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Supplement Ultramarines: Part 2 – Everything but the Characters

Faitherun

Strong, Stoic and Blue. The Ultramarines kick their book up a gear once we get past the Characters. Covering Warlord Traits, Psychic powers, Relics and Stratagems, join me on a look at how well the 13th legion compares to their brethren. For more awesome tactical content, check out the Tactics Corner!

Welcome back to part two of the Ultramarines review. If you missed part 1, you can find it here. While their Characters left a bit to be desired, the good news is, those are only for a Pure Ultramarines’ army. If you follow the common wisdom and go successor, (say, Master Artisans and Stealthy?), you can’t use any of those anyways. This below is what you get as a toolkit to play with.

First, just a quick review – If you read the first article feel free to skip down to where the Warlord Traits starts

I am going to be using the ranking system utilized on several other reviews, detailed as such

Ranking System

Chapter Tactic

A detachment of Ultramarines gains two unique abilities. Firstly, they get +1 leadership on every unit. This is middling at best – it means a 5 man unit of basic marines will need to lose 4 instead of 3 men to even have a chance to fail morale. Seeing as they can always re-roll their morale checks anyways, this is just ok. It is their second trait that is fairly good. When a unit falls out of combat, it may still fire it’s weapons, albeit at -1 to shoot with. Per the FAQ, units with the fly keyword can shoot normally as they typically can. This is a nice ability to have. It makes shutting down Ultramarines firepower via combats impossible outside of tri-pointing a unit. This is a nice ability to have, but these two are not enough to convince me to stick as Ultramarines. The common traits of Master Artisans and Stealthy work just as well with Ultras as they do everyone else. The Special Characters are nice, but not enough of a draw to stick pure Ultramarines. It’s not bad – but it’s not amazing either.

Scions of Guilliman

If your entire Army is Ultramarines, or the same Ultramarines Successor chapter, you gain this bonus. Whilst the Tactical Doctrine is active, all units may be treated as having remained stationary for the purposes of shooting, provided they did not fall back or advance this turn. This is strong. This allows any unit with bolter discipline to always double tap at the full range. For Heavy Weapons to fire on the move. This takes a lot of units that were simply decent and moves them up to being threatening.

A note on Successor Chapters: As is the case with all the Supplements, if a chapter is a Successor, they may replace the word Ultramarine in all the below powers, traits, strats etc with their own chapter word. In addition, if the entire army is Pure Ultramarine, or pure Successor (same Successor -no mixing and matching) they get access to Scions of Guilliman above. As of the November 2019 White Dwarf, a single Inquisitor model may join any Space Marine army and not forfeit their ‘pure’ requirement for Combat Doctrines.

Warlord Traits

Ultramarines and their progeny get access to 6 unique traits. None of them will fly off the pages and slap you in the face with how amazing they are, but they are almost all very, very solid. There are some good options for combos here as well

Adept of the Codex: This is your CP farming trait. On a 5+ per CP you spent, you may get another CP back. This was the old trait Ultramarines had, and it was a bit lackluster before – but that was because the stratagems Marines had access to were lackluster. This is rather useful now, as you will be burning a lot of CP. While not my first pick, it can be a nice secondary to pick up on a low-value character. Efficient

Master of Strategy: Once per battle round, this warlord may nominate a friendly Ultramarine unit within 6″. That unit counts as having the tactical doctrine active when it makes an attack, until the end of the battle round. This is an interesting one. As written, you may do this at any point in the battle round. Your turn. Your opponents turn. Movement phase. Whenever. This can be used to make a vehicle move and fire without penalty. Or can let a unit deepstrike and then count as stationary turn one. This is very flexible. Note, that the ability also does not say it replaces the current doctrine with tactical, but rather that it counts as being in the tactical doctrine. This means you can pick up the bonus for Devastator or Assault doctrine and still get Scions of Guilliman activated too. Have your cake, and eat it too! Competitive

Calm under Fire: The warlord gains a 6″ aura, within which any units that fall back and elect to shoot do not suffer the -1 to do so. This trait is fairly solid – except for one thing. In order to actually use this, you have the be Pure Ultra – no supplement allowed. In such an army this makes for an extremely strong ability, especially as it is checked during the shooting phase. That means you can fall units back towards the Warlord to get within range of his aura. If it were not for the Pure Ultramarine caveat, this would be Competitive. Efficient

Paragon of War: When a natural 6 to wound is rolled in by the warlord with a close combat weapon, the attack does an additional mortal wound. My immediate thought goes to a Teeth of Tera Captain. Able to get up to 10 attacks (4 base, charge, Imperium Sword trait, Might of Hero’s, +3 from Teeth of Tera), that is probably 1-2 mortals that will slip through. Not amazing, and a lot of resources into him, but rather fun to make a blender captain. This is probably best taken on Captain Sicarius, if it were not for how bad taking named characters as warlords is. Still, its a fun one. Situational

Nobility Made Manifest: Friendly Ultramarine Infantry and biker units may Heroically Intervene as if they were Characters whilst within 6″. This is sneaky. Turns your gunline into a prickly porcupine. Staring down at a melee rush army? This can serious blunt any attacks they make. The neat thing too is that the intervention need not be towards the character. This can seriously increase the range and threat of you line. I especially like intercessors with a CC weapon on the Sargent. Again, this is not a first pick trait, but it is a lovely one to have in your back pocket as you look across the table at what your opponent is running, and I see using it more times than not. Competitive

Warden of Macragge: This allows the Warlord to Heroically intervene 6″ instead of 3″. Space Marines can make some decent combat threat characters, and this allows them to threaten a longer range. However, Ultramarines tend to not be a heavily assault oriented army, so this may only take effect every now and again. It is very powerful when it does, but it’s better suited with a different supplement. Efficient

Relics

Ultramarines have some very decent relics. While few of the jump off the page at me, what they do do is allow you to further enhance a certain build type or shore up some weaknesses.

The relics of the Ultramarines, like all other supplements, are broken into two categories. Relics of Macaragge, which are limited* to pure Ultramarines lists only, and Special issue Wargear, which successors and ‘Ultras both may access.

*Barring a strat to allow successor chapters to pick up a Ultras relic

Relics of Macaragge

Soldier’s Blade: This replaces a power sword, master crafted power sword, or combat blade. The combat blade is the one that interests me the most. It becomes Str +1, ap -4, and 2 damage. A Captain in Phobos Armor likes to be able and pick this up for free, giving him a bit more punch in combat than he would otherwise have. This is not a bad relic, but it’s not one to burn a lot of CP to take. Other relics are better, but this will not disappoint, if you get to use it. That, to me, is the biggest issue with CC weapon relics – they can be very hard to get on a character that can really make use of it, and any Marine who can is able to take the Burning Blade instead, which is just hands down better. Efficient

The Sanctic Halo: This is an interesting one. It gives a Captain of Chapter Master a 3++, and allows them to deny a power as if they were a psycher. This is basically a storm shield without having to pay for it – allowing a Captain to take a different weapon option. Or it can go on Primaris Captains who can not take a storm shield. The added benefit of denying a power is just gravy. I would throw this on a Primaris, non-warlord Chapter Master to make a decently hard to kill character who is not a huge threat in and of itself. Competitive

The Standard of Maccarage Inviolate: Any Ancient model may take this relic. It is probably one of the best Relics an Ancient can take, even considering Faith and Fury. It adds one to the attacks of all models of units within 6″. It also allows models within 12″ to auto pass morale. Morale is whatever, but the +1 attack can combo with some other pieces to really, really make Ultras an unsuspecting threat in combat, just by shear weight of attacks. Efficient

Armor of Konor: This model has a 4++ and halves all damage. This is not the Salamanders. While this relic is tempting to take on a key character, it is not going to save them. The only characters who can take this are Toughness 4. Halving damage is nice, but if you are having to take a lot of saves it will not save you. You are better off with the Sanctic Halo, unless you already used that and want another improved invul on a character… Situational

Helm of Censure: When resolving an attack, you may re-roll a hit and a wound roll of 1. In addition, when targeting a Heretic Astartes or Adeptes Astartes model, you may add one to the hit and wound roll. Adding one to the hit and wound roll is nice, but being limited to only to Marines is a bit of a let down. The re-rolls are only a single for each hit and wound as well. This relic feels like the writers were a bit too scared of making it good. As noted by NinteyNineNo in the comments below, this is for all hit rolls. I am not sure that this bumps this above situational though, as sure Marine are prevalent but only if you are facing them does this relic do anything It could be an ok buy, but I am not sure what character would want to pick it up. Maybe if this were an Aura instead of just applying to the character it could be a budget Captain/LT combo, but it is not. Situational

Vengeance of Ultramar: This replaces a storm bolter and becomes a rapid fire 4 storm bolter, which vs non-vehicles, can re-roll the wound roll. For two points, being able to chuck 8 shots down the field is not too shabby. It is also not amazing. Marines have enough other very good relics, and just good relics that this one gets passed up. Situational

Tarentian Cloak: This model get a 5++ and auto regens d3 wounds at the start of each of your movement phases. Captains and Chaplin already get a better invul, so this is for a Libby, Techmarine, Ancient, Apothecary, or Champion to take. Of those, only the Libby is really worth investing in, unless you are going vehicle heavy with a Master of the Forge Techmarine with one of his Warlord traits. It is a nice way to get a invul onto a character that cannot get one, but it’s not so amazing as to be a top consideration. If you are having to heal the character, chances are your screens are already down or you have over extended, but it is a nice feature to have as well. Efficient

Only the Sanctic Halo really stands out above, but there are a few decent choices sprinkled in as well.

Special Issue Wargear

This list starts off with the standard four options available to every suppliment; Adamantine Mantle (5+ feel no pain), Artificer Armor (2+/5++ save), Master crafted weapons (+1 damage on one weapon) and Digital Weapons (a bonus attack that if it hits, does a mortal). None of these are very exciting, although some may have a place in armies, they do not lend Ultras anything unique. Let’s take a look at those that only the sons of Guilliman may take.  

Reliquary of Vengeance: The bearer may at the start of the fight phase, once per game, reveal this Reliquary. Once done, all units within 6″ may add one to each models attacks. This is a nice and straightforward relic that increases the threat of units. You want to try and catch large units and a few of them when you activate this. I could see some sneaky play between this and the Nobility Made Manifest Warlord Trait for getting even more units in to the fight. If built for, this can really catch an opponent off guard. Efficient

Seal of Oath: I am gonna be honest, I thought this relic was sub par. Then I got it used on me and I saw just how good it is. At the start of the first battle round, but before the first turn, you may elect an enemy unit. That is the target of the Oath. Whilst any friendly <CHAPTER> units are within 6″ of the bearer of this relic, they get full re-rolls to hit and to wound vs that target. This can really make killing a big tough unit a lot easier and can mess up your opponent’s plans. I would not take this relic as a main one, but rather a pickup if your opponent has a good target, but when he does, this one can wreck it. It even applies to overwatch, which can really surprise someone. Competitive

Hellfury Bolts: This is the special amo option for Ultras. Like all the others, it must be on a bolt weapon, and you can elect to fire it instead of it’s normal shots. You get one shot, and, if it hits, it does a single mortal wound to the target. That is all folks. A single mortal can be nice, but it is typically not going to tip the game in your favor. If this was an option on a gun, and not a relic, it might we worthwhile, but as a relic, I’ll pass. Situational

Sunwrath Pistol: This is one of the best pistol relics GW has made – which is like saying this is one of the nicest screen doors I have seen on a submarine. Relic pistols are not good, due to the limited range, limited number of shots, and other better options both wargear and relic wise. This one replaces a Plasma Pistol and becomes str 8, ap -3 and 2 damage as a pistol 2. “But Faitherun”, I hear you say, “That is actually a good profile!” And I agree, if it were not a pistol. Why? Because at 12″ (15″ with long range marksman), your character is in very real danger of getting assaulted and/or shot. And if he has a plasma pistol, then he had to give up something else to get it. A Captain had to give up either his storm shield, or his CC weapon. A Chaplin could take this sure, but then he is giving up the Benediction of Fury relic, which I’d much rather have. If this was a Rapid fire 1 at 24″, I’d say it was good. Then, you can make use of it. But at 12″, and pistol (so no other shots unless you have multiple pistols, which you don’t). Perhaps the only way to really use this is on a Sargent – but the only Sargent’s who can take plasma pistols are non-primaris marines. Of those, maybe a bike Sargent or an Assault Squad Sargent could be decent…  Situational

Ultramarine relics are not bad, but they are also not amazing. As is with the entire book, it requires you to dedicate to certain builds, and then use the options to further enhance that build. This is actually a very strong way to play, despite nothing in and of itself seeming to be overly strong. The sum is more than it’s parts.

Psychic Powers

Ultramarines as a whole probably have the best set of psychic powers out of all the supplements. Few of them are amazing (see a pattern yet?), but they are all solid. A few can stand out more verse certain match ups. There is a strong pull for a Chief Librarian with the High Scholar trait, as it allows the Librarian to really extend their coverage.

Precognition: With a Warp Charge (WC) of 5, this power gives the psycher a 5++ and makes them -1 to be hit. This is a decent power, especially if you are not wanting to spend the CP for a relic, or giving the libby a different relic. While this would not be a first pick for me, it is a nice one to have in the tree especially latter in the game when screens may have dropped and the libby is getting more attacks sent their way. Efficient

Scryer’s Gaze: This is a very, very nice power. The WC is a tad high at 7, but it allows you to do one of two things. Either, you can get an extra CP, or if you elect not to do that, you may when making an attack with a friendly Ultramarines unit within 18″, choose to re-roll a hit, wound, or damage die. This is good in that you can get CP back, or you may save CP on a re-roll. This is very nice as well as you can still use a CP re-roll on that unit, or another this turn too. This makes your army able to keep the pressure up for much longer, especially when combined with the Adept of the Codex trait. Competitive

Telepathic Assault: Another WC 7 power, this one is not as good. You select a visible enemy unit with 24″ and roll 2d6+2  and compare to the highest Leadership (LD) of the targeted unit. For every point by which you beat that LD, that unit take a mortal wound. This has some fringe benefits vs things like gaunts. If running soup, a Salamanders Libby can potentially get a -4 LD mod on a unit, which you could then run it in and hit the targeted unit with this power… That is a lot of cogs to make this work, but it could be sneaky… Imagine hitting a Knight for 8 mortal wounds… Not bad, but that also is just about never going to happen. Situational

Storm of the Emperor’s Wrath: I actually like this one. It has it;s benefits in certain situations, but in that case it is pretty decent. WC 6 helps make it better than the aforementioned Telepathic Assault. Like that one, you select a visible enemy unit, although withing 18″. You roll a d6 for every model in that unit, and on a roll of a 6, they take a mortal wound. Any unit with more than 12 models this is worth casting on, especially if you have already used a smite that turn. Against a 30 man unit, say of Orks or Gaunts, this will hit for an average of 5 dead. Not too bad that. Of course, vs multi wound units of a few bodies (Centurions, Skyweavers, etc), this is not that good. But pick your target well and it can hurt. Efficient

Psychic Shackles: This is another very good power. WC 6 makes it quite reasonable to cast. You select an enemy unit within 18″ and visible. That unit halves their movement, and subtracts one from the charge and advance rolls for it. Anytime you can control or limit your opponent’s movement is very good. This also does not have the restriction that Tremor Shells has of not being able to target units that can fly. Competitive

Empyric Channeling: WC 5, this power lets you select another Ultramarines Libby within 12″ and give them +2 to cast until the end of this phase. It also allows them to not suffer perils on a double 1 or double 6. This is very good, bringing the highest WC of any power down to a 5. It is a pity this power cannot be used on the caster, or else it’d be an auto take on Tiggy. Even so, this is very good. Competitive

Ultramarines get at least half of their powers to be very good, while two others are good in the right situation. They are not ones that are a huge threat to the enemy either, and so may not be the first target of priority, but they will contribute to your success a good bit.

Stratagems

Finally we come to the Ultramarine Stratagems. With two pages of them, they have a good number that are rather specific to a situation. But having a tool box of items to use when that situation occurs helps to make every unit a threat at all times

1CP – Martial Precision: Use this strat before a unit makes an attack in the shooting phase. A single attack (not weapon, attack) automatically hits – no need to roll a die. This one is eh. They are fringe cases where this is a very good strat – anything that has a lot of negatives to hit. This could be nice to send a Lascannon or Melta shot into a big target… but most of the time this is just not worth the 1CP. Situational

1CP – Vengeance For Calth: This strat is used in the fight phase when an Ultramarines unit is attacking a Word Bearers unit. You may re-roll the hit and wound rolls. This is versus such a specific target unit, it can’t help but be Situational

1CP – Inspiring Command: Use this strat at the start of the shooting or fight phase. A Captain, Chapter Master, or Lieutenant may increase the range of that model’s aura by 3″ until the end of that phase. Not a bad strat, probably best used on a Chapter Master. Note, this will not carry over to any relics it holds as it explicitly states the models’s aura’s. Still, this can be nice to push that re-roll aura out and catch more models with it. Efficient

1CP – Cycle of War: If your warlord is still alive, and the Assault Doctrine was active the previous turn, you can go back to the Dev Doctrine. I am not sure when one would use this, but it is a very nice ability to have. Between this and Adaptive Strategy, you have a lot of flexibility in the Doctrines. That being said, I see most Ultramarines going to Tactical and just sitting there. Situational

2CP – Adaptive Strategy: At the start of the first battle round, but before the first turn you may use this strat. It allows you to remove up to three Ultramarines units from the battlefield and redeploy them as described in the deployment section for that mission. This is very good. Anything that allows you to move units after your opponent has deployed is nice, and it occurs after you know who is going first including seize rolls. It also offers a bit of unpredictability for your opponent to know exactly what your units will do. Competitive

1CP – Sons of Guilliman: You may use this when an Ultramarines Infantry or Biker unit is chosen to make an attack in the shooting or fight phase. If that unit is a troop choice, it may re-roll a hit roll. Otherwise you may re-roll a hit roll of one. As I read this, it allows you to only re-roll a single hit. ( I have seen the error of my ways – this is for all hit rolls not just a single. That actually pushes this up to being good) This is like paying a CP for a re-roll before you know if you need it. It is ok if you want to save that re-roll for another unit, and maybe if you are swimming in the CP you may want to frivolously throw one away on this, but most of the time I don’t see it being worthwhile. Situational  Efficient

1CP – Avenge the Fallen: Use this strat when an Ultramarines unit is destroyed by an enemy unit. Until the end of the battle, other Ultramarine units that target that enemy unit may re-roll a hit roll of a 1. Decent vs a big target unit. Typically probably not worth spending the CP to give a rather limited Captain’s re-roll. Situational

1CP – Courage and Honour: Use this strat at the start of the Morale Phase; you may add 1 to the LD of all Ultramarines models in your army for that phase. 

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Situational

2CP – Tactical Expertise: This is the Ultramarines army wide extra ap strat. Use this at the start of the movement phase if the Tactical Doctrine is active. Until the start of the next battle round, when making an attack with a Rapid Fire or Assault weapon, a natural wound roll of a 6 increases the AP by 1. So a Bolt Rifle, ap -1, in the tactical doctrine (goes to ap -2), will go to ap -3 on a natural 6. This is a one per game strat, and while I normally don’t like these starts, I think the Ultramarines one is good. At the right moment, this can be quite powerful. Efficient

1 or 2CP – Fall Back and Re-Engage: This strat has two costs, one if it is used on a unit in a Pure Ultra army or two CP if a successor. It allows you to fall back, shoot, and charge. This is done when the unit falls back, and it ignores the -1 Pure Ultramarines suffer when normally falling back.  Competitive

2CP – Defensive Focus: Use this Strat when an Ultramrines unit is charged. Up to three other Ultramrines units that are (a) within 6″ of the unit being charged and (b) not within 1″ of enemy units may also fire overwatch. This is the Tau For the Greater Good ability. Pretty nice for having a gun line converge in and protect themselves. Competitive

1CP – Exemplar of the Chapter: This is the strat I have been talking about, and why you don’t want named characters to be your Warlord. When you choose a non-named character to be your Warlord, you may give them a second trait, but it must come from this supplement. Amazing. Competitive 

1CP – Squad Doctrines: Use this strat on an Infantry or Bike unit at the start of the movement phase to make them count as being in the Dev, Tactical or Assault Doctrine instead of the one they are in. This can be quite nice to get a T1 bonus – first thing that comes to my mind is a grav-dev drop pod Turn 1 not suffering the penalty to drop in and shoot. This could also be used on a CC unit to push them into Assault and gain it’s benefits, or on a Chaplain Dread to make it’s Lascannons ap -4. Very flexible. Very good. Competitive

1CP – Honoured Sergent: This is the strat to give a Sarg a relic – either a Sunwrath Pistol, Master Crafted, Digital Weapon, or Hellfurry Bolts. Maaaaaybe the Sunwrath Pistol could be fun… the rest I’d pass on. Situational

2CP – Tactical Insight: Use this strat when using Tactical Objectives. So long as your Warlord is on the battlefield, you may, after generating your objectives, discard them and draw the same number again. If you are using Tactical Objectives this is Efficient, but really it’s N/A

1CP – Honoured by Macragge: This is the Start all Supplements get to allow a Successor Character to pick up a single Relic of Macragge. There are some decent relics in that list, so I would say this is not a bad one, but not a necessary one either. Efficient

Overall the Ultramarine strats are not bad. When they first came out with the Space Marine book, many people looked at them and the White Scars book and said they were pretty powerful. It is only in the Iron Hands hindsight that we find Ultras to be a bit lacking. As with the entire book, these strats are focused on making the army more like a Swiss-army knife; able to adapt to and handle most anything that is thrown at it.

Unit Combinations

I would like to take a look at some of the combinations of units, strats, etc that an Ultramarines army can pull off which other Marine’s cannot do as well. This list is not exhaustive, just some that immediately jump out to me. Some of these I have hinted at above, but I want to really delve into here.

And there you have the Ultramarines. They are not flashy, exciting or pack a ton of shenanigans. What they are is good. Reliable. Mobile. Efficient. Consistent. These are all things a top player looks for in their armies. This is not to say the army is plug-and-play, or little-skill-required. Ultramarines are still going to require a good pilot to make sure they are making the best of their potential.

Thanks for reading, and happy Wargaming!

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