White Scars- New Codex Changes Review

I finally got my new Space Marine codex in hand last night and spent an hour or so admiring some of the art and miniatures and having a look over the new rules. I'm not going to review the entire codex, there will be plenty of people doing that in the coming weeks, but thought that I would take a look at some of the changes that will most directly affect my most recent army; the White Scars.

 

1. Mounted Assault

The new rules for mounted assault means that any bike-mounted independent character can turn your bike squads into troops. This is a change from the last codex where only a bike-mounted Chapter Master or Khan on Moondakken had the ability to do this. Want a White Scars army led by a bike-mounted Librarian bolstering his forces with arcane powers or a bike-mounted Chaplain inspiring his troops to victory (I just like the aesthetic of a Chaplain on a white bike, something about the contrast of black and white), well now you can! This now gives you access to a cheaper HQ unit if you want to cram even more bikes into your army.

The other big change is that the bike squads no longer have to be a minimum of 5, but can be the standard minimum three instead. Whether this will lead to three-man grav bombs (2 grav guns and combi-grav) running around the board is anyone's guess. I will probably stick to 5-man squads (or even extend them) as even though bikes are still fairly durable, you want a couple of extra bodies available for casualties before you start to lose your special weapons.

 

The ability of HQ units to make bikes troops has given me hope for the Ravenwing and Deathwing in the new Dark Angels codex, as many codices were losing the ability to change the unit type of certain squads (I'm looking at you, Orks!)

2. Kor'sarro Khan

Khan has not changed much in the new codex, the only difference is that he now has a better warlord trait. The old warlord trait suited his background (extra victory points if the enemy warlord was slain in a challenge), but was quite difficult to achieve against most combat-orientated warlords available. His new warlord trait gives a nice boost to the army in general as well as being able to retain the extra victory points for slaying the enemy warlord thanks to the master of the hunt rule (for those times that you come up against a guard commander in combat).

His army-wide Scout ability has been limited to prevent Scouting Landraiders, which is probably a good thing, and specifies Rhinos and Razorbacks. Under the old rules, it said any unit with a dedicated transport could Scout, it never said you had to be in the transport. I don't know if anyone ever played it this way, I was certainly never cheesy enough to try it.  

 

3. Chapter Tactics

The White Scars chapter tactics have had some improvement over the last codex (I'm not sure they needed any improvement, but it is always welcome). The biggest is that the restriction of Bulky and Very Bulky troops from Hit and Run has been removed. You know what that means, Hit and Run Centurions, Hit and Run Terminators, Hit and Run Dreadnoughts! Sick of your grav Centurions being tied down in combat with the enemy chaff? Now you can hit and run out of combat (at least two thirds of the time) and vent your fury on the enemy. Given that all hit and run occurs on 3D6, this potentially allows you to put a good distance between you and the enemy to prevent next turn assaults with most infantry (average roll of 10-11" on 3D6, followed by 6" move would make it difficult for most non-fleet infantry to catch you next turn).

In addition, they have gained the ability to re-roll run moves. This could come in handy in the game of objective grabbing, when a poor run move stops you from claiming the objective you need.

 

4. Detachments

Some of the new detachments look interesting and could see some use for White Scars depending on your play style. For me, the battle demi-company looks like it could be fun to try out. It would be great is there was an option for taking bike squads in place of the three compulsory tactical squads, but you can't have everything.

The Stormwing detachment could also be quite thematic for a White Scars army. I would probably use it in larger games though, as having over 400 pts tied up in reserves (not to mention the cost of units in the Stormraven) is a lot to have missing in 1500 pts.

 

5. Drop Pods

Did drop pods move to fast attack? I think I saw some chatter about this online (but I don't have the codex to hand at the moment).

If so, I can finally take terminators and Centurions in a White Scars army without feeling dirty inside, as they now have a fast way to get them into battle.

In addition, the general points decrease in some units has helped. My recent blog wars army now comes in at 55 pts cheaper under the new codex. Enough for another attack bike or some bikes to bolster my existing units.

So that's my initial thoughts on the new codex. I've got a game lined up on Thursday that I will use to try out some new units I haven't played in a while. I want to take some terminators for once and maybe give Dreadnoughts another go!

How has the codex changed your Chapter? Any big buffs or tactical shake-ups you want to give a go?