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Hi everyone

I've started competing in a monthly tournament with my primaris ultramarines. I've been getting steadily better but having trouble doing any better than 3rd place. It's a fairly competitive scene i think - its pretty common to see mortarian and/or magnus despite the points level. There's a few eldar players that do very well, including one who runs 3 eldar flyers (?hemlocks). One player that is tricky runs 6 custodes jet bikes.

I've been running a primaris captain, librarian, 3 units of intercessors, 1 unit of bolter inceptors, a redemptor dread and a repulsor. As i said the results are generally good - mainly my issue is tank or flyer heavy lists (especially the alaitoc player with the 3 flyers). I'm wanting to change my list a bit, and im happy to add some non primaris stuff.

So here's my next list, would be great to get some feedback on how to make it more competitive.

HQ
Primaris captain with power fist and plasma pistol
Primaris librarian

Troops
5 man intercessor squad
5 man scout squad with bolters and heavy bolter
5 man sniper scout squad with missle launcher

Fast attack
3 plasma interceptors

Heavy support
5 man hellblaster squad
thunderfire cannon and techmarine

Transport
Repulsor - lascannon, heavy onslaught gatling cannon, ironhail heavy stuber, storm bolters, icarus rocket pod

total is 1241

The plan is to might of heroes the repulsor and have the techmarine hide behind and repair. The repulsor should help lower the amount of drops and keep the hellblasters safe on the 1st turn. I generally use the chapter master upgrade. The scouts give me access to hellfire shells and flakk missiles. I think the tremor shells strategem looks pretty good on paper so would like to include. Also i've had good results from the plasma interceptors and scions of gulliman. The librarian is my only wild card against primarchs and generally the plan is to pop null zone and run in like a hero.

What are everyones thoughts? I have everything 90% painted, apart from the sniper scouts and thunderfire cannon which i still need to buy. My anti armour is still only the missile launcher, repulsor, inceptors and hellblasters. But that's not so much with the -1 to hit flyers and all that. I'm thinking about adding a dev squad, i would prefer to not add vanilla marines cause i dont think they look so good next to primaris but i would definitely consider it.

Oh and there is a two detachment limit as well. We dont use the beta deepstrike rules.

Thanks for your help!

I've been having the same anti-armour issues with my Primaris Crimson Fists and like you, I don't want any stubby marines mixed in there. My solution is to draft in the Guard. 3 x 3 Lascannon teams and a company commander makes for a cheap and effective anti-armour detachment and it keeps with my theme of Primaris only marines (there aren't many OG Crimson Fists left after all).

I'm also a huge fan of Aggressors and would consider a squad of them over the Thunderfire. Put them in the Repulsor and get them where they need to be (Repulsor's guns are mostly short/mid range, so siting back near a Thunderfire could result in wasted shots).

As your only tank, the Repulsor will eat lascannons/equivilants. I'd drop it + Thunderfire for the guard boys and use the extra points to flesh out your presence on the ground. Mmore intercessors or hellblasters. If you want to keep the Repulsor, drop the thunderfire for some Aggressors.

Thanks for the reply - yep i reckon allying in some guard would fix the problem (and also maybe one of the imperial knights when the codex drops?), but for now will try and keep space marine only.

A squad of aggressors in the repulsor could be a good idea and i guess the volume of fire could also help with the eldar flyers. But I agree that only having one tank isnt optimal so i was thinking this list might be an option...

Ultramarines Battalion

HQ
Primaris captain with power fist/plasma pistol and santic halo
Sergeant Chronus

Troops
2 units of 5 man intercessors with AGL
1 unit of 5 man scouts, bolters and heavy bolter

Fast attack
3 plasma inceptors

Heavy support
5 hell blasters
1 predator with twinlinked lascannon and sponsor lascannons

Transport
Repulsor - twin las, heavy onslaught gatling cannon, 2 iron hail heavy stubbers, 2 storm bolters, 2 krakstorm and 1 fragstorm

total is 1249

Against the flyer spam and assault armies ill go with chapter master and castle up. Thats would be 6 lascannon shots in total with chronus hitting on 2s (but 4s with alaitoc flyers which is still ok). I can get further mileage from hellfire shells and the plasma inceptors. I'm expecting the intercessors to get largely ignored which will help with capping objectives.

Against IG my repulsor will close in quick with the captain and hellblasters and give my opponent two armoured anti-tank threats to worry about.

It does leave me without a librarian to counter the primarchs, but getting null zone off is a bit a of gamble anyway and hopefully all the antitank helps.

Yeah that looks a lot better.

One thing to think about is putting Cronus in the Repulsor over the Predator. It's less benefit to you (in terms of anti-armour, but all the small arms will be gross with his buff), but it evens them out in terms of target priority. If you put him in the Predator, they'll focus that down hard.

I'd swap the Inceptors for Hell Blasters. I love inceptors for Dark Angels because they can still get a lot of work out of them when they show up, but Ultra Marines will be hampered by the Tactical Reserves rule. Instead I'd add another 5 hellblasters, who can get in cover and stay close to your captain for the re-rolls.

Nice as the spike damage on the twin lascannons are, you'd probably be better off with the more reliable and cheaper autocannon.

Thanks for the replys - unfortunately i cant put chronus in the repulsor (wish i could, but just double checked the codex) so in to the predator he goes.

My gaming group doesnt play the beta deep strike rules so that's why i went with the inceptors. But i guess hellblasters are better given they have a repulsor for mobility and more shots/wounds for 10 points less. My plasma inceptors are pretty fragile despite the gravis armour...

inquisitorham wrote:
Thanks for the replys - unfortunately i cant put chronus in the repulsor (wish i could, but just double checked the codex) so in to the predator he goes.

My gaming group doesnt play the beta deep strike rules so that's why i went with the inceptors. But i guess hellblasters are better given they have a repulsor for mobility and more shots/wounds for 10 points less. My plasma inceptors are pretty fragile despite the gravis armour...

My bad, didn't know Chronus couldn't ride the hover brick. Yeah bang him in the Predator and do your best to hide him turn 1.

Hellblasters are better on paper for sure, but Inceptors give you a bit of flexibility so I don't mind them staying. I'm going to convert an Inceptor into a jump pack captain so he at least looks Primaris to roll with a blob of Inceptors, give them the reroll 1s so they don't all explode if they overcharge.

inquisitorham wrote:
Thanks for the replys - unfortunately i cant put chronus in the repulsor (wish i could, but just double checked the codex) so in to the predator he goes.

My gaming group doesnt play the beta deep strike rules so that's why i went with the inceptors. But i guess hellblasters are better given they have a repulsor for mobility and more shots/wounds for 10 points less. My plasma inceptors are pretty fragile despite the gravis armour...

As long as your meta doesn't use the Tactical Reserves rule, Inceptors are a good choice. Just bear in mind that at some point that 'beta' rule is going to exist as a 'full' rule with some minor tweaks in language. If you already own the inceptors you can hold off on buying the hellblasters because being able to turn 1 DS the biggest target is still a big swing since you might eliminate a 200+pt model before it ever gets a shot off.

Using Dark Angels (and WotDA) I once killed a Forgeworld Trantula before it even got to activate. 400 points of my opponents list turned into resin deadweight. I twas glorious.

Doom and jinx the repulsor and engage with 9 bright lances and 72 scatter laser shots and laser Lances. When it explodes. Charge the survivors with shining spears with S6 Ap--4 D2 lances.