Index Astartes: Hounds Rampant

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Because such forced recruitment practices are likely to WEAKEN the Imperium the Chapter is meant to defend. (I have similar complaints about the Grey Knights' "Kill every human being who sees us, regardless whether they're loyal subjects or traitors!" policy.) It also reminds me of the Astral Claws' behavior before the Badab War, forcibly seizing materiel from Imperial worlds; other Imperial citizens (including Inquisitors) will also make the same unfavorable comparison.

[Ferrus Manus]

Because such forced recruitment practices are likely to WEAKEN the Imperium the Chapter is meant to defend. 

When we're talking about trillions upon trillions of humans, the forced removal of even several thousand wouldn't even be noticed much less weaken the Imperium. It's an empire on a galactic scale, even when say the Romans lost two of three legions they got over it in the span of a few decades. 

[joschlumpf]

Don´t get me wrong, but that´s simply a "you don´t like it".

Other chapters kill hundreds of newcomers just to find the "best of the best", so why shouldn´t there be one working like this? It´s not said, that they went straight for the most vital planets of the system they are in. It just happens from time to time and because of this they try to avoid the Inquisiton whenever it is possible.

 

And to be honest, i don´t believe many citizens of the Imperium know who the Astral Claws are/were.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Don´t get me wrong, but that´s simply a "you don´t like it".

It's also a "That makes no sense!" When Talos (from Aaron Dembski-Bowden's 'Night Lords' trilogy) demonstrates more concern over WASTING RESOURCES (specifically, the lives of soldiers needed to continue fighting the Long War), that says nothing good about the INTELLIGENCE of the Imperial officials responsible.

Other chapters kill hundreds of newcomers just to find the "best of the best", so why shouldn´t there be one working like this?

The Carcharodons at least received PERMISSION to do this, from the High Lords themselves.

And to be honest, i don´t believe many citizens of the Imperium know who the Astral Claws are/were.

Those that DO KNOW are the ones to watch out for.

[joschlumpf]

 

Don´t get me wrong, but that´s simply a "you don´t like it".

It's also a "That makes no sense!" When Talos (from Aaron Dembski-Bowden's 'Night Lords' trilogy demonstrates more concern over WASTING RESOURCES (specifically, the lives of soldiers needed to continue fighting the Long War), that says nothing good about the INTELLIGENCE of the Imperial officials responsible.

Other chapters kill hundreds of newcomers just to find the "best of the best", so why shouldn´t there be one working like this?

The Carcharodons at least received PERMISSION to do this, from the High Lords themselves.

And to be honest, i don´t believe many citizens of the Imperium know who the Astral Claws are/were.

Those that DO KNOW are the ones to watch out for.

 

 Personally I can unterstand you, it is stupid to kill the ones you are supposed to save.....but that doesn´t mean some forces in the galaxy does this.

 

Actually most of the chapters does this. In one of the graphic novels you see the recruitment of the black templars (iirc). Most of the "rookies" died before the Marines even showed themselves. Afterwards half of them get killed as scouts. Making a Space Marine IS a wasting of ressources :D

 

But here is not the right place to discuss this. If he wants to use this method why not? It´s possible.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

My main concern is the Hounds seizing potential recruits from ASTRA MILITARUM recruiting worlds, potential workers from ADEPTUS MECHANICUS forge worlds, and other planets the High Lords of Terra would actually give a damn about. No one important would care if the Templars seize potential barbarians from obscure feudal worlds.

[joschlumpf]

I read again through the whole article and I have to apologise. I somehow missed the first sentence of your first post.

 

There you are right. It would be better if Dosjetka states, that they don´t recruit from IG, admech and SM world in the first place. (However it is totally plausible that they would risk that, if they are on the brink of destruction) 

For me that was common sense, that a Chapter wouldn´t go straight to this world but it can´t be wrong to write that into the description.

 

But as I said that could make a great background: Some decades after their founding they got nearly destroyed. The only way to survive was to recruit from another chapters worlds and now they are on the run, because this chapter is seeking revenge. (or something like this)

[Doctor Perils]

 

Don´t get me wrong, but that´s simply a "you don´t like it".

It's also a "That makes no sense!" When Talos (from Aaron Dembski-Bowden's 'Night Lords' trilogy) demonstrates more concern over WASTING RESOURCES (specifically, the lives of soldiers needed to continue fighting the Long War), that says nothing good about the INTELLIGENCE of the Imperial officials responsible.

Welcome to the Imperium son: the place where a lasgun is worth more then the guardsman holding it and where bureaucracy is so slow it is still treating cases from the age of scouring...

 

 

 

And to be honest, i don´t believe many citizens of the Imperium know who the Astral Claws are/were.

Those that DO KNOW are the ones to watch out for.

Conflict is generally a more interesting concept on which to base plotlines then not trying to step on anyone's toes ;) remember, these are just the first lines for the general idea of the chapter, not the full article: I'd trust Dosjetka to write an interesting story about these things.

 

Also, Bjorn, when trying to put emphasis on words in your responses, please use bold or italics when on PC, or *asterisks* if on the phone, as CAPITALS are generally recognised by the internet community as indicating shouting, which makes your comments sound more heated then you probably mean them to be :)

[Draakur]

Also, Bjorn, when trying to put emphasis on words in your responses, please use bold or italics when on PC, or *asterisks* if on the phone, as CAPITALS are generally recognised by the internet community as indicating shouting, which makes your comments sound more heated then you probably mean them to be :)

^^This, please^^

[Badass_Spaz]

To be realistic here; say a local governor was petitioned to supply a Chapter with recruits. These children found, examined, and shipped off to said Chapter wouldn't be beyond out-of-the-ordinary. A world that successfully fostered children who became fully-fledged Space Marines would bring a lot of pride among the populace. PDF would look to the stars and salute, knowing that deep down they to might have been worthy... It's kinda of poetic.

So though I'm not in favor on treading into other factions turfs, making petitions for recruits from random worlds is a pretty neat idea. It adds a sense of civility to an otherwise merciless Astarte's concept.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good idea, Badass_Spaz.

[bloodhound23]

My main concern is the Hounds seizing potential recruits from ASTRA MILITARUM recruiting worlds, potential workers from ADEPTUS MECHANICUS forge worlds, and other planets the High Lords of Terra would actually give a damn about. No one important would care if the Templars seize potential barbarians from obscure feudal worlds.

 

To be realistic here; say a local governor was petitioned to supply a Chapter with recruits. These children found, examined, and shipped off to said Chapter wouldn't be beyond out-of-the-ordinary. A world that successfully fostered children who became fully-fledged Space Marines would bring a lot of pride among the populace. PDF would look to the stars and salute, knowing that deep down they to might have been worthy... It's kinda of poetic.

 

So though I'm not in favor on treading into other factions turfs, making petitions for recruits from random worlds is a pretty neat idea. It adds a sense of civility to an otherwise merciless Astarte's concept.

 

I'd just note this: there's no reason to assume that ideal IG and/or AM recruits would have much (if anything) in common with ideal Astartes recruits, and therefore I wouldn't imagine a shrinking of the possible portions of the pie, so to speak, to involve a SM chapter in recruitment. They need far fewer bodies than IG, and far less intelligent ones than AM. 

[Lysimachus]

Hey Dos, loving the name and colour scheme, great pick!

 

I think fleet based is a good choice for them too, perhaps this might be a good opportunity to add to the hound feel? Packs of smaller hounds would be used to bring down much larger, more dangerous animals with sheer weight of numbers. Maybe you could do something similar, instead of using Battle Barges (or possibly even Strike Cruisers?) you could split Companies up into multiple Rapid Strike Vessels like Gladius or Hunters, acting like a pack to bring down bigger ships. That admittedly might limit how many heavy vehicles they could deploy, but might also fit with what you've said about their preference for drop pod (and/or boarding torpedo) assaults?

[NovemberIX]

So the memories thing popping back up after psycho-indoctrination reminds me of a plot line from the Halo novels. In their case, the children seized were 5-6 years of age and the following training more or less locked those memories away for the majority of the Spartan II. For the Hounds Rampant the memory flashes could act as a way of temporarily suppressing parts of their marine training, which could create some dire situations in combat.

 

As for how recruitment would work, I think when a 7 foot tall walking tank shows up and says "Get in the Landah" you pretty much comply, and I'm willing to bet the Imperium has education systems on it's more civilized/developed worlds, so raiding a couple of "Educatoriums" with Storm Ravens and Thunder Hawks wouldn't be that hard. Going after these sources would also fit with the chapter theme of less barbarism (but just as much violence).

[Brother Argent]

So I figured I had better start actually helping people with their articles so here I am. Amusing that its my old mate Dos as the first cab off the rank in the Iron Gauntlet Challengers. So, anyway, although you haven't got back to people here in a while (I know you Dos) I figured I would give your article an old SP once over.

So, firstly, you have a lot of a basic idea and so far not a huge amount of fleshing out. You are going to need to get cracking to get to even 1000 words by challenges end but I am sure you can do it. In saying that I am getting a strong feeling for this Chapter and I think they have a heap of potential. Mind you I could be reading the entire idea of them wrongly but walk with me here on this one...

From the general points you have made I get the basic feeling of a no nonsense, hard core and brutally merciless Chapter that, in large ways, cares little for what the rest of the Imperium thinks of them as long as they are doing their job. Whilst I see many similarities to early fall Astral Claws (which in itself is a great thing anyway) I think they have enough differences to still work as an interesting Chapter. I may be way off the mark here but I personally envision them as having a very early Teutonic or Norman knight feel. I would love to see them divided into household like structures. Not too much though as you will just have another Black Templars.

So to directly address some of your points:

• Created via political machinations of Lord General Militant Slayban Bellrath (a powerful Terran noble with links to the Lord Commander Militant's office on Terra) to fight in the Bellrath Crusade (182-453.M38) -> so-called "Sentinel" Founding
• Impressed by the brutal and uncompromising Sons of Medusa alongside whom they fight during the crusade

Not sure what the political machinations adds to the Chapter. I assume you are going to flesh this out at some stage but for now its basically saying they were founded by some guy to fight in some crusade. As for brutal and uncompromising I think that is about 50% of the Imperiums generals anyway.

• Fleet-based Chapter travelling all over the galaxy (goes well with the "rampant" part of their name)
• Either had a home world and lost it or never had a home world, might have a few scattered Chapter outposts but few and far between
• Recruitment is rather violent and traumatic as whole groups of teenage males are rounded up on planets where the population is deemed pure enough and brought aboard the Hounds' fleet, all attempts to resist this forced recruitment end in brutal execution at the hands of the Hounds' recruitment team

So I like the idea of them brutally recruiting unwilling people from across the galaxy and nothing beats a good fleet based Chapter. Whilst I dont really see peoples issue with them recruiting from other peoples worlds (every world is an Militarum world in one way or another as they all provide a PDF at the very least) I see a suitable work around. Perhaps after they have helped defend/conquer a world they round up the suitable number of people to replenish their losses and take it as 'their tithe' for saving the planet. Many Imperial commanders wouldn't have an issue with this or would be too afraid to say anything. Those that refuse the Chapter can clearly declare aren't forfilling their tithe to the Imperium and thus can be purged into submission. Of course this would ruffle feathers occasionally but perhaps favours owed by higher powers (Inquisition, High Lords, Et. Al) can help smooth these over.

• Due to their very diverse recruitment pool, they prefer to homogenise things as much as possible so that no percieved weakness remains -> memory of previous life erased from each aspirant's mind though the process isn't always successful: either they remove too much and the aspirant becomes a lobotomised servitor or they remove too little and the aspirant has fragments of memories remaining which can cause issues later on down the road with memory flashbacks causing confusion and potentially leading to insanity
• Due to far-from-perfect recruitment process and brutal combat doctrine, the Chapter has very frequent recruit intakes and a very large 10th Company -> crucial part of their continued survival as a Chapter and as a fighting force

Whilst every Chapter mind scrubs aspirants I can see why, if you use my above suggestion particularly, why these guys might be even more fanatic about it. Particularly if the world these people were taken from was either in heavy strife to begin with (I imagine giant all consuming bugs, always angry mushroom men, walking talking and preaching sushi in anime robots or giant spiky evil guys invading your world might be slightly traumatic for pre-teens in most cases) or if they were taken against their will it would cause all sorts of confusion later on. Mind washed to know no fear or to be completely devoted and loyal to your Chapter only to have your pre-recruitment life mixing in with the current world could cause all sorts of instability.

• Considers keeping battle trophies heretical, despises all form of trophy collection -> barbaric and beneath the behaviour expected of loyalist Astartes
• Either unknown geneseed provenance or of the Ultramarines' stock

Ultramarines. Works with the attitude too. Also the no trophies thing could perhaps bleed over into no overtly gaudy or pretentious honours etc. No nonsense hard core warriors whom are only about kicking butt and taking names.

• Relish in close quarter combat (with both firearms and close combat weapons) and believe this is the only way they can confirm that their foe has been eradicated, favour Drop Pod assaults and breaching actions (both planet-side and in the void) above all other forms of combat, psychological side-effects of these forms of waging war are also something the Chapter is aware of and uses to its advantage, won't go to the lengths of the Night Lords but believe the mere mention of their name should evoke fear

So strike hard, strike fast and strike close enough to see the life leave your opponents eyes. Ties back to the whole no nonsense thing too. I would suggest if you want to focus a bit on the psychological thing then link this with the merciless thing, having them strike particularly at enemy leaders, both militant and civil, as well as targeting things like hospitals, food storage and particularly things the enemy though safe. If the enemy knows their is no mercy and no where safe to hide then its going to take the will out of them.

Anyway Bro, hope that helps and sorry if it I am well off with your Chapter or if my ideas are a bit sketchy. Bit spaced out with meds at the moments so who knows.

Anyway, looking forward to where you go with this and get cracking.

[Legionare]

Just a few questions that came to while reading your IA:

 

1. What is the result of the traumatic recruiting process, or is it fully hidden behind the brain washing. This might be a good place to place a possible chapter flaw, if you want to have one.

 

2.what is the chapters policy with support vehicles like predators? Since the prefer close quarters combat, do they even wield those?

 

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, waiting for the moment you write some history for the chapter.

[Gearcrow]

Hey, which one of the IA templates did you use for this? I can't seem to match them up.

[Doctor Perils]

The bolter and chainsword's own painter - it has some wargear options which is how dos' did most of these