Hi everyone, Michael here with a review of the Ultramarines 2nd Company Captain, Cato Sicarius. For more reviews, analyses and battle reports, check out the Tactics Corner.
Overview:
Captain Sicarius’ primary role in the army is as a force multiplier, providing some nice buffs to the army he leads. He also has a bit of combat potential, with some additional special rules to give him a boost in combat and a Relic that could prove quite useful under the right circumstances. He comes with a Space Marine Captain’s stats and costs a Power Fist shy of 200 pts.
Wargear:
- Plasma Pistol
- Frag and Krak Grenades
- Iron Halo
- 2+ Armour Save
- Talassarian Tempest Blade- An AP3 Power Weapon. Sicarius can choose to make a single attack with the sword that is +2S with Instant Death.
Special Rules:
- ATSKNF
- Chapter Tactics (Ultramarines)
- Feel No Pain
- Furious Charge
- Independent Character
- Rites of War (Warlord Trait)- All models in the Warlord’s detachment may use his Leadership value.
- Battle-forged Heroes- On deployment, you can give a friendly Ultramarines Tactical Squad either Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Scout or Tank Hunters for the whole game.
- Surprise Attack: If Sicarius is alive and on the battlefield, you get +1 to your reserve rolls.
Tactics:
Captain Sicarius is a pretty good HQ choice in an Ultramarines army, he is expensive for what you get, but not by too much.
I think that his primary role is in buffing the army with his special rules. Getting +1 to your reserve rolls is a nice bonus, ensuring that your reserves will arrive on a 2+ from turn 2 onwards. This bonus would obviously favour an army with units held in reserve, such as those containing flyers, multiple drop pods or outflanking units such as Scout Bikers or Scouts. As long as Captain Sicarius is on the table, your reserves should be much more reliable.
In addition, having Sicarius as your warlord makes all your units Leadership 10, really helping to boost the morale and staying power of a Space Marine army. The Rites of War warlord trait states that the models MAY use his leadership value, but they don’t have too. This means you can choose to roll against your normal leadership if you want the chance to flee from a particular combat.
The ability to buff a Tactical 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. Tank Hunter will be useful on a unit of Tactical Marines in a drop pod armed with meltaguns. Infiltrate and Scout are great for giving you more options for deployment or Outflanking and Counter-attack could be useful for a squad holding an objective likely to receive a charge from the enemy army.
In combat, Sicarius is not slouch, but he is not amazing either. With Furious Charge and an AP3 power weapon, he should be able to take on any marine equivalents with ease. His weapon also gives him the option of making a single S6 attack (S7 on the charge) with Instant Death. You are unlikely to be able to take out a Riptide or Tyranid nasty, but it could be useful against units with poorer armour and multiple wounds such as an Ork Warboss or other mid-level combat character.
Captain Sicarius has a decent level of durability. A 2+ armour save, 4++ and Feel no Pain with 3 wounds is pretty decent. He should do well against standard infantry, but will fall quickly to any dedicated combat units or characters and a single S8 wound has the potential to take him out in one shot.
Running Sicarius in a mixed army with infantry would be wise. Tacticals, obviously, and Devastators as well as Bikers, Scouts, Assault Marines, Centurions, etc. who all benefit from his leadership buffs. Drop Pods, Flyers, Outflanking units, etc. also benefit as they come in more consistently from turn 2 with his ability. He is best suited for killing non-dedicated assault units where he can overpower weaker models.
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. Scout 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 on the battlefield. Remember, the dedicated transport also gets Scout, which gives you a nice boost. Infiltrate serves the same purpose. Both abilities also confer Outflank, which helps a lot if you need a scoring unit to get upfield or come on 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 armour. A backfield, Lascannon/Plasma gun Tactical Squad that sits on an objective can really benefit from this, as will a Drop Pod unit coming down with Grav/Melta/Plasma and a 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 Lascannon.
On the whole, 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 1500 pts or so, he is really solid and provides some really nice buffs to the army that you can’t get with a regular Captain.
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