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Raptors? Worth it?

589 views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  Fenrir 
#1 ·
I've been thinking about this for a while, Raptors, 29pts each, expensive as hell. Raptors, hit & run, daemon flight + visage, specialize in certain things e.g. give the squad 3 melta-guns and they can be tank-hunters, 3 plasma guns to assasinate leaders, 3 plasma pistols to kill CC specialists and 3 flamers to take out hordes. But in a Word Bearers army, they dont go with Word Bearers but that's not the point, are they worth the points or not?
 
#2 ·
Raptors can be worth their points, but only if used well, and if you make sure you equip them for what they will do.

They are fast, potentially deadly, but also pretty fragile for their points value.

They don't have the flexibility of, say, terminators, so you really need to move them from cover to cover and then strike where needed. Because of that, I would not recommend plasma guns (you can equip a unit of 5 marines with 2 plasma guns for much cheaper!) but rather close-range firepower.
 
#3 ·
Raptors are always worth it in my opinion. I run two 7-8 man squads in my army. Infiltrate and furious charge. One squad with 3 flamers, the other with 3 meltas. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Damn straight! Fielded with the proper support these guys are incredibly nasty. Flamers for the troops, meltas for the tanks. These lovely infiltrating beauties will see combat by turn 2 (if you set them up right), occasionally on the 1st turn if they are not in line of sight. With furious charge they hit devestatingly hard. Triple flamers followed by a bunch of S5, I5 marines, and a champ with a power weapon... Not much can stand up to that. The trick is to stay in combat on your opponents turn (unless the unit will somehow beat you), trust me, you will see less casualties than if they were to shoot at you. Then break combat at the end of the enemy's turn. This ensures that, on your turn, you get your furious charge bonus all over again!

However, there are several do's and dont's with raptors.

1. Raptors are about speed, do not give them anything that will slow them down. That means no powerfists! You don't want your champ to hit last. You want to benefit from the charge bonus and hit fast and hard. If you want to kill tanks, use the meltas, give the champ bombs if you want, that's what they're for.

2. In the spirit of rule #1 you do not want to use plasmas. If you fire with them you will not be able to assault. Making yourself a nice juicy target for shooting. And trust me, with a heavy hitting unit like this, they WILL be shot at.

3. Speed speed and more speed! Got it yet? DO NOT SLOW DOWN! Get them into combat as quickly and safely as possbile. Use the above tactic to hop around killing at your leisure.

Hope I have impressed upon you the benefits of using raptors, they are after all my favorite unit. I hope you come to like them as much as I do. 8)
 
#4 ·
Firstly, nice picture AKM... is that Tuco?

Secondly, don't give your raptors plasmas at all. Like Numbers said, it'll prevent you from assaulting... but perhaps more importantly, it'll overheat and kill your expensive raptors. Meltaguns are better for raptors, since they're more effective and more useful in a squad that needs to be assaulting.

Also, 3 flamers can be very effective, but ideally each flamer will hit fewer and fewer enemies as they the squad is reduced.... I'd probably go with a pair of meltaguns and a flamer, but I usually play against some kind of marine army... so flamers can be a little less effective.

Finally, it's a good idea to make them monsters in close combat, but don't make them too effective. If you wipe out your opponent's squad on your turn, you'll wind up sitting out in the open when their turn comes around...
 
#6 ·
On a side note, in a Word Bearers army i think they would be sweet considering you inflitrate them, and advance them into your opponents deployment zone with the help of some cover. Then you can either assault (if lucky) on turn one and summon on turn 2 with them. Want to mess with your opponent? Drop those bloodletters in his deployment zone on turn 2... i did it vs guard one day... it was a good time for me
 
#7 ·
same basic use as bikes for summoning purposes. great mobility and very fast. can get wherever you need to go and get some daemons summoned whenever its needed.
 
#9 ·
Yeah...but what are you gonna do about that.....Thats a good description numberofthebeast...though I find raptors hit or miss and not as reliable as, say, deepstriking terminators...but I dont play with raptors alot
 
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