So are the Ultramarines getting all the cool toys? Eyjio, one of the Apocalypse40K regulars thinks so. He certainly thinks the new Warzone: Damnos is skewed towards Ultramarines. And what of the Necrons? Do they get good new rules and formations?
Eyjio has some very strong opinions about the Ultramarines getting buffed and the Necrons getting nerfed. You need not agree, but it is certainly worth a read!
From Eyjio:
We are going to take a look at how a fluffy Ultramarines army fares in the Warzone: Damnos book. Let's take Ultramarines 2nd Company. Immediately, you have Sicarius' vortex grenade finest hour and a free orbital bombardment. Now, we also want Tigurius so we can also throw together a Libarius formation too. By just taking 2 formations, we can use 4 Str D weapons for ~2700 points. You then have any vehicle formations you want like the Predator Assassin, any 1st company units you want like a High Command with Calgar, drop podding Sternguard or the Stormraven one. Space Wolves Great Companies are less versatile from this perspective and the same holds true for Brethren of the Great Wolf.
However, if you were to drop pod the entire great company, it becomes way too good again as Ways and Means could allow you to have a ton of marines immediately in combat with furious charge, plus models further from the wolf lord to have rerolled charges, essentially meaning you can and will be able to tie up if not outright kill a lot of enemies without real threat of retaliation. Even if you totally flop every single charge, that's still an awful lot of marines close to enemies so you lose nothing by going for it. Armies without access to interceptor (so most of them excepting fortifications) have no way to stop these charges at all, yet it could be a good chunk of an entire army if they roll well. Ways and Means is just far too good IMO.
Now consider things like Jaws with double range. Space Wolves can definitely have some amazing uses of these new assets, even if they have less immediate access to them. That'd be fine if it was meant for SW, but with Ultramarines they're super powerful. Considering how 2nd Company arrive on Damnos in the book (entirely drop pod assault) you can't even call people out if they recreate that, though it would be ridiculously overwhelming for many armies to face. I just think it's a poorly designed and unfun asset and it is more abusable than the old Flank March. Perhaps it's just me but the idea that this is on par as an asset with any of the faction specific ones from the main book or any Necron Damnos ones is utterly laughable. The fact it lasts all game and costs nothing is so dumb I don't even think I can express it in words, especially when it's so much more game changing than any Strategic Resource you can name.
Sorry, rant over. Here's my thoughts on the formations:
Centurion Decimator Cohort - Fantastic. Free Ignores Cover/Tank HUnter/Monster Hunter for up to 6 Centurion squads? Just amazing. Looks like a fun formation to play.
Conclave of the Ancients - Bleh. D6 HOW hits isn't great, nor is Rampage. PE for any model in the formation would be great if most weapons you take on Dreadnaughts weren't already TL. They really want you to charge with these guys but I'm yet to see footslogging AV12 make it anywhere close. Potentially broken if drop podding with Ways and Means, but then so is everything.
Deathstorm Area Denial Force - The rules for Deathstorm Drop Pods are just ripped straight from IA12. This formation gives them +1 S to shooting when they land. Powerful stuff, S7 assault cannons are nasty. Another great formation.
Deathwatch Strike Team - Hey, you know how every marine takes Sternguard to kill stuff? Now they all get PE VS 1 Xenos army of choice, S4 AP4 bolter ammo that forces Necrons to reroll passed reanimation and if they kill a Xeno Warlord, you get 1 VP. Yeah, Sternguard with 2+ to wound and preferred enemy is a thing. I guess the AP4 from all the other shooting (especially Deathstorms which just shred Warriors) wasn't killing Necrons hard enough either so now they have super Necron killing ammo. There is no reason not to take this formation at all. Not one. A bit too good IMO, the first of the extremely powerful.
Land Raider Spearhead - 3-5 LRs of any type get all spearhead benefits when in Arrowhead, so they get PE, tank hunters and 12" extra flat out. Considering how weak they are to Str D, this is a welcome formation. It's also very powerful if it survives. Yet another good formation.
Line Breaker Squadron - 3-5 Vindicators in a spearhead is a thing. Vindicators in a spearhead that have an option where 3+ of them can combine to fire a S10 AP2 10" blast is fun, especially when it automatically penetrates any building the hole is over with +1 to the damage result for each contributing Vindicator. Mostly though the important thing to take away is they can use Spearhead rules with this.
Skyhammer Orbital Strike Force - Know how I keep saying drop podding SM with Ways and Means is way too good? Welcome to the formation the lets you take any amount of drop podding SM units and gives them all PE. Oh, they also get crusader and fear for the first 2 turns and have to arrive first turn. Yeah... what else is there to say really. Take your favourite unit, give it a drop pod and it gets PE. This is very, very powerful, perhaps worse than the Sternguard one. The only "downside" is you have to take 3 drop podding tactical squads. How devastating, it's really crippling to get PE plasma guns right next to enemies. Oh wait, no, it's something you'd do anyway. Again, if you have the models, there is no excuse not to field this. Again, possibly too good.
Skyreign Hunter Squadron - 3-5 Hunters in a Spearhead. Mmm, rerollable armourbane due to tank hunters, tastes like cheese. Nothing spectacular about the formation, you add stuff to savant lock rolls depending on how many their are on the target and you can switch a few savant locks. Mostly, you'll use it for tank hunter armourbane that can target flyers and skimmers. Powerful, only let down by the actual Hunter unit itself. It's likely that in Apoc, they may survive a few turns and the damage those missiles will do is going to be ugly as they can still target skimmers with full BS using skyfire.
The Spear of Macragge - Yet another Spearhead, this time with Vindicator, Whirlwind or Vindicator flavours of choice. Any unit within 12" of Chronus' Land Raider/Terminus Ultra (which is a free LR upgrade apparenly) can use his BS5. Terminus Ultra rules unchanged other than being no more than a normal LR. This is pretty meh in my opinion and it sucks you need to field 5+ of other tanks to take the Terminus Ultra. The LR will make it hard to get into formations too. The second flop of the book for SM.
Stormsurge Strike Wing - In my experience, flying Str D is very frustrating to face and I never enjoy it as too little can stop it killing a unit a turn. Naturally, that means SM get another way to have flying Str D then. Yes, upon entry 3-5 SRs move between 36"-72" and get 4+ cover (but cannot evade, as if that'd be useful with 4+ cover). One unit they've passed over can be shot at (ignoring line of sight) with one of 2 modes, though you'll always take Missile Storm. Strafing Storm grants Strafing Run and Shred to all non-missiles but you cannot fire any missiles at all. Missile Storm fires all missiles on every SR from the formation and you resolve the shots normally unless you get 8+ hits. At 8 hits, you instead resolve 1 Str D AP2 shot with concussive. At 9 hits, it becomes a blast which doesn't scatter. This progresses until by 12+ hits, you're resolving a no scatter Str D AP2 conscussive 10" blast. Oh, also you can still fire the other weapons in this mode too. Now, bear in mind this is a flyer wing, so can get strafing run normally. Yeah, even with 3 SRs that's always going to be giving a Str D hit as you're firing 12 BS5 missiles. This is far too good to pass up if you have 3 SRs and frankly even if you don't, it's worth bearing in mind for future Apocalypse purchases. This is also my most despised formation, clearly being tailored to kill Pylons having taken away their interceptor in the same book. I hate you too Mr Kelly.
Suppression Force - Twin Link Whirlwinds, gives them the option to resolve shooting with the Apoc Barrage template, firing shot numbers equal to 2x the amount of contributing Whirlwinds. Honestly, this just looks like an attempt to save time, so I won't malign it. It's not a Spearhead, so no abuses there. It's meh, just a time saving formation, so the 3rd one that hasn't been at least great.
Ultramarines Chapter Honour Guard - Not getting enough Strategic Assets? Take 2 more! Calgar's LR gets tank hunters, monster hunter and PE. Every non-vehicle within 6" of Calgar in the formation gets FNP. All vehicles within 6" of Calgar in the formation ignore crew shaken/stunned. This formation is good because at minimum size, you take Calgar, his Honour Guard and a LR, then get free assets. You would probably field him anyway using Ultramarines, so yeah, it may as well just be free assets on a platter. Good because assets are good.
Wall of Martyrs Defence Strongpoint - Repairs AV due to Building Damage Results (and nothing else). All emplaced guns using automated fire are BS3 and have interceptor/skyfire. It's... certainly a fortification. Yeah, it makes Firestorm Redoubts great and Vengeance Weapon Batteries get BS3 interceptor so that's cool. Otherwise, not really worth it unless you are already taking the components.
That's all the stuff SM get. They're generally very good with a few exceptions and vastly better than the Necron part. You can pretty much field whatever SM units you want in spearhead/flyerwing and have access to a ton of Str D without taking Superheavies (which is amazing, you limit the VP you yield if you take less SHs than your opponent). Just seeing how much better they are than the Necron ones makes me annoyed when the old Apoc Necron formations were all on a par with these SM. It's not the first time Necrons have been shafted and I doubt it'll be the last. At least Infinite Phalanx, Transcendent C'tan and Solar Pulses are around, so Necrons still get some hope but this book is not worth the money for pure Necron players IMO, not at all. Other than flyerwings and the broken free unit asset, there's nothing exciting in here for you. Even the fluff will make you angry that GW decided that Ultramarines can never truly ever lose and that Necrons are in fact beatable with ~400 men even on a giant fully awoken tomb world (as in the whole planet is metal) with a Transcendent C'tan shard loose on it and fully operational defences.
Eyjio
