Army List Clinic - Dark Angels 7th Cav Help

Rob speaking,

Thank you to everyone who has submitted their army lists to our Clinic. In today's post we will have a look at a Dark Angels 7th Cav list, as submitted by one of our readers.

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Hey Beer guys!

I've run into a bit of a wall when it comes to my list.  First off, this is a themed list and army, modelled after Custer's 7th Cav.  Needless to say, it's lived up to it's theme, and I've secured all but one "historical" victory in it's time on the table.  Which is usually about 4 or 5 turns before I'm tabled.  Second, it's a very bike heavy army.  The only win I've had with it has been due to a tough Scout surviving 3 Ordinance barrages from an IG battery in one turn, securing an objective and taking me 1 point above my opponent in VPs.  Here's what I have for models at the moment:

Dark Angels 7th Cav Army

HQ - Sammael on Jetbike/Speeder (I have both)
HQ - Command Squad with Standard of Devistation (5 total bikes, per the new FAQ)
TR - Ravenwing 1 (6 bikes, Attack Bike with MM, Meltagun, Plasmagun)
TR - Ravenwing 2 (6 bikes, Attack Bike with MM, Meltagun, Plasmagun)
TR - Ravenwing 3 (6 bikes, Attack Bike with MM, Meltagun, Plasmagun)
TR - Ravenwing 4 (6 bikes, Attack Bike with MM, Meltagun, Plasmagun)
TR - Ravenwing 5 (6 bikes, Attack Bike with MM, Meltagun, Plasmagun)
TR - Scout Squad (10 Scouts, ML with Flakk, all camo cloaks, sniper rifles)
FT - Ravenwing Support Squad (3 Speeders, 2 with Typhoon ML, 1 with MM) 
HV - Predator w/ Side Sponsons
HV - Predator w/ Side Sponsons 
FT - Aegis Defence line w/ Quad Gun

Now, usually, I pack on Sammael, all the bikes, the command squad, and the scouts.  It's a very mobile army, and I use that to my advantage.  The Scout rule usually gives me command of the field early, and with SoD, a ton of fire power.  However, I still seemed to get tabled after turn 4, unless my dice love my scouts enough to keep them around.  It seems that my bikes die quickly, and often times only the Combat Squad rule will keep them on the table due to the sheer number of units my enemy has to wipe out, but they all eventually die.

I've played some with the speeders and predators, but the firepower they bring seems to be ineffective compared to the bikes, which can zip around like crazy, cover the holes I need, and head off even deep striking units.  The cover saves have spared more than their fair shareof bikes, but nothing seems to keep them on the table long enough to win against most armies, even if my dice are hot!

How can I balance the speed and offensive capability with enough defense to last into turn 6?

P.S. - Attached is an awesome pic of one of my last games.  Unfortunately, it was another "historic" victory against the Necrons, but he did more damage with terrain tests than I did the entire game!

Thanks for emailing the list clinic, on paper the models you have look solid, so no reason why you should be losing so much, so maybe the reasons could be tactical.

Here is a list I would want to run, using the models you currently own:

Sammael - 200
Ravenwing command -apothecary, standard of devastation, 1 grenade launcher, 2 additional bikes - 295
Ravenwing attack squad - 6 bikes, 2 plasma guns, attack bike mm 241
Ravenwing attack squad - 6 bikes, 2 plasma guns, attack bike mm 241
Ravenwing attack squad - 6 bikes, 2 meltaguns, attack bike mm 231
Ravenwing attack squad - 6 bikes, 2 meltaguns, attack bike mm 231
10 Scouts – 10 sniper rifles – 140
Darkshroud – 80
Aegis Defence Line – Quadgun – 100

This should come to around 1750pts

Basically, all I’ve done is added Night Shroud for that all important boost to the Bikes jink/cover save, combat squading is the way to go, making sure you distribute the special weapons into one half and all bolters into the other, then keep the bolter squads close to the standard of devastation (which can be the apoth model!), the special weapon squads are then free to do as they please, your opponent then has some really difficult decisions to make, shoot the bolters and the special weapons get you, shoot the special weapons and your infantry perishes under the weight of shots! If you don’t shoot Darkshroud (which will have a 3+ cover save behind the Aegis), then all these bikes get a 2+ cover save (behind the aegis) or a 3+ cover save (jink)... plus you have all those throw away Attack Bikes, which all score. Don’t forget Hit and Run! It will keep your bikes alive in combat (by not being in combat!).

Hope you find this useful and good luck in your future games, let us know how you get on!

Please feel free to comment with your thoughts on this list, and if you want to submit one of your army lists to us, you can do so here listclinic.idicbeer@gmail.com