Who Bought into the Ultra Models/Upgrades?

[Tacitus]

Really?  I can barely tell the difference between them

[Beef]

On 11/13/2025 at 1:49 PM, Orange Knight said:

I am on the cusp.... I have a 30k Ultramarine army. I have played it twice in 2 years.

I have Imperial Fists in 40k, and I'm resigned to that being a faction that is less supported, less often in the spotlight.

So now I'm looking at the new Ultramarines in 40k. I do not like the Space Wolves, I am neutral towards the Dark Angels. I have a fondness for the Blood Angels but I don't like their focus on jump packs (historically my least favourite type of infantry).

 

My AdMech army is 99% done. When I finish the last few models, I will pull the trigger on the new Ultramarines.

 

 

Heresy how can you not like the Space Wolves?  The new models are awesome.

 

Ok Back to the UM's i for one love the new calgar model.  he looks so much better than the gravis version, I also love the Cato model as the last one i saw when i was still in the hobby was the twin lighting claw version.  The Cato model that's currently being replaced is horrible to look at so the refresh was well needed.  

 

As for the Titus model again the original was great and i finally got my hands on it, but the newer captain model looks amazing, 

 

All the new models look amazing to be fair.

[Prot]

So I've been trying to think of fun ways to use new Calgar... aside from the obvious Victrix guard and Cato. (Which I'm sure will be decent.)

 

I had this 20 dollar voucher about to run out so I thought... great timing! The new Assault Terminators are being released, I'll simply buy a squad, and slap Calgar on those.

 

I'm having this conversation with a friend who plays a lot of marines and he asks why I would do that! And I said, well with Oath and the old -1 to wound on the terminators it could be a cool deepstrike option.

 

This is where my plan fell apart. My friend starts laughing and telling me no, the vanilla termies still have the garbage rules. So I pull out the app, and sure enough he's right... they cause Battleshock tests! Ugh. I guess my playing Space Wolves had me thinking all assault termies got that. 

 

Now that the box is coming I feel committed to doing this one day. So I'm thinking Claws (believe it or not.) Let Calgar do the heavy lifting, with claws you hit more often, have more attacks and would get re roll hits/ re roll wounds/ +1 to wound against Oath targets. (I never get Dev wounds with hammers anyway.)

 

I was always a Hammer/shield guy but I've been really disappointed with the Hammer in this edition. To me the trade off of hitting on 4's, less attacks, for the 'potential' of mortals just never seems to work out for me.

 

I still can't believe they didn't update the Dataslate for the Assault Termies. But that was my intent with Calgar eventually.

 

[Tacitus]

6 hours ago, Prot said:

So I've been trying to think of fun ways to use new Calgar... aside from the obvious Victrix guard and Cato. (Which I'm sure will be decent.)

 

I had this 20 dollar voucher about to run out so I thought... great timing! The new Assault Terminators are being released, I'll simply buy a squad, and slap Calgar on those.

 

I'm having this conversation with a friend who plays a lot of marines and he asks why I would do that! And I said, well with Oath and the old -1 to wound on the terminators it could be a cool deepstrike option.

 

This is where my plan fell apart. My friend starts laughing and telling me no, the vanilla termies still have the garbage rules. So I pull out the app, and sure enough he's right... they cause Battleshock tests! Ugh. I guess my playing Space Wolves had me thinking all assault termies got that. 

 

Now that the box is coming I feel committed to doing this one day. So I'm thinking Claws (believe it or not.) Let Calgar do the heavy lifting, with claws you hit more often, have more attacks and would get re roll hits/ re roll wounds/ +1 to wound against Oath targets. (I never get Dev wounds with hammers anyway.)

 

I was always a Hammer/shield guy but I've been really disappointed with the Hammer in this edition. To me the trade off of hitting on 4's, less attacks, for the 'potential' of mortals just never seems to work out for me.

 

I still can't believe they didn't update the Dataslate for the Assault Termies. But that was my intent with Calgar eventually.

 

I think the best use of Terminator Calgar is with Terminators (obviously as thats almost the only reason to take Terminator Calgar over Gravis Calgar + 2 Guards) but its the same reason you take Gravis Calgar with Aggressors.  Advance.  And Shoot.  And Charge.   All day long.  He turns Move 5" to move 5+D6" all day long.  I'm not sure any version of Terminators would be significantly better or worse when paired with him, though I suspect the shooters are simply because they can shoot and punch with his "force multiplier" being Special-Move shoot and charge so the shootinators can take advantage of it all. And don't forget as long as you're taking Calgar anyway, switch to the Blade of Ultramar Det.  As near as I can tell its only different for the one stratagem, and removing the once each limit on Doctrines as long as Calgar is on the table, which helps the now S5 -2 D1 Lightning Claws and now S8 -3 D2 Fists/Hammers wound on 2's and 3's between Assault Doctrine and Courage and Honor - which you can now repeat turn after turn because you can keep selecting Assault Doctrine turn after turn with Calgar.  There's a fair bit of buff layering that can be done there if you're turning Calgar's unit into a mini Deathstar.  

 

As far as Calgar + Cato + Victrix Squads -I'm not really tempted - (dont get me wrong, I'll totally do Cato or other captains with a Victrix Squad but not Captain + Calgar)  - The Victrix Squad isn't big enough.  It doesn't have an invuln.  Calgar AND Cato just puts too many eggs in one too fragile basket.  Also if you DO put Calgar into a Victrix squad its Probably Gravis Calgar with his two Victrix Bodyguards.  Sadly the WarCom downloads section is currently broken so I cant look up Ferren Areios rules.  One final thought here, Both Cato Sicarius Datasheets still exist like both Calgar Datasheets.  And I think I'd rather use the first Sicarius Datasheet even for joining the Victrix squad in order to give their master crafted bolt carbines ASSAULT with a 6" Scout move instead of 0CP Heric Interventions.   I mean I see the You Move, they Move, You Move Again, then You Heroic Intervention Move but that's a lot of Just Right that has to happen.

[Prot]

Quote

 I'm not sure any version of Terminators would be significantly better or worse when paired with him,

 

Well the fall back, and re charge is decent. Not amazing, but decent without having to use any other tricks. 

 

One thing  Termies and Grimnar taught me is having a good buffer for the character is half the battle. Do I wish they were DA Deathwing Knights? Heck yea, but I screwed up buying this kit...

 

In my gut I feel like any Calgar and Aggressors are going to be the play, but I'm just so incredibly bored of that combo. I've been playing it weekly in one offs, or tournaments for years (on and off).  My honest hope is another squad is coming. My 'dream' squad right now is Calgar with a primarisized Centurion squad. Now that would be beefy, and destructive. :)

 

We'll see what happens. In my now..... I guess 5-6th UM army I'm trying to slow grow it. paint it more leisurely instead of it feeling like a job. So far this Victrix squad is grinding me down. What an immense amount of detail that I'd love to just cram through. lol 

 

Hopefully with Cato it turns into something fun, and nice to look at on the table. 

 

[Tacitus]

9 hours ago, Prot said:

 

Well the fall back, and re charge is decent. Not amazing, but decent without having to use any other tricks. 

 

One thing  Termies and Grimnar taught me is having a good buffer for the character is half the battle. Do I wish they were DA Deathwing Knights? Heck yea, but I screwed up buying this kit...

 

In my gut I feel like any Calgar and Aggressors are going to be the play, but I'm just so incredibly bored of that combo. I've been playing it weekly in one offs, or tournaments for years (on and off).  My honest hope is another squad is coming. My 'dream' squad right now is Calgar with a primarisized Centurion squad. Now that would be beefy, and destructive. :)

 

We'll see what happens. In my now..... I guess 5-6th UM army I'm trying to slow grow it. paint it more leisurely instead of it feeling like a job. So far this Victrix squad is grinding me down. What an immense amount of detail that I'd love to just cram through. lol 

 

Hopefully with Cato it turns into something fun, and nice to look at on the table. 

 

I switch off some and run Gravis Calgar with Bladeguard Vets. They synergize with with the Victrix guard, and you still have Calgar's Fists for anything bigger. 

 

As for Fall Back and Charge/Shoot (and more) comes with Calgar's abilities, but even beyond that Tactical Doctrine is Fall Back and Shoot and/or Charge.  And Calgar allows Tactical Doctrine all day long if you really want it.  Plus a Strat to put Tactical Doctrine on Unit A while the rest of the army is in Devastator or Assault Doctrine which can be helpful if you run a second Terminator Squad likely led by a Libby or Chaplain in Terminator Armor - Chaplain likely for Thunder Hammers, Libby for Lightning Claws or Shooters giving you two units that can move and (Shenanigans) - in addition both give a 4+++ FNP to layer on top of the Termie 4++ invlun for Psychic/Mortals.

 

One of the things I'm working through - only in my head so far - is to built and paint up some new squads to be Vixctrix Guard but not Victrix Guard Squads.  The fluff I (think) I read is that the best of the best from the assorted companies are part of the Victrix Guard.  Which TO ME means there's Victrix Guard Intercessor Squads, and Aggressor Squads, Terminator Squads (though they'd build/paint the same), Victrix Guard Infiltrators and on and on.  So I'm playing around in my head of building up some "normal" squads with Elite shoulder pads, and white trim to be this 11th Victrix Company - tieing the whole thing together with the trim and Elite symbol which then forms the army around Calgar and/or Roboute.