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Space Marines: White Scars Space Marines Tactics and List Ideas

Reecius

The 7th edition darlings have been much maligned in 8th ed, but is all the salt justified? Read on to find out!

For more White Scars list ideas, click this link.

As always, check the Tactics Corner for more great 40k articles.

One short edition ago, you couldn’t throw a rock in the air at a 40k tournament without it falling on a White Scars Battle Company, but now? They’re as rare as a white whale. So, call my Ishmael, and let’s go hunting!

I am of the opinion that White Scars are criminally underrated in 8th ed and have the tools to be an all star army.

Chapter Tactics

First off, what are the White Scars Chapter Tactics?

So that is pretty damn good! It may not jump off of the page at you like some of the other Chapter Tactics do, but it is very, very powerful. Particularly on Jump units who can easily get out of even large melees and will then also be able to still shoot in addition to being able to charge.

White Scars Stratagem

Again, very good! This is unfortunately, pretty much the only incentive to take Bike units in White Scars though, who typically are known for this style of play.

White Scars Warlord Trait

Eh, this is pretty bad, but it is meant to emulate the old Hammer of Wrath rule. This is a pass, though.

White Scars Relic

Again, pretty meh. Not bad, but certainly not worth taking over some of the other outstanding relics such as the Banner of the Emperor Ascendant or Shield Eternal.

White Scars Special Character(s)

Big Picture

As we’ve discussed frequently in these articles, a good list in competitive 40k begins with asking yourself some fundamental questions:

  1. What unit archetypes am I likely to face in a game and how will I deal with them?
  2. How will I score objectives?
  3. How will I prevent my opponent from doing the above to me?

Luckily White Scars have lots of options, here. The combination of their very awesome Chapter Tactics and the Fly keyword combine to give you a rather unique, and very slippery play-style if you go with a Jump Troop army. This gives you crazy speed, deployment options, firepower, melee punch and the ability to move in and out of combat with nearly no restrictions. That is the beauty of this army now. You can really catch people off guard with this, so take advantage of it!

Dealing with Screening Units

In order to bust through Screens, you’ve got a great tool for the job: Assault Marines and the aforementioned Vanguard Vets. With their speed and ability to easily pin units in combat by surrounding models, preventing them from falling back and keeping you safe from shooting. They’re great for moving up field and then staying safe from enemy return fire by locking models down and then in your turn, leaving combat able to still shoot and assault again. You can leap frog this way up the field, remaining relatively safe.

I have found double Chainsword Vanguard really get it done, well. A unit of 5 has 21 melee attacks and only costs 90pts. Not bad at all. Now, of course, you can give them some kit to make them more powerful in melee, too. I prefer double Lightening Claws on a few of them for the bonus attack and re-roll wounds ability to keep their damage output consistent.

The other excellent unit here to clear screens is my favorite, Scout Bikers! With White Scars, they can really shine and I recommend taking a larger unit to take advantage of the Born in the Saddle Stratagem, allowing them to advance and still charge and shoot. This means the already zippy Scout Bikers can move their normal 16″ + 8″ due to the White Scars bonus advance speed, for a total of 24.” That means they’re right in your opponent’s face, where a full unit of 9 with a Storm Bolter on Sarge means they can pump out 58 strength 4 shots! Then, they charge up to a further 12″ with another 21 strength 4 melee attacks if needs by for a grand total of 79 attacks, which is crazy. For only 227 points, that is a lot of dakka, speed and surprising durability. If you save a CP to use this a few times during the game, this unit can fly around the table putting punishing firepower down wherever you need it and scoop up objectives like nobody’s business.

Dealing with Armor

Cracking transport vehicles open is another important ability to have in a list in 8th ed. White Scars again, have Assault Marines and Vanguard Vets for this task. Plasma Pistols, particularly when backed by a Captain and Lt. (also with Jump Packs, duh!). My preference is to use Assault Squads to do the shooting and for the Vanguard to do the punching. 5 Assault Marines with 3 Plasma Pistols only runs you 101 points which is nothing for the versatility the unit brings you. Alternatively, you can go for Vanguard, each with a Plasma Pistol and Chainsword (one of my favorite load-outs) or John Woo it up with double Plasma Pistols for maximum damage output.

Personally, I have found this to be a bit overkill and each casualty you take REALLY hurts. Building in some ablative wounds gets you more endurance on those critical Plasma Weapons in my experience, so I tend to go with not every model in a unit packing heat, instead opting for double Chainswords on Vanguard, or the old trusty sword and pistol for Assault Marines. And remember, you can always charge in, too! You both do additional damage this way, but more importantly stop the vehicle from shooting in the case you don’t finish it off. With the speed of your units, you may also be able to pin vehicles down and/or surround them, preventing them from moving away or units form getting out. And, if you manage to destroy them, can take out all of the units inside, too!

Dealing with Enemy Characters

These gunslingers also serve as excellent assassins. The ability to move over enemy screening units and get into position to blast characters at close range by making them the closest enemy model is incredibly powerful. You can easily take out characters your opponent thought were safe this way. And if the pistols and grenades don’t kill them, well, as you’ve heard me say over and again: charge! Things like Malefic Lords, etc. will be much, much more vulnerable to the White Scars player than other armies. You will also have at least one powerful melee characters yourself: the Captain with Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.

As someone who has used this gentleman in quite a few tournaments now, I can assure you, he is amazing for his points. The ability to give him a relic on the fly (I often go with the Shield Eternal) makes him incredibly versatile. His speed and melee punch, plus the extremely good Only in Death Does Duty End and Honour the Chapter Stratagems means if you charge into combat (which you should be doing due to his speed) he should pretty much always be swinging in melee twice if you need him to. With a Thunder Hammer this means you will be shocked at how much damage he can do! If you do use it, the Shield Eternal means he is able to go toe to toe with even units like Magnus or Mortarion for a few turns. Halving the damage he takes in addition to the 3++ (which always save a CP to reroll his first failed save) makes him a tough son of a gun. He will kill units much more expensive than he is and not only other units and characters. I have had him knock many a flier out of the sky!

He also benefits greatly from any of the melee or defensively oriented Space Marines Warlord Traits. The Imperium’s Sword (re-roll charges, +1 attack on the charge), Iron Resolve (6+FnP, +1 Wound), Rites of War (ignore morale checks 6″ aura), or Champion of Humanity (+1 to hit and wound rolls when fighting enemy Characters) are all amazing for him. If the Shield Eternal isn’t the right tool for the job, the Armour Indomitus is great if you are facing horde style armies for that sweet 2+ save.

Suffice it to say, this gentleman is an all-star. We will go further into some of the other combos available here but the ability to fly around the table with him, smacking things to death, leaving combat and still able to charge is incredible.

Scoring Objectives

The other part of the equation in winning missions is board control, and the ability to score objectives. Luckily for you, you’ve got that covered in spades with a Jump Troop White Scars army. This should seriously be no issue for you as your units fly around the table, moving over obstacles such as terrain and other units, and not being locked down in combat. Despite leaning towards a more MSU style of play, you should dominate the objective game in most match-ups, even without ObSec.

Countering Enemy Tactics

Another benefit to this army is its flexibility and the fact that it largely does not need to go first to win. The bulk of your most important units can start off of the table if needs be in deep-strike reserves. The units you do put on the tabletop will be largely expendable, hard to reach or fairly durable. Scouts should be your troops (of course!). As I have said numerous times, Scouts are hands down one of the best units in the game. For a very small investment, you get an ObSec unit that helps unlock CP rich detachments and give you amazing defense against many common tactics in the game such as alpha strikes from reserves. As few as 3 units of 5 Scouts can create a buffer zone large enough to shut down enemy infiltrators or deep-strikers. After that, they run around picking up objectives and harassing enemy units. They’re simply amazing. Normally I opt for Bolter Scouts, but in this instance, I’d go for melee Scouts to take advantage of their ability to leave combat and still charge.

Alternatively or in addition to melee Scouts, Sniper Scouts are also fantastic not only because they can hunt enemy characters but because they give you solid platforms with which to bring Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters in your army with which to not only shoot things (duh!) but to use the Flakk Missile and Hellfire Shells stratagems which deal mortal wounds at range. These are REALLY useful for dealing with tough linchpin units like Magnus.

As stated earlier, the simple fact of your stupendous mobility also means you will be gumming up your opponent’s plans. Moving into their formations with your units, stopping them from moving and shooting, then leaping away to do it again somewhere else as far as 2 feet from where you started the turn! This means you should be dictating where and when combat happens. It’s hard to emphasize just how good this is until you actually put models on the table and try it out. Unless you play on a table with very poor terrain where your marines can just get shot down, you will find White Scars to be kings of movement.

Essentially, your entire army functions in a way nearly no other armies function: they move in and out of combat with impunity. Your best tool is to use that to your advantage. You will start to pick up little model positioning tricks like moving 1″ away from a tank you charged in the previous turn to get extra movement up-field and prevent it from shooting, but still staying behind it to avoid being in LoS and then charging from behind it, avoiding overwatch, into a unit that was your actual target further up the field. Things like this are where the White Scars really shine.

You also have the ability to mitigate alpha strikes with this army as you can start most of your points off table if needs be, and then drop down where it is most beneficial. This combined with the Scouts acting as a buffer to create space and secure your landing zones for your Jump troops means you have incredible ability to beta strike and counter your opponent after seeing where he deploys.

Maximizing Efficiency

As with most Space Marines armies, your force multiplication comes in the form of your characters. You are going to want to take the essentially mandatory Captain and Lt. combo. As we went in to some depth about the Captain above, suffice it to say he’s a stud. If you want to take a second Captain, another great combo is the Thunder Hammer and Combi-melta. He packs the same wallop but also has a hyper accurate, high-powerful shooting weapon. And again, remember how good these gents are at leaping into enemy lines and then assassinating enemy characters by making them the closest model!

The Lt. is just too good not to take. Give him a Jump Pack and some simple kit (I often give him the Teeth of Terra to replace his Chainsword) and keep him safe, where his re-roll 1’s to wound aura can really do work. He hits decently hard in combat so get him in there is you can, but remember: he’s there to buff the other units. The fact that he is an HQ is just icing on the cake, and helps you to unlock Battalion and Brigade detachments.

A Librarian with Jump Pack also goes great in this army. He provides you with some excellent tools. For one, obviously, he can stop enemy powers (where he will often be in range to use his Psychic Hood) and spit out mortal wounds. Space Marines have access to a good selection of Mortal Wound powers in addition to Smite. Beyond that, Psychic Fortress is amazing if you need to send a unit into a nest of enemy Smite slangers for its 4++ vs. psychic mortal wounds who are one of the primary threats to things like your Captain with shield. Veil of Time is also excellent for re-rolls on charges and the ability to strike first in melee. Might of Heroes is exceptional on your Captain and of course, Null Zone can be game winning. A Libby with Jump Pack is arguably the best delivery mechanism for the power, too. If you manage to pull this off against a unit like Magnus or buffed up Bullgryn, it can be game winning. Even for just blowing through Brimstone Horror screens, it makes your life so much easier.

An argument can be made for a Chaplain with Jump Pack in a White Scars army. The re-rolls to melee (where you will often be) and the leadership buff are quite nice, but the Captain’s ability to also let you re-roll 1’s to hit which benefits the Plasma Pistols you will be leaning on so much, is just too good to pass up.

Bringing it all Together

Well, it’s pretty dang simple: take lots and lots of Jump Pack units! Jokes aside, that really is it in a nutshell. You want loads of these exceptional units flying around the table earning you points, and taking out key enemy units either by destroying them or tying them up in combat long enough for you to fly off to the next target.

The only real challenge in my mind, is deciding what units to start on the table to balance out all of the units you will have deep-striking. Scouts, as mentioned, as a no-brainer. Scout Bikers: also a great choice. You could run with some min-maxed Space Marine Biker units for theme, but the Jump Pack units just do the same thing but better. If you have them and want to use them, they are certainly not bad at all, just not optimal, in my opinion. You could employ a different strategy with the Born in the Saddle stratagem this way though, taking multiple units of Bikers and then using it on whichever one needed to cover the most distance at the time to get into optimal position which could be fun.

And of course, the mighty Thunderfire Cannon! Beyond just being pretty dang good on its own, the Tremor Shells stratagem is stupidly amazing. It halves the target’s move, advance and charge. I cannot stress enough how good this is. It is worth taking a Thunderfire Cannon by itself, even if the Cannon did zero damage in the course of a game.

Space Marines are also CP hungry, and high level play with them really requires intelligent use of those all important Stratagems. So, in addition to the above, you want to pack in troops too, to open up Battalions and Brigades for enough CP resources to fuel your most powerful combos.

Unit Force Org Cost # Total Weapons Cost # Total Total
Brigade White Scars       Command Points 0     630
Captain with Jump Pack HQ 93 1 93 Thunder Hammer 22 1 22
0 Storm Shield 15 1 15
Librarian with Jump Pack HQ 116 1 116 Force Sword 12 1 12
Lieutenant with Jump Pack HQ 78 1 78 Master Crafted Bolter 3 1 3
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Sniper Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Sniper Rifle 4 4 16
0 Missile Launcher 25 1 25
Sniper Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Sniper Rifle 4 4 16
0 Heavy Bolter 10 1 10
Scout Bikers Fast 25 9 225 Storm Bolter 2 1 2
Assault Marines Fast 16 5 80 Plasma Pistol 7 3 21
Assault Marines Fast 16 5 80 Plasma Pistol 7 3 21
Vanguard Veterans Elites 18 6 108 Plasma Pistol 7 4 28
Vanguard Veterans Elites 18 10 180 Pair of Lightening Claws 12 6 72
Vanguard Veterans Elites 18 6 108 Plasma Pistol 7 4 28
Thunderfire Cannon Heavy 55 1 55 Cannon 0 1 0
Techmarine Gunner 26 1 26 Flamer 9 1 9
0 Plasma Cutter 7 1 7
0 Servo-arm 12 1 12
Devastator Squad Heavy 13 5 65 Heavy Bolter 10 3 30
0 Armorium Cherub 5 1 5
Devastator Squad Heavy 13 5 65 Heavy Bolter 10 3 30
0 Armorium Cherub 5 1 5
Totals     86 1609       389 1998
Command Points: 12       Detachments: 1

At any rate, this list gives you a lot of trickery, a ton of units, plenty of CP and a mountain of Plasma Pistols on Vanguard models who with their Chainsword, still pack a surprising amount of melee punch. This gives you a lot of those juicy CPs, and tons of units to play with, plus lots of tricks in your arsenal to adapt on the fly to whatever your opponent brings.

The Devastator Squads provide some long ranged firepower with some built in ablative wounds which is important as they will be starting on the table. Alternatively you could swamp them out for Quad Launchers, Whirlwinds or other barrage style weapons and save a few points, too.

The large unit of Vanguard are great for using the Honour the Chapter stratagem to fight twice in a round of melee and for receiving Veil of Time. Often you will want to break them into two units with Combat Squads, and it is nice to have that flexibility.

The downside to the list is you start losing steam pretty quick, so you need to make the most of the units you have while they’re still on the table and play cagey.

Unit Force Org Cost # Total Weapons Cost # Total Total
Battalion White Scars       Command Points 3     524
Captain with Jump Pack HQ 93 1 93 Thunder Hammer 22 1 22
0 Storm Shield 15 1 15
Librarian with Jump Pack HQ 116 1 116 Force Sword 12 1 12
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Assault Marines Fast 16 5 80 Plasma Pistol 7 3 21
Battalion White Scars       Command Points 3     1476
Captain with Jump Pack HQ 93 1 93 Thunder Hammer 22 1 22
0 Storm Shield 15 1 15
Lieutenant with Jump Pack HQ 78 1 78 Master Crafted Bolter 3 1 3
Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Bolt Pistol, Knife 0 1 0
Sniper Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Sniper Rifle 4 5 20
Sniper Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Sniper Rifle 4 4 16
0 Missile Launcher 25 1 25
Sniper Scouts Troops 11 5 55 Sniper Rifle 4 4 16
0 Heavy Bolter 10 1 10
Scout Bikers Fast 25 9 225 Storm Bolter 2 1 2
Vanguard Veterans Elites 18 10 180 Plasma Pistol 7 8 56
Vanguard Veterans Elites 18 10 180 Pair of Lightening Claws 12 6 72
Vanguard Veterans Elites 18 10 180 Plasma Pistol 7 9 63
Totals     83 1610       390 2000
Command Points: 9       Detachments: 2

You could pack in even more Jump Pack bodies if you wanted to by going for 2 Battalions as above, picking up a second, powerful Captain and dropping the heavy support choices. You have less CP but even more emphasis on the Jump Pack units to do the heavy lifting. The extra Scout units are to allow you to keep everything else off of the table to deploy where needed. This list is less flexible but when it works, it will really work!

You can combat squad the big units if you don’t need them in reserves for extra flexibility. The larger units can be harder to move around the table and get cover, and morale becomes somewhat of an issue, although you can always just choose to take the Rites of War Warlord Trait if you are worried about it.

At any rate, hopefully this gets your imagination churning with the possibilities of White Scars! What tactics have been working for you?

For more White Scars list ideas, click this link.

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