Whilst the Ravenwing is frequently commanded by the Master of the Ravenwing from his powerfully augmented Land Speeder, this is not always the case. At various times in their long and glorious history, a Master whose preference was to fight from a Space Marine bike has commanded the Ravenwing.

These rules enable Ravenwing armies to field the Master on a bike, either representing an earlier Master or the current Master switching mount for tactical reasons. A bike has several advantages over a Land Speeder, notably the Master can command units far more directly and make his presence really felt in an assault.

Note that the Master of the Ravenwing, if mounted on a bike, is not a special character but a special variant of the Heroes entry in Codex Dark Angels.

N.B. The Master may be based on either the Grand Master or Master profile.

Options: The Master of the Ravenwing will always carry the Raven Sword, which is treated as a master-crafted power weapon, and he must be mounted on a Space Marine bike. The points costs above include these items and the revised Toughness is shown. Additional wargear can be chosen from the lists in Codex Space Marines and Codex Dark Angels, but no more than 50 points of additional wargear can be chosen.

Independent Character: Unless accompanied by a Command Squad, the Master of the Ravenwing is an independent character and follows the Independent Character special rules as given in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook,

Command Squad: The Master of the Ravenwing may be accompanied by a Ravenwing Bike squadron. See the special entry on page 7 of Codex Dark Angels for details.

Ravenwing: The Master of the Ravenwing may re-roll the dice if he fails a Difficult Terrain test and may 'jink'. 'Jinking' involves weaving the bike from side to side and allows the Master of the Ravenwing a 6+ Invulnerable save against any enemy shooting attacks as long as he moved in his previous Movement phase.

Note that, unlike all other Dark Angels heroes, the Master of the Ravenwing is not stubborn or intractable.

The Master of the Ravenwing's Land Speeder is unique, and was hand-crafted during the Horus Heresy using techniques that have long since been forgotten. A number of special rules apply to it, as described here.

Type: Fast, skimmer. Note that, as the crew of the Land Speeder are wearing power armour, the vehicle does not count as open-topped.

Crew: Grand Master and gunner.

Ravenwing: Special rules apply to all Ravenwing models. See the special rules at the start of the army list for details.

Special Character: The Master of the Ravenwing must be taken as an HQ unit for a Ravenwing army (see the notes on Ravenwing armies in the introduction and on taking a Master of the Ravenwing in the Dark Angels Heroes entry in the army list). He may also be used in a standard Dark Angels army as an HQ unit, but in this case he may only be used if both players have agreed to the use of special characters. Note that he has no separate profile, since he always uses his special Land Speeder.

The Raven Sword: The Master of the Ravenwing receives the Raven Sword as his badge of office. Grafted from the same meteorite as the Sword of Secrets, it allows the Master to make a special attack if he moves within 2" of an enemy model in the movement phase. He may make a single roll to hit as if he were making a close combat attack on the enemy model with a Weapon Skill of 5. The enemy may not strike back. If the attack hits it causes a S6 hit with no armour save allowed. The Master may only make one attack with the Raven Sword per turn. Attacking with this weapon does not stop the Land Speeder shooting in the shooting phase.

Shield of Night: Incorporated into the Master of the Ravenwing's Land Speeder is a device that produces a protective energy field around the vehicle, giving the Land Speeder a 4+ invulnerable save against any glancing or penetrating hits. This replaces the 6+ save Ravenwing vehicles normally receive for 'jinking'.

All-Seeing Eye: The Master's Land Speeder includes very sophisticated intelligence-gathering devices. When the Master is aboard, he is literally hooked into this device, giving him a huge array of data with which he can control and direct the operations of the Ravenwing units under his command. In battle, this allows him to maximise the fire of the Ravenwing units taking part, represented by allowing the Ravenwing player to re-roll all of the To Hit rolls for a single Ravenwing unit of his choice in each shooting phase, as long as the Master of the Ravenwing is on the table. Alternatively, in any mission using the Night Fighting rules the Ravenwing player may double the distance one unit may 'see'.

Weapons: The Master's Land Speeder is armed with a twin-linked heavy bolter, and a twin-linked assault cannon.