“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result
of a hundred battles.”
Sun Tzu, Warmaster c. M1
If you play Warhammer long enough you will collect more than
one army. Players decide to start new
armies for a variety of reasons: the
release of a codex, attempting to create an army from a novel, liking a new
model or paint scheme, etc.
I recently decided to pick up a new army and I would like to
share some thoughts about my experiences so far. Those of you that have seen me in the past
few weeks (or played against me) know that for the first time in three years I’ve
been playing something other than Space Wolves.
By no means have I given up on the Sons of Russ but I’m trying my hand
at something else as well.
Enter the White Scars.
My foray into the White Scars began one evening as I was
sorting through some extra models trying to figure out what to do with them. I realized that I had enough extra Space
Marines to make a new army but had no idea which Chapter that would be. I picked some Tactical Marines left over from
Assault on Black Reach and decided to use them to test out different Chapter’s
paint schemes. Over the next week I
painted a couple of White Scars Tactical Marines and was pleased with how they
turned out.
As most Warhammer players realize, our hobby has many
different facets, i.e. modeling, painting, playing, and background material. Some people like all four parts of the hobby
equally and some players prefer some aspects to others. Whatever part (or parts) of the hobby you
like best, make sure that you’re selecting a new army for a reason that is
reinforced by your favorite parts of the game.
For an example, let’s take a look at my decision to start collecting the
White Scars.
Anyone that’s ever talked to me about Warhammer 40,000 knows
that my favorite Space Marine Legion is the Space Wolves. I’ve read all the available novels and
background material (sometimes twice!) and perhaps most importantly I despise
the Thousand Sons. What does this have
to do with collecting the White Scars? Up
until this point I’ve painted 2 Tactical Marines and 1 Bike, although I do
enjoy painting it is not my favorite aspect of the hobby. Surprisingly I knew very little about the
White Scars. I started my research by
digging through my old copies of White Dwarf for the White Scars Index Astartes
article and have since read a couple of White Scars novels.
Now that I had my paint scheme established (there are
multiple different methods for painting most armies including the White Scars) and
that I liked the White Scars (from a storyline perspective), I needed to get
some Space Marine Bikes.
I now have enough bikes assembled to play 750 points (which
is the current point value of the local Escalation League). Learning to play a new army is difficult and
I’ve always felt that it’s best to start off relatively small so that you can
familiarize yourself with the basic rules of your new troops. For my White Scars this meant a drastic
change in both game rules and play style from Harald Deathwolf’s Great
Company. I’ve had to familiarize myself
with rules like Jink, Relentless, Furious Charge, and Hit & Run while at
the same time get used to not having Fleet, Rending, or Counter-Attack. It’s been a challenging process to learn and
remember all of these new rules while adapting to a more fragile (and fast!)
army.
I learned some valuable lessons during my first few games
(which were all losses). Most
importantly I began the process of learning what the White Scars can and cannot
do. Since I’m still working this out for
the White Scars let me use my Space Wolves as an example. In the early days of my Space Wolves I
thought Thunderwolf Cavalry was nigh invincible. I would regularly charge them headlong into
anything and everything. The first
lesson I learned was that Thunderwolves need Long Fangs for support fire, without
Long Fangs Thunderwolves have to break open the transports themselves, which
even though it’s easy for them to do, hinders the units overall effectiveness
in contributing to the game’s outcome. The
second hard earned lesson I received was that Thunderwolves cannon beat Walkers
in close combat. I figured between one
model having a Str 10 Thunder Hammer and the other model’s Rending attacks I
should be able to destroy a Walker but experience showed otherwise (time and
again). Eventually, I ran some
statistics on the match-up and it was obvious why I lost more frequently than
won.
I’m glad I decided to start a White Scars army. I still have a lot more work to do for every
aspect of my new army (modeling, painting, background reading, and learning how
to play them). I’ve always felt that
late Fall/Winter was a good time to start a new project, in fact I started both
my Salamanders and Space Wolves during the winter.
There are some great resources available to help you if you
decide to start a new army. I mentioned
the Escalation League at Legions but it doesn’t have to be anything that
formal. There are a handful of players
that decided to do the Tale of Four Gamers (detailed in White Dwarf a few years
ago) with each starting a new army for the project. I hear there may be an upcoming campaign at
Gatehouse Games which would present another great opportunity to pick up a new
army. However you decide to approach the
matter, try not to get frustrated by early difficulties – whether it’s a loss
on the table top or difficulty getting the paint scheme the way that you want
it – learn from them.
