Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok, so I've only just started playing 7th edition (I've always been reluctant to move on to the most up-to-date editions for some reason) and needless to say I'm late to the party. I'm just going to post my list here to see how legal, disgusting and lethal it may be. (I am right in believing that an unbound army lets you field ANY combination of units you want right??) I realise this army may be tactically crippled but I mostly just want to enjoy the game and use the units which I like the look of.

UNBOUND DETACHMENT 1500 points

Techmarine
-servo harness
-The Shield Eternal
-4 servitors with servo arms

Venerable Dreadnought
-Twin-linked lascannon
-Twin-linked Autocannon

Venerable Dreadnought
-Assault cannon

Venerable Dreadnought
-Plasma cannon

Venerable Dreadnought
-Plasma cannon

Ironclad dreadnought
-Chainfist

Dreadnought
-Assault cannon

5 Devastators
-4 missile launchers

5 Devastators
-4 Lascannons
-Armorium Cherub

5 Devastators
-4 Plasma cannons

5 Devastators
-4 Heavy bolters

TOTAL 1500

The "plan" basically is to have the dreadnoughts advance with the techmarine towards, whilst the devastator squads work in pairs on either flank. the missile launchers and plasma cannons taking one flank whilst the heavy bolters and lascannons take the other, bearing in mind one of these pairs will be in cover bolstered by the techmarine. Fliers can be pecked at by massed devastator fire as well as the twin-linked weapons on the shooty dread. I realise this army is not very mobile at all but eh, be rate.

It’s hard to gauge unbound lists. Once the gloves come off, the sky is the limit. I think the default assumption at most FLGSs is that people play bound, so it would be easier to get a game if you re-worked it a bit. That said, you list is not particularly vile, and would probably play OK vs. an average friendly list.

Your list looks to be technically legal, albeit unbound.

From a play POV, it has a number of issues. One is that the majority of 40k missions are about taking and holding objectives. You are just footslogging non-obsec units. So this could be problematic for you.

I’m not a huge fan of PCs in general. You can never get as many guys under a small blast as you’d like, and they tend to scatter even when you do get a juicy target. Plus the whole gets hot thing. If you want to take a few because you like the way they look, go for it. But I’d not take nearly as many as you have.

For the Ven dreads, I’d stick with assault cannons. And keep the fist. Leave the TL’d guns to the basic dreads, they need them more at BS 4. And with 4A base, I’m loath to swap out the fist these days.

Here is a rough list that’s bound, but hopefully captures some of what you are looking for. It’s not perfect, but should have the same feel. (I’d drop one of the dev squads and the servitors to get the tacs in razorbacks. And probably put the tech on a bike or in a razor)

Techmarine. Harness, shield eternal. 4 servitors

Two Ven Dreads in a squadron, Both AsC, fist w/HF
Two reg. Dreads in a squadron. TLLC/TLAC
Ironclad, 2xHK missiles

2x 5 man tac squad w/HBs (scouts would probably work better here)

5 man Dev squad, 4xPCs
5 man Dev squad, 4xLCs
5 man Dev Squad, 4xML w/flack

The Codex Astartes would not approve the selection of the forces you have selected and would send your commander on a death oath if you were really running Ultramarines. Narrative jokes aside, I'm surprised you're not running Iron Hands chapter tactics which I feel would be perfect for a list like this. I don't think Ultramarines chapter tactics is the most optimal for this list considering you're not choosing any of the special characters for their support buffs so it feels kind of wasted (If you like the color scheme, you could always just paint them as Ultras, but use Iron Hand rules). I'd also look at the Medusa Strike Force which does allow you to take a ton of dreadnoughts although you'd have to pay a tax with some units you don't want. What's sad is even unbound doesn't cut it in comparison to all the formation and detachment buffs you can get these days. You could go cheap and take an armoured task force and then just spam dreadnoughts.

Yeah, I see what you mean. The plasma cannons on the dreads are actually not necessary, however they were very cheap and when I first did the list I did not have much to tackle infantry blobs. The plasma cannon devastators are just such a rare sight and I want to see how effective (or uneffective) they are.
In terms of what models I have I will be able to do the list you suggested, however the dreadnoughts are armed based on what weapon arms I own. I can swap one plasma cannon for an assault cannon but that's it.
Making the list a combined arms detachment is definitely a good Idea, I forgot about fielding the dreads in squadrons!

In fairness, now that Dreads have chapter tactics you can have a lot of fun with the doctrines that the Ultras get.

I do agree that Iron Hands works better for this list. But one of the perks of being an Ultramarine is that we can do everything pretty OK. Might not be optimal, but it works.

Oh yeah, when I read the new codex and saw the iron hands doctrine I was kicking myself! IMHO if they are painted as ultras, they should be used as ultras, so thats the main reason why I'm doing it.
Although the rerolls provided by ultramarines are very handy, and the devastator doctrine twice a game increases the effectiveness of my massed devastators.

Only once a game unless you take the gladius strike force. :\

 timthehierodule wrote:
Yeah, I see what you mean. The plasma cannons on the dreads are actually not necessary, however they were very cheap and when I first did the list I did not have much to tackle infantry blobs. The plasma cannon devastators are just such a rare sight and I want to see how effective (or uneffective) they are.
In terms of what models I have I will be able to do the list you suggested, however the dreadnoughts are armed based on what weapon arms I own. I can swap one plasma cannon for an assault cannon but that's it.
Making the list a combined arms detachment is definitely a good Idea, I forgot about fielding the dreads in squadrons!

The last time I fielded PC devs, they were pretty disappointing. But I have the models, and they were getting dusty. I wanted to see how they did in the current edition, so I fielded them. Not well, so they get to ride the shelf for another decade or so.

In my experiments with dread squads I’ve found that more then two gets cumbersome. They get in each other’s way, LoS and range can be issues, get stuck in cover, etc. If you do need to mix weapons, at least try to keep things similar. For example, a PC/fist dread might work OK with a TLLC/TLAC partner. He’s got the same S as the AC, and AP as the LC. So should do OK shooting at the same things. And if someone comes over to try to tarpit you, he rips them apart with the fist.

Considering how much firepower there is now in 40k, I feel like they should get rid of gets hot altogether. It's kind of silly that there's so many weapons out there that are way more lethal, but don't have a chance of blowing up in your face lol. I miss the days where they said plasma weapons on vehicles don't get hot because there's more room for cooling systems.

I think I must misunderstand the ultramarines chapter tactics then, I thought an ultramarines force got to use each doctrine once, then us an additional one. I now assuming that is incorrect?

By default, Ultramarines get to use each combat doctrine once per game and can stack an additional set of them if they're in the Gladius Strike Force. Then if you build a battle-demi company, the guys in this formation can grab a third tactical doctrine. Finally, you can take Marneus Calgar and have an additional combat doctrine.

Ok, I see. Also isn't it weird that Marneus isn't a HQ?

Narratively, it makes sense considering Chapter Masters usually delegate leadership of the companies to the captains so only when they need a hard push do the masters actually go to war. I think I've only used Calgar twice in all my time owning him. The first time was just to play test him in a casual game and the second was for an apocalypse game when I used my whole collection. I tend to be more narrative than competitive so it's rare for me to run him below 2k points. Also back in the day, you needed a minimum amount of points to actually run him in a list.

That's a good point. however people cant take a combined arms detachment with Marneus without wasting 100 points on a captain.

Although, techmarines, librarians and chaplains can all replace the captain I guess, but its still points you may want to spend elsewhere.

Calgar and Tigurius is a pretty mean combination and they've been narratively been known to work together since they're best buddies. But yeah, it's a lot of points which is why I think Calgar is only ever worth it in big games or if you're just running a death star. There's also Telion and Sergeant Chronus you can now take as an HQ if you want to be cheap. However, I wouldn't worry about point costs as long as you can make every unit useful in some manner.