We’re back with another review! This time, Sicarius of the Ultramarines! As always, for more tactics articles, check out the Tactics Corner!
Cato Sicarius, aka, Little Boss, may as will be called Marneus’ Mini Me! Not to detract from the guy but every time I read his abilities, it seriously sounds like a mini version of Calgar. That said, Sicarius is a legendary figure on his own and Captain of the 2nd Company.
Overview:
Like his superior Calgar, Sicarius is primarily a force multiplier and a secondary combat character. He buffs your army and then contributes a bit to the fight, although do not expect him to stand and bang with any heavy hitters as you will only be left disappointed. Send him into light units and he will do just fine.
Wargear:
- Plasma Pistol
- Artificer Armor
- Grenades
- 4++
- Mantle that gives him 5+ FnP
- Tempest Blade: Power Sword that can be used to forgo all of this attacks for a single +2 strength attack with the Instant Death rule.
Special Rules:
- ATSKNF
- Ultramarine
- IC
- Battle Forged Heroes: Grants a single unit of Tacticals one of the following: Counter-Attack, Infiltrate, Scout, or Tank Hunter. Nice!
- Rites of Battle: all Ultramarines use his Ld10 for morale and pinning checks. Nice!
- Surprise Attack: +1 to reserves. Nice…again!
- Warlord: Furious Charge for one turn.
Tactics:
Sicarius is a pretty dang good all around HQ, particularly at low points levels. He weighs in at 90pts less than Calgar and honestly, I think he’s a bit pricey for what you get, but not by much. He has a standard Captain stat line.
His primary purpose is to buff your army and as stated above, his abilities largely mimic Clagar but are toned down. He also buffs your leadership, not quite as good, but still great. Army wide Ld10 is super useful, but doesn’t allow you to choose to run if you want, it is more for sticking around for the long haul. However, it does save you points on not upgrading units to have sarges.
The ability to buff a Tac squad on the fly is nice. As with the theme for Ultramarines, it provides a great sense of flexibility as you can grant a bonus based upon who you are playing. Again, it favors the player that can look at his opponent and the current in-game situation and choose what will benefit him the most.
The bonus to reserves is self explanatory. Increasing the dependability of reserves is ultra useful, particularly if you regularly use reserves such as Storm Talons, Drop Pods, etc.
In a fight, I give Sicarius a B. A power Sword is pretty crummy, honestly, but is offset by the ability to go Super Sayan for a single, Death or Glory attack! Too bad that at AP3 it is pretty limited and the targets he will often be swinging at will typically splat him before he swings, it is still a nice option and can be glorious when it works! With a Plasma Pistol he gets a nice little bonus. On the whole, he really doesn’t have much offensive punch at all, and will be pretty disappointing is you expect him to win combats. He is pretty durable though, with a 2+/4++/5+FnP and 3 wounds, but without EW, one str8+ attack and bye-bye birdie. And, those are very common these days with all the MCs and FMCs running around.
Running Sicarius in a mixed army with infantry would be wise. Tacticals, obviously, and Devs as well as Bikers, Scouts, Assaults, Centurions, etc. who all benefit form his leadership buffs. Drop Pods, Flyers, out flanking units, etc. also benefit as they come in more consistently on turn 2 with his ability. Sicarius himself is best run with an assault type unit to take advantage of his Warlord trait, although, he can go with Sternguard too, and they fight quite well. A Command Squad and Rhino, Razorback or Drop Pod all suit him well, too. He doesn’t fit in an all out assault unit as he is too squishy to bang with the AP2, ID, Str8 units floating around out there. He is best suited for killing non-dedicated assault units where he can overpower weaker models and as such, sticking him with Hammernators for example, probably isn’t wise where he can often get singled out in a challenge he can’t win, or just removed from the fight.
Using his Battle Forged Heroes ability will be the trick to getting the most out of Sicarius. Counter Attack is generally the weakest but if you are playing Orks, Nids, or Daemons, where you know they are coming at you and an MEQ stat line will actually be able to do some damage in a fist fight, it’s not a bad idea, particularly if you won’t have a need to advance at the enemy or use Tank Hunters due to no valid targets for the ability. Scouts helps a great deal if you are going first against a softer army, or a shooting army such as IG or Tau, as it gives you extra distance up the field. Remember, the dedicated transport also gets Scouts which gives you a nice boost. Infiltrate serves the same purpose. Both abilities also confer outflank, which helps a ton if you need a scoring unit to get up-field or come behind enemy lines or to keep them off the table when going second against a shooty army. Lastly, Tank Hunters can be a nice bonus if you find yourself facing armor. A backfield, Las/Plas Tac Squad that sits on an objective can really benefit from this as will a Drop Pod unit coming down with Grav/Melta/Plas and Combi weapon to increase the odds of getting the kill shot, particularly when combo’d with the Tactical Doctrine. Also remember, Tank Hunters is transferred onto any gun you fire such as a Quad Gun or Icarus Las Cannon.
On the whole, I think Sicarius is an OK HQ choice, not great, not bad, but OK. For the points, I can see no reason at all to take him over Tigurius, but, I wouldn’t say it was a terrible choice, either. At 1500pts or so, he is really solid. Above that, Calgar all day as he does all of the same things, better.