White Scars Codex Review: Part 2- Warlord Traits and Stormspeaking Discipline

Part 2 of my White Scars codex review looks at the new warlord traits and psychic powers available to the army. 

Warlord Traits

The codex supplement contains six new traits to help out your forces. 

Deadly Hunter- After your warlord finishes a charge move, select one enemy unit within 1". On a roll of a 2+, the unit suffers one mortal wound. 

Not the best trait available. The chance to do a mortal wound on an enemy units is a decent bonus, but there are better traits available to your warlord. 

Chogorian Storm- If your warlord makes a charge move or performs a heroic intervention, add D3 to their attacks until the end of the turn. 

One of my favourite traits for the White Scars. With Shock Assault, you will be getting D3+1 attacks on the charge. This really boosts the damage potential of your warlord, making them great with a number of weapons and relics that the army has access to. With the Teeth of Terra relic, you will be getting 8-10 attacks on the charge with a Captain. 

White Scars Codex Review: Part 1- Stratagems

The first part of my White Scars Codex supplement review will cover the new stratagems in the book. 

My own White Scars army has been sitting in the cupboard neglected for most of 8th edition, so I was hopeful the new rules will give them a new lease in life.

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Stratagems

The White Scars get two new pages of stratagems to add to their flavour and strategies in the game. 

Born in the Saddle (1CP)- A Biker unit that advances can still shoot. 

A solid stratagem for the army that was present in the last codex. There are a number of great stratagems that give bonuses to the unit if they advance, so this is great to keep their shooting power up. Given that White Scars can now advance and still charge, this is a great boost for the Biker units in the army. 

Butchered Quarry (1CP)- When an enemy unit falls back from a White Scars Infantry or Biker unit, each model can make one attack with a melee weapon if there are no other enemy units within 1". If the enemy unit is not destroyed, they can fall back. The White Scars unit can then move 3" as long as they move closer to the enemy unit and not within 1". 

Not one that I'll probably use a lot. Only a single attack each limits the utility of the stratagem, so it is pretty useless on characters unless there is a single model left in the enemy unit. Could be useful for weak enemy units such as Guard or Genestealer Cults. 

Wind-Swift (2CP)- Use after a White Scars unit moves. The unit can move again. They can only advance if they did not advance as part of the first move. They may not shoot, charge or manifest psychic powers. 

Very useful for a Biker unit, or other fast moving unit. This gives bikes a move of 34" in a single turn. Great for grabbing or denying an objective, or getting linebreaker on the last turn. A bit pricey at 2CP, especially as you can't do anything after it, but could be useful once in a while. Not sure if this would stack with Born in the Saddle to allow you to shoot. 

Army Showcase- David's Sons of Medusa

This army showcase features David's Sons of Medusa, an Iron Hands successor chapter. David recently played me in a battle report, and has a great themed force that I wanted to show off.

The army features a number of nice conversions, mixing Space Marine and Ad Mech parts to create a lovely themed and unique force. 

40k Battle Report 184- Genestealer Cults vs Salamanders Space Marines

This week's battle report sees my Genestealer Cults take on Chris' Salamanders Space Marine army in a maelstrom of war mission. This game was played after some of the reveals for the new Space Marine codex, so we decided to incorporate some of the new rules into this game. We would be using the updated Salamanders Chapter Tactics, as well as the Shock Assault rule. 

We were playing a simple Cleanse and Capture mission (3 cards per turn). 

My army consisted of:

Battalion Detachment (Rusted Claw)

Jackal Alphus- Sniper Rifle

Magus- Force Stave, Mind Control, Might From Beyond

Sanctus- Sniper Rifle, A Gift From Beyond

10 Neophyte Hybrids- Autoguns, 2 Mining Lasers, Grenade Launcher

10 Neophyte Hybrids- Autoguns, Heavy Stubber, Grenade Launcher

10 Neophyte Hybrids- Shotguns, 2 Flamers

Atalan Jackals- Shotguns, 4 Demolition Charges, Wolfquad with Atalan Incinerator

Goliath Truck- Twin Autocannon, Heavy Stubber

Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Team- Mortars

Battalion Detachment (Cult of the Four Armed Emperor, Deliverance Broodsurge)

Acolyte Iconward- Rending Claw, Autopistol, Cultist Knife, Icon of the Cult Ascendent, Augur of the Insurgent (warlord trait)

Magus- Force Stave, Mass Hypnosis, Psionic Blast, Inscrutable Cunning (warlord trait)

Primus- Bonesword, Needle Pistol, Alien Majesty (warlord trait)

Clamavus- Autopistol

20 Acolyte Hybrids- Rending Claws, Cultist Knives, Autopistols, 2 Heavy Rock Saws, 2 Heavy Rock Drills

10 Acolyte Hybrids- Rending Claws, Cultist Knives, Autopistols, 2 Heavy Rock Drills

10 Acolyte Hybrids- Rending Claws, Cultist Knives, Autopistols, 4 Heavy Rock Cutters

Vanguard Detachment (Cult of the Four Armed Emperor)

Patriarch- 2 Familiars, Mental Onslaught, Might From Beyond, Biomorph Adaptation (warlord trait)

Primus- Bonesword, Needle Pistol

Clamavus- Autopistol

Nexos- Autopistol

8 Abberrants- 4 Heavy Rock Hammers, 4 Power Picks, Rending Claws

10 Purestrain Genestealers

I decided to go for a couple of Cult Creeds for the army, as well as trying out the Devilerance Broodsurge Vigilus specialist detachment for the first time. 

I made one Battalion Rusted Claw. This gives the units in it +1 save against AP0 or AP-1 weapons, boosting the armour save of most units to 4+ (or 3+ in cover). This is generally the units I will deploy on the board, as the ground forces before my ambushing reserves come in. This contains three squads of Neophyte Hybrids, with some heavy weapons for fire support. It also includes the Atalan Jackals and Jackal Alphus. These units get to benefit from the Rusted Claw stratagem, allowing me to throw grenades at +1 to hit and +1 to wound, making the demolition charges very powerful. 

For the other two detachments, I took the Cult of the Four Armed Emperor, giving me +1 to charge and advance rolls on the turn that I arrive from reserve. The Battalion was also Deliverance Broodsurge, allowing me to re-roll charge rolls within 6" of the Acolyte Iconward (thanks to his Field Commander Warlord Trait). Combined with the Clamavus and Cult Creed, this gives me a 7" re-rollable charge from ambush reserves. This is a huge boost for the cult units, helping to ensure that they get into combat on the turn they arrive. 

I was able to take four warlord traits thanks to the Field Commander and Broodcoven stratagems. Combined with the Specialist Detachment and extra relic, this gave me 10 command points to start the game with, having used four already. One of my warlord traits gave me D3 extra CP, and I was fortunate enough to roll 3 for this, giving me 13 to start the game. 

I then took a unit of Aberrants and Genestealers to be the hard hitters in my army. These units should hopefully do a fair bit of damage to the Marines in combat. 

Space Marine New Units- My Thoughts

Another day, another big set of reveals for the new Space Marine codex. Today, the Warhammer Community page released a whole host of information on new units in the codex. Here are some thoughts on what they previewed. 

Incursor Squad

A new unit for the Space Marines, these seem to be a new addition to the Vanguard forces that have already been released. The squad comes armed with the Occulus Bolt Rifle. Based on the existing profile for the Master-Crafted Occulus Bolt Rifle, this is most likely 24", Rapid Fire 1, S4, AP0, 1 damage, and ignores cover. This is similar to a standard Boltgun, so will be good against most standard infantry. 

The squad do not suffer any penalties to hit, so will be able to lay down a lot of accurate firepower. This is a nice bonus against a range of squads, but as GW appear to be scaling back the ability to get -1 to hit on units, you may not see as much use out of this as you might currently. 

They also come with Paired Combat Blades. This gives you an extra hit on each roll of a 6 to hit in combat. With 3 attacks on the charge (most likely), you should get an extra hit for every 2 models that attack. I would prefer a combat blade for the extra attack always, but you don't tend to get these on firepower squads anyway. 

They also have haywire Mines, allowing you to cause D3 mortal wounds to enemy units that move in range (or D3+1 if they are a vehicle). This allows you to lay down some booby traps to hurt the enemy if they move into range. This is going to be a serious prospect for small units, such as other Marines, but will probably not bother large units too much. 

I think this sounds like a decent unit, but not essential at the moment. The ability to shut down enemy reserves with the Infiltrators seems like more of a bonus. Useful if you are facing a lot of armies with negative modifiers to hit. Maybe the full codex will give additional rules or stratagems to make these guys more useful. 

Space Marine Chapter Tactics Reveals- My Thoughts

The updated Chapter Tactics for the Space Marines were revealed on Warhammer Community yesterday. I had a look at the new traits for the Marines and am very excited by what this might mean for the codex. 

First off, it appears that vehicles will now be getting access to the Chapter Tactics as well from now on. This will be a nice boost for them, as most other armies' vehicles were getting access to their own version, so it's nice to see Marines brought up to date with this. This will give some of them a nice boost to their firepower and durability. 

The Ultramarines Chapter Tactic was pretty much unchanged. As it was arguably one of the best in the old codex, this isn't too bad. What is a big change is that vehicles will now benefit from being able to fall back and still shoot. This is a big boost for many tough vehicles such as Predators or Land Raiders, as they will still be able to put out a decent level of firepower when falling back from combat. It will also be even harder to shut down their firepower, as you will need to surround them and stop them from falling back to block their firepower completely.