Horus Heresy Review: Raven Guard Darkwing Pattern Storm Eagle Gunship

Background
On Kiavahr, the technological guilds have not yet ceded control of their Manufactoria to the Mechanicum. This means that the Raven Guard are the sole beneficiaries of various stealth technologies that they produce as these guilds hold a lot of affection for the XIX Legio, and the other legions (presumably with the exception of the Alpha Legion) have not managed to get their grubby hands on these kits. One of these bits of kit is the Darkwing Gunship.

Strengths
In short, the Darkwing is an upgraded Storm Eagle Gunship. Its base cost is more than for the other craft that shares its name, but what do those extra points give the Raven Guard player? Well, firstly it is an assault vehicle with Stealth and Outflank (a very nice 3+ jink save here!). Naturally, this is very fitting for the Raven Guard. But on top of this, it loses some transport space, but gains some new weapons systems. Firing eclipse missiles that are S4 heavy 2 and large blast with concussive is very nice, but has its limitations. Clearly this weapon system is supposed to be fired prior to an onboard unit charging in and finishing off its target. But the target has to be selected carefully. No point firing at terminators who were always going to go last in combat already and who have a 2+ save.

Weaknesses
The main weakness is the reduced capacity of transport. It cannot take a full 20 space marine squad, but it can take almost that number. Of course, this depends on whether the transported marines are bulky or not. Hence we can't be taking a full terminator squad or anything of the sort here. It has to be limited in number. And presumably ready to follow up on the targets that have already been fired at with the eclipse missiles. Hence, a small Dark Fury Squad would seem very appropriate.

Builds
There are very few builds here. The basic Darkwing is perfectly viable. The only question is whether it needs to have Armoured Ceramite (how much Melta is there knocking around in the local meta?), a search light (if facing Night Lords in particular!), and extra armour (just to be sure). These are all dependant on taste and one's local meta-game to some extent, so pick and choose accordingly.