Shadowmark Talon: The 11th-Edition Raven Guard Detachment

Masters of Shadow gives your units the Benefit of Cover against any ranged attack made from more than 12" away. Your infantry are effectively always in cover versus long-range fire, which is what makes a Raven Guard list so annoying to shift off the midfield.

It is the same core effect as Vanguard Spearhead's Shadow Masters, and like that rule it was toned down for 11th edition: it is the cover bonus alone, with no additional penalty to enemy hit rolls. Older 10th-edition guides overstate this. What it does buy you is a consistent save improvement across the whole army for free, which is worth roughly a full point of save against most shooting and stacks with terrain positioning.

The detachment also has a named-character clause, Unparalleled Tactician: while an Aethon Shaan model is on the battlefield, you can use the Into Darkness stratagem once per battle round for 0 CP.

All six cost 1 CP:

• Stunning Fusillade (Shooting) — an Infantry unit improves its Ballistic Skill and AP by 1 against targets more than 12" away, and destroying models forces a Battle-shock test. This is the detachment's main damage stratagem, and note it rewards exactly the range band where your own cover rule is protecting you.
• Into Darkness (end of opponent's Fight) — remove up to two Phobos or Scout Squad units, or one other Infantry unit, into Strategic Reserves. Your disengage-and-redeploy button, and free once per round with Aethon Shaan on the table.
• Raptorial Vigilance (opponent's Movement) — a unit within 8" of an enemy that just moved makes a Normal move of D6", or a flat 6" for Phobos and Scout Squads. Dodges a charge or slides onto a marker.
• Feint and Thrust (Movement) — a unit that Fell Back can still shoot and charge, and Phobos or Scout Squads can do so after Advancing too. Turns a pinned unit back into a threat.
• Lay Low the Tyrants (Fight) — melee weapons gain Precision, sniping an attached enemy character out of its bodyguard.
• Armour of Contempt (defensive) — worsen incoming AP by 1, which is meaningful stacked on top of an army-wide cover save.

• Blackwing Shroud (25 pts, Infantry) — the bearer's unit gains Infiltrators, deploying up the board more than 9" from the enemy. The strongest board-control pick: it wins you the midfield before turn one.
• Coronal Susurrant (30 pts, Phobos) — increases the CP cost of the opponent's stratagems targeting units within 12" by 1. Expensive, but a real tax on a stratagem-heavy opponent, and it works passively wherever the bearer stands.
• Umbral Raptor (15 pts) — Stealth and Lone Operative for the bearer. Cheap, and it makes a lone character close to untargetable outside 12".
• Hunter's Instincts (25 pts) — treat the battle round as one higher for setting the bearer's unit up from Strategic Reserves. The natural partner to Into Darkness: leave the board, come back a turn sooner.

• Infiltrators — deny enemy Deep Strike in a bubble and screen your backfield; they hold the midfield comfortably under the cover rule.
• Eliminators — long-range snipers who benefit from the cover bubble and are the best target for Stunning Fusillade.
• Incursors — Phobos objective-holders with scanner utility, and eligible for the two-unit version of Into Darkness.
• Reivers — aggressive infiltrating harassers for early pressure.
• Scout Squad — cheap Scout-keyword scorers that get the enhanced versions of Raptorial Vigilance and Feint and Thrust.
• Aethon Shaan — the named character who makes Into Darkness free once per battle round, which is a genuine tempo engine rather than a flavour bonus.
• A Phobos character — the only legal carrier for Coronal Susurrant, and a natural home for Umbral Raptor.

Take Shadowmark Talon when you play Raven Guard and want a board-control army that is hard to shoot and hard to pin down. The honest comparison is with Vanguard Spearhead, which is also 2 DP and has the same core cover rule available to every Chapter.

What Shadowmark Talon adds is mobility and repositioning. Vanguard's suite leans defensive and sniper-flavoured; Shadowmark Talon gives you Feint and Thrust for Falling Back and still acting, Raptorial Vigilance for a reactive move, Into Darkness for a mass disengage, and Hunter's Instincts to come back early — plus Aethon Shaan making the disengage free once a round. It is the more restless version of the same idea, and it is chapter-locked in exchange.

At 2 DP it leaves 1 DP spare at 2,000 points; Subversion Assets is a natural partner, since both play the covert scoring game.

Sample gameplan: infiltrate a screen with Blackwing Shroud to seize the midfield and deny reserves turn one. Sit units where anything shooting from over 12" away gives you the Benefit of Cover, and snipe priority targets with Eliminators plus Stunning Fusillade. When the opponent finally commits into you, spend Raptorial Vigilance to dodge, or pull the unit out entirely with Into Darkness and bring it back early with Hunter's Instincts. Win on primary and secondary scoring, not on wiping the table.