71 replies to this topic

[twopounder]

So, I recently made my largest 40k purchase in years -

 

 

18 bike frames

18 Exhaust sets

9 plasma talons

3 grenade launchers

9 Dark Vengeance Bikes

 

I already have enough bitz to make the riders and I will be designing and 3d printing my own corvus hammers. This will bring my total Ravenwing force to 53 bikes. While I'm tempted to make a vow out of this, I simply don't have a way to complete it in a reasonable time frame, considering I have no time between work and classes right now.

 

But, my current inventory stands at:

Custom Ravenwing Master on jet bike (I made him back in the 90's before jet bikes were cool)

36 bikes for RWAS

6 Attack bikes with multi-meltas

9 Black Knights

1 Black Knight Apothecary

1 Black Knight Standard Bearer

5 Land Speeders with multi-meltas

1 MotRW landspeeder (original)

1 Librarian on Bike

1 Chaplain on Bike

 

All said and done, I can make a pretty killer 2500 point list.

Edited by twopounder, 21 July 2016 - 06:35 PM.

[DA_WarM]

Pretty solid collection.  I wish I had that much bikes.  I also have the MotR on his speeder (original) and on his jetbike (tin).  I currently have 8 speeders (various guns), 3 attack bikes with MM, approximately 18 bikes and 5 knights.

[JGeils81]

Nice, congrats.
Now... I feel inferior.. I have 3 whole bikes, from dark vengeance haha

[Bryan Blaire]

Good luck, twopounder! That many bikes would take me years!

[twopounder]

Pretty solid collection.  I wish I had that much bikes.  I also have the MotR on his speeder (original) and on his jetbike (tin).  I currently have 8 speeders (various guns), 3 attack bikes with MM, approximately 18 bikes and 5 knights.

It's a good start. You need a few more attack bikes though . I used to run 18 x 6 as my troop choices. Lots of mobility and firepower there.

 

Nice, congrats.
Now... I feel inferior.. I have 3 whole bikes, from dark vengeance haha

 

Just keep collecting. Bikes are so much fun to play. Not as much fun as last edition, where they got a jink just for moving. I wish they hadn't changed that.

 

 

Good luck, twopounder! That many bikes would take me years!

 

Thanks. I can usually assemble pretty fast. It's painting that takes me years

[twopounder]

While I'm still working on the Corvus hammers for my Black Knights, I've been thinking up some army lists I can run when the bikes are finished.

 

I came up with a list I'd like to try for the fun of it:

 

Sammael on Jet Bike

 

Librarian on bike w/PFG

 

Ravenwing Command Squad

Standard of Devastation

 

RWAS (6)

Plasma x2

Attack Bike w/multi-melta

 

RWAS (6)

Plasma x2

Attack Bike w/multi-melta

 

RWAS (6)

Meltagun x2

Attack Bike w/multi-melta

 

RWAS (6)

Meltagun x2

Attack Bike w/multi-melta

 

RWAS (6)

Flamer x2

Attack Bike w/multi-melta

 

RWAS (6)

Flamer x2

Attack Bike w/multi-melta

 

That comes out at just over 2000 for plenty of points to spare in a 2500 point game.

 

I could easily shave off the 2 plasma squadrons to make a 1500 point list, or the two flamer squadrons.

 

The idea would be to use the massive bolter fire to eliminate all the soft targets by turn 2 while letting the multi-meltas (which would probably be ignored in favor of the command squad) go to town on the vehicles.

 

It's a bit silly, but could be pretty effective.

[twopounder]

Corvus hammer is very nearly completed and ready for the printer. I was assembling the bikes when I noticed the standard biker legs don't fit. So, I had to make another order on ebay to get the legs I need. Poo. They won't be here until Saturday, but I'm still assembling the frames. I also need to design bolters for the regular bikers on ravenwing bikes.

 

Ah well. At least they look good.

[twopounder]

Here's an update with photos. I have to order some additional parts to finish this out, but the knights are almost finished and I'm down to only 9 regular ravenwing bikes left to build. I had to take apart all the bikes with plasma guns and turn them into regular bikers, making room for the DV plasma gunners. Also, one of my DV sets came without the plasma gunner, so I had to use a regular torso and do a bit of conversion work.

 

This is not all of my bikes, but 31 out of the 54 models. Sorry the pictures are not great. I'll try to get better ones as time permits:

 

 

Here is a closer shot of the knights:

 

 

I'll be making 1 more knight that can have a banner. That way I can swap the apothecary and banner pole in whenever I want to use them as an HQ.

 

Also, my custom corvus hammers should be delivered tomorrow

Edited by twopounder, 01 February 2015 - 10:01 PM.

[Brother dean]

One more knight rider or a whole bike and rider?  I have my banner swapable with a standard BK since I had a spare set of legs from the robed huntsmaster and a torso back from my bits box. (vehicle crew sprue I believe)

[Interrogator Stobz]

This is going to be epic!
I've found that I never use the Flamers on bikes, with the Dakka banner you won't be short of anti infantry shooting. I'd either go more melta or plasma any day. Even using the SoF for FnP I still don't have any probs, but you will always need melta, always

[Brother dean]

Always need more melta..  typhoons with Missiles and MMelta.  MM attack bikes...

[twopounder]

One more knight rider or a whole bike and rider?  I have my banner swapable with a standard BK since I had a spare set of legs from the robed huntsmaster and a torso back from my bits box. (vehicle crew sprue I believe)

 

 

This is going to be epic!
I've found that I never use the Flamers on bikes, with the Dakka banner you won't be short of anti infantry shooting. I'd either go more melta or plasma any day. Even using the SoF for FnP I still don't have any probs, but you will always need melta, always

 

 

54 bikes come in at around 2000 points. I can swap them out as needed. I seriously doubt I'll use all the plasma guns if I have 10+ plasma talons and a plasma cannon on the field. If I use the dakka banner I can swap out the flamers. The key to my force is flexibility.

 

Always need more melta..  typhoons with Missiles and MMelta.  MM attack bikes...

 

I have 4 riders with meltaguns and 6 attack bikes with multi-meltas

[Interrogator Stobz]

At 2k you will need moar melta, enemy armour/MCs/Deathstars will be in abundance, take moar melta
You need to open his cans quickly or perish, that is the nature of the bike army.

Edited by Brother Stobz, 02 February 2015 - 03:34 AM.

[twopounder]

At 2k you will need moar melta, enemy armour/MCs/Deathstars will be in abundance, take moar melta
You need to open his cans quickly or perish, that is the nature of the bike army.

 

I'm currently undefeated with my ravenwing

[Interrogator Stobz]

Nice one, I'm not going to compare metas because that is impossible. I play against Tau and Eldar a lot, they remove my cover/jink saves and then remove squadrons of bikes every turn unless I get lucky. I'm at about 60% win rate with my RW, when I add Whirlwinds I do exponentially better. But opening cans is always important or what's the point of all that anti personel firepower?
Obviously you will be fine

[twopounder]

Nice one, I'm not going to compare metas because that is impossible. I play against Tau and Eldar a lot, they remove my cover/jink saves and then remove squadrons of bikes every turn unless I get lucky. I'm at about 60% win rate with my RW, when I add Whirlwinds I do exponentially better. But opening cans is always important or what's the point of all that anti personel firepower?
Obviously you will be fine

 

I only played vs eldar once and it was a draw. He played a horde of guardians though. Tau aren't much of a problem for me. MotRW tends to be the only armor vehicle I run, so they always infiltrate their stealth suits thinking they'll get a sneaky attack, then I scout my bikes and then unload on them and assault whatever's left.

 

The rest of the army tends to just be chaff for me. I did play an interesting game where a riptide got a lucky snap fire and killed the squad assaulting it. But then I also used to bring a lot of support units because my bikes only used 1000 - 1500 points.

 

Anyway, I like the balance I have so far. I'm sure I'll expand my ravenwing a bit more so I can do stupid things like run 6x6 bike squads with nothing but bolters and a dakka banner in a command squad.

 

Only because rolling more dice than imperial guard, twin-linked, would amuse me to no end.

[Interrogator Stobz]

Ahah, nicely done. My regular Tau player usually brings 3-4 Ion cannon on AV13 tanks or Riptides, combined with cover removing marker lights and my bikes go by by. Obviously removing the market light shooters is a priority but all his 'chaff' is kept safely in Devilfish and require better than S4 to open quickly. I try to do it in CC but he is damned mobile and I need to kill or neutralise his RTs and Hammerheads first and fast or I'm left too weak to deal with the contents
I'm gonna love seeing your massive RW army all painted up nonetheless

Edited by Brother Stobz, 02 February 2015 - 09:39 PM.

[rdemings]

Always need more melta..  typhoons with Missiles and MMelta.  MM attack bikes...

 what's the point in taking a typhoon speeder with 72 inch range if you're going to close within 24 inches to use the multi melta?  would it not be better (and cheaper) to take a speeder with 2 multi melta and deep strike them off the bikes locator beacons?

[shabbadoo]

The typhoon launcher has a 48" range, and the reason to add the multi-melta is to get a +50% anit-tank firepower for a 13.5% upgrade cost. Plenty of other things in the army can hunt infantry, so a typhoon with a multi-melta is really the better option over keeping the heavy bolter.  Cleverly lurk the typhoons on the back edges of a Darkshroud for a cover save (which doesn't block LOS for their elevated weapons), and you get a cover save fully enhanced by the Darkshroud without needing to Jink. Six Str 8 shots ( two of them AP 2, and armorbane at range 12" or less), is not something anyone wants to be on the receiving end of for very long.    Deepstiking dual multi-melta tank hunter land speeders is a good idea too though (the enemy can't shoot what isn't in play yet, but watch out for thigns with the Interceptor special rule), especially for a pure Ravenwing force like this one looks to be.  I don' think any enemy wants to see a full squadron of those (or the typhoon variant) showing up all in the same place, with no scatter.   Also, Darkshrouds will be worth their weight in gold with this many bikes in the list.  Any untis screened by terrain or other units have a 5+ cover save base, +1 for the Darkshroud (4+ total, 3+ for any screened Darkshrouds themselves), without even Jinking, allowing you to keep pouring on the firepower and still be well protected.  With this many bikes, I'd go with two Darkshouds, which will give you two 12+" diameter bubbles of enhanced cover save protection.  Don't bother upgrading them to have assault cannons; just keep them cheap and let them do their jobs. Add the standard of Fortitude in there, and you will have some annoyingly diifficult to kill bikes.

Edited by shabbadoo, 03 February 2015 - 09:31 AM.

[twopounder]

Ahah, nicely done. My regular Tau player usually brings 3-4 Ion cannon on AV13 tanks or Riptides, combined with cover removing marker lights and my bikes go by by. Obviously removing the market light shooters is a priority but all his 'chaff' is kept safely in Devilfish and require better than S4 to open quickly. I try to do it in CC but he is damned mobile and I need to kill or neutralise his RTs and Hammerheads first and fast or I'm left too weak to deal with the contents
I'm gonna love seeing your massive RW army all painted up nonetheless

 

Tau here are typically crisis suit heavy with a smattering of broadsides, fire warrior, kroot, and stealth suits. Typically the danger of marker lights comes from a single unit of path finders and 2 - 3 fire warrior squads. Path finders are easy enough to neutralize, then it's just a few marker lights that are more of an annoyance.

 

I'll continue to post updates. I'm going to quit my job soon to focus more time into class, and by extension I'll have more than ~2 hours per week to dedicate to hobbies.

 

The typhoon launcher has a 48" range, and the reason to add the multi-melta is to get a +50% anit-tank firepower for a 13.5% upgrade cost. Plenty of other things in the army can hunt infantry, so a typhoon with a multi-melta is really the better option over keeping the heavy bolter.  Cleverly lurk the typhoons on the back edges of a Darkshroud for a cover save (which doesn't block LOS for their elevated weapons), and you get a cover save fully enhanced by the Darkshroud without needing to Jink. Six Str 8 shots ( two of them AP 2, and armorbane at range 12" or less), is not something anyone wants to be on the receiving end of for very long.    Deepstiking dual multi-melta tank hunter land speeders is a good idea too though (the enemy can't shoot what isn't in play yet, but watch out for thigns with the Interceptor special rule), especially for a pure Ravenwing force like this one looks to be.  I don' think any enemy wants to see a full squadron of those (or the typhoon variant) showing up all in the same place, with no scatter.   Also, Darkshrouds will be worth their weight in gold with this many bikes in the list.  Any untis screened by terrain or other units have a 5+ cover save base, +1 for the Darkshroud (4+ total, 3+ for any screened Darkshrouds themselves), without even Jinking, allowing you to keep pouring on the firepower and still be well protected.  With this many bikes, I'd go with two Darkshouds, which will give you two 12+" diameter bubbles of enhanced cover save protection.  Don't bother upgrading them to have assault cannons; just keep them cheap and let them do their jobs. Add the standard of Fortitude in there, and you will have some annoyingly diifficult to kill bikes.

 

I've dropped 5x multi-melta speeders before. It's great when you absolutely, positively, have to kill something in one turn. But the speeders die immediately afterwards. Nobody allows that kind of mobile fire power live for more than a turn. There is a similar problem with dark shrouds. Once people realize they're the source of your cover saves, those 2 hull points and armor 10 fail pretty fast. It may be something to consider for future lists, but I just see them as too fragile right now.

Edited by twopounder, 03 February 2015 - 07:37 PM.

[twopounder]

Just picked up the laser cut bases and they are snazzy. I was ecstatic that the holes I measured for the DV bikes fit perfectly. I was concerned I would mess them up in the first batch.

 

Here is an example of how they look next to a regular GW base:

 

 

I also picked up a bunch of paints. Hopefully I'm all set. I have pretty much all the parts I need, but I think I'll get a few more bikes just to finish out a librarian and extra model to swap out the apothecary.

[Isiah]

So you leave them transparent eh, no dragging around the same rock or clump of grass wherever you go . Neat idea. Not seen those before.

Cheers
I

[twopounder]

So you leave them transparent eh, no dragging around the same rock or clump of grass wherever you go . Neat idea. Not seen those before.

Cheers
I

 

Yeah, I'm hoping to pioneer a new thing. I really like the aesthetic myself. 

[Isiah]

Yes, now I remember. Very cool .

Cheers
I

[Gillyfish]

Very nice. You certainly are ambitious. I love the fact that you pretty much assembled the entire force before painting it!  

 

We demand more progress updates!