Its a Scouts Life

The Assault Angel was not a large ship by imperial standards, by it still was big enough to house a comfortable crew complement of forty thousand, not including passengers.  Even larger yet when trying to reach a destination on the opposite side of the ship with an untold amount of hostiles blocking your path and no known reinforcements to back you up.  Scout Squad Archanus, was trapped in the loading dock area of the ship when the daemon incursion began.

Archanus, a veteran of the Angels of Silence tenth company, had been on patrol of the docking area, constantly training and teaching his scouts the ways of the Angels, perfection in every action.  Now they crouched hunkered down in their grey camouflage cloaks, planning their next move, hiding amongst the debris of old damaged that never got repaired fully.

“Scouts, listen,” Archanus voice was hushed, “We need to regroup with our brothers, we are in a very isolated area, and I doubt, even with our skills, we will survive long.”

The determination in the scouts was strong, and it ran across their faces, they knew no fear, and they will die for the glories light of the Emperor.  “We are with you Sergeant, we will find the others, we will not let chaos win,” Marnem spoke with fervor.  He would become a great Space Marine one day if he makes it out of this thought Archanus.

“Good I’d expect no less from my scouts, now let’s show this worthless daemons who they are messing with one last time.” Archanus pulled the dagger from his belt, and flipped the switch on the hilt to test it; this blade was barely longer than a foot and a half but was deadly in his hands.  Preferring it to clumsier longer blades, he needed every little bit of speed he could get, especially with his lack of power armour.

Staying crouch the group moved forward, down a disused corridor, hopefully circumventing most of the larger forces aboard the ship, and enabling the ability to perform mass stealth attacks on the enemy.

“Sir, my Auspex is reading Astrates over this way,” Zethar spoke, holding a odd machine in his hand, as he rested his shotgun upon his lap.

“How many? Are they friendly?”

“It’s not clear too much interference coming in, but the power armour is easy enough to read,”

“Zethar, you and Kinias take point, keep your shot guns level, keep your wits, Marnem, Ashor, take the rear, and keep your blades handy, pistols out.  Let’s not get caught with your pants down now,” He gestured his hand forward, moving the group onwards to check out the signal.  Finding anyone from the First Company would increase their odds of survival by tenfold, and he dared to hope that’s what he would find.

The corridor began to smell, the air smelling like blood, lots of blood, and the soar smell of daemon entrails.  Taking their time and utter most caution they sneak forward until they reached the point where the Auspex signaled they found the power armoured individual s and the smell was the worst.

Archanus glanced around the corner just ever so quickly to take a count of all who was there, capturing the image with his augmented eye.  He swore silently to himself after noticing that those power armoured Astrates, were in fact dead, and being munched on by Khorne Flesh Hounds; A group of five from his count, and luckily enough they were distracted.

“We take them by surprise, Zethar, Kinias, give them hell, show them what your worth, Marnem, Ashor your with me and we are going hit them hard, blades out, empty your clips and pray to the Emperors glory there isn’t more around that corner.” Archanus spoke softly, he then lifted up his fingers to represent on, three.

Three, Two, One.  They group bursts from cover, the shotgun wielding scouts blast out their shots in rapid succession, Zethar catching one off guard and punching a hole through its unholy aura, and blasting a crater into his chest smashing it into the wall.  Archanus and his three run headlong forward, the Flesh Hounds barking in anger, blast up without a moment’s thought,  not even phased at the sudden attack of these Space Marines.

The hounds hit them hard, knocking all three down to a knee in force, they were barely able to push them off, each as strong as themselves, the shotgunners, dash forward, Zethar and Kinias, blasting away.  A found losses itself from the three already engages and tackles down Zethar hard, its teeth biting deep into his chest, Kinias took the opening and sent a shell into the creatures side blasting it apart in a red mess.

Quickly checking on Zethar, alive but out, he trained his shotgun up, aiming about, watching for any other enemy that might attempt to sneak up.  Leaving the three outfitted for combat to their duties. 

Archanus and his two other attack scouts had the hounds right on them, teeth snapping at their faces, claws trying to dig into their braces, giving no quarter.  Archanus quickly activated his daggers power, it blazed in electrical might as he quickly jabbed it deep under the jaw of the beasts head, breaking through the horrendously thick skull.

Archanus kicked the body off his blade, with only enough time to dodge another hound which had disengaged Ashor, attempting to strike the leader of the scouts.  It growled at him, Archanus noticed that it had clipped his arm, and red fluid rolled down his dark skin.  That had been a close one, and he would not let it happen again.

As the creature lunged again, he ducked down and stabbed his dagger into the chest of the and rolled with it.  Slicing through the inner’s of the flesh hound and spilling its guts all over the metal corridors floor.  With another quick flick of the wrist, he tossed that same dagger deep into the head of the remaining hound as its teeth had found purchase on the scouts shoulder plate.

Marnem quickly stabbed with his own blade, chopping at it, as its jaw would not let go, even dead.  Ashor rushed over chopping the head off the creature, and pried its head off with his hands, leaving deep groves in his shoulder pad, and blood running down his arm.  A mix of Marnem’s own blood and that off the daemon’s.

“Scouts status?” Archanus asked as he pulled his dagger from the creatures head.

“Zethar is alive, but he needs to heal, the creature cut deep but looks to have missed vital implants.” Reported Kinias.

“Minor wounds, will heal in a short period of time,” Reported Marnem

                “Superficial damage, not injured,” Ashor reported last.

                “No Casualties,” Archanus moved over to a nearby hatch, and opened it, scanning it quickly. “In here, we will reload, bandage our wounded, and prepare to head out again. Move”

                On command, they grabbed Zethar, and rushed into the room, Archanus sealing it behind himself.  It looked like a servitor storage room, though no servitors remained, most were damaged or on duty at the time, and unlikely many would remain.  “Kinias, keep watch of the door, Ashor, tend to Zethar, Marnem check this room for any supplies we can use.  We need everything we can get.”

                It wouldn’t be long before they had to head out again, with or without Zethar, and far more deadlier creature roam this ship….

2000k Raven Guard List

            Okay to start this list off I wanted to say I really like Shrike and the Raven Guard; I have a soft spot for those beaky blokes in there black armour and wolverine claws.  They are a very tactical Army to play and you really have to use your scouts to full advantage in their army.  Can’t just play full Power Armour because it ruins the spirit of the army.  I’ve designed a 2k point list that I believe has the right stuff to be a fluff Raven army.

HQ:

Shadow Captain Shrike

Mandatory for this list seeing has he is the representative for the Raven Guard Army, and just so damn cool in what he does, and gives an entire army fleet, which in 6^th can be a life saver to say the least when hitting into assault.

Troop:

            1 Tactical Squad

I have outfitted the squad with a drop pod, plasma gun, missile launcher, and a power weapon on the sergeant.  This squad will come down via drop pod with drop pod assault and try and hurt anything in the enemies’ side of the field with plasma fire and snap fire missile.  Mostly used as a distraction unit to allow the rest of the army to move up and do what needs to be done.

            3 Scout Squads

I’ve added three ten man squads of scouts to the list; these guys are outfitted to be combat squads, four guys with sniper rifles and a guy with heavy bolter, and four guys with combat blades and pistols with the sergeant a power weapon, melta bomb.  These guys all have camo cloaks to keep them nice a stealthy.  I feel that with fleet and this load out, these scouts can cause some serious harm to most unprepared squads. The snipers picking off special weapons and characters and using the hellfire round from the heavy bolter to do blast sniping to whittle down squads.

Fast Attack:

            1 Assault Squad

This group of ten guys are what will be backing up and working with Shrike, I would have stuck him with a vanguard veteran squad however that would be very expensive and you loose what you guy from using the vets, the assault on deep strike.  These guys are very simply set up, the sergeant has a power weapon and melta bombs.  Its simple and easy and they can dish out a lot of attacks with very little worry, also the sergeant can be used for challenges to save shrike from big meanies that they might encounter.

             

            1 Vanguard Veteran Squad

These guys are setup in a five man team, and are going to take advantage of fleet and assault off the deep strike.  I’ve outfitted them as follows, sergeant has two lightening claws, and a melta bomb, the four others have melta bombs and a power weapons.  These guys are meant to be a unit that hits the biggest and meanest things on the field with a decent deep strike roll and using fleet they are more likely to entire assault and survive to do damage that they are outfitted to do.  Melta bombs are there so they can hit tanks and MC as hard as humanly possible.

            1 StormTalon

I need to add a flyer defense to the list and this seemed like the best choice, I’m not a huge fan of flyers myself but utilizing them needs to be done to survive in the current meta.  I outfitted this baby with Twin-Linked Lascannons and Typhoon Missile Launchers to give that anti-tank flavor that this list lacks.  A flyer seems to be a prefect fit to an army like the Raven Guard and I think it would do the army good.

Heavy Support:

            1 Devastator Squad

These guys are outfitted with four very expensive Lascannons, the reason I chose these was because the list lacked heavy support, and these guys are able to hang back with the scouts and ‘snipe’ tanks and change targets very easy especially if they can a center place deployment.

Fornication:

            1 Aegis Line Defense

I have added this to hang out with the Devastator squad and I added the Icarus Lascannon to the list to match the Dev squads’ lascannon outfit.  I like the wall, it helps give a tactical position to a unit that doesn’t have to cover a objective until the Big Guns Never Tire mission.

            This is has plenty of Troops to move around and take objectives, plenty of in your face units and enough holding the back field units.  A lot of movements to be made and a lot of feints to be played with the moving your troops around.  This is has a whopping 63 unit and vehicle count and its divided even between power armoured, and scout armoured.  I think it anyone likes the fluff of the Raven Guard and wants to play a list that is new and lacks the same unit setup of every other list out there then this one can, no dakka dreads, no huge spamming of units expect scouts but being only two troop choices you’ll have to go one way or the other.

            I would like to hear what you guys think of my thoughts on Raven Guard, maybe tell me what I could change to make it more Raven Guard fluffy.

Note: Blood Angels could be used with this, but I enjoy the fleet a little to much to loose it but the Vanguards would always show up d6 close to the enemy, and rolling a six is a 50/50 shot for assault.

Trouble Aboard

                    The ship shuttered in explosion, rousing a mighty figure clad in highly ornate artificer armour.  The bronze laurels glinted in the red emergency lighting, his red eye visors of his Mark V deep blue helmet blazed in psychic energy, his anger flaring at the non-stop attacks his crew had suffered and the resentment he still felt from being forced to abandon his fortress monastery and from his chapter.  He was always dressed for battle, war was in his nature, and he fought an unrelenting battle of the mind and arm.  This long trip had tested his mental fortitude and was a constant fight against the voices laying in the warp.

                Chapter Master Icarus of the Angels of Silence hefted up his power spear, the Redeemer, and checking the power sword Judgment was secure on his hip, never a battle too large, never an enemy too far.   Rising slowly from his kneeling position, he stood for a moment to gather his thoughts before rushing through his quarters massive doors, designed specifically for the large bronze wings on his back, which adorned the greatest hero’s of the chapter.  He was one of the last, but he would not die now.  Glaring down the corridor, highly ornate walls surrounded him, most days it gave him comfort in the beauty of it.

                It was dark, so dark, there was a massive power loss in the ship, and this would make fighting tough for the imperial crew on this ship, which Icarus needed to keep this ship in one piece.  Sudden blasts of bolt gunfire and horrendously familiar roars, and screams, grabbed his attention, and he knew one thing; Daemons had come aboard his ship again, and they weren’t small in number.

                “Throne, these hell beast of Khorne will not leave us be,” grumbled to himself as he began his way through the dark hallways.  Scanning the corridors and hallways with his helmets built in Auspex.  It picked up no trace of life signs nor was it able to track the noises, it seemed like they were coming from every direction.

                Reaching an intersection, a burst of loud roars and screams, whipping his head around seeing he had been caught off guard by large red humanoid beasts, with several large horns protruding from their elongated skulls, swinging around disgusting large Hellblades, which looked to be posed to tear apart his armour in seconds if he did not act fast.  His hand whipped out in front of him sending a large blast of psychic energy in front of them, staggering their charge just enough for him to launch a bolt of lightning from his spear and engage a short burst from his jump pack.

                The roar of the angel, the flames of hate blasting out from the short-range burst of power, smashing right into the group knocking them back and staggering them back into the walls to regain their footing.  Icarus’s spear swiftly pierced one bloodletters through his red chest dissolving the beast into nothingness in the brutality of his spear.  Swinging around fluently jabbing the spear straight into another’s wickedly horned head cleaving it in two sending the beast crumpling onto the floor.

                 Daemons were not afraid of such a man, two of their number may be down, but three still stood, more blood for the rest of them, one skull for the skull throne.  They bashed at Icarus with their evil swords, each one either meeting his spear in a mighty block, and others glancing off his armour causing no real damage, his armour was too well made for such simple blades to pierce through.

                Icarus would take advantage of their boldness, and deftly unsheathe Judgment from its housing, slashing quickly cutting another bloodletter in half, spilling its daemon-tainted blood across the walls and its brethren.  They howled in rage and fury of only servants of the blood god could, redoubling their efforts to bring this Angel of Silence down.

                The speed of Icarus attacks never failed, using his spear to block their strikes, and his sword slashing at the daemons, granting no quarter and giving no rest.  Stims flooded his system keeping his muscles from cramping and his vision clear.  He quickly gave a solid chop at the bloodletter to his left removing an arm, and with the follow through he stabbed Redeemer into its chest unleashing a torrent of psychic energy blasting it apart.  The remaining daemon glanced his blade off his angel winged pauldron on his right sending a shot of pain through his arm, he could tell however it had failed to break through.

 “Begone off my ship you daemon filth and pray you never see me again!”

With that, he brought both weapons back and stabbed hard into the bloodletters guts and unleashed his own brand of rage upon the soon to be dead bloodletter.  Blue flames burst from the lenses of his helmet and rolled down his arms, coiling like a snake, and leaped from his power armoured gauntlets and smashed into the bloodletter with the power of an thunderhammer, disintegrating into absolute nothingness.

“I have to find my honour guard, we need to regroup,” He touched the Vox bead on his helmet, “Bridge status report, and how big is this incursion? What is the state of the Gellar Field? Are we out of the warp finally?”

There was no rely but static, he would have to figure this out the hard way, by finding out for himself.  He gathered his wits about him and set off towards the command center, hoping to find alive troops to help reclaim this ship in the name of the Emperor…

Unit Builds - Wolf Guard Battle Leader

Not a mighty Wolf Lord, doesn’t have any special abilities that give preferred enemy, or grant psychic defense.  He is the underdog of the Space Wolf HQ section (No pun intended).  However, they hold special place in my heart because of their access to Saga of the Hunter.

Different load outs can change the personality of this unit in a various ways, from stealthy shooter to outright a close combat monster.  I have designed a few potential uses for them, some more exciting than others have, some more tactical then others.

Option 1: Silent Prowler-160 Points: Thunderwolf Mount, Saga of the Hunter, two Fenrisian Wolves, and a Power Weapon.  For only decent amount of points, you get a unit, which can get you into combat quickly, but also absorb many of those nasty plasma weapons that hang around now a day.  The Thunderwolf grants that extra little toughness to take less wounds, but also gives you Rending to deal with those 2+ armour saves when a situation arrives for the need.  This one is all about cover and speed, not much else.

Option 2: Plasma Jet-135 Points: Jump Pack, Two Plasma Pistols, and Saga of the Beastslayer.  This one is more of a fun unit, jumping around with Plasma Pistols, taking on the biggest and toughest things on the field.  Yeah he might blow himself up.  Yeah he might get shot up before getting a shot off.  That is not the point, it is the fact you could deep strike this guy wherever you felt like it and get two BS5 S7 AP2 Shots off that on a roll of 6 get to choose who he hits, and rerolls to hit against Walkers, Monstrous Creatures, and the like.  He if fun, that is what I really care about.

Option 3: The Watcher-83 Points: Storm Bolter, Saga of the Hunter.  This is the setup I personally am going to use when I start my space wolf ally.  He is nothing special on his own, but with his ability to grant stealth to the unit, he makes a perfect candidate for Sternguard Vets and other shooty units.  He is the leader of a squad; he keeps units in the game when the shot should have killed him instantly.  He can move to nearly any rear squad can grant them so much.  Attach him to sniper scouts who already have camo cloaks and give them a 5+ cover in the open!  Stick him with your long fangs and devastator squad and watch them survive that extra turn.  He is cheap, simple, and brings so much too any unit he is added too.

Option 4: Fanged Wall-145 Points: Terminator Armour, Storm Shield, Frost Axe.  This guy is built to take the hits, and dish them back.  He usually always gets 4 attacks charging or not, thanks to Counter-attack.  He is cheap for what he brings, and can be easily backed up by a group of three wolf guards.  They can be dropped in a pod, or driven up in a raider, or just foot slog it over to the enemies end to claim a victory point.  He is not to be messed with, and he would easily make a mess of anyone who tried.

I like the wolf guard battle leader, mostly because you don’t have to put much points in him to enjoy him.  In the age of challenges and plasma, deposable HQ’s can be nice.  I say make units to be fun, especially if it’s a space wolf, they have such unique personalities to the army you can pull off nearly any unit combo and it fits the theme.

I challenge anyone who reads this, to make a unit that sounds fun, and can be a one off’er.  It does not have to be a space wolf, does not have to make sense, it just has to be FUN! It is like your guard ten man squad, assaulting a deathwing knight squad, you do not do it because it makes sense, you do it because it would be cool to see if they could actually do something!