Those of you who haven't purchased the new Blood Angels Codex might want to think about it: it's a good read, making the Blood Angels really come alive for me as a chapter far more than they ever have before. They're now probably the most "40k" chapter, IMHO, with some fantastic miniatures, a nicely unified theme and some solid and internally consistent background.

But what interested me is the reference to a new, lighter type of drop-shuttle, the Stormraven Gunship. This is described as smaller than a Thunderhawk, and recently discovered, at the start of the 41st Millenium. The Blood Angels and Grey Knights use it...so it seems to me obvious that the Deathwatch would probably use it too, as it delivers squad sized units to battle, rather than multiple squads, like the Thunderhawk, or vehicles, like the Thunderhawk Transporter.

It carries (from memory, I don't have the codex in front of me) 12 marines AND one dreadnought. It's armed with missile racks (four missiles, I think) and two twin-linked weapons. I think the basic weapons were twin linked assault cannons and heavy bolters, but these can be upgraded to lascannons or heavy plasma guns.

There have been rumours on Bell of Lost Souls for a long time about a plastic SM gunship in the works. Everyone assumed that it was going to be a Thunderhawk, but this entry in the Blood Angels Codex suggests that in fact it'll be this new, lighter, Stormraven. I think it's all very exciting!

I wonder if non-Space Marine armies utilise the Stormraven? If it's a cheaper and lighter version of the Thunderhawk, it would make a great Inquisitorial drop-ship, or personal shuttle for a Rogue Trader...

From what little I know of 'non-space marine' stuff, it seems that the imperial guard have their own gunships, the Valkyries, and as for the Inquisiton, well... Inquisitors tend to use what they want and can. For example, Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn character had his own private Gunship, called a guncutter, and I believe that it's the same with most other Inquisitors. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, a Stormraven model would be Exceedingly awesome. I so want one for my Blood Angels.

Consistency?

They're space vampires. No they're raving madmen. No they're humanitarians. They're not as cool as the Ultramarines. No wait they're cooler than the Ultramarines. They hate aliens. They have a grudging respect for Necrons.

I'm a huge BA fanboy, have been since like '01. But this Codex isn't very well written - but I expected no less from Mat Ward since he's still a noob at 40K Codices.

BrotherAtrox said:

Matt Ward is the Goto of codex writing if you ask me...

BrotherAtrox said:

Hey! They've always been cooler than Ultramarines

BrotherAtrox said:

Sounds consistently inconsistent. Whoever has a grudging respect for Necrons has to be a raving madman.

I really would like a Stormraven or a Valkyrie for the Deathwatch. I hope the Stormraven gets to other chapters soon. I hate it how the specialist chapters get all the nice goodies.

BrotherAtrox said:

Yes, I agree that the BA history is littered with different interpretations, but the current version seems to me to bring the various strands of the chapter into one coherent whole. Yes, they're space vampires (the mad ones are, anyway) and yes, they're humanitarians, because they lack the arrogance of some other chapters because they know they walk on a knife edge to damnation themselves. And they're MUCH cooler than the worthy Ultras.

The trick to 40k writing should be " Innovate, reconcile, entertain ." And I think the new codex does that nicely.

Hmm.

I think the disappointing thing is that inter-system travel is pretty much restricted to vast ships with lots of crew and a Navigator on-board. I kind of like the idea of a small group of Space Marines being able to go from one (nearby) system to another in something not hugely bigger than a modern-day submarine or whatever. Cramped quarters and so forth, but something you can hop from place-to-place in.

Still, I guess something like this could get around inside a system, and maybe the PCs can get in sufficient trouble inside one system with several inhabited worlds if there's a Rogue Trader to their ship off in-system. "See you, guys, we'll be back in a cycle!"

The Wyzard said:

You can solve this giving them a non-warp capable vessel, but able to "dock" to bigger ships which can cross the warp. Being a Inquisitorial unit, they can force any local vessel to be their personal taxi (or making a ship going to their destiny to take them). This gives you the best part of two worlds, since there can be something going inside the "mothership"; the only problem, forget about space combat.

The rule would be than this kind of ships can be transported only one at a time by bigger ships, or using specifically designed transports (much like Jedi fighters in the Star Wars new trilogy) allowing for 4-8 "miniships" to go.

I know this isn't really the place but I have lots of gripes about the BA codex but the main one is this

The new shiny vehicle is called a STORMRAVEN......... WTF was is not included in the Space Wolf codex. It's got Fenris written all over it?

Uh... Space Wolves are made around norse mythology. Odin's associated animal is the Raven (Odin is the boss of the norse gods, father of Thor), and he sacrified one of his eyes in exchange of wisdom (thus associating the ravens to wisdom, or the ravens became under his control after that, can't remember). That is the only raven-theme in the Space Wolves.

Also, the StormRaven can easily be a ship avaiable to any Space Marine army like the Thunderhawks, and just got mentioned in the last Codex being published, so don't assume it will be a "BA only" toy ^^.

VarniusEisen said:

Because Mr. Cheese Matt Ward didn't write the Space Wolf codex, that's why.

BrotherAtrox said:

His fluff is atrocious, agreed, but his rules are actually quite well done, for 40k at least, the armies he has written for have their gimmicks and themes but getting down to it they're pretty balanced.

Zamnil Blackaxe said:

While I would agree that his rules are relatively balanced (Cruddace is the worst in that department), I hate how he creates god-like special characters that make creating custom HQs completely sub-optimal. He also has a tendency to write up some pretty silly units.

Now that I think of it, GW only has one truly good Codex writer...that's kind of sad...

Stormraven Gunship would be nice to see in a later release. Even fan made. But until them I would be more than happy to see a ThunderHawk taking the players in.

Well, you're mostly right, Argus... except that the two ravens were Odin's eyes and ears and flew around the world finding things out for him, and became a symbol for the god. Also the raven was a potent Norse omen of violence, death, or chaos. Oh, also, in myths Odin walks the world dispensing prophecy and omens of doom as "Grandfather Stormcrow." But no, I can see why there's no connection between "Stormraven" and the norse myth that fuels the Space Wolves.

Jurinetblade said:

Plus there is the fact that much of their fluff equipment is based around Fenris' weather patterns and climate (I'm looking at frost weapons here) and they do have Njall Storm caller

Blood angels have always been my favourite chapter, but i no longer play 40k any more, but loads of my mates still do, and one of them showed me the new BA codex. I read about the new Stormraven, it does sound pretty awesome, but i read the history behind it.

The Blood Angels themselves found the STC Template for the Stormraven and gave it to the Grey Knights, but when the Adeptus Mechanicus decided not to allow production (basically hoarding the STC template, putting it into a vault or some-such, never to see the light of day) the Blood Angels decided to ignore the orders of the mechanicus and build the stormraven themselves, and only giving out small amounts to the grey knights.

So the Stormraven is basically unique to the Blood Angels, with limited numbers available to the Grey Knights.

I may be a bit wrong, i was only half reading it at the time, but i think i got the gist of it.

Clarification: The AdMech were "checking the validity of the pattern". During that time, they made a few for the Blood Angels and the Grey Knights. After 200 some odd years of testing, the Fabricator General just signed off on the design as a 'legitimate STC design' and aproved it for all chapters to use. But, as that was like 5 years ago, it has yet to really be distributed. (the most recent version of power armor was aproved a couple hundred years ago and it's still not fully distributed). Basicly, the Fluff says why Blood Angels book, but why anyone could use one with their own chapter markings for games like Apoc or such.

Quicksilver said:

I remember reading almost the same about the Land Raider Crusader when it was introduced with the Black Templars. It takes a lot of time for new equipment to be distributed to several chapters or be accepted by the AdMech.

With the Predator Anihilator the Admech took 200 years to give the Anihilator variant their blessing. By that time the most space marines had been using the Anihilator variant for 190 years.

It seems that it only takes 10 years for a pattern to spread amongst the Astartes. Marines don't wait for Admech blessing. I guess if the Admech decide that it doesn't have their blessing the Marines will stop using it (well some chapters will).

I don't know if anyones got the new Imperial Armour book from Forgeworld but the SM featured chapter in that is the Raven Guard. A chapter known for it's rapid hit and run style of combat that's exemplified by the Jump Pack troops.

Personally I felt they were rendered a obsolete by the clearly faster, clearly more jump pack troops of the BA Codex. So I wonder if the FW treatment is an attempt to redress the balance. Does it include Stormraven Gunships? (it's also an excuse to bring out 40k scale Thunderhawk heavy lifters transports, as if they needed one).