HobbyVeteran/ForumNoob starts new army

[PorridgeMeister]

Greetings to all,

This is my first time posting on the B&C and I have come forward after 5 years of W40K gaming to join this community.

I have had several armies in the past (my Blood Angels mainly), but I have decided to start a Custom Chapter. I am a perfectionist so I need some help deciding. I've come up with several ideas:

- Myrmidons (greek-inspired + veterans and attack specialists) Symbol: Black Lambda

- Dread Watch (Stealth/tactical precision specialists) Symbol: Dark-coloured Skull

- Ironskins/Cataphracts (haven't decided on name - Vehicles and Heavy Armour specialists) White-coloured skull

Please tell me what you think about these and post your opinions....

P.S. Look up myrmidons and cataphracts if you are not sure what they are +

I've made up lots of background and organisation fluff about them so that's covered

[Ace Debonair]

I've made up lots of background and organisation fluff about them so that's covered

 

That's more what this particular forum is for. The Liber's here for the devlopment and refining of these ideas.

 

But since you asked for opinions, I think they're all rather bland. A bit more of the bone colour on the Myrmidons would be quite good. The other two are very much in need of something to draw away from the blanket of blue/grey.

[PorridgeMeister]

Well thanks for replying so quickly....

I'll have a look at the colour schemes later but its more the chapters themselves that I want help with - they can all be pink and ride in LRs covered in flowers (not really but y'know ;) ) but I just want to decide which one to go with...

 

That's more what this particular forum is for. The Liber's here for the devlopment and refining of these ideas.[i/]

Where would you recommend I take this instead?

[Ace Debonair]

Well thanks for replying so quickly....

I'll have a look at the colour schemes later but its more the chapters themselves that I want help with - they can all be pink and ride in LRs covered in flowers (not really but y'know ;) ) but I just want to decide which one to go with...

 

Well, it's up to you which one to go with.

I can't really pick one since I don't know what each of the chapters is like.

Speaking as a guy working on six DIY chapters, you can certainly go with more than one. B)

That's more what this particular forum is for. The Liber's here for the devlopment and refining of these ideas.[i/]

Where would you recommend I take this instead?

 

Here is fine, but adding some information about those chapters of yours would be cool. ;)

[PorridgeMeister]

Thanks a lot for your help ;)

 

It took ages to narrow it down to these three - I must have gone through at least twenty pages planning and "fluffing".

 

I think I have decided on doing an army with all three of these chapters to represent a taskforce during a campaign with the best elements of each chapter

i.e. Assault troops from the Myrmidons, Tacticals from the Dread Watch and Tanks from the "other one"

 

I WILL be posting stuff that I have made in this thread about my chapters so don't worry.. B)

[PorridgeMeister]

Porridge's Strikeforce as of 27/05/2010 at 10:10

This is meant to be a rough version and notes of the Gorgons and Myrmidons background and infomation....the real IAs will be on the way soon... :whistling:

 

- Gorgons:

- Colours : dark metal and orange

- Chapter Symbol: Gorgon's head

 

- Suspected Iron Hands Chapter Council involvement in their creation and influencing their goals

- Homeworld: Stymphalius, also based in giant Battle Barge known as "Ferrum Novum"

- Iron Hands Successor Chapter - Current Chapter Master: Antimiton Ferrugineus

- Fourth Founding

- Specialise in heavy armour

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

- Myrmidons:

- Third Founding of Imperial Fists Chapter

- High proportional of Veterans

- Chapter Master: Orthus Mentrix

- Homeworld: Achaea

- Battlecry: "For the Emperor and Achilles!"

- Call "Rogal Dorn" Achilles because he relates to a figure from their culture's mythology

- Do not follow Codex directly but are inspired by it. Have unique structure and organisation;

9 companies

- 1st Company: Veterans 100 men

- 2nd-5th War Companies: 150 men split into 3 Syntagmas of 50 each commanded by Syntagmarch

Example: 3rd Company

War Captain Aeneas Tychon w/ 5 Command Squad Marines

1 squad of 10 Company Veterans 3 squads of 10 Assault Marines

8 squads of 10 Tactical Marines 3 squads of 10 Devastator Marines

 

- 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Companies = Specialist Companies

Tactical, Assault, Devastator and Scout - 50 marines each company

 

- Also Unique rank organisation (marked on right shoulder pad)

Chevrons: / Gold / Silver / Bronze

Three / Chapter Master / Master Syntagmarch / Brother-Sergeant

Two / War Captain / Syntagmarch / Brother-Specialist

One / Captain / Master Sergeant / Brother

 

- Company Markings on right elbow as CODEX suggests

- Syntagma Markings on left elbow as (Red 1st, Blue 2nd, Yellow 3rd) for War Companies, in others just WHITE

- Squad Number on left kneepad

[Iron Father Ferrum]

All of the Second Founding Chapters are recorded, with the exception of like, five or six Ultramarine Successors, so I'd advise stepping away from that. If you want them to be old and honored, go with Third or Fourth Founding. And there were no remnants of Ferrus Manus' bodyguards; the Drop Site Massacre was. . . well. . . a massacre. That's why the Hands have/had (depending upon interpretation of the fluff) fewer TDA suits -- they were all lost on Istvaan V, those suits not destroyed completely in combat likely salvaged by the Traitors for their own use. And besides, if you want to use a gorgon's head for their symbol, why not just call them the Gorgons? Because using a Gorgon's head symbol with the name Morlock is clashing your naming conventions and heraldry; the origins don't match.

 

As for the Myrmidons, again, I recommend dropping out of the Second Founding. That way lies disappointment, especially when the rest of the commentators show up. While I don't mind deviations from the Codex chapter organization, I think you're taking it to an extreme, especially considering the fact that the nominal strength of 1,000 battle brothers in a Codex chapter has been quite heavily exceeded by your 150-strong companies.

[Grand Master Tyrak]

Second Founding of Unknown Legion

 

Adding to what Deus Ex Ferrum has said, I should point out that in addition to being the 3rd most common choice (graph no. 5) for DIYers (so it's not actually unique at all), actually explaining it well takes a heck of a lot of effort and is likely to involve some fairly tortuous reasoning. Add to that that it's commonly seen as an excuse for laziness (ie couldn't be bothered to do the gene-seed), you can see there's some significant problems with this. I'd advise only going down this route if the unknown gene-seed source is integral to the character of the Chapter. Otherwise it's just not worth it.

[PorridgeMeister]

@ Deus Ex Ferrum: I meant that the MORLOCKS were derived from the idea of the bodyguard and to represent the staunchest supporters of FM. Only Myrmidon Companies No.s 2,3,4 and 5 were meant to be 150-strong - the 1st is 100 men and the Specialist companies were 50 men; sorry that was my fault as I forgot to put that in as I was a bit on edge yesterday (I just literally had a three-hour Literature exam).

 

@Tyrak: OK, maybe I was a bit lazy but I need specialist help to try and get this sorted. Also, I didn't want anyone autonatically drawing any conclusions about my army based on who they were founded from. E.G. "Yes they're Dark Angels successors..." "Oh, so they're gothic monk types who hide whopping great big secrets because they"...."NO!"

It happened with my BA army, which had lots of shooty troops, so most people were like "Where are the Death Co. and the tons of assault troops?" and lots of people took the mick...

...I've decided to drop the Dread Watch from the Strikeforce. I have completely underestimated and forgotten the amount of things that you have to take into account with DIYing a SM Chapter, let alone three.....

(*reaches for teddy*)

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm going to change the MORLOCKS to the GORGONS and I need to focus on the ORIGINS of the two because I don't want any SMURF Successor Chapters (maybe Iron Snakes at the most). I'm also going to clean the post up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now that's sorted, I was thinking of IFs maybe for the Myrmidons....

 

+++UPDATE+++

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Like you, I'm not a fan of smurfs. In fact, their uberbadassery being pushed by GW the last couple of years makes me a touch angry. That's why, when I made my DIY, I went with the next best thing: Dorn's gene-seed. The Imperial Fists are, in my mind, a better pedigree than the Ultramarines. After all, were the not the Emperor's Praetorians? Did they not hold the walls of the Imperial Palace itself? They produced the only non-First Founding Chapter to physically have its own codex (Black Templars). So if you don't like any of the other options open, I suggest making them an ImpFist successor.

[voi shet magir]

"Yes they're Dark Angels successors..." "Oh, so they're gothic monk types who hide whopping great big secrets because they"...."NO!"

It happened with my BA army, which had lots of shooty troops, so most people were like "Where are the Death Co. and the tons of assault troops?" and lots of people took the mick...

...I've decided to drop the Dread Watch from the Strikeforce. I have completely underestimated and forgotten the amount of things that you have to take into account with DIYing a SM Chapter, let alone three.....

(*reaches for teddy*)

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm going to change the MORLOCKS to the GORGONS and I need to focus on the ORIGINS of the two because I don't want any SMURF Successor Chapters (maybe Iron Snakes at the most). I'm also going to clean the post up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now that's sorted, I was thinking of IFs maybe for the Myrmidons....

 

This is like saying that there are nine important chapters and the other nine hundred are just kind of copies you never hear about. If a chapter has Corax geneseed, they will have issues with their complexion, but there is nothing to stop them being berserkers or tread-heads, and Vulkanites can be stealthers or drop-specialists. There are more stars than marines, and the time frame is epochal, why shouldn't they be completely different from each other? Fex, Mortifactors are not smurfy at all.

[PorridgeMeister]

@ Deus Ex Ferrum: YES, GW has given the Smurfs too much credit for everything. I had hoped that with the new codex that other chapters would get more from it in proportion to the Ultramarines, but NO - there are very few pages where they aren't mentioned and they hog the spotlight so much that we can't see the book, let alone the miniscule sections given over to other no less important chapters, like the Iron Hands, the Sallies, and all the other First Founders amongst others.... :rolleyes:

 

.........Getting back to the topic, I think I will go IF Successors. +++UPDATE+++

 

@Voi Shet Magir: I totally agree with you, it's just that I don't want stereotypes ruining my gaming pleasure...ah...Mortifactors.. :lol:

[The Normish]

Excellent, another Dornian Chapter in the making.

Well, my advice would be to have a look at some of the other Dornian Chapters. The best place to start would be the "Call to Arms!" thread: link. If you haven't signed up, be sure to do so!

 

Anyway, it looks like you're going quite well here. I like the Myrmidons especially (probably becasue they have more detail). The unique Company composition and rank indication seems like it could work. On the other hand, when people read your Index Astartes, they might get really confused unless you make a separate box with definitions or something.

 

Keep up the good work.

[PorridgeMeister]

Excellent, another Dornian Chapter in the making.

Well, my advice would be to have a look at some of the other Dornian Chapters. The best place to start would be the "Call to Arms!" thread: link. If you haven't signed up, be sure to do so!

 

Anyway, it looks like you're going quite well here. I like the Myrmidons especially (probably becasue they have more detail). The unique Company composition and rank indication seems like it could work. On the other hand, when people read your Index Astartes, they might get really confused unless you make a separate box with definitions or something.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for your kind words, Normish :huh:

I have registered now on the Sons of Dorn Thread. When I do my IA for the Myrmidons, I'll make sure that I do that.

 

On another note, with SPEARHEAD on the way, my strikeforce can have lots of tanks for the Gorgons, with the supporting Infantry being the Myrmidons....