Is reaver jet bike spam viable?

Wow! Awesome spam list, thanks for posting it egorey!

But with "only" 6 units of 3 reavers is it really "reaver spam"?
Obviously doctorz wants to use many more than that.

@egorey: But why would you field the 6 Venoms as seperate units instead of dedicated transports for the Warriors? Don't you pass on Objective Secured that way?

Kinnay wrote:

@egorey: But why would you field the 6 Venoms as seperate units instead of dedicated transports for the Warriors? Don't you pass on Objective Secured that way?

He's using Realspace Raiders so no ObjSec anyway. Personally I'd go one CAD and one Realspace Raiders.

I'm thinking something like this for 1850 pts. This is a legal list where I play we have basically zero comp.

3 realspace raiders detachments.


3x 1 Lhamian

6x 5 kabalites on foot

16x 3 Reavers with blaster and caltrops


Eldar CAD

warlock on bike with spear

4x 3 windriders with scatter lasers.


I have 33pts left

Nice but why not run it this way?

1 DE Cad

1x Lhamaen
2x 5 Kabalite Warriors(Ob Sec)
1x 9 Reavers with 1 blaster and 3 Caltrops
1x 3 Reavers with blaster and caltrops

2 Realspace Raiders detachments

1x Lhamaen
2x  5 Kabalite Warriors
6x  3 Reavers with blaster and caltrops

1 Eldar CAD

1x Autarch on Skyrunner with Banshee Mask and either Laser Lance or Power Lance

4x 3 windriders with scatter lasers

With the laser lance you have 8pts left and with the Power Lance you'll have 3 points left.

Same number of total bikes and caltrops, but we trade 2 blasters and 2 FOC spaces for an autarch to let that new large squad ignore overwatch automatically, and therefore a better opportunity to abuse hit and run.

Also I'm not sure if a warlock counts as an hq anyway.

Warlocks count. It's. The same thing as the court.

I do like the autarch but the reason I didn't include him in the list was that there wasn't a place for him. In my experience squads of 9-12 Reavers get eaten up by ignores cover fire far too quickly. They present to much of a threat and can't absorb the punesment they will draw from an opponent who knows there value. I much prefer to present an  abundance of targets that all have a minimal value to your opponent. That way when his broudsides or centurions fire the most bikes he can kill is 3 not 9 and a character.

I never run units bigger than 6 unless I'm also including a way to protect them. Just as an example the last local tournament I entered I played with 2 units of 12 but I included 2 eldar cads in the list and ran  4 bike farseers as well. They rode around in the units and made both squads invisible every single turn of the tournament. They were very good.and I came very close to the top table.

Ah fair point. Then I guess my question comes back to: Why bother with the third RRD when you can't afford more than 4 additional units of reavers anyway, and would only have to fold 1 into a six man, and drop a blaster, to hit FOC for a CAD, granting you obsec on 2 of the units of kabalites you would be getting anyway.

I grant that should those kabalites get targeted as a threat they will evaporate, but the sheer saturation of jetbikes ought to be a major disincentive from that happening in the first place, right?

As for the autarch, I dunno, I just think that with that many different highly mobile units there is a prime opportunity to be forcing your way into assault, and then out again with hit and run towards another unit so that next turn the autarch could potentially transfer to another unit.

I mean, at worst the opponent have two presumed immediate threats when neither really ties up too much of your points, while the rest of your very mobile army is able to move about even more freely.

Maybe a Corpsethief Claw? They'd be a threat from turm 1 whereas the DA might not come in till later? Plus, the psychological factor of having 5 Taloi in your grill.

I tried running this list last night against necrons.

3 real space raiders detachments.

16x 3 reavers with cluster caltrops and 15 with blasters (on the same model)

6x 5 warriors on foot

3 lhamians

Eldar CAD

Autarch on bike with laser lance

4x 3 bikes with scatter lasers

I'd say the results were mixed I lost the game, but it was against a competarive necron list and I can list quit a few mistakes I made playing the army for the first time. Also the necron player got a few rules wrong that pushed the game on his favor. No hard feelings as we were both new to the lists we were playing but some of those rules mistakes had a huge impact on the game.

That all being said I am encouraged by the amount of damage I was able to do to a very tough necron list as well as my borderline silly ability to get maelstrom objectives.

I intend to play another game tonight and hopefully post a battle report of it.

What did the necron player do?

Probably the biggest issue was he thought some abilities ignored cover that didn't, thought some things were bubble effects that weren't, gave all his crypteks 2 extra attacks in combat as well as ap2, was running an illegal list, was using one use items more than once, applying detachment specific rules to people not in that detachment. And a couple other things.

But it was just a test game.so... whatever.

Spiders are AP2. Only the scopes grant ignores cover. At this point I don't know if I would say didn't know besides just plain out cheating.

Just repeat the game and make sure he's not bending the rules anymore. But that list sure sounds fun?

I don't really care about the win/lose on these kind of test games.

If it was his first time with it, it could very well have been a legit error. But yeah, definitely keep an eye out in the future.

I just signed up for a grand tournament in October and I am planning on using reavers...

The tournament doesn't allow formations but accepts other detachments than CAD such as RSR and as many allied detachments as you want.

My list looks like this (but haven't playtested it yet):

2 x 5 warriors + venoms with dual cannons

3 x RWJ + lances

3 x 9 reavers with 3 cultrops and champion

3 x Ravagers with lances

Autarch on jetbike with Banshee Mask and power lance (joinning a reaver unit)

3 x windriders (maybe with scatter lasers)


I have some points left (its a 1850 point tournament)

I need some help with the rest. How do I biuld the rest of the army to assist the reavers in their job? More Scatter bikes? Farseer in stead of Autarch? Forget the eldar allies and buy more venoms og even some Grotesques in a raider to ride along the reavers?

apriciated

just watch out for Tau SMS...

As many allied detachments, or as many detachments as you want? if the later then I'd break down the reaver units into sets of three and bring 2 RRD and an AD for the autarch.

You also don't have an HQ for your RRD.

This is the list: Reaver spam list

Okay so aside from the fact that your point total seems a little wonky as when I count it up as written your more than 100 points over 1850, and when I count it up as I assume intended (such as 4 grots + champion + Raider...etc. actually being 4 grots TOTAL 1 of which being the champion which is not what it says at all as written but as written they can't be in the raider with the Archon since grots are bulky) the point total comes up to exactly 1850 so I dunno but there is definitely something wrong with your tally.

Anyway aside from that you're not using your RRD to it's fullest, break your reaver units down into

3: 6xReavers [Arena Champion + 5 Reavers{splinter rifle}] w/2 Cluster caltrops
1: 9xReavers [Arena Chamption +8 Reavers{splinter rifle}] w/3 Cluster caltrops

This gives you more utility without really trading away any effectiveness as anything a 9 man reaver unit can do a 6 can do almost as well sicne you have the extra FA slot anyway.

Yeah, you are right about the way I wrote the list. But I think you got the idea.

Thank you for your feedback.

I like you idea about breaking up the reavers. Maybe I should try that. But for the sake of the topic, lets move my lists discussion over to the army list section.

Why not go full on bikes?
CAD DE
lhamean
6 warriors
5 warriors
12 reavers, 4 cc
12 reavers, 4 cc
12 reavers, 4 cc

3x CAD CWE
Autarch, banshee mask, skyrunner, power Lance
Farseer, skyrunner
3 scatbikes
3 scat bikes

2000 even.

No air support

Minimal AT support

Loads of fun with multiple invisible bike squads

Now THAT'S min-maxing