Astral Claws

[Keirra]

Searching and rummaging through my old miniatures at home I ran into a half painted tactical squad and a Captain. I'm a newbie to 40k, I haven't even started collecting anything but I was about to jump into the Inquisition Bandwagon. The paintscheme of these Marines is the same as that of the Astral Claws before they turned renegade. Already having the tactical squad and Captain, I decided to remake the chapter in all it's glory before Lufgt Huron turned it renengade.

 

There are some photos of these Marines on my B&C Blog and it is decided they will become Astral Claws. I've read the Badab War first book and now i'm getting to reading the Codex: Space Marines.

 

I do have a few questions however:

 

1. Is it known for sure who are the parent Chapter of the Astral Claws

2. Before turning renegade they appeared to be a codex Chapter more or less, did they have any favourite Warfare methods?

[Coopervisor]

Good choice on the Astral Claws :rolleyes:

 

As for your questions:

1) I'm pretty sure there is no mention in official fluff as to who the parent chapter was.

2) From certain nuggets of info there are some ideas for the type of warfare they'd use. Huron is known to be fond of artillery and known rarely not to take to the field without at least some artillery backup. It is also mentioned they were at least a crusading chapter for part of their history, so that might alter the types of warfare they'd use? Although I'm not sure on that.

[Keirra]

Thank you for the replies Coopervisor.

 

I'm going to attach below some photos of what i've done so far. All I have as mentioned is a tactical squad (from Assault on Black Reach) and a Captain/Company Master. The models require some washing/work and the Missile Launcher operator needs converting to Astral Claws.

 

Colours i've used are: Black Primer, Chainmail (for armor), Mordian blue, Burnished Gold and Dwarf Flesh/Elf Flesh for the Sergeant's head. They need some washing and should be good but I ran out of black primer to finish the rest of the Squad.

 

 

Sergeant, Special Weapons, Regular Marine & Missile Launcher Operator

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110712_093550.jpg

 

Closeup on the Sergeant & Special Weapon Operator

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110712_093512.jpg

 

Closeup with Captain, Sergeant & Rest of the Squad

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110716_183819.jpg

 

A bit of action - Facing a Wraithlord

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110716_183701.jpg

 

Sergeant on his own

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110712_093447.jpg

 

More action - Sergeant Leandros & Brother Nikkelios vs Wraithlord

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110716_183921.jpg

 

The Last Stand - Sergeant Leandros holds his ground, bitter with vengeance as his brothers have fallen

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n582/inquisitorkeirra/IMG_20110716_184039.jpg

 

Miniatures wise as Coopervisor mentioned artillery, then I assume Vindicators and Whirlwinds should be a good addition for the Astral Claws. I also plan to acquire Lufgt Huron as well at some point as he still is the Chaptermaster.

[GreatEscape_13]

If you really want to do them right, you should run the Tyrant's list from Imperial Armor: 9, where you do over-size Legion squads of marines. That was the most telling difference, it seems, was that Astral Claws were shirking Astartes limitations on force organization, and sneaking in extra battle brothers in every squad.

 

And yeah, any big static defense weapons seem appropriate--a Palace of Thorns force would be backed up by every big gun possible.

 

Cheers.

[hushrong]

For myself, going off the Crusading Chapter idea, my first army was going to be geared toward a Sternguard heavy force. Fluffwise they wouldn't be 1st Co. SG, but more like ship-boarding veterans. This was from thinking that tight quarters firefights and close quarter combat would hone them into above average and highly skilled marines. Then I would slap them in drop pods and rain them down on my opponent.

 

*one neat idea with drop podding them in would be to use a Vulkan count-as (besides my Pedro count-as) and equip my marines with a healthy number of flamer and melta weapons. So when they land (hopefully) close to enemy squads they can drop a flamer template and have a blast. Then the meltas could take out armor.

[Vodunius]

If you really want to do them right, you should run the Tyrant's list from Imperial Armor: 9, where you do over-size Legion squads of marines. That was the most telling difference, it seems, was that Astral Claws were shirking Astartes limitations on force organization, and sneaking in extra battle brothers in every squad.

 

I can't agree with that, the only mention of squads with extra men is the Legion Cohort squads within the Tyrant's Legion, the Legions Retaliator and Iron Hunter squads only go up to 10 men whilst the Tyrants Legion's fluff section specifically states the other 2/3rds of the chapter followed codex norms (hence why the 2nd company captain is only available to a Codex: Space Marines army and not the Tyrant's Legion even tho he's in the same book).

 

The only real preference the Astral Claws are noted for is a fondness for bikes in their battle companies.

[GreatEscape_13]

Yeah. But cohort squads are the foundational core of that force (that and auxilia). And I expect that represents the fact that 20 man squads are the "norm" for the Tyrant's legion.

 

Cheers.

[Keirra]

Bikes and Heavy Weapons, duly noted. So I suppose buying some Bikes/Attack bikes and Vindicators would fill in the force nicely. Thank you everyone for the input but for the most part I will be using Codex: SM for the Astral Claws.