Imperial Fist Successor IA questions

[Calvinus]

Here's your chance to give some feedback on some items that I'm planning to use as a big section of fluff in my IA project but I'm not entirely sure if they're feasible or not for an Imperial Fist Successor.

 

To better frame the questions, here's the context of the Imperial Fist successors the "Yellow Hammers" (working title).

 

Origins:

 

They were formed relatively recently with much pomp and ceremony and are recruiting heavily to fill out their company numbers but are not yet at full strength (this is the "normal" way new chapters develop, yes?). They have completed several small missions on their own, primarily missions relying on infiltration and intelligence gathering since they are such a new chapter and have a larger percentage of neophytes. On larger missions the successor astartes are supported by Imperial Fists troops and vehicles. Leadership positions among the Yellow Hammers are filled by Imperial Fists marines for now. For example, the chapter master, company captains, and scout sergeants are all veterans from the parent chapter (clarification added: the Yellow Hammers Chapter Master was a captain in the Imperial Fists, the company captains were squad sergeants, etc). Imperial Fists were picked because I wanted to stay pretty generic with the parent chapter and I wanted to include yellow in the paint scheme. My other option were templar successors that count-as space wolves which are trying to reform the codex and have a dark terrible secret after destroying their home world. (I'm kidding!)

 

The hook:

 

The Yellow Hammers take a certain pride in taking ancient artifacts of both human and xenos origin, whether items of power or simple relics, and using these items to gain favor with other departments of the Imperium. They donate useable wargear to their parent chapter, ancient technology to the adeptus mechanicus (sometimes beyond repair, sometimes workable, but always interesting for the mechanicus to study), and even a few xenos relics to the inquisition. By generously "donating" their trophies taken in battle, the chapter is able to call in favors and receive extra support from their parent chapter and the adeptus mechanicus. The inquisition seems typically unimpressed but accepts the relics anyway.

 

The flaw:

 

Chapter records indicate (never a good sign to see "chapter records indicate...") that the Yellow Hammers have had an unusually high percentage of their trophy contributions to be of Eldar origins and that several potential confrontations with Eldar have been avoided in preference for fighting other enemies. The suspicioun is that they are not engaing Eldar intentionally and they may be receiving items of value from the Eldar in exchange for this (sometimes Xenos origin, sometimes the Eldar have found human artifacts to trade). Not to cause a stir, the inquisition is not addressing this directly, but rather having the Imperial Fists closely monitor their own fledgling successor chapter for signs of disloyalty to the Emperor.

 

The questions:

 

Would it be feasible for Lysander and a squad of veterans to take time from their busy schedules to be personally involved in supervising the chapter?

Can I use grey and yellow and not be confused with the Red Scorpions? The paint scheme/pattern is planned to be codex grey armor with bad moon yellow grieves and knees. There will be no red involved & the shoulderpads will be white with light grey trim (as opposed to the charcoal pads with yellow trim the Red Scorpions employ). Is this enough difference?

Is it feasible for a newer chapter to have an Land Raider? The "why?" is that their parent chapter is letting them use one of their's until the successors are strong enough to merit their own. Perhaps it's more feasible if Lysander and the veterans base their operations from this land raider as a mobile HQ while monitoring the new chapter?

More important than all my other questions: is this an interesting hook and flaw?

 

Summary:

 

I'm trying to have them be a fairly generic up-and-coming chapter with a relatively short history and no real huge heroic moments (otherwise GW would have already mentioned them). I'm trying to work in the right number of elements that show they have been politically scratching the backs of other IoM units, especially their parent chapter, and that they receive extra attention not normally given to new chapters (unfortunately, this includes the inquisition, albeit in a very indirect way) and yet not over the top. Their "donations" are also their major flaw, that they cross the line between being generous and outright bribing for favors and they gain their bargaining resources through questionable means, namely (allegedly) accepting bribes from Eldar to not engage them in exchange for items of value.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions for better context or improvements? Answers to my own questions? Thanks in advance.

[Ecritter]

Okay one issue I see. The last Founding was over 250 years ago ... so if you're not a full strength yet, theres something wrong.

 

The rest seems workable to me, I even believe that Lysander may be available to spend 'a little' time with a successor. He would never allow that time to interfere with his duties however.

[The_son_of_Dorn]

if Lysander was to be the antaogonist to the xeno weaponry harbiging agonist, then yes i think he could drop in for a few serious words spoken in jest ;)

[Ferrata]

Is it possible, we don't know. Yes, there has been cases of chapters loaning out men for training of other chapters (or being trained). However, from a DIYer point of view, any name drop of any character is a relatively poor idea. It always comes across at an attempt to make your chapter awesome and this is a major hole to fall into. Usually (read: always) the same end result can be achieved in another and better way.

[BloodWulf]

Equipment wise, I think that at your chapter's founding they would be given enough equipment to be operational, including Land Raiders.

As for your little Eldar issue, what about this?

The suspicions of your Chapter are brought up to the IF by some mysterious source. Maybe the IF are strongly encouraged to look in to the matter. They decide to test your Chapter and several of your companies are asked to join a company of IF on a xenos purge mission. Your Chapters agrees and joins up the fleet. Your first encounter with Xenos are with Eldar and, well, your expected to do battle and the IF are watching to see your reaction.

Also I think your color scheme will be fine to use. You will have your own uniqueness and Chapter Symbol so it shouldn't cause a problem.

Something like this?

[Calvinus]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I had researched about foundings but failed to pick up on the last one being 250 years ago, so my Yellowhammers can have a full 1k marines now but still have a relatively short history. This is a big relief to know.

@Ferrata: Good suggestion on removing Lysander's mention in the story. Thinking about it as a different captain checking on them instead of explicitly mentioning Lysander does seem more believable. While I understand I COULD mention him and get away with it, it looks like it'll be BETTER to not.

@BloodWulf: Great idea. What space marine would ever say no to the idea of purging some Xenos? And then the big surprise comes when it's Eldar, and possibly one step further, some Eldar they had traded with before! Do they fight with all of their heart? Or just enough to try to appease the Imperial Fists? Interesting stuff can be done with that. As for the paint scheme, I should have posted it in retrospect, but I have it below.

The heraldry would be the Imperial Fist symbol of the fist, without the circle around it, and holding a hammer. Simple & easy.

[Aegnor]

There'd have to be some pretty good explanation as to how they started non-hostile contact with the Eldar. I have a soft spot for the pointy-ears (they're my first army), but any true son if Dorn would be very hard to dissuade from trying to slaughter the hated xenos.