My thoughts on the pair of Storm Ravens

Keeping it short and sweet:

I'm a fan of the idea that if something is nice, take it twice.

But in 1850 points, that's a really questionable idea.

And by questionable, I mean, "I hope they don't have Hydras."

First games out...

Like I said, it's been a while.

I didn't realize how long.

The first game out with my new list, I was playing against a person who has played, quite literally, three games. I can try and assuage myself by saying that he stole the imitative, but the fact of the matter is, I lost because I made stupid mistakes and played too conservatively. I weathered the first turn of fire, losing one Raven to a drop podded Sterngard squad. I hung back to use the remaining Storm Raven's firepower, and ended with the squad and dread inside being out of position when the Raven crashed. He pummeled me, with me helping him to do so. Still, the shame hung with me for a day, until I faced off against his roommate.

That game went significantly better. I ended up controlling the pace of the battle better than the last by being aggressive and shoving the Storm Ravens right in his face. I pounded his Death Company and troops, and his immobilized Land Raider was surrounded by my troops and a Blood Talon dread.

I need to test out and refine this list a bit further before I'm satisfied, but I like the way it plays.

It's about damn time...

It's about damn time I returned to this blog. I haven't been playing much in the way of games since the semester started winding down.

Tomorrow, I'm headed out to Games Workshop to order a few bits and pieces for my revamped 1850 army of cheesy doom. I'm hoping to get a game against Dark Eldar at some point, but I haven't yet.

Here's what I'm thinking of taking in 1850:

1850 Pts - Blood Angels Roster - Flesh tearers 1850 Double Raven

HQ: Librarian (1#, 100 pts)
1 Librarian @ 100 pts (Blood Lance; Fear of the Darkness)


HQ: Reclusiarch (1#, 145 pts)
1 Reclusiarch @ 145 pts (Power Fist)

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (10#, 425 pts)
5 LC and 5 TH/SS

Troops: Assault Squad (11#, 250 pts)
10 men, rhino, Melta gun x2, Power fist

Troops: Assault Squad (11#, 250 pts)
10 men, rhino, Melta gun x2, Power fist

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 215 pts)
1 Stormraven Gunship @ 215 pts Extra armor, Multi-melta, Lascannons

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 215 pts)
1 Stormraven Gunship @ 215 pts Extra armor, Multi-melta, Lascannons


Elite: Furioso Dreadnought (1#, 125 pts)
1 Furioso Dreadnought @ 125 pts Blood talons, Storm Bolter/Melta

Elite: Furioso Dreadnought (1#, 125 pts)
1 Furioso Dreadnought @ 125 pts Blood talons, Storm Bolter/Melta

I see this as a hyper-agressive fun list. I'm not sure about the storm raven's survivability, and I want to play test this before I use it anywhere important. Of course, Adepticon is fast approaching, so I want to get in as much practice as possible. I can also swap in some drop pods for the rhinos, and I was thinking about adding locator beacons to allow the Storm Ravens to safely deep strike.

Mid-way point

The Proto-type Storm Raven is coming along quite nicely.

Bloody Blood Blood Missiles (Or whatever they're called).



Ditto.



Underside:



Profile Shot

It begins!

I've finished the basic blocking for the front portion of the first Storm Raven. This is the first time I've worked with a conversion of such complexity, and it's quite interesting so far. I'm working with making all my measurements in millimeters, since I think they lend themselves better to making exacting measurements.

Here's my initial build of the hull. The portion of the top deck was cut away to increase the overall height of the model, and will be used to create the nose of the Raven. The rear angled areas were also cut as well, as the body will be lengthened to suggest an area for the Dreadnought to ride in.



The rear, cut away from the front.



The tail has been turned into a canard wing.



Here is the upper structure on the fuselage.



And here are the front Multi-meltas in place. They're from the IG Russ kit, BTW. The rear tab was cut off to allow them to fit, and I filed the sides down to make them fit.

So, against my better judgment, I'm going to attempt the above conversion (click through the pic to see the full write up on BoLS). Not once, but twice. I'd love to play with two Storm Ravens, and I don't see GW making one any time soon. Due to some fortuitous trades, I was able to get two Valkyries at no cost to myself. I'm thinking I'm going to need some help, and I'll seek out some advice from a friend or two for this.


Wish me luck!

NOVA Open Round Three

The third round saw me facing Joseph Trueblood, a gamer I had not met before. He plays mostly in the VA area, and, like me, was undefeated coming into the round. Scenario 3 saw us setting up as a pitched battle, with table quarters as the primary, with objectives as secondary, and VP's as the tertiary. As you can see from the very brief video above, I completely slacked on the recording of my games as the day wore on. This was the last video that I took for the day.

Joe was playing a highly mobile BA force.
Mephiston
3 5 man assault squads with various special weapons in Razorbacks
3 Furioso dreads
3 Vindicators
3 Baal Preds, 1 flame storm, 2 Twinlinked Assault Cannons

I won the first turn, and set up in the far corner, castling and waiting for the pain to come my way. He toed the deployment line, getting as close to me as he could. He attempted to sieze initiative, but failed.

He scouted forward, and my valk scouted to the flank to get side shots on his preds and vindicators. The valk also served as a distraction to draw away fire power, as did my ratlings, which were also deployed to get side shots. I had Marbo and a guard squad in reserve. The guard squad was to enter on another table quarter and hide to add 75 points to my total there.

With the set-up we had, I was able to whittle him down over time. Anything that threatened my area of the board got unloaded on until it was stunned, immobilized, or destroyed. He clumped his vehicles together, which allowed my manticore, devil dogs, and medusas extra leeway in targeting, and indeed, got me extra hits. That being said, it was still a hard row to hoe. I had to maneuver to get shots in his vulnerable side armor for his baal predators and his vindicators. He made excellent use of cover as well. My guard squad that was meant to hide was actually forced to do something, and plasma-gunned on of his vindicator's guns off.

It was another desperate, hard fought battle, but in the end, it was tied for quarters, tied for objectives, and I won in VP's. Set-up was very favorable to me, and it accounted for my victory.