choosing an IW grand company

[Nemisor]

Just wondering if there is some sort of unwritten rule about choosing ones grand company for an iron warriors army?

 

sort of like 20 - 35's ok but you cant do 1 - 15 cause..... peturabo says no......cough*

[incinerator950]

There are no written rules.

[Kol Saresk]

If anything, since Kroeger, Forrix and the Warsmith were all different Grand Companies back in the Heresy, but were all one Company in Storm of Iron, the rules are do whatever you want.

[Iron Skull Mask]

In Storm of Iron we don't learn about the identity of the warsmith's Grand Company. One can assume that it consisted of the remnants of at least 3 original Grand Companies, as not only the warsmith (a character who dumped his original name and replaced it with his title), but also Forrix and Kroeger were once warsmiths (this can be found in Angel Exterminatus. In Storm of Iron Kroeger and Forrix are subordinates of the warsmith). Later we meet Toramino and Berossus, two warsmiths who also combined their Grand Companies (in Dead Sky, Black Sun). So this seems to be a common development and leaves plenty of room to forge your own narrative.

 

According to old fluff, Perturabo leads the 1st Grand Company himself, while a warsmith called Ferrum Ironclaw leads the 2nd. Otherwise, not much is known. As far as I know, Insane Psychopath chose the 5th Grand Company. My Grand Company is the 53rd and was formed out of the remnants of several Grand Companies that were destroyed during the siege on Terra. So my advice would be to just pick a number you like and come up with a cool story. There are no restrictions.

[Chaeron]

I've been using the 13th since forever. I believe another forum (which I think is now inactive) did something similar to our current goals, which was roughly assign people to numbers for a nice collective overview - but from memory, that idea was actually taken from these forums originally, and it might be great to resurrect that as some of the other legions have done.

 

But, it's your hobby - do what you like and enjoy it!

[Kol Saresk]

One thing we were discussing in the VIII Legion thread(The Murderer's Call) was that since it is always possible for the companies(or in this case, Grand Companies) to fragment and split for various reasons, ie power struggle, one group of survivors was split of from the rest, or even one group just decided to forge its own path, it wouldn't be against all reason for two(or more) fanmade warbands to share the same company designation.

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

As everyone else said, go with the company you want.  Remember some will break off from there Grand Company to forum there own & then you also got those who had garrison duty during the Heresy.  There also warbands like the Son's of the Forge, shatter company united under Warsmith Shon'tu to take on Lysander.
If you got the third Forge World Heresy book, there a lot of great story & also talk about sort of warrior lodge with in the Legion.

End of the day it your hobby, all come down to what your aim for, idea & general what you think cool :D

I went with the 5th Grand Company, just 5 been my favourite & lucky number for me & they've been my main force since 2001.

[Fulminata]

I have been using the 17th Grand Company for a while now as well. They are the remnents of several Grand Companies forced together by my Warsmith after the Heresy and Iron Cage Incident.

[Warsmith Aznable]

If more people used the Tabula Astartes thread we could keep things straight at least between each other here on the B+C. But in the end I don't think it's at all important. I claim the 49th Grand Company, but if somebody else started doing it too what would it really mean to my hobby? Probably nothing, unless that person were Graham McNeill.

 

As far as official fluff goes there's woefully little out there, and I would welcome a little bit more attention from the Black Library for my beloved IV^th. But it does mean we get to run wild when DIYing.