Raven Guard are finally out with their new supplement and they’ve got strengths that no other Chapter can come close to. Check this out.
Iron Hands are definitely the talk of the town after the 2nd wave of Space Marine supplements are down. However, Raven Guard might be the Chapter that closes in on the meta by surprise.
It’s no debate that characters have gotten stronger in 8th edition since they can’t be targetted and have incredible auras. However, Raven Guard specializes in taking down the lynchpins.
Are Raven Guard the Sleepers of 8th Edition’s Meta?
As it stands Raven Guard are the uncontested Chapter to deal with characters. They have three relics that play on targetting characters. However, their whole Tactical Doctrine bonus gives everyone the ability to target a character and gets +1 to hit and +1 to wound.
Essentially, if you’re a VIP in the enemy’s list, your life expectancy is about two-to-three turns. Even if you’re hiding at the bottom floor of some ruins. Thanks to the Eliminators Mortis rounds, they don’t need LOS making them one of the star units of the Chapter.
Raven Guard Are Deceptively Mobile
Looking at a nasty combo of Warlord Traits out of the Raven Guard supplement, the Warlord can turn into a Bus Driver during your games making them one of the most mobile/toolbox Chapters out there.
Taking an unnamed HQ, you’ll want to bring Master of Ambush. This lets the Warlord pick himself and a friendly unit (no range needed) and allows you to redeploy them both 9″ away from the enemy. This is essentially Infiltrate that you can give to a 10-man squad of Veteran Intercessors. Before the game starts, you could have 20 S4 -1 AP shots ready to gun down people that were originally behind a wall.
On top of that, you can spend 1CP to give your Warlord an additional Warlord Trait. Give him the Echo of the Ravenspire Warlord Trait to have your Warlord go back into reserves and redeploy again anywhere on the table 9″ away from enemy models. This is extremely useful as he can drop off a scary unit, then redeploy to grab an objective or pop up at another angle where he has LOS to a character. It’s essentially two free Upon Wings of Fire for Blood Angels… just better.
Because this guy is going to be all over the board during your games, you can give him a relic 36″ Assault 3 sniper that does 2 damage a pop and has +1 to hit called Ex Tenebris. Just let him bounce around the board and be the trickiest Slay the Warlord point your opponent ever has to deal with.
Raven Guard’s Strengths are Xenos Horde Armies
Orks, GSC, and Aeldari are Xenos armies that have the ability to spam all kinds of units up the board. However, Warbosses, Warlocks, Maguses, etc. all have massive targets on their backs as they all are low toughness or don’t have a good armor save. Usually, these armies bring tons of characters as they are detrimental to the rest of the army. To the Raven Guard, it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.
While Iron Hands look to be the big bad tanky bruisers of the list, the Raven Guard might be the overlooked sleepers of the meta. Characters are stronger than they’ve ever been. However, their life-expectancy just took a massive hit with the Raven Guard supplement finally out.
What do you think about the Raven Guard’s rules? Will lists be able to work with their characters wiped off the board early on?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
