Fluffageddon 2016: Army Review

This post will review my army for the recent Fluffageddon tournament, how it performed and how it could be improved. 

Army Review

As a reminder, my army was:

Ravenwing Strike Force

Interrogator-Chaplain- Bike, Meltabombs, Auspex, Mace of Redemption

5 Ravenwing Command Squad- Ravenwing Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher

6 Black Knights- Meltabombs, Grenade Launcher 

6 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 Grav Guns, Sergeant with Meltabombs and Power Sword

6 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, Sergeant with Meltabombs and Power Fist 

Attack Bike- Heavy Bolter 

Landspeeder- Multi-melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Ravenwing Support Squadron

Darkshroud- Assault Cannon

3 Landspeeders- Assault Cannons, Heavy Bolters

In order to put the reviews in context, my battle reports for game 1, game 2 and game 3 can be found in the tournament tab. 

Interrogator-Chaplain
The Interrogator-Chaplain performed very well in the army. With the Mace of Redemption, he gets five, S7 attacks on the charge. Combined with his Zealot re-rolls, he was able to take on almost any threat that I faced in the game and win. I came up against a lot of vehicles in my three games and the Chaplain was instrumental in taking them out with his high strength attacks.

I completely forgot to use his Auspex during any of my games, though I don't think this had a huge effect. I am too used to the Hunter's Eye with my White Scars ignoring all cover saves that I forget about the Auspex.

He was put with the Command Squad in order for the Black Knights to gain the benefit of his Zealot re-rolls. However, in most of my games this was unnecessary as the Chaplain took care of most threats without the Command Squad getting to attack. I would still probably put him with the Command Squad against most opponents.

The Interrogator-Chaplain will definitely make another appearance in the list.

Command Squad and Black Knights
Without surprise, the Command Squad and Black Knights were the stars of the army. These units have some great firepower and are incredibly hard hitting in combat.

I didn't get much use out of their shooting as I spent most of the time Jinking with the unit for the improved durability. Even with the comp'ed re-rollable cover save, the unit was incredibly durable and able to take most of the enemy firepower. The two units survived in the first two games, though did take some casualties. They were wiped out in the third game, but that was mostly due to firepower that ignored their Jink save or to ignores cover D weapons (not much you can do about that).

Ravenwing Bike Squad
I took two Ravenwing Bike Squads in the army; one of six with 2 grav guns (and a Power Sword), one full strength with two Meltaguns, a Heavy Bolter and Power Fist.

In all honesty, I didn't get much use out of the special weapons in the units. I chose to Jink most of the time with the unit to help them survive in my games, so was snap firing with the unit and not causing much damage. If I was taking the list again, I could get rid of the special weapons and save some points on the army.

I chose to combat squad the full unit in each game. The Attack Bike was handy for grabbing objectives and being a general annoyance to my opponent. I would have preferred to arm it with a Multi-melta, but don't have that model, so had to settle for the Heavy Bolter.

The Sergeants each had meltabombs and a combat weapon (Power Sword or Power Fist). Even with the Meltabombs, I generally struggled to take out many enemy vehicles and don't even think I got use of the combat weapons in my three games.

I would probably include the two Bike squads again.

Landspeeder
The Landspeeder performed ok in most of my games. In the first game, it blew up a Rhino and took out some of the embarked Tactical Squad. It also managed to blow up a Predator.

In the second game, it did managed to take a few hull points from a the various tanks that I faced.

In the third game, it was blown up in the first turn and did nothing.

Overall, the Landspeeder was an ok addition to the army, I would probably take it again.

Support Squadron
I love the Support Squadron formation. It provides some really nice special rules and is the bane of assault armies.

Overall, the Support Squadron performed well at the event, though I didn't get too much use out of the various special rules to be honest.
Strafing run was mostly useless, as I ended up Jinking with the unit every time they were targeted, in order to ensure that they survived. The Ravenshield rule was only used once (as I did not really face many assault units), but did cause a few casualties when it was used. I never got to use Interceptor on them either.

I like the armament of the unit. Four assault cannons and three heavy bolters put out a lot of firepower, even when the unit is jinking, I can normally get a few casualties each turn.

The Landspeeders also worked well as ablative wounds for the Darkshroud, helping to ensure that it survived the game.
I think if I was to take the list again, I would not bother with the Support Squadron. I would probably take them as two separate units; the Darkshroud and a unit of Landspeeders. That way, I wouldn't have so much of a footprint on the table and would force my opponent to target different units.

Overall
I was generally very pleased with how the army performed. The Bike squads were a bit limited in what they could do during the games, given that they were jinking the whole time. Unlike the Black Knights, they don't have as much punch in combat, so shooting is where they really excel. They were mostly there to grab objectives and be an annoyance to the enemy army.