Every great general – be they Astartes or mortal – understands that the essence of victory is not in self-important parades and brittle battleplans. It is to be unpredictable and uncompromising, to be as cunning and swift as a steely-eyed shadow – and fall upon your foes like a thunderbolt. The White Scars exemplify this creed, to the point that – until the last days of the Horus Heresy – no-one even really knew what side they were on.
What comparatively few Space Marines know, however, is that to reach the true pinnacle of tactical brilliance, you must also be able to pop a totally sweet wheelie while firing your bolter on full auto. That’s right, we’re leaving the sluggish grumblers of the Iron Warriors to their slow-moving – and unflippable – tanks, as we continue our guide to the Legiones Astartes with the White Scars.
Much like the fancy lads of the Dark Angels, the Fifth Legion first saw action during the Unification Wars. While the other Legions were plodding across Terra, these road warriors were using their aptitude for the hunt to ferret dug-in warlords out of their holds. Even when the Great Crusade kicked off, they were split into countless Pioneer Companies, racing out to discover exotic worlds, meet unusual people, and then kill them.
Throughout the Great Crusade the White Scars were, like, totally headstrong free spirits – they’d frequently ignore the commands of anyone below the Emperor himself, certain that they knew best. Their love of speed was matched only by their unflagging self-confidence, and the Legion’s no-scope 720 tactics came to define their attitude to combat. While they did continue to employ stifling Terminator armour and moribund Dreadnoughts, they did so with a sense of obligation and one eye on the open road.
The White Scars’ love of the wind whipping through their topknots is enshrined in the new edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy with a suite of high-speed rules. Want to trade the whining of your footsloggers for the lovely purr of a powerful engine? Select Chogorian Brotherhood as your Rite of War to field an entire army of speed demons, each biker competing to catch the sweetest air.
Like every good Legion, the White Scars take their defining trait to the hilt – of course, you can field infantry… but why would you? A Warlord Born to the Saddle can juice his riding skills to the point that his troops will be doing rad wheel flicks and barspins through even the roughest terrain – and making surprise reaction moves with deadly synchronicity.
If you know one thing about Jaghatai Khan, know this – he whips.* Punted onto the great plains of Chogoris as a mere babe, Jaghatai quickly established himself as a peerless warrior, ruled by none. Within decades, he had conquered the planet’s nomadic tribes, overthrown its imperious rulers, and crowned himself Khan of Khans – a master of refined culture and hit-and-run tactics alike. As we said, he’s rad.
Soon the Great Crusade came to Chogoris, and the man who had toppled one empire found himself bending the knee to another. Whatever his feelings on the Emperor, the Khan became firm friends with Horus Lupercal, who’d worked closely with the V Legion – and honestly, he was just glad to be back in the saddle. It turns out that being Khan of Khans involves a lot of paperwork.
Many in the Imperium considered Jaghatai and his warriors to be crude barbarians – in turn, the Great Khan considered most in the Imperium to be ignorant churls. A shrewd tactician, a master swordsman, and a wise judge of character, Jaghatai valued honesty over rigid protocol and actions over words – no wonder he got under Fulgrim’s skin. Within his Legion he fostered a culture of keen initiative and personal discipline, plus – and we really must stress this – he’s a sick biker.
The Horus Heresy set the galaxy aflame, but the White Scars – usually fashionably early to any fight – nearly missed the party. Occupied with campaigns far beyond the Imperium’s borders, the Khan found himself faced with a barrage of fake news. Even when the Space Wolves demanded his aid, Jaghatai decided to fact-check before picking a side – best of luck, Leman!
The Khan’s ruthless streak – he did, after all, skewer the heads of his enemies outside his tent on Chogoris – would have made him an asset to the Traitor cause. Unfortunately for Horus, it wasn’t to be. Jaghatai sought answers on Prospero, home of the Thousand Sons, where he learned the truth from a spectre of Magnus the Red.
Even when members of his own Legion declared for Horus, lured by the secret handshakes and team-building exercises of the Warrior Lodges, the Khan was unmoved – duelling Mortarion, his smelliest brother, to make his allegiance clear.
The White Scars spent most of the Heresy engaged in a ruthless hit-and-run campaign against Traitor lines. Eventually, the Great Khan rode through the webway itself – an unprecedented act for a human – to discuss strategy with his brothers on Terra. He exasperated them all with his desire for a more proactive approach,** but let Dorn, Russ, and the rest have their way for a time.
Determined to remain ungovernable, the Khan continued to harass the Traitor forces by any means he could. Like a tired dad whose child has heard an ice cream van, Rogal Dorn relented during the Siege of Terra, and let Jaghatai off the leash to do what he did best – leading hundreds of jetbikes in a brutal assault against the ground-pounders of the Death Guard.
Like so many battles fought by the White Scars, it was a merciless strike that turned certain defeat into lightning victory – at one point, Jaghatai threw a Leviathan clean over his shoulder. He even got a second round in with his heretical brother, who was now looking decidedly unwell.
Capricious, reserved, and sometimes downright flaky, the Khan is a man of many mysteries. Scars is an ideal place to start exploring Jaghatai’s fierce spirit and personal code, as the Alpha Legion launch an attack that forces the Primarch of the White Scars to pick a side. Who did he prefer – his pops or his bro?
Path of Heaven provides a real taste of how the V Legion fights, as they blaze a trail of breathtaking battles on the long road back to Terra – after which, Warhawk pits Jaghatai against his bigger, tougher, and much uglier brother Mortarion at the very gates of the Throneworld.
For an earlier look at the Legion, Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris depicts the White Scars at the height of the Great Crusade, as the Khan tries to balance the dangers of psychic Legionaries with the appeal of sick lightning powers.
To get your creative juices flowing, we’ve prepared a video showing how to paint White Scars livery.
If reading all of this has you yearning for the open road, zoom over to the Horus Heresy website, which is absolutely stuffed with information on the new edition of the game, and take the Discover Your Legion quiz to find out if you’re a rad enough person to join the Khan’s Great Horde.
* He probably also nae-naes.
** It’s not like anyone would use bikes in a siege, after all. Right? Right?!