Based on someone else's report of doing an all Ultramarine army as Act 2 starts, I'm curious if people can give me some suggestions.
1- SM units best for taking on Ork super-tanks/stompas/gargants?
2- General advice.
3- Armored Nobs.
4- SM tanks seem fragile and need continual repair.
All Ultramarines
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Re: All Ultramarines
1. Regular squads with grav guns, standard Land Raiders, and Land Raider Achilles. The Hellfire Dreadnought is also decent after you get it some vet
2. Dreadnoughts are your friends and a lot of Infantry is required imo compared to steel legion. Consider using scout squads to gain vet, then upgrade them into terminators/other. Don't be afraid to take loses, but also try not to lose whole units. Endgame will be quite a bit harder than a standard playthrough due to lack of titans/heavy arty (esp the bridge assaults). "Suicidal" tac squads (w/ grav guns) may be wanted to help deal with Act 3 missions.
3. Dreadnoughts eat these with 1-2 damage in melee. Land Raider Crusaders and Redeemers also work well.
4. They have more hp than Leman Russ tanks, and more firepower with roughly same defense. You'll likely use mostly Land Raiders due to the current AI flaws, but standard tanks actually have quite a bit of firepower.
Some notes: You can start with space marines in act 1. You need to go to the scenario editor and add the Ultramarines to Side 1 for all Tutorial/Act 1 missions. Then you have to add them to the unit avail lists via notepad/++. Just copy/paste units numbers 700+ from a later list into the earlier lists. This does tend to make act 1 a bit easier. Also consider increasing the Whirlwind Missile Launcher to range 4 for some light artillery support. It reduces the impulse to scout spam and will help when you need to kill entrenched or bigger enemy units.
2. Dreadnoughts are your friends and a lot of Infantry is required imo compared to steel legion. Consider using scout squads to gain vet, then upgrade them into terminators/other. Don't be afraid to take loses, but also try not to lose whole units. Endgame will be quite a bit harder than a standard playthrough due to lack of titans/heavy arty (esp the bridge assaults). "Suicidal" tac squads (w/ grav guns) may be wanted to help deal with Act 3 missions.
3. Dreadnoughts eat these with 1-2 damage in melee. Land Raider Crusaders and Redeemers also work well.
4. They have more hp than Leman Russ tanks, and more firepower with roughly same defense. You'll likely use mostly Land Raiders due to the current AI flaws, but standard tanks actually have quite a bit of firepower.
Some notes: You can start with space marines in act 1. You need to go to the scenario editor and add the Ultramarines to Side 1 for all Tutorial/Act 1 missions. Then you have to add them to the unit avail lists via notepad/++. Just copy/paste units numbers 700+ from a later list into the earlier lists. This does tend to make act 1 a bit easier. Also consider increasing the Whirlwind Missile Launcher to range 4 for some light artillery support. It reduces the impulse to scout spam and will help when you need to kill entrenched or bigger enemy units.
Re: All Ultramarines
And finished. Sorta.
Losses were too much in Act 3 and I needed three Titans to keep up the momentum. I also needed the Scout titans in the defend the factory mission to block some bridges rapidly, but disbanded them after that.
That said, an all (mostly) Ultra Marine army was much faster at cutting through the enemy quickly compared to my prior playthroughs with many Steel Legion super-heavy tanks. Missions in which I barely finished in time before I was able to win with time to spare. Act 2 mission one in particular I was able to win without biting my nails.
Some thoughts:
Assault Bikes in teams of two were useful at killing just about anything, but the way they drew fire was telling in later missions and I had to retire them.
The Landraiders drew plenty of fire and I had difficulty keeping them alive if the enemy focused on them. Prometheus for orks in buildings and Achilles for everything else was my usual strategy. Tactical squads with gravguns tended to be behind them.
The Predator Annihilator was my main-stay tank.
Venerable dreadnaughts were my means of scouting. Stomp forward till they bounce into something. Hellfires followed them.
Whirlwinds and Hunters I attempted but they seemed to have too little effect.
Scouts did fine and were good for picking off elevated artillery positions and the usual harassing.
Two terminator's with assault cannons with a Vindicator or Prometheus/Crusader was a winning combo on taking urban areas swiftly.
All my units took repeated losses so beyond the Titans, very few units had more than 2 stars of experience.
Losses were too much in Act 3 and I needed three Titans to keep up the momentum. I also needed the Scout titans in the defend the factory mission to block some bridges rapidly, but disbanded them after that.
That said, an all (mostly) Ultra Marine army was much faster at cutting through the enemy quickly compared to my prior playthroughs with many Steel Legion super-heavy tanks. Missions in which I barely finished in time before I was able to win with time to spare. Act 2 mission one in particular I was able to win without biting my nails.
Some thoughts:
Assault Bikes in teams of two were useful at killing just about anything, but the way they drew fire was telling in later missions and I had to retire them.
The Landraiders drew plenty of fire and I had difficulty keeping them alive if the enemy focused on them. Prometheus for orks in buildings and Achilles for everything else was my usual strategy. Tactical squads with gravguns tended to be behind them.
The Predator Annihilator was my main-stay tank.
Venerable dreadnaughts were my means of scouting. Stomp forward till they bounce into something. Hellfires followed them.
Whirlwinds and Hunters I attempted but they seemed to have too little effect.
Scouts did fine and were good for picking off elevated artillery positions and the usual harassing.
Two terminator's with assault cannons with a Vindicator or Prometheus/Crusader was a winning combo on taking urban areas swiftly.
All my units took repeated losses so beyond the Titans, very few units had more than 2 stars of experience.