Ultramarines Horde

[Captain Idaho]

I'm considering the Zapp Brannigan approach - wave after wave of my own men. Can this work?

 

Don't get me wrong; I'm a Dreadnut and enjoy a little flexibility in most lists, but I still like to mix it up.

 

My number one idea was Guilliman. He's finding his way into many armies right now but I suspect he's actually best in a Marine horde. He can give his auras to more units and when things die he can continue to give out auras to their replacements.

 

Deepstriking Terminators grants the army the ability to launch attacks that otherwise might not come about due to Horde approach. Does reduce numbers of course.

 

What do people think about this approach?

[Brother Captain Sirus]

Horde could work, i have one written up that has 4 full tactical squads, 2 scouts (one unit snipers, one unit with a heavy bolter), an assault squad with flamer, dev squad lasplas, 2 units of terminators (one tactical, one assault), sternguard, lead by a captain, lieutenant, chaplain and librarian.

 

Now i have no idea how effective it would be but i wasnt intending it to be.

 

On the other hand i was considering a legion approach to a horde of ultras, as in using Company Veterans squads to act in a similar fashion to legion support squads, 5 vets with 4 plasmaguns and sgt with combi-plasma backing up bare bones tactical squads who are objective grabbers. Then some devastators as long range support

[Prot]

I think it's a fun idea, and I don't think it's too far off from being valid in a fun environment.

 

I say this because I've slowly gravitated towards this as my forces have shifted towards Primaris. That being said in my heavy infantry lists with the aura even missile launcher Devs (for example) become very efficient, snipers cherry picking characters.... etc it all becomes much more effective so you're just multiplying on that.

 

My problem with it is it becomes very cumbersome to maintain that aura while moving towards an objective or something similar. 

 

The things off the top of my head that have been tough for my attempts at this are: Bombs (Xenos flyer bombing runs are incredibly strong for some reason). Maybe with a larger pattern of infantry they couldn't bomb you? (Primaris don't leave a huge footprint).

 

The second biggy is indirect fire... Quad mortars/Wyyverns/Medusa's etc. I don't know how many renegades/Astra armies you have in your meta though.

 

I still think it's fun, and challenging. I have played pure infantry with my Ultra's many times and I think it works... even in Maelstrom which forces a lot more movement. But that's where it gets sticky trying to maintain the aura.

 

I know Guilliman does it better, but to get some more bodies on the table I more commonly use Calgar (plus I like the guy!)

[Captain Idaho]

Yes I like Calgar. He can teleport and is still too much to handle for most opponents. Plus he can't be shot as easily as Guilliman. Cheaper too.

 

I think Ultramarines can spread away from auras much easier. We can use Wisdom of the Ancients and Scions of Guilliman to allow spread out units to maintain benefits most armies only get from character crowding.

[Prot]

Yup I use Wisdom of the ancients a lot. I just thought they weren't going to be a part of the infantry horde options you were looking at.

[Captain Idaho]

Probably not though I was making a generic Codex wide comment.

 

Still, infantry Horde backed up by walking vehicles fits the theme.

 

I'm thinking perhaps the best infantry Horde is Primaris though? What do people think about that? There are assault weapons for Intercessors that would make ground pounding more desirable.

 

Feels like Primaris were designed for footslogging armies.

[Brother Captain Sirus]

Actually that sounds alright; as you could run and still fire at -1 bs but if they were backed up by aggressors and perhaps some covering fire from devastators you could definately move faster than an opponent may think to begin with.

[Hopper21]

This exactly what ibe done all my intercessors and hellblasters are armed wotn assault weapons. Gman will be close by buffing +1" advance and charge rules. While the repulsor Agressors and redempter dred bring in some covering fire.