1500pt Raven Guard Army List - Competitive*

*Space Marine Raven Guard & Competitiveness

Now, I stated competitive in the title but really I just lied. This is a Raven Guard army list attempting to be as competitive as possible whilst exploiting their rather lacklustre chapter tactics. So this list does not contain large amounts of grav guns on bikes or drop pod units however it does try to maximise the ability to scout move many units in the first turn. I don't have the units to create this force yet but if I were starting from scratch with the knowledge I have now I'd shoot for something like this:

Space Marines 6th Ed (2013) (FW) (Primary Detachment) Selections:

• Chapter Tactics
  Raven Guard

HQ (170pts)

• Captain (170pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Independent Character
  Artificer Armor, Combi-weapon, The Shield Eternal

Elites (500pts)

• Sternguard Veteran Squad (225pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads
  2x Meltagun, 4x Veteran
  • Razorback
    Tank
    Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
  • Space Marine Sergeant
    Bolt Pistol, Combi-Melta
• Vanguard Veteran Squad (275pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads, Heroic Intervention
  Jumppacks
  • Veteran
    2x Lightning Claw
  • Veteran
    2x Lightning Claw
  • Veteran
    Bolt Pistol, Stormshield, Thunder Hammer
  • Veteran
    Bolt Pistol, Stormshield, Thunder Hammer
  • Veteran Sergeant
    Bolt Pistol, Replace bolt pistol/chainsword w/ relic blade

Troops (580pts)

• Scout Squad (70pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Scout
  Camo Cloaks, 4x Scouts, 4x Sniper Rifle
  • Scout Sergeant
    Sniper Rifle
• Tactical Squad (170pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads
  Plasma Gun, 4x Space Marine
  • Razorback
    Tank
    Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
  • Space Marine Sergeant
    Bolt pistol, Combi-weapon
• Tactical Squad (170pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads
  Plasma Gun, 4x Space Marine
  • Razorback
    Tank
    Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
  • Space Marine Sergeant
    Bolt pistol, Combi-weapon
• Tactical Squad (170pts)
  And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads
  Plasma Gun, 4x Space Marine
  • Razorback
    Tank
    Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
  • Space Marine Sergeant
    Bolt pistol, Combi-weapon

Fast Attack (250pts)

• Stormtalon Gunship (125pts)
  Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Hover Strike, Supersonic
  Skyhammer Missile Launcher, Twin-Linked Assault Cannon
• Stormtalon Gunship (125pts)
  Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Hover Strike, Supersonic
  Skyhammer Missile Launcher, Twin-Linked Assault Cannon           

Reasons Behind the Choices

This army will need to be carefully played as it is quite fragile. It certainly will not fair well on boards with sparse terrain density against gun line opponents. The small tactical squad teams with specialist weapons will be scout moving forward in Razorbacks from the off, rushing towards the enemies weak points and delivering as much plasma or melta as required. This force will do well on city terrain boards with lots of line of sight blocking terrain. The Captain will go with the Sternguard acting as a shield to keep them alive, whilst the vanguard can scoot up the board with pace, applying pressure with their ability to use jump packs in the movement and assault phase. Finally the Stormtalons will be equal to any enemy flyers and should provide some extra punch where needed.

Overall I really like this force, it's quite flexible as you could adjust the special weapons on any unit to suit a purpose. It is fairly well balanced, with the tools to deal with a number of situations. It is certainly a bit of a squishy army and will be picked apart in the open with no heavy armour or tough tanks to absorb fire power. It will suffer against more top tier army lists but should hold it's own in the middle tiers.

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