I’m Alessandra, self-titled Ultramarqueen, and I love the Horus Heresy setting and the Ultramarines Legion! I’ve been playing since early 2023 or so and spent the first year of the hobby playing 40k, but then discovered 30k and haven’t looked back since. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💁🏻‍♀️

I’m mostly on Instagram at alessandraplays30k, but I wanted a more static/persistent place to build out the lore for my Ultramarines and their allied forces, and so I made this site!

I also have a few sort of themes/rules I’m trying to follow for the the 121st.

• Cleaner is better: I like the clean design of the MKVI armor a lot, so this has meant maintaining that look throughout — choosing the clean Deredeo hull for example, instead of the version with all the decorations, and not going out of my way to add unnecessary heraldry or decoration.
• No space Romans: I don’t really love how the Ultramarines are just Romans in space. I prefer a plainer look and stay away from gladii (swords), crista (head plumes) and pteruges (leather skirts straps) when I can. If anything, I tend to go classic medieval knight, ~1200 BCE or so — my Suzerain for example.
• Reliability is queen: My legion tries not to use weapons that have a high failure/injury rate, such as plasma or disintegrator weapons. It doesn’t appeal to me as a player, and I think it also wouldn’t appeal to the 121st. In addition to the ubiquitous bolter, the 121st favors missile weapons, las weapons, and the occasional melta weapon for anti-vehicle work.
• Tactical flexibility makes Guilliman proud: As Ultramarines, the 121st prizes missile-based weapon platforms for the versatility they allow. Shooting a squad? There’s a missile for that! A flyer? A missile for that! A tank? We also have a missile for that. While missiles might not reliably crack the hardest of targets, they do well against almost all others. There’s always las and melta for the harder targets.
• Veterans get white: The more white on an infantry unit, the more elite they are. Locutarus/Veteran Assault Squads and Veteran Tactical Squads have Praetorian helmets with white face guards. Suzerain have white and blue checkered shields. More veteran Dreadnoughts have white knee and shoulder armor. The one place I didn’t extend this fully was some vehicles (they just look better with a white accent).
• Leaders have halos: Chapter leaders are distinguished by the presence of an iron halo and unique power armor. In theory, it might have made sense to make HQ majority white with blue accents to extend the veteran motif, but I think that’s the scheme my Solar Auxilia will be using, so maybe not. Something to think on for the future…
• Heresy is a vibe: I try to only use Heresy-specific parts when building my army. No kitbashing from the 40k bits bins unless absolutely necessary, and I’m very picky about my 3D printed Heresy bits.
• Bolt pistols are enough: The 121st likes to upgrade to power weapons, but all units generally still carry just a standard bolt pistol as a sidearm.
• Orbital assault: The 121st specializes in orbital assaults. This means lots of jump packs, anti-grav, and drop pods.

I’d like to revamp/revisit some of the areas where I’ve been inconsistent with these principles, but that’s a project for a lot further down the road.