Horus Heresy Ultramarines

Ultramarines 121st Chapter, 1st Battalion, 1st Company: The Daughters of Guilliman

Chapter Doctrine

“Ultima Ratio Bellatricum” (The Final Argument of Queens): The 121st always strive to lead with diplomacy and negotiation, but when that breaks down, a blended doctrine of swift orbital insertion, elite jump pack shock assault, and disciplined auxiliary cordon makes for a very convincing argument.

Organization of the Chapter and Allied Imperial Navy Fleet and Forces

The 121st Chapter, or “Daughters of Guilliman” consists of ten Companies split across two Battalions. My army is represented by the Ultramarines 121st Chapter, 1st Battalion, 1st Company. Each Company is about 100 Legionaries, and the 121st Chapter totals around 1,000 Astartes.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Companies are housed on the Astartes Battle Barge Domina Ignis (The Lady of Fire) which is part of the 121st Chapter fleet, the “Ignis Spearhead.” Also part of the fleet is the Strike Cruiser Furiosa Princepa (The Furious Princess), which houses the 4th and 5th Companies of the Daughters, and three Nova Frigates, the Octavo Noctum (The Eight Night), the Sol Aeternus (The Eternal Sun), and the Gladius Ferrum (The Iron Sword).

They are complemented by an Imperial Navy fleet including the Lunar-class Cruiser Argentum Regina (The Silver Queen), a Dauntless-class Cruiser Contumax Filia (Defiant Daughter), and three Cobra Rapid Strike Vessels, the Pugnus Aurorae (The Fist of Dawn), the Fortis Custos (Brave Guardian), and the Lamina Vindictae (The Blade’s Vengeance). This fleet is the Talassar 2nd Fleet, which houses the 367th Ultramar Auxilia Cohort (my army will be the 4th Sub-Cohort) as well as two Questoris Knights and four Armiger Warglaives from the “Lions of Redwyn” of House Terryn.

These two fleets combined make up Battlegroup U121.SA367 or less formally, the Ignis Battlegroup.

Strategic Disposition of the 121st Chapter or “Daughters of Guilliman”

Chapter History

  • The 121st participated in the pacification campaign of the Ophidian Halo’s fringe systems. This cemented their reputation for exacting compliance missions with low collateral damage and their favor of missiles as a primary weapon for heavy support due to their tactical flexibility. They make heavy use of jump pack-equipped marines for rapid, decisive strikes, often deploying directly from Thunderhawks high in the atmosphere.
  • The Thoas Insurrection began when a planet, that was once in compliance, turned the planet’s defense grid against the Imperium. Communications went dark. Then-Centurion Presca led her squad in a void-drop without waiting for orders, boarding the orbital bastion station with no additional support. Three days later, she and what remained of her squad emerged wounded but victorious—having slain the leaders of the insurrection.
  • The 121st lost their former Legate, Soria Meltrax, when a retaliatory missile strike during a compliance vaporized her command post during the final assault on Carthis Spire. Disorder rippled through the lines. But Centurion Presca, returning fresh from the void-drop assault on Thoas, took command without hesitation. She never raised her voice, never asked permission. Her quiet precision stabilized the front and she succeeded in driving the enemy back. By the time the campaign ended, no one questioned who would lead them next.
  • When the Word Bearers’ betrayal ignited Calth, the 121st was deployed to reinforce the orbital defense grid above the hive-cities of Nemea. They arrived too late to prevent the initial bombardments but struck back hard in void assaults across the burning bastion-stations. The fighting was savage and close-quartered, a labyrinth of ruptured corridors where boarding torches and chainblades decided each deck. Over the course of five days, the 121st fought without resupply, losing squad after squad to the red-lit melee. By the time reinforcements broke through, nearly three-quarters of the Chapter’s strength had been spent in the void. What returned from Calth was not the 121st that had mustered there. They came back diminished, with many of their senior officers slain, their companies reduced to scattered survivors. In the wake of the devastation, Guilliman authorized the induction of vast numbers of new recruits, many through the accelerated Inductii process. These warriors, clad in the newly issued MKVI power armor, were tempered in the fire of the Shadow Crusade almost as soon as their armor was sealed. Through brutal wars against traitor forces that followed, the 121st’s “new blood” proved themselves again and again, rising from stopgap soldiers to full battle-sisters.
  • Initially dispatched as negotiators to meet with a force of World Eaters who claimed to still be loyal to the Emperor on Tevratha IX. During the negotiations, the World Eaters betrayed the 121st and tried to assassinate Legate Presca. Fortunately, with the help of a Questoris Knight Lancer and withering lascannon fire, Presca escaped and led her forces in a brutal counter attack, with orbitally-deployed forces raining down on the retreating World Eaters, completely obliterating their forces. (This is based on a narrative match that I actually played.)
  • Took place in a revenge campaign after the 47th Ultramar Auxilia Cohort was butchered by World Eaters during the collapse of Drelvian Prime’s defense grid. The Daughters responded with orbital strikes, drop pod assaults, and a relentless purge of every World Eater present. It was said the skies burned crimson for three days.
  • In a purely diplomatic success, the 121st negotiated the peaceful reintegration of the Celestis Defense Fleet, a rogue flotilla turned isolationist after Horus’ betrayal and the events of Calth. It was only after Captain Junia Nova allowed herself to be taken aboard for talks—and revealed orbital targeting solutions in her final message—that the rogue admiral surrendered. The threat of total destruction, paired with disciplined poise, made for a final argument that never needed to be fired.
  • On Ferric Hold, a manufactorum world under siege by both heretics and loyalist radicals, the 121st issued a single broadcast: surrender and disarm, or be deemed forfeit. When silence answered, they enacted Protocol Ultima Ratio—Assault squads severed power nodes, dreadnoughts secured heavy industry zones, and Solar Auxilia formed a cordon around fleeing insurgents. The hold, expected to hold for months, fell in under eight hours.
  • In the aftermath of the Siege of Terra, the 121st is currently engaged in clearing holdouts of traitor Iron Warriors from the space between Ultramar and Olympia. Many of these Iron Warriors are deeply entrenched and difficult to displace, but with overwhelming numbers and force, the 121st is able to move quickly from one holdout to the next, redeploying nearly as soon as the previous assault has ended.

Unit Dossiers

Forge Lord: Maris Torvane

Forge Lord Maris Torvane permits a variety of approaches to workings of the Machine God in her ranks. Purists, innovators, improvisers — all have their place, so long as the…

Techmarine Covenant: Livia Rhune

Techmarine Livia Rhune works best when things are already broken. She thrives in the chaos of the battlefield, rebuilding weapons and armor under fire with whatever she can salvage. Her…

Rapier Battery Squad Davion

Sergeant Davion’s Rapier Battery Squad specializes in battlefield control, favoring quad launchers for their versatility and swapping over to laser destroyers when the mission calls for engaging heavier targets. Phosphex…

Sicaran Arcus Tank

The Sicaran Arcus Tank Tertius Bellum (Third War) was assembled from the remains of three destroyed vehicles in the aftermath of the Betrayal. Its machine-spirit is temperamental, and its armor…

Veteran Assault Squad Ardentis

When the 121st rebuilt after Calth, Legate Presca said, “The Legion still breathes.” Veteran Assault Squad Ardentis was that breath made flesh. Drawn from Inductii who survived the earliest retaliations…

Techmarine Covenant: Corvina Cauris

Techmarine Corvina Cauris calls her methods “practical deviations.” She never breaks from equipment regulations, she just interprets its margins. Her tools are modified for efficiency, her calibrations half a hair…

Tarantula Sentry Turrets: Hyperios Anti-Air Missile

The Hyperios-pattern Tarantula integrates an automated tracking suite calibrated to the airframes of known traitor Legions. Its anti-air missiles are capable of independent target lock or full integration with command…

Tarantula Sentry Turrets: Heavy Bolter

Deployed in overlapping fields of fire, Tarantula heavy bolter platforms provide autonomous suppression against infantry assaults. Patterned with Ultramar’s command-vox protocols, they can be slaved to a Master of Signals…

Siegebreaker: Cassiana Mortivane

To Centurion Mortivane, fortresses are not symbols—they are weaknesses yet to be revealed. She has the rare ability to look upon a defense grid and already see its failure, tracing…

Tactical Support Squad Caeloria

When walls refuse to fall, when tanks grind a line into stalemate, Squad Caeloria is called, descending from orbit in a drop pod to the exact coordinates where they are…

Legion Champion: Aurethia Valensar

Centurion Valensar’s duels are not spectacles. They are judgments. She does not fight for flourish or acclaim, only to prove that no traitor’s blade can withstand the measured discipline of…

Heavy Support Squad Valthera

When Heavy Support Squad Valthera deploys, they are not assigned a single target or objective. Instead, they are placed at the nexus of the company’s advance, ready to reinforce any…

Modeling and Painting Rules

I also have a few sort of themes or rules I’m trying to follow for the the 121st from a modeling and painting perspective.

  • Cleaner is better: I like the clean design of the MKVI armor a lot, so this has meant maintaining that look throughout — choosing the clean Deredeo hull for example, instead of the version with all the decorations, and not going out of my way to add unnecessary heraldry or decoration.
  • No space Romans: I don’t really love how the Ultramarines are just Romans in space. I prefer a plainer look and stay away from gladii (swords), crista (head plumes) and pteruges (leather skirts straps) when I can. I think this better reflects the practicality of the Ultramarines. If anything, I tend to go classic medieval knight, ~1200 BCE or so — my Suzerain for example.
  • Reliability is queen: My legion tries not to use weapons that have a high failure/injury rate, such as plasma or disintegrator weapons. It doesn’t appeal to me as a player, and I think it also wouldn’t appeal to the 121st. In addition to the ubiquitous bolter, the 121st favors missile weapons, las weapons, and the occasional melta weapon for anti-vehicle work.
  • Tactical flexibility makes Guilliman proud: As Ultramarines, the 121st prizes missile-based weapon platforms for the versatility they allow. Shooting a squad? There’s a missile for that! A flyer? A missile for that! A tank? We also have a missile for that. While missiles might not reliably crack the hardest of targets, they do well against almost all others. There’s always las and melta for the harder targets.
  • Veterans get white: The more white on an infantry unit, the more elite they are. Locutarus/Veteran Assault Squads and Veteran Tactical Squads have Praetorian helmets with white face guards. Suzerain have white and blue checkered shields. More veteran Dreadnoughts have white knee and shoulder armor. The one place I didn’t extend this fully was some vehicles (they just look better with a white accent).
  • Leaders have halos: Chapter leaders are distinguished by the presence of an iron halo and unique power armor. In theory, it might have made sense to make HQ majority white with blue accents to extend the veteran motif, but I think that’s the scheme my Solar Auxilia will be using, so maybe not. I also didn’t think of this scheme until after I had painted quite a few of my chapter leaders.
  • Heresy is a vibe: I try to only use Heresy-specific parts when building my army. No kitbashing from the 40k bits bins unless absolutely necessary, and I’m very picky about my 3D printed Heresy bits to make sure they feel like the official kits.
  • Bolt pistols are enough: The 121st likes to upgrade to power weapons for melee, but all units generally still carry just a standard bolt pistol as a sidearm.
  • Orbital assault: The 121st specializes in orbital assaults. This means lots of jump packs, anti-grav, and drop pods.

I’d like to revamp/revisit some of the areas where I’ve been inconsistent with these principles, but that’s a project for a lot further down the road.