I’ve been reading the new novel Ravenwing, and while I’m not finished yet, the first battle introduces several new units we haven’t seen before. I would not be surprised at all if these were cribbed from the new codex in some way.

First, we have the Vengeance-pattern Land Speeder. They’re described, “Vengeance-class speeders spewed a torrent of plasma fire at the smoke-shrouded walls while rockets slammed into the ferrocrete barrier from the Tornadoes.”

Then we have the Darkshrouds. They’re described:
“Modified from the standard Land Speeder chassis, each anti-grav vehicle carried a pitted, ancient statue from the Chapter’s fortress-monastery. The solemn hooded figures glowed with power, coils of cable sending nascent warp energy through arcane generators that threw out an all-concealing blanket of darkness. As they joined the attack, the shadow of the Darkshrouds enveloped the dropsite, obscuring the Thunderhawks as they touched down on plumes of plasma.”

Also described are Dark Talon and Nephilim fighters. They don’t have any physical descriptions, but the Dark Talons have Hurricane bolters and the Nephilims have Avenger bolt cannons and “Blacksword missiles”.

Finally, we have the Black Knights, which appear to be the elite of the Ravenwing and “Sammael’s chosen warriors”. The book says they have “hammers with beaked heads” (it later explicitly describes them as shaped like raven heads), and they ride bikes with in-built plasma weapons. The unit leaders appear to hold the title of “Huntmaster”. They also know more about the history of the Dark Angels and the Fallen than the rank and file Ravenwing, having been “inculcated in all seven Rites of the Raven, possessors of knowledge above their brethren, though not yet made aware of the Fourth Level of Initiation.”

On Deathwing Terminators (Elite):
A little more expensive (not much) than your average Astartes version but you get Deathwing Assault, Splitfire USR, Inner Circle and Vengeful Strike special rules thrown in to the bargain. You can pretty much customize the squad anyway you like. They start out as a standard tactical squad but you can upgrade any number of them to assault terminators with either a pair of lightning claws (free) or the omnipresent thunderhammer and storm shield combo (you must pay for that privilege). For every 5 models (you can have a max of 10) you get the option of a heavy flamer, plasma cannon, assault cannon or cyclone missile launcher (no flakk option). You can also have the usual dedicated Land Raider but if you do, then you must pay for the Deathwing Vehicle upgrade which is mandatory.

If there is an option to make them a troop choice, it resides within the character section.

On Deathwing Knights (Elite):
Again a little more expensive than normal Deathwing Terminators (still not much). They have +1 WS, Maces of Absolution and Storm Shields as standard except the Knights Master. He has the Flail of the Unforgiven instead of the mace, and as far as I can make out, also +1 attack (don’t quote me on that one). They also have a king’s ransom of special rules: Deathwing Assualt, Hammer of Wrath, Inner Circle, Fortress of Shields and You Cannot Hide. The last two were a little hard to make out, so I’m 100% sure on those. The Smite rule is not mentioned by name but I think it is part of the weapon special rules. They can also be given a ‘… Relic of the Unforgiven’ (the ‘…’ part I cannot decipher) and a Land Raider which must have the Deathwing vehicle upgrade as well.

On Dreadnoughts (Elite):
Now cheaper! Same price as the Chaos Helbrute but with a free Storm Bolter! Same options as the Astartes version – including the Rifleman option but the Dreadnought close combat weapon has been replaced with a powerfist. The Venerable Dreadnought is now an upgrade. I don’t have my books but I think it is a lot cheaper than before (still hard to make out, but it looks like the price of a powerfist). The Venerable also get the Deathwing Vehicle rule as standard it seems. No mention of Mortis options.

On Landspeeders:
Their Bestiary page is also in the WD. The Vengeance version has a heavy bolter and a Plasma Storm battery as standard. Otherwise it is you standard Land Speeder. The Ravenwing Darkshroud version is a Land Speeder with a heavy bolter and it has the Scout USR apparantly. It also has (or has the option for) the ‘Icon of Old Caliban’ which gives +1 to friendly units within 12″ when determining assualt results (not cumulative). The Darkshroud special rule gives the Land Speeder the Shrouded USR and friendly units within 6″ gain the Stealth USR (not cumulative, does not affect the Darkshroud itself).

The codex is mentioned as being 104 pages long.