Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector - Ultramarines

I had a colour-coded spreadsheet of every Battlesector faction by the time the Ultramarines DLC landed, and the data told a clear story: every prior chapter had a personality quirk that defined its momentum engine. Blood Angels kill for their Surge. Sisters eat punishment to fuel theirs. The Ultramarines, true to the Codex Astartes, earn nothing for free and pay for it with sheer unit variety. That breadth is either their greatest strength or their most confusing trait, depending on how comfortable you are with army composition decisions before the first shot is fired. The unit roster spans eighteen entries across every battlefield role you could want. Your HQ trio covers the classic command triangle: a Captain in Gravis Armor as a durable frontline anchor, a Primaris Librarian pushing psychic damage output, and a Primaris Apothecary keeping your infantry alive long enough to matter. Below them sit Intercessors and Heavy Intercessors for your dependable line-holding, Bladeguard Veterans and Terminators for elite close-quarters pressure, and Aggressors plus an Invictor Warsuit when you want something that punishes clustered enemies. Fast Attack options include Inceptors and the Storm Speeder in three loadout variants: Hailstrike for anti-infantry, Hammerstrike for vehicles, Thunderstrike for general harassment. Heavy Support rounds out with Eradicators, Eliminators for long-range sniping, Hellblasters for melta-range devastation, a Redemptor Dreadnought for melee shock value, a Ballistus Dreadnought for standoff fire, and a Gladiator tank available in Lancer, Reaper, and Valiant patterns. The depth of loadout choice at the list-building screen is the closest a Battlesector faction has come to replicating a real army-construction session. The honest criticism is one Softpedia also flagged: the Ultramarines do not have a dedicated story campaign. You are buying this to play Planetary Conquest and the newly overhauled Crusade Mode, which received its full 1.0 update alongside this DLC. That Crusade Mode revision adds a randomized roguelite campaign structure with persistent army progression between runs, and it is genuinely the best context for this faction because unlocking a Redemptor Dreadnought early reshapes your available tactics for several missions afterward. The absence of a bespoke narrative chapter is a real gap, but Crusade mode fills more of that hole than the earlier Early Access version ever did. The mixed early Steam review score for this DLC specifically reflects buyers who expected a standalone narrative experience and found a faction pack instead. If you go in understanding that distinction, the content lands well. For newcomers to Battlesector entirely: the base game runs a twenty-mission Blood Angels campaign that functions as a proper tutorial in disguise. The Momentum system, where units build toward a Surge state that unlocks bonus actions and powered abilities, is not hard to learn but has enough tactical depth to reward careful timing over many hours. Line of sight matters, positioning relative to cover matters, and the pre-mission army list is where most decisions are really made. The Ultramarines DLC is aimed at players who have already cleared the campaign and want more faction variety in Skirmish and Crusade, not at someone booting the game for the first time. If that is you, start with the base game first and treat this as a well-earned second chapter.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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