Hi all,
Time for another legion preview and this time it is about the sons of Ultramar, the Ultramarines.
Legion Trait
It looks like the legion has kept all of it's advantages and lost it's disadvantage here, the Ultramarines now do not get punished for their rigid chain of command (this is probably reflective of the later stages of the Horus Heresy) but have maintained their co-ordinated fire benefit. Models that have the Legiones Astartes (Ultramarines) special rule add 1 to their shooting hit rolls if another model with the same rule has shot the same unit this turn already - looking like their rhinos can still act like they fire tracer rounds. I've got a project on the back burner and I am looking forward to making use of this trait.
Advanced reaction
This reaction is pretty cool and plays well with the legion trait above! When an Ultramarines unit has been shot in the shooting phase, this reaction can be used to activate TWO units (the one that has been shot + another nearby ultramarines unit) to return fire on the enemy unit that they are reacting against. Pretty tasty as you can then get that nearby heavy support squad to bring the pain to the enemy out of sequence with the benefit of +1 to hit from the legion trait - ouch time! I love the fact that the advanced reaction just adds that extra bit to really hammer home the co-ordination that the Ultramarines have, it's fantastic!
Warlord Traits
This is pretty neat, the Ultramarines have a loyalist only and a traitor only warlord trait in addition to one generic one. The traitor one sounds pretty fun actually too - once per battle the warlord can use his leadership stat in the place of his toughness stat for a whole phase (plus you gain an additional assault phase reaction)! I think I prefer the loyalist one though as that grants the warlord fearless and it will not die whenever a wound is allocated (noting that this is before saves are made so even if all wounds are saved, the warlord gets the benefits anyway) plus you can make a reaction once per turn without spending a point of the reaction allotment if it is the warlord or his unit doing it - that sounds pretty flexible to me as that isn't limited by phase either, could be pretty interesting!
The generic trait (Aegis of Wisdom) sounds really handy in a pinch - friendly units in line of sight of the warlord can use his leadership to regroup rather than their own and can then shoot and declare charges as normal. This is pretty big, being able to strike back right away after a regroup is immense rather than being almost out of action getting their bearing for a whole turn!
Rites of War
Just the one Rite of War here, who needs anymore than that when you follow the Logos Lectora! I really enjoy the imagery this inspires as if you did not think the Ultramarines legion was based of the Roman Empire, you sure will now - each turn you give your whole army a command "Full March" (increased movement but reduce ballistic and weapon skills for the turn), "Hold Fast" (increased leadership, reroll shooting attacks but can not move in the movement phase), "Retribution Strike" (increased weapon skill and charge but reduce ballistic skill) and "Regroup" (re-roll regroup checks and reserves). I would really feel more like a Roman general commanding an army with this rite of war, I love it! You can't use the same ability twice in a row however you can use the same ability multiple times in a battle - i.e. you might want to use Full March at the start of the battle to get your infantry moving and then use it a second time at the end of the battle to grab some late game objectives but what you can't do is do Full March in the first and second turns to rush the middle of the battlefield.
The downsides of this are that you can not use Infiltrate, Deep Strike/Subterranean Assault or Flanking (you still can use normal reserves so you can give you big block of infantry marching across the battlefield like the legions of old some air support!), you need to take an additional compulsory HQ (and that must either be a Damocles command rhino or Master of Signal - may be useful for that air support!) and you need to take an additional troops choice.
Armoury
The Ultramarines have got some shiny bits of kit in their armoury. The Legatine axe is back (for those unfamiliar, it is basically the cross of a power axe and a power sword - AP2, not unwieldy - so a really effective weapon for cutting down other marines)! They have a buffed up boarding shield (the invulnerable saves on it are 1 better than a standard boarding shield) - all non-unique Independent Characters can pick this up and the Invictus Suzerain have these as standard.
Finally they also have some special suits of artificer armour for their legion praetors that grant them Battle Hardened and makes the bearer (only) immune to blind - I'll be interested the see how useful this will be in battle.
Roboute Guilliman
The Master of Ultramar... his rules make him quite an interesting and flexible force multiplier in general and great in a challenge.
His Sire of the Ultramarines rule is quite nice as it boosts his whole army's leadership by one across the board, don't underestimate how useful that can be! Additionally, while some of the Primarchs grant a boost to reaction allocations in a specific phase, Guilliman can choose at the start of a battle which phase he will grant one additional reaction instead - are you expecting the enemy to come at you? perhaps you would want to increase your assault reactions! Are you expecting to be shot at a lot then possibly you will want to increase your shooting reactions!
Beyond this, he has a rule called Preternatural Strategy which goes hand in hand with the Logos Lectora Rite of War - he can grant an army-wide special rule for a whole game turn (Fleet, Counter-attack, Furious Charge or Stubborn) which can be chosen multiple times but not consecutively just like the Logos Lectora commands and you can probably work out that there are rules here that really compliment those commands (though don't be afraid to mix things up a bit as you can use this to give units that are not getting the most out of the current command a more suitable special rule instead - I think this is where you could get some really interesting combinations paying off)
Calculating swordsman is his melee combat buff - this is a little different to before as he used to improve his weapon skill incrementally for each round of combat he is involved in a challenge, now he rerolls 1s to hit in each round of combat after the first one when in a challenge. This probably is not as potent as it used to be but I think you get a good benefit quicker as a result when facing a particularly tough opponent or the means to wipe out a rather lucky challenger who happened so survive the first round with the Avenging Son
Special units
Two special breacher squad types here! The Invictus Suzerain Squad and Praetorian Breacher squads - the Invictus Suzerain are the elite of the elite, they have the best kit as standard (Legatine Axes, Argyrum pattern boarding shields and Artificer armour), can either be taken as an elites choice or be taken as retinue for a model with Master of the Legion and they boost the leadership of friendly units around them due to their inspiring presence - very nice! Praetorian Breachers are also an elite choice (so as a result are sturdier than regular breachers) and come with power swords as standard - they also have hammer of wrath so are very much designed to be marching forward and taking the fight to the enemy. With Roboute on the table, preternatural strategy give them some really nice bonuses - if you are expecting a counter charge to these guys, giving them counter attack could make that much a less appetising prospect!
Warlords
Just the one warlord here, and a non-surprising entry here - Remus Ventanus, the Saviour of Calth, the one who dared to theorize about fighting other astartes...
Having recently got a new model, it's great to see what Remus can bring to the table - he looks like he has a pretty standard praetor stat-line but comes with a pretty impressive set of wargear and rules that reflect his role in the Battle of Calth. He is carrying a standard, has a nuncio-vox, has melta-bombs and an impressive rending power sword so he can be a bit of everything on the field of battle (in combat and supporting units around him).
His warlord trait is brilliant for anyone who likes to play a command and control style army as he and any Ultramarine units automatically pass leadership and morale checks when near an objective - we're not going to cower, turn-tail and run; if you want to control this battlefield then come and take it!
Final thoughts
I really like the synergy in this legion, I shouldn't be all that surprised to be honest considering that this is what the Ultramarines are supposed to be good at! I've got a specific project in mind involving the Ultramarines which I will discuss in a future post but this project may evolve into something bigger as a result. Courage and honour friends!
Until next time!
Hector Cephas
