Sky Raiders Bird List

I'm enamoured by the idea of a Scourge heavy list and think I've found the right foundation to make it work. I need some feedback from more experienced Archon's out there to gel it all together. The core of the list relies on two Detachments, a DE Formation from Apocalypse and a CE Formation from the codex.

Storm of Blades Formation (DE): Units may elect to Skyfire any given turn; Raiders must buy Enhanced Aethersails but can fire in the shooting phase and then turbo boost as if they hadn't fired; units in transports may not voluntarily disembark and if forced to do so must check for pinning.

This forms the core of the force.

1 Archon: Blaster, Clone Field + Venom, Twin Cannons, Grisly Trophies.

Required for the formation (must take an Archon and all ground troops must be in transports). His role is to reinforce the Raider wave wherever needed, with a secondary role as monster hunter. Trophies help deal with the possibility of troops being pinned.

3-4 Raider Gunboats: Dissie Cannon, Enhanced Sails, splinter Racks, 10 Kabalites a piece with Splinter Cannons.

Their role is to stick to cover and out of LoS of enemy units. They drift out of cover, shoot their targets and then turbo out of harms way using a hit and run tactic to grind down their foe. Dissie Cannons give them more flexibility in target selection and mitigate the weakness the list has with TEQ's.

2 Haywire Scourge Squads: 5 men, 4 Haywires

These guys escort the gunboats and melt any vehicles who come to intercept. Their haywire can also be aimed at fliers should it be needed.


Aspect Host (CE): Units can reroll morale/pinning/leadership tests; units get to choose either +1 WS or +1 BS

3 Swooping Hawk Squads 6 men, Exarch, Sunrifle

These guys start in reserve and deep strike with impact. Their pie plates are BS 6 laughing the face of scatter. They're shooting attacks hit on a 2+ offsetting some of the weaknesses of their guns and having 3 opportunities to blind means that any infantry within reach of their dropzone is either dead or snap shooting in return. Their early game role is simple - alpha strike to collapse a flank. From there they scatter and start hunting down lone units, harassing any units trying to hold objectives, dealing with aircraft and scaring armour from reinforcing isolated positions.


This is the core of the force. It has a lot of speed and massive amounts of movement/repositioning. Between the gunboats and hawks light infantry is dead, cover or no. The gunboats can deal fairly well with heavy infantry between the dissies and weight of TL poison shots. Armour shouldn't be too much of a problem. Hawks can assault high priority targets in the backline as they can probably strip more HP's reliably in a single turn than can the Scourges whilst the Scourges take down vehicles in the front line deny fire lanes to your opponent.

What I think the list could use is some solid combat options for smashing into enemy lines to break them and possibly some more solid anti-armour. I'm thinking a unit of Incubi for the first role. I have a question though, if you took an Incubi unit can you deploy them alongside the Archon (in the Venom) despite the Incubi not being a part of the Archon's formation? Or would they have to embark turn 1 to accompany him? If they can go with him from the start that'd be ideal.

Another option I was toying with was taking an Autarch with wings, banshee mask, blaster and power lance. Accompany him with a third larger squad of Scourges with carbines. Throw in a Solarite with power lance and use this as an assault squad. I wouldn't assault with it before turn 4 and furious charge but with plasma 'nades and negating overwatch the combination of their firepower and high initiative should ensure that you do a lot of damage and take little in return (don't charge them at anything good in combat though!). The Autarch can operate independently if needed. These Scourges can also benefit from Skyfire if you wanted them too. Optionally throw in some heat lances or blasters and use them to assault TEQs in a do or die fashion.

There's also the option to throw in some Reavers. You can give these some heat lances and caltrops and use them against whatever needs stopping the most. they have the advantage of being able to redeploy anywhere (like the rest of your army) and with their speed and skyfire (these can take that too in the formation) you can get right upto enemy fliers and melta their asses!

Crazy alternative option would be to take the Hawk Phoenix Lord and stick him in a heat lance Scourge squad. Drop them right into the thick of the enemy along with your other Hawks and spread the blind further, then watch those lances rip open whatever badass tank is hiding at the back of the field.

Those are the options I'm considering to fill out this list. I think with 3 gunboats and an Autarch it was coming in at 1400-1500 pts. So there's probably room to take 2 more squads in a standard game. I know it won't be an ultra competitive list but that's fine, I don't want to play venom spam. It looks very fun though as you can hit hard and melt away as if you were never there! And on the table all those winged troops will look excellent!

Any thoughts on how to fill this list out?