Greetings readers, it is time for another team review. I know a lot of you have eagerly waited for the Tyranids to make their official entrance into the game. No longer forced to play cultist substitutes, Kill Team: Typhon gives fans of the Hivemind the option of guiding a brood of Raveners to their prey. This team simply goes by the name Raveners, forgoing the fancier titles given to others – and now holds the current record for smallest number of operatives on the board.
Before we dive in we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of the Kill Team Salvation boxed set and rules for review purposes.
If you’d prefer a video of the review check out the video below from Can You Roll a Crit?
Table of Contents
Faction Abilities
Predatory Instincts
Ravenor operatives may fight twice per activation and they can perform a counteract regardless of their order. Additionally, they may change their order before performing a counteract action (or they may simply change their order without taking an action). If they are on your Tunnel they may even before the Burrow Action for free.
Tunneling and Burrowing
In the setup operatives phase of the game at least two Raveners must be placed on the board, while the remaining may be set up Underground. Operatives underground can activate or counteract per normal, BUT only have access to the Burrow (1 AP) action that allows them to set up within your Tunnel. Doing so reduces their movement by 2 inches for the remainder of the Turning Point, but they can be set up within control range of the enemy. If Burrow is performed while on the Kill Zone and on the Tunnel that operative is once again Underground.
A tunnel is generated by the Ravenor player by the placement of Tunnel markers, the first being placed during the set up operatives step, wholly within your Drop Zone and boarding your Kill Zone edge. As a Strategic Gambit in each Turning Point (including the first) the Ravenor player may set up another tunnel marker wholly within 5 inches of the preceding one. The tunnel markers themselves and the area between each sequential marker is now your Tunnel, and is central to almost every Ravenor ploy and ability.
Sadly, this is where I must report the first and perhaps only big miss of this team. The requirement that your first tunnel marker must border your Kill Zone edge means that your tunnel won’t even extend outside your Drop Zone on most maps at the beginning of Turning Point one making it nearly impossible for your operatives to benefit from it until the late stages of the game. As we will see going forward this team has a lot of interesting and powerful abilities – and is still likely to be a lot of fun – but this first big misstep may kill one’s enthusiasm for them.
NotThatHenryC: I’m more on the fence on this one and it hasn’t killed my enthusiasm. I agree it feels a bit slow but to balance that the tunnel is really, really good. It lets you stage up the board in absolute safety, through walls (including on ITD), under razorwire and so on. Raveners are quick, so you easily threaten the central objective on TP2. By TP3 it will reach the centre line or cross it.
Consider what it’s like for an opponent. It’s TP2 and the tunnel is only 10” long, which looks fine. But next turn it’s going to move 5” in any direction, and then enormous monsters are going to start popping out of it, able to charge things 40mm+8” from there. Where can they send their operatives on TP2 that will be safe, from enemies who aren’t even on the board to attack? It’s a pretty tough situation to be in.
I think perhaps it should be altered so that it goes 6” per turn on maps played end to end, or else get to set up 3” on in those games.
Operatives
You get to bring your leader and four more operatives, making Raveners the first 5-operative team we’ve seen so far. Archetypes are Infiltration and Seek and Destroy, which is a bit unfortunate as elites generally don’t like Infiltration.
All Ravener operatives share the following basic traits: 3 APL, 20 wounds, 5+ save, 7 inch move, 5 atks 4/5 damage in melee, AND a Silent 3 inch bolter equivalent ranged attack. Not bad right? Well that is just the baseline, each operative has a rather straight forward role within the team, but all are very powerful at that particular job.
Ravener Warrior
The most underwhelming option, but the obligatory regular guy. This operative simply has Lethal 5+ on its attack when made against a wounded operative or one that has fallen back during the Turning Point. While this isn’t a terrible ability it’s unlikely you will take them over their specialist counterparts.
NotThatHenryC: The best thing I can say about Warriors is that they make Raveners a one-box team. Build your leader and specialists, and forget these exist. Moving on…
Ravener Wrecker
The Tanky One. Comes with a 4+ save and a flat 1 damage reduction on all attacks of 4 or more damage. On top of this, whenever you perform a strike with this operative you and your opponent perform a D6 roll off, and should you win they receive additional damage equal to the amount by which you won, to a maximum of 3. Against enemy operatives of 9 or less you even get a handy +1 to your roll. Honestly, this alone kind of makes the Wrecker the MVP of the team as it can go toe-to-toe with any other operative in the game. The Wrecker has decent odds of simply killing 9 or less wound operatives in a single blow.
Ravener Tremorscythe
The Sneaky One. This operative can charge from conceal if it performed a Burrow action during its activation/counteraction. More importantly, if an enemy operative moves more than 2 inches, and ends that move action within 2 inches of your tunnel and the Tremorscythe is: Underground and ready/not counteracted it may then activate or counteract against that enemy operative. As above, this ability is less useful at the start of the match. It could be quite critical late game, assuming you manage to keep your Tremorscythe alive.
Ravener Venomspitter
The Shooty One. Comes with a range 8”, Piercing 1, 4 Atks on 3+, 4/5 Dmg, and Poison range weapon that has an alternative blast 2 profile that reduces its damage profile by one and loses Piercing. Additionally, for 1 APL it can perform Distend Dorsal Sac (1 AP) which makes its next ranged attack Lethal 5+, adds 1 Atk, and removes range limitations. A decent shooting option on a team that is predominantly melee, although it is pretty action heavy. Thankfully, Predatory Instincts means you can essentially activate this buff while Concealed, and then Counteract Shoot with the addition of a free Burrow meaning the Venomspitter is incredibly hard to pin down when on your Tunnel.
Ravener Prime
The Leader. Comes with Rending on their melee attacks, and an additional 1 wound! More importantly as a Strategic Gambit in each Turning Point you may choose to roll a D6. If the result is greater than the current Turning Point you gain a CP, however if it is less the Prime suffers that number of wounds, meaning that on your worst day this operative could possibly deal six wounds to itself, but it’s still worth it during the first two Turning Points to gain some easy bonus CP.
Enemy operatives within 3 inches of the Prime count their Total APL value for holding objectives as one less, can not reroll attack or defence dice, AND must pay an additional APL to perform mission actions or the Pick Up Marker action. Not bad!
Ravenor Felltalon
The Stabby One. The Felltalon comes with Shock, Lethal 5+, and the Poison rule on its melee profile, while also having a spit ranged attack that is essentially a bolt pistol with Silent and Poison. It can also perform the Toxic Lunge (1 AP) ability on an enemy within 2 inches or on your Tunnel to do an immediate d3+2 wounds and inflict them with poison.
NotThatHenryC: I really like this operative. The ability to do an average 4 damage without being hit back or leaving conceal, plus another D3 when the enemy activates, radically alters the calculations for lots of fights. If you charge, lunge and fight you’re likely to be able to kill an enemy in one less hit than you would have needed, meaning you take less damage from them. Alternatively you can combine a Toxic Lunge with a silent shooting attack from the Pincer Tail, which is pretty likely to kill horde or elf models without ever coming out of conceal. The last thing your opponent wants to do is activate a model that immediately dies from poison, passing the activation straight back to you.
Ploys
All of the Ravener ploys range from useful to very strong with the one issue that most of them require your operative to perform the burrow action or be on your Tunnel to gain their benefits, and as we have mentioned this means their usefulness can be greatly curtailed by the map.
Firefight Ploys
Slithering Evasion: During an activation or counteraction a Ravener operative can Fallback for 1 AP, or they may perform a charge while within enemy control range, and may leave that enemy’s control range when doing so. An even stronger version of Barge mainly because it is on an operative that moves 7 inches. Probably the best ploy available to the team simply because it has no Tunnel requirements. This ploy can really make this team a menace for certain teams.
Subterranean Horror: When an operative is the target of a Fight Action and on your Tunnel you count as the attacker. A solid defensive ploy, but obviously restricted by your Tunnel.
Burrowing Strike: When one of your operative’s performs the burrow action you can deal D3+1 to an enemy operative that was in control range, or now is in control range depending on whether the Ravener operative is leaving the board or emerging onto it. While not useless odds are you won’t be using this ploy that much, also it can’t be used in conjunction with Toxic Lunge.
Death Frenzy: Does a measly D3 damage to enemies within control range when the Ravener dies, or 2D3 if performed by the Venomspitter with Dorsal Sacs extended. While this isn’t that much damage it can be used to finish off heavily injured enemies, although the random nature of the result still makes it unreliable.
Strategic Ploys
Death From Below: If your operatives are fighting during their activation/counteraction they gain Balanced on melee IF they performed a Burrow action, or Ceaseless if they are located on a tunnel. Keep in mind the second part does not require the first to be in effect. A standard re-roll ploy, the usefulness of which largely comes down to tunnel placement. Operatives ranging ahead during the earlier Turning Points will not be able to benefit from this and are at the complete mercy of the dice.
Whipcord Emergence: Exactly as above but with your defense dice, however operatives located on a Tunnel can re-roll ALL of their dice.
Writhe Out of Sight: A single friendly operative can immediately perform a free Burrow Action, and may even perform a free Reposition or Fallback if within 2 inches of your Tunnel. Another very strong movement ploy that makes this team incredibly hard to pin down, at least when they are near your Tunnel.
Tunnel Lurkers: Raveners located on your Tunnel count as being in Light Cover meaning they can essentially just hang out in the open and not be targeted by ranged attacks. When combined with the ability to change orders when counteracting this can be a very tricky ability, especially if your opponent has no Vantage on your Tunnel.
Equipment
Chromatospore Camouflage: Whenever an enemy is shooting your operatives they may retain an additional save from cover. This does not stack with Vantage. Frankly, not a terrible choice, because with 5+ saves you’re going to want all the help you can get. 20 wounds may sound like a lot, but against the right teams it won’t hold up for long.
Acid Blood: On a 5+ deal 1 damage to any enemy operative that deals damage to you with an attack die when fighting or retaliating. Honestly, probably not the best choice, unless going up against pure melee teams where the break points might matter?
Metamorphic Flesh: Operatives regain D3 lost wounds whenever they activate. Possibly worth taking when combined with the operatives located on or near your tunnel, allowing you to escape any response and heal at the same time.
Heightened Senses: Once per battle you may re-roll the initiative if you have a Ravener underground AND an enemy is within 5 inches of your Tunnel. Probably an auto-take. The late game is likely going to mean everything for Raveners.
Final Thoughts
I am on the fence about this team. First off, I think their Tunnel limitations will automatically exclude them from the top tiers of the game, however there are a lot of fun rules here. I really like the mechanics behind Burrow and Tunnel, and just wish they had done something different on how the Tunnel is employed. If anything I would’ve liked to see your actual Underground operatives generate the Tunnel as they move and place markers when they emerge. I understand why GW made the choices they made since it is very difficult to balance a team of this size. At the end of the day I still think people will have fun with this team, especially if you enjoy elites but were looking for a switch from Marines. There are still some very cagey plays that can be done with this team, and simply by the grace of being the chunkiest players on the field they will win games. They are lacking in Tac Op selection and their lack of melee re-rolls means sometimes they are just going to be left hanging.
NotThatHenryC: The challenge for a Ravener player is how to score on TP2 without losing your bugs that are on the surface. This probably involves some version of tapping your home objective and hoping the enemy don’t max the crit op and Tac ops, putting you way behind. Raveners rely on staying alive through the early game for a strong finish.
Speaking of Tac Ops, I’ve played a lot of games with Nemesis Claw and learned to hate trying to score Infiltration with elites. However, I think all might not be lost here for Raveners. You’ve got operatives that can really hurt the enemy while on Conceal, which makes Surveillance way easier and Implant less costly. You also have the option of switching to conceal and doing Surveillance with a Ravener that has already activated… or perhaps having a bug that scored Overrun switch back to Conceal to stay safe. Champion is good if you pick a Ravener in your tunnel, which cannot be killed before it attacks. Storm Objectives looks great from TP3 onwards, if your tunnel threatens the enemy base. Overall you’ve got a lot of good ways to score VPs here, plus Wiretap if you don’t want to.
As a Ravener player you’re going to lose some games, at least at first, because you put your tunnel in the wrong place so you can’t benefit from it. That’s going to hurt. Definitely try out some layouts before your games to see what you can do.
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