Something to be hopeful about - Ravenwing Command Squads

My last 9th ed army

Greetings, battle brothers! Like most of you, I'm disappointed by a lot of what we've been hearing about our new supplement, but I'd like to share something I'm guardedly optimistic about, and that's Ravenwing Command Squads. If the rumor/leak that we can attach Ravenwing Command Squads to other mounted units is accurate, that presents some intriguing possibilities. For starters, it grants a high speed wedge of plasma death. A Hellblaster Squad delivers 20 plasma shots. A standard Ravenwing Knight Squad delivers 18, but if a Command Squad is attached, that's boosted to a potential 27 plasma shots. That's more than one can expect from the Hellblasters even if Azrael is attached for Sustained Hits, at least on average math. That unit also makes a good target for any strats that might buff shooting - like Talon Strike for +1 to wound, to punch up against tougher targets. Hopefully there will also be interesting synergies to take advantage of with upgrades. If we can attach bike Chaplains to the units, we could potentially have 2 upgrades synergizing in one unit.
There's also the potential for a flying wedge of assault deathdealing. Assuming we can attach other characters to a combined mounted unit with a Command Squad, I'm a little excited about the idea of attaching a Command Squad and Sammael to a unit of Outriders. Outriders auto-advance 6", which combined with any effect that allows charging after Advancing (which Sammae currently confers), and you've got a squad with a potential 30" charge range - 32" if the Champion still confers +1" to Advance and Charge rolls. Sammael by himself is our second-most-lethal combat character, behind just The Lion in killyness. I was already at leaste a little bullish on the prospect of using Outriders to deliver him into a target. Add to that the Champion's master crafted power weapon attacks, plus a bunch of attacks from corvus hammers and Astartes chainswords, and you've got a unit nobody is going to be looking forward to eating a charge from. Plus, Outriders are 4 wounds each, so they can eat wounds and give good value for being brought back by an Apothecary. The unit's combined firepower wouldn't be anything to sneeze at either.

Toying around with the concept, I worked up a quick list on Battlescribe. Here's what I came up with:

Sammael
Bike Chaplain
Bike Chaplain
Command Squad
Command Squad
Command Squad
Outrider Squad (3 bikes)
Ravenwing Knights (6 bikes)
Ravenwing Knights (6 bikes)
Thunderstrike
Thunderstrike
Darkshroud
3 Inceptors
3 Inceptors
5 Scouts
5 Scouts

That leaves 20 points left over for an upgrade. As you can see, there are 2 plasma murder balls and a high speed shanking unit. I threw in a couple Thunderstrikes to buff the shooting from the plasma murder balls, and a Darkshroud to make them harder for opponents to pick up. The Inceptors and Scouts are there for the usual reasons. I'm not 100% happy with this. For one thing, it lacks a unit to leave on a home objective, unless I want to commit a Scout Squad to that. I might drop a Chaplain to afford a unit of Infiltrators or Heavy Intercessors and more upgrades, depending on what they are.

If these rules interactions turn out the way I'm envisioning, then we can potentially put these lists on the table fairly quickly. I'm sure most of us are sitting on large numbers of Firstborn Bikers we no longer have much use for. It wouldn't take very much work to upgrade them to Ravenwing Knights with bitz we get from eBay or print up. Bike Sergeants with power weapons can be used as Champions - maybe add helmet wings to really sell it. Giving Space Wolf Stormlances a run for their money might not be too much to hope for!