Going on an Ultramarines Crusade

[Kenzaburo]

Hello brothers,

 

I'm about to head into my first games of 9th edition at the end of October. It will also be the first time playing my Primaris Ultramarines. I was planning on having a quick introductory game with my longtime opponent, about the size of a combat patrol, so 25 PL.

 

I'd then like to go into crusade mode and have us use rules for that (he'll be playing nids, so unfortunately no bespoke rules for him yet). But here's the questions I got for you 9th ed vets:

 

1. Is there anything to avoid in crusade?

 

2.Are there nifty (digital or analog) tools to use for those games?

 

3. Is there anything specific to Ultramarines for crusade?

 

I'm not after list building advice, I mean it's crusade / narrative gaming and I'm not at all competitive. I'm just happy to play with my old childhood friend again after a while and the last time we played was sometime back in early 8th. The more competitive minded players wouldn't like my list at all... I got Reivers in there, for crying out loud, solely because it's one of the units I have painted and plan on playing a fully painted game. :D

 

Cheers,

Kenza

[Madmark666]

I'm doing something similar, my group just started a narrative/crusade campaign. Also using reivers because they're one of my favorite units, so high five on that.

 

As far as I'm aware there's nothing specific for ultramarines for crusade, since they're codex supplement is still the 8th edition book.

 

The Space Marine codex crusade rules are a lot of fun. The Agenda "know no fear" is like free xp, honestly so good I may opt out of it for a few games. I've really been enjoying the space marine battle traits as well, some really fun options in there, but I still roll for random results because I live for those charts. My group has named all their characters and most of us have names units based on sergeants which I think helps immersion for my opponents, the ultramarines supplement has a great random name table in the back.

 

Hope you enjoy the crusade games! I know a lot of people love the tournament style missions and matched play games, but my groups has absolutely fallen in love with the crusade mechanics and missions. Definitely captures the nostalgia of the old Rogue Trader charts for making complicated inquisitors for me.

[Madmark666]

Also regarding tools for crusade, I used this google doc template for managing my roster
https://www.thebeardbunker.com/2020/09/40K-crusade-roster.html

And if you use battlescribe you can upload your .ROZ file to Buttscribe (great name) and get really nice datasheet PDF with all the crusade info on the same page
https://buttscri.be/40k.php

[Kenzaburo]

Hey, thanks for your input, Madmark! The Google doc is excellent. I've used Buttscribe in the past, but thanks for reminding me.

 

I'm keen to finally see Reivers in action, I haven't played marines in forever, in 8th I only played my Custodes. I know that Reivers are a problematic unit but thought they might be under less performance pressure in narrative gaming. And I'm right there with you with random charts and tables I need to roll on - always loved that stuff when playing Mordheim or more recently Frostgrave, so I'm looking very much forward to all those possibilities.

 

I rummaged around my terrain collection yesterday to do some terrain tests - how much do I have, what needs to be painted to have fully painted games, what options do I have for positioning. Here's a setup that I thought looked nice. Keep in mind though, I'm going for aesthetics here - I want the board to (mostly) give a realistic impression of a ruined city. I realized that the unpainted ruin needs to have more line of sight blocking walls, though, so I'll fix that.

 

 

 

EDIT: I forgot, there's a video of the board on my instagram, which might give a better impression. :) It's 4 RoB board tiles, so a 4'x4' table. I really don't care about those new minimum sizes introduced in 9th and my opponent and me are never afraid to come up with some quick houserule-fixes for things. 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Kenzaburo

[Rik Lightstar]

There's a fantastic tool for your Crusade forces at www.administratum.net that lets you set up and manage forces as a group and does the vast majority of the book-keeping for you.

 

It took us quite a lot of searching to find it, but it worked really well for the local league we ran.

 

Rik

Edited October 4, 2021 by Rik Lightstar

[Kenzaburo]

There's a fantastic tool for your Crusade forces at www.administratum.net that lets you set up and manage forces as a group and does the vast majority of the book-keeping for you.

 

It took us quite a lot of searching to find it, but it worked really well for the local league we ran.

 

Rik

Oh, very very cool indeed. I'll check that out tonight. Thank you!

[Prot]

Very nice! Great looking table too! I use one of those pieces for my army display at tournaments, but it's cool to see them used together.

[Kenzaburo]

Very nice! Great looking table too! I use one of those pieces for my army display at tournaments, but it's cool to see them used together.

Thanks, Prot. :) I was thinking of using this thread as a sort of chronicle for my crusade, too. So expect some more pictures here soon. 

 

And about that Realm of Battle board: It took quite some time to paint that beast. It looks cool, but if you keep it modular, I find the terrain on there will always look a bit unnatural - like it doesn't belong. If I compare it to Warhammer World's city fight table or the table Warhammer TV built for the Garden of Iax battle report, these benefit from a unified look of a set table. Now I'm trying to come upt with a means to create that with modular terrain. You see, I'm quite obsessed with the aesthetics of the game. :D I love it looking like a scene right out of the books, which is one of the reasons I've neber been much into tournament gaming. 

 

On the other hand, I need to eliminate some more line of sight, so I'll rebuild one of the ruins into a larger, more intact building to block LOS in the centre.

[Prot]

I agree... it is definitely a little ... too open for 9th edition. I try to use the example GW posted on the community site for their GT's. Of course in a crusade you are probably aiming more for theme. :)

[Kenzaburo]

Exactly. :) But that's also why I think I need some bigger LOS blockers in the middle, thus more intact ruins. On the other hand, you mentioned before that your environment was more competetive and your tables looked fine, from what you showed. Might have to look at those again.