Jump to content

ImpFist Successors: Imperial Jagers


Recommended Posts

So I play Austrians in Napolean's Battles, and watching rank upon rank of white-clad riflemen pouring fire into those stubborn Frenchies has always filled me with a certain amount of glee. I decided to attempt to transpose that into 40K and came up with the Imperial Jagers, an Austro-Hungarian-themed Astartes Chapter. I'm still fine-tuning it and haven't starting knocking out the format coding, but here's what I've got so far. Hit me with your best shots.

 

Oh, and the black Raven Guard insignia is just as close as was on the painter. I'm going to use a simple black aquila on a white field as their chapter emblem, since that was original insignia of the Austrian Empire anyway.

 

 

[b; background-image:url(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">

THE IMPERIAL JAGERS

[/b]

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/300px-Imperial_eagle.jpg

Sagittari et Fidelis

 

 

 

T
he Imperial Jagers were founded from Imperial Fist gene seed as part of the 25th Founding in M40, making them amongst the youngest of Astartes Chapters in the Imperium. The Jagers suffered several disasters early in their formation that have had a tremendous impact on their organization and tactics, leading to minor deviations from the Codex Astartes.

 

Death of the Imperator Astra

Captain Friedrich Horth snapped his head around as the auspex began blaring a warning. He rushed over to the sensorium console, leaning over the servitor mindless stabbing buttons on the console to look at the display. Over a dozen contacts had just appeared out of nowhere and were closing fast -- too fast to be Imperial vessels, for sure -- and were in an attack pattern.

 

"Bernhardt! Void shields, now!" he yelled to his second officer. "And get the gun-crews to the weapons decks on the double!"

 

"Captain!" one of the crew interrupted his report. "We have torpedo separation! Impact in twenty seconds."

 

"Helm, give me a ten degree down-turn and swing us around to port. Brother Emil! I want a firing solution on their lead vessels as soon as possible."

 

The Chapter Master was watching the auspex returns intently and frowned at what he saw. "The torpedoes are maneuvering to match our vector, Brother-Captain," he said quietly. "We face the Eldar. I have seen such before -- they like to meddle in the affairs of men."

 

Horth snorted. "Why the ambush, lord? We are out to campaign against Chaos, not the eldar!"

 

Bohemond shrugged. "We will probably never know."

 

A half-second later, the first wave of torpedoes demolished the bridge.

 

The Chapter's beginnings lie with Bohemond Kreutz, then Captain of the Imperial Fists 9th Company and a long-serving sergeant of Devastator Squads. When Imperial Fists' gene-seed was utilized for the Founding, the decision was made to assign Kreutz as the new Chapter Master based on his length of service and tactical skills in directing the precise application of firepower. Kreutz and his fellow foundees from the Imperial Fists settled on Demarco Secundus, a hive world in the Magyar Sector of the Segmentum Pacificus, and immediately began recruiting to fill out their rolls. The ex-Fist veterans proved remarkedly efficient at turning the hive gangers into disciplined battle-brothers. Within a century, the Imperial Jagers were well on their way towards full strength when disaster struck.

 

 

Unprovoked Aggression

 

Chapter Master Bohemond had agreed to provide three full companies of Jagers to Lord High Militant Tufer de Voers and his crusade to recover the Ventrimion Cluster from the grips of a Chaos-inspired insurrection. This constituted more than half of the Chapter's strength, all of its vehicles and heavy equipment, and most of its few veterans. The First, Second, and Third Companies loaded onto the Chapter's sole battle-barge, Imperator Astra, and slipped orbit for Ventrimion.

 

Before reaching the edge of Demarco's gravity well, a fleet of eldar vessels appeared from out-system and launched a violent attack upon the battle-barge. While the chapter desperately scrambled its reserve strike cruisers, the sleek eldar warships hit the Imperator Astra with several torpedo runs which crippled and destroyed her; the xenos fleet turned tail and withdrew before the reinforcements could arrive. This cowardly assault devastated the chapter. With so much of its personnel and wargear wiped out, the future of the chapter came into doubt. The new Chapter Master, however, refused to give in. The Jagers still had stores of gene-seed and access to literally billions of possible recruits; the end, he claimed, was not yet in sight.

 

 

Rise of Coburg

 

The new Chapter Master was Josias Coburg, formerly commander of the still-forming 5th Company. The first of the Demarco-born recruits to achieve officer status, his rise to command of the chapter after barely 150 years as an Astartes was seen as meteoric to say the least. Coburg, however, was charmismatic, intelligent, and extremely skilled. He realized that without immediate access to weaponry such as Rhinos, Predators, and Tactical Dreadnought Armor, the chapter's offensive capabilites would be severely curtailed. Instead, he decreed that the chapter would concentrate in training for the defensive instead.

 

In the years since Coburg was Chapter Master, the Imperial Jagers have become that rarity amongst the Adeptus Astartes, a chapter that specializes in defensive and siege operations. This new direction has paid dividends for the folk of the Magyar Cluster, as the Jagers were responsible for holding back the tides of Chaos spilling from the Sabbat Worlds at the Battle of Polyphemus, and broke the power of Waagh! Teefgrinda on the walls of Jericho Hive on the shrine-world Testament IV. Their methodical, foot-slogging method of warfare and stubborn dispositions also make them sought after for operations in urban and mountain warfare -- two environments not conducive to mechanized operations.

 

 

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/ImperialJagers.jpg
An Imperial Jagers Battle Brother

Thought for the Day: The unyielding defense is the only defense.

 

 

 

 

 

Homeworld

 

D
emarco Secundus is the capital of the Magyar Subsector, a world of barren ash-wastes dotted with the spires of towering hive cities. The Jagers appropriated the ruins of Festung Hive, which had been gutted during an inter-hive war in Demarco's past, and rebuilt the structure from the inside out as their new fortress-monastery. Now known as Festung Demarco or simply the Festung, the Chapter rebuilt the hive with an eye to its defenses, and it features no less than four curtain walls and two banks of void shields, making it one of the best-protected sites in the sector, some say even the Segmentum.

 

The Jagers recruit extensively from Demarco's hives and have a special relationship with the planet's Adeptus Arbites. Any criminals -- especially violent ones -- between the ages of ten and fifteen apprehended by the Arbites are handed over to the Chapter for interview by the Jagers' Chaplains. Those who are found to be sufficiently durable and strong-willed are made into aspirants, given the opportunity to serve the Imperium to make up for their wasted years of childhood delinquincy. Those who are found wanting or in some way resist hypno-indoctrination are lobotimized for servitors.

 

Holding geosynchronous orbit above the Festung is the Pola Anchorage, a small space station that serves as part-repair/loading dock and for the chapter's fleet of six strike cruisers and part-early warning system for the fortress-monastery below. Like the Festung, it is heavily protected by void shields, capital-class laser batteries, and a standing garrison drawn from chapter elements not needed on active operations elsewhere in the Segmentum.

 

 

Chapter Organization

 

O
stensibly a Codex chapter, the Imperial Jagers do maintain several deviations from the standard lain down by Roboute Guilliman. The most notable of these is the assignment of alternate designations to each company. Initially intended as a morale boost to the battered Chapter after the eldar attack of 839.M40, these company nicknames have since gained a certain amount of notoriety and demand for squads from such famous units as the Danubian Hussars and the Carinthi Guards are always high.

 

The other less obvious, but more telling, organizational difference is a direct result of the loss of the Chapter's initial-issue equipment. Deprived of their tanks and armored personnel carriers, the Chapter had to make do as a dismounted force for so long that foot operations became their modus operandi. The primary "line" or battle companies -- 2nd through 5th -- have no integral APCs assigned to them. The 6th and 7th Reserve Companies, however, are equipped entirely with Rhinos and bikes and serves the Chapter as "Cavalry" companies, providing mechanized-strike and reconnaisance-by-fire capabilites. The 9th Reserve Company is actually considered just as prestigious of a posting as the 1st (Veteran) Company, since the Jagers normally post their sturdiest battle-brothers to the Devastators of the 9th. The 8th Reserve Company -- normally an Assault Company -- is instead configured as a second Scout Company. Having two Scout Companies is what has allowed the Chapter to rebuild from less than two hundred marines back to a nominal strength of over eight hundred in the millenium since their Founding in spite of the rapid pace of operations demanded of them.

 

The death of the Imperator Astra was also the last that the Jagers ever saw of an Astartes battle-barge. Unwilling to ever again put so many of its proverbial eggs in one basket, the chapter has since utilized nothing but strike cruisers to provide its naval combat power. Contrary to Codex doctrine, each of the five line companies and the two cavalry companies each have a strike cruiser permanently assigned to them. The flagship of the chapter is currently 2nd Company's strike cruiser, the Tegetthoff.

 

 

Combat Doctrine

 

Jericho Hive
One of the most well-known of the Jagers' defensive actions occured on Testament IV, in the Danubian Subsector. The orks of Waaagh! Teefgrinda had been marauding through the area for more than two decades and the local Imperial Guard regiments were ineffective at halting their advance. The Jagers dispatch the 2nd Company, along with elements of the 8th and 9th, to Testament to halt the Waaagh! once and for all.

 

Captain Konrad Marik, a dour but inspiring officer, commanded the 2nd Company from atop the walls of Jericho Hive, the shrine-world's capital city. Successive barrages from his battery of Whirlwind tanks, combined with concentrated fire from his massed Devastator Squads ripped the heart out of the ork horde and halted three consecutive charges at the base of the walls. The fourth charge, led by Warboss Teefgrinda himself, actually made the walls, but Marik, wielding the blessed relic blade Kronschwert, struck the beast's head from it's shoulders and drove the orks back into the killing grounds. With the orks in disarray, he led an attack by the company's tactical squads that purged the greeskin menace from Testament's surface. This act, in defense of one of the Ecclesiarchy's holy shrine-worlds, is why Arch-Cardinal Ignatius XIX withdraw his petition to excommunicate the Jagers.

 

A
s a primarily infantry force, the Imperial Jagers excel in traditionally dismounted roles such as static defense, city-fighting, and mountain warfare. They make extensive use of Devastator Squads, attaching extra squads of these heavy weapon specialists from the 9th Company whenever possible in order to provide as much long-range firepower as humanly possible. The near-total lack of Tactical Dreadnought Armor means that few of the Chapter's Veterans receive extensive training in its use and those squads so equipped are normally held back as a reserve for use only in the most dire of circumstances. The end result is that most of the 1st Company is fielded as Sternguard Squads, although the Chapter does provide Rhinos and its few precious Land Raiders to provide the Veterans with tactical speed on the field of battle.

 

The chapter's preferred weapons are the flamer and missile launcher, providing its tactical squads with a dual-role weapon suitable for both anti-armor and anti-infantry actions. The Devastator Squads on the other hand are geared for specific roles, carrying either heavy bolters or lascannons. Meltaguns and plasma weapons are extremely rare, and are mostly found in the hands of Veteran or Command Squads.

 

 

Beliefs

 

C
hapter Master Bohemond, during his time as an Imperial Fist, was an avid historian and spent much of his time perusing that chapter's collected remembrances and official histories. Amongst the stacks of the Phalanx he came across a fragmentary record that dated from the Great Crusade and spoke of the Imperial Truth. The Emperor had denied his own divinity and attempted to purge humanity of its superstitions.

 

This text had a profound effect on Bohemond. That there were malign intelligences at work in the universe was obvious to him, but the Emperor had refused to allow himself be worshipped as a god. This single statement of the Imperial Truth went with Bohemond when he became Chapter Master of the Jagers, and he ensured that it became part of the hypno-indoctrination program for aspirants. As a result of this, the Imperial Jagers are completely apostate, denying the divity of the Emperor. This has created problems for the chapter in the past with the Ecclesiarchy, with at least one Arch-Cardinal trying to excommunicate the chapter over their lack of faith. The Mechanicum, with its concept of the Emperor as the Machine God, also poses problems. Many battle-brothers find this concept hard to assimilate, and so the number of Astartes sent to Mars to become Techmarines is achingly small. Although there is no particular antagonism between the Jagers and the Cult of Mars, the Jagers are capable of producing only the most basic of equipment and wargear, with weapons such as the flamer and missile launcher dominating its armory.

 

 

Gene Seed

 

T
he Imperial Jagers' gene-seed was drawn from Imperial Fist stocks, and it shares the same loss of the Betcher's Gland and Sus-an Membrane that affects all of Rogal Dorn's children. Some recent aspirants have also reported their body's rejection of the Neuroglottis organ, which drastically increases the Space Marine's senses of taste and smell, although whether this is due to the gene-seed's atrophy or simple genetic incompatibility with the Demarco population is as-yet unknown.

 

 

Battle Cry

 

T
he Jagers use several different battle-cries to rouse their brothers to war, the most common being "For Dorn and the Emperor!". The Chapter's Chaplains often evoke imagery of immobility when on the defense, producing battle-cries such as "Become the wall! and "Like stone, brothers!" The Chapter's motto is Sagittari et Fidelis (Steadfast and Loyal).

 

 

Order of Battle

 

Chapter Master: Joachim Graf von Radetzky

- Honor Guard Squad "Bohemond"

Reclusiarch: Johann Castellan

Chief Librarian: Wladyslaw Konstantin

1st Veteran Company (Demarco Lifeguards): Captain Karl Ritter von Hapsburg

- 2x Tactical Terminator Squads

- 5x Rhino-equipped Sternguard Veteran Squads

- 2x Phobos-pattern Land Raiders

- 3x Dreadnoughts

2nd Line Company (Astrylvanian Light Infantry): Captain Konrad Marik

- 6x Tactical Squads

- 2x Assault Squads

- 2x Devastator Squads

- Strike Cruiser Tegetthoff

3rd Line Company (Carinthi Guards): Captain Franz Ostberg

- 6x Tactical Squads

- 2x Assault Squads

- 2x Devastator Squads

- Strike Cruiser Szent Istvan

4th Line Company (Dacian Fusiliers): Captain August Kollowrat

- 6x Tactical Squads

- 2x Assault Squads

- 2x Devastator Squads

- Strike Cruiser Viribus Unitis

5th Line Company (Carpathian Grenadiers): Captain Wilhelm Weyrother

- 6x Tactical Squads

- 2x Assault Squads

- 2x Devastator Squads

- Strike Cruiser Skoda

6th Reserve Cavalry Company (Frimont Free Corps): Captain Gerhard Ritter von Beyer

- 8x Rhino-equipped Tactical Squads

- 2x Bike Squads

- 2x Predator MBTs

- Strike Cruiser Erzherzog

7th Reserve Cavalry Company (Danubian Hussars): Captain Ferdinand Ritter von Wrede

- 8x Rhino-equipped Tactical Squads

- 2x Bike Squads

- 2x Predator MBTs

- Strike Cruiser Novara

8th Scout Company (Aspern Defenders): Captain Phillip Orsini

- 8x Scout Squads

- 2x Scout Bike Squads

9th Reserve Company (Festung Guards): Captain Miklos Melas

- 10x Devastator Squads

- 5x Whirlwind MLRS

10th Scout Company (Vienar Rifles): Captain Maximillian von Liebereich

- 8x Scout Squads

- 2x Scout Bike Squads

Austro-Hungarians you say? Well that is a theme I will be specially interested in.

 

I just skimed through the article and will read it when I get home from university.

 

The aparent thing that should be changed is the date of the founding. The year is just a specualtion created by the members of this board to give writers rough estimate when something happened.

 

Cheers

 

Hrvat

Hm.

Well, I like the theme. I like all the references to the Austrian Empire (Magyar, Bohemond, Danube) and its associated regions.

The history is interesting, and I like how your Chapter has similar beliefs to mine.

The Organization is unconventional for sure, especially with the non-armored companies and such. I do wonder as to why the most experienced soldiers are held in reserve. While it makes sense, I'm not sure it is entirely fitting with the Astartes mindset.

Also, I don't think that aspirants are really ever offered. I always assumed that since it's so difficult to become a Space Marine, and because of the limited recruitment pool and the 99% death rates, they just took suitable candidates. I don't think they asked. If I'm wrong, then I'm sure someone will be wise enough to point it out.

 

As for the color scheme, it's nice, but I also once wanted to make my helmet "muzzle" a different color, and got a bit of criticism for it. I tend to agree that it sort of draws you away from the overall effect and it reminds me of clowns. Everyone thinks clowns are creepy, right? Or is it just me?

If I were you, I'd make the helmet all black, but then again, it is your Chapter.

 

Well, I hope this really develops well. It is very interesting to me, especially seeing as I love European 18th and 19th Century history, so I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

The Organization is unconventional for sure, especially with the non-armored companies and such. I do wonder as to why the most experienced soldiers are held in reserve. While it makes sense, I'm not sure it is entirely fitting with the Astartes mindset.

 

I agree. It makes a certain amount of sense, but being held in reserve in 18th century warfare is more akin to being behind the first few ranks of soldiers to get shot, being deployed to points where the line begins to falter. This is almost the polar opposite of Astartes warfare. They are your equivilant of modern Special Forces groups. You strike as hard as you can as fast as you can to achieve your objective rather than hold vast stretches of the battlefield.

 

Not that your organisation doesn't work, far from it. My opinion is just that it needs a bit of alteration to fit more with the type of organisation you're working with.

 

The Chapter, recruiting as it does from the dregs of Demarco's hive-society, fields a larger than average number of Chaplains who provide aspirants with the harsh discipline necessary to mold such ragged young men into true Astartes. A side-effect of this is that the average Jager has much more exposure to the fervency of the Chaplains and thus the Imperial Creed, and so many of the battle brothers are deeply religious and end in much closer alignment to the Ecclesiarchy's position of the Emperor as a god than most other Astartes Chapters.

 

Now hold on a minute. This is a fairly poorly fielded excuse for having your chapter worship the Emperor as a god and honestly I don't think it ever adds much to a chapter unless this difference is really at the forefront rather than seeming tacked on. What does it bring to the chapter? Not much in it's current form.

 

Also how in the world did the ecclesiarchy get their claws into this chapter when they have failed so dismally in what is probably 99% of the rest of the Adeptus Astartes? They all get created and trained the same way initially, bar their training cadres.

 

Either you provide a far better explanation and really integrate this belief into the chapter or drop it is my advice.

 

 

 

Oh and on the colour scheme, I like it and I think it works just fine as it is.

 

On the whole the theme you've picked has been nicely refined and it's good that you know where you want to go with this, at least for now. It's a good start, well done.

Imperial Jagers

 

This is just a minor point, probably a consequence of the B&C formatting, but without the two dots above the 'a' (the umlaut?) I suspect people are going to pronounce this incorrectly. It might be worth anglicizing it to 'jaeger' if you're bothered about pronunciation.

 

To compound the Chapter's problems even further, this Terra-centric view of the Imperium clashes harshly with the teachings of the Adeptus Mechanicus, meaning that the Chapter fields very few Techmarines and is able to reliably produce only the most basic of its wargear.

 

Techmarines stand apart from their brothers, but it's interesting that your Chapter has this problem and no other does. What is it about your Chapter that makes the Mechanicus dislike you? They put up with the other Chapter cults and the Ecclesiarchy itself, even if they disagree with it.

Also, I don't think that aspirants are really ever offered. I always assumed that since it's so difficult to become a Space Marine, and because of the limited recruitment pool and the 99% death rates, they just took suitable candidates. I don't think they asked. If I'm wrong, then I'm sure someone will be wise enough to point it out.

 

Good point, that. Though I do like the turn of phrase I put in for that, it's going to altered.

 

The Organization is unconventional for sure, especially with the non-armored companies and such. I do wonder as to why the most experienced soldiers are held in reserve. While it makes sense, I'm not sure it is entirely fitting with the Astartes mindset.

 

I agree. It makes a certain amount of sense, but being held in reserve in 18th century warfare is more akin to being behind the first few ranks of soldiers to get shot, being deployed to points where the line begins to falter. This is almost the polar opposite of Astartes warfare. They are your equivilant of modern Special Forces groups. You strike as hard as you can as fast as you can to achieve your objective rather than hold vast stretches of the battlefield.

 

Not that your organisation doesn't work, far from it. My opinion is just that it needs a bit of alteration to fit more with the type of organisation you're working with.

 

The termines are kept in reserve to help plug gaps or support a counter-attack. Terminators + in reserve = deep strike where they're needed. I'm not saying that the Terminators are going to stand behind an Astartes gunline and wait for the enemy to come to them. I'll work on that part and clarify the wording a bit.

 

The Chapter, recruiting as it does from the dregs of Demarco's hive-society, fields a larger than average number of Chaplains who provide aspirants with the harsh discipline necessary to mold such ragged young men into true Astartes. A side-effect of this is that the average Jager has much more exposure to the fervency of the Chaplains and thus the Imperial Creed, and so many of the battle brothers are deeply religious and end in much closer alignment to the Ecclesiarchy's position of the Emperor as a god than most other Astartes Chapters.

 

Now hold on a minute. This is a fairly poorly fielded excuse for having your chapter worship the Emperor as a god and honestly I don't think it ever adds much to a chapter unless this difference is really at the forefront rather than seeming tacked on. What does it bring to the chapter? Not much in it's current form.

 

Also how in the world did the ecclesiarchy get their claws into this chapter when they have failed so dismally in what is probably 99% of the rest of the Adeptus Astartes? They all get created and trained the same way initially, bar their training cadres.

 

Either you provide a far better explanation and really integrate this belief into the chapter or drop it is my advice.

 

I was going to put a section in there about how they ended up with a bunch of Redemptionist recruits from the underhive in their first batch that all became Chaplains and pushed their faith and yadda yadda yadda but the origins section was already two or three paragraphs at that point and still growing, so I dropped a lot of stuff in the name of brevity. Of course, I have no problem sticking it back in. I'll add in a lot of cut-out sections tonight and see if that buttresses it all.

 

Thematically, it was intended to represent the fact that the Austrian Emperors were die-hard Catholics and worked to uphold the Pope and papal authority, seeing as how they were for a long time the Holy Roman Emperors. If it still comes out awkward and ill-fitting though, I have no problem dropping it.

 

Imperial Jagers

 

This is just a minor point, probably a consequence of the B&C formatting, but without the two dots above the 'a' (the umlaut?) I suspect people are going to pronounce this incorrectly. It might be worth anglicizing it to 'jaeger' if you're bothered about pronunciation.

 

To compound the Chapter's problems even further, this Terra-centric view of the Imperium clashes harshly with the teachings of the Adeptus Mechanicus, meaning that the Chapter fields very few Techmarines and is able to reliably produce only the most basic of its wargear.

 

Techmarines stand apart from their brothers, but it's interesting that your Chapter has this problem and no other does. What is it about your Chapter that makes the Mechanicus dislike you? They put up with the other Chapter cults and the Ecclesiarchy itself, even if they disagree with it.

 

Point A: Sliding the anglicized "ae" in there isn't going to help, methinks. If someone pronounces "jager" as jay-ger, then they'll pronounce "jaeger" as jay-ger as well.

 

Point B: I need to clarify this. The Mechanicus has no problem with the battle-brothers. The battle-brothers have a problem with the Mechanicus. Only the least-pious members of the chapter can become Techmarines because the Ecclesiarchial stance on the sole and pure divinity of the Emperor butts heads with the concept of the Machine God a little. It's rationalizing the fact that the Jagers take only the most basic of wargear choices -- flamers, missile launchers, lascannons, heavy bolters -- since they don't have the devotion to the Mechanicum necessary to build the higher-tech stuff and make it work.

 

Thanks for the criticism and keep it coming. I'll post an updated version a little bit later.

Sliding the anglicized "ae" in there isn't going to help, methinks. If someone pronounces "jager" as jay-ger, then they'll pronounce "jaeger" as jay-ger as well.

 

But all the people who like myself pronounced the word "jagger" will be spared that amusing error. B)

Having read what it was meant to be, it's obviously "jay-ger". But still... ^_^

Sliding the anglicized "ae" in there isn't going to help, methinks. If someone pronounces "jager" as jay-ger, then they'll pronounce "jaeger" as jay-ger as well.

 

But all the people who like myself pronounced the word "jagger" will be spared that amusing error. :o

Having read what it was meant to be, it's obviously "jay-ger". But still... ;)

 

See as how its German, it's actually supposed to be "yay-ger." Or maybe closer to "yee-ger," but it's been a while since my last German class and I forget the proper pronunciation of an umlaut-ed "a."

I'll go into more depth another time. For now, this sticks out glaringly.

 

The Chapter, recruiting as it does from the dregs of Demarco's hive-society, fields a larger than average number of Chaplains who provide aspirants with the harsh discipline necessary to mold such ragged young men into true Astartes. A side-effect of this is that the average Jager has much more exposure to the fervency of the Chaplains and thus the Imperial Creed, and so many of the battle brothers are deeply religious and end in much closer alignment to the Ecclesiarchy's position of the Emperor as a god than most other Astartes Chapters. To compound the Chapter's problems even further, this Terra-centric view of the Imperium clashes harshly with the teachings of the Adeptus Mechanicus, meaning that the Chapter fields very few Techmarines and is able to reliably produce only the most basic of its wargear.

 

Unless something truly strange has happened to your Chapter, there is no reason for Chaplains to be preaching the word of the Ecclesiarchy rather than some secularized descendant of the truth - that the Emperor decried godhood, hated superstition, and wanted mankind to rise above its primitive roots. There's plenty of room for interpretation and garbling to come from the sheer amount of time inherent in the passage of the ten thousand years since the Great Crusade. However, that also means that you need to explain to us where the deviation came from, why it was allowed and perpetuated rather than stamped out, and then how it came to be something so akin to the Lectitio Divinatus and its derivatives.

 

Even if there were a large number of unusually pious recruits brought in from Ecclesiarchy-held regions, that in no way gives them the qualifications to become a Chaplain. Those chosen for the Reclusiam are spiritual leaders and fiery orators, able to read the hearts of the men under their care and urge them on to greater feats of heroism in the name of their mutual service. They are stalwart and lead from the thick of the fight, crushing foes with the fervor of their Brothers as much as with sweeps of the crozius. On top of all that, the Chaplains are keepers of the ways of the Chapter, the ones who help keep it on the straight an narrow. To allow something as deviant as Emperor-worship into their ranks would require that the Jagers either not care about the history that was passed to them or that they experience something which drives them to new beliefs en masse.

 

I don't see that here.

And you guys were right, no matter how I spin it, I can't quite rationalize it enough. So I've decided to make them all a bunch of apostates who believe in the core tenet of the Imperial Truth (that the Emperor denies his own divinity) instead. Does that make more sense?

 

And just so you're all tracking, the intent is to create a situation where the chapter has a minimum of tech-priests and very little of the more advanced stuff like plasma weapons and terminator armor. So with this new spin, the chapter's brothers don't agree with the Mechanicum's (quasi-official) position of Emperor-as-Omnissiah and so can only realistically send the most open-minded of its members to Mars for training. Does that make more sense?

As a result of this, the Imperial Jagers are completely apostate, denying the divity of the Emperor.

:D

 

That's a pretty good read you have on your hands.

Although I'm wondering why the chapter's flagship belongs to the second company rather than the first. Or possibly the ninth, since your guys are big on devastators.

 

EDIT:

Be warned, Liber is a slow forum.

'Bumping' your topic every day will also encourage people to post less, not more.

Strike Cruiser "Skoda"? That's inspired! I like the background - not convinced about the lack of techmarines though, and how the chapter conducts planetary drops without a battle-barge strength carried is a little hazy - and planetary drops are what Astartes are all about...
whats next?

hakkapelita assaut company ;)

 

YES.

 

 

Sliding the anglicized "ae" in there isn't going to help, methinks. If someone pronounces "jager" as jay-ger, then they'll pronounce "jaeger" as jay-ger as well.

 

But all the people who like myself pronounced the word "jagger" will be spared that amusing error. :wub:

Having read what it was meant to be, it's obviously "jay-ger". But still... :cry:

 

See as how its German, it's actually supposed to be "yay-ger." Or maybe closer to "yee-ger," but it's been a while since my last German class and I forget the proper pronunciation of an umlaut-ed "a."

 

It should be pronounced "yay-ger". An umlauted "a" says it's name, unless it's next to a "u". But that's for another place.

I've read your revised version, and I can only say that I like it. I particularly enjoyed your Home world description, it's the little references that make the whole thing more believable.

Question: if they specialize in siege-breaking, assaulting and holding fortifications, do they operate out-of-system as well? Unless of course, they have continuous aggression within the Magyar Cluster.

 

EDIT: Forgot to ask, can you help me out with the encoding for the format? You seem to have it well sorted out, but I can't really get it working.

Thanks, Normish. They treat the Magyar Sector like the Iron Snakes treat the Reef Stars: their own personal area to defend, although they do contribute forces to other crusades in the Segmentum Pacificus and I even thought about having them send troops to Cadia for the 13th Black Crusade.

 

As for the coding, I went into the Librarium, picked another DIY with plenty of coding, opened it for editing (without actually submitted changes), and used that as a template.

  • 5 weeks later...

[Octavulg emerges from the Tokyo water supply!]

 

THE IMPERIAL JAGERS

 

You are using a non-English word. For shame. The thing is, well, the Imperium has two languages - Low and High Gothic. While Low Gothic does have a lot of dialects, it's pretty much English. So using the term Jagers doesn't really make much sense...

 

The literal equivalent of Jager is Hunter. For some reason I recall reference to the Imperial Hunters, but can't find anything about them...

 

Sagittari et Fidelis

 

Archers and loyal?

 

The Imperial Jagers were founded from Imperial Fist gene seed as part of the 25th Founding in M40, making them amongst the youngest of Astartes Chapters in the Imperium. The Jagers suffered several disasters early in their formation that have had a tremendous impact on their organization and tactics, leading to minor deviations from the Codex Astartes.

 

Tremendous impact =/= minor deviations.

 

Also, a disaster changing the way the Chapter operates is not unique or exciting enough to lead the introduction. :) Trust me, I can't think of an IA I've written (or intend to write) that doesn't use that method.

 

Before reaching the edge of Demarco's gravity well, a fleet of eldar vessels appeared from out-system and launched a violent attack upon the battle-barge. While the chapter desperately scrambled its reserve strike cruisers, the sleek eldar warships hit the Imperator Astra with several torpedo runs which crippled and destroyed her; the xenos fleet turned tail and withdrew before the reinforcements could arrive. This cowardly assault devastated the chapter. With so much of its personnel and wargear wiped out, the future of the chapter came into doubt. The new Chapter Master, however, refused to give in. The Jagers still had stores of gene-seed and access to literally billions of possible recruits; the end, he claimed, was not yet in sight.

 

First, this whole thing simply wasn't very interesting - Second, while Eldar ex machina is undeniably effective, it's kinda sloppy. You're hammering the Chapter with whatever you can think of, trying to twist them into the shape they need to be in - when you'd be far better off to look at where they were and where they are and figure out how to flow between them. And finally - you have to draw us in a little, man! There's nothing terribly unique or terribly interesting yet. The most unique thing about this whole setup is that the Chapter Master is named Bohemond. At least give us some pretty details to distract us from the fact that we've seen this bit before.

 

In the years since Coburg was Chapter Master, the Imperial Jagers have become that rarity amongst the Adeptus Astartes, a chapter that specializes in defensive and siege operations. This new direction has paid dividends for the folk of the Magyar Cluster, as the Jagers were responsible for holding back the tides of Chaos spilling from the Sabbat Worlds at the Battle of Polyphemus, and broke the power of Waagh! Teefgrinda on the walls of Jericho Hive on the shrine-world Testament IV. Their methodical, foot-slogging method of warfare and stubborn dispositions also make them sought after for operations in urban and mountain warfare -- two environments not conducive to mechanized operations.

 

Uh...yay?

 

Dude. Chapters need character. Some defining characteristics or interesting quirks. These guys do not, as yet, have that.

 

Think up some defining characteristics you like about the Austrians. Work those in. There needs to be something. Tactics are not character (though they can be expressions of it).

 

An Imperial Jagers Battle Brother

Thought for the Day: The unyielding defense is the only defense.

 

Nice.

 

Home World

 

Solid, if somewhat minimal. There's room for you to highlight the Chapter's character here.

 

Ostensibly a Codex chapter, the Imperial Jagers do maintain several deviations from the standard lain down by Roboute Guilliman. The most notable of these is the assignment of alternate designations to each company. Initially intended as a morale boost to the battered Chapter after the eldar attack of 839.M40, these company nicknames have since gained a certain amount of notoriety and demand for squads from such famous units as the Danubian Hussars and the Carinthi Guards are always high.

 

Such names don't fit with the Space Marine aesthetic. Space Marines are pseudo-medieval - Hussars and such simply aren't appropriate names. Guards, maybe.

 

The death of the Imperator Astra was also the last that the Jagers ever saw of an Astartes battle-barge. Unwilling to ever again put so many of its proverbial eggs in one basket, the chapter has since utilized nothing but strike cruisers to provide its naval combat power. Contrary to Codex doctrine, each of the five line companies and the two cavalry companies each have a strike cruiser permanently assigned to them. The flagship of the chapter is currently 2nd Company's strike cruiser, the Tegetthoff.

 

The writing in this section as a whole was a little less formal than might be best. A few too many colloquialisms. Still, pretty solid. Beware - you are coming very close to (and may have veered into) providing too many fiddly details about numbers and companies.

 

The chapter's preferred weapons are the flamer and missile launcher, providing its tactical squads with a dual-role weapon suitable for both anti-armor and anti-infantry actions. The Devastator Squads on the other hand are geared for specific roles, carrying either heavy bolters or lascannons. Meltaguns and plasma weapons are extremely rare, and are mostly found in the hands of Veteran or Command Squads.

 

Flamers seem an odd choice - they're very short range, which would seem a handicap for such a slow-moving force.

 

Order of Battle

 

Extraneous (also, what's with the Land Raiders?).

 

* * *

 

Needs more character. A lot more. Right now there's not really much to them.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.