Welcome back to another Dark Angels Preview Review. Now I know I said this would be a daily serieson Monday and today is Wednesday but apparently the Watchers in Dark failed to deliver my memo on the subject to Warhammer-Community.com. Today, we look at the new Ravenwing reveals of a new detachment specific rule, a specific super doctrine, stratagems, and some foreshadowing about the Deathwing.
We will, however, countdown to the 1st Company from the 2nd Company, the Ravenwing! 2nd Company no longer resides in the realm of lore and a color scheme but a detachment rule reminiscent of a specialist detachment from the Vigilius Books of 8th Edition. It states that if the army is made up entirely of Dark Angels Keyword units and you build a Ravenwing keyword exclusive Outrider detachment, then your Biker and Outrider Squads gain objective secure rule. Of course there are exceptions for the Inquisition because no one ever expects them when writing rules or lists, An added bonus includes a command points refund for the detachment if it also includes the army warlord. Black Knights miss out on the objective secure sadly but I believe this is a small price to pay in order to grant your bikes an ability you would need to spend relics or warlord traits on to get otherwise. Plus, you would need characters to stick within 6” of the squads to give the bikes objective secure from their relic or warlord trait endowed auras.
The Ravenwing love doesn’t stop at the detachment level as they get their own Super Doctrine called Speed of the Raven. In the Devastator Doctrine, Ravenwing units receive 3” bonus movement and if they advance all their weapons essentially count as assault weapons. Any unit with Jink will adore this as they are no longer punished severely for choosing a 4+ invulnerable save over shooting. I am looking at you Dark Talon. It is balanced out by carrying over the -1 to hit penalty for advancing and shooting assault weapons. Plus, this means a Turn 1 charge is highly likely with a Biker unit only needing a 7” charge if both the charging unit and the defending unit both deployed on the edge of their respective deployment zones. Pop a Chaplain next to them with Canticle of Hate empowered and now it’s a 5” charge.
The new detachment and doctrine rules excite me but the balancing act that Games Workshop has worked into the last few books worked themselves into the Ravenwing stratagems. The first one previewed was Full Throttle. Now instead of getting a double move where one must be an advance move, a player must advance and then they only get to move 12” normally. This of course is 2” less than a biker’s normal movement. However, if you consider that you now get +3” in the Devastator Doctrine you actually make it out ahead 1”. Sadly, I can’t fall back and double move which I enjoyed in a pinch up to this point in 9th Edition. The loophole I used to do this no longer exists. Then when you add an additional command point to the cost, raising it to 2 command points, if you use it on a squad of more than 5 models you realize that Games Workshop giveth and they taketh away. The balancing act continues with High-Speed Focus as it only affects Ravenwing vehicles now instead of all Ravenwing units. Otherwise, it still triggers in your opponent’s shooting phase and still bestows a 4+ invulnerable save.
Some reworked and balanced out stratagems, a unique super doctrine, and an exclusive detachment bonus provided a decent glimpse of what Games Workshop has in mind for Ravenwing. No word on whether all Ravenwing units receiving Jink across the board in the supplementary codex instead of just the Index units as it sits currently but there are still a few days left to hope and dream. As much as Games Workshop said about Ravenwing, it’s equally interesting how much or actually how little they talked about Deathwing in this article.
The Ravenwing specialist detachment section of the article hyped up the idea of a competitive bikes only list. It makes since then that a Deathwing only detachment isn’t too far fetched. Especially when one considers the Rites of Initiation points upgrades for vehicles and characters leaked in the Munitorum Field Manual FAQ update earlier this month. If it's a carbon copy of the Ravenwing rules, this would mean Dark Angels will be able to run objective secure terminators and bikes alongside their troop choice brethren. This comes at a great command point cost and requires all 3 detachments but it gives a player lots of flexibility when it comes to list building and maneuvering units around the board. No more regretting placing your elite and fast attack units 6.1” away from your Chapter Ancient with the relic banner or a character with Rites of War.
Grasping at something less hypothetical, we press onward to the potential super doctrine rules. The article claims the Dark Angels will be the first Space Marine Chapter to have a 3-way split of Super Doctrines. With the Devastator Doctrine connected to the Ravenwing and the Tactical Doctrine tied to the regular marines, this leaves the Assault Doctrine to the Deathwing. The already revealed doctrines grant additional movement and abnormal shooting rules. I wonder if the trend will continue with the 1st Company. I personally hope it doesn't and instead we see a bonus to charging out of deepstrike as I don’t really care too much about shooting. I also would love to see something for vehicles as certain ones can be inducted into the Deathwing through the Rites of Initiation points upgrades.
Despite being a preview for the Ravenwing, we did learn some important details about the Deathwing. I hope we aren’t made to wait until Friday to see the Deathwing previewed and I would also like to read a bit about what is going on in the lore of the Dark Angels in 9th Edition before Saturday too. Then again, if we can wait this long for a Primarch, then I guess we can wait a few more days for lore and another preview.
Until next time keep it dank,
Bailey
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