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Ultramarines: Battle Demi Company Command

The Demi Company is an organisational division of a standard space marine battle company and generally consists of half the squads from the company. It will be commanded by a Lieutenant, this is a new addition to the organisation made by Robute Guilliman, and he will be accompanied by a command squad. There are currently no Primaris Company Veterans, but there is a 1/2CP stratagem to turn a normal squad of Intercessors into Veteran Intercessors.

2nd Company Battle Demi-Company Command

Its taken me several years to get round to painting the banner for the Primaris Ancient, I've had the model half painted since a few weeks after Dark Imperium was released in 2017, and i had never felt confident painting a banner. I decided to challenge myself and get it done and as a first attempt i'm reasonably happy. I've not decided what I'm going to write on it yet, but I have some micropens ready and waiting. I decided to go for Red for the majority of the banner since painting the whole thing blue wouldn't make it stand out. I had considered painting the ancients bolter red as well, rather than the black, but i don't want to draw attention away from the banner. If you think it would look better red, let me know.
2nd Company Ancient
     
         
 

On the Tabletop

Primaris Ancient

The main reason to include the Primaris Ancient, or any other Ancient in your list is their 'Astartes Banner' ability which can allow nearby models that are killed to fight or shoot before they are removed as a casualty. The range is limited to models (not units) within 6 inches of the Ancient so its quite a limited bonus, but one that is quite easy to boost. Ultramarines have it particularly good in this regard, let me explain why.

The Faith and Fury book from Psychic awakening added additional abilities that can be taken by space marine characters, including Ancients, allowing them for 1CP to be upgraded to Chapter Ancients. The main benefit of this is that the range on the Astartes Banner ability is increased to 9" which is a lot more useful than 6 inches. You can also take the Standard of the Emperor Ascendant relic from Codex Space Marines, and this increases the range of the Astartes Banner ability by 3" for a total of 12", and allows units to auto pass morale checks if they are within 9". This is awesome. I did check the FAQ's and so forth to see if there was a reason these abilities wouldn't stack, but I couldn't find anything.

Where Ultramarines trump other chapters is that they have the option of taking a Chapter Ancient as an elites choice. Other chapters are restricted to company ancients only (either normal or Primaris). he comes with the same 9" range to the astartes banner ability, but doesn't cost a CP to be upgraded. He also has a 2+ save, but the downside is the Ultramarines Chapter ancient is not a primaris marine, so you may lose a bit of utility if it is the only non primaris model on the table as he will be unable to utilize any primaris only transports. It may be a moot point as the best place for him is on the table so other units can use the banner ability.

As a character he can be your warlord, and if he isn't he can be upgraded to have a warlord trait anyway for a CP using Hero of the Chapter. There are obviously loads to choose from. but there are probably better units to give warlord traits to, but this will depend on what you want your army to do and what other characters you have. be aware though, that ancients lack an invulnerable save, so are quite easy to kill if they are target-able, so be careful how you move them, and if you are particularly paranoid you can consider some bodyguards such as Company Veterans or for Ultramarines Vitrix Guard.

Primaris Lieutenant

Primaris Lieutenant boasting a 2 year old paintjob
  

Another force multiplier, the Primaris Lieutenant allows units within 6" to re-roll to wound rolls of 1. This is quite a good ability and can be combined with the Captain's ability to re-roll hit rolls of a 1.
This can be extended to 9" for 1 phase (shooting or close combat) using the Inspiring Command stratagem. He can also be given 'The Vox Espiritum' relic which increases all Aura abilities by 3" for a maximum of 12", which is again very very useful. this relic is only available for Primaris models though (boo). Generally though, Lieutenants from Codex Space marines are quite unspectacular, and are  as survivable as ancients unless you invest in some relics or bodyguards.

The Lieutenant from Indomitus is another matter entirely, boasting an effective 2+ armour save and 4+ Invulnerable from the storm shield, and superior close combat effectiveness for only a few points more. Mine is currently still on the sprue, i'm not rushing it as i already have a few hundred marines that need to be painted.


Coming up.

There are 15 miniatures left before I have everything done for the Demi Company. I've got both types of repulsor to paint as well, but i'm going to try some battle damage on some rhino chasis before i take those on. There is no Primaris Company Champion model yet, The Judiciar is kind of, but not quite, the same thing. I'm not looking forward to the white on the apothecary, but i've painted a banner which I was scared of doing, and whats the worst that can happen?


I also need to finish some vehicles, I got over excited and put decals on them before I'd finished painting them.



Let me know what you think and if there is anything you would like to see in the future.


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