Hello all!
Rawdogger here to take the edge off a bit and get your minds thinking of something other than horrible, horrible Space Elves. Today I wanted to talk about a real bro. The kind of bro that will drop anything, even a righteous fish taco from that legit Mexican café in the bad part of town to help you out of a jam. I’m talking about a bro that will move mountains, even if that means getting his Four Star hat and Tap Out shirt dirty. This bro I’m talking about? Oh just super hunk Marneus Calgar of course.
Recently I found myself looking for a tough dude with Eternal Warrior to tank wounds for my beloved Centurion squad. I also have been tending to build drop pod Ultramarine lists so why not add THE Ultramarine to the mix? Honestly, in the world that competitive 40K has become with D Slaps, re-rollable 2+ saves, 5 Hive Tyrants, etc I have really stopped even trying to build a competitive list and have started to just build lists that I think are cool and will be fun to play. Marneus Calgar is just the right mix of competitive and fun so I thought I’d share with you all just what it is about this muscly armed super hunk that I just find irresistible! (That sentence sounded better in my head)
The Stats – Homeboy is rocking the basic Space Marine Captain stats we all know and love but with an extra wound and attack because he’s buff. Unlike a regular Captain, however, he is wearing a pimp suit of artificer armor for a tasty 2+ save. As per usual he gets an Iron Halo for a 4+ Invul save. Calgar has the Eternal Warrior special rule, so those Lascannon or S10 shots won’t be troubling him none, though Strength D will still ruin his shit (along with the rest of the models in the game).
He Keeps TWO Pimp Hands Strong – Marneus is wearing the Gauntlets of Ulramar, which are 2 individual Power Fists that each fire 2 bolter shots that are AP 2. NICE ONE. This gives him 6 S8 attacks on the charge. If for some reason you don’t feel like slangin them fists he also comes with a power sword for some reason so you can use that. Also, just to add in something MORE badass he gets to re-roll armor penetration rolls or glancing hits to vehicles in close combat. Kind of situational but still nice to have in your pocket.
Warlord Trait – Though there are really no good Warlord traits in the Space Marine book, Marneus Calgar gets to roll three dice and pick whichever number he wants. If you are really lucky you might get the one that makes his unit cause Fear.
Armor of Antilochus – For 10 measly points you can upgrade his artificer armor to the Armour of Antilochus which is a suit of Terminator Armor that does not prevent sweeping advances and has a teleport homer. Really the best reason to give him this upgrade, despite the fact that GW only sells him in this kit packaged with the crappy Honor Guard, is so that he can fire his orbital bombardment when he moves. Speaking of ….
Laser of Death – Marnues, like all Chapter Masters, has access to the Orbital Bombardment. The is a one shot, unlimited range S10 AP 1 Ordinance Barrage. It’s a nasty little surprise that you can ‘forget’ to tell your opponent he has. Just kidding, you’ll most likely forget that you even have it. I try to line it up with servo skulls if I have them since that allows the scatter to just be on one D6.
God of War – As befitting such a studly hero, Marneus Calgar allows all units with the Ultramarine faction to choose either to pass or fail any morale check they are called upon to make. This is extremely beneficial. I don’t know how many times I’ve either failed a key morale check (or PASSED one) which cost me the game. Not having to worry about such trivial things makes me feel superior to my opponent, which is very important. He also allows you to use the Ultramarine Chapter Tactic twice, which in my Drop Pod/Centurion shooty heavy list a great asset since one of their Tactics is rerolling 1’s (or all hits for Tactical Marines) when shooting. Being able to do this twice is huge and really makes Marneus the better pick over a regular Chapter Master in Terminator Armor.
So let’s hear from some of you who take Marneus Calgar in your Ultramarine lists. What are some of best things he does for your army? Why is the Eldar codex so overpowered?
he’s great for when you want a unit to tie up a wraithkngiht, stick around, and if theres anyone left, run away so it can be shot at in your turn. he is just so darn lovely:)
Kinda getting tired off all the QQ over Eldar. In all honesty I pulled my WK from my list. Dude is a HUGE liability in today’s meta. First off, dude misses a lot, or rolls ones to wound. Not sure why that is, but it is what it is. I have lost him turn one so many times it’s silly. If you let him get into CC, you deserve that beating. The one thing he is good at is killing Imp Knights. Seriously, if you are in PDX I’ll play a game and switch armies with you. Heck, I’ll even coach you.
The old grey knights faq specifically stated that you couldn’t use servo skulls to reduce orbital strike scatter.. Is this not valid any more now there’s a new codex? (Albeit one that doesn’t contain orbital strikes or servo skulls at all)
Servo skull in the Inquisition codex doesn’t disallow Orbital Strikes. So no nothing stops you from using them to get 1d6 scatter on Orbital Bombardment.
Other than the Orbital Strike rules themselves, you mean?
“If an arrow is rolled on the scatter die, an orbital bombardment always scatters the full 2d6.”
But hey, when you roll a Hit you get to reduce it to d6 scatter, so you’re not wholly wrong!
“Likewise friendly blast templates placed within 12″ of a Servo-skull roll one D6 less for scatter.”
Servo skull goes before the roll and has you roll 1d6 not 2d6 so an Orbital Strike would go 6″ in the direction of the arrow. If you can manage to roll 2d6 with one dice I’ll be impressed.
1d6″ not 6″
Marnues 😛 also don’t you mean he has the Chapter Master stat line not captain?
Lol did I mispell the name even with the book right in front of me? Time for editing magic!
At trios last year, I watched Calgar single handedly kill two hive tyrants in two subsequent combat rounds. Total Beast Mode.
Oh totally! As long as he’s making those 4+ invuls he’ll tear apart anything.
I had such a great laugh when he completely botched his assault my helbrute and got squashed in two turns. Consider that narrative reforged. 🙂
As long as he has someone to Lookout Sir D-slaps onto, he actually stands a solid chance of causing severe damage to a knight on the charge with his number of attacks, Strength 8, and reroll vs armor.
And then the Knight stomps him out of existence. “lol 6 ur dead”
Yeah, but you can say that about anything I suppose. Even without rolling a 6 on the stomp regular D attacks will wipe him out if you fail to roll 4’s. I fail 75% of my 4 up rolls 50% of the time, lol.
lol
On the warlord trait, hiSpirit ability to usually get storm of fire is good for cent star for the reason if you fail to get prescience off on a key turn
My two fondest memories of Marnues Calgar.
1. In 2nd Edition, my buddy wouldn’t shut up about how awesome Calgar was and how he was going to wipe out my Orks and blah blah blah. I one shotted him with a meltagun my Nob was using. He had telescopic legs. SCREW YOU, CALGAR!
2. In 5th Edition, my buddy was using him and talking all this smack, he deep struck him and some termie bros in my backline near my lootas. I shot up his termie bros, but Calgar remained. He charged full into my 12 lootas and was killed before he could swing his fists. *flex* SCREW YOU, CALGAR!
HOW DARE YOU, SUH!
He has silly big hands. Silly I say! Not like my cool Klaws. 😛
Love your articles Rawdog, they are always quite entertaining. I am pretty sure in the BRB it says you can’t re-roll a re-rolled dice. Unless I am misinterpreting the double chapter tactics thing?
Oh no I meant that he can do the same Chapter Tactic twice when you can only do it once normally. So he can do the re-roll hits on two different turns, which is great for drop pod tac squads. Sorry I don’t really know how to write.
Ohhhhh I didn’t realize it was a one time use or that would have probably clicked…. I don’t play marines!!! lol
he truly is a boss.. nice article haha
Forgot about the double chaper tactic, that exra round of shooting rerolling 1s is very nice.
Raw Dogger, why are you comparing his stats to a captain? He’s the CHAPTER MASTERS of the Ultramarines