Venoms Vs Raiders

I find Venoms to be great for Mandrakes, as they can very reliably get them where they want to be while offering good protection - the smaller unit footprint makes it easier to conceal. Otherwise it's Disintegrator boats for my Warriors, while Coven stuff footslogs/screens the Ravager fleet. This way, my opppnents have a lot of tempting targets, spend more time thinking about target priority and nake more mistakes. Who do you shoot first when every unit on the table has T5 or more?

My approach may be influenced by my current collection, of course, but I find that when you have a few venoms alongside six other boats, the enemy tends to forgo the -1 to hit venoms in favor for other units because of the perception that they'll do more damage elsewhere.

IMO Venoms = MSU cheap fast spam, Raiders = More potential in units/higher Str guns

Tho with Ravagers and RWJF, combine with PoF detachments, i dont really see the need for Raiders anymore.

amishprn86 wrote:

IMO Venoms = MSU cheap fast spam, Raiders = More potential in units/higher Str guns

Tho with Ravagers and RWJF, combine with PoF detachments, i dont really see the need for Raiders anymore.

The only troop/transport combo that I've been running for a long while now has been Kabalites in Venoms. If the next FAQ kneecaps them I honestly might join TeenageAngst in not running transports at all.

There is no "right or wrong" answer here, each choice in this regard needs to be based on what is lacking from your army.
If you are lacking anti-troop, go with venoms.
If you are trying to decrease drops for the +1 to go first, throw multiple squads in raiders, if you need more anti tank, a venom is useless while a raider with a dark lance is the better choice (though if you are like me, my raider lance shots ALWAYS miss!)

I tend to run dual blaster warrior squads in raiders with dark lance on the vehicle. This keeps the dual-threat alive with potentially 16 poison shots and 3 dark light shots on a single model.
If you take 5 trueborn with 4 blasters, i would throw them in a venom.
Again, it is all situational, so if someone says "Venoms are better than raiders" or vice-versa, ignore them.

If I can throw my two cents in, it highly depends on build composition like stated, and because of the arguments made for both, it shows they both have pros and cons.

There is one thing people haven't mentioned though, and that is Objectives. If you run more raiders, you can get more Kabalites which are fairly expendable, and objective secured.
But if you run more venoms, then you can spread out your forces more, and thus theoretically get more board cover.

I personally prefer venoms in a flayed skull detachment. Standard Blaster per venom, but it's a rare game where you don't have objectives, and both transports should also be considered for their worth as an objective holder. While not expendable, a single venom is much easier to sacrifice to gain those additional victory points, and arguably more likely to be around at the end of the game due to how they play.