Imperial Honors on measly marines?

[HighMarshalAmp]

In the Tac Squad box, you get several bits with Imperial Honors on them.

Now they aren't grounded in the fluff, are they?

 

First off, the shoulder pads with an Iron Halo. That thing is special and provides a 4+ invulnerable save to a Captain - or you can put it on your third Battle Brother from the left just for the looks.

Do I have that right?

 

Same with the many, many helmets with Iron Skulls, which are honors as well, albeit ones without special rules.

Not to mention the shoulder pad with the Iron Halo and the Iron Skull - hell, that has to go on a 1st Company Veteran at least, and even he won't have the Halo's 4+ save...

 

Also, I've got some shoulder pads with laurels - only it seems that these are marking the Ancients now, and there are hardly any Chapters with enough ancients to use all the Laurels you get with one Sternguard box...

 

So it seems it is a bad idea to try to combine fluff with actual miniatures - or am I missing something?

[Brother Tyler]

(click on the images for larger versions)
(images from Codex: Ultramarines (2nd edition WH40K))

Keep in mind that the honours elements derive from 2nd edition, though there have been some developments over the years.

The iron halo has two distinct meanings. The first, which you are familiar with, is a piece of wargear that confers an invulnerable save. The second, and original, is simply an honour to indicate a squad leader (the guy that leads one combat squad).

The skull device you see on helmets might be an iron skull, or it might simply be some other skull honour.

While the laurel is an essential part of an Ancient, that honour isn't limited to Ancients.

While some honours might be essential to certain roles (e.g., the laurel for the Ancient), they aren't limited to Space Marines that perform those roles. Also, you might see variations of awards, or distinctive Chapter awards. For example, a crimson skull (the classic Iron Skull) might follow as the Codex Astartes indicator of a sergeant, but a white skull might mean something else, and a silver skull might mean another thing entirely.

Keep in mind that every Space Marine is a hero. They don't garner all of their honours after joining the 1st Company (or equivalent veteran formation in their Chapter). They gain honours along the way. Scouts (other than sergeants) aren't likely to have many awards, if any. Battle-brothers might have one or two. Veterans are likely to have multiple honours. In all cases there will be exceptions. For example, there might be a battle-brother that has served a considerable length of time and earned many honours, but has never been sent to the 1st Company for some odd reason. Or there might be a veteran of the 1st Company that doesn't have any honours, or who doesn't display any honours.

[HighMarshalAmp]

Ooh, these pages are just what I needed - some justification to leave my Squad as it is ;)

Well, except the one shoulder pad... I might paint the Halo red instead.

Thank you!

[Volt]

Your typical space marine is several decades old, and will have engaged in dozens, possibly a hundred or more campaigns and slain thousands of enemies. He's at very least going to have a marksman honor if he's out of the reserve companies.

[9x19 Parabellum]

And he is certainly not "measley" (despite what the stat profile looks like). 

[HighMarshalAmp]

Well, I've ended up not with reserves, but with the 2nd Company of the Ultramarines (2nd because blue with gold trim looks awesome and Ultramarines because I wanted to use the shoulder pads from the Kill Team boxes rather than decals or freehand painting, so the symbol had to be symmetrical. Add to that the 10 fancy upgrade kit shoulder pads for the high ranking brothers and it was either Smurfs or Black Templars. I went with both, starting with the Blues.).

 

It was just when I leafed through the new codex that I a) read that the laurels I had on every other Marine were suddenly marking Ancients and b) that I looked at my Sergeant, my other Sergeant and my Captain and was like "According to this, only one of you actually has an Iron Halo!"

Marksman Honors are rather ubiquitous in my troops, I'm not too worried about them - hope they're good shots though.

 

Only when there are 3 badges on a Tac Marine and he's thus only 1 Crux short of the Sternguard Veteran next to him, that makes you think, doesn't it?

 

Also relax, you're taking the "measly" part about 1 post too seriously ;)

[Kinstryfe]

I actually love all of the little honours and things that have crept into Marines lately. They can immediately tell a story along with the chapter, company a squad markings. It just seems cooler to me to think "This is Brother Bob of the Ultramarines Second Company, Third Tactical Squad. He is decorated with an Iron Halo as leader of the units combat squad, and bears a winged Imperialis and purity seals for valor in the face of treachery. His bolter is decorated with Marksman's honours earned during his time in the 9th reserve company" rather than "This guy with the dangly bit on his gun here will lead the combat squad." It's one of those levels of immersion where you can plop down a unit and tell their history visually, which I love since miniatures are an inherently visual medium.

[HighMarshalAmp]

I actually love all of the little honours and things that have crept into Marines lately. They can immediately tell a story along with the chapter, company a squad markings. It just seems cooler to me to think "This is Brother Bob of the Ultramarines Second Company, Third Tactical Squad. He is decorated with an Iron Halo as leader of the units combat squad, and bears a winged Imperialis and purity seals for valor in the face of treachery. His bolter is decorated with Marksman's honours earned during his time in the 9th reserve company" rather than "This guy with the dangly bit on his gun here will lead the combat squad." It's one of those levels of immersion where you can plop down a unit and tell their history visually, which I love since miniatures are an inherently visual medium.

Lt Ripley, Sgt Pepper and Brother Tufnel with the plasma gun (who got blown up by his gun once before because he was my first model and I overdid it with the Nuln Oil...) agree 100% 

 

It's just that there's my Captain, for example, and his Lt and a bunch of Sternguard - and a Tac Squad. And if I was to distribute all the fancy bits that come with the Tac Marines among them, the Sternguard and the Tac Squad would be equally decorated with the exception of the Crux (there's only so many dangly bits you can put on one single guy) and just about every second Tac Marine would have been commended for tactical brilliance in the face of battle and every third one would at one point have led a squad...

 

I'm not saying no Marine should have any honors, I'm saying that it would have been strange if it had been like I had initially feared, with the honors in the Tac box signifying much, much more fluff-wise than would be appropriate.