2909th Expeditionary Fleet Strike Wing

What I Took

So apparently when signing up for this event I had purchased a Traitor ticket. Thankfully, there were no named characters or Primarchs allowed anyway so it didn’t hem me in. One note is that for this event, we each had to bring a single Centurion as our “Initiate” who would gain buffs and bonuses over the course of the weekend.

Primary Detachment: Raven Guard

[Rite of War: Decapitation Strike]

• Orlos Kasmoryn, Praetor with a Hammer, Raven’s Talon, and Corvid-pattern Jump Pack [Warlord: The Hidden Hand]
• Aetrio Ordaris, Legion Herald with a Legion Standard, Hammer, and Corvid-pattern Jump Pack
• Phryn Qeld, Legion Centurion (my Initiate) with a Hammer and Corvid-pattern Jump Pack
• 5 Mor Deythan with combi-volkites and an Infravisor
• 2 Apothecaries with Legion Warhawk Jump Packs
• 2 10-man Tactical squads with Infravisors, in Rhinos, with pintle-mounted multi-meltas
• A 20-man Assault squad with a pair of Raven’s Talons, four power axes, and combat shields
• 2 10-man Dark Fury squads, both upgraded to have 3 Choosers of the Slain
• Deredeo with heavy lascannons and air defence missiles

Allied Detachment: Mechanicum

• Archmagos-Malagra Herculania with Ephemera Incursus, a power lance, master-crafted chainfist, rad grenades, cyber-familiar, and Incunabulan Jet Pack
• 6 Thallax with a plasma fusil and meltabombs
• A Knight-Moirax with twin lightning locks

Basic army strategy is to deep strike the praetor and a unit of furies (plus a-n-other character, normally the Herald) on an almost guaranteed T2 drop via The Hidden Hand (which allows me to re-roll reserve rolls for a Deep Strike my praetor is a part of, and him and his unit get Fleet(2) after they arrive), and then dunk a big charge. The tactical marines can Infiltrate in their rhinos due to being Raven Guard, and the Mor Deythan can infiltrate as well.

The allied archmagos and thallax move quickly and present a tough line unit to crack, plus Herculania is very handy in combat with WS5, A4, and her S10 fist. Conceptually straightforward, nothing overtly nasty on paper, but an extra movement reaction on fast units and good execution can make this list very powerful. It has its flaws however. I can’t destroy lots of tanks at any great speed, though Ephemera Incursus helps with this as it lets me shoot my opponent’s vehicles with their other vehicles, but 9 games out of 10 playing the objectives is more important than killing stuff, and that’s what I did.

The Games

In total there were four players per team, so over the course of the weekend, we cycled around the battlefields and eah got to play each member of the opposing force. The Traitors were Dark Angels, Death Guard, Raven Guard, and Dark Mech; the Loyalists were two bundles of lizards, a knight with no arms or legs, and a collection of “angelic” lunatics falling face-first towards the ground.

We played 4 custom missions over the weekend, representing an increasing struggle to secure water supplies and then get them off-world. Individual VPs didn’t matter, mostly just whether you won or lost.

Round 1

My opening game of the weekend was against Salamanders: The Awakening Fire. This was super cool for me because I’ve long been of the opinion that this rite of war is low-key very good, but most green meanies can’t get their heads out of Covenant of Fire for long enough to think about playing anything else. Their list was something like:

• Cataphractii Praetor with a 3++, Hammer, and Battle-Hardened (1), with a termie command squad (various weapons) in a land raider
• Librarian
• Chaplain
• Initiate w/ Company Command Squad
• 2x10 Tactical marines
• 1x10 Despoilers (w/ Chaplain)
• 1x10 Adherents (w/ Librarian)
• Two rhinos w/ Dragon’s Breath heavy flamers (one for a tactical squad, one for the despoilers)
• 6 Jet bikes w/ volkite culverins
• Contemptor w/ volkite dual-culverin and fist
• Deredeo w/ plasma cannonade and Ailos
• Laser Vindicator
• Another Land Raider

For this mission, we had to control 2’x2’ board sections, with all troops/HQ units scoring. All Heavy Support and Lords of War units had to begin the game in reserve, however as a consolation you were allowed to give any one unit in your army Deep Strike (this went to my Deredeo). I chose to deep strike one unit of furies with the praetor and chaplain, the assault marines, and the dreadnought. I lost the roll to go first, but was uncontested in my infiltration in this game, so the Mor deythan began in the mid-board as a miscellaneous threat, though only 3/5 made it to turn 2. My furies deployed on a flank and got a turn one charge into a unit of despoilers and the chaplain that got out of a rhino, the magos and thallax harassed the initiate’s unit, and my tactical marines were annoying on the “objectives”. Turn two my deep strike arrived, cleaned up another scoring unit, assault marines finished off the jet bikes, and the deredeo popped a land raider. The game came down to a big fight in the middle, where my opponent’s praetor lost combat on his turn and fell back, and was then caught and swept by the dark furies. Game ended a 13-4 win to myself, though the score line didn’t reflect how close the game actually was. My Initiate survived this game and got the ability to re-roll one failed armour save per turn.(1-0)

Round 2

This mission was against Blood Angels: Day of Revelation. El Classico. The big Jump Pack Showdown 2K24. I’m very well acquainted with how this rite works, so I had a good plan going in to it. My opponents list was (approximately):

• Praetor w/ a Sword of Perdition and jump pack
• Command squad w/ jump packs and various weapons
• Chaplain w/ jump pack
• Initiate w/ hammer and jump pack
• 2x15 assault marines w/ power axes and apothecaries
• 1x10 despoilers w/ apothecary
• 1x5 sniper recons
• 10 Dawnbreakers
• 10 Angel’s Tears w/ assault cannons
• Contemptor-Incaendius
• Land Raider
• 2x Javelins w/ multi-meltas and lascannons

This mission, we had to nominate 6 buildings/pieces of terrain as objectives. These had 3HP, and if you shot them or took cover in them against high strength weapons, they could lose those hull points. If more than three buildings were destroyed, the game was a draw regardless of the final score. Very cool, gotta play carefully here. I had priority this game, and my opponent didn’t deploy a lot on the board to begin with (just the recons, Raider with the despoilers in it, and the javelins). After an aggressive T1 push forwards, my opponent was left with a single sniper and 4 despoilers. However, because you are not tabled unless you have no models at the end of a Game turn (think Battle Round), because he survived to T2, he was able to bring down his deep strike. My reserves didn’t arrive on my T2 and I chose not to re-roll,m so I could hold them back for a counter-strike once his units were on the table. The angels tears hosed off half a unit of dark furies, but the moirax intercepted them and vapourised 7 of the 10-man unit (T4 1W 3+ save doesn’t get you that far anymore). The dreadnought failed its charge, dawnbreakers ate a tactical squad, but the furies proceeded to mop up the troops choices and the second unit of furies and the praetor pretty handily dispatched the dawnbreakers. A second win for the Birds led the Traitors in to a strong lead for Day 2. My initiate didn’t survive this round, but did kill the enemy initiate in a challenge, and gained Battle Hardened(1)! (2-0)

Round 3

This was the mission I was dreading the most for one reason: Ambush deployment. The winning side were attempting to get water containers off the planet, and as such, the Traitors were being ambushed. We rolled off for first turn (thank god I won, ambush and 2nd turn would have been tough) and then got to place 3 objectives within the central deployment zone, which the attackers could attempt to poison (for campaign reasons) with their characters. My opponent and good friend Curtis was running his Salamanders as a 4-dread fury of the Ancients list, that looked something like this:

• Warlord contemptor with one of each fist
• Contemptor with melta cannon and fist
• Contemptor with plasma cannon and fist
• Forge lord with a hammer
• Despoiler squad in a rhino
• 10 Pyroclasts in a Land Raider
• 5 Firedrakes in a Land Raider
• 2 Neutron laser sabres
• Deredeo with plasma cannonade and ailos
• 2x3 Thallax with one plasma fusil

Now you might be noticing the distinct absence of an Initiate, and you’d be right! Curtis forgot his, so for the purpose of the campaign, his pyroclast sergeant was standing in.

He deployed his whole army to one side of the ambush, which left a couple of my units on the far side of my deployment zone somewhat high and dry. No matter, he was very close to me, and furies are very fast. I charged and killed his contemptor warlord T1, as well as wrecking one of his raiders. The archmagos charged the Pyroclasts that fell out and blocked them and a contemptor in between two buildings. On his T1, my assault marines got run down for their troubles, but the furies moved on to eating the sabres, and my deep strike was able to deploy and kill another dreadnought. Our deredeos traded shots over the course of the game, and his firedrakes eventually caught my unit of furies in the corner of the board. His thallax were pesky as ever, and by the end of the game they’d gotten in to the middle and were denying 2/3 objectives. I managed to get the win, but that was mostly carried by bonus points from my Rite of War. My Initiate survived this game, and gained Stubborn.(3-0)

Round 4

This mission was a strange one, but I enjoyed it. The traitors were once again defending, and we had to babysit a building in our deployment zone that was some kind of orbital loading station. It was AV13 all over and had 6HP, a 6+ Invulnerable save, and anything that shot it from outside 12" was -1S. There were also 5 objectives, 2 of which started in my zone as defender, 3 in No Man’s Land. the mission had a special rule to allow you to bring back dead units from reserve, but only Fast Attack or Troops. this would have ben amazing to regenerate Dark Furies, though only one of my units died and they had to come back on at the back of the board, so wasn’t tht impactful. My opponent was playing the list I was lest keen on facing over the weekend, a nasty Dark Angels Eskaton Imperative ensemble of “Legion Good Stuff”:

• Praetor with a terranic great sword
• Initiate with a calibanite warblade
• 15 Tactical marines
• 14 Tactical marines
• 10 Tactical marines
• 5 Inner Circle Knights in a Land Raider
• 10 Interemptors in a Land Raider
• 2 Plasma predators with volkite sponsons
• 10-man Lascannon team
• 2 Leviathan dreadnoughts (one melta/drill, the other storm cannon/claw)

Thank goodness Night fighting was enforced for T1 of this mission as it saved my bacon after losing the roll for first turn. I had the praetor/initiate/furies blob in deep strike, and infiltrated both rhinos and the mor deythan into a back corner behind his tanks and his heavy weapons. The lascannons took half the hull points from the pumping station T1, the predators glanced one rhino to death, and the troops advanced up the board to secure mid-field objectives. My T1 comprised of the archmagos/thallax bouncing forwards and hitting the lascannon team with her cybertheurgic weapon. Blinding them would have been nice, but I was more interested in the -2 Leadership. Furies accelerated up the middle while my tactical marines and mor deythan climbed up behind the lascannons. One shooting phase later and the lascannons were running away, having taken 3 casualties and failed to pass a test at Ld5. My furies made an 11" charge to start getting in to the meat of his marines, and managed to get his warlord down to 1 wound. T2 his dreads tried to engage the thallax but they ran away, the lascannons failed to rally, the land raiders dropped the objective building down to its last HP, and the predators played a silly game of cat and mouse trying to get far enough away from my tactical marines to avoid being in krak grenade range (spoilers: it didn’t work out for them). On T2, my deep strike arrived, and that pretty much sealed the deal in terms of getting through his infantry. One land raider got opened up by the deredeo, the other got exoshocked to death by the moirax. A big melee ensued in the middle of the board, but I had the advantage from scoring points on objectives to close out the next couple of turns after I’d killed the last of his scoring units. My Initiate came within a hairs bredth of slaying the enemy warlord in a challenge, which would have netted me a bucket of campaign points, but the Dark Angels praetor managed to make six 4+ saves to snub me!(4-0)

Thoughts on What I Brought

Considering this was the first time I was using my Raven Guard at an event, with only a couple of practice games under my belt, the list performed very wwell. I think it’s safe to say that Dark Furies good, and 20 of them certainly are nasty (more on this in a future article about the Warhammer World Clash of Arms III event). If I had to pick a unit in the list that overperformed, it was probably the archmagos. She always puts in work, ephemerea perfidiae is hilarious for catching people out of position, and she can be rally mean in combat when she wants to be. An underperformer would probably be the assault marines. They have a lot to live up to in this list when compared to the furies, but they just felt like a big brick of points that sometims scored an objective and never got to do much fighting.

Infravisors would be my honorable mention for overperformer, as they make night fighting your friend with an army like Raven Guard, especially as Night Vision is a rule that confers to the unit from one model and lets you ignore the leadership modifier as well.

Raven Guard aren’t a particularly common army, so every round began with “Have you played against Raven Guard before?” and explaining all the possible “Gotchas” in the army, as it’s no fun winning a game because your opponent played in to something whilst under the impression it worked a different way. I think in the future I won’t be taking the assault marines in a big blob of 20, maybe two smaller units of 10-15, or alternatively two more tactical squads with melta rhinos.

Looking Forwards: Throne of Skulls 2025

Decapitation Strike is very strong, as one of those rites that doesn’t really have a downside, and has the huge potential to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by scoring the extra points from Slay the Warlord. I ran it here and I ran it at Clash of Arms III, and while it’s good, I need to play something else. Given the change in how Throne of Skulls is scored now (wins/draws are worth 3 and 1pts respectively, rather than 6 or 2pts) thus making soft scores even more important, the army needs to change. Gone are the days of going 5-0 and scratching up some votes to win a trophy, now the votes are even more important.

I’m going to be running Liberation Force, the other Raven Guard rite of war, where I can take my Militia allies. For those who don’t know, despite being a bit rubbish, Militia hold a very special place in ym heart when it comes to Heresy. Thrones gives me an excellent excuse to build up something fun but silly, so that’s exactly what I intend to do. 2025 is going to mark the beginning of me starting to take Heresy a bit less seriosuly, having done 2.5 years of playing good armies, moving now in to a new year of what I want to call “optimized garbage”.

To Conclude

The event was really good fun. I really enjoyed the overarching narrative theme to the missions, and I think that R3 was a genuinely good attempt to make Ambush deployment fun. Obviously I’m biased towards my own team, but I would definitely return for a second weekend. It has given me a lot of food for thought with the Raven Guard, and I have lots of ideas for cool interactions between their legion traits and oft-overlooked units (infiltrating destroyers anyone?). I’d like to thank The Prince for putting on a great event, and I look forward to whatever he cooks up next!

You can find out more about events we run in the future over at the CatD Content Hub on Facebook, follow us on Eventbrite, and can keep up with my various army escapades over at my Instagram: @mjcwargaming.

Until next time!