STARTING AN ULTRAMARINES ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: THE CODEX-APPROVED WAY IN
If you learn Warhammer with the Ultramarines, you learn it properly, and 11th edition is the ideal moment to start the galaxy's most disciplined army. The sons of Guilliman are the poster boys for a reason: their blue-and-gold scheme is the most documented paint recipe in the hobby, their kits anchor every starter box, and their identity — order, doctrine, doing things by the book — happens to be exactly the mindset that gets a first army finished. Where other chapters tempt you into chaos, the Ultramarines hand you a plan and expect you to follow it. Obligingly, it works.
The first box, by the book
Start with the current starter or Combat Patrol-style set; these rotate with each edition, and the Ultramarines are almost always the chapter on the box art, so you will rarely go wrong buying whatever is current. The non-negotiable core is Intercessors — the definitive Space Marine squad and the single best kit for learning to paint power armour — backed by Assault Intercessors for the close-quarters work and a Captain or Lieutenant to hold the line. An Ultramarines transfer sheet earns its cost immediately: crisp white omegas on blue shoulder pads are half the chapter's look.
Reinforcements, per the Codex
The Codex Astartes teaches combined arms, and your second wave should too. Add a heavier infantry unit — Hellblasters or Aggressors both paint up beautifully in blue — plus a transport or a Redemptor Dreadnought to learn vehicle techniques on. Chief Librarian Tigurius is a superb first character model, all robes and psychic hood. One practical note for the new edition: points and datasheets were refreshed for 11th edition and will keep being tuned, so check current points before finalising any list. Buy for the collection; let the roster follow.
Recommended: Hellblaster Squad
Recommended: Chief Librarian Tigurius
The primarch and the chapter master
No faction has centrepieces like this one. Marneus Calgar with his Victrix Guard is a diorama in a single kit — the Chapter Master flanked by two golden bodyguards. And then there is Roboute Guilliman himself, the resurrected primarch in the Armour of Fate: a genuinely demanding, genuinely rewarding paint job and the obvious summit of an Ultramarines collection. Save him for when your blues are confident. He will know if you rushed.
Recommended: Marneus Calgar in Armour of Antilochus
Recommended: Roboute Guilliman
Purchases to defer
- A second battleline squad before the first is painted; Guilliman wrote several chapters on logistics for a reason.
- Guilliman himself, day one — a primarch deserves better than being your test model.
- Every tank in the armoury; the Codex recommends a measured build-up, and so does your shelf space.
A record worthy of the Codex
Guilliman conquered a hundred worlds with administration as much as with armies, and your collection runs on the same fuel. Log every kit when it arrives and mark its true state — boxed, built, or finished — with the honesty of a chapter serf who knows the Chapter Master audits the armoury personally. Watching the finished column advance in good order is what separates a collection from a stockpile. And when you want the full order of battle, every unit the Ultramarines can muster, the faction page under Data holds the complete catalogue — properly organised, as the primarch would insist.