So Gamesworkshop has released the Spearhead expansion via FREE PDF download on their site. I browsed the rules, and it's pretty decent if you want something different. Thou, obviously you have to have some spare tanks on hand. Apparently Rhino's don't count :-)
So I picked up the new White Dwarf, which of course is a Blood Angels lovefest with the new releases. I didn't mind so much, as I was tired of passing up the mag due to excessive LotR and Fantasy material.
This brings me to the StormRaven(sp). I have the BA codex, and I'm reading the White Dwarf which touts this flyer as the AwesomeSauce, bristling with missiles of Uberness, Hurricane Bolters, Melta, Ass Cannons, and Pumpkin Cannon. Carries a boatton of guys AND a dread into combat... is an Assault Vehicle, so unload, smash face .. (unlike Droppod.. unload, get shot to peices, get assaulted, think of creative ways to melt said Droppod into a peice of artwork for the mantle)...
So all this uberness is 200pts... .. I'm a noob of epic 40k proportions, but am I the only one that realizes that the Blood Angels TechMarines used spare boltershell packing cardboard to armor this thing?
Essentially your paying gobs of points, for a flying assault rhino with weapons... and in my experience, rhino's and razorbacks don't last long. Oh and it costs a small fortune.
Am I that noobish, or is GW a bit out of touch. Personally, if I drank the noob GW Koolaid, ran out and purchased this expensive Rhino of flying Epicsauce... I'd be pretty pissed to see all that $$$ and time, and the squad inside .. go poof to a Krak Missile or stray Las shot... who am I kidding, no shots will be stray. With lists that have Long Fangs and 12-15 Missile Launchers, I see the StormRaven as a permanent flaming fixture of the Blood Angels army, to toast marshmellows over by turn two and sing Kumbaya.
peaCe
I think your somewhere in the middle if you ask me.The Raven is a great vehicle, lots of firepower and depending on the situation and how you use it can be an effective tool. Rhinos, Razorbacks, really anything that is a transport has one goal...delivery or at least get you close enough that you can do something big before you die.
ReplyDeleteAs your talking about the Raven look at it like this. Take 3 for example and you have first turn, loaded with lots of weapons and the Machine spirit, it can tackle two targets at once, one is going to get pulped, the other harassed. That is 6 targets, if lady luck is with you this could cripple an army to the point that even taking a Raven or two down will matter little as they are still reeling from the alpha strike.
Defensive wise, put them in reserve. Come in on your table edge going flat out. As a skimmer you can zoom 24". Plus you also have a save now due to the speed. That along with the melta shielding on the armor is going to be a pain to take down. Sure some good dice rolls may down it, but if you don't stop them they are going to cruise up, drop their payload and fire away.
Imagine this, 3 Ravens swoop in, all loaded with Assult Troops and a Dreadnought (say we will mix) Flat out first turn, cover save. Depending on what survives, move up, drop the squad, drop the dread, squad also has an IC with an inferno pistol. He runs towards one vehicle, the squad takes a melta and pistol on the sgt to another, the dread walks to another. The Raven fires at two targets. That could be up to 5 vehicles poofed in one turn and up to 3 squads assulted. One from the IC, one the squad and one the Dread (assuming they all shot a transport).
Warhammer is about taking losses and adapting. Playing safe will only get you so far. Make no worries that a transport will die. My Vendetta dies plenty of times, it has also been ignored by some and they paid for it, I have also had so much fire dumped on one that the rest of the army was able to move around without a scratch. Worth it? What do you think?
As for Spearhead, never played a few games. They did upgrade it some from the last PDF they dropped about 6 months back. It was deisgned to push vehicle sales for IG back then when they was pimping all their new kits. I would not mind trying it but most people don't want to play a micro armor war.