroll the mission as well, but as most tournaments use fixed missions each round, this benefit often won’t apply- even so, these abilities are quite strong. I’ve seen many a game be essentially decided before the first turn by one player or the other getting a blatantly-superior position or choice of turn order, and the Talon significantly increases your chances of this happening. If you’re winning the game right from the start, it means the opponent has an uphill climb to beat you.
Added to that and enhancing the general theme of flexibility of strategy are the next two benefits, Know When to Strike and Know When to Fade. The former lets you attempt to bring in reserves on the first turn (needing a 4+ on the dice) if you want to- though it’s not mandatory, so you can still stay off the board if you want to. The latter allows you to choose to fail any morale test you’re required to make, if you so please- anyone who remembers Combat Tactics from the 5th Edition Space Marine book will be familiar with just how powerful this ability is. It makes you immune to pre-charge shooting in many cases, since even minimal casualties will give you the opportunity to fall back out of the enemy’s charge range; it means you almost always have the opportunity to try and duck out of a bad combat, and it can sometimes give you free “retreat” movement on critical turns.
These benefits on their own would be merely decent; they allow the army to pull some interesting tricks, but they’re not enough to win games on their own. The core formation in the Strike Force is what really makes it shine: the Pinion Demi-Company. Superficially similar to a standard Demi-Company (and, as it happens, available to other chapters when not used in a Talon Strike Force) it has the requisite Chaplain-or-Captain, three Tactical squads, one Assault squad, and one Devastator squad. It is worth noting here that, unlike a standard Demi-Company, these squads cannot be traded out for the alternate options (Attack Bikes, Centurions, etc)- you’re stuck with what you get. However, the Pinion has an additional unit available to it; it can (must) take between one and five Scout or Scout Bike squads beyond the normal components.
And you’ll want to be taking a bunch of those Scouts, too, as they are the heart and soul of the Pinion. It lacks the Doctrine and Objective Secured of a normal Demi-Company, instead getting two other benefits to replace them. The first allows any Scout sergeant to “spot” for a unit from the formation that is within 9″, giving the whole unit Ignores Cover with their weapons. This can be done even if the Scouts can’t see the unit they are spotting for or its target, even if the Scouts are Pinned or locked in combat or falling back. It’s an incredible bonus, and it comes in addition to everything else those handy little Scouts are doing on their own- they can still shoot, assault, and score as normal.
The second benefit allows units of Scouts from the formation to lead another squad when they go into reserve; if they do so, only one roll is made for both of the two units and they will arrive at the same time when it is passed, coming in on the same table edge (even if the Scouts chose to Outflank.) The guided unit also gets the Stealth rule the turn it arrives, provided that the Scouts are within 9″ of them. Combined with the ability to arrive (or not) on the first turn, this gives the army unparalelled ability to make tricksy deployments and reserve shenanigans- you can have units coming in from virtually anywhere, on any turn, and there’s almost nothing the enemy can do about it.
And that’s just the shenanigans from the core choice- the auxiliary options give you flyers, first-turn assaults, Drop Pods, and more. While not all of them are particularly excellent or even really usable from a tournament perspective, there are enough good ones to make it quite possible to work with.
Army of Me(n)
So what does this all come out to? Functionally, it means that a Talon Strike Force army is very slippery and hard to pin down despite the often impressive number of bodies they field. Typically you’ll be seeing something like 40-60 power armored models and another 20-50 in carapace, though obviously these numbers can vary if it uses allies (such as xenos or a Knight) or does something else unusual. Despite the huge field presence, however, the Talon will be able to deploy almost anywhere it pleases thanks to a combination of Deep Strike, Infiltrate, Scout, and Outflank (plus the ability to guide in units that lack one of the above with its Scouts.) When going first, the Talon can present an extremely-aggressive face, putting its entire model count in the enemy’s face immediately to give them a very bad time if they aren’t ready for things. Alternately, it can play a very flowing game by going into reserve and avoiding direct confrontations with the enemy’s forces when on the bottom of the turn (or against a similarly reserve-centric enemy) . This flexibility of strategy is the cornerstone of the Talon, and I think it’s biggest strength- in the hands of a good player, it not only has the raw numbers and special rules (especially Ignores Cover) to dish out damage, but can also adapt to different game types and armies with shocking fluidity.
Enhancing this aspect is the fact that the Raven Guard tactic actually isn’t all that bad when you have the right setup; 2+ cover saves across the board for a large number of models is nothing to sneeze at, and while it may not benefit you much beyond that first turn having an army full of Terminators can make weathering an enemy alpha strike very doable if you want to set yourself up in good positions to make a counter-assault. With strong shooting of its own and excellent defenses against the enemy’s shooting (at least for a time), the Strike Force is well-poised to win games of attrition when it comes down to that; it may not outshoot Scatter Bikes or Tau, but against a lot of other armies it will be able to clean them off the table.
This, then, is what puzzles me most about the Talon and its lack of utilization; it has all the hallmarks of a powerful army, but has been completely ignored by the competitive community. Reece has talked about it a bit, sure, but he’s approaching it more from an angle of affection for something he would probably play anyways than that of a hardcore tournament player looking to bring an optimized list- even though I think the Talon at least merits some consideration for tournament use, even if it may not be strictly the most powerful of armies. In fact, I know of only one player (a local to our area, natch) that has been bringing it to tournaments- and this is across the whole of the Pacific Northwest USA, though obviously there could be cases I simply haven’t heard about.
As a result, I don’t think there’s any really set way to build it. However, in the interest of fostering discussion (and because several people have asked about it or been interested), here’s the version of it that made an appearance at TSHFT recently; I don’t agree with the build 100%, but I think it showcases a lot of what the army can do.
TALON STRIKE FORCE
-Pinion Demi Company-
1 Chaplain (Jump Pack)
5 Tactical Marines (Grav Cannon)
5 Tactical Marines (Grav Cannon)
5 Tactical Marines (Grav Cannon)
5 Assault Marines (Jump Packs)
10 Devastators (4 Lascannons)
5 Scouts (Meltabombs)
5 Scouts (Meltabombs)
5 Scouts (Meltabombs)
5 Scouts (Meltabombs)
-10th Company Strike Force-
5 Scouts (Combi-Melta, Meltabombs)
5 Scouts (Combi-Melta, Meltabombs)
5 Scouts (Combi-Melta, Meltabombs)
RAPTORS COMBINED ARMS
1 Lias Issodon (Warlord)
5 Scouts (Combi-Melta, Meltabombs)
5 Scouts (Combi-Melta, Meltabombs)
1 Drop Pod
1 Drop Pod
1 Drop Pod
1 Thunderfire Cannon
INQUISITORIAL
1 Xenos Inquisitor (Psyker, 3 Servo-Skulls)
2 Acolytes, 1 Psyker
2 Acolytes, 1 Psyker
2 Acolytes, 1 Psyker
As you can see, it can put a lot of pressure on the enemy early with lots of low-AP weapons to take advantage of the Ignores Cover abilities. Melta and Lascannons are there to break Void Shields, and abundant Meltabombs (not to mention Krak Grenades) give enemy vehicles nightmares. Lias Issodon allows the Tacticals (and/or Devastators) to Infiltrate as needed, giving even more deployment options and his rerolls on reserves are extremely clutch for making sure your units arrive on the turn that you want them. The Inquisitorial part is probably the weakest inclusion, but some cheap scoring units that throw out Psychic Shriek are nothing to sneeze at- they’ve downed many a MC or heavy infantry squad.
Additions and Considerations
Is the above the “best” build? Certainly not, as even the player in question admits- they have since changed many features of the army to fit in other tools and try to cover perceived weaknesses, though they have asked me not to post the exact list due to preparing to attend LVO in a couple of days here. Still, there’s lots to think about and lots of ways the army might be built differently, though all such builds will want to make use of the strengths of the Talon if they are to do well.
One obvious option might be the Shadowstrike Kill Team, which brings some much-needed melee presence to the list. It brings more Scouts to the army, a nice bonus, and features even more reserve shenanigans with its Vanguard Veterans. The Raptor Wing brings a different sort of support, having some good utility firepower as well as solid AA that dodges the main disadvantage of flyers (i.e. not arriving until late in the game.)
Outside of the Talon itself, there are tons of great options. Any formation- or unit- that brings a lot of reserve-based firepower is a good candidate for inclusion; the Skyhammer seems like an obvious choice, and of course it’s hard to go wrong with a Hunter’s Eye or other White Scars units. Some of the Blood Angels and Space Wolf formations have the potential to do interesting things in combination with the Talon.
As melee is the biggest weakness of the Talon, inclusions that mitigate that can also be prime considerations. Knights, while not good at playing the reserve game, are resilient enough to eat the first turn of shooting against most armies with only limited damage; the various Imperial deathstars (Thunderwolves, Raven Guard, Librarius Conclave, etc) also have some potential in this regard, since they can make closing with the Talon very unappetizing for many opponents even while the barrage of Ignores Cover whittles away at their forces.
Xenos allies also have potential, though they lack some of the inherent synergies of keeping to the Imperium of Man. Scatter Bikes provide it with good RoF shooting (and the possibility of a melee stomper in the Wraithknight) while Tau battlesuits with Interceptor can provide a good deterrent for enemies that try to use counter-reserve tactics of their own. And, of course, many of the xenos have plentiful formations of their own that can be slotted in to fill gaps, if that’s the desire; deathstars, AA, mobile forces, and more are all options.
Conclusion
I’m hesitant to say that the Talon Strike Force is a top-tier tournament list; it does have some significant weaknesses (its firepower is somewhat lacking in volume with regard to anything but Boltguns, it’s very reliant on cover saves, it has a mediocre game against many niche lists) and it doesn’t hold the raw power that Battle Company or other armies often do. However, I think it easily ranks up with Orks, Hunting Pack, and other second-tier armies that are serious threats to the top contenders if the mission, dice, or matchup are correct. It is also an excellent spoiler for several existing armies and, despite its weaknesses, the fundamental nature of the list means that very rarely will it be completely without options.
For those players that like Scouts, that like armies that are extremely flexible, or that just want to play something off-kilter I would recommend giving the Talon Strike Force a look. Despite its complete lack of presence so far, I think it’s got a lot going for it- and if you try it out I believe you’ll find the same.
You could not help but take a swipe at ITC could you. As a tournament Tau player that uses the Hunter Cadre, I am HAPPY they ruled the way they did on Combined Fire. It is a much more conservative ruling that helps keep Tau from getting ridiculous rules simply because of a GW verbiage over site. Anything that can be done to reduce the amount of power gaming in 40k right now is a good thing. Don’t help players break the game by supporting the most OP interpretation of a given rule. Make it harder by using the conservative interpretation. We don’t want to be abusing the rules at all in the first place, just running solid, no-jank, lists. I have even chosen to self impose the ITC ruling on myself when not playing with the ITC FAQ, simply because it is by far the most reasonable interpretation. The combos that can be used in a RAW Hunter Cadre are overly powerful at best, and quickly becomes a power gamer’s paradise. They do not help to create a balanced meta where player skill, instead of army composition, decides games.
Yes, as a writer for the ITC site who plays extensive ITC tournaments and has repeatedly lauded the ITC for what it has done for the tournament scene as well as for the 40K community as a whole, you have correctly divined my absolute loathing for ITC. Good job.
Hahahahaha
Oh man, perfect response!
Hahahahahahaha!!!
Meh, a bit too defensive. Where did “absolute loathing” come from? Cowboy said “you could not help but take a swipe at ITC”; probably because of the extensive public criticism of the rule hinted at in the beginning of the article which was about Raven Guard.
Mentioning a fact in passing is not “taking a swipe at” something; I also mentioned the Hunter’s Eye and other parts of the same book there, but no one got their panties in a twist about those subjects despite my opining.
I don’t agree with the choie the ITC made with regard to the Cadre, certainly, but you know what? That doesn’t really matter now. Kvetching and moaning about it won’t change anything, and if I occasionally point out that choices have consequences then that’s really only stating the obvious.
Factions with tactical flexibility and interesting rules makes me happy. More Ignores cover in the game doesn’t.
Honestly I think assault should be the way to get mooks out of cover, but that would require GW to give assault grenades to everyone not name space marines.
I think their lack of visibility is due to the obvious – tricksy and finesse often loses out to straightforward brutality in this game. You’ve got a good amount of MSU with crazy deployment shenanigans, but do you have enough to deal with big scary deathstars? Lords of War? Mass Battle Company?
Now, it probably *can* stand up to those things, it’s a hard won battle. And while I’m sure people like the idea of tactically outplaying and outthinking their opponent, the reality is that it’s a lot easier to build a list that hammers than one that dances.
I think scout bikers offer more utility inside the pinion, since none of them are obsec regardless. Not sure if would include drop pods in the list, it’s nice being able to null deploy. Lascannons on the dev squad seems mandatory, to utilize the ignore cover. Outflanking tacticals turn 1 with grav-cannons look kinda interesting, but for dawn of war/vanguard it’s kinda awkward regardless of how you bring them on?
The kill team looks really solid, being able to choose when to come on. Scout bikes with locator becons? It seems kinda tricky landing within 9″ of 2 scout squads, but i’d like to give it a go.
Nice article as always.
I love the Pinion Battle Demi Company. Such a cool way to play Marines.
Ravenguardwing is also fantastic. Just take Raven Guard characters, give them bikes and join squads of Black Knights from a Ravenwing detachment. They will have a +2 cover rerollable in the first turn
This sounds excellent… I may just have to try that.
I’ve had some good results locally in limited testing. Outflanking, ignore cover grav bike command squad, and ignore cover devs are not to be underestimated. In conjunction with Raptor Wing and Shadowstrike Kill Team, you can really put people on the back foot. Haven’t faced mass interceptor Tau yet though…
I faced a pinion list with talon strike force and skyhammer in a tournament. It wrecked everyone else all weekend but I was running an interceptor heavy Tau list behind a void shield – the hardest of hard counters.
It is a really good list but when it hits that counter it really seems to have no option but to lose badly. 4-1 is not tournament winning in ITC format.
Consider an allied blood angle character with the anti-interceptor relic.
Tau is rough, but the key to beating it is remembering that you’re not beholden to any one plan. Do they have 8+ suits with Interceptor? Just don’t go into reserve, then! No Tau player likes to see 80+ MEQs Infiltrating up the table with 2+ cover- they’ve only got so many Markerlights and every squad is a lethal assault threat to a Tau unit.
As I said in the article, the ability to shift its playstyle to match each opponent is the army’s biggest strength. Use it.
Bang on correct.
At least two players have ended the game against that list saying they would drop the pods empty if they had to face it again. Of course I have a counter for that counter-tactic but that’s fun times and tactics.
I like the new RG a lot and I think it really rewards players who are good at adopting different play styles depending on what is across the table. They are not quite so good at putting an uber-combo on the table and just forcing the opponent to deal with it. They have tempting combos but I think it is a temptation best avoided in excess, they are fundamentally better when built for flexibility.
I really like the Talon Strike Force – I don’t rate it quite as highly as the Scarblade, but it’s still pretty solid.
Just kind of shows how much better the WS chapter tactics are.
I actually think the Talon is better than the Scarblade, even if the latter has a better Tactic and relic attached to it. The Scarblade’s benefits are, for the most part, extremely unimpressive.
I’m looking at allying cult mechanicus and skitarii to my Raven guard talon strike force. Seems fun ?
I think the Talon Strike Force is a pretty cool alternative way to play Space Marines and your article outlines some very good points to consider to play it competitively. The main issues I can see from you analysis and personnal experience are:
– lack of serious combat units;
– lack of AA (could be less of an issue depending on meta…);
– Quantity of high Str and/or low AP fire;
– In game mobility.
Though I really like to field flyers as support and AA units, I think this list would be better served by adding units that answer the other issues. For this reason I would include the Shadowstrike Kill Team. For a little over 400 pts, it lets you field 2 units of scouts and 10 Vanguard Vets with some offensive and defensive gear (claws, power fist, couple of axes and a couple of shields). This should answer the combat and in game mobility weaknesses, giving you more jump infantry to move around and more importantly, freeing up your assault marines to grab/contest objectives while the Vanguard deal with combat. I’m very tempted to add Land Speeders Storm with heavy flamers to the mix in order to further mitigate the mobility issue and to support the Vanguards with Blinding Cerberus shots. Finding the points is not easy though…
As for the high str/low ap shooting, it could be done simply by playing around with the Tac and Dev squads loadout should be further mitigate by the combat capabilities of the Vanguard.
Great article, I’ll definitely try the Talon Strike Force again soon!
Yeah, my personal version of the list would include the Shadowstrike as its auxiliary and a Skyhammer + Inquisition to round things out- you get a lot more melee presence and have a stronger potential presence on the drop.
What would you take from the inquisition? Or better yet. What would you write for am 1850 list.
RG really make me want to play Marines. But alas!
I am a space elf player. And I always will be
The Inquisition part would be really simple- just a solo Inquisitor for the Servo-Skulls. If I happened to have a few points left over to give him the Psyker upgrade (so he could hang buff my Devastators) or bring along a handful of minimum “2 Acolytes + 1 Psyker” units, all the better, but right now I’m struggling to make it fit 1850 at all, so that’s not likely to happen.
I’ve tried working out trying to fit a Talon Strike force, Skyhammer, and Inquisition into an 1850 and it’s freaking hard. I’ve been working on dropping the Skyhammer for Coteaz and more bodies elsewhere, larger vanguard force in the shadowstrike force, with command squad bikers, but i’m not sure how effective it will be.
The thing i’m having problems with is how to get reserve manipulation into the list (no formations in the TSF), i’m hoping for FW to finally update their SM Characters so that Lias Issodon can be used in this formation which would solve a lot of it.
My playing time in limited right now so i can’t test it out much and i’ve been in the middle of an entire rebuild of my RG (all mark 6 armour)….
Yeah, I’m stuck at a similar place. My current build is about 50pts over and lacks any way to get reserve rerolls, which is unfortunate; I may have to trim it down (probably removing the Shadowstrike, though I am loathe to do so) and try and fit Lias in.
I’m thinking about a skitarii maniple with an icarus array onager dunecrawler and then the holy requisitioner no scatter deep strike formation with kataphrons and a dominus. Good way to get high powered weapons, which is what the pinion doesn’t really have. It also takes care of the anti-air stuff that they struggle with as well.
That formation is only for Kataphron breachers. So you only get access to torsion cannons and haywire guns. If breachers could take flamers or the formation could be composed of the destroyers, it would be much better.
Generally the breachers just leave me puzzled. The close combat servitors that only come with one attack and no useful close combat weapons.
Id really love to field the Pinion Demi-Company led by Kantor with Crimson Fist Chapter Tactics as it would be fluffy and effective but the fact his rules won’t extend to Sternguard puts me off.
I played against a player in a tournament, Anthony, who ran the Pinion Demi-company with Skyhammer formation. He also ran Vanguards who can assault on the turn they deepstrike in from Reserves. I don’t know all his rules at the time (still don’t now), but all I knew was that I had to go 1st or risk annihilation.
That would be very close to my build for it, yeah. It comes down hitting _really_ hard.
I think the biggest thing is that it completely lacks OS. And a lot of tournaments punish you pretty severely for that. I have been trying to make it work and have not had it hit the table yet but I plan to play test it.
Also I think the biggest issue is that WS are just so much more dominant that as a marine player its hard to justify anything else. Its hard to think of a build where I replace whatever tactics with WS’s and it doesnt get better.
Lacking ObSec is definitely big, but if you’re covering the objectives such that many opponents can’t (or won’t want to) get close, that can act as a sort of substitute. But it’s definitely something to be concerned about.
The WS tactic is obviously better, but the Talon Strike Force requires you to use RG. It’s the same case as something like taking a powerful named character (Tiggy, Lolth, Lias) and simply accepting a sub-par Chapter Tactic to go with them- you may not like it, but it can be worth it in the long run. And using the Talon doesn’t lock you out of taking an Allied or Combined Arms detachment of WS to get access to the Hunter’s Eye and other goodies, either, so it’s not as though you’re totally out of options.
My main concern is how to initiate vs battle companies, with all that layered defense it’s tricky alpha striking them.
One correction in your article. The Talon Strike Force doesn’t get to re-roll where you deploy. They get to re-roll Random Deployment Zone (caps) which is the specific roll for whether it’s Hammer and Anvil, Dawn of War or Vanguard Strike. So, for tournament play, the only re-roll they get is for first turn.
The main problem as stated is lack of objective secured, The TSF in an objective based game will most likely be unflavored in a match-up vs a traditional Battle Company. simply because of objective secured.
It has the same kill point weakness of Battle company, and perhaps even worse due to the general lack of transports.
The army is incredibly fun and refreshing to play, but i feel is an upper mid table army.