Scars in 10th: impressions / theorycraft / game reporting

[Dr. Clock]

Thought it appropriate to start something re: experiences and ideas for 10th for us. Played indexhammer vs Nids using 9th Ed points on Friday and it went very well (Opponent conceded turn 3).

 

List:

Captain (FnP Enhancement) w/ 10 Assault Intercessors

Chaplain w/ 10 Assault Intercessors

Lt (Bolter Discipine) w/ 5 Hellblasters

Judiciar w/ 5 Bladeguard

6 Intercessors

2x3 Inceptors (1 each kind)

2x3 Outriders

1x5 Reivers

1x3 Eradicators

2x1 Thunderstrike speeders

 

Everything worked pretty dang well! Individual T10+ melee Monsters are just not that frightening to thunderstrikes/eradicators, turns out. Turn 2 I put Oath on 2 Carnies to kill them in melee w/ Bladeguard, and smoked a Trygon with the thunderstrikes + Eradicator combo. Bladeguard + Judiciar are world-enders for sure; just gonna be walking them on to centre with Assault Intercessors both sides for most of the edition, I figure. Maybe just slightly behind a wall of Infernus bois.

 

Outriders are tuned way down. Bit frustrating, but I do like the option to go beyond 3 in a squad... I'll be satisfied with them as trading/blocking units while Intercessor mobs do the real heavy lifting though. Devastating shooting from mounted chaplain is a bold choice, but I really never did like the ATV for looks, and it's about a third more expensive than it needs to be to tempt me, unfortunately. Prolly never not take the 2x3, but that's enough alongside the Inceptors and speeders to equate to Scars (Successor) for me.

 

Inceptors are pretty decent; was a bit disappoint on dropping so many shots, but they seem nifty as long as they stay somewhat cheap. Sustained 2 is cool, and Dmg 3 plasma on anything Oathed is gonna do something.

 

Lt + hellblasters would probably work well on a 10-man, but I rolled 2x1s out of 4 the first time they fired so... yea.

 

Next army (assuming points are relatively stable?) I'm gonna bail on hellblasters for Infernus as soon as those are painted, but keeping the Lt for the Captain's unit. Free armour of contempt is clutch for Captain's unit, but adding the Lt should turn up their DPS pretty good.

 

Other thoughts:

 

Combat Doctrines all kinda scream White Scars to me just as much as Ultramarines. Movement shenanigans has always been a Scars staple, so I'm plenty happy to just play with the Gladius rules and abundant nifty characters. Honestly never thought I'd be this intrigued by a Primaris Lt. lol.

 

Old bikes look pretty interesting tbh; glad they kept their captain option even though this army is Primaris only for me (my OGmarine army is Salamanders).

 

Anyhow - interested to hear how first games with Scars go - For the Khan!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[brother_b]

Thank you for this post, I’ve built about 1000 points of white scars, slowly taking my time. I love the background even though I am a blood angels fan first and foremost. I found I didn’t want an army that was locked to what are called first born Marines. White scars were for me, and my army has been only primaris marines.
 

I hope you will continue to put your thoughts and what you’re learning down in this thread so Scars players can benefit from it as well.

[brother_b]

I’m picking up the leviathan space Marine half tomorrow. I feel all of the units are usable and will work fine with what I already have.
 

I must say, I love the miniature for Lyon EL Johnson. Sometimes I think I should’ve just rolled with either blood angels, which are my favorite, or dark angels, because they have so many awesome unique units.
 

Kosoro khan looks like a blender, and I’m actually glad that he’s not stuck on a bike, the whole bike trope for Mongolian white scars is a little overplayed. I much prefer having a mix of units.
 

That being said, an option to have him on a bike would be amazing. Or, have him start on the bike, and if it’s destroyed, he dismounts.

 

Either way I planned and add some more units to my army and look forward to doing so with the leviathan starter. Feels like regular marine armies pretty much generic until codex later anyway.

[Dr. Clock]

Yeah! Working on 5 Infernus for the Storm Lords now... So I'll have another game as soon as they're table ready. Sternguard will get the white and red after that.

 

Best part of my Storm Lords at this stage is getting to paint different helmets and rims on new squads to make things a bit more diverse. Went 5th Co. black through 8th and most of 9th, but as I got up above about half a battle company I'm starting to get into things like purple helmeted 7th Co. Assault Intercessor squad, 8th Co. grey bike squad and storm speeders, and now Infernus will get 9th Co. Blue and sternguard 1st Co. Steel.

 

Combi-Lt will also join my Reivers even though he won't see much play, and the Apothecary is likely to be fudged as Primaris version since I just have 3 Indomitus eradicators at present - I like the idea of 6 Eradicators and a Biologis tho at some point maybe.

 

Next list: 2000 on the nose

 

Captain - 10 Assault Intercessors

Chaplain - 10 Assault Intercessors

Primaris Lt - 10 Intercessors

Judiciar - 6 Bladeguard

1x3 Outriders

2x3 Inceptors

2x1 Thunderstrike

1x5 Infernus

1x3 Eradicators

1x5 Reivers

 

If you want a Primarch, just buy Jaghatai Khan from FW and use as Lion alongside a Ravenwing list?

 

Korsarro looks ok, but generic Captain in Assault Intercessors seems more flexible tbh. Lance is cool, but not a relevant for the long game as free strats, and Lance is already available in Honour the Chapter for 1CP. Re Khan or characters on bikes: I play codex-compliant 2nd Founding successor... bike theme is not as important to me as just general 'go fast' and Deep-strike vibes. Bikes are just overcosted rn unless you do the shooty Chaplain brick which I'm pretty meh about.

 

Terminators are going into my oldmarine Salamanders tho... With the 10 old style I've got I'll be able to run 15 with a character in each (OG metal terminator chaplain : ) ), or 25 when I mix in my Space Hulk termies painted Lamenters (post Badab bro-fest!). If I didn't have Salamanders I'd add them to SLords in a heartbeat though.

 

Ballistus is probably going to join Storm Lords as first 5th Co dreadnought, but there's an outside chance it also becomes Salamanders, whose classic boxnaught is gonna be showing his age next to embiggened termies. 

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

 

 

[Dr. Clock]

Just thought I'd share a WiP of the above-mentioned Infernus squad... Few more highlights, washes and details, but finally fully assembled anyhow.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Dr. Clock]

Thanks, all

 

Took a bit of a sidetrack through basing about 20 other things at the same time, but should get a game with these blokes in this week:

 

 

Yeah... 9th Co. Storm Lords is definitely a look!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Dr. Clock]

Got that game in: Storm Lords Victory!

 

Rematch vs enemy tyranids but with actual points this time (first game of 10th was 9th points lol)

 

Deployment: Assault Intercessors on flanks and Bladeguard on centre

 

 

Enemy Deployment - you can tell some of the enemy minis have been in a box for 15+ years, but they're on their way - hasn't seriously done 'Nids since about 5th edition methinks. Leviathan minis are SO PRETTY tho. Their plastic carnifex was a Hive tyrant and the ancient hive tyrants with old screamer bits were... 2 carnifexes. It's a work in progress ; )

 

 

Turn 1: Entered Assault Doctrine and Intercessors connected with genestealers on flanks, Bladeguard with gaunts/Screamers in centre, I zapped the Hive Tyrant for Assassinate turn 1, but Bladeguard and Screamer bounce off each other and I don't have assault weapons to sneak a Cleanse.

 

 

 

 

Turn 2: Bladeguard hold up fine but I go Tactical to fall back and keep shooting. Nuke the Screamer with a Thunderstrike and Trygon almost goes out to Eradicators and second Tstrike. Left flank (not pictured) Intercessors chill out while Inceptors clear out most of Leapers over there and firebase marines kill 3/5 genestealers.

 

Middle of my movement phase (falling back to charge / shoot)

 

 

Reivers show up!

 

 

Turn 3: Right flank Intercessors die to hormagaunts, carnifex and Broodlord. Trygon eats plasma inceptors. Middle carnifex eats 3 Infernus before getting Bladeguarded off. Right carnifex and Trygon then die to eradicators and thunderstrikes. Lt.'s Intercessors kill hormagaunts and bolter Inceptors kill off Tyranid warriors. Reivers charge in on gaunts, Outriders and Intercessors on left grab Engage on All Fronts with ease.

 

Final showdown (Avarga Khan was laid low this day, but the Storm Lords will yet have vengeance!)

 

 

Turn 4 enemy concedes: just has 20 gaunts in his back corner and a Broodlord on 2W on right objective.

 

Centre pic on turn 4 as the smoke clears:

 

 

All in all - I love this army! Just the right amount of bolters and chainswords, if I do say so...

 

Bladeguard continue their winning. 6 plus Judiciar and 5 Infernus is great up front. Character + 10 Marines for each other Objective is also pretty wide for marines, but Intercessors + Lt is actually good value, as is Chaplain and Captain on either side.

 

Outriders - 1 for scoring is good, but they're nothing more than a brick of fast wounds.

 

Double Inceptors continues to impress for scoring and damage. Basically do what indirect does, but with way more class.

 

Next game will probably wait until I have sternguard and Leviathan Lt. for lulz.

 

Have decided that Ballistus is going to be Salamanders after all to compliment the new termies there...

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Ginger Khan]

Hello Good Doctor - i stumbled across this thread while researching my Scars Successor chapter. My son and i are joining (painting) forces to build up an army of Astral Bears. I've been dabbling with Scars successor colour schemes on old minis and i love the storm lords and sons of jaghatai but we liked the idea of something new.

 

Having not played 40k for nearly 20 years i found this so useful! We're probably not going for a fully competitive list, but something thamtically cool that is legal in 10th - possibly more tank focused given the bear theme, or attack bike / ATV vs outriders. However, there are just so many different types of marine now - not just tac, assault and devastators. We already have a land raider, lieut and captain - we will prob go:

 

close quarters termies (the claws look epic for the bears!)

hellblasters for power hitting, or infernus (or is there room for both?)

maybe put some of these in an impulsor

intercessor assault marines (jump packs aren't themtically consistent)

maybe some aggressors (for the chunky ber like theme). i don't like the centurion (?) armour - the models leave me uninspired and i like the painting part more than gaming

 

Would that seem like a good start? I will miss the idea of landspeeders, but may end up going for some form of fliers.

 

Love the look of your storm lords btw - will post some pics of what i've been painting, but haven't done the chapter emblems / icons yet so maraudes look like they're IFs!!!

[Ginger Khan]

Couple of pictures of the paintwork I mentioned.

Need to tidy the base up on one of them. This is my storm lord. Sculpted the hair to get some practice using green stuff again. Am thinking of bear pelts next..... Well, my son wants me to try!

[Dr. Clock]

On 10/31/2023 at 7:35 AM, Ginger Khan said:

possibly more tank focused given the bear theme, or attack bike / ATV vs outriders.

Killer! My other marines are Salamanders - so that's where I get my treadhead fix ; )

 

On 10/31/2023 at 7:35 AM, Ginger Khan said:

close quarters termies (the claws look epic for the bears!)

Indeed! I'd wait a year on these as there were recent hints about least one other new terminator kit in the pipeline based on new scale. The new terminators are SO choice, I'd consider a squad of regular terminators before getting the old assaulties, all else being equal.

 

Terminators definitely are the most BEAR of marine infantry in general though IMO

 

On 10/31/2023 at 7:35 AM, Ginger Khan said:

hellblasters for power hitting, or infernus (or is there room for both?)

 

Infernus aren't quite 'power hitting' tbh, more likely a frontline skirmisher / Overwatch unit. Good crowd control, but won't likely scratch anything with a 2+ Sv or T6+ unless you... play Salamanders lol.

 

Hellblasters - yes. I have the 5 ETB ones from Dark Imperium, but if I were building an army from scratch I'd likely take 10 with a Fire Discipline Lt.

 

On 10/31/2023 at 7:35 AM, Ginger Khan said:

maybe put some of these in an impulsor

 

Could do... For Scars / lightning strike theme I'd suggest light assault elements in Impulsors if you go that way... good way to get Infernus out across the board, possibly with some Bladeguard? At the point of getting into lots of transports, I'd even be looking at Firestorm Assault detachment instead of Storm Lance, depending on whether you really want to go assault or shooting focused. The best marines lists do both IMO, but it's good to focus on one just a bit more than the other.

 

On 10/31/2023 at 7:35 AM, Ginger Khan said:

intercessor assault marines (jump packs aren't themtically consistent)

maybe some aggressors (for the chunky ber like theme). i don't like the centurion (?) armour - the models leave me uninspired and i like the painting part more than gaming

 

I love running 20 assault intercessors across the table... so no arguments here. I think jump packs are on brand for Scars / SLords, but seems like Bears may be more 'Heavy Assault' than 'Lightning Assault'?

 

I don't much like the aggressors or centurions personally, but I do like aggressors more than centurions. Aggressors are an 'almost' for me. If I did get some I'd likely just find a way to make them more like classic terminator weaponry with 'just the gun' on right side and punchy fist on left side instead of... gunfists.

 

I'll be getting my first game in with the Codex next week I believe, so I'll report back on that soon enough. List as of now is essentially:

 

Captain + Company Heroes (conversions from Sternguard on work table rn)

Chaplain + 10 Assault Intercessors

Lt + 10 Assault Intercessors

Judiciar + 6 Bladeguard

Phobos Lt + 10 Reivers (Am I wrong that the 6" normal move after shooting from LT allows a 3" charge out of Deepstrike? If not, swapped to Apothecary in Lt.'s Intercessors and Reivers go to 2x5 for flexibility / more charge chances. Whole point here is not to land on heavy hitters but to bum rush opponent's home objective... There's enough Lethal attacks there that 225 points seems pretty efficient for such a reliable backfield charge with Ld shenanigans on top.)

 

5 Intercessors

3 Eradicators

2x3 Inceptors

1x5 Infernus

1x3 Outriders

2x Thunderstrike

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Ginger Khan]

Thank you Doctor. Super helpful. Sounds like I'd need to kitbash some bear mounted marines to make the best of storm lance. Gladius or firestorm for now then, with focus on some heavy fire and some hard hitting assault, maybe lighter assault as you say for speed across the board.

 

Look forward to hearing how it goes with the new codex. Roll well!

[Dr. Clock]

On 11/4/2023 at 6:50 AM, Ginger Khan said:

bear mounted marines to make the best of storm lance

I mean... yea! Go for it!

 

That said, advance and charge does crazy good work for most any assault-leaning list IMO... While of course it's good for conventionally fast units, it's arguably even better on units that would otherwise not be expected to go so fast - like terminators - and I do like the idea of Space Bears having some surprising sprinting speeds lol.

 

Further, it might seem like transports are a bit redundant on units that are advancing every turn anyway, but the 3" disembark contributes quite a bit to charge ranges on the 'go turn', while the transports can also charge just to be annoying and move blocking opponents who otherwise will be trying to kill the unit that you just jumped out with. It's harder to use transports as Overwatch bait now then it was in 9th, but 'locking and blocking' with transports is still a legitimate tactic for cheap transports like impulsors/rhinos. I do this ALL THE TIME as an annoying aeldari/drukhari player...

 

I'll probably go back to 2 units of Outriders in that list since we're going back to our old 'Crusade Lite' model of '2000 pt lists + [1 Crusade PoV Character worth up to 100 points]', which does leave me room for the 2nd Outriders since my Judiciar becomes 'free'. TBH my CP budget will just be prioritizing Ride Hard, Ride Fast on my stormspeeders, then Armour of Contempt of course, and then Wind Swift Evasion for jank objective plays... so Outriders will still just be kinda cheap action monkeys with no stratagem support for the most part. I have never used more than 3 army-specific strats per game tho tbh... and then maybe up to 3/4 of the Core strats... There's just not that much CP in the game anymore that I think I'm going to miss the strats that don't work on the Infantry.

 

Giving Assault to any infantry units from Blitzing Fusilade is also a pretty significant benefit to the scoring game! Last outing a lack of Assault in frontline cost me some early points but being able to advance and still do actions in turn 1 makes Cleanse and whatnot alot easier with just a single CP investment. So I'd expect to use that in at least half of games or more...?

 

Anyway - I'm firmly in the 'take any detachment you want any day', and Gladius / Firestorm are both excellent...

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

 

[Dr. Clock]

Welp - they're ready for basing and final clean-up:

 

Bladeguard 5: converted Leviathan sternguard who will go in unit with 3 Indomitus and Indomitus Lt Bladeguard - frees up the Indomitus shield Capt., who will return to full 5th Co. Captaincy with Company Champions.

 

 

 

 

Bladeguard 6: another sternguard conversion freeing up Bladeguard Ancient to actually be used as an Ancient in Company Champs rather than ... Bladeguard 6 as he'd become during Index phase:

 

 

1st Co. Marksman: joining 5th Company Honour Guard alongside aforementioned Bladeguard Ancient and the 'Co. Champion' pictured in the final duel of last game (he was Capt. for that game because my 9th Ed. Capt. was tied up as the 6th Bladeguard - had just been using a unit of 5 in 9th...)

 

 

1st Co. Gunnery Sgt. - making the 4th member of Honour Guard:

 

 

Will share more pics when I finish their basing and maybe do some clean-up, but I'm going back to Votann (Thunderers and hopefully a Battleforce this weekend is going to ruin my queue), Salamanders (Ballistus + LR Proteus) and Eldar (Autarch and some 3rd party Pisceans for Grotesques) for a while, so basically very little more for this army over the next 6 months I think...

 

For the Khan!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Ginger Khan]

Great work. Loving the conversions. Have fun with the other armies.

 

I just picked up (used and on sprues) 10 assault intercessors, a combi weapon lieut and a biologis apothecary from TT to go with with our repulsor, captain, lieut and judiciar. So taking shape. Am thinking my captain, the biologis and 6 aggressors in a landraider, while the lieut 10 assault marines and judiciar head up in the repulsor. With hellblasters coming and some infiltrators to screen we'll be at 1500pts soon and have a fairly coherent force. But obv lots of painting in the meantime!

 

Will share my old metal captain when he's done, for the colour scheme. Just the combi weapon and base to do and the new decals I've designed! Been fun getting back to it.

[Dr. Clock]

4 hours ago, Ginger Khan said:

captain, the biologis and 6 aggressors in a landraider

Careful with your transport sizes! Unless it's a Crusader, 6 aggressors + 2 characters won't fit... 2x3 with a character in each and just one unit chillin in LR should still be fine, especially at 1500 where a squad of 8 Gravis is a pretty stonkin deathstar before you even think about transporting it all together. Using 2x3 Aggressors, you might just throw one unit in each transport and leave the Assault Intercessors to sprint up behind one of those as a 'second wave'.

 

Otherwise - sounds perfectly good! I haven't run any blocks of 10 marines with full 2 characters in yet, but I kinda love that look.

 

Do share the Space Bears scheme when you get into that Capt. etc!

 

Also - game canceled for illness, so I'll report on that (hopefully) next week.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

 

 

[Dr. Clock]

Chalk another W for the Mehrig Khan!

 

Fought buddy's Crons, which were really not optimized, but it was great to see them for the first time this edition.

 

Here's his deployment on my L:

 

 

And Centre / Right:

 

 

Objectives were real normal: 5 points for each Primary. Scramblers were in effect, so no DS / Infiltrate / Scout on Objectives.

 

Turn 1: I go first and tag in all 3 midfield objectives with Outriders on each side with Assault Intercessors supporting for next turn. Infernus squad on centre, supported by Bladeguard. Storm speeders on right to mess w/ Doomstalker, and sneak 5 wounds on.

 

Centre Turn 1.

 

 

Turn 1 Right:

 

 

I lose Left Outrider to Skorpekhs, all the Infernus marines, 1.5 Bladeguard and 3 wounds on the flank speeder to combined enemy fire. Happily the Stalker and Doomstalker whiff.

 

Turn 2: GUN IT!

 

Inceptors drop in behind enemy objective, kill not enough warriors for it to matter. Speeders get Doomstalker down to 1 W (Cursed 4++!). Eradicators walk on and nuke Triarch stalker though, rolling box cars on 2 wounds. Right flank Intercessors take that objective now uncontested.

 

Right Outriders Charge a Warrior blob that was moving on centre. Not really an assault unit, but good harassment scoring from these this game!

 

Bladeguard charge dismounted Overlord/warriors, doing negligible damage (whiffed to-wound rolls). One more Bguard dies. I discover that there's basically no point in doing damage to Crons unless you kill entire units. I am not really built that way (or at least can't seem to roll well enough), so I get a little anxious with only 5 marines left on centre. with Nightbringer breathing down their neck.

 

Still: Reivers drop in, use Lt. movement to run behind Immortal screen to jump Doomstalker from behind, taking its last wound thanks to Lethal Hits. This turns out to be a key feature of the ease of this win: figuring out how/where to pile up damage in both phases to actually remove key assets.

 

 

Command Squad and Chaplain's Intercessors charge Skorpekhs, killing them all except Lord. Fancy bolter lad dies.

 

 

Enemy turn 2:

 

Shooting like an Outrider and a couple Reivers die in the back?

 

But from here it's mostly an assault game. Plasma Inceptors die to tomb spider, who is actually efficient in melee now apparently. Nightbringer charges and kills Outriders. Bladeguard continue to slap Necron warrior but they've now consolidated on to that objective and I'm losing one per turn without doing anything there.

 

Command barge charges Intercessors from behind on left flank. Thinking to go centre with them next turn if needs be, I Heroic the command squad into the Barge, and lose heavy bolter guy to it. Skorpekh Lord down to 1 wound and no damage to barge.

 

Turn 3:

 

Things are getting hairy! Reivers finally connect with enemy home Objective. Eradicators grab right objective so Intercessors can push centre. Command squad pulls out to go centre, leaving like 5 Intercessors and chaplain to grind with barge.

 

Everything shoots the Nightbringer. It's down to 6 wounds. Right Intercessors make their charge and kill it! Lethal hits + Oath of Moment just squeaks it down.

 

We go to opponent turn 3 with 49:10 score and he fails Ld on his home objective because Reivers, and he concedes.

 

The coup de grace:

 

 

All told, lots of learning on both sides. If I had pulled slightly worse secondaries it might have been closer, but I did 24 in first 3 turns thanks to Cleanse, Secure No Man's, Storm Enemy and Extend Battlelines all back to back (though with 2 redraws), and enemy had a tough time trying to Bring it Down and Assassinate plus just not being fast/nimble enough to pressure primary.

 

Anyhow probably another few months before these lads make it back on the table, but super chuffed that Outriders and Reivers were so useful this game even if they didn't kill much... Everything completed its mission more or less (even though for Infernus their mission is always to die first on the centre point lol).

 

We bring the Emperor's Storm!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Ginger Khan]

Great to see the win! And thanks for the advice again. My completed captain is below. Working on the assault intercessors with jump packs. And kitbashed an ancient for fun too. Aiming to start an escalation campaign with some local folk to get 500pt then 750 games etc all the way up to 2000pts. Good way for us to both learn the game and adapt what we buy / paint to have more fun!

[Dr. Clock]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:53 AM, Ginger Khan said:

My completed captain is below.

Love it! Black faceplate is particularly rad.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.