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When 6th Edition came out my Ravener models were jumping for joy, the new Beast rules of ignoring terrain and the Fleet rule letting them re-roll dice for the assault, actually made these models much better than they were before, sure they could be instant deathed, but still. So my Raveners went from being on the bottom of my painting list to third place after my Winged Hive Tyrant and Swooping Hawkes...
And then, lo and behold...
Q: Do models that ignore difficult terrain when moving or charging
still fight at Initiative step 1 if they charge through difficult terrain?
(p22)
A: Yes.
Oh dear, not a problem for my initiative two Scarabs, but a big problem for my initiative five Ravener! So lets please have a two minute silence whilst my Ravener slip back down my painting list...
.......... thirty seconds
.......... one minute
.......... one and a half minutes
.......... two minutes
Right, time to get noisy again! Is it really that bad for Ravener? Have you found the recent FAQ changing your mind about certain units? Lets hear all about it...
Yeah thats a BIG hit to there effectiveness! I still think they can be worth it due to there speed and they'll be great a picking on MSU units or units in the backfield like Long Fangs or Devastators, plus your Blood Angles mate seems obsessed with Deep Striking they'll make a great reaction unit to counter the incoming threat and can be easily protected by the screen on Gaunts.
ReplyDeleteOK, they have moved up a few notches again lol. Yeah, my buddy loves to deep strike, it all stems back from when we first started playing and all his vehicles used to get destroyed by my Necrons in turn one or two, from then on he went all jump pack. Nice to see Necron guns back to where they once were again though :D
ReplyDeleteRaveners though were always effected by assaulting through cover, so in this case they havent got any worse, but they have got better in that they can now move 12 inches in the movement phase. One other advantage of course is that the rules for rage are different, in that a unit subject to rage does not have to move towards the closest enemy. In this respect, raveners outside the hive mind are even more deadly if they fail instinctive behaviour, which with a leadership of 6 is reasonably likely. Being subject to rage, means that while they cannot fire their weapons, they do get +2A on the charge opposed to just +1A. So one calculated gamble could be to keep them out of synapse range, so they become enraged at the start of their turn, then charge them into close combat, whilst moving a synapse creature into range (say a winged tyrant, or Parasite of Mortrex or Shrikes) meaning they now become fearless, and so wont run away if the combat does go bad. Such a gamble could even make the pyrovore more competive, since it can still fire its flamespurt while enraged, and it would get a total of 3 attacks on the charge. At inititive 1 though its not a great improvement.
ReplyDeleteOne unit I think has benefited from 6th edition in general is the carnifex. A charging Carnifex now gets a hammer of Wrath attack at meaning it gets a bonus attack at basic strength (9) and AP- at the initiative 10 step. Ok, against infantry, it is a chance of killing one model before the real combat begins, but its real advantage comes against vehicles and buildings. Against the average vehicle of rear armour 10, it means an automatic glance should the attack hit.
Being a monstrous creature has its advantages when in close combat against infantry. It can cause fear, meaning that if the unit fails its leadership test, it strikes at WS1. This means hitting the carnifex on a 5+, as opposed to 3+ or 4+ that they normally would need. And of course the carnifex hits the unit on a 3+ instead of the usual 4+ or in some cases 5+. Couple this with the fact that a carnifex can become enraged as above, and a carnifex on the charge with crushing claws will get 7-10 attacks against a unit with a potential weapons skill of 1 (and of course the carnifex is fearless anyway, so doesnt need to be in synapse range). To break this down it is 4 base attacks, 1-3 attacks for crushing claws, 1-2 attacks for charging (depending if enraged or not), and 1 attack from Hammer of Wrath, we If you used the Smash attack ability, then this drops by 2 attacks (due to halving base attacks). Against a vehicle you could use a smash attack and get 4-7 strength 10 hits with a reroll to penetrate (with +1 to the damage roll due to being AP2).
So overall the killing potential of a carnifex in close combat has improved, and a similar argument applies to all the tyranid monstrous creatures. Especially the Trygon prime, who now being corrected to be a character, can do precision hits (though a trygon does suffer the most lost attacks from using smash, compared to other tyranid monstrous creatures)!
Thanks for the comment :) Some good points there for the Raveners, like you say, they are still better than they were in 5th, just not as good as it looked like they were going to be! I think you have tempted me to move them back up the painting list though thanks :D I was using Carnifexes all though 5th anyway, such a classic Nid unit, its really nice to see them getting their status back again.
ReplyDeleteNot really a change due to FAQ, but since I didn't want all of my Inquisitorial henchmen looking the same, I chose to convert some from Guardsmen and random bits. As of this moment, I have yet to field my Death Cult Assassins since 6th edition has come out due to not being able to assault out of transports even if the vehicle hadn't moved. Now it seems like I'll be ripping off arms to turn those models into Crusaders.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you and Embolden40k have encouraged me to make one of these for myself in hopes of it providing motivation for me to actually work on my armies some and start making battle reports.
Very glad to hear our work is doing good, let me know when it's all up and running :D
ReplyDeleteAs for your Assassins and assaulting from a vehicle, I know what you mean, my Howling Banshees were on the table waiting to be painted at one point, but now they are sitting right at the bottom of my case :(
Have a basic about me thing up on it now. Hopefully going to get pictures up on the large amount of work in progress stuff I have by Wednesday. http://solus8saexe.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteNice one mate, I will check it out :D
ReplyDelete