Storm Hawk WIP IA

[Excubitor]

Origins:

The Storm Hawk Chapter trace their origins back to the distant 6th Founding, from the Geneseed of the Raven Guard

 

Originally a fleet-based Chapter, this changed when the Ur-counsel of Terra Nova declared secession from the Imperium.

 

One of the Chapter

Edited July 14, 2012 by Excubitor

[Octavulg]

One of the Chapter’s chosen by the High Lords to bring the secessionists to heel, the Storm Hawks were deployed in full Chapter strength alongside an Imperial Navy battle squadron and a pair of Imperial Guard regiments to begin the campaign by seizing a foothold in secessionist space. However, the Chapter and its allies were trapped in a Warp-storm and blown off-course, becoming stranded in the Imperial-controlled Orodruin system.

 

I'd expect more than two Guard regiments for a task force, personally.

 

Fortress Monastery is an orbital station above Palegier which is made from the remnants of the naval strike force that got stranded in the system with them.

 

This seems strange. Merging ships should take some serious effort and industry (or the Warp, if you're a Space Hulk, I suppose).

 

Colour scheme

 

I'm not a big fan. Black chapters are common as dirt. The actual Storm Hawks scheme is a lot more unique, IMO.

 

Also, since Space Marines are willing to use camo, repainting the chapter's armor permanently wouldn't have been necessary.

 

Obviously, C&C appreciated.

 

OK.

 

There's nothing here. There's a lot of dry technical details about who was where and how things work, but there's no explanation of who the chapter is, which means none of it matters.

 

What makes your chapter unique isn't their equipment. It's their personality. The Salamanders are fire-loving humanitarian smiths, not those guys with seven big companies. Same principle applies here.

 

So what's unique about your chapter? Who are they as marines?

 

Plus, since you don't want to use any of the existing details about the Storm Hawks, why have them be the Storm Hawks at all?

[voi shet magir]

The Salamanders are fire-loving humanitarian smiths, not those guys with seven big companies.

 

They sound boring. Are they DIY?

 

If I can mention an official chapter, then that is like saying the Dark Angels are a secretive knightly order with a wealth of arcana. It is not the case.

 

They appeal by being a recognition that even dedicated military bodies are subject to politics and self-preservation. They provide me a context for imagining a person intending x but being confronted by a. To me, aesthetics or themes, like iron-working or stealth, are superfluous. Meaning is most important, and I am sure you too prefer dramatic appeal to an anthropological note about how the Storm Hawks make unit cockades from ork nipples.

 

You could demand laws against stupidity. Ultimately they are drafted by committee and you fall short of their standards. Boring people never understand their offense.

 

This is to say, Excubitor, that your numbers are actually sort of interesting, because having seven big companies (or your version) implies that a chapter does something. The alternative is publishing a pressed flower or a color plate of a space spartan.

 

So numbers generally are good. Some of your numbers imply you have not thought thoroughly about them and are boring me on purpose. A breakdown of the first company makes them seem like a collection of colored figurines. They should be muscular and capable. Tell me the first company do [whatever they want], not that there "are" or they "have" such a number of them.

Edited July 16, 2012 by voi shet magir

[Excubitor]

Fortress Monastery is an orbital station above Palegier which is made from the remnants of the naval strike force that got stranded in the system with them.

 

This seems strange. Merging ships should take some serious effort and industry (or the Warp, if you're a Space Hulk, I suppose).

 

They had a significant amount of time to do all the work of merging the ships into a station, and really, they're not using much more than the Grand Cruisers the central hub (chosen because according to a info I could get it was more of a carrier class than other ships) connected with other relatively intact sections of other ships. It's little more than a resupply station, as the Chapter is mainly away from home alot of the time. I'm waiting up a bit to get my copy of the 6th BRB to finalise how long they were cut off; The Terra Nova Interregum (sp?) went on for a long time, I'm trying to find out more than vague references for it at the moment. If you could give me a pointer to anything online that might have more on it, I would be grateful.

 

Also, as a fleet-based chapter, I would assume they would have had something like a supply train of armoury ships, repair ships etc following them. These both would have made creating the station easier, and later become part of it.

 

Colour scheme

 

I'm not a big fan. Black chapters are common as dirt. The actual Storm Hawks scheme is a lot more unique, IMO.

 

Also, since Space Marines are willing to use camo, repainting the chapter's armor permanently wouldn't have been necessary.

 

To be honest, I've already got most of a battle company painted, and only recently found that another chapter had the same name. It might be easier to rename the Chapter, but I've already had to do it several times because of new GW information, so trying to work around it. If I can't then I'll rename it again. Just gotten tired of it to be honest.

 

Obviously, C&C appreciated.

 

OK.

 

There's nothing here. There's a lot of dry technical details about who was where and how things work, but there's no explanation of who the chapter is, which means none of it matters.

 

What makes your chapter unique isn't their equipment. It's their personality. The Salamanders are fire-loving humanitarian smiths, not those guys with seven big companies. Same principle applies here.

 

So what's unique about your chapter? Who are they as marines?

 

Plus, since you don't want to use any of the existing details about the Storm Hawks, why have them be the Storm Hawks at all?

 

Alot of the detail in this are, at the moment, designed to give me an idea of what to collect. Ever since I started the hobby in Thrid Edition, and saw the Ultramarine Chapter in the Space Marine Codex, My goal in the hobby is to collect a Chapter of Space Marines. MY Chapter.

 

The GW Storm Hawks are little more than a colour scheme in the How to Paint Space Marines book. I've explained why I've not changed the name above.

 

Alot of my views on my chapter as fighters will come from my views on history, in particular the 9th Division of the AIF at Tobruk, and the Anzacs at Gallipoli. Stubborn, tenacious, skilled, innovative, reliant on the bonds created between the soldiers. Aggressive defense when forced to defend, unyielding in attack. These are the qualities I want in my marines. The problem, for me, is getting that across. Any help in that area would be extremely useful.

 

@ Voi shet magir; your example of the first company is actually exactly that: those numbers represent what I'm collecting in my first company. I probably shouldn't have gone into such exacting detail here, and won't in the final product, but along with an IA this is a guide to me collecting the Chapter as a whole, so those numbers help guide me in that regard. It also highlights something else for me: they are an ancient chapter, they've been around for 7-8 thousand years, they have access to relics that many newer chapters do not. but on the other hand, unlike several older chapters, they do not have the same links to other organisiations that allows them to replace those relics easily, hence the slowly declining numbers of TDA and older armour marks/older mark vehicles. Again, hard numbers are for my own collecting purposes; they won't make the final IA unless needed.

 

And yes, I intend my Chapter to be doing things; I've never liked the idea of "reserve" companies; to me, that means that a little under half the Chapter actually does very little combat together, but is doled out in dribs and drabs to whatever needs it at the time. That's always seemed like a waste to me. Hence, all my companies that aren't 'battle' companies actually have roles that highlight specific skill sets that they take above and beyond that of the main line units. They're not more elite, just more specialised.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Excubitor

[Necris]

I'm going to direct you here

 

Storm Hawks

 

I'd check with already established cannon before making your own up The Storm Hawks are a GW chapter granted they have little if anything of note about them but they do have colours and they do have a homeworld Zephyr

 

They have appeared in Codex Space Marines 5th ed

And Imperial Armour Volume Eight

 

And note I'm not saying that you shouldn't do the Storm Hawks just don't change what's already there.

[Excubitor]

Well, looks like another name change is in order. Thanks for pointing that out Necris. All I'd found on them was a colour scheme, and that was well after I'd renamed my chapter again. Oh well, at least most of the history will be fine.

[Octavulg]

The Terra Nova Interregum (sp?) went on for a long time, I'm trying to find out more than vague references for it at the moment. If you could give me a pointer to anything online that might have more on it, I would be grateful.

 

900 years in M35, as I understand it.

 

Alot of my views on my chapter as fighters will come from my views on history, in particular the 9th Division of the AIF at Tobruk, and the Anzacs at Gallipoli. Stubborn, tenacious, skilled, innovative, reliant on the bonds created between the soldiers. Aggressive defense when forced to defend, unyielding in attack. These are the qualities I want in my marines. The problem, for me, is getting that across. Any help in that area would be extremely useful.

 

See, there's more to Marine chapters than how they fight. How they fight is an aspect of what they are, but it's not the totality of it.

 

I'd recommend Imperial Fists geneseed as giving you a natural in for tenacity and stubbornness, then have them reject defensiveness as making you a target. Perhaps they do a different kind of sword duels than usual, for example?