Brotherhood of a Thousand

[Aqui]

Or perhaps the Chapter might have a naming system similar to that of the Borg.

 

For example:

 

Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One. In the ST universe, Borg designations are rather fluid, and can change many times over. Not sure if it's going too far to have some kind of hardwired "vox" system that allows them all to communicate to each other without the need to speak..... ;) You have put them down as an Iron Hand successor after all :)

[DarkGuard]

Another idea for the Librarius is to not have one. Perhaps your Chapter follows the Edicts of Nikea, and believes sorcery is dangerous. And of course, having psychic individuals would be a very special and extraordinary thing in a Chapter that prides themselves all being equal. Would take some working, but if you really don't care too much about Librarians that could be an idea.

[Phoros]

Another idea for the Librarius is to not have one. Perhaps your Chapter follows the Edicts of Nikea, and believes sorcery is dangerous. And of course, having psychic individuals would be a very special and extraordinary thing in a Chapter that prides themselves all being equal. Would take some working, but if you really don't care too much about Librarians that could be an idea.

I'm liking this idea!

[Fiery Ovaltine]

Another idea for the Librarius is to not have one. Perhaps your Chapter follows the Edicts of Nikea, and believes sorcery is dangerous. And of course, having psychic individuals would be a very special and extraordinary thing in a Chapter that prides themselves all being equal. Would take some working, but if you really don't care too much about Librarians that could be an idea.

I'm liking this idea!

Yes, I'm going to go with that, far too much individual thought and personality required. And obviously there'd be no need for chaplains.

As for squads and companies:

"Newly inducted marines are randomly designated as assault, tactical or devastator troops. The chapter has no interest in assigning permanent squads and companies, if a squad of 10 assault marines are needed, then 9 are picked at random from the current stock of assault marines, and 1 from the stock of assault marine sergeants, as one would pick identical tools of any other sort. "

 

And with promotion I feel this may show adequate disdain for the idea of an individual marine's legacy:

"The Brotherhood of a Thousand has a unique system of leadership selection that reflects their disdain for the individual and the notion of a marine’s individual history. Marines are each assigned a number between 101 and 999 as they are inducted into the chapter; this is painted in black on their shoulder pad. These marines are assumed to gain combat experience ready for when a sergeant dies. When this happens a marine is chosen completely at random and made a sergeant, and they are given a new number between 011 and 100 in blue. Similarly when a captain dies a sergeant is randomly promoted to captain and given a number between 001 and 010 in green. When a chapter master dies a captain is chosen at random and given the number 000 in gold. In practice this means that a chapter master could potentially be selected with a week’s combat experience, while a marine could serve for a millennium without being given command of a squad."

-The numbers might be slightly wrong lol, but that's the general idea.

[Elric the Silvercoat]

Another idea for the Librarius is to not have one. Perhaps your Chapter follows the Edicts of Nikea, and believes sorcery is dangerous. And of course, having psychic individuals would be a very special and extraordinary thing in a Chapter that prides themselves all being equal. Would take some working, but if you really don't care too much about Librarians that could be an idea.

I'm liking this idea!

Yes, I'm going to go with that, far too much individual thought and personality required. And obviously there'd be no need for chaplains.

As for squads and companies:

"Newly inducted marines are randomly designated as assault, tactical or devastator troops. The chapter has no interest in assigning permanent squads and companies, if a squad of 10 assault marines are needed, then 9 are picked at random from the current stock of assault marines, and 1 from the stock of assault marine sergeants, as one would pick identical tools of any other sort. "

 

And with promotion I feel this may show adequate disdain for the idea of an individual marine's legacy:

"The Brotherhood of a Thousand has a unique system of leadership selection that reflects their disdain for the individual and the notion of a marine’s individual history. Marines are each assigned a number between 101 and 999 as they are inducted into the chapter; this is painted in black on their shoulder pad. These marines are assumed to gain combat experience ready for when a sergeant dies. When this happens a marine is chosen completely at random and made a sergeant, and they are given a new number between 011 and 100 in blue. Similarly when a captain dies a sergeant is randomly promoted to captain and given a number between 001 and 010 in green. When a chapter master dies a captain is chosen at random and given the number 000 in gold. In practice this means that a chapter master could potentially be selected with a week’s combat experience, while a marine could serve for a millennium without being given command of a squad."

-The numbers might be slightly wrong lol, but that's the general idea.

I love this idea because it would show command roles easily enough in a game but not be something easily seen on the battlefield in fluff if you are not a member of the chapter.

[Wargamer]

My concern with the 'chosen at random' thing is it could potentially harm the Chapter; what happens if a Marine with sod-all skill at command winds up as a Sergeant?

 

Perhaps a better idea than 'at random' is to use a democratic system - a sergeant is chosen from within the squad by his peers. The entire company votes on their captain, and the entire Chapter on their Chapter Master. That way, Marines should be chosen by ability, but no one voice has any more say than any other as to who gets these positions.

[Phoros]

I've got to agree with Wargamer here; I think that the concept of marines' skills being recorded and then selected as squad members or sergeants as appropriate would work better in practice.

[Wargamer]

Actually, another idea for you...

 

Instead of numbers, which feels a bit too... clinical, you have Honorifics. These are names of the greatest heroes of the Chapter, accumulated over millennia of service. Each honorific is tied with a specific role; for example, the First Captain is always "Brother Actarus". The name is adopted by every man who fills that role.

 

When a Marine enters the Scout company, he has his name taken from him - it is a private thing, kept to himself and not used within the wider circle. He is given a number, and refered to by his place within the squad and nothing else.

 

When he becomes a Marine, he finds a place in the squads and adopts the appropriate name, becoming his role. As he moves through squads and specialisations, his name changes; as a 9th Company Devastator, he was Brother Crassus. Then, in the 8th Company Assault squads, he was Brother Sejanus, becoming Brother Taboras when he moved from 6th squad to 4th. Finally, he wound up in a Tactical squad of the 5th Company, and becomes Brother Hadean.

 

Thus, the Chapter is indeed a "brotherhood of a thousand" - a thousand warriors whose names and heraldry are fixed, forever unchanging, and eternal from the Chapter's founding to its eventual destruction, whenever that day may be.

 

Perhaps some Marines even take this faith a little... extremely? Marines could be noted to change their personalities and behaviours as they adopt new honorifics; the progenitor Brother Tobras, for example, may have been well known as being headstrong and defiant of authority; a trait most Marines who take his name share.

 

 

Finally, it presents you with two ways to honour truly great members of the Chapter. The first is to Name them - a Named Marine uses his true name at all times, and is never hidden behind an Honorific. This is bestowed only on great men, whose heroism is simply too great to hide. Dreadnoughts would almost certainly be Named; warriors of such venerable skill as theirs deserve no less.

The second way to honour your Marines is to have their names enshrined in Chapter history by bestowing a new Honorific on their position. Chapter doctrine should ideally state that this is how all Honorifics were made; every position it is possible for a Marine to hold has, at some time or another, been held by someone who achieved a truly awe inspiring feat of heroism in the name of the Chapter. An Honorific is changed only when the current bearer's deeds completely overshadow those of his adopted identity.

[DarkGuard]

I'm not too sure about Wargamer's honorifics idea, I quite like the numbers idea. The main idea behind Fiery Ovaltine's though I believe was to have the Chapter as this clinical entity that acts and seems the same. I'm not saying it's a bad idea Wargamer, it's a very good idea. But not necessarily superior to the numbers idea, it'll depend on what Fiery Ovaltine would prefer.

 

I do agree with his promotion idea, I'm not a fan of the lottery there. As said it can too easily harm the Chapter by overlooking those who deserve those positions. Even though the Chapter tries to be identical some individuals would be more capable in leadership positions than others, it's how personality works. Therefore it makes sense for those individuals to be promoted. The vote idea is very democratic and would lend itself to the Chapter's "one body" idea.

[Culebras]

Like the ideas being tossed around here.

 

My suggestion is that the name recognition system should work something like this

 

Each marine has 3 numbers on their shoulder pad. the first number indicates their company assignment, the second number indicates their squad, and the third indicates their position within the squad. so for instance: Marine 324 is a member of the Third company, second squad, fourth member. If he should die, another marine is reassigned to take his position within the squad. If the entire squad is wiped out, than another squad is promoted from another company to take its place. all together, that would make the chapter and squad system more modular and much more rigid than in the normal chapter. No squads named after their sergeant or anything. In addition, each company would only have 9 squads plus the captains command squad.

 

Further, you can have special detachments to represent the how marines might operate as say a landspeeder pilot or on the crew of a predator.

 

Marine 8P2 might stand for deployed to the eighth company, Predator detachment, crew member 2

Marine 4C4 might stand for deployed to the fourth company, Chaplain, ranked fourth under master of sanctity.

 

So in a sample company, (lets say the 3rd) you might have

 

300- the company Captain

3H1-3H5 (the Captains retinue) the H indicates their special deployment status

310-390 (these would be commanders of the company's 9 squads)

311-399 (these are the 89 battle brothers)

3D1 (dreadnought)

3P1-3P2(A predator crew)

 

To accommodate new recruits, I would say they only get 2 numbers or a number and a letter. they don't officially graduate and join the brotherhood until they are promoted and receive their third number. that gives you a bit more leeway in assigning designations.

 

You could also say that vehicles are permanently assigned to a single company and allocated on a mission by mission basis. Alternately, you could simply attach vehicles to one of the reserve company's and treat it like a motor pool.

[War Angel]

I think you should just get a number once you're promoted to battle brother, you keep that number for life. No one has a reserved number. Also, seeing as there is no numbering of scouts, you can use those hundred numbers for you're command elements. Or just use them for you're command and still have the numbers change. Btw only having 9 squads would give you less then 1000.

 

Furthermore, the reserve devastators are predator crew, and reserve assault squads are land speeders and bikes. So you don't need special numbers for them

[Culebras]

I think you should just get a number once you're promoted to battle brother, you keep that number for life. No one has a reserved number. Also, seeing as there is no numbering of scouts, you can use those hundred numbers for you're command elements. Or just use them for you're command and still have the numbers change. Btw only having 9 squads would give you less then 1000.

 

Furthermore, the reserve devastators are predator crew, and reserve assault squads are land speeders and bikes. So you don't need special numbers for them

 

 

9 squads of ten equals 90 marines

+ a captain and a 5 man command squad

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

96 marines

 

X by ten companies

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

960 marines

 

Leaves you 40 slots left over for Chaplains, techmarines, librarians, dreadnoughts, honor guards, etc

[Wargamer]

9 squads of ten equals 90 marines

+ a captain and a 5 man command squad

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

96 marines

 

X by ten companies

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

960 marines

This would leave the Chapter under-strength, however; a Company has 107 members minimum (ten squads of ten, five man command squad, captain, chaplain. Probably librarian, techmarine and Dreadnoughts added into that).

 

Okay, here's one:

 

The Chapter should have, assuming a normal Codex structure, nine companies consisting of 100 men, plus a captain, 5-man command, chaplain, librarian and techmarine for each.

 

That gives us 981 Marines.

 

The Chapter Master and his honour guard bring that up to 987. Tenth Company Captain brings it to 988. We ignore the Scouts because they aren't proper Marines yet.

 

That allows for twelve more individuals... so let's add Chief Librarian, Master of Sanctity and Master of the Forge and Master of Apothecaries. 992. That leaves eight men to account for... so we add a command squad, chaplain, librarian and techmarine to the 10th Company as well. 1,000 Marines, bang on.

[DarkGuard]

I must admit I do like Culebras' approach to the numbers, the first digit being company, second squad and third place within squad. It keeps the whole theme of no names, only numbers, while being interchangeable so they still change, while also denoting a hierarchy that an outsider is unlikely to find, but one that the Chapter know intimately.

[TrashMan]

I don't think it would be that hard to figure out.....

[DarkGuard]

I don't think it would be that hard to figure out.....

 

Because I'm sure that every enemy soldier will be able to distinguish the Sergeant from a group of warriors who all look exactly the same. Or even the Captain. If Fiery Ovaltine decides to he could even have the Captains and other senior staff all wear unmarked, normal Astartes battle plate, no thrills, no cloaks, nothing to signal they could be in charge. To the enemy every Marine would look the same. Commands on the vox net, not issued out loud, and the effect is an army of identical warriors who seem to not have a command structure due to appearances but look very coordinated. And all that happening in the heat of battle? The enemy would know there is a command structure, they would just struggle to control it. Compare to other Chapters that denote rank through helmet colours, back banners, robes, cloaks etc where it's quite easy to ascertain whose in charge, Fiery Ovaltine's approach could make an army that's very hard to distinguish whose in charge in the heat of battle.

[Aqui]

I don't think it would be that hard to figure out.....

 

Because I'm sure that every enemy soldier will be able to distinguish the Sergeant from a group of warriors who all look exactly the same. Or even the Captain. If Fiery Ovaltine decides to he could even have the Captains and other senior staff all wear unmarked, normal Astartes battle plate, no thrills, no cloaks, nothing to signal they could be in charge. To the enemy every Marine would look the same. Commands on the vox net, not issued out loud, and the effect is an army of identical warriors who seem to not have a command structure due to appearances but look very coordinated. And all that happening in the heat of battle? The enemy would know there is a command structure, they would just struggle to control it. Compare to other Chapters that denote rank through helmet colours, back banners, robes, cloaks etc where it's quite easy to ascertain whose in charge, Fiery Ovaltine's approach could make an army that's very hard to distinguish whose in charge in the heat of battle.

 

I'm with Dark Guard on this. It would be quite disconcerting fighting a Chapter with no visible Command Chain.

 

It's one of the aspects this DIY has that I like most. And I've never seen such an approach in a DIY in the time I've been a member of this site ^_^

[TrashMan]

No I mean, you'd notice on their numbering/markings...

 

If you're attacked by a squad you'd notice all of them are designated as 34x... fight a company, and all are 3xx. It wouldn't take a genius to figure it out, especially since they would be looking for it, given the lack of all other indentifiers or things to distinguish.

 

It certanly is far less obvious than any other chapter tough.

[DarkGuard]

To be honest I did think of that, but I'm pretty certain that if I was someone on the frontline I wouldn't even try to notice and discern what the markings on their army meant. Maybe over the course of a battle various bits of intel would allow me to guess if I were in charge, but a trooper on the frontline would still find it difficult to tell them apart, even with the numbers. Afterall those markings are on the side, and their more likely to be showing their front at you, and you wouldn't be looking at anything else.

[Epistolary Exander]

Also when marines fight they generally move at their full physical capacity, which means they move a lot faster than any normal humans do. Most enemies would only see the number designations as a smeer in the drab grey blur of the space marines slaughtering them. I believe it would still be hard for most enemies to figure out your chapter's command structure under combat conditions because of this.