Renegade Chapter - The Entombed

[Julgolax]

Lately I've been thinking about a new idea for a Chaos Space Marine renegade chapter. As the title says, I have the name "The Entombed" in mind. The idea is actually quite simple, a chapter of loyalist Space Marines was supposedly wiped out by an ambush on a planet overrun with traitorous and heretical people on the outskirts of the Maelstrom.

 

The planet was much like Meridia from Dawn of War 2 in that it was a civilized world with a central hive complex. The governor had been usurped by traitorous anarchists who of course had been secret worshipers of Chaos. The new "governor" had cut all ties with the Imperium and after a series of assassinations and bombings, the planet was entirely under his control. For nearly 50 years the planet "enjoyed" a period of brutal tyranny and the spawning of several cults. The Inquisition arrived and were quickly alerted to the presence of corruption, sending for aid. The closest Imperial contingency was the Space Marine chapter known as the Graven Heralds. The chapter fleet had entered orbit around the planet and wasted no time in conducting a planet strike operation, landing hundreds of drop pods within the hive city around the traitor's stronghold, the governor's palace. They met heavy resistance and despite several victories and the reclamation of 45% of the hive's sectors, the chapter was being held in a stalemate at their primary objectives.

 

Long story short, during the battle the hives erupted in a series of mass sacrifices, summoning from the warp a large contingent of the renegades known as The Cleaved into realspace. The battle quickly turned in favor of the traitors and the hive city had become a bloody ruin under all the fighting. In orbit, the ships of the Chapter fleet had been battling with orbital defense platforms and evading surface-to-orbit defense lasers. The fighting came to a crescendo some week after it began, and the chapter was brought to under half strength by the sheer resilience of The Cleaved and the anarchist regime. The chapter was determined to win and threw their entire force into the fray, willing to die in the attempt lest they be dishonored in defeat. What happened then is not entirely clear, but a roiling warp storm seemingly appeared from no where and pulled the entire planet into it's foreboding grasp. The Inquisitor had no choice but to abandon the planet to it's fate and made for the nearest sector command to report what happened.

 

Down below in fact the chapter fought on, beneath the sickening black ooze that rained from the sky. The enemy had them cornered, outnumbered, and outgunned which lead to their inevitable defeat but instead of being slaughtered and executed, The Cleaved returned to the warp as mysteriously as they appeared and the chapter was left beaten and broken. What ever happened thereafter eventually lead to the reemergence of the chapter some decades later, no longer grim, stalwart loyalists but wrathful specters of vengeance. No longer were they merely encased in their signature black and gray armor of their chapter but rather their flesh having merged with their power armor, becoming a sickening mixture of flesh and ceramite. Where once there were grilles and pipes became flesh-encased tubes and fanged maws. The sacred aquilas that once so proudly sat affixed to their breastplates had been removed, a ruinous star of chaos sat in their place, melded with their flesh-armor. 

 

Forever after they called themselves The Entombed, a fitting name for those who's flesh became their armor, and their armor became their flesh. Forever more they were trapped by their defeat and twisted by vengeance upon those who abandoned them to their fate. Also thereafter they had claimed dominion over the same planet which they were sent to reclaim, taking the cultists and anarchists for their own. 

 

That's pretty much it, in it's semi-complete form. Just wondering what you guys think of the idea and if you do or don't like it, how come?

[kdruthless]

A very good intro to the chapter. I assume that a large number of possessed parts will be used on the models? :)

 

And do you have any idea as to how you might field them on the tabletop?

[Julgolax]

I've been considering the possessed models but I do run the risk of confusing my opponent. Though it is the theme of the army, it's more of a subtle look I want to achieve. The idea is basically inspired by the Dark Vengeance models, with the flesh-covered pipes, the spine emerging from Kranon's back, and the artwork of the Mutilators + Obliterators gave me the idea.

 

If possible, on the tabletop I'll be fielding all my units with the 2 basic upgrades that should be taken, Icon of Vengeance and Veterans of the Long War, I'm not going to be picking a particular patron over another I think but if I were to change my mind, it would probably be Nurgle. The aesthetics of the army aside, I would probably be fielding mostly chaos marine squads, cultist squads, chosen squads, and probably taking advantage of the oblits and mutas in place of terminators. I'm not very fond of possessed marines and again, I wouldn't want to unfairly confuse my opponent. I'll probably take predators and land raiders mostly, forgoing the pricey vindicator for all but apocalypse-level games. Trying to keep in flavor with a renegade chapter rather than a legion, I'll probably proxy out the model for the Heldrake with a chaos-fied Stormtalon Gunship for those games that I NEED fliers, as well as probably forgoing Defilers and Fiends. 

 

Personally, I think these demon engines are extremely specialized and probably should have been placed in apocalypse formations rather than the average 2000 point skirmish game. Really only specific legions would have them, or perhaps the adventurous tech-specialized traitor chapter. Namely the Iron Warriors, Black Legion, Magma Hounds, Dragon Warriors, and a couple others.

 

The overall idea for the force is more-so about enjoying each precious model, converting it and sculpting on it rather than to be tactically unique. In fact I realize that I'm gimping myself here and there by not taking Terminator squads, Fiends, Defilers, and Possessed but to keep the integrity of the army together, I sorta want to. The only actual "big" unit I'm going to be taking is the Helbrute because all it is is a Chaos Dreadnought. The real fun for me, beyond lovingly converting each and every model, would to create interesting armies out of basic units. A Chaos Lord who is the former Chapter Master, a Dark Apostle who is the former Chaplain of the 10th Company, a Sorcerer who is the former Epistolary of 4th Company, and a Warpsmith who is the former Techmarine of the 9th Company would be the selection of leaders to choose from for my forces, depending on what I'm going to take.

[kdruthless]

The rule to remember is that its your army, if others don't like it they can build their own damn version :) Do what you like.

 

And as to confusing your opponent, as long as you let them know what is what before the game (and its sportsmanlike to tell them during the game in case they forget) then you can be as outlandish as you like with your models.

 

The DV chosen are excellent models, and I know that a lot of people on eBay have split their sets and are selling the chosen for about £10 per squad if you want a few more :)

 

have you considered fielding a squad or two of the marines made up as the cleaved? I'm personally rather fond of them, and I think it'd be great (and awfully villainous) if they managed to subvert the nobility of a proud chapter and turn them into allies :) wouldn't be the weirdest thing that had happened with chaos either :)

 

Hope that this has helped (and incidentally yay Nurgle!)

[Julgolax]

We all have to remember these things are damned expensive, If I were to do any allies it would be a long time down the road.

 

The way I see it, each Chaos Marine is a bit of a character in his own right, especially since there are so few Chaos Marines outside of the mighty Legions. I intend to at least TRY to sculpt on fleshy parts to the models to represent this, and truth be told, if I can convince my opponent to allow it I will be "purchasing" the upgrade from the Chaos Boon Table, Mechanoid for my character models at 35 points (the roll total on the table).

 

I personally wish the table was part of the character wargear list rather than just a random thing, that way you could sculpt a bladed arm for "Blademaster" or a character who's uncovered head is angular and diamond-like for "Crystalline Body".

[Vesper]

I like the fluff. Cool stuff buddy.

[Julgolax]

I like the fluff. Cool stuff buddy.

 

I like the fluff but maybe I was being too ambitious with the sculpting idea... I could learn to do it but it's kinda tough to imagine doing it on EVERY Chaos Space Marine.

 

I would like to get into personalizing each model as if it were it's own character but since the standard Chaos Space Marines box is about as ho-hum as can be, without any decent conversion bits, I'm not sure what to do really.

 

As far as my Chaos Lord I'm rather excited to convert him how I choose, just out of the sheer vastness of ways I can go about it and then move onto his Chosen. From reading several parts of the Word Bearers trilogy as well as most of the Iron Warriors novels, I've heard great things to inspire me.

 

I know for a consistent theme, I want them to look and play like Chaos. Super-human anarchists bent on vengeance. Oblivious to the corruption around them, seeing daemons and the warp as necessary perils in their quest to topple the Inquisition and the Imperium. That is the fundamental goal of any chaos space marines. 

 

For flavor, I'm digging the new look they have going in spite of the lack of models to support it. The warped armor trim, the fleshy pipes, the fangs and warp-effects, all things I feel are characteristic of the Chaos Space Marines.

 

Where do I go from there?

[RolandTHTG]

The possesed sprue, as long as you avoid a couple of the weirdest backpacks and some of the arms, makes a very good conversion or alternate marine set. Just make sure your guys have bolters and bolt pistols and you should be fine.

[MaliGn]

Yeah, mix and match parts from the possessed, raptors and csm sprues. You could also look at raiding the fantasy range for neat extras, chaos knight lances make a great starting point for icons for example. Marauders have some characterful heads that can be made to fit with a little work, and while the forsaken are pricey there's a ton of flavour in the kit.