The Librarius Discipline is the codex-standard witchcraft of the Chapter that wrote the book — the drilled psychic tradition of a Librarium that trains its epistolaries as carefully as it trains its swords. No single working rules it and none is a dead art: a Librarian schooled in it drills every power the Codex sanctions, from the swiftest foresight to the deadliest warp-fire. Its six workings quicken the caster ahead of the battle's tempo, steel the blade, loose the spectral fury of the honoured dead, raise a bastion of disciplined will, unweave an enemy's protecting fields, and burn a foe with raw immaterial fire — foresight, tempo, ward and controlled warp-force, the drilled way of war of Macragge made psychic. A Librarian trained in it picks one power when it is recruited, for the Chapter schools its psykers rather than gambling them, and adds to that the universal witch-blast of Smite. Every working is a Wyrd power, and each courts the warp's price for the one who calls it.
Signatures4
Combat Doctrines. The disciplined heart of the Astartes way of war, and the mechanic that sets a Chapter apart from any warhost that merely brings guns to a fight. At the start of each round the controlling player declares the strike force's stance, which may shift one step along the ladder from Devastator to Tactical to Assault. Under the Devastator stance the gang fires with lethal precision, adding to its ranged Hit rolls or re-rolling misses. Under the Tactical stance the brethren move with purpose, gaining ground and seizing objectives. Under the Assault stance they close for the kill, striking harder on the charge and running down a fleeing foe. A Chapter cannot hold every advantage at once; it flows through the phases of battle as its commanders read the field, and each brotherhood leans toward the end of the ladder that suits its character.
Finest Hour. Once in a battle, a commander seizes the moment the whole war seems to turn upon and drives his brethren to their greatest effort. Once per battle a Captain or Lieutenant may call upon it. Until the start of the next round the commander himself gains an additional Attack, and every friendly fighter within 6" re-rolls failed Wound rolls, the strike force striking as one at the instant it matters most. It is a single, decisive surge rather than a lasting boon — spent in the crisis of the fight, it does not come again. A wise commander holds it for the stroke that breaks the enemy rather than the one that merely bloodies him.
Hold the Line. The Ultramarines are taught that ground taken in good order is ground kept, and it shows in how stubbornly they contest what they hold. While an Ultramarines fighter is contesting an objective, it counts as two models for the purpose of control — a single battle-brother holds a point that would take two of a lesser force to deny. The same discipline carries into the campaign: when the gang rolls to keep a contested territory between battles, it adds 1 to that roll. Nothing about the rule wins a firefight outright; it makes the phalanx immovable once it has arrived, forcing the enemy to commit far more than it wants to shift a line the Ultramarines mean to hold. Against a force that must take and keep the board, that weight of control decides the battle as surely as any kill.