Desert Chapter

[Dizzy BlackClaw]

Thinking of making a "Scorpion" (not Mortal Kombat) type force based on a desert world

Full of dangerous creatures which are used as warbeasts by the Marines. (think like Arrakis fom Dune)

 

Anyway if support for this is shown this army might get off the ground.

 

Please post thoughts an i'll add more!

[Iron Lord]

Space Wolves are probably the best ruleset if you want beasts- both ridden, and in packs.

[NightrawenII]

Thinking of making a "Scorpion" (not Mortal Kombat) type force based on a desert world

Full of dangerous creatures which are used as warbeasts by the Marines. (think like Arrakis fom Dune)

Hmm, you are not first one with such idea, that's for sure... :P

 

Anyway, the obvious choice are insectoid-like creatures, for the simple fact that you can use the Tyranids range as the baseline for the conversion(s). However, the problem with dangerous creatures is well... they are dangerous creatures, not hamsters, so you have to come with good reason why the Chapter thinks that they will be/are useful in combat.

 

And please, please no scorpion riders...

[Shinzaren]

The Spice Must Flow.

[Brother Argent]

I think a Chapter that rides hamsters would be pretty awesome...

 

Please remember that for many of us the whole Thunderwolf thing made many cringe. Such an idea will need to be well thought out and executed. Its not impossible, however. I wish you luck with the idea.

[Arkangilos]

And you would probably want your chapter to bionically enhance your "scorpions" so they make more sense.

 

Also, I keep thinking of the Brotherhood of Nod's scorpion tail as a chapter symbol :lol:

[Dizzy BlackClaw]

And you would probably want your chapter to bionically enhance your "scorpions" so they make more sense.

 

Also, I keep thinking of the Brotherhood of Nod's scorpion tail as a chapter symbol :angry:

Tiberium Mutation!

 

Hmm

 

Thanks for your ideas!

 

I was planning on using my SW codex for this army so thats a good sign

 

As for Giant Scorpions i think it would be worth using Tomb Scorpions, for the base... I dont know?

 

Any ideas?

[Ferrata]

As a personally thing, I've always been against Marine Cavalry - that is what bikes are for. An Astartes in full Power Armour weights a lot, more than most beast of burden would be able to carry whilst remaining nimble, fast and reasonably sized. Thunder-cavalry were a stupid idea (yeah GW, take that!)

 

Anyhow, moving on from that, Tomb Scorpions would make a good base for a cavalry model. For the chapter itself, I would look in to the idea that whilst Scorpions might be small, they pack a large punch - this could be the theme that runs through the chapter.

[Omega Striker]

Hmmm, I dig the Brotherhood of Nod reference, and yeah, their symbol would make a killer chapter symbol, but i think you need to take this another way.....

 

CHAOS.

 

Not necessarily Chaos codex, mind, but a SM codex chaos army. You will then have the fluff for cool scorpion-like mutations. Or Gene-seed instability.

 

You could have them riding scorpions, but have them jsut be counts-as bikes. I think the conversions would be sweet.

 

Do you mind being a desert-themed White Scars chapter? You could chop off some bikes for bits and put the TL bolters and grenade launchers on scorpions.

 

Attack bikes would just be bigger size and base with a second marine who has a multimelta.

 

and then, for apoc games, you could put a bunch of marines on THIS. That thing could make people soil their 3+ Armor.

[Dizzy BlackClaw]

Hmm

 

the chaos idea is a good one,

 

BUUUUUUUT (there's always a but eh?)

 

I'm a devout All-Daddy's boy so Yeah,

 

Bikes/Scorpions-Maybe

Tomb Stalker-OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I had a similar idea; never really could get enough motivation to start building it, much less write an IA for them, so here's some ideas.

 

I'm a soldier and have been to Iraq three times. In Iraq, they have these big arachnids whose official family name is "solpugid," the most common being the camel spider (see Wikipedia if you want to read about these bastards. Gah, I hate bugs, especially big ones!) In any case, another name for the camel spider is the wind scorpion which is what I was going to use for my chapter name.

 

I also was going to use the Brotherhood of Nod scorpion tail icon as my chapter symbol.

 

I was going to go with White Scars gene-seed at first, but then decided to change that to Raven Guard. Camel spiders are ambushers, you see, and if you think about it, coming from a desert planet means you're probably not going to have lots of abundant natural resources neccesary for heavy industry -- iron, tungsten, cadmium, that sort of thing -- readily available, so a vehicle-heavy army won't necessarily work. Someone who is genetically inclined towards being sneaky would be best since you'll have to creep close and spring traps rather than charge right up the gut.

 

Another thought I had was to, as mentioned above, use the Space Wolf codex. I would prefer not to see giant scorpions on the table -- especially if ridden by Marines -- but this whole sneaky-ambushey vibe I was talking about would work better with Wolf Scouts than it would with Codex Scouts, but that's personal preference.

 

Sticking to the whole desert-Iraq-theme, I was also going to go with Kurdish, Turkish, and Arabic style names, but again, that's all up to you.

 

Hope some of this helped.