Editing Ravenwing (section)

==Company Composition: i.e: ALL the Bikes==
[[File:Ravenwing Marine.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Speed kills.]]
Way back in the darkness of 3e, the Dark Angels' traditional battle companies could include "normal" bikes of their own just like every other chapter (as an alternative way of deploying assault marines) though it seemed that as time went on, every single biker and land speeder pilot in the chapter and all of its successors got promoted into the Ravenwing (or equivalent) and by 6e the Dark Angels lost count of how many members the second company actually has in it (assumed to be more than 100) but that's what you get when you steal a chapters worth of bikes and cram them into one company. From the newer fluff; the 7e codex states that Dark Angels [[A Game of Pretend|"claim"]] that the Ravenwing maintains codex company strength and lists ten squads of ten men, but fails to include the number of Black Knights and even goes as far as suggesting that the Dark Angels deliberately obfuscate the true number so the Adeptus Terra doesn't have a clue.

In terms of skill; Ravenwing compete with [[White Scars]] for the best bikers in the Imperium. Whilst the White Scars probably win out as an ''entire chapter'' dedicated to mounted combat rather than just one company and have better tabletop rules representing the average bike-riding individual. However, the Ravenwing's elite '''Black Knights''' are just superior in every way and have plasma-wielding bikes, rending pick-axes and rad or stasis grenade launchers ''(Grey Knights lost access to funky rad grenades, leaving the Dark Angels with sole access to these cool items)'' and their leader: [[Sammael]] has an endless supply of the "last" jetbike in the Imperium, kitted out with a plasma cannon.

Ravenwing also have access to pimped out Land Speeder variants not seen anywhere else: The '''Land Speeder Vengeance''' which has a Large blast plasma array and an overhyped reputation for glancing itself to death, and the ever useful '''Darkshroud''' which has bits of Caliban modded onto it which blanket friendlies with darkness (hence the name).

Ravenwing Attack (Bikes and a single Land Speeder as one formation) and Support Squads (up to five regular speeders rather than the traditional three being accompanied by a Darkshroud or Vengeance) may be seconded to a detachment of Dark Angels, or they may deploy as an army in their own right with their own detachment.

===Aircraft===
In traditional codex chapters, the pilots of space marine aircraft are techmarines (sometimes; it's complicated). Amongst the Unforgiven chapters however, all of the pilots of the Dark Angels [[Nephilim Jetfighter|aircraft]] are members of the second company instead. Unfortunately the supposed benefits of doing this are dubiously represented on the tabletop, since both of the Dark Angels aircraft are inferior to [[stormraven|codex aircraft]] and the distinction between Ravenwing fighter aces vs Techmarine pilots are only detailed in the '''Crusade of Fire''' supplement which many people may not own. Giving them inferior abilities and kamikaze maneuvers. Seriously! one of the Ravenwing ace pilot traits gives them a teleport homer, the Deathwing will most likely already be on the table before or at the same time as the pilot actually arrives due to Deathwing assault.

In the 7th edition update, all Ravenwing Aircraft and Land Speeder pilots (as well as all Bikers) are given the ability to reroll cover saves when jinking, so there is finally a bonus. The was already represented in the [[Deathwatch (RPG)]], where dedicated ravenwing pilots are at a slight advantage over nearly all other chapters pilots (including White Scars) with the ability to use evasive action more freely than others.

In 8th edition the status of Ravenwing pilots has been rectified, and the Ravenwing Aircraft are quite good. The pilots are equal or better than their equivalent techmarine buddies in other chapters, mostly due to the Jink ability (while rarely used, is an option). Whether the aircraft themselves are 'better' than Codex aircraft is debatable and depends on what you intend to achieve.

Also, this arrangement means that the Dark Angels can fill up to 100 aircraft with pilots, where other chapters are limited to the number of techmarines they have, and the Dark Angels can still repair a plane even if the pilot got blown to bits.