Army Progress - Via Spreadsheet

Above is my army progress. Red = completed, Green = in progress Grey = 1000 pt, remainder is for 1500 pt.

I got a lot of hits on the dreadnought tactica, so part 2 will be coming soon!

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Tactica: Dreadnought

The Dreadnought - the best piece of crap that all Marine players must field, even though you know it will be a destroyed dreadnought in 2 turns.

So, how do I really feel about a dreadnought? It depends how you arm it. My favorite way to equip it is in a drop pod with multi melta and heavy flamer. It comes in turn 1 guaranteed if you like, and is equipped to pop that land raider or vindicator turn one. I used to play a salamders style army, so all meltas were twin linked (awesome). I would take out just about any piece of enemy around I wanted to on turn 1. In the drop pod with MM and heavy flamer, im running it at 150 points on the dot. Thats almost another squad of assault terminators however, so its not cheap... I would never run it any other way though.

So why is it crap? Well, depending on which army you play against, its a relatively easy piece of weaponry to destroy. I typically wont run it in a drop pod when play against Eldar, as fire dragons will take it out without thinking twice (free kill point)... Against Guard, it can be a problematic too if they hold armor in reserve. Sure, ill flamer a couple of guardsmen, only to get smashed with a barrage of twin linked lascannons next round.

The Key? Use it in conjunction with the rest of your assault force in your army. Make your opponent decide if he/she will fire that leman russ lascannon on the dreadnought, or the demolisher shell on the two squads of assault marines flying into the flanks. Do they fire their tactical squad rocket launcher at it only to have the rest of the squads bolter fire go to waste?

In the force I run (see army list below), I run Shrike with assault terminators so they infiltrate, 2x 6x man squads of assault marine with power fist and fleet (24" possible assault range), and a razorback with command squad rushing in... I make the opponent make a decision as to what they will attack, and what they will let attack. If they shoot the dreadnought, well its pretty resilient, and allows for those assault marines to go unharmed and get a 1st/2nd turn assault. It becomes a fire magnent allowing the rest of my army get into assault range and attack at full strength. If they dont shoot at it, im going to lay waste to your armor 1 tank a turn (i have taken out 3 or 4 tanks a game before with this set up, the opponent unwisely to let the dreadnought live). If you dont support the dreadnought, its going to get crushed, but if you do use it wisely its going to easily take out tanks and get in CC combat it wont lose. It should be part of you hammer, not the only hammer...

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To Decal or to Freepaint (Raven Guard)

As we all know, for whatever reason GW decided to not support the Raven Guard with decals, thought they did with the other first founding chapters (Salamanders, White Scars, ...). So, I know Bell of Lost Souls did publish a decal sheet for the raven guard, however the issue is the fact you cant print white, so ill have to find white decal paper if I wanted to proceed. Unfortunately, this logo isnt the easiest one to paint well either... Have any of you out there had any luck with painting this logo? I have seen one tutorial on the topic, but is still didn't sell me as a sound technique.

I do plan on commencing with the how to paint raven guard video soon too. Take a look at some of my other demo videos in the previous posts...

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Simple Green to the rescue

In case any of you were interested in repainting your models, there's one simple trick to doing it (as all the raven guard were x-ultra marines of mine). The trick is... Simple Green. It does work as well as everyone says it does. I did about a 80% solution:20% water ratio, and let the model soak in it for about 3 hours (the longer the better, 3 hours is really the min unless you want to do multiple cycles, which I did). I found that GW paints come off with ease, just grab a tooth brush and scrub away (with the exception of sunburst yellow). As for P3 paints, they take a little more scrubbing and time (in particular, their white - took 2-3 cycles with a good day soak)... The great part is, after they are cleaned, the base coat persist. I just took the cleaned up models, gave them a new thin basecoat, and they were good to go.

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Tactica - Raven Guard

So, as I proceed with building the Ravens Claw - A Raven Guard 3rd Company combat division, I realized Im basically trying to build a Blood Angels-esque style army (which I think is very Raven Guard like). A lot of assault fast moving, fast attacking "assaulty" marines. I have very little armor in my 1500 point build, which I think will throw a lot of people off these days who go so heavy on the anti armor given the new guard lists we all see. I myself carry a lot of melta, power fist, etc however.

So, the plan of attack for most games will be to couple Shrike with the TH/SS Terminators, who can infiltrate and likely get the assault off first turn (Shrike gives my army fleet). The assault marines will fly up the flanks, again maybe getting in a turn 1 assault if I go 2nd. The dreadnought in the drop pod will also hit the enemy hard and fast, hopefully taking out a tank with the MM (or else use the heavy flamer if needed). The command squad rushes up in the razorback and sits until turn 2, where they pop out and have a 6" move + D6 run + 6" assault (each veteran has 4 attacks on the assault, two will have power weapons, that should hurt most things, including standard terminators).

The weakness i see in this army is going to be the use of the powerfists to pop enemy transports. The assault marines are great and hammer through enemy transports, but if I do they are going to get assaulted next turn by something that may very well have a high initiative. Im hoping the 2x rockets in the tactical squad, dreadnought, melta in razorback and auto cannon on the pred should be enough to take out a rhino or two (wave serpents are a bigger problem). I also have to be careful with the dreadnought, sure it drops in and takes out a tank or transport, only to have damn fire dragons blast it apart next turn. Perhaps an Ironclad is worth a thought (armor 13 rather than 12).

So, anyone else out there play this style of army? At the heart of it, the plan is to hit hard and fast, making my opponent have to make decisions on what they can counter, and what they have to let get taken out. The assault terminators with the 2+/3+ save is really the core of this list, such a strong hammer (or anvil) unit with infiltrate!

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The painting post

So, here's the painting station. I used a dry erase board to lug around the paints and brushes, so I can paint in any room of the house. I prefer this over a stationary paint station. Let me see pictures of your painting station.

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Raven Guard Squad 1 - PAINTED!

Well, by squad I mean combat squad. Its taken me about a week worth of work, but I did wrap up the first combat squad. The reason I decided to proceed with the Raven Guard over the Orks is simply the amount of painting involved. I hate to play with unpainted armies, something much less cinematic about it, and for every SM I paint = 3 orks I need to paint. Its been about a month since I sold off my other marines and played, and I hope to begin playing soon again. I just picked up some more marines from my local GW store and ebay, so I should be ready to rock soon. Your seeing here the first combat squad of the "Ravens Claw", a division of the Raven Guard 3rd company. For now, my army lists is going to be - 1500 points:

• Captain Shrike
• Command Squad - 2x Combi Melta, Company Champion, Power Sword, Razorback
• TH/SS Terminators (led by shrike)
• 2x 6x man Assault Squads, Power Fists in both
  
• 2x 10x man Tactical Squads, Melta/Flamer & Rockets. 1 Power Fist, 1 Power Sword/Combi Melta & Melta Bomb
  
• Dreadnought with MM, H. Flamer in Drop Pod
• Predator with Autocannon/H. Bolters

This takes me to 1501 last I checked. I just picked up TH/SS arms for my terminators (Black Reach) off of Ebay. I now need an assault squad, shrike, a drop pod and razor back to finish up this army. I have the rest. Anyone have anything they want to sell/trade? Ill do some painted work for any of the above?

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Resin Base on Sergeant - Awesome

Well, I finished painting the first of my Raven Guard, and even got him on the resin base. I love the way it turned out... Well, Im officially going to be juggling two armies now, so Da Ork Boyz will no longer be dedicated to just the "Death Heads" tribe, but also the "Raven Claw", a 1500 point Raven Guard army (1500 for now...).

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First Raven Guard Painted - Video & Warboss!

Well, I just wrapped up my first Raven Guard sergeant. Im actually very happy with the results. What do you all think?

I haven't forgotten about da boyz either. I picked up some resin bases which will be used for da warboss. Its a Dark Age mosaic 40mm base.

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Another Distraction - Building a Raven Guard Army...

Well, I decided that im going to be building 2 armies at the same time. While im going to continue with da boyz, I realized this army is going to take me a long, long time to paint and build (well, really just paint). So, I decided to take my 1500 point space marine (painted ultramarines army) and simpled greened some of it.

I sold off the Rhino, Vindicator, Terminators, Scouts and Telion, along with 10x marines. I will probably sell of the remainder of my well painted stuff, but I stripped down about 1/2 my army. I decided to go with an army I dont see often, the Raven Guard.

Im thinking of running is with a couple of tactical squads, a couple of assault sqauds, command squad in razorback, etc etc etc all led by Shrike.

Anyone who wants any tips about stripping down plastic/metal models with simple green, leave a comment. All I can say is it WORKS! Some colors are easier to strip than others however.

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Painted Space Marines FOR TRADE - Wanted, Orks of course

Before I fire up the ol' eBay account, I figured I would see if anyone in the bloggersphere (remember that web 2.0 word) would want to trade any of these painted Ultramarines for unpainted orks. Very willing to negotiate... A lot of pictures of my army are here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/246322.page

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