http://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/383341Yeah I was thinking about that game too. GF is one of the few people using ravens well these days (that I've seen, not that I've been paying attention).
I see it as a powerful reactive play, and solid proactive play. Ravens cost 300, and the fac costs 600. Three ravens will typically give you the burst range to take out an over-extended com, or whatever else you're thinking of sniping.
Unless your opponent goes hard into anti-air preemptively, ravens are just solid. Best case scenario you kill coms, fusion, or vital army components like aegis, stardust, and artillery. Worst case scenario you probably make cost by grinding the edges of their expansion killing off mex, solars, defenders etc. Your opponent then needs to make AA to control you which comes out of their budget too. A charitable estimate would have sufficient AA at 400 metal, so you need do only 1100 metal in damage to make cost, which will also give you a 600 metal discount on further aircraft, and a solid defensive option to back up your statics whenever you need it.
Wyvern and thunderbird are better units in the long run, but wyvern is in a very different weight category when these decisions are time sensitive, and thunderbird is a far more dependent on your army to clean up. As an 'opening' for your second factory, I think three ravens is very solid, especially when the gamestate doesn't look like it'll reward early thunderbirds.
Ravens are a lot better in 1v1 IMO, where you're not expecting an opposing player to have dedicated themselves to controlling the skies.
I don't think raven spam is very good however, as its simply out-scaled by other units from the same fac. So yeah, I think they're in a good place balance wise.
