Ultramarines Brigades

[Joukernaut]

I like this list. It looks strong and has flavor.

it is lacking one heavy support choice to be a brigade however. I don't think Chronus's vehicle counts towards the heavy support choices, which can be a real pain when building a brigade.

[Kallas]

it is lacking one heavy support choice to be a brigade however. I don't think Chronus's vehicle counts towards the heavy support choices, which can be a real pain when building a brigade.

Chronus starts the game 'embarked'/'commanding' a vehicle. The vehicle isn't purchased through his Datasheet, it's a separate unit that he then commandeers.

[harrybo]

My take on the Ultramarine brigade

 

Captain on bike - stormbolter, power sword, relic Vengeance of Ultramar, warlord trait Paragon of war for the sweet mortal wounds. Upgrade to Chapter Master - 90

 

Sergeant Telion - 65

 

Chaplain Cassius - 85 Recitation of focus, Cataclysm of fire

 

 

Scouts x 10 - 10 x snipers - 130

 

Scouts x 5 bolt guns - 55

 

Scouts x 6 - bolt pistols & CCW - 66

 

Scouts x 6 - bolt pistols & CCW - 66

 

Infiltrators x 5 - 110

 

Infiltrators x 5 - 110

 

 

Suppressors x 3 - 90

 

Suppressors x 3 - 90

 

Attack bike - heavy bolter - 37

 

 

Chapter Champion - Idaho’s build relic burning blade, Imperiums Sword warlord trait - 55

 

Chapter Ancient - relic Standard of the Emperor Ascendant, Adept of the Codex warlord trait -75

 

Aggressors x 6 - bolt gauntlets, frag launchers - 222

 

 

Whirlwind - vengeance launcher - 85

 

Devastators x 5 - 4 x Plasma cannons, cherub - 134

 

Devastators x 5 - 4 x Plasma cannons, cherub - 134

 

Devastators x 6 - 4 x Plasma cannons, cherub - 147

 

1850

 

 

So from starting with 15 cp I use 2 for the extra relics, 2 for the extra warlord traits and 2 to upgrade to chapter master leaving 9 cp for the game. Also tempted to use Honoured Sergeant on either the Aggressor Serg. or one of the Suppressors Serg. What do you guys think would be best?

 

The basic plan is that every unit stays within the 12” range of the Ancient to potentially fire extra if they die. I’ve gone for as many infantry or bike units as possible to maximise this strategy. Aggressors at the front advance turn one, devs sort of round the sides and suppressors round the rear with the Ancient, Chapter Master biker and Chapter Champ in the center.

 

The rest of the army spreads out onto objectives and does what they do. Telion obviously buffs the large sniper unit while the rest cause a nuisance. Infiltrators deploy around the death star to prevent naughty deep strikers.

 

There is the potential to change the 6 man dev squad to Grav cannons if I drop the power sword on the chapter master and drop to 5 man. It could be good to be able to make use of the Grav strat and provide a different way to tackle certain units. So again thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated.

 

Overall I’ll be switching to Tactical Doctrine turn 2 but have plenty that can take advantage of turn 1 Devastator Doctrine, then they move and shoot without penalty.

 

Hope you like it, let me know how you would improve it.

Edited September 19, 2019 by harrybo

[Joukernaut]

 

it is lacking one heavy support choice to be a brigade however. I don't think Chronus's vehicle counts towards the heavy support choices, which can be a real pain when building a brigade.

Chronus starts the game 'embarked'/'commanding' a vehicle. The vehicle isn't purchased through his Datasheet, it's a separate unit that he then commandeers.

 

ah right, I just read the datasheet and it appears I was very wrong  , thanks for clearing that up.

[harrybo]

Sorry just to add I’ve noticed Exemplar of the chapter strat only adds one additional warlord trait to an existing warlord instead of Hero of the chapter which creates a new warlord. With this in mind I’d just add Adept of the Codex onto the Chapter Master biker instead of the Ancient.

[Captain Idaho]

@ harrybo: I'd say the Aggressor Sergeant as being hit by that many bolt shots all D2... wow.

 

I like the Captain/Chapter Master as it's a cool combination. 12 shots is nasty in the Tactical Doctrine too.

 

I do have reservations about close combat models without movement or deployment options. A Chapter Champion is cheap enough to be held back as a counter charge unit of course. I think it will work still even if he spends a few games just hanging around etc. A decent list.

 

***

 

@ MadEdric: again another good list. Very much one I like in fact.

 

Mostly infantry but dangerous still. It takes advantage of the Tactical Doctrine and makes use of the strength of Tactical squads (the weapons) and supports them with Primaris.

 

I particularly support the use of Land Speeder Typhoons. Their firepower is not to be underestimated.

 

Same comment about the Champion - he's a good reserve model in the classical for plugging gaps and providing a counter charge. There will be times he does nothing but for 50pts that's fine as it probably influences an opponent's behaviour anyway.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Captain Idaho

[harrybo]

Yeah Chapter champion is there as assault deterrent. With that amount of strength 8 attacks at ap-5 no one wants to get close to him lol.

 

I tried the honoured serg. for the aggressors in my first game and it was ok but didn’t have many good targets he could wound reliably being only strength 4. But against some armies it could be huge! Just not Talos and Venom spam lol

[Captain Idaho]

His short range doesn't make it very easy to get the most out it, I agree. When it works for you, however,it will seriously mess with someone's day.

 

 

 

Perhaps switch to a Suppressor in your case? D3 on 2 shot weapon turns him into a Predator Autocannon with less shots but better AP.

[MadEdric]

I was thinking as I've seen others mention (so totally not my idea) and I'll be putting Honored Sgt on my bolter scout sgt so he can take the Hellfury bolts. Coupled with the Heavy Bolter, that unit could be putting out 2-4 MW a turn for 1 CP.

[harrybo]

Yikes that’s pretty good for 1cp per turn. I’d like to recommend Telion to ensure they have the best chance to hit.

 

That coupled with the biker chapter master with the Vengeance stormbolter relic and Paragon of war trait means you’re chucking out rather a lot of mortal wounds just in the shooting phase. Are there any other sources Ultras have, besides snipers?

Edited September 19, 2019 by harrybo

[L30n1d4s]

Well, against Fly enemies you can use the Flakk Missile Stratagem for another D3 Mortal Wounds. Edited September 19, 2019 by L30n1d4s

[MadEdric]

Yikes that’s pretty good for 1cp per turn. I’d like to recommend Telion to ensure they have the best chance to hit.

 

That coupled with the biker chapter master with the Vengeance stormbolter relic and Paragon of war trait means you’re chucking out rather a lot of mortal wounds just in the shooting phase. Are there any other sources Ultras have, besides snipers?

I wanted Telion in, but points in a brigade are scarce to come by. Then it becomes that crumbling puzzebox where each change requires another change and soon you have a whole different list than what you started with and then groan because you wanted the other list in the first place. I'm tempted to give the captain Chapter Master to help that some.

I'll have to build me up one of the Vengeance biker captains soon, they sound right potent.

[Captain Idaho]

Vengeance Captain has a nice ring to it. I've converted one using a power fist repositioned so it's holding the handle bar and the left arm has a 2nd edition bolt pistol modeled onto his forearm. It's big enough to clearly not be a bolt pistol anymore and hopefully the paint scheme would do the rest.

[L30n1d4s]

Here is the Brigade I am looking at:

 

HQ

-Calgar (Warlord)

-Cassius

-Lieutenant

 

TR

-10 Intercessors (Bolt Rifles/TH on Sgt)

-5 Scouts with Bolters

-5 Scouts with Bolters

-5 Scouts with Bolters

-5 Scouts with Bolters

-5 Scouts with Bolters

 

EL

-Apothecary (Relic: Seal of Oath)

-Champion (Extra Relic: Burning Blade; Extra WL Trait: Champion of Humanity)

-Whirlwind Scorpius

-Whirlwind Scorpius

 

FA

-Attack Bike with HB

-Attack Bike with HB

-Attack Bike with HB

 

HS

-5 Centurions with HB and Grav

-Rapier with Laser Destroyer

-Thunderfire Cannon

 

 

Calgar, Cassius, and Lieutenant all provide buffs to Centurions and Intercessors, Apothecary heals Centurions and helps units with Seal of Oath, Whirlwind Scorpius deal with wide variety of targets out of LOS, Scouts and Attacks Bikes move block and/or grab Objectives,

TFC slows enemy movement with Strat, Rapier uses Martial Precision to "auto-snipe" key units like Flyers, Champion, Calgar, Cassius, and Intercessor TH Sgt provide some close combat counter-punch.

 

With extra Relic/WL Trait, this army starts with 15 CP and can generate an average of 5 more with Adept of the Codex.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Five DevCents must be very nasty.

[MadEdric]

So I gave a brigade a try yesterday, pretty much the one I posted before. It performed exceptionally well. My opponent was Space Wolves, more of a smaller elite force, not a good match up against a fully mobile gun line. Too many things did not go his way, we deployed on the short table edge, so he had to cross the entire length to get to me, not good. I went first, not good.

I basically set up a gun line across the length of my deployment zone, combat squading the Infiltrators and Interceptors, the scouts deployed forward on either side of the board. 

We played the WD version where you create a deck of 18 cards, First turn I draw 4 secures and Supremacy. Luckily 2 of the secures were in my deployment zone, I had to advance the sniper scouts to claim the third objective though. Not needing to move much first turn, except to get some of the heavy weapons in range of his flyer (packed with Wulfen, Blood Claws and Lukas). I wasn't able to really harm the flyer, peeling about 4 wounds off of it. On my right flank we blew up a rhino with Grey Hunters in it, took most of my fire power so I couldn't mop up the Hunters like I wanted to. End of my turn was 5 points scored for those easy secures, supremacy and First strike.

Wolves then moved forward, the flyer charging right up to my line, Bjorn and blood claws heading up my left flank, while Longfangs and Grey hunters moved up my right. He decided to split fire with the flyer, lascannons into Chronus, frost gun into the attack bike, and heavy bolter shots into a tac squad. This ends poorly for the Space Wolves as Chronus was barely hurt, the attack bike had one wound remaining, and the tac squad made 9 of the 10 saves they had to make. Bjorn takes his lascannon shots at Chronus, two hits, two wounds, and I roll 2 6's for my saves. He easily wipes out the snipers that had to advance and were out in the open. Longfangs manage to kill one Centurion. He earns 3 points.

Turn two I switch to tactical and basically move most of my units forward, save the infiltrators that are securing the back field. In my shooting, on the left, the flyer is shot down, three Blood Claws die in the crash, another dies from shooting, all the fire power on this side is poured into the Wulfen, not a single wound is taken. Champion moved over that way to lend support, but fails to make his charge. On the right, the Grey hunters and Longfangs are shot off the board, Centurions are brutal. Apothecary tries to revive a centurion, fails even with a reroll. I think I gained 3 points this turn, rising me to 8.

His turn has the Wulfen, Lukas and the lone Blood Claw charging in, backed up by a jump pack Wolf Priest that dropped in. They tag bolter scouts, a tac squad, Chronus, and the Champion. Hammers slam into Chronus (who had 3 wounds remaining after a punishing volley from Bjorn this time), first Wulfen wounds once and Chronus saves again; not sure how one jinks a predator, but he was doing that. The second Wulfen is more lucky though and the predator is destroyed, Chronus escapes. The Tac squad is wiped out. I interrupt with the Champion, he cuts down the last Blood Claw and Lukas. Then Lukas pulls out his last laugh and inflicts 5 mortal wounds on the Champion. Lukas has not failed to get this ability off yet, I've seen him kill 3 characters with that ability so far. The wolf Priest kills 4 of the bolter scouts, they give him one wound. The Wulfen try to pin the scouts in, but can't. On the right flank, my opponent drops his Terminators down, but fearing my gun line, he sets them back too far, they can't shoot anyone. Njal and his Wolf Lord were back there as well, pretty much not adding to the game. He gains 4 points, up to 7.

Third turn was a blood bath, I have the scouts fall back, move the Centurions over and the Wulfen vanish in the hellish firepower, but it took everything to kill them. Intercessors move up on the right to claim an objective I needed. Captain flies over to support the savaged left flank, killing the Wolf priest with well placed melta shot. I think iscored 4 points this turn. Up to 12.

Sadly the Wolves didn't have much left to strike me with, a couple shots, but not much damage to me. Bjorn charges my captain, he's a goner I'm sure, but he makes all but one save (thank you Sanctic halo!), Even with a reroll, Bjorn, the terror of our games, the beast that ripped apart a Gorkanaught, tore a defiler to pieces, ripped many a Tau suits apart, fails to kill my Captain. He summons up all his strength and inflicts 8 wounds on Bjorn, though his FNP saves 3 of those.

At this point my friend cedes the games to me. Bjorn is going to be dead the next round, the Terminators are too far out, I can just have my longer range big guns tear them up while keeping them out of 24" range. It was a fun game, but uphill for the Wolves the entire time.

Some thoughts:

I gave the Intercessor Sgt the Hellfury bolts. He missed every time.

The new rules for Eliminators are great, 2 las fusils and the bolt rifle for the sgt, hitting on 2's and wounding on 2's, just great.

Tactical doctrine for us is the way to go, Son's of Guilliman added in gave me so much mobility and the -1 AP for my bolter was a huge boost (I kept track how many 3 were discarded for saves and it was pretty high).

Champion easily carved up the Blood Claw and Lukas, fair on Lukas though for blowing him up afterwards.

Centurions are scary, the huge number of shots they get cannot be ignored, especially with -1 AP. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Great game ! Puppies got spanked !!!

[MadEdric]

Oh, and forgot.

Brigade worked great. I felt the army was both fluffy and effective.

Other brigades I build it seems like the models I'm forced to put in to make one just seem to be out of sync with the rest of the army.

Not this one though, doctrines helped define rolls and what I needed each unit to do. Fast attack, something I rarely use worked nicely as fast advancing forces, backed by the steady pace of tactical and primaris marines, heavy weapons unhampered by movement.

I felt that the number of models I had, mobility was not an issue, as they were always moving after turn 1. Smaller squads could be dropped off at objectives as the main bulk of the army moved forward.

Again I can't stress how good I'm finding Tactical doctrine to be for us, it really was the unifier for my brigade.

[Xerxus]

Typically the idea is to cheap out on the FA choices to fuel other categories, but I don't think inceptors should be discounted. Coming in with AP-2 in the tactical doctrine is a siginificant buff and the additional wound means that they are actually quite pts-efficient in terms of tanking damage.

[MadEdric]

Typically the idea is to cheap out on the FA choices to fuel other categories, but I don't think inceptors should be discounted. Coming in with AP-2 in the tactical doctrine is a siginificant buff and the additional wound means that they are actually quite pts-efficient in terms of tanking damage.

I totally agree. Their higher strength helps as well. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I like plasma Inceptors... they can put a torch to Knights.

[Captain Idaho]

Inceptors are powerful for sure. With a Brigade we definitely need to take a cheap part of the army and I do agree it doesn't have to be Fast Attack. I just think that's the easiest to do without compromising the list.

 

I'd like to see a Ultramarines Brigade using Inceptors do well. Think it can happen. There are cheap Heavy Support choices to make this viable, as well as cheap Elites.

Edited September 24, 2019 by Captain Idaho

[Joukernaut]

I want to include aggressors, inceptors, centurions and a grav dev pod in a brigade, but I struggle to make it all fit

[MadEdric]

I want to include aggressors, inceptors, centurions and a grav dev pod in a brigade, but I struggle to make it all fit

That will be a dang shooty force, I like it. 

I'll probably go with another army next week though, looking to add in dreads and a flyer. I want to try all the options.

[harrybo]

I’ll be trying out my brigade list for the first time tonight so will let you all know how it goes. Not sure what I’m up against yet, could be wolves, tau or knights so all very different, will be a good test. It’s 2k though so I’m going to squeeze in a Stormhawk with Lastalon and Skyhammer.