New Calgar, Sicarius, and Victrix Guard miniatures

[Crimson Longinus]

It is hard for me to judge how successful the Ultramarine upgrade is aesthetically, as the issue is that they still look like Ultramarines.

The shiny overblinged design combined with a bad colour scheme just is not going to look good to me no matter how "well" one might execute it. 

 

 

Edited September 18 by Brother Tyler
Political comment removed

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, Marshal Reinhard said:

With 4 bespoke kits for the space wolves, most collectors will have a ton of upgrade bits for whatever regular marine units they get.

 

The templar upgrade sprue is nice for its wide variety of bits, I've been getting a LOT of mileage out of it. Really the only thing it lacks are sword brethren terminator bits (sometimes being first can have its down-sides). And there's some things it doesn't do, like for a Templar version of the blade guard with unique shields etc like SW's headtakers, you pretty much need a bespoke kit. I'm not holding my breath for that (and perhaps more so I'm hoping for something for the inevitable assault terminator update). On the whole, Templar got it great, and while everyone wishes they were space wolves I have no room to complain.

 

But UM's still stuck with their initial somewhat muted upgrade sprue right? (As are the rest of the first founding who haven't gotten a big range) I'm curious if this is to remain. As pointed out above, SW don't really need more than that with 4 bespoke kits adding extra bits, but besides plundering extra bits from the victrix kit, UM player's won't quite have as many bits to work with.

 

 

Yeah, it's still the two bare heads+helmet, gladius and some shoulder pads, which, even compared to other 1st gen (for lack of a better term) primaris upgrade sprues (think Raven Guard, Iron Hands, White Scars, etc), is pretty bad

 

But yeah, I think that if/when the Black Templars get their Terminators (which I assume would come after the assault terminators come out, whenever that happens), the Black Templars are going to be neck and neck with the Space Wolves in terms of the best ranges, even as someone who doesn't really collect either one, I just paint them here and there. The advantage that the Space Wolves have is just how new/dynamic some of their characters are, when comparing something like Grimnar to Helbrecht. Both are good, but Grimnar has a bit more presence. 

 

I am curious what the future holds (and cautiously excited) for the Ultramarines to kind of circle back to the original topic. The morning of the leak before the official reveals I said that I wanted the Victrix Guard to go separate from Calgar and become the new Honor Guard kit, and then Tyrannic War Veterans to come back. I wonder if that is in the pipeline for them and how that would look as a cohesive range, and then combine that with the rumors of a new Guilliman that Valrak has been talking about (which I know would get a collective groan, but I don't really like his current model, at least compared to the 30k one so I would be ok with that). I think the Honor Guard look to have some decent options for kitbashing with normal marines given what the article said about build options, and then if you were to combine that with Tyrannic War Veterans I think it could bring that Chapter up to speed for a while in terms of potential.

 

or they get crazy and make 40k Fulmentarus a thing. 

 

_{and Telion. And Cassius. And a generic Captain/Tetrarch model. I make no apologies about wanting more}

[Marshal Reinhard]

The only obvious addition to UM at this point would be the addition of Tyrannic War veterans and upgrade sprue (besides more characters, but they're pretty much dominating that area already as have they always). Something can also be said of the fact most generic space marine units that are decorated in some fashion are so in a way that fits the UM aesthetic specifically. Aquilas, Wreaths, the roman leather tassel things I can never remember the name of, etc. That said, the first generation primaris upgrade sprue is a meager offerring. Conversely, if one were to drop a UM collector would potentially be able to get a lot of mileage out of it.

[Casual Heresy]

While I am a UM fanboy at heart and will never say no to more, I would be more than happy if we only get a BA/DA style upgrade sprue alongside this release. Though in my opinion all the first founding chapters deserve the same as well so fingers crossed for our friends in yellow green and black. 
 

If Tyrannic War veterans happen I’ll be over the moon though. But if it’s only what we’ve seen and an upgrade sprue then the ravenous beast that is the collector in me will still be satisfied (for a time…). 

[Halandaar]

I don't really like Tyrannic War Veterans as a unit concept, to be honest. Seems needlessly specific to have a kit based on a single campaign/enemy type, when presumably those veterans fight as part of normal Bladeguard, Sternguard or Vanguard Squads during the normal course of their careers. It would be like giving Black Templars an "Armageddon Veterans" kit. A unit locked into a single role that you are only rarely going to have any use for based on what army your opponent brings? Not a good use of design and manufacturer time for GW you'd think. 

 

IMO giving Ultramarine Veteran Squads the option to upgrade their Bladeguard, Sternguard, Vanguard or Terminator squads to Tyrannic War Veterans (for something roughly equivalent to the old Preferred Enemy rule) and then having a new upgrade sprue with a few Tyranid-themed pieces on is a way more effective solution. You can sprinkle the theming of the Tyrannic War through your veteran units and when it's relevant you *can* derive an in-game benefit from it, but you aren't wasting points/real money on a unit that only serves a purpose 1 in every 10 games (or worse)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Marshal Reinhard]

59 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

I don't really like Tyrannic War Veterans as a unit concept, to be honest. Seems needlessly specific to have a kit based on a single campaign/enemy type, when presumably those veterans fight as part of normal Bladeguard, Sternguard or Vanguard Squads during the normal course of their careers. It would be like giving Black Templars an "Armageddon Veterans" kit. A unit locked into a single role that you are only rarely going to have any use for based on what army your opponent brings? Not a good use of design and manufacturer time for GW you'd think. 

 

IMO giving Ultramarine Veteran Squads the option to upgrade their Bladeguard, Sternguard, Vanguard or Terminator squads to Tyrannic War Veterans (for something roughly equivalent to the old Preferred Enemy rule) and then having a new upgrade sprue with a few Tyranid-themed pieces on is a way more effective solution. You can sprinkle the theming of the Tyrannic War through your veteran units and when it's relevant you *can* derive an in-game benefit from it, but you aren't wasting points/real money on a unit that only serves a purpose 1 in every 10 games (or worse)

As a game unit, it's perhaps needlessly specific. Do you give one enemy faction out of a dozen special anti rule, or is the unit just merely extra hardened?

 

As a modeling project it's potentially a lot cooler, and it'd be nice to see them make a unit, where they go all out with battle damage, cybernetic replacements and bug parts

[Evil Eye]

Tyrannic War Veterans seem like the sort of thing that really just need to be "alternative sculpts" for regular Veterans IMO. IIRC in the 4E book they had some special rules for fighting 'nids but were otherwise fairly standard. Unfortunately the extremely close tie between specific boxes and unit entries means that's unlikely to work today and they'd have to have their own bespoke datasheet, which is a shame because for the most part, Veterans have been some of the better Primaris models and some homages to the old TWVs, complete with cybernetic limbs, scarred heads and Tyranid trophies would be very cool to see.

 

Personally I think a good compromise would be some kind of non-chapter-specific monster-hunting specialist Veterans (call them "Lanceguard Veterans" or whatever), armed with smaller buckler-style combat shields and some form of polearms for skewering xenos beasties, along with a better Ultramarines upgrade kit to turn them into TWVs specifically. That or a fairly extensive Tyrannic War Veteran upgrade sprue that can be used to turn multiple different kits into the bug-hunters; dismembered bits of Tyranid, shoulder pads with the Tyrannic War insignia, special anti-Xenos weapons (not even necessarily with different rules, just things like special combat knives made to pierce chitin, etc) and maybe some more unit-specific parts like carapace-festooned storm shields for Bladeguard etc. Or both, for that matter!

[de Selby]

What I like about tyrannic war veterans is that they provide a key point of difference between heresy-era ultramarines and 40k ultramarines.   After HH the space wolves have wulfen, the blood angels have death company, the imperial fists have black templars, the dark angels have their whole fallen soap opera. TWV are a nod to something so traumatic in the history of the chapter that it left an indelible mark.

 

They also magnify the menace of the tyranids, making them seem like a galactic threat prompting special measures. In theory this is a deathwatch thing but deathwatch seem to mostly put that spotlight on necrons.

 

Finally, the designs always looked awesome.   More tyrannic veterans please!

[phandaal]

Seems like I am on the other side of the fence here. It is the reason why I do not intend to get that new Votann Tyranid hunter. If I wanted to see Tyranids in my army, I would have a Tyranid army. I even do not really like the Space Marine helmets that Chaos Space Marines always carry around on skewers.

 

Veterans with a distinct look, yes. Veterans whose distinct look includes the aesthetics of another army, no thank you.

 

An upgrade sprue seems like a good idea though, for the people who want an easier time converting.

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, Halandaar said:

I don't really like Tyrannic War Veterans as a unit concept, to be honest. Seems needlessly specific to have a kit based on a single campaign/enemy type, when presumably those veterans fight as part of normal Bladeguard, Sternguard or Vanguard Squads during the normal course of their careers. It would be like giving Black Templars an "Armageddon Veterans" kit. A unit locked into a single role that you are only rarely going to have any use for based on what army your opponent brings? Not a good use of design and manufacturer time for GW you'd think. 

 

IMO giving Ultramarine Veteran Squads the option to upgrade their Bladeguard, Sternguard, Vanguard or Terminator squads to Tyrannic War Veterans (for something roughly equivalent to the old Preferred Enemy rule) and then having a new upgrade sprue with a few Tyranid-themed pieces on is a way more effective solution. You can sprinkle the theming of the Tyrannic War through your veteran units and when it's relevant you *can* derive an in-game benefit from it, but you aren't wasting points/real money on a unit that only serves a purpose 1 in every 10 games (or worse)

 

 

So barring the gameplay side of things, I'd like to see them stay, not to argue with your point that an upgrade kit would probably work, but more because they kind of are representative of who the Ultramarines are and how they operate

 

For example, other chapters (you mentioned the Black Templars and Armaggedon, and the Blood Angels at Baal also works well here as an example), rely heavily on the Veterans of a unit providing some combat experience. Sure most of the time it works out but sometimes it doesn't if it's a specific enemy like the Necrons or the Eldar factions that might not be encountered as much, or you could add in junior leader experience as an issue, etc.

 

Creating the Tyrannic War Veterans is a very academic solution to the problem. Creating a unit full of veterans of a specific conflict, or type of conflict and/or funneling marines into the Deathwatch to create them so you can send them to certain conflicts, or, more often than not, send them to other chapters to teach (to the point where many successors have their own version of the Tyrannic War Veterans) is probably the most Ultramarine way of handling a new enemy that just almost wiped out your chapter. So in that way I think they do more to flesh out the character of the chapter than just having standard veterans or something like that. Got a bunch of new Primaris marines? Cool, send them to the Tyranid killing class with these specific guys this weekend kind of thing. 

 

That all being said, I get it if GW never makes them because they want to focus more on current setting stuff, don't want to waste the mould or whatever. 

[Subtleknife]

4 hours ago, Halandaar said:

I don't really like Tyrannic War Veterans as a unit concept, to be honest. Seems needlessly specific to have a kit based on a single campaign/enemy type....

 

Agreed. I hope if there is another unit in the pipeline it is something new - an UM terminator unit for Calgar to lead would be pretty cool or a kick arse upgrade sprue.

 

It would look odd to me for a UM unit who is fighting say necrons, to have tyranid parts stapled to their armour. I don't like it with bases either. 

 

Do they not fix their armour on the battlebarge between campaigns.

[SvenIronhand]

1 hour ago, Subtleknife said:

Agreed. I hope if there is another unit in the pipeline it is something new - an UM terminator unit for Calgar to lead would be pretty cool or a kick arse upgrade sprue.

 

It would look odd to me for a UM unit who is fighting say necrons, to have tyranid parts stapled to their armour. I don't like it with bases either. 

 

Do they not fix their armour on the battlebarge between campaigns.

They're trophies.

[Tastyfish]

6 hours ago, Halandaar said:

I don't really like Tyrannic War Veterans as a unit concept, to be honest. Seems needlessly specific to have a kit based on a single campaign/enemy type, when presumably those veterans fight as part of normal Bladeguard, Sternguard or Vanguard Squads during the normal course of their careers. It would be like giving Black Templars an "Armageddon Veterans" kit. A unit locked into a single role that you are only rarely going to have any use for based on what army your opponent brings? Not a good use of design and manufacturer time for GW you'd think. 

 

IMO giving Ultramarine Veteran Squads the option to upgrade their Bladeguard, Sternguard, Vanguard or Terminator squads to Tyrannic War Veterans (for something roughly equivalent to the old Preferred Enemy rule) and then having a new upgrade sprue with a few Tyranid-themed pieces on is a way more effective solution. You can sprinkle the theming of the Tyrannic War through your veteran units and when it's relevant you *can* derive an in-game benefit from it, but you aren't wasting points/real money on a unit that only serves a purpose 1 in every 10 games (or worse)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could see it as a Kill team, and then both Imperial Agents and Ultramarines.

 

In that these aren't just veterans, these are veterans of a new apocalyptic war that's come out of nowhere in the last few years to hit all over the galaxy in a way that wasn't the case just prior to the Great Rift opening. Now sent out across the Imperium to spread the knowledge of how to fight this highly adaptive foe with their own new strategies and tactics.

 

Stepping on the toes perhaps of the Mentor Legion, but those guys were of Ultramarine stock, so perhaps they just paved the way for them.

[mecanojavi99]

I really don't see an issue with TWV being a specific unit, by that logic the Deathwatch should only work when fighting against a Xenos faction yet their rules also work against Chaos or Imperium ones.

 

TWV aren't only good at killing Tyranids, but any Faction reliant on numbers and dependant on their leaders (Orks and GSC jump to mind), not to mention their experience fighting big monsters can also be applied to big units in general

[Captain Idaho]

Tyrannic War veterans was an interesting concept when 40K was a set sandbox for our own continuation of the narrative, a reaction to the story showing pending,  incoming threat.

 

Now that 40K has become an ever shifting narrative progression outside the customer influence and dictated by the studio design directly, the import and revelance of Tyrannic War veterans is fleeting at best, moving to obsolete imminently.

 

They'd look cool but when the narrative is Chaos campaigns focused then their inclusion seems jarring.

[Tastyfish]

Depends what the lessons of the Tyrannic wars is really.

 

Whether it is 'shoot the big ones' or the only way to fight an aggressive biosphere is with completely joined up logistics and all arms of the Munitorum acting as one.

If the 4th Tyrannic War is the largest fight the Imperium has had since the Heresy, then the lessons learnt from that will be applicable to other conflicts. These are almost then the reverse Deathwatch in a marine force - bringing in the specialities of the other branches of the Imperial war machine, with off table bombardments or lance strikes etc.

Edited September 19 by Tastyfish

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

So.....

 

If the Fourth Tyrannic War is such a massive threat, pulling in Marines from many disparate chapters...

 

Why should only Ultramarines get a "Tyrannic War Veterans" unit?

[Captain Idaho]

8 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

Why should only Ultramarines get a "Tyrannic War Veterans" unit?

 

Yeah that's another point why the "newly formed" aspect can't exist if GW always shifts the plot themselves. Because after a couple campaigns and in universe time... they ain't newly formed and the reasons they've not been passed to all Chapters becomes less credible.

[Blindhamster]

45 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

 

Yeah that's another point why the "newly formed" aspect can't exist if GW always shifts the plot themselves. Because after a couple campaigns and in universe time... they ain't newly formed and the reasons they've not been passed to all Chapters becomes less credible.

indeed, which resulted in all marines getting storm ravens, and before that veteran assault marines

[nodnol88]

The upgrade sprue seems to have disappeared from the UK site. 
 

 

[Orange Knight]

The tyrannic War Veterans could be done with an upgrade sprue. End of the day they are just Sternguard with a few extra cosmetic appointments. 

 

Alternatively, GW could go a different route. They could release a unit called "Champions of the Tyrannic Wars" and have an exclusive variant of Terminators that have different wargear and a unique look.

[phandaal]

On 9/20/2025 at 2:47 AM, Captain Idaho said:

 

Yeah that's another point why the "newly formed" aspect can't exist if GW always shifts the plot themselves. Because after a couple campaigns and in universe time... they ain't newly formed and the reasons they've not been passed to all Chapters becomes less credible.

 

Dark Angels/Unforgiven, as the monster-hunting Space Marines, would certainly pick up some tricks for killing Tyranids. Although they would not cover their armor in Tyranid parts... would get snagged on the robes.

 

As far as the kit for Tyrannic War Veterans goes, I did some digging and found that old resin kit. It was actually really cool with more battle damaged Ultramarines (bionics, scars, some armor scratches etc), and the main thing that was "Tyrannic" about it was they had a special symbol on their right shoulderpad. Reminds me of the way Deathwing have their own iconography but are not covering themselves with Chaos bits. I am surprised I forgot about that kit, because it is badass:

 

Spoiler

 

With that reminder, it would be really cool to see that kit scaled up. It could definitely be a special unit for Ultramarines in the vein of specialized units for armies like Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels etc.

Edited September 21 by phandaal
Picture

[Tastyfish]

17 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

So.....

 

If the Fourth Tyrannic War is such a massive threat, pulling in Marines from many disparate chapters...

 

Why should only Ultramarines get a "Tyrannic War Veterans" unit?

That's why I said they should be Imperial Agents and Ultramarines.

But they'd be running their own doctrines, rather than just being BA sternguard who have fought Tyranids before.

[HeadlessCross]

21 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

So.....

 

If the Fourth Tyrannic War is such a massive threat, pulling in Marines from many disparate chapters...

 

Why should only Ultramarines get a "Tyrannic War Veterans" unit?

For the same reason Blood Angels get the monopoly on crazy Marines with Death Company: people care too much about bespoke models and rules. 

[Evil Eye]

21 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

So.....

 

If the Fourth Tyrannic War is such a massive threat, pulling in Marines from many disparate chapters...

 

Why should only Ultramarines get a "Tyrannic War Veterans" unit?

To be fair, the original Tyrannic War Veterans were from a very specific event in the Imperium's history. The current game's insistence on everything happening in the "present" and sweeping the "fictional-historical" aspect under the rug completely is the main reason they don't really work anymore, and also one of the biggest problems with current 40K in general (as if you want to play battles set before the Cicatrix Maledictum, you kinda can't with 10th).

 

THAT SAID, it could be argued that any veterans of the First Tyrannic War surviving into M42 (who were Ultramarines after all) would be some of the most accomplished Tyranid-slayers in the galaxy, so I think there could be a case to be made for them making a comeback.

 

6 hours ago, phandaal said:

and the main thing that was "Tyrannic" about it was they had a special symbol on their right shoulderpad.

I love that insignia. It's simple, but so cool. And as you say a lot cooler than just being festooned with bits of Tyranid.