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Hey mates. Currently gathering all of the remaining things to build my army up when I was looking at the new White Scars formations and rules from the new Campaign Book. Really like what I see from them and what they can do, however it got me thinking if combining a White Scars Bike army with a few units in Drop Pods would be effective, as I have a few well built ones at the moment. Not saying I want to use a ton of Drop Pod units, was only thinking enough drop pods to field 3 tactical squads or at least run the Skyhammer Formation (Not Necessarily with the White Scars Chapter Tactic), which I think would be very effective with a bike list. Just wanted your guys thoughts on that, and if you have experience playing or going against a Space Marine bike this I would appreciate all the help I can get.

Even without a bike heavy list, White scars are still a good tactic, hit and run is a very powerful ability for marines. Most of our units don't want to be in combat but are decent at lasting the first round, so a 2/3s chance to run and shoot next turn is awesome

HoundsofDemos wrote:
Even without a bike heavy list, White scars are still a good tactic, hit and run is a very powerful ability for marines. Most of our units don't want to be in combat but are decent at lasting the first round, so a 2/3s chance to run and shoot next turn is awesome

That is a good point. Most of the time I have used Skyhammer, I have utilized the IF Chapter Tactic, as not only get rerolls with Bolter Weapons when I run them with Hvy. Bolters awesome against Tyranids, Orks, etc., but getting Tank Hunter with Multi-Meltas is also a very nice thing to have. Plus it is point friendly compared to the Grav-Cannons. Hit& Run would benefit the Assault Marines a lot more, however only thing I am not sure about that is that the whole purpose of the Assault Squads is to get stuck in and to keep opponents/units busy to protect them from being shot up the following turn. Plus, Regular Assault Marines only have access to Flamers for special weapons. Had they been able to take Melta and Plasma gun like there Blood Angel Counter-Part, then I could see the Hit & Run being more effective, but I am new to them at this point.

Besides that, I am also considering using just regular Drop Pod units with my White Scars, such as Tac Squads, to sow confusion and get some units right into my opponents face turn 1x. Plan not to run Dreadnoughts, as it goes against White Scars Fluff and I am already pushing it by planning to use Devastator Marines, as White Scars do not utilize a lot of Heavy Weapons. Basically, should I keep more of the Drop Pods I have or only keep enough to run a Skyhammer Annihilation Force here and there? That's basically the only thing I am still deciding on.

The Skyhammer Assault Formation is what I would shoot for first and worry about adding on drop pods later. Also the fact that there are only 2 devastators squads in the formation it would fit the fluff of the White Scars not utilizing a large amount of heavy weapon / devastators.

Actually, the white scars fluff says that they don't use devastator squads at all. You could hand wave this by saying that it's an impromptu battlefield formation.

From Index Astartes: "The White Scars preferred fighting style does not allow them the use of as many heavy weapons as other chapters and as a result they have no devastator squads."

 Scott-S6 wrote:
Actually, the white scars fluff says that they don't use devastator squads at all. You could hand wave this by saying that it's an impromptu battlefield formation.

From Index Astartes: "The White Scars preferred fighting style does not allow them the use of as many heavy weapons as other chapters and as a result they have no devastator squads."

Appreciate the clarification mate. But honestly I'm surprised that with the popularity of space marine bike armies, no one has commented on if drop pod units are effective with a bike army and if so, would I be better off running multiple units of them or just run enough drop pods to use skyhammer annihilation force? Currently only plan tonuse at the moment but if anyone has any examples that differ I would appreciate it.