Wrath of Khan. - White Scars in the new edition Marines.

Hi, The Voice here looking at trying the get the GW poster boys working for the new edition.

First off ill start by saying the route ive taken is by far not the only way i think you can run marines well from the new book; Fists, Iron Hands and even Ultramarines all have thier place i feel, its just i personally think that foot based marines are not for me.

Anyway at this juncture id also like to introduce my partner in crime of the past week in disassembling the marines Mr Alex "Logan" Rae. So ill skip over to his words of wisdom and add anything i fancy in to the mix during.




"Hi im Alex and with Gary we've been looking for new synergies and builds in the Marine codex for the past week and to us the obvious standout is the new Grav Weaponry and our thought process that led us to White Scars as our Chapter of Choice"

The first point of call is the shiny new Centurion unit with its Slow & Purposeful and Salvo 3/5 guns. The effectiveness of the unit is drastically improved by the Grav Amp wargear as well giving re-rolls to wound or proc damage on a vehicle. But they are 80pts each which is a premium rate.

For anyone not up to speed a grav weapon uses the armour save as the to wound roll and also always does a hull point and immobilizes a vehicle on a six...yes..thats pretty good. The range is an issue though being 18 or 24 for the guns and cannon.

And they have limitations. A 30" effective range means they need to walk in towards Tau and Eldar and will get outshot. A big target with a bullseye on them. We talked at length and just found the speed and range to be an issue.

So we chose to look elsewhere:

For the price of 3 Grav Cannon Centurions you can put a cherry on top and afford two 5 man units of Bikes with 2 Grav Guns each; The smaller brother to the Cannon at Salvo 2/3 with 18" range. On a relentless scoring bike? Noooooooow we're taking.

Now we know that Heldrakes almost invalidated Ravenwing as a viable list because you simply cannot avoid them and their vector striking and flame templates. But that is more to do with the lack of good anti flyer options in the Dark Angel book then anything else.

FORTUNATELY Codex Space Marines have a wealth of options in that regard. Cheap Storm Talons with Missiles or Lascannon. Storm Ravens. Even the new Anti Air Tanks are good at what they do.

So it was in conversation with Gary 'The Voice' Percival that we began bouncing ideas back and forth for a Grav Gun bikes list with Flyer support.

In order to make Bikes troops you need to take a Captain on a Bike, and Gary's initial idea was to take a cheap one with a Storm Shield and Fist to give to close combat power as well as unlock Bikes. In the end we reasoned that Khan's ability to give these Bikes the Scout rule was invaluable even though you did give up some of the hitty power. Being able to get the jump on any model on the board with 30 Grav shots is beastly. So we made Khan a firm fixture in the list.

The crux of the list is Khan, 5 x 5 Bikes with 2 Gravguns in each, 2 Storm Talons and a Storm Raven. It then came to filling in the rest of the points and that is how we began to get creative with the ideas flowing like wine at a Bacchanal.

The obvious day 1 combination is Rune Priests. Shoot MCs on the Ground (or even FMCs out of the sky with your flyers) with Grav weaponry and the Concussive effect leaves them at I1. Then you pop them with Jaws of the World Wolf which would kill on a 3+ roll! It feels like a Warmachine assassination run as you combine these units together to bring down something much bigger and scarier!

But as is important in 6th, the Rune Priest has more utility than just Jaws. Duality of purpose is important and the Rune Priest offer some other more subtle benefits. Taking Chooser Of The Slain on a Priest stops your opponent from being able to nerf your scout moves with infiltrators such as Tau using Kroot. Acute Senses when combined with Scout gives you a 89% chance of getting the side you want when Outflanking as it confers to the unit. Counter Attack is great and it also means you do just a little bit more damage before you Hit & Run out of there! Runic Swords are awesome in this list: Shoot a Daemon Prince with Grav Guns before you assault, drop him down to I1 then go first with your Rune Priest at i4 wounding on 2+ and ignoring his power armour. One failed save = dead!. Lets not also forget they have the best psy defence in the game now, so shutting down those screamer councils is almost worth it alone.

And this is really how we have been looking at this list, every hour we will message each other back and forth with awesome synergies! The Space Marine Storm Raven also has Concussive on its Strike Missiles! There's Concussive everywhere! Gary even spoke about taking power mauls on Sergeants to rub salt in the wound!

The Storm Talons and Raven offer us great anti air support. You can pick on Heldrakes, which are the main threat to this list, and easily bring down Necrons Flyers or Flying Monstrous Creatures. The army has the mobility to then pick on targets at your choosing.

Storm Talons with either Lascannons or Typhoon Missiles are locked in to this list. The Lascannon give you a serious threat to Broadsides and Riptides, whilst the Missiles offer you a duality of purpose at the exchange of AP2. 2 BS5 Frag templates are no joke against infantry. (Yes BS5 look up the strafing run rule!!!!)

The Thunderfire is a must-have to me in any Space Marine list. It was in the old book already, but now they have Barrage, they are even better. BS4 template weapons that can snipe models and ignore cover. Beautiful. Take 2 if you can!

Against Tau you can be on to Riptides and pull them down by hunting in packs like Lions in Africa. Grav weaponry makes a mockery of all Monstrous Creatures regardless and the Rune Priest is there to just finish them off. Thunderfires can handle Markerlights in cover. No tanking Buff Commanders allowed. You have long range shooting from your Storm Raven and Storm Talons which can deal with Broadsides well. Staying out of range in Hover mode is even an option.

Daemons come in different flavours. You have mobility and template weapons and Rune Priests here. Against the flying Prince list, you can realistically pick on on Prince a turn with your assassination runs. Against Screamers you can try to block their 4++ save power with Runic Weapons, Jaws the Herald with Grimoire. And if all else fails just use Hit & Run, draw back and shoot them when you can whilst focussing on removing his troops on turns that he gets Grimoire 2++ re-rollable off. If you get first turn however, Scout move and blast those Screamers to kingdom come! Barrage them up with Thunderfires, dakka them with bolters. EVERYTHING into them.

Problems we identified with this list: not going first. It's amazing how much this affects the game in 6th. Withering 1st turn fire power from Eldar in particular. On a table with ample LOS blocking terrain you can mitigate this with your Scout movement to get to mid board terrain. Otherwise you will be suffering a lot at the hands of Serpent shields. If you do get first turn then you will be using your Scout move to get on to Wave Serpents and delete them in order. They are the only threat. Wraith Knights are a non-issue here. They can only kill 2 bikes a turn with shooting, and if they try to tie you up in combat you can hit & run out of there!

Gary proposed a Skyshield landing pad to mitigate first turn shooting, and this works well in conjunction with the Thunderfire Cannon giving them somewhere to deploy and remain all game benefiting from a 3+ 4++ save and T7. Incredibly durable!

We have a couple of variations based on personal ideas but here are the 1850 and 1650 lists we are looking at:


1650

Korsarro Khan on bike: 150 (Warlord)

5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns, melta bomb 140
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135

Thunderfire Cannon 100
Storm Raven w Lascannon and Multi Melta 200

Storm Talon w Typhoon Missile Launcher 145
Storm Talon w Typhoon Missile Launcher 145

Rune Priest, Bike, Chooser of the Slain (Jaws+Living Lightning), saga of the beast slayer 155

5 Grey Hunters w Flamer 75

So anti flyer covered with our own, psy powers covered with the priest, mc's covered with the grav guns and synergies, infantry with the thunderfire and sheer volume of shots etc etc. This is a real Tac list i feel despite spaming the bikes as troops. With the Khans scout move your looking at easily 30 ap 2 shots wounding on 2's or 3's on some of the biggest boogie men in 40k right now.

Also it might be worth noting that if you immobilize an already immobilized vehicle you do an additional hull point. As grav weapons always immobilize a vehicle as well as taking a hull point off on  a 6 to pen ( but you have a lot of shots per gun so its ok ) it basically means anything your picking on has in effect one hull point less than normal. The first 6 immobilizes and strips a hull point and then the second does 2 hull points. 2 hull point wave serpents dont sound quiet so scary huh?

1850

Korsarro Khan on bike: 150 (Warlord)

5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135
5 Bikes w 2 Gravguns 135

Thunderfire Cannon 100
Thunderfire Cannon 100
Storm Raven w Lascannon and Multi Melta 200

Storm Talon w Lascannon 140
Storm Talon w Lascannon 140

Rune Priest, Bike, Chooser of the Slain (Jaws+Murderous Hurricane) 145
Rune Priest, jump pack (Jaws+ Living Lightning) 125

5 Grey Hunters w Flamer 75

Same thing but more point and a second jaws (oh how i wish i could afford the second bike on the second priest). You get a second thunder fire cannon too and so the cyclones on the Talons are not needed so much as dual purpose killers and go more in to the serpent/hell drake/broadside bully role and get lascannons.

It becomes a very tool box kind of list with lots of subtle tactics and combo's. We wont give too much away as it needs play testing. There is the skyshield to look into and maybe even the "Tank Commander" that seems to be buzzing about the interwebs too (basically Garys initial idea of a beatstick chapter master who just WONT DIE with bike, shield eternal and 2+ save and some hitty stick of doom as well)

Anyway thoughts?

G and A..the marine high council :P