The 30k Army Background Thread!

[StruManChu]

If you're anything like me, then creating fluff and background for your armies helps a great deal with getting actual hobbying done. I find that if I can put together a compelling idea behind my army, or at least an idea that I like, that I can stave off hobby fatigue and actually focus on building, painting and converting, and building up my army to a decent size.

 

E.g. - I'm currently working towards having an army of each of Guilliman's 'Dauntless Few' legions led by their respective Primarchs, because those are the ones, along with the DA and Mechanicam, that I'm most interested in. The Ultramarines are on the painting desk at the moment, which started off with a Forgelord converted out of the Praetor Tribune model. 

 

I don't really like the Ultramarines as a general rule, but 30k gives you the opportunity to make them a bit less Boy Scouty. So in my head, in the midst of the Shadow Crusade, Guilliman comes to the realisation that conventional means of warfare aren't working, and he may need to sacrifice some of his world's futures in order to secure the rest of the 500 worlds. So he turns to some of his legion's more esoteric elements, namely a rad-grenade hefting Forgelord and his coterie of Destroyers, censured Veterans, Rad-Missile launching servitors, Phosphex spitting quad launchers and a big, nasty Leviathan. These men, and their 'victory by any cost' attitude flies in the face of the honourable bearing and politic of Guilliman's guard of Terminators and Invictarus Suzerain.

 

Now, I don't really have the headspace, time or skill to write vast stories detailing all the characters and players involved in this, or to wring out the implicit tension that such a force would undoubtedly feel, but the idea in and of itself is enough to motivate me to push forward with the project. I don't know if there are any others who need a narrative element for your army but lack the confidence or time to actually put pen to paper, but I've found it to be a huge help. It also helps that one of the guys in my group has a big Word Bearers army, and it's cool to have big, fluffy games where I can roleplay a little, because I have an idea about the character and temperament of each unit.

 

Which brings me to this thread! It's less of a 'help me pick a legion' and more 'tell everyone about your army!' Got a Great Company, or a Clan, or a Brotherhood? Maybe you've got an awesome idea for a backstory for your commander. Tell us about them! Let's exchange ideas and help each other forge some cool narratives for our armies.

[Marcus Arias]

I had a similar idea a few years ago of running a 'Dauntless Few' army list. A group of friends and I were starting HH and we played the Victory is Vengeance campaign, as detailed in Book 3. I made a warband based off the Dauntless Few.

 

The premise was that my UM frigate was transporting a pack of Wolves, a squad of BAs and came across an Iron Hands vessel en route to Isstvan V. Safe to say the Iron Tenth, persuaded the UMs to lend their frigate and they ended up at Isstvan.

 

From a rules PoV, having 4 legions astartes in an army list was a bad idea, but it was fun to play!

[ProsperoStands]

My Luna Wolves are loyalist members from the 88th Reserve Fleet based out of Cthonia.

They were commanded by a Terran Veteran of Unification known as Praetor Mikael Alexandros who was given the "honor" of overseeing recruitment and training of Astartes from the home world by Horus Lupercal. It was over Cthonia that the Praetor and a large cadre of Terran Veterans were exiled to train new recruits as well as blood them in small scale operations as a rapid response force behind the main lines of the Great Crusade to help quell small rebellions as well as Xenos and rebel raids.

 

Word of the Heresy came to Cthonia by way of a trio of Sons of Horus strike craft that had been sent to take command of the 88th as well a liquidate the loyal members. Alexandros feigned acceptance before staging a surprise attack on the Sons of Horus, crippling two of the strike craft and leaving the system with most of the material of the 88th Reserve Fleet in tow. These loyal sons of the 16th Legion continued to call themselves Luna Wolves and spent the duration of the Heresy behind enemy lines harassing the Traitor forces as best they could as well as linking up with stranded elements of other Loyalist forces. The fate of the 88th Reserve Fleet is unknown as they were last seen jumping into the Warp ahead of the Warmaster's armada enroute to Terra after fighting a delaying action. The 88th never arrived at Terra and their fate remains a mystery. 

[sarabando]

My upcoming White Scars are the 27th Chapter.

The 27th are decendents of one of the many tribes of Chogris who stood before the great Khan during his war of conquest. The tribe was famed for having mounts faster, stronger and taller than any others. To spare the blood shed of the upcomming battle the great Khan sent twelve of his trusted scouts to sneak into the enemey camp in the dead of night to poison the sleeping animals.

Expecting to wake to see a broken enemy he was greated by tweleve hundred clansmen arranged for battle on foot, spears held ready for war. Sparing their lives in exhange for their loyality what became the 27th still follow this tradition and will often dismount in the heat of battle to fight their foe on foot. They now take on the rolls looked down on by other chapters of the white scars such as Tunnel fighting and other infantry based operations.

 

They are lead by the quiet Turgan'Yul Headman of the 27th Host of the 5th legion. known as The Reaper of the Fields of Galvarax.

[Brother Lunkhead]

Greetings Fraters..... What a great idea and one I could use right now. The fluff and lore of 30k/40k is a big motivating factor in this hobby for me as well. In fact the fluff and some fantastic writing by Dan Abnett (Horus Rising) is what sucked me into this accursed hobby (thanks a lot Dan) As the bulk of my collection is in storage and will remain there for the near future, I've decided to devote some time to developing the fluff behind my armies.

 

I'm putting together two 30k armies. The first is a ad hoc XIIIth Legion force fighting in the arcology of Calth. The second is one of Meduson's Shattered Legion guerilla units made up of small squads of Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard. I'm also thinking of adding a White Scars Sagyar Mazan kill team to the second army (it's such a cool unit and an excuse to build some White Scars).

 

I generally like to keep my back stories on the fringe of official fluff (no named characters or units). Thus reducing the risk of some GW or FW loremaster accidentally stepping on my back story and turning it into an invalidated grease spot. The back story for the Meduson army shouldn't present any difficulty. The XIIIth Legion Calth army presents some problems though. Here's where I could use some help from my honorable brothers and sisters of the B&C. As most of my HH books are in storage, I'm going on memory (a scary and dicey situation on the best of days). Since I'm trying to stay away from Chapters with storied references in the HH literature, can anyone list any chapters present at Calth during the Word Bearers attack that don't have much or anything written about them so far? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Marshal Rohr]

I’ve rebooted my background to encompass a massive system conflict involving battalion and chapter sized elements of multiple loyalist and traitor legions and several nation’s auxilia that take place at one of the many musters of imperial forces ordered to deploy to Beta-Garmon.

[No Foes Remain]

With mine I've chosen an expeditionary fleet, the origins of which go back to the Unification of Terra. So my headcannon is that during the unification 20 astartes were chosen from all 20 legions and grouped up, so one legionnaire from each legion made up a 20-strong squad a test for the Emperor to see if the legions can keep to their ideals and work together. All bar 1 failed. That 1 started to call themselves the Brotherhood of Terra, and eventually they get their own squads, then companies as Terra and Sol are unified. Fast forward post Ullanor and the elected leader starts getting them together again and forming an expeditionary fleet made of elements from 18 legions with Solar Auxilia, Army and Knight support.

 

 

 

Basically a rough background that allows me to paint elements from all legions with mortal support.

[Supe robot gangster #1]

1st company (veteran), 1st battalion, 1st chapter, Legio XV, formally known as the thousand sons, now known as the crimson novas. A loyalist element of the thousand sons commanded by a cadre of Terran veterans, seperate from the legion after Magnus’ discovery due to differences of opinion regarding the persuit of knowledge and it’s use once know, they were sent out as an independent body by Magnus (not dissimilar to the nomad predation fleets of the raven guard, albeit less violent) but with the full material support of the legion to forge their own path. Remained loyal to terra after learning of magnus’ folly and the destruction wrought upon their legion because of it.

[Amun Ra]

I run my Raven Guard as a post istvaan decapitation strike force hunting hq elements of opposing forces. They have an allied squad of custodes keeping an eye on them. All in mk6 aside from veterans, all in earlier mixed marks of armour as 'the survivors of istvaan'

 

My 1k sons are architects of war, sent into war zones when libraries etc are discovered. Breachers in land raiders for troop choices to secure zones and everything else either dropping in via flyer transports or armoured units.

[apologist]

Interesting idea for a thread. Regardless of system or setting, I'm always most interested in the basic infantry – the men, women and Astartes that make up the bulk of a force – as they provide an anchorpoint for any narrative thread. While it's fun to see what a single character does; it's the background figures who have to deal with the decisions of the dramatis personaethat I find most fruitful.

 

Of the projects I'm working on, I've got the following:

 

The Praetors of Calth – the 15th Chapter of the Ultramarines. I themed the initial force (circa 2008) around a battle of the Great Crusade; the Hypon conflict. This was presented as an historical account, from the point of view of a 41st Millennium scribe. At the time, we didn't have any specific background on the Ultramarines of the period, and I had great fun trying to work out how I could describe how things were different from the 40k Chapter. In the end, the army ended up becoming 'ascended fanon' – 'Praetor plate', mentioned in Know No Fear, was a nod to my army according to the editor, which pleased me no end! Beyond that, they're essentially just a standard Line Company – I wanted to contrast the sheer mundanity of the organisation with the fact each one is a storied hero; just like in Ancient Greek myth.

 

Officio Monstrosa – With the highly personalised Ultramarines of the Praetors of Calth 'done', I wanted to explore the other side; and picked what I consider the Ur-example of rebel infantry; the Iron Warriors. It's been fun to explore how the line infantry react to becoming rebels while pursuing a specific concept: During the Siege of Terra, a group of Iron Warriors was sent to subdue and capture Rogal Dorn. From an outside perspective, we know they fail; but we (hopefully) learn how Astartes deal with being set a near-impossible task...

 

May You Live Forever – A very different approach, this is a purely model-driven exercise. The other projects are compromised in some ways by being 'legal armies', but the various orphans of conflict in this project are merely as the ongoing story describes them. I'm having great fun exploring the Iron Tenth and seeing how this group's flight from Isstvan ties in and interweaves with the official story of Shadrak Meduson.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Apologist

[Brother Styphus]

Astelan and the Gang after leaving Caliban, as they meet with Corswain's crew. There will be blood...

[Brofist]

I've always been drawn to the grey areas of the heresy and I've been exploring it as a theme in my 30k projects.

 

For my IWs I worked back from the idea of a grand company of maligned and unreliable reputation. Relatively lauded before unification, they descend into self criticism and seclusion during the crusade, and refuse to decimate upon unification. Their leaders are purged and the unit relegated to only include those sentenced as punishment or survivors of the legion's many ‘forlorn hopes’. These individuals are considered ‘good enough’ for the 13th Grand Company- a company so capricious and dangerous it was joked they could only be trusted with shovels. At Phall, like for many of their assignments, they do not muster and there are mixed records of them fighting for both sides of the heresy.

 

As a motif they walk the line between legion and blackshield with washed out armor, eroded heraldry, and hazard stripes of black and white instead of yellow. If you haven’t guessed it, they have fallen to the chaos god of malice. I always felt IWs were the perfect legion for this type of treatment.

[Elzender]

Ooooh, nice topic!

 

My HH project is centered around  the Imperial Fists 81st Company and its journey from the Phall engagement up to the Siege of Terra. As far as I know, there is no info on this company so I kinda "kidnapped" it for my use, although I try to add snippets of canon information, just enough to make it fit better with existing lore, but not too much to try to avoid contradicting official lore.

 

As a result, it will be a bit difficult to fill the gap between the battles mentioned above, as there was not much info on the VIIth actions between those two engagements until recently with the Solar System conflict with the Alpha Legion (the war on Mars, the third major battle of the Fists, was practically simultaneous with the Phall engagement, so it is almost impossible to justify someone battling in both of them).

However, I am reticent to involve the 81st in this confilct, as the info I have on it does not seem to allow a lot of space to add my own narrative. I should probably get myself Praetorian of Dorn to see if there is any conflict or battle mentioned in passing that I could use without stepping too much in the BL/FW writers toes (actually, I have barely read any book on the HH Fists except FW Extermination, although I do have read wikis, lexicanum and B&C threads about their BL novels). I do really need to read The Crimson Fist novella to see if it helps me write properly the naval combats and boarding actions the 81st undertook during Phall.

 

In regards to the project itself, my idea is to show a bit of the evolution the 81st suffers during the Heresy, be it in its strength or the ideals, behaviour and beliefs of the different characters. This will be also reflected in the army composition, as most units will represent different battles and points in time, with some of them actually being the same legionaries (or at least, the remaining ones). Also, the main characters will have more than one iteration, to show their evolution (or decay) throughout the Heresy.

 

Hopefully I'll eventually get to update a bit the thread I opened this summer with some more pictures and written material.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Elzender

[StruManChu]

This is some great stuff guys. It's really cool to see other perspectives on the heresy and the armies therein.

 

A couple more of my ideas -

 

Blood Angels - I've always felt like the Mad Max series would fit pretty well on Baal Primus. A former paradise, now a blasted, irradiated wasteland populated by roving tribes of men, ferals and mutants. You can also tie in the IXth's great love of faster vehicles to this idea. As such, my eventual BA will probably look less like the renaissance-era angelic masterpieces that I think of when I call to mind the Blood Angels, but more bear arms, bare heads, tribal marks and warpaint. I'm torn between the idea of doing a Day of Revelation list with a bunch of rad weapons (because Post-Apocalyptic world), or an armoured breakthrough list with a bunch of tanks and some extra Assault squads for good measure. Either way, it's going to be a fun project.

 

I kind of envisage a Captain not unlike Amit of the Flesh Tearers, but lacking even the few graces he possesses. The kind of Legionnaire who will never reach the upper echelons of command within the Legion, but one with an undeniable talent, and passion, for murder. As savage as a Space Wolf, and as ruthless as a Night Lord. Mix that with the Blood Angel's famed thirst for blood, and you've got a company of men who will chase down their enemies with a hunger and desperation beyond mere frenzy. These are the guys you leave behind when you take the whole legion off to Signus, because you don't think they'll last the trip without eating half the crew.

 

tl;dr - Blood Angels, but made up of Warboys from Mad Max: Fury Road. 

 

 

Iron Hands - I find it very interesting that someone as tactically flexible and open to work with other legions as Shadrak Meduson is can rise to the same rank and profile within a legion as someone as cold, intolerant and brutal as Autek Mor is portrayed to be. The Iron Tenth have always been the cruelest of the loyalist legions to me, not because they are deliberately so, but purely because their pragmatism doesn't allow for a great deal of sympathy. I love the idea of a Drop Pod-heavy, fast moving Iron Hands army. Jetbikes, Fire Raptors, Sicarans. Heavy stuff that hits with scientific precision, taking the fight to the enemy hard and fast and doesn't relent until you're just a pair of smoking boots in the dust. This is a much less developed idea than I have for the BA above, but it's already spawned a cool Forge Lord on a Jetbike conversion that I'm pretty damn proud of.

[LilShah]

Seeing everyone, especially Apologist and Bulbafist's reasoning is very interesting for me. Their choices on the composure and painting if their legions and Auxilia have always stood out for me, especially the Officio Monstrosa.

 

As for myself, well with the Bleeding Maw I'm trying to depict the sense of blindness and lack of communications there was throughout the Heresy as well as the pull of the Warmaster's charisma. Cause it's important to remember that for the last few decades of the Crusade it wasn't as if the Emperor was there beside the Legions, participating in Unification. Instead it was the Warmaster's orders were considered holy writ and followed completely. For all intents and purposes the Astartes we're rased to admire Horus, no matter how much they loved their Primarch or Great Crusade.

 

So with the Bleeding Maw nobody knows why they stayed loyal. They ticked all the boxes to go berserk alongside the rest of the XIIth, most of the had the Nails implanted, it was primarily formed of new and rushed recruits who never served alongside the Emperor, Horus has been kind to them and showered them with gifts and etc. If someone was to gamble who would stay loyal, they definitely wouldn't have put their money on the 24th.

 

So after all of this they should have declared for Horus... but they didn't. No one knows if it was due to the inertia of having served an Emperor for so long, their old Praetor Mayah Janos having some misgivings about turning against his homework of Terra, a hidden hate of Angron for mutilating their minds or even simply due to the news of the muster at Isstvan III not reaching them at time. Maybe it was all of the above.

 

That's the sort of moral ambiguity that is synonymous with 30k in my mind.

[SchultzChaos]

My Night Lords!

 

The 12th Terror Company of the VIII Legion, also known as the Terrible Children.

 

Founded together with the legion on Terra during the later years of the Unification Wars the company saw active duty during the quelling of the Xinga’poring uprising. It was during this massacre that the company was folded into the terror brigades and its formations started to focus on lightning assaults coupled with acts of gruesome punishment.

 

Everything was to change with the discovery of the VIII primarch and his homeworld Nostramo, and the VIII legion – which had walked a fine line between rightful violence and murderous barbarism -- started its descent into madness and cruelty. Not the least for the 12^th company. The terran born company master Jukkai was shortly murdered by unknown hands during a transition between systems and was replaced by the nostraman Win’hau, a firstborn son to a noble house. But this would only be the starting point for a quick succession of commanding officers, as company master after company master found himself culled from the ranks of the company.

 

The 12^th company had already degraded from its former glory even before the atrocity of the Isstvan V Massacre and had under the rule of company master Kratchet seen the company descend into a cesspit for the insane and violent dregs of the legion, unwanted and outcasts. More than a quarter of the company’s warriors wore the red gauntlets – a mark for death sentence – just after a few decades into the Great Crusade. It was during the Isstvan V Massacre that the company saw its last succession of company master (the title now renamed into terror master) as Kratchet was cut down from behind by his second in command Chaerubaal.

 

The young nostraman, dubbed “the Dark Swordsman” for his sour humor and fits of melancholy, loosed the last restrains on the terror company after the Thramas Crusade and finally let it slip into the blood-craving madness it hungered for. Some say it was the terror master’s wish to see his legion destroyed after their primarch left it during that catastrophic campaign and pushed his own company towards self-destruction. The warriors of the 12^th no longer saw the difference in killing the enemy or their own servants and the fleet of the company became a hunting ground full of prey. Company structure degraded into loosely organized gangs resembling the vicious traditions of nostraman culture. Soon almost half of the company serfs had either been killed or tortured nigh close to death, seeing many a warrior going without necessary repairs to their armour and weapons.

 

During the time of Chaerubaal a new formation was founded within the company. The Beast Knights were Chaerubaal’s personal cadre of warriors so lost to the bloodlust and savagery that they could not be controlled by no other. These veteran astartes formed a bodyguard around their terror master and followed him whenever he went into battle. Soon the insignia of this madness would materialize as markings of bleeding eyes upon the warriors’ armour, signifying the watchful eye of Chaerubaal. Investigations into this matter has revealed that the Beast Knights founding seems to be linked with the rising in power of the 12^th company’s librarian Xola the Black, dubbed “the Warlock”. A reappearing term, place or name that is concluded to have worked as a cloak of mystery for the librarian or even a source of his power was “the Forlorn Sea”. Records show no documentation of such a place, but agents of the Throne has deemed “the Forlorn Sea” something connected to the warp sickness that seems to have infected the traitors of Horus from the beginning of the Heresy.  

 

Other companies in close association started to send their most uncontrollable and deranged warriors to the 12^th and in such a steady stream “new” recruits found its way to the company. The most powerful individuals from the former company hierarchy formed an almost stable court around their terror master, and with his blessings went unopposed to do quell their own thirsts. The gang structure formed around these individuals to form the base of the new 12^th terror company.

 

As the Heresy escalated into full galactic civil war and systems burned in their hundreds, the 12^th company came to clash with the second company of the VI Legion – an incident that would be the breaking point for the last remnant of company cohesion and plunge the surviving remnants into roving warbands speeding to join the war on Terra.

[Phatsquirre1]

Awesome idea

 

My Iron Warriors, the 52nd Grand Battalion, were a forgotten and ill-remembered "reconnaissance" Battalion who were tasked with garrisoning the Salient Cluster after its seizure by the Imperium, and were largely understrength at the time of Horus' Betrayal at Isstvan III. Only a few companies of the Battalion managed to answer Perturabo's call to assemble at Isstvan V, while the rest began to refit/rearm, but when the Betrayal was revealed those companies turned on their Brothers and fought hard to escape the surface. Only a few dozen or so astartes managed to escape, and returned to the Grand Battalion in order to begin resisting the Traitor legions, nominally with the idea of reinforcing Terra. Unfortunately, they were dragged into a campaign against the Word Bearers Chapter of the Rampant Eclipse that lasted throughout the heresy and even into the Scouring.

 

My Thousand Sons, the 209th Company, is an understrength Company sized force of Thousand Sons who were returned to Prospero mid-sanction, and were told by Magnus himself to retreat. From there, they rounded up survivors and wargear from XVth Legion Garrisons around the system, and began raiding VIth Legion supply convoys and isolated units. Eventually, after their return to Prospero and exposure to Magnus' hubris, they turn from the Legion and begin to campaign as Blackshields, fighting for neither side, with some unknown purpose behind their actions. However, as the heresy plays out and their isolation is cemented, the 209th find themselves falling prey to not only the flesh-change, but also a mind-sickness that manifested itself in the less psychically adept legionaries, who come to call themselves "Dayhanii" or "Lost Ones". Eventually, they last remnants of the Dayhanii are hunted and exterminated by the Ultramarines 422nd Company not too far from Nikaea.

 

My Mechanicum are the Taghmata Omyda, under the command of Archmagos Isach Khortan, who controls the Forge-World Omyda in the Salient Cluster. His forces, which include Cybernetica Maniples, Thallax Cohorts, and the Omydan Janissariate (aka Skitarii Legions), fight alongside Loyalist elements of the Questoris House Makabius, and Legio Crucius Engines. Their role in the heresy is twofold- one, to secure the Salient Cluster alongside the 52nd Grand Battalion, and two- to hunt down and acquire assets for the Forge World in order to ensure its survival and political primacy in the region after the Heresy's conclusion. To do so, however, they have extended their strength into regions across the galaxy, including Ultramar, Mallaeus Prime, Ryza, and the area surrounding Prospero, bringing them into contact with not only loyalist Legions and other Imperial Forces, but also several rogue bands of blackshield astartes who can be bartered with. This includes the 209th Company, XVth Legion, who obtain a sizable number of Omydan Macrocarid Explorators, Battle-automata, and orbital craft that do not match up with records of the spoils taken after their battles. Curiously, however, as the fires of civil war die down across the Galaxy, their political influence over the Production hub of Sybrae-Alpha is seemingly much strengthened...

[Qkhitai]

[Redacted]

Edited November 16, 2019 by Qkhitai