Saturday 7 July 2012

White scars in 6th edition

Hi folks,

Having now absorbed a fair chunk of the new ruleset into my meagre brain, I thought it would be worth a run down on the army I'm bringing to BW4 and the pros and cons provided by the new rules. This is in a way self-defeating as I'll be laying on the table the weaknesses of the army, but I'm not the competitve gaiming type and so am not really concerned either way.



Pros:

T5 for all bikers - well, this only really applies to multi-wound models but makes the Khan adn attack bikes a bit more durable.

FNP - now a 5+, but should make the command squad/Khan more survivable in combat and to low ap fire.

Random charge range - on average this should extend the bikers range a little on the charge. 

Flyers - as a stormtalon is part of the force, the new flyer rules make it much more survivable compared to when I last used it.

Combat squads - as both my tactical squads are rhino mounted, they now have much greater flexibility when disembarking in everything except kill/victory point missions.

Hull points - the manuvrability of the bikes and twin-linked bolters allows the stripping of hull points, especially when outflanking, from the vulnerable rear armour of vehicles.

Grenades - with all marines being grenade equipped it should now add a bit more punch to assaults by allowing an extra frag or krak grenade to be thrown into the equation.

Jink and turbo-boost - the continual 5++ helps with the low ap ranged weaponry, though I'm not so sure whether the 4++ flat out is necessarily going to be a problem. (now it's no longer 3++)  Most of the casualties I took were from high AP high strength weapons (autocannon dreads) in honesty, so AP wasn't an issue so much as volume of fire and high strength.

Look out sir - defintely more helpful in keeping Khan alive, an TBH I fancy his chances in a challenge too now that he can't be instant killed by anything shy of T10.

Cons:

No charge after deepstrike - this will hurt the outflanking army somewhat, especially where Khan and the command squad are concerned as this is where their main strength is.

Snap fire - in an army which relies to some degree upon assaults, snap fire may be a problem. If we take the example of a mob of 30 orks snap firing against a bike squad however, the 5 hits should only result in 1-2 wounds for a bike squad, so potentially one dead biker. Not sure how much of an issue it may be but it's certainly worth considering.

Psykers - more a list specific thing than generic, but my lack of psykers may harm psychic defence somewhat. Everything having a 6+ now helps though.

Furious charge - No extra initiative on the charge does harm the command squad somewhat.

Power weapons - as all my scars are armed with power swords, I guess I'll have to choose them as the default weapon. The AP3 nerf does leave me with some concerns for terminators and makes Khans weapon less effective. I think my army will need to use massed fire and manoevrability to deal with any potential AP2 nasties which I'm sure will crop up in tournament lists.

I will add more thoughts as they come to me but overall it looks as if the pros outweigh the cons. In other news there's a chance tha that the whitescars may not make an appearance at all at BW4. The heroes of Badab project is proving to be be far more interesting at the moment both in terms of paint scheme and modelling - as a result I've fallen a bit behind with the Whitescars schedule and am also pondering whether or not I should bring the Badab army instead. Both are a mammoth task to prepare so I need to commit one way or the other soon.

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