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I'm a bit surprised that we don't hear much about competitive Ultramarine lists built around Calgar.

Dakka's been flooded with White-Scar lists and tactics posts but not much on the UMs...

HIGHLIGHTS:

Minor buffs and bonuses:
-Gets to roll 3 dices on the Warlord Trait table and picks the one he wants (decent chance at getting Storm of Fire, Imperium's Sword isn't bad either)
-His CC attacks essentially have tank-hunter
-His armor of antilochus lets you sweep still and incorporates a homing beacon

Serious buffs:
-All your UM units get to CHOOSE to pass or fail any morale checks! This is better than the old combat tactics; the tactical applications to this are awesome
-You get to use one of your doctrines TWICE! While the tactical doctrine seems like an obvious winner here, the devastator doctrine is the one I usually find myself using the most. It is great against flying MCs to force those grounding tests, and obviously will come in handy against flyers as well. EITHER of those doctrines are great with plasmaguns and combi-plasmas where you'll maximize your hits or at the very least minimize your "gets-hot" wounds.

Calgar basically allows you to field many relatively cheap tactical and devastator squads (remember, you don't need vet upgrades) and turn them into serious firepower.

Calgar himself is no slouch in CC with 5 attacks stock (using the PFs, and let's face it, you're rarely gonna use the sword) and even shoots a couple of AP2 shots from the integrated bolters. He meshes REALLY well with an Honour Guard squad with the chapter banner, let him tank wounds from shooting and overwatch and unleash a crap-ton of attacks during the assault. I've been using this squad in a pod as a harass/distraction unit while the tacticals get in position to unleash hell by turn 2 (and/or 3!)

Anyone else have used Calgar successfully? Or not? Care to comment?

While Calgar certainly brings a lot to the table you have to remember you're paying out the nose for something that costs more than a land raider but has less survivability than the normal chapter master build with the shield eternal on a bike with artificer armour+thunder hammer so as a beatstick Calgar is not too outstanding. He costs even more if you want to add the Armour of Antilochus.

He would certainly be someone I'd only take in a 2000 point game just because of the chunk of points he takes out. While his buff for essentially ignoring morale problems is great, it does only factor in when you're taking casualties which in this heavy AP2-3 ignoring cover environment means that it is more reactive than proactive unlike some of the other chapter buffs from other characters since it doesn't really come into play very effectively when your tactical squad is wiped out or severely diminished in a salvo of shuriken weaponry or a vector strike+baleflamer blast. Don't get me wrong it's powerful but it does do less than having more direct benefits like twin-linked melta weaponry or It Will Not Die on your heavy vehicles and characters.

In contrast to this his ability to use doctrines twice is very nice. The only thing I don't like about Ultramarines is that it forces you to build around them to fully utilize the two which can muddle up some of your points concentration from other aspects of your army that requires attention. Calgar helps mitigate this somewhat with his double doctrine ability but it still prevents a certain flexibility in your army as you HAVE to take at least 2 of the 3 units affected by it or otherwise you miss out on the point of having the ultramarines chapter tactics to begin with.

I think you can make a very solid infantry spam list with Calgar.

Bodies, bodies, bodies. That's what makes Calgar very good.
What Calgar does is gives you 'God of War'. This is a combination of 'chapter tactics' from the old codex combined with the ability to auto-pass any tests. That is complete money, as it lets you really exploit having lots of bodies on the table.

Calgar is your beat stick to stick near the center of your army to scream 'Get off my Lawn!" to anything that gets close. Throw him at wraiths, ICs, MCs, etc.. Hes your ticket to getting things knocked out of your way. You don't need an honor guard or anything fancy. Just sticking him in 10 marines will do the trick.

So what does it look like?
This is what I would bring with Calgar

HQ
Calgar
Tigurius

Troops
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC

Heavy Support
10 Devastators w/2 ML + 2 LC
10 Devastators w/4 ML
10 Devastators w/4 ML

Areas to grow
This is a good base. It gives you a lot bodies to spam the table with (92 MEQ bodies is no joke to dislodge) To make matters worse, its 18 different squads, 12 of which are scoring. That means there can be a lot of overkill wasted when your opponent is shooting at them.

It also gives you a lot of firepower. 8 LCs and 10 MLs can do a number of enemy targets, and they are hard to dislodge. Unlike long fangs your devs have 3 bolters for every heavy weapon. Burn your tactical doctrine on the first round of the game. If your facing lots of flyers, burn your dev doctrine. Use Calgars power to burn the most practical one next.

Divination has some great things for tiggy. Prescience, Misfortune, and Ignore cover come to mind.

Final Thoughts
This army has some bad match ups -- like calvary based daemons. However, you have a lot more good match ups than bad match ups.

I think that is a strong army that will take many people off guard. The way you play it is not to rush into someones face but just sit on the objectives and plink away at the enemy. Sure, a wave serpent spam player will kill 10-12 models on turn one, but you should be able to take down a wave serpent or two per turn, until hes not killing more than a few per turn.

The best thing -- the army is cheap to buy dollar wise. Marines are very affordable.

I used to use him back in the old book. He works the same now, if a little nerfed. He provides high power and problems for your opponent, and his pass/fail for tests has always been great for proving tactics decide battles.

Calgar with 40+ tactical marines is a pretty good build. Because space marines in general do not have the strength to table opponents like Riptide Tau, Screamer Daemons, or Wave Serpent Eldar and end games decisively, running out the game turn clock is usually how C:SM players will aim to win. Defensive play also keeps your flimsy units alive since 3+ doesn't save you against anything but small arms fire. This type of build ensures you have enough bodies to last till turn 5-7, and have enough scoring units that you can reliably win through objectives.

Might not be so good at kill points though.

 labmouse42 wrote:
I think you can make a very solid infantry spam list with Calgar.

Bodies, bodies, bodies. That's what makes Calgar very good.
What Calgar does is gives you 'God of War'. This is a combination of 'chapter tactics' from the old codex combined with the ability to auto-pass any tests. That is complete money, as it lets you really exploit having lots of bodies on the table.

Calgar is your beat stick to stick near the center of your army to scream 'Get off my Lawn!" to anything that gets close. Throw him at wraiths, ICs, MCs, etc.. Hes your ticket to getting things knocked out of your way. You don't need an honor guard or anything fancy. Just sticking him in 10 marines will do the trick.

So what does it look like?
This is what I would bring with Calgar

HQ
Calgar
Tigurius

Troops
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC
10 Tactical Squad w/MG + LC

Heavy Support
10 Devastators w/2 ML + 2 LC
10 Devastators w/4 ML
10 Devastators w/4 ML

Areas to grow
This is a good base. It gives you a lot bodies to spam the table with (92 MEQ bodies is no joke to dislodge) To make matters worse, its 18 different squads, 12 of which are scoring. That means there can be a lot of overkill wasted when your opponent is shooting at them.

It also gives you a lot of firepower. 8 LCs and 10 MLs can do a number of enemy targets, and they are hard to dislodge. Unlike long fangs your devs have 3 bolters for every heavy weapon. Burn your tactical doctrine on the first round of the game. If your facing lots of flyers, burn your dev doctrine. Use Calgars power to burn the most practical one next.

Divination has some great things for tiggy. Prescience, Misfortune, and Ignore cover come to mind.

Final Thoughts
This army has some bad match ups -- like calvary based daemons. However, you have a lot more good match ups than bad match ups.

I think that is a strong army that will take many people off guard. The way you play it is not to rush into someones face but just sit on the objectives and plink away at the enemy. Sure, a wave serpent spam player will kill 10-12 models on turn one, but you should be able to take down a wave serpent or two per turn, until hes not killing more than a few per turn.

The best thing -- the army is cheap to buy dollar wise. Marines are very affordable.

Since you are marching Calgar up the middle of the board anyway, what about dropping a Dev Squad and change for a squad of TLLC/ML, TLLC,ML, Grav/ML(Or Swap to 2xGrav/TLLC/ML Sergeant) Sergeant Dev Cents? Or cheaper Hurricane Bolter/Meltagun Assault Cents. Yes, you'll need to free up some points, but you are marching Calgar up the center of the table anyway, may as well make the most of it with a mini Deathstar. Also gives a nice safe home for Tigerius at majority Toughness 5.

I can see that point. There are lots of ways you can flex the list. Try it out and see what it takes to make it work.