Rise of the Primarch Review: Part 3- Forces of the Ultramarines

The third part of my Rise of the Primarch review looks at the new rules for Ultramarines in the book; new warlord traits, Relics and formations.

Warlord Traits

The third Gathering Storm book presents a new warlord traits table for Ultramarines army. 

Noble Visage- This provides your warlord with a 12" re-roll bubble for morale, pinning and fear tests. A nice bonus that works on all armies of the imperium faction. 

Warden of Ultramar- Warlord gains Counter-Attack. This could be useful on a combat-centric unit.

Paragon of War- Warlord gains Preferred Enemy. Given the number of re-rolls available to Ultramarines, getting more re-rolls to wound will boost their damage output further. 

Master of Strategy- Add 4 to seize the initiative roll. This is awesome, seizing on a 2+ is a game changer and will be a big boost if you get this. Allowing your opponent to set up first, countering their deployment and having a very good chance of seizing will give you a great boost in your games, 

Master of Tactics- Allows you to discard a Tactical Objective card at the start of your turn and draw another. This is a big boost in maelstrom missions and should help significantly increase your score in these games. 

Adept of the Codex- Warlord and units within 6" get Split Fire. This could be useful in certain situations, but counting on this at the list building stage is not worth it, so it may have limited uses in your game. 

Overall, a decent set of traits. Master of Strategy and Master of Tactics seem solid to me. I think that most of the warlord traits from Codex Space Marines are just as good, if not better.

Rise of the Primarch Review: Part 2- Roboute Guilliman

Part 2 if my Rise of the Primarch review takes a look at the main man himself; Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines.

Roboute Guilliman
The Ultramarines' Primarch is a Lord of war that can be included in any Armies of the Imperium force. At 350 pts, he is pricey, but he comes with a great statline, serious combat potential and a host of special rules that make him a worthy inclusion in an army.

First off, let's look at durability. He is T6, with 6 wounds, a 2+ armour save, 3+ invulnerable save, Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain. That is a pretty impressive list and makes him a pretty durable model. In addition, his relic armour means that when he is slain, he returns to the field with D3 wounds on a 4+.
Most units in the game are going to struggle to take him out in shooting or in combat. However, given the current state of competitive 40k, this will not be too much trouble for many units either. A couple of rounds of serious grav cannon fire will probably take him out no problem. One big disadvantage of Guilliman is that he is a monstrous creature, so no joining units to benefit from Look Out, Sir rolls (though there is a formation in the book that can fix this). So overall, Guilliman is tough, but not impossible to kill.

Rise of the Primarch Review: Part 1- Cypher and the Fallen

Welcome to the first part of my review on the Gathering Storm: Rise of the Primarch book. This part will look at the rules for Cypher and the Fallen. While that sounds like an amazing name for a prog rock band, let's see what they look like on the tabletop.

Cypher, Lord of the Fallen

Cypher can be taken in the primary detachment in any Armies of the Imperium army or Chaos Space Marine army, as long as the army does not include any Dark Angels. He does not take up any force organisation slot. 

Cypher is actually a pretty good character to add to many units in the game. He provides some nice special rules for a unit and has some decent shooting and combat abilities.

He has And They Shall Know No Fear, Fleet, Hit and Run, Infiltrate and Shrouded. These provide some nice bonuses to any unit he joins- giving them a boosted cover save, better chance of charging into combat and the ability to flee from combat.