Warhammer 40K: Don’t Overlook Marneus Calgar
Is Marneus Calgar worth the points? Compared to Guilliman – he just might be!
When it comes to Chapter Masters, Calgar sets the bar, and he does a fine job of it, too. While his new profile isn’t exactly changing the game, he did get a tweak or two that makes him worth a look.
Stat-line wise, he’s essentially the exact same as he was in Vigilus Defiant. His weapons are the same, also. Rules-wise, Calgar now has the new Angels of Death Rule (which is all the Space Marine Rules rolled into one). He still has the Armour of Heraclus, which gives him a nice boost, and he also has Master Tactician for the two extra CP.
But his Chapter Master rule got a tweak. It now reads, “You can re-roll hit rolls for attacks made by models in friendly ULTRAMARINES units while their unit is within 6″ of this model.” The key change there is that you can re-roll hit rolls, not just failed hit rolls.
When I pointed out that Guilliman got nerfed, a lot of folks thought that this tweak to the wording of HIS rule was actually an overall buff. The logic is that this allows you to re-roll those 3+ rolls when you’re shooting at a target with a -1 or -2. I get it. However, Guilliman’s big advantage was that he could turn a mass of heavy bolters into Knight Killers – not because of the re-roll to hit, but rather for the re-roll to the wound roll. His tweak made it so that Guilliman’s major advantage (re-rolling all failed to wound rolls) got nerfed to only working on 1s. That was a pretty big hit no matter how you sliced that up.
Having said that, if you thought the change to Guilliman was an overall buff, then this change to Calgar should excite you! On top of that, Calgar clocks in at 200 points, so even with a pocket LT, you’re still saving points vs. the big guy. Furthermore, Calgar is still just an HQ and not an LoW – that can make it easier to find a slot for him in your list building. And while he might not be a Primarch in Close Combat, he’s certainly no slouch either.
If you’re really worried about it, you could even run the Victrix Honour Guard with Calgar, and he’s still cheaper than Guilliman. You’ve got options. On tradeoff is that you are going to lose out on that extra CP for making Guilliman your Warlord, but 2 “free” CP for Calgar isn’t a bad deal either. And you don’t even have to spend the CP to make a Captain and Chapter Master. Personally, I’d look at spending those CP at Master Crafting some Thunderhammers…
Don’t overlook the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines – he might just surprise you.
What do you think to the change to Calgar – are you considering him over Guilliman in your lists?
