Macragges Honour The Horus Heresy

Getting Macragge's Honour Working for Your Horus Heresy List

Most people come to this point already frustrated. They've spent weeks building an Ultramarines list and suddenly realized that the standard codex rules just aren't cutting it anymore, especially when you're trying to represent the 31st Legion at a tournament level. Macragge's Honour is one of those rulesets and supplement packs that people talk about in forums but barely understand how to actually apply during a game. I've been running this for about four years now across multiple campaigns and a handful of league matches, and honestly it's more trouble than it's worth for casual play, but there are ways to make it function. The distribution has been fragmented over the years. The original PDF circulated through GitHub repositories and a few Wayback Machine snapshots, but most people currently grab it from the Warhammer Community forums or through shared drives on Reddit's r/HorusHeresy community. I keep a local copy myself because the file tends to get deleted or moved around, and waiting around for someone to re-upload when you're trying to prep for a Saturday game is not how anyone wants to spend their evening. Make sure you're getting version 2.4 or later, since earlier versions had conflicting abilities that would break your unit profiles if you applied them wrong. Macragge's Honour modifies how Ultramarine units handle command tests, morale checks, and certain aura-based buffs. The core concept is that Marneus Calgar's presence on the battlefield creates a compounding effect on nearby units, but the math behind it is more involved than the marketing text suggests. You get a modified Command Value that scales based on the number of Ultramarine units within a certain range, and that modified value then feeds into your morale and leadership tests. The problem is that most people misapply the scaling factor and end up with inflated numbers that don't hold up under scrutiny.

I ran into a specific issue during a tournament qualifier where my opponent accused me of cheating because my Tactical Squads were rolling impossibly high on morale tests. The problem was that I had inadvertently stacked the aura from two different units that were supposed to share the same instance of the Honour buff, essentially double-dipping. The rule is clear that the buff only applies once per model, but the wording in the original PDF makes it easy to misread, especially if you're skimming it between games. My workaround was to create a small tracking sheet where I physically marked which models had already received the Honour modifier, and I stopped the game for five minutes to go through it with my opponent. That ended the argument immediately.

Applying the Rules Correctly

The implementation breaks down into three phases. First you identify which units qualify. Only dedicated Ultramarine chapters units work here, not Grey Knights or Imperial Fists that happen to be playing alongside them. Second you determine the aura radius, which is typically six inches but can extend based on additional rule supplements. Third you apply the modified leadership value, which requires recalculating before you roll any dice. Here's the part nobody mentions enough. The buff interacts poorly with units that have naturally low leadership values, and this is where the ruleset starts to show its cracks. If you're running a Suicide Assault squad or some kind of specialized strike force with poor base stats, the Honour buff can actually make things worse in certain edge cases because the modified calculation can push your unit into a different morale bracket entirely. I learned this the hard way when my Assault Marines failed a charge and then immediately failed a subsequent morale test because the modified leadership value had shifted their threshold in a way I hadn't anticipated.

The Hidden Complications

There's a secondary interaction with the Deep Strike rules that causes headaches for most players. When a unit arrives via teleport or drop pod within the Honour aura, there's a timing question about whether the buff applies immediately or only after the unit is fully set up. The official FAQ never fully resolved this, and I've seen three different tournament organizers give three different answers. The most defensible position is that the buff does not apply until the unit has completed its deployment, which means you need to be careful about when you activate the Honour ability relative to your enemy's shooting phase. Another thing that catches people out is the interaction with Stratagems. Certain Stratagems that modify leadership values will stack with the Honour buff, and if you're not tracking this carefully you'll end up with a unit that has an absurdly high leadership value for a single turn. This isn't necessarily wrong by the rules as written, but it will draw complaints and potentially judge intervention at any organized event.

When to Use This and When to Walk Away

If you're playing casually with friends who don't mind a bit of rules crunch, Macragge's Honour adds a nice layer of thematic flavor to your Ultramarine lists. The aura mechanic makes Calgar feel like a genuine battlefield presence rather than just another character model with a stat line. If you're entering tournaments though, I'd strongly recommend checking with your organizer first. Some communities have banned this supplement entirely due to the scoring disputes it generates, and others allow it with significant restrictions on stacking with other buffs. My final advice is to keep a printed copy of the full rules on the table during any match, not just on your phone. The disputes that come up with this ruleset almost always involve someone claiming they didn't understand a specific interaction, and having the exact text available resolves more arguments than any amount of prior preparation. It also takes the wind out of opponents who are trying to use confusion about the rules as a psychological tactic. You'd be surprised how often that happens at local events.