Detachment Focus: Reclamation Force

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Space Marines Reclamation Force Detachment. 

Are you an Ultramarines player who has been languishing during your days long lack of content? Well worry no more, there is another exclusive Ultramarines Detachment for you, this time focusing on the brand new Captain Titus model, who has arrived to replace the slightly less brand new Lieutenant Titus model. As a die hard Space Wolves player, this is fine. I’M FINE! Anyway, here we go. 

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these rules for Review purposes.

Detachment Overview

This is an interesting Detachment, with some offense and some defense, and looks to be a solid, viable way to have some tough-as-nails units hitting hard. This Detachment pushes the melee hitting power of units up, and makes all of your units tougher on objectives. This, along with the stratagems we will cover later, work well to make a good, solid, trading army that replaces on points, then weathers the storm back better than most other Marines. It pushes you towards more low to mid-toughness units, meaning usually infantry, and makes a strong case for Gravis armor at T6 -1 to Wound. That being said, these aren’t locked to any one keyword within Adeptus Astartes, meaning the world is really your oyster on unit choice. Do you like Marines? What if they were better at Marine-ing? Well, that leads us to…

The Video Version

The video version! Sorry, the format breaks that transition a little bit. If you'd rather watch this review than read it, or if you'd like a quick primer before you dive in, we've got you covered here.



NOW that leads us to...

Detachment Rule: Oath of Reclamation

• Each time an Adeptus Astartes model from your army makes a melee attack that targets a unit within range of an objective marker, improve the Armour Penetration characteristic of that attack by 1. 
• Each time an attack targets an Adeptus Astartes unit from your army, if your unit is within range of an objective marker that you controlled at the start of the phase and if the Strength characteristic of that attack is higher greater than the Toughness characteristic of your unit or if your unit has the Titus keyword, subtract 1from the Wound roll. 

Restrictions -  Your army can include Ultramarines units, but cannot include any Adeptus Astartes units drawn from any other chapter. 

Your special blue boys will hit stuff standing on points harder, and then stand there better after. It’s a pretty simple upgrade, but both hitting hard and standing good are key skills in Warhammer, and these rules immediately put this Detachment into contention. As we will see with the Enhancements and Stratagems, Reclamation Force gives you a few more tools to do it with, too. 

Enhancements

Ultramarines Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon. Credit: SRM

The enhancements in this Detachment are the weakest bit of the bundle, for two main reasons. First, the benefits fall a little bit flat, and second, Ultramarines are packed to the gills with strong Epic Heroes that are going to be using most of your character budget. That being said, one or two of these bad boys will always be in the conversation if you have some spare points. 

• Seals of Reconquest (20 pts): Adeptus Astartes model only. Models in the bearer’s unit have a 5+ invulnerable save. This one is probably the second strongest of the bunch, but is still pretty much just fine. A Librarian does the same job better, and a 5++ isn’t a whole mess better than power armor in cover would be anyway, but in the world of “stand on a point better” and stacked with -1 to Wound, it’s not nothing. This one, for me, is a prime candidate to throw on the Hero of 10th Edition, Lt. Sitsonballs* himself, the Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon, to make him that much more annoying if you have some points. 
• Avenging Avatar (Aura) (10 pts): Adeptus Astartes model only. In the Battle-shock step of your opponent’s Command phase, if an enemy unit that is below its Starting Strength is within 9” of the bearer, that enemy unit must take a Battle-shock test. Your standard issue Battle-shock enhancement. Hard pass.  
• Scroll of Proclamation (15 pts): Adeptus Astartes model only. Each time the bearer’s unit declares a charge, if one or more targets of that charge are within range of an objective marker, you can re-roll the Charge roll. It’s fine, honestly, especially with the stratagem Furious Dedication. The main issue will just be finding a character who is in a melee unit, isn’t named, and isn’t better served by holding…
• Liberatum (25 pts): Adeptus Astartes model only. Each time the bearer makes an attack that targets an enemy unit, if the target is within range of an objective marker, you can re-roll the Hit roll and you can re-roll the Wound roll. I mean, yeah. Take it. It’s a bit pricey, but goes well on any melee character, especially your standard Best Day Ever Captain.

Stratagems

Ultramarines Cato Sicarius. Credit: SRM

Reclamation Force brings a solid set of stratagems to the table that help you connect your charges, control the space on the table, and make sure your trades connect. It has some neat tricks, and while most of it isn’t too flashy, it will help you get the job done reliably. 

• Crusading Conquerors (1 CP): At the end of the Command phase, target one Adeptus Astartes unit from your army and add 1 to the Objective Control characteristic of models in that unit. This is a great stratagem for flipping objectives, and helps your game plan go off. Go kill a thing on a point, be hard to shift, and then turn up your OC if it will flip an objective in either Command phase. 1CP for 5 VP is a steal any time you can make it work. 
• Furious Dedication (1 CP): In your Charge or the Fight phase, select one Adeptus Astartes unit from your army that had not declared a charge or been selected to fight this phase. Until the end of the turn, add 2 to the Charge rolls made for your unit and add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by models in your unit. You cannot use this Stratagem more than once per turn.  This is a bananas stratagem. It helps alleviate the lack of advance and charge in the army, and it makes deep strike quite viable. It also extends the unfailable charge distance to 4”, plus ups your output. Most importantly, it can be used proactively with a charge bonus in your turn, or defensively for just the attacks in your opponent’s. It also has the best possible timing, and you can use it any time in either phase. Honestly, this and Destiny are the two Detachment defining tools that you have to consider when you inevitably ask yourself “why not Gladius?”
• Fight to the End (1 CP): In the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit had selected its targets, select one Adeptus Astartes unit that was selected as a target of one or more of the attacking unit’s attacks. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit is destroyed, roll a D6: on a 4+, do not remove the destroyed mode from play; it can fight after the attacking unit has finished making its attacks and is then removed from play. Your basic modern fight on death. It would have been nice to see some interplay with the Detachment rule, maybe a 3+ on an objective or something, but this is just a good tool to have. The only downside is its 1CP and a roll, like most modern fight on deaths, and is therefore worse than Gladius with the early edition auto for 2CP strat. 
• Scions of Guilliman (1 CP): In your Movement phase, just after an Adeptus Astartes unit from your army ends a Fall Back move. Until the end of the turn, that Adeptus Astartes unit is eligible to shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which it Fell Back. It’s solid, and keeps your units from getting bogged down. This one will see lots of play. 
• Ultramarian Destiny (1 CP): In your Movement phase, target one Adeptus Astartes unit in your army. Select one objective marker you control that your unit is within range of. That objective marker remains under your control until your opponent’s level of control over that objective marker is greater than yours at the end of a phase. This is a great stratagem, and turns your whole army into optional Intercessors. Because of the timing, you will need to hold it in your Command phase to sticky, but the sticky and walk away is a good play to have. Keep an eye out for the opportunity to do a turn 1 sticky with your Combi Lieutenant or Scouts. 
• Marching Ever On (1 CP): In your opponent’s Movement phase, just after an enemy unit Falls Back, select one Adeptus Astartes unit from your army that was within Engagement Range of that enemy unit at the start of the phase. Your unit can make a Normal move of up to D6+1”. This is probably the least exciting of the reactive move variants, but it’s nice to have in your arsenal. Because of your boosted toughness, some fall backs will happen, and tucking into cover or into an armored box using that move can be a game changer. You won’t use it all the time, but keep a sharp eye out for times you can really exploit it. It also synergizes well with the surge move available to Victrix, but it doesn’t stack with Cato’s reactive move because it is already a normal move, and a unit cannot make more than one normal move in a phase. 

Playing This Detachment

Ultramarines Terminator Assault Squad with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. Credit: SRM

Reclamation Force is going to play solid, honest, trading Warhammer, and it’s going to play it well. It can support MSU or bricks, and makes a number of units that don’t see much play quite interesting. Gravis and the new Terminators are huge beneficiaries of both halves of the Detachment rule, as well as a few strats. What really shoots this up into competitive viability is both a boon and a curse -  it’s locked to Ultramarines. The Ultramarine datasheets really gel with the rules here - Ventris gives Vect and Deep Strike to units like Victrix or Gravis, Calgar provides CP and movement, Victrix are just Victrix. The downside is that this Detachment is in direct competition with  Gladius, Sword of Ultramar, and Stormlance. I’m not certain that it wins out, but no question it’s in the conversation.

Strengths

• Durability - When paired with your access to Victrix, it’s very doable to make your entire army -1 to Wound. This can be brutal, especially when on with T6 models.
• Trading - With OC tricks, durability, and boosted melee damage on points, this army trades very well, both in MSU form and with bricks. 
• Ultramarines - This Detachment synergizes well with the Ultramarines roster. Victrix, Calgar, Ventris, Cato, and of course Titus will all be viable, and all of them work well with the buffs that this Detachment brings to the table. Especially as Ultras have, inexplicably, kept their +1 to Wound from Oath of Moment. 

Weaknesses

• Limited Mobility - This Detachment doesn’t have nearly as much access to movement as either Gladius or Stormlance. It relies much more on taking a punch, which works until it doesn’t. 
• Shooting Support - While Oath still super charges shooting, this Detachment doesn’t offer any way to boost shooting damage. 
• Enhancements - The enhancements are decent, but uninteresting and straightforward. They don’t really do much to really unlock any one unit’s potential. 

A Sample List

Reclamation Force wants to play a trading game, throwing melee on to points and leveraging the broad access to -1 to Wound. Without Advance and Charge access, this means ekeing out movement through Deepstrike, liberal use of Furious Dedication, and transports. For this iteration, I went with Repexes to offer transport support and still lay down a crazy amount of fire. New, cheaper Aggressors are also an interesting add, as T6 -1 to Wound is a real pain to shift, and can get Deepstrike from Ventris. The rest is basically Ultramarines goodstuff, with the added piece of Titus and Sternguard, who benefit greatly from his Sustained Hits, and have boosted melee in this Detachment. While mostly melee, this is still a combined arms style of play, and feel free to pepper in whatever shooting platform you want. Honestly, hard to make a bad choice here. I didn’t go with the Wardens in this version, but that is an interesting alternative to your backfield Intercessors if you like the redeploy. This is what I came up with;



The plan is to Deepstrike the Aggressors and Assault Teminators to show up, make 7” charges, and bully points, while the rest of your army moves up, stages, and eventually pounces. The Repexes are great for popping transports and shooting screens that you dont want to commit an engagement to, and Titus is a great early trade piece into melee armies where he has a very, very high chance of standing back up. Ideally this Detachment works wonders to make your trades always take down more than their points, and weather the return storm. Be careful to keep your -1 to Wound up, play patient, and commit when you are ready, and things should go well. 

Final Thoughts

Reclamation Force is good, clean fun. Time will tell, but I think it has legs to be a solid, competitive Detachment if you want to play a more trade based and durable style. As for its viability compared to other Detachments, I think it pretty firmly ties as the 3rd best Ultramarines option, which is a real bummer and more an indictment of Gladius, Blade, and Stormlance than it is of Reclamation. I don’t see it changing the meta, but I do think if this style speaks to you, you will find plenty of play and enjoyment using Reclamation Force and cosplaying as a protagonist in Space Marine 2. I look forward to seeing some of you across the table from me as I stubbornly continue to play the shit out of Wolves. Happy gaming!

*credit to fellow Goonhammer author Twohorse for the naming, who pointed out that this guy is a CHAMP at sitting on his own balls, playing Wordle on his wrist computer, and scoring points. 

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