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Curious if there are any fluff references to the (non marine) armies of Ultramar? One could imagine that due to it's relative wealth & prosperity that they are able to field some well trained and well equipped standing forces. They even have trade business on Terra, East Canadian Gas specifically, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramar

One of Graham Mcniell's books made mention of some PDF forces being shipped out to fight in the Black Crusade. They never made it due to Geller Field failure, but if I recall correctly, they were talked up pretty well, for PDF forces.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ultramar_Auxilia

The 2nd Ed Tyranid Codex talked about the Guard armies on Ultramar..

And how they were promptly killed...

Looks like the Horus Heresy novels have fleshed things out a bit...Maybe 8th ed and the Indomitus Crusade will give an updated look at them.

The Ultramarines stand out among chapters mainly because (apart from the terrible writing of Matt Ward...) they hold sovereign over a system of 7 populated planets. Most chapters are limited to either one (which is rarely populated) or operate from isolation like an asteroid (the rock) or a spaceship (the pahlanx). In 4th ed codex it was stated that the worlds in Ultramar are not required to raise regiments of guardsmen, but that they do so anyway.

There's actually an intresting point in that because worlds given to astartes chapters don't provide tithes or guardsmen regiments. In essence they don't fall under Imperial rule, so the decisions by the High Lords doesn't really affect them, and neither the ecclisiarchy nor the adeptus arbites have any influence on them that the Space Marine chapter doesn't allow. The reason for this is because the chapter master becomes the planetary governor, and chapter masters are of course an exception from imperial law. Therefore "losing" a whole system (6 planets, 7-maccrage) worth of income, influence and soldiers would be problematic for the sector governor. The Ultramarines raising and shipping guards anyway is a way around that, to make it less problematic.

In warriors of Ultramar (by Graham McNeill) an Ultramarines sergeant help train a regiment of guardsmen to be better prepared vs Tyranids. It was a long time since I read it but I think they said he'd done it before. So it's possible the Ultramarines actually dispatch single sergeants to help train the pdf and guardsmen from their worlds, which would definetly raise overall effeciency and morale.

Whenever Ultramar is under attack the Ultramarines commonly deploy togheter with the guardsmen. A good example of this is the battle for Maccrage, the famous last stand of the first company. Many regiments of Ultramar raised guardsmen where also present on the north pole as where a group of titans. All died with the Space Marines.

Currently the Ultramarines are probably the only self sustained chapter there is because their system has production facilities (including shipyards and forges) for all the chapters needs. This has just changed though since the new Ultramar of 8th is roughly twice the size of Tau space. It'll be intresting to see where that takes the fluff and how Guilliman changes things.

Edit: points for the Ultramarines gas company

It'd be interesting to get the latest canon on Ultramar and it's capabilities. Some sources state just the Macragge system while the lexicanum wiki lists 30 planets under their rule...down from 500(!) during the Great Crusade.

 Mr BugBear wrote:
It'd be interesting to get the latest canon on Ultramar and it's capabilities. Some sources state just the Macragge system while the lexicanum wiki lists 30 planets under their rule...down from 500(!) during the Great Crusade.

actually the latest cannon is 500 worlds. post Heresy Gulliman released most of the 500 worlds from their allegiance to Macragge, however one of his first actions upon his return was to declare that null and void. (as the 500 worlds where under chaos attack obviously no one opposed this) Ultramar is one of the featured warzones with 8th edition it sounds like so I'm hoping we get some focus on the Ultramar Auxilleria, heck if they gave us a new guard regiment, the Auxilleria might be a good one to do so.

I think I remember lots of talk of Maccrage having a really regimented military structure with plenty of noble houses capable of raising armies even before Guilliman and the Great Crusade. I imagine this may still be the case, albeit amplified by imperial industry and expansion.

The 5th Ed Codex and 5th Ed Tyranids has mention of Ultramar PDF regiments, who are so well trained that they're as good or better than Guardsman. They have these on each world. They also have an Ultramar Titan Legion, noted in the Battle for Macragge. Then they also have the Ultramarines themselves along with their fleet, which has 3 Battle Barges prior to the BfM (thought they just pulled a Heresy-era Barge out of their asses to give to Guilliman) and can also call on the Ultima Segmentum Fleet.

All in all, Ultramar is one of the most heavily protected regions of the Imperium, after Cadia and Terra of course.