"Kirby (or whomever you hand this off to),
With the Stormraven release seemingly imminent, I thought I'd take a crack at putting together a list that utilized the other role of the Raven. Gunship.
The goals of the list are straightforward: Two Stormravens minimum. Scoring Troops in all vehicles. Land Speeders to provide cover saves for the Ravens as needed.
2X - Librarian Shield, Might
2X - Sanguinary Priest
4X - Assault Squad, Meltagun, (Sgt.) Infernus Pistol, Razorback w/ TLAC
2X - Scout Squad, (Sgt.) Melta Bombs
2X - Landspeeder Squadron, 2 Landsppeders w/MultiMelta
2X - Stormraven Gunship, EA, TLMM, TLPC
1850 pts.
The Scouts embark in the Ravens and can be carried to make the Raven scoring, or they can be dropped off via Skies in order to secure an objective late in the game but allow the Raven to stay mobile. The Librarians can deploy rather flexibly, either in any transport to provide Shield, or in the Ravens to make the Scouts more useful in CC. Priests are also flexible, but more desirable in the Scout squads, I think.
As a Raven list with no Dreads, and certainly no rock unit being carried by the Ravens, I wonder if the point investment is worth it. They will, however, avoid the "all your eggs in one basket" liability.
Any suggestions you might have would be appreciated, of course.
-Volcatus"
Rather than scouts why not Inquisitorial Storm Troopers? Cheaper, still scoring and provide 2x special weapons. You also don't really need 2x Libby as one shield is really enough. Everything else has smoke or SMF, etc. so I'd drop one and with the points saved you should have enough points for another Land Speeder squadron or upgrading them to Typhoons. Adding some combat weapons on the Priests/ASM Sarges might be nice as well but I'd rather see more Speeders for saturation purposes.
In terms of investment of points, they aren't too bad. Compared to say a Land Raider crusader you have comparable if not better firepower with the the missiles, PC, MM and hurricane bolters (add them btw) on a fast platform. Whilst you don't have AV14 you are a lot more flexible in how that firepower is applied. The ability to move and always have a cover save as well from SMF is also a big advantage over the Land Raider variants with the obvious downfall being no AV14.
Personally I like using Stormravens like this. Being able to get three main guns + the missiles makes them excellent gunboats it's just a matter of building a list around that concept. If you took this to 2000 you could easily get three of them in but then you're looking at a smaller supporting force so this is a nice balance at 1850.
