Raptors (Chapter)
| Raptors | ||
|---|---|---|
| Battle Cry | Nothing. Wouldn't want those heretics to discover us prematurely, would we? | |
| Founding | Second Founding | |
| Successors of | Raven Guard | |
| Chapter Master | Lias Issodon | |
| Primarch | Corvus Corax | |
| Homeworld | "Prime" | |
| Strength | 1000 Marines | |
| Specialty | Guerilla Warfare & Recon | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Olive (though they repaint their armour to suit the battlefield) | |
"Stop blindly obeying the words of the book and look at the situation. You have completed your training, but you must now learn to apply it. Regurgitation is not the answer, simple analysis and thought must be used to solve the problem!"
- Captain Maodes Karib, Raptors 5th Company
Canon Reasonable Marines.
Raven Guard successors that use actual camouflage, sneaking, and tactics, rather than running at the enemy painted in bright colours.
Made a brief appearance in Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior and the Imperial Armour Badab War books.
In one of its only known large actions, its 3rd and 6th companies participated in the Taros Campaign along with a bunch of Tallarn, Cadian, and Elysian regiments, to kick the Tau out of Taros. Needless to say, after two regiments were annihilated, half of the fleet was destroyed, and the Avenging Sons Chapter lost basically its whole task force, the Imperial forces retreated. Through all of this, after the initial assault on the any-space missile silo, fully mechanized force of Raptors where mostly used in conjunction with Cadian armoured regiment as a quick response force, and as Tau went to great lengths to avoid them (which they deed successfully being much quicker themselves) they suffered the least amount of casualties amongst the Imperium's ground forces. Later they where used in the operation Comet, once again with Cadians and some titans, and kicked major ass, although while they managed to repel all Tau forced thrown at them, it did slow them down a bit, and bough xenos enough time to eradicate Elysian drop troops and destroy the water processing plant, securing which was the main objective of an operation. Following this failure, and the clusterfuck that was an assassination of Aun'EL, they've retreated to the LZ, robbing Tallarn desert raider of what left of their their fuel and left them die in the desert from thirst and angry gunzerking Tau. In the end however, it was the Raptors who defended the LZ for long enough to let what left of imperial forces to evacuate, although both sides suffered big casualties in this fight, mostly cause Tau where too mad angry with venegance and thrown away any tactics, going for a full frontal attack on a heavily fortified position.
Ironically in Fire Warrior they were portrayed as reckless assholes known for jumping into missions without any real planning. Which started the whole plot and the Ultramarines show up to fix their mess and beat them over the head with the codex; fun fact - these events take place before the Badab War meaning the Smurf may have in fact turned the Raptors into Reasonable Marines.
Or maybe because at the time they were a background chapter written by two different groups.
Probably the second one. Especially given that the Raptors in the game had olive drab armor, which is their base color scheme after they became Reasonable Marines. Then again their lore still states they used to be very different to what they are now and only change their ways after a disaster; working for a Chaos Worshiper resulting in a whole planet turning to chaos because you didn't bother to wonder why he needed an alien only to be saved by the Ultramarines sounds like a pretty good turning point. Of course, by "reasonable", we mean they think before they act. If you told them to parlay with xenos they'd rip your head off fill you full of bolter rounds. Better still, the Raptors make a habit of taking command of Imperial Guard forces where they fight and distributing their marines amongst the Guard forces under their command. The result is the Guard kicking ass and taking minimal casualties while maximizing the enemies'. Who knows, maybe the Raptors will eventually take some Guard regiments under their wing and make them mini-me Reasonable Marines?
Nothing to do with Chaos Raptors.
Tactics.
The Raptors have been given unique chapter Special Rules by Forgeworld, and dammit if that doesn't turn them into the sneaky snipers they are made out to be in fluff. All non-bulky units have Scout USR and Stealth on the first turn just like the Raven Guard, but the real beef lies within their Bolters: All Bolters and Bolt Pistols have the alternative profile of Heavy 1, Rending for no additional cost. This makes every Tactical Marine and especially their Sternguard into something akin to Tau Fire Warrior teams on pretty aggressive steroids. Find them a good place with cover and a good view of the battlefield and enjoy your S 4 AP 5 Rending Anti-everything infantry weaponry.
Note that since they share the first part of their Chapter Tactics with the Ravenguard, they can also run Mech Marines well given the right positioning of your metal boxes.
Forgeworld has also blessed us with the rules for the Raptors' Chapter Master Lias Issodon, who is quite a curious character in both fluff and crunch, and the rules reflect that fact. Lias has the stats of your standard Chapter Master, but with less focus on melee and more on shooting, boasting a high BS for a Marine. He lacks Orbital Bombardment and any kind of Invulnerability Save, but his gun and special rules make up for that: His personal bolter Malice is a Salvo 2/4 Range 30" Bolter with access to the same Special Ammunition as the Sternguard and is one of the better weapons in the game period, and his special rules make him into a highly strategic character, penalizing the enemy's reserve rolls while being able to re-roll his own and being able to cripple one MC or vehicle of the enemy's before the game has started. In short, Lias is exactly what you would expect a Raptors Chapter Master to be: Shooty, strategic, and reasonable.