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Commander Kornilov surveyed the village of Kunvur through his light-amplifying binoculars. Or at least he surveyed the remains of the village. What had been a thriving community of over three thousand people was now a burnt-out ruin with no sign of movement, silent in the darkness. "Chert poberi!" he muttered under his breath.

The White Scars had landed on Yarov a month earlier. Kornilov wasn't entirely sure why Astartes were fighting against governor Lebedev, but Lebedev's rank had allowed him to co-opt the XI corps of the 9th Valhallan when their transport had stopped en route to the Liminus Furor sector.

Kornilov wasn't exactly ecstatic about the idea of going up against the Emperor's holy Space Marines, but orders were orders, and he intended to carry them out. Initially it had seemed that there was little threat - air defence radar traces estimated that a maximum of five drop pods or landers had made it to the surface. Surely even Astartes couldn't bring down a government backed up by over a million planetary defence troopers, as well as a Guard corps?

Now he wasn't so sure. In the past three weeks Yarov's entire military logistical framework had been comprehensively dismantled. Supply depots, repair bases, ammo dumps, fuel stations - nothing outside the capital had escaped the attention of the raiders. The attackers seemed able to cover vast distances in the blink of an eye - striking here and there with no predictable pattern, but always where least expected. The situation was so bad that Kornilov's force was even low on jellied promethium for their flamers!

As the raiders proceeded a number of response patrols had been sent out to try and track them down. Many had spent their time running around the countryside with no discernable result, but a sizeable proportion had been ambushed and destroyed. Which was why Commander Kornilov wasn't particularly happy to be where he was right now...

"Sir!" He turned at the shout from Lt Vaissily, his CO. "We've just lost contact with our rear scouts - they went off-air mid-transmission!"

"The rear scouts? Chertova!" That meant that the White Scars were already behind him, and his patrol was cut off... On the other hand, luck might still be with him - the chances of the scout's report being cut-off in mid-air like that were virtually nil, but it had happened, and given him a few minutes warning, which might just be vital.

"Advance into the town, take up defensive positions, and prepare for attack," he ordered Vaissily. As his men and vehicles moved forward to obey his order, he surveyed the area again. Dawn was just beginning to illuminate the eastern horizon. And to himself he muttered "Let's see how the White Devils like it when their opponent know they're coming!"


Planning

My force

This would be my first proper game with my White Scars. I've been working on this new army for a while, with a determination to only field fully painted models - something I haven't done in a long time (I know, it's very bad of me). While they're not well painted, the fact they are painted at all is something I'm proud of, especially given my abysmal artistic skills!

The force I had assembled was as follows:



HQ
- Captain Konchi - bike, relic blade, artificer armour, hellfire shells

Troops
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, multi-melta on attack bike
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, multi-melta on attack bike
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, multi-melta on attack bike

Fast Attack
Landspeeder - Typhoon missile launcher + heavy bolter
Landspeeder - 2 x heavy flamers

I'd designed this force to represent the epitome of the White Scars - fast, hard hitting, with the key goal of being able to engage the enemy on my terms. I had a lot of firepower for such a small force, and everything could move 24" or more a turn. My primary weaknesses were the low model count, and an inability to climb stairs!


My opponent

My opponent was Danny, fielding his Valhallan 9th:



- Company Commander - Melta bomb, power weapon, melta bomb, 2 bodyguards
- Infantry platoon
- Platoon HQ Lascannon
- Infantry squad +flamer
- Infantry squad +flamer
- Infantry squad +flamer
- Heavy weapons team with 3 missile launchers
- Veteran Squad with three meltaguns + dedicated transport
- Veteran Squad two plasma guns and lascanon
- 3 Armoured sentinels with autocannons
- Hellhound flame tank

Danny had over three times as many models as me, a lot of firepower, and several vehicles. He had forgotten to pack his Leman Russ battle tank, so the hellhound and a third sentinel were substitutes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Set-up and deployment

The Mission

Our mission turned out to be Big Guns Never Tire, with three primary objectives (although neither of us had any heavy support for additional scoring units or VPs). The usual secondary objectives were also in force. Deployment used the Vanguard Strike (disgonally across the table). It would also be night for the first turn, a significant handicap for the long-ranged Imperial Guard!

Danny's warlord trait was Conquerer of Cities, unfortunately not particularly useful on the mostly rural battlefield (see deployment pictures below). Mine was a little better, Captain Konch having an Intimidating Presence, potentially useful against the enemy's lower leadership.

After rolling off Danny decided to let me deploy first and hence take the first turn, figuring the night-fighting in effect would prevent him from making good use of the first turn's long range shooting. I deployed my entire force, while Danny did the same with most of his, keeping only the armoured Sentinels in reserve.


Deployment

Here is the final set-up from the Imperial Guard side of the board:



Note the position of the objectives:
- Just in front of the large wood on the guard side of the board
- Between the large ruined building on the left and the central hill on the guard side of the board
- Behind a rock-spire on the left, near the wooden watchtower on the White Scars side of the board (invisible in this picture, see the White Scars first turn image in the next post)

The woods are treated as difficult area terrain giving a 5+ cover save (we don't have enough trees!)

Some highlights of the deployment include Guard rocket launchers utilising the ruins for protection:



More heavy weapons in the ruins



They have an excellent view across the battlefield:



A veteran squad uses the woods as cover (note the objective):



White Scars deploy for a fast assault:



Danny chose not to seize the initiative, so it was my turn first!

The game

White Scars turn 1

Here is the battlefield from the White Scars side:



I have two squads on my right flank, with one in the centre-left, backed up by both speeders and my Captain. The double heavy flamer speeder is deployed forward, while the longer-ranged Typhoon is further back. Danny's troops are deployed in the centre, and in the ruins and woods on the right, the same area as all three objectives.

In my turn I decided to utilise my exceptional speed and the night-fighting to their fullest advantage, and do what White Scars do best: apply overwhelming pressure to the enemy's weak point! To this end, I decided to make a radical redeployment to the centre-left of the battlefield, and go after the enemy there first, making the Guard on the right effectively useless.

The White Scars redeploy:



The heavy flamer speeder moves up:



As everything turbo-boosted there was no shooting to resolve.


Guard turn 1

The Guard were facing a radically different battlefield:



Danny's centre was already threatened. Danny's mobile reserve - veterans in a Chimera and the Hellhound - moved up to reinforce his centre-field.

The veterans in the wood opened fire:



They caused a couple of casualties, but not enough to stop the bikers. Danny's heavy weapons in the ruins also tried to help, but the darkness still made the evading bikers too hard to hit.


White Scars turn 2

The field now looked like this:



The landspeeder with heavy flamers moved up - if it was in range it would be deadly against the guard. As it turned out, it was, and the veterans writhed in a wall of flame, leaving no survivors. First Blood!



The two closest bike squads and Captain Konchi surged forward to threaten the vehicles:



Shooting and assault finished the Hellhound, but the Chimera survived with one hull point left:



Meanwhile Konchi had split off to take an enemy squad in single combat. The Guard couldn't face his martial prowess, broke and were ridden down:




Guard turn 2

Things were already looking grim as the Guard centre was effectively lost:



The veteran's chimera moved back:



It added its fire to the remaining infantry in the centre and the heavy weapons. This cased the nearest bike squad to break with only one biker and the attack bike left. One point of note was that Danny' flamer failed to cause a single wound despite hitting six models...

The one bright spot for Danny was the appearance of the armoured Sentinels. They turned up behind the heavy flamer speeder and opened fire - unfortunately for him they failed to kill it, but they did manage to shake it, so it couldn't fire next turn:




White Scars turn 3

The sentinels posed a problem, but things were still in the White Scars' favour:



The broken biker squad auto-rallied (thanks to ATSKNF) and moved round to threaten the Chimera. They redeemed themselves by destroying it in the shooting phase, charging the veterans that piled out, and destroying them in close combat:



Capt. Konchi assaulted the remaining guard squad in the centre woods (their overwatch flamer fire once again failing to wound), who this time held. The undamaged bikers nearest the enemy infantry opened fire, wiping out all but one of the targeted squad. Their assault failed thanks to the remaining distance and the difficult terrain:



Finally the rearguard bike squad, aided by the Typhoon speeder, shot and assaulted the sentinels, figuring they were less dangerous in combat then firing their autocannon. One was destroyed, but this left two who would have to be glanced to death with krak grenades:




Guard Turn 3

The last White Scars turn had been devastating for the Guard:



The last surviving guardsman from the squad shot by the bikes retreated to sit on the objective:



The squad engaged with the White Scars captain bravely continued fighting:



Otherwise the remaining firepower took down a couple more bikes, but was otherwise ineffective. In close combat the bikers engaging the sentinel were lucky, killing the damaged one and taking off a hull point on the last one.


White Scars turn 4

There weren't many guardsmen left:



The heavy flamer speeder, now able to shoot again, moved up to the missile launcher squad in the ruins, killing two of them:



The bike squad on the right shot and assaulted the remaining infantry squad, annihilating them. Once again their flamer failed to cause any wounds - at this point we decided that the White Scars had been so successful in destroying the guard supply lines that there was a severe promethium shortage, and in fact the flamers were only filled with coloured water!

Meanwhile the last two bikers near the ruins assaulted he command squad (the ruin was too small for them to all fit on the upper floor), and took them out in combat. finally the Captain broke the squad he was fighting.

The fighting was all but over, with only one missile launcher, one lone guardsman, and one damaged Sentinel left on the Guard side, against eleven bikers, both speeders and Captain Konchi. At this point Danny conceded, as there was no way he could win with his remaining forces.

Result - VICTORY FOR THE WHITE SCARS!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Conclusion

Overall I was very pleased with my White Scars first outing. They performed exactly as expected, being able to pick and choose the terms on which they engaged the enemy. At the same time I was also lucky - the first turn's night-fighting definitely favoured me over the guard, and Danny was still getting to grips with 6th ed, so was unprepared for the power of bikers in 40k now. In addition his luck was significantly worse than average - his water-filled flamers being a perfect example!

My force is built around shooting as much as combat - I'm following the maxim of "Shoot the assaulters, assault the shooters" and in this case it worked perfectly. I would say that the unit that surprised me the most was the double heavy flamer Landspeeder - this killed far more than it's 60 point cost, and I suspect it will be a primary target for my Imperial Guard opponents in the future!

While my captain was very effective, I'm not a fan of invincible characters protecting their squads (having been on the receiving end of Lysander + TH/SS termies in the past). Next time I may take the relic blade but leave the artificer armour at home to give my opponent a sporting chance. In return meltabombs on all three biker sergeants will help with tanks and especially walkers like the sentinels - I was very lucky to do as much damage with krak grenades as I did, and a space marine dreadnought or ironclad would have been an entirely different proposition!

Danny was a great opponent, and exceptionally gracious about having his Guard taken apart by my army!

Comments and thoughts are welcome - as mentioned this is a brand new force for me, and I'm expecting to face more and more opposition as players in the area get used to facing a very specialised force...

I had fun reading this. Exciting, quick-paced, and well-shot.

Guard never stood a chance against that wall of bikes!

A really good battle report
I like your use of the pictures, they did a good job of helping me keep track of what was going on

Great report! I always like seeing painted forces battle it out.

Thanks to everyone for the comments!

I think I also learnt little about taking photos for battle reports. I tended to get the camera out at the end of each turn, however sometimes this meant some of the action as missed. Next time I'll try and remember t take a few more 'action' shots while shooting and close combat is ongoing, that'll give an even better idea of events. The 'whole table' pictures at the start of each turn seem to be pretty effective though.

At the start of the report I was wondering how on earth you were going to win, the ensuing slaughter came as quite a surprise. Nice report!

That was an excellent report to read. Good photos, caught most of the action, provided good turn overviews. Good work. I especially enjoyed seeing someone say 'Next time I might not take X, so my opponent might have a better chance'.

Kudos to you sir.

Those poor Guardsmen. He should of had them farther back to try and play out the first turn. I think things could of been different if he didnt have his Guard up so far. Nice read though, and nice victory!

A well written report with good photos!

Very enjoyable read

shamikebab, hubbsey, RMKI and SBG, thanks for your comments, it's nice to know I'm doing a good job of reporting

MarsNZ, I was also a little surprised at how effective things were - with my low model count I thought this force was going to be very sensitive to casualties. I think three things worked in my favour - the night-fighting in the first turn, my opponent's poor dice rolls, and the sheer toughness of bikes, especially when compared to lasguns! I suspect it won't always be this easy...

KingCracker, I deliberately positioned my two objectives so that they would be where I was planning on going anyway, I think this influenced my opponent's deployment. As I expand my force I'm planning on adding some sniper scouts, who can look after an objective in my own back-field if needed. While Danny could have deployed further back, he might have had problems getting back onto the objectives, a difficult choice and one I think is still difficult to call. Also don't forget that might have meant giving up some of his cover...

 Slaanesh-Devotee wrote:
That was an excellent report to read. Good photos, caught most of the action, provided good turn overviews. Good work. I especially enjoyed seeing someone say 'Next time I might not take X, so my opponent might have a better chance'.

Kudos to you sir.

Thank you! While I will play to win against someone in the same skill-bracket as me, I want to know I won based on my tactical skill, rather than because I had the most powerful units. I'd rather have a flavourful, fun army than a super-doom-unit or two that my opponent can't stop - winning isn't everything!

that was a fantastic report and that list looks extremely fun to play. Which codex are you using for it? Do the White Scars still have valid rules or are you adapting a different codex?

Good report.

Looks like the guard player essentially lost during objective placement and deployment. He had a small chance to rally in the 2nd turn, but for some reason moved his guys out of position.

Bringing the walkers in where he did was a really bad choice as they could simply have been ignored; even though you did drop them.

All in all I'd say you won on tactics not firepower. The guard forces had a chance at the beginning but were positioned AND moved badly.

BossGrizznit, the standard Space Marine 'dex allows bike squads of 5+ models to be taken as troops when the army's leader is a captain on a bike. It's not often used (other marine characters usually offer better abilities and army synergy) but it is there, and offers a great way to make a White Scars list. Thanks for your comment!

clively, I think my opponent was faced with some difficult choices, not knowing much about either 6th edition or how my army would play. At the moment I know more about my force works than my opponents, but as others in the local group get used to my White Scars, I expect this to change!

clively, my opponent is looking in on this thread, just out of interest how would you have approached things if you were in his position?

Good battle rep dude! great to see fully painted armies in the pics as well.

This fantastic battle report has inspired me to create my own white scars army. What HQ are you using? Doesn't look like one from the codex.

geordie09, thanks for your comments, feedback is appreciated!

 Nafarious wrote:
This fantastic battle report has inspired me to create my own white scars army. What HQ are you using? Doesn't look like one from the codex.

Awesome, go for it! I've always loved the White Scars background, and 6th edition finally inspired me to create a force of my own.

My HQ is a Space Marine captain on a bike - it can't be anything else otherwise the bike squads would not be troops choices. The model I'm using is a GW one found here. The Ravenwing boxed set was exceptionally useful when creating this army, and there are also a number of re-purposed Dark Vengeance bikes in there as well.

Great batrep. I think your opponents biggest blunder was leaving his LRBT at home. Running his scoring units as a blob would have made overwatch quite scary as well, even for T5 bikes.

 Hedgehog wrote:
geordie09, thanks for your comments, feedback is appreciated!

 Nafarious wrote:
This fantastic battle report has inspired me to create my own white scars army. What HQ are you using? Doesn't look like one from the codex.

Awesome, go for it! I've always loved the White Scars background, and 6th edition finally inspired me to create a force of my own.

My HQ is a Space Marine captain on a bike - it can't be anything else otherwise the bike squads would not be troops choices. The model I'm using is a GW one found here. The Ravenwing boxed set was exceptionally useful when creating this army, and there are also a number of re-purposed Dark Vengeance bikes in there as well.

I plan on looking into no gw options as gw bikes are over priced :(

 troy_tempest wrote:
Great batrep. I think your opponents biggest blunder was leaving his LRBT at home. Running his scoring units as a blob would have made overwatch quite scary as well, even for T5 bikes.

I definitely agree - the LRBT would have had the potential to do a significant amount of damage - the hellhound and extra sentinel didn't really contribute.


Nafarious, that does make sense. As mentioned the Dark Vengeance bikes are pretty common these days, so might be a good place to start

Awesome! Nothing like a fully painted batrep. Great job. That denied flank maneuver was bold, but it looks like it worked out for you very well!

 Xenocidal Maniac wrote:
Awesome! Nothing like a fully painted batrep. Great job. That denied flank maneuver was bold, but it looks like it worked out for you very well!

Thanks The complete complete redeployment is something I've wanted to try, given the extreme speed of the army. It allows me to concentrate all of my force on only a part of the enemy's, something that should allow me to compensate for my low tolerance to casualties...

nice to see another biker army not on the Ravenwing bandwagon!

It's a tough matchup for Guard really, they get a single turn of shooting before getting overwhelmed by close-range assault and firepower. Bike armies are really strong in this edition. (Now imagine if all your bikes could shoot 4 times each at 24"...)

I love how you're thinking of dropping artificer armour because it's too strong...

Good use of the Land Speeders as well. They're good in non-Ravenwing lists.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
nice to see another biker army not on the Ravenwing bandwagon!

It's a tough matchup for Guard really, they get a single turn of shooting before getting overwhelmed by close-range assault and firepower. Bike armies are really strong in this edition. (Now imagine if all your bikes could shoot 4 times each at 24"...)

I love how you're thinking of dropping artificer armour because it's too strong...

Good use of the Land Speeders as well. They're good in non-Ravenwing lists.

Working on an ultramarine bike list, that I am going to use with either codex atm. Are Land Speeders really bad in Ravenwing lists?

Nice!! I just love White Scars, can't paint white though! xDD

Thanks for the comment, Asmodai Asmodean. The guard did have it tough this time around, with not having the first turn and a night-fight. Of course, it doesn't always go their way as my second game proved...

I chose to stick with standard Space Marines rather than go with the Ravenwing because the Dark Angels do feel very different. In addition having to take a very distinctive special character would definitely have changed the force that I'm aiming to build - I decided to create a White Scars army, not a bike army for which White Scars just happened to be the most appropriate chapter

Nafarious, nice to see your plans progressing nicely!

BrotherOfBone, I'm also a terrible painter, as you can see from the pictures. The fact they're painted at all is something of a minor miracle as far as I'm concerned