White Scars Homebrewed Legion Tactics

[Hesh Kadesh]

Legiones Astartes (White Scars)

 

- Legiones Astartes; Units with this special rule may always attempt to regroup regardless of casualties.

- Parthinian Wheel; Whenever they make a charge, White Scars characters with the Bike or Jetbike unit type gain the Hit & Run special rule until the start of the following movement phase. In addition, Power Lances are now also an option for any model with access to Power Weapons (either as an option, or coming equipped with one normally). Apothecaries may also take a Power Spear instead of a Power Sword for the same price. Note that if a model states that it may only be equipped with a particular type of Power Weapon (Power Axe, for example), then they may only be equipped with that particular power weapon.

- Riders On The Storm; All Consuls may take Bikes or Jetbikes at their listed cost (with the exception of Moritat Consuls), as may Apothecaries (for the same cost as for a Centurion). In addition, White Scar Apothecaries may be assigned to White Scars Outrider, or White Scars Skyhunter Jetbike Squadrons. However, an Apothecary must be of the same unit type to which they are attached.

- Stormseers; Unless there is another HQ choice eligible to be a Warlord, White Scars Librarians lose the Legion Support Officer rule.

- Love of Freedom; Unless joined by an Independent Character (or is an Independent Character) or has a Vexilla, all successful tests by White Scars to regroup must be rerolled.

 

Wargear options;

 

Personal Steeds; White Scars Legion Veteran Tactical Squads eligible to take a Rhino as a Dedicated Transport may elect to instead to ride a Space Marine bike with Twin-linked Bolters for +100pts, or a Scimitar Pattern Jetbike with Heavy Bolter for +150pts. if they choose to do so, then no model may take any weapon upgrade with a Suspensor Web. In addition, the following Veteran Tactic is added; Skilled Rider

Overcharged Engines; Any White Scars (or Blood Angels) vehicle that is not a Walker, Heavy or Super Heavy vehicle may take this upgrade for +5pts for each point of Armour Value on their Front Armour than 10. If in a squadron, all models in the squadron must take this upgrade. Models with this upgrade gain the Outflank special rule (if any models being transported into battle by a vehicle with the outflank special rule have "Acute Senses", then this applies to the vehicle too). In addition, once per game at the start of their movement phase, unless they are a Flyer or already have the Fast special rule, they may elect to become Fast until the end of their turn. If in a squadron, all vehicles in the squadron must elect to do so. Immediately, roll a d6 for each vehicle gaining the Fast rule in this manner. On a 1+, something has gone wrong, and the vehicle takes a single glancing hit (no cover saves allowed). On a 2+, everything is fine. 

Sojutsu Pattern Jetbikes; These jetbikes are especially designed to operate in the void of space and consequently are better equipped at taking on fast moving enemies once they've got to an adequate height, but are otherwise similar to Scimitar Pattern Jetbikes. This option is available to any model with a Scimitar Pattern Jetbike for +5pts. If all models within the unit are equipped with a Sojutsu Pattern Jetbike, then on any turn following one in which they've turbo-boosted, by elect to gain the Skyfire special rule for the weapon mounted on their Jetbike.

 

Special Units;

The Keshig; Terminator Armoured Chosen (can issue/accept challenges), up to 10 in size. Power Weapons, Twin-linked Bolters, Hit & Run, can elect to remove one model from the squad if the Initiative test for H&R is failed to automatically pass it and roll 2d6+6" instead. Champion can take a Paragon Weapon, 1 in 5 can take a Graviton Gun as a Heavy Weapon option. Otherwise, usual Terminator Weapon options, Haywire Grenade Harness

 

Special Characters;

 

Jubal Khan; Praetor Statline, WS7, I6, A5. Equipped with a Two-Handed Master-crafted Paragon Blade, and Refractor Shield providing +1S on the charge. Must always issue and accept challenge, can subtract attacks and add same value to his Invulnerable. Option for a bike or Jetbike. If killed in challenge, provides all friendly White Scars with the Stubborn special rule for the rest of the battle.

 

Special Rules; Always Warlord. 12" Hit and Run bubble. Enemy unit consolidating after he successfuly hit & Runs only roll d3" rather than d6".

 

The Khan; Curze statline (I8), Blade of the Silver Steppe (a shotel/falx/Rhompaia type); +2 Strength, AP2, Lance, Murderous Strike, Decapitation (wounds caused by this weapon may never be regained by It Will Not Die). Comes equipped with a Haywire Grenade as well as Frag and Krak.

 

Death by a Thousand Cuts; Must always issue and accept challenges. When in a challenge, his melee attacks gain the Blind, Concussive and Shred Special rules

 

Wide Ranger; Having been at the forefront of the Great Crusade, ever pushing back the fringes, the Khan has seen more unnatural horrors than any in his life. He has the Monster Hunter special rule.

 

Sire of the White Scars; Has the Split Fire special rule. Any vehicle with the Overcharged Engines, or unit entirely composed of models with the Bike or Jetbike unit type has the Scout special rule (and if they already have it, move twice the normal distance for their type). When making Hit & Run moves, there is no need to move the maximum distance.

 

Masterful Outflanker; If kept in reserve, he and his unit can automatically choose which turn (including Turn 1, if they so wish) to come on and on which table edge. All Legiones Astartes (White Scars) with the outflank special rule use a modified table - on a 1-4, they may choose which table edge (left or right) to come in from, while on a 5+, they may come in from any table edge they wish. In addition, while the Khan is on the battlefield, he may choose to reroll all reserves rolls made for all friendly outflanking units.

 

Fight to the Last - all Legiones Astartes (White Scars) units with one or more models within 12" of the Khan loses the "Love of Freedom" special rule.

 

Rite of War;

 

The Corralling of Nightmares;

Effects

- Lightning Encirclement; At the beginning of the controlling players first turn, they may choose up to half of their outflanking units to make an Encirclement. These units arrive on the player's first player turn. The arrival of the remaining Outflanking units in the players force are rolled for as usual for the mission.

- All models with the Legiones Astartes (White Scars) rule gain the Hit & Run special rule.

- Cut the Lines; Successful Enemy reserves must be rerolled.

Limitations;

- No allies or fortifications

- Live to Fight Another Day; If a unit fails two consecutive Regroup tests, (rerolling failed tests only counts as one), then that unit is removed from play.

 

Opinions?

[depthcharge12]

I'd remove the death by a thousand cuts special rule. Seems a bit OP especially with no extra points cost over Curze. And isn't death by a thousand cuts one of the Lion's tactics? :P

[helterskelter]

The termies having hit and run. That's about it from me. I don't think anyone equipped in terminator armour is that fast they can tactically withdraw in that fashion. I do expect Jaghatai to be very similar to Curze so i like that

[Slips]

Honestly, I like it a lot. However, as I'm about to hit the road now, I can't give a detailed response :x

[Emperor's Furor]

I figured he'd be more like Corax and have different fighting styles.

[Sevatar]

I love it. I see the Death rule to a nice rule of the Khan's, fitting his duel with Mort. It also reflects his rule as being one of the top tier Primarchs.

[depthcharge12]

I guess to clarify my earlier statement, I'd replace the death by a thousand cuts rules with the decapitation rule. Kind of ridiculous in my mind if all his close combat attacks gain blind (doesn't make to much sense, but only one test is rolled), concussive (he's not hitting hard and pounding into the ground like Ferrus/Vulkan/Perturabo, and the least fluffy), shred, lance, and not allowing saves of it will not die.

 

That's 5 rules with one of them being unique and incredibly powerful without even a points buff.

 

I'd say his sword and skill should be high initiative (as you've stated at I8), two handed sword at +2 S OR +1 Initiative with shred, rending, the decapitation rule.

 

 

Additionally, no option to give him a bike/jetbike?!?! What heresy is this? :P

[Hesh Kadesh]

I'd not really considered points costs - but he shouldn't be too much more on foot than Curze - no brilliant ranged weapon, and no Jump Pack yet (was thinking of giving him a Bike/Jetbike equipped with a small void shield projector as per the Relic in Book IV, and equipped with a Graviton Cannon or a Quad Heavy Bolter). His Hit & Run is always on, rather than Charge only, but that's pretty much a given considering the nature of the White Scars. His reduced WS rule works on the first turn, and a combination of a Librarian with Terrify and Trophies of Judgement, combined with Widowmakers killing the enemy Sergeant means he's causing fear tests at -6 of what they should be, while providing a Stealth+Shroud buff for a 4+ cover save for him an his unit means he's more of a combat unit buffer. His Hammer of Wrath isn't exactly as good as Corax' but then again, neither's the Khan.

The Khan instead provides more army wide buffs (Scout for fast moving units/Super Scout for Outriders, or Super Outflank should they choose to do so, while removing the penalty of the Legion for those within 12"), but less individual unit buffs.

 

In regards to the Terminators having Hit & Run - well, I'd already given it to the characters on the charge. Considering that Hit & Run would be easy to give to the unit in terms of attaching a character to ANY unit not in Terminator Armour (which doesn't make sense), I figured I might as well just give the Legion elite terminators the flat H&R special rule, with the option to sacrifice one member to automatically pass the test if they fail, and instead gain +2.5" average flee distance. It's more fluffy (I had an image of "Fly, you fools!" in my head when I wrote that) than likely to come about, but it's there if needed. Incidentally, I chose Graviton, because I pictured these guys getting into battle, and then shooting everywhere causing pockets of anti-gravity or super-gravity crushing everything causing maximum disruption and slowing the enemy as the faster jetbikes etc swarm everywhere.

 

The Khan in combat - well, like said, the rules don't really hit that hard - Blind causing only a single test against I5 minimum Primarch's isn't a given, and I8 makes only Fulgrim susceptible to further attacks by the Khan - it's at that point that the Khan is intended to Hit & Run, before charging back in - possibly joined by other hard hitters like Terminators wanting to make a dent - especially if said target is Blinded. With S8, he's wounding on 2's. Have you see the size of his sword? With S8, Murderous Strike is really lost unless he's facing AdMech or Daemons or other 40K foes not planned for to be played in 30K, and with only 6 attacks on the charge, not exactly a given. S8 because that can quite literally cut straight enemies in two. It would have to take something extraordinarily tough to survive that. His other major problem is that he's forced to challenge. While most enemy Praetors are of no concern to him, against some tooled characters very hard to kill. The Shred - well, with S8 Shred isn't the most useful. Against T7 opponents like Mortarion, he gets a better chance of wounding, but that's to represent his thousands of strikes - hitting in a short space of time. I didn't want to give him something daft like double attacks due to the way challenges work, where by challenging, he can actually kill more people not in a challenge, so Shred seemed the simplest way.

 

His biggest strength is the Decapitation rule - yes. And it's that which allows him to take on some of the tougher Primarchs. While they're going around with their 2+/3++'s and unaffected by Blind/Concussive, the Khan's preventing their healing process. So, for the purposes of the challenge against the Primarch, he has a slightly higher chance to wound than his Strength suggests, and why it's death by a thousand cuts. No sense in causing a thousand cuts if they all heal up. 

 

If he's not able to hit & run, he can't gain the much needed extra attack, or allow the rest of the White Scars to attack the weakened target - which I find an awesome image similar to watching wolves hunt down musk ox or something, where one tires it out, before the rest jump in to attack. Sure, the Khan can stay in combat, but Cycle charging with his allied units work best. And - as only he and his bodyguard have true Hit & Run, they can stay in combat, while the rest of his units use Parthinian charge to get out without facing another phase of CC attacks.

 

@WoT, I'd considered the different fighting styles, but struggled to really come up with another way of doing Fighting styles that simply wasn't Corax mk2 - and hence either Corax+plus, or Corax-minus. Death Strike to take on vehicles, +D3 attacks, -1 to hit? I suppose I could do something like "attack type 1; lance, attack type 2; decapitation, attack type 3; death by a thousand cuts", but really, there's functionally no real difference between what it is now - attack type 1 only used to attack vehicles, attack type 2 when shred, blind and concussive aren't useful, and attack type 3 when they are. It's like giving a fake choice.

 

Of course, he's completely wiped the floor with by Horus - the Serpents Scales removing ANY benefits from Death by a Thousand Cuts with a 3+ save, with only the Decapitation of any use - forcing him to stay in combat, where each wound suffered from the Talon makes me easier to hit and it harder for me to kill him, until such time as I can Hit & Run and console myself with ripping through any surviving Legion troops. 

 

In regards to other Primarchs, he's good against people like Angron, if he survives the first turn - not only does Angron lose the Charge bonus, but leaves him open to anyone brave enough to risk his Concussive and potentially blinded T6 self to put some Power Swords in him. Against Fulgrim, although he's less damaging, that 2+/3++ is tough - Fulgrim loses his bonus attacks - whereas he could get even up to 9 attacks against an enemy (and that's before he targets something concussive - and now you know why Ferrus and he were so good friends - FM challenges, hits to I1, Fulgrim Glorious Interventions and then gets +7 attacks) Primarch on the charge Primarch - against the Khan he has only 6 at the most, and that's if he's charging.

[Raktra]

Dorn's blade is huge and that's not got as many murdering rules as Khan's has here. I'd drop Lance and put Decapitation Strike as his challenge benefit instead of Shred and Concussive. Keep Blind though. Beyond that, seems canny.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Rampage, ability to gain ID and +2 Strength in return for 1/2 attacks, +d3 to combat res, and 2+/4++ cannot be wounded on better than a 3+... Cheap access to one of the toughest SHV's in the game, ability to bypass Rite of War requisites, and free improved cover save... as well as costing a good 70pts less than what I intended - not to mention those rules doing much less than what you imagine they actually do.

[Raktra]

I'm talking about one weapon/trick, not the entire thing. And Rampage is pretty moot when the Khan will, except on a 5/6 on a Rampage bonus roll, always have equal or more attacks at an almost persistently higher S, with re-rolls in challenges, etc. etc... I get that he's supposed to be a good duellist, but I doubt even Sanguinius will get this much close-quarters trickery from FW.

[ThatOneMarshal]

Small tidbit but I don't think that blood angels should have acces to overcharged engines because that want something that was invented until tych during the 2nd war for Armageddon. Other than that I like the rules.

 

Also I saw riders on the storm and then the song riders of the storm by the doors started to play in my head.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Why should I mot talk about what else Dorm brings as the entire package? His buffs aren't exactly as powerful as Dorns, (outflanking behind enemy isn't all that huge, him coming on at choice means he isn't in combat, and scout plus split fire?

 

Compared to effectivley +0.5 cover saves, preferred enemy, +2 combat res, all outflank, ignore 300pt unit tax, night fighting, stealth and shroud for a 3+ cover save and -1 to fear tests...

 

The Khan is a powerful Duellist but wasn't considered for Warmaster. Concussive is a regular enough rule among the Primarchs and irrelevant enough with I8 that it is not a problem. Shred is better than have a million bonus attacks to replicate more chance of getting wounding hits, and Blind is another way to suggest tough foes getting exhausted, but statistically only having a small chance of firing.

 

You are seriously overestimating how powerful these rules are I think.

 

The Khan (with 5 attacks unless charging) will be up against 5-7 unwieldly (concussive does nothing) attacks (up to 8 if charging), hitting with S6 ap2, or 3-4 s8 ap2 attacks. In return, 5 attacks, hitting on ?3? Wounding on 3 with reroll, saving on 4's and no IWND and causing blind (i5, remember).

 

Then again, I could be boring and just give it X attacks, less than Angron/Sanguinius, but more than X primarch? No thanks.

 

Edit; Jim morrisoon was awesome. 'if ya give this man a ride sweet family will die/theres a killer on the raod'. Awesome song. If anything I can thank Snoop Dogg for, it was as a 13 year old kiddy introducing me to the doors. Just not much else.

 

Thanks for the tidbit on the OC'd engines. I can take that bit out.

[simison]

The amount of Legion buffs is fine because of the narrow focus. I'm fine with the wargear, except the Overcharged Engines. I understand that it's a reflection of what they used to be, but I much prefer the simpler engines of current 40k, where the vehicle simply costs more for being 'Fast'. The rule is a bit bloated as it stands right now. 

 

I don't like the Keshig. My gut reaction is that the White Scars would be one of the few legions without specialized terminators. It's just not the right speed for them, but I won't press the point past that. Following on that is the Hit & Run, which the speed feels wrong. Quick question: which pattern of terminators are they? Cataphractii or Tartaros? It might be a good idea to ban the Cataphractii armor from the White Scars as a Legion tactic for a boost on one of their benefits. Also, haywire grenade harness? It's not standard gear and you didn't list it as an unique wargear, and it doesn't fit the terminator theme in 30k. Best to get rid of it.

 

Is Jubal Khan a name or a title? Because there's already a 40k Jubal Khan and I'm not sure if that is his name or his title either (though I'm leaning toward Jubal as his name). If it is a name, you really should change it to something else to avoid confusion and since it'd be unreasonable for them to be the same person. (Not even the long-lived Blood Angels have a marine who's lasted since the Great Crusade, Sanguinor excluded due to warp-y things.)

 

On the Khan himself, I hesistantly disagree that his sword should be +2 Str. The Paragon Blade is only +1 Str (unless I'm wrong, at which, ignore this entire point), and GW/FW have made it clear that, barring tech/magic, the most a sword can accomplish is +1 Str. To get more strength, you need a different kind of weapon. Why does this sword have the 'Lance' rule?

 

Again with the Haywire. I know that the Dark Eldar will eventually nab the Khan, but is there an Eldar-WS connection I'm missing? Granted, it wouldn't be the first time a primarch has used xeno grenades (Fulgrim with his plasma grenades), but if you're going that route, I think the Haywire should replace the Krak grenades. Seems frivolous otherwise.

 

I am also against Concussive. I understand your point on how it is limited value to a high-Initiative, but concussive is tied with high-power attacks (either through style or weapon capability) and that is not the Khan's focus. I'm not sure about Blind either, but I'm willing to let that slide since Fulgrim pulls that off with his dazzling technique.

 

If he doesn't have a ranged weapon, why give him Split Fire?

 

I'm going to leave the Rites of War for later. Now, despite all of my criticisms, I am intrigued by your work here and am a fan of the White Scars (who seem doomed to never get enough screen time), so please don't take any of this personal.

[Hesh Kadesh]

Don't worry, it's not personal, I know that :)

 

In regards to Haywire, I guess that's my personal preference following through, I do like Haywire (Necrons being my first 40k army back in 3rd), and automatic damage like Haywire (and what Rending used to be) is possibly my favourite rule.

 

The specialist Terminators I kept; in Scars, the Keshig were the Khans' elite guard, the Justaerin or Firedrake equivalent. The Rite of War I can ban Slow and Purposeful etc like the Maru Skara. I didn't define the Terminator Armour as I didn't have Scars to hand to check.

 

In regards to Jubal Khan, he's mentioned as being one of the hardest - being considered a match for Sigismund in Templar audio and Alajos (who considers himself top 20 in the legions alongside Corswain, Sigismund amd Sevatar) in Savage Weapons.

[simison]

It is an effective grenade, and I considered giving them to my missing primarch. 

 

I need to re-read Scars again (which nearly got me to switch from Blood Angels to White Scars; they need the love)

 

Ah, gotcha. I've never read Savage Weapons.

[Slips]

Instead of Hit and Run for the Terminators, maybe fleet? They are CC oriented, right? so a little insurance for getting them into combat would be decent I feel.

[Sevatar]

Eh. I think H/R is fine. Fleet is not a useful rule - 5th ed Flert was far better, being able to Run and Assaylt would br a better alternative imo.