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I've been sitting on the SM half of the Elite Starter set for a while now and have been contemplating starting a small marine army. I figured going with White Scars would be the best way to make use of what I currently have. The store I play at goes for smaller size games, either 500 or 1000 points. So I am trying to come up with a 500pt list for now and maybe later a 1000pt list.

I'm open to any suggestions to go along with what I've got.


Primaris Captain /w master-crafted sword and storm shield
Primaris Lieutenant /w neo-volkite pistol, power sword and storm shield
5x Assault Intercessors
3x Outriders

From my experience with White Scars so far, the biggest issue is Armour of Contempt. It turns the AP-1 Chainswords on bikes in quite useless weapon when you play against an astartes army (odds are high). So to circumvent that I use aggressors and bladeguards. While Aggressor shooting sucks, people are scared a.f. when you tell them 3 models have 4d6 hits with flamer. But the real oomph lies in the AP and multidamage.

I quite like the thought of a kratos in WS because there was a strat iirc that turns all weapons in to assault, allowing your tank to advance and shoot without any penalties.

Despite this: Generic Marines have access to a ,All Doctrines are active‘ Strat for 2 CP that will be your best friend to up the damage of your meele units by accessing the sweet +1 meele damage earlier than turn 3

Vanguard Veterans with jump packs and lightning claws are great in any marine chapter and the advance+charge from WS gives them an impressive threat range. Only being AP2 hurts a little into AoC but they're still a solid choice between the extra attacks and reroll wounds.

Centurion assault squad is a huge hammer that can get excellent mileage out of the ability to advance and charge. Apothecary is a great support for them since they're very tough and you can use a strat to bring back the dead. These are a bit more of a niche choice than VanVets though. they do make an excellent Distraction Carnifex that can wreck things if ignored.

charles_the_dead_lizzard wrote:


Despite this: Generic Marines have access to a ,All Doctrines are active‘ Strat for 2 CP that will be your best friend to up the damage of your meele units by accessing the sweet +1 meele damage earlier than turn 3

What strat they have? They have 2cp strat to make specific doctrine that i know but never heard of that superior version.

Albeit not that it often has big impact but some　units would like that.

tneva82 wrote:

charles_the_dead_lizzard wrote:


Despite this: Generic Marines have access to a ,All Doctrines are active‘ Strat for 2 CP that will be your best friend to up the damage of your meele units by accessing the sweet +1 meele damage earlier than turn 3

What strat they have? They have 2cp strat to make specific doctrine that i know but never heard of that superior version.

Albeit not that it often has big impact but some　units would like that.

Adaptive Strategy is the 2CP strat that puts a core unit in all 3 doctrines for the battle round.

 Warlawk wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

charles_the_dead_lizzard wrote:


Despite this: Generic Marines have access to a ,All Doctrines are active‘ Strat for 2 CP that will be your best friend to up the damage of your meele units by accessing the sweet +1 meele damage earlier than turn 3

What strat they have? They have 2cp strat to make specific doctrine that i know but never heard of that superior version.

Albeit not that it often has big impact but some　units would like that.

Adaptive Strategy is the 2CP strat that puts a core unit in all 3 doctrines for the battle round.

Is that true?

Use this Stratagem in your Command phase, if a <CHAPTER> WARLORD from your army is on the battlefield and a combat doctrine is active for your army. Select one <CHAPTER> CORE unit from your army that is on the battlefield. Until the start of your next Command phase, each time a model in that unit makes an attack, the Devastator Doctrine, Tactical Doctrine and Assault Doctrine are considered to be active for that attack.

I thought white scars had advance and charge in the assault doctrine? But unless FAQ it only counts for attacks, not charge.

Compare it to Bestival nature:

Use this Stratagem in your Command phase if a combat doctrine is active for your army. Select one SPACE WOLVES INFANTRY, SPACE WOLVES CAVALRY or SPACE WOLVES BIKER unit from your army. Until the start of your next Command phase, that unit gains the bonus of the Assault Doctrine instead of the active combat doctrine.

You are correct that it is only for the purposes of attacks and they are not considered to be in that doctrine for other abilities.

White scars can advance/fall back and charge any time however, not just while assault doctrine is active so there's no interaction there.