To those owning more than one chapter

[Maritn]

I’ve got a question to those of you owning more than one Space Marines army (Vanilla, BA, DA, SW, DW): How do you split your models up? How do you decide, which models of those you buy to put into which army? My “problem” is, that my collection has grown bigger than I had planned initially, and I’m not sure if I want to split forces to be able to play more than one chapter or if I want everything (aside from the 10 DW Veterans I bought for Kill Team) to be Imperial Fists. (Lemondish, if you read this, as you’re playing two shooty chapters (DW and CF, if I got this right) + something else, you’re one of the persons I’d like to read from. )

 

These are the options that I currently see:

• Use everything for my Imperial Fists
• Use 2 of everything I’ve got for my Imperial Fists (with the exception of troops), and if I happen to have more than those 2, use them for DW / SW.
• Split the models as they fit best into the chapters (e.g. the heavy gear to Fists, CC oriented models to SW, …)
• Make a custom chapter and play with whatever rules I feel like.
• Don’t give a damn and buy everything I want for each force.

As I don’t have the time for option 5, and would prefer to mostly play official chapters like Imperial Fists for their background and a chapter like Space Wolves for their background and their characters (enjoy the support for one of the big 4, yay!), I moved away from option 4 (even though I said to myself “if you ever get to start over, make a custom chapter and put everything you have in there” during 4th edition ). So that leaves me with options 1-3.

Option 1 has the advantage of being able to combine every unit with any other unit (my friends and I prefer to play mono codex), while option 3 has the benefit of different playstyles and having a greater support for SW (more characters / special units). Option 2 is somewhere in between (but quite close to option 1).

 

Current stuff:

I got back into 40K at the beginning of 8th edition and planned on starting with a 1000 points force, which I wanted to slowly expand to 2000 points, maybe 2500. Currently I have the Space Marine models from the following boxes:

3 DI, 2 Tooth and Claw, 1 Shadowspear, 1 Christmas Battleforce (the one with the Repulsor), 1 Deathwatch Start Collecting. Together with some other squad boxes, I have the following models available (I left out the characters from the battleforces)

Lysander

1 Primaris Apothecary

1 Primaris Librarian

50 Intercessors

10 Infiltrators

9 Aggressors

2 Redemptors

10 Reivers

5 Hammernators

10 Tactical Terminators

12 Inceptors

3 Suppressors

15 Hellblasters

6 Eliminators

2 Vindicators

6 Centurions

2 Repulsors

The Centurions, Hammernators, Vindicators, 10 Intercessors, 5 Hellblasters, Apothecary and of course Lysander are already planned (or painted) to be Imperial Fists. The DW Start Collecting box will of course become DW.

[Gederas]

I split mine based off of what I feel the force needs. As I play Deathwatch and Dark Angels, my priorities goes like this:

Bike? Dark Angels

Any Kind of Veteran (Vanguard/Sternguard)? Deathwatch

Regular Marines? Flip a coin

 

With Primaris.... I usually buy Primaris depending on what each one needs. So, my Deathwatch is good for Primaris (got a surprise Tooth & Claw Primaris from a friend) aside from Hellblasters.

[BrainFireBob]

If you have multiple chapters, it's for their unique stuff.

 

I would assume you have a first or primary army, and then do targeted builds of others.

 

I have a custom chapter, CSMs, and DA. I used a couple of starter boxes for the lattermost, then filled in to a Demi Battle Company, once done I started filling in with specialist units.

 

TL, DR: Pick or design a core or base force. Expand with your target fancy bits.

[MARK0SIAN]

I try to create a distinctive play style for each force. So for my BA I tend to favour fast moving jump assault type forces and for my Black Templars I go for a ground based, heavy hitting close combat army. For my Crimson Fists on the other hand I try create a very shooty army.

 

If you try to split your models so the forces play differently on the table you’ll have a lot more variety in your games and be less susceptible to a particular aspect of the faction getting nerfed.

[Spider-pope]

My Space Marines are divided between my own Chapter, The Emperor's Hounds, The Legion of the Damned and Space Wolves.

 

My Space Wolves are all non-Primaris. I dislike the way Primaris are included in the Wolves so until that changes, this is my pre-Great Rift force.

 

The Emperor's Hounds are a Primaris Chapter, so they are where i tend to use most Primaris releases.

 

The Legion is a mix of both, based on what i feel like converting at any given time. So they feature a wide range of units, with Terminators and Aggressors marching side by side.

 

I'm very much a narrative focused player so no doubt none of my forces are particularly competitive but each lets me scratch a different hobby itch.

[SickSix]

My Silver Skulls are going to be my general SM army. I still tell myself I will get them to a full company some day. Plus attachments from the 1st and 10th.

 

My Dark Swords were basically built to field a specific list or style of list (big guns). So once I feel I have satisfied their main list with a couple options they will be done. Anything else will be Silver Skulls or painted as other chapters and be fielded as attachments. Afterall its pretty fluffy to have joint forces of marine chapters.

[Skorp]

I started 40k with dark angels and learned to paint with them and such. I'd always wanted crimson fists and the narrative gave me the excuse to do a primaris crimson fists force.

 

So basically my oldmarines are DA and my main Primaris force will be crimson fists.

 

This isn't to say there is no Primaris in my DA force but as others have said only where it makes sense (*cough* hellblasters *cough*).

 

I have some ultramarines, but mostly Guilliman and an honour guard to look good in a cabinet.

 

I have some blood angels, for the death company and because I always wanted a librarian dreadnought.

[Claws and Effect]

Raven Guard and Salamanders, largely because they have polar opposite combat styles.

 

Raven Guard get the majority of the aircraft, while the Salamanders get nearly all the tanks.

[Stoic Raptor]

It may be the reason I don't have a finished army of anything, but I tend to categorize models based on which of my Chapters fits their play style:

 

Parthian warfare (Assault weapons, falling back while firing, etc): Ultramarines

Close-up and dirty: Space Wolves

Excessive firepower: Dark Angels

Default Primaris tactics/Bolters: Crimson Fists

 

Stealth warfare/Special Ops: This is a new one for me.  When I saw what the Primaris Vanguard were like in Shadowspear, I felt that my usual choices weren't really a good fit.  It seemed that tactically, Raven Guard were the best choice.  But I don't like painting black armor (it's not hard, it's just boring to me personally).  So I looked at successors and found the Raptors.  They're practical and pragmatic - they believe in stealthy guerrilla warfare and camouflage and they're not trying to creep around in armor that's some garish primary color.  So I found myself loving a new way of playing and painting.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

My Iron Hands are tank-heavy, lots of vehicles but light on infantry. The Marines Errant I'm plotting are going to be predominantly infantry with some pods and Dreadnoughts to reflect their traditional naval infantry role.

[Johanhgg]

White scars for the bikes and cc-units. And hard assault.

 

Raven Guard for the ranged combat.

 

Totally different approach to warfare. But both is like strike and fade.

[ShibeKing]

Thinking of doing Dark and Blood Angels simultaneously because I couldn't choose. This thread was very encouraging thank you.

[Maritn]

Thanks everybody for your replies (and sorry for replying so late), those were all very good ideas.

 

I would assume you have a first or primary army, and then do targeted builds of others.

 

Yeah, that's what I intended initially. The Fists were supposed to be my primary army, with the Space Wolves being used for specific builds (CC heavy). But I'm not sure about this anymore, as the SW are quite flexible One thing is, to get my desired tone of yellow I switched from Averland Sunset spray to Daemonic Yellow spray, which really speeds up the painting. But either I'm not using the AP spray properly or it is not as good as the GW spray when it comes to applying a thin basecoat (I read a lot and watched videos with tips, so IMO at least the Daemonic Yellow spray is inferior to GW sprays). The other thing that's making me more and more unsure is that SW have their own codex, so there's more stuff tailored to them.

 

 

My Iron Hands are tank-heavy, lots of vehicles but light on infantry. The Marines Errant I'm plotting are going to be predominantly infantry with some pods and Dreadnoughts to reflect their traditional naval infantry role.

 

That's where I struggle the most at the moment. I'm really unsure where to put my vehicles. Currently, I'm leaning towards using my two Redemptors for my Imperial Fists, but I don't know where to put my Repulsors (2 regular ones and one Executioner). They've got a lot of dakka, which suits the IF, but they can also transport stuff, which is not only gppd for Hellbasters or Veteran Intercessors, it might also come in handy when (if?) dedicated Primaris CC units are released (maybe even a special SW unit).

[Sky Potato]

I’ve got a battle company of Blood Angels, all old marines.

 

I started doing the Warhammer Conquest magazine collection, so all my Primaris marines are Ultramarines, seeing as the exclusive model has UM stuff moulded on and the collection comes with loads of UM paints and painting guides. Plus it gives me the option of picking up Guilliman later on, seeing as he’s Papa Primaris and all.

 

Splitting between old and Primaris makes the most sense

[Leonaides]

I've got a full first Co and Battle Company's worth of Blood Angels with full armour support (at least 1 of everything, 3 of most things), as well as a demi-company of Lamentors plus 20-ish terminators, command squad and some HQ's with a couple of dreads, a Landraider and a TF cannon.

 

My Blood Angels have all the toys, but my Lamentors were tooled up to be usable as a Codex SM army if i fancied a change, and were generally a bit more shooty. Of course now the newer codexes have come out and confirmed Lamentors as BA sucessors, but its still possible to use them as distinct from my main BA army (or should i need to differentiate between who is from which battalion in the future).

[ServoBadger]

I'm finding this a big problem. I have a LOT of Blood Angels, with lots still to paint, and a Tactical Squad, Death Company Squad and Sanguinary Priest all still on sprue. I know it's psychological, but I somehow can't manage to run Primaris alongside my old models (the scouts, in particular, look comical next to the one Primaris Blood Angel I painted up) so my Blood Angel army came to a screeching halt with the advent of 8th Edition.

 

I wasn't going to do any Primaris at all - I don't have an issue with the new models, just the thought of replacing THAT MANY Blood Angels was too much, but then a friend of mine really wanted to go halves on Shadowspear for the Chaos stuff, so I decided to paint them up as Imperial Fists. And then he gave me the Primaris half of Dark Imperium, so now I have an all Primaris Imperial Fists army. Just in time for the Averland Sunset spray to be discontinued. Grr.

 

And then there's the Deathwatch. I can just about get my head around mixing old and new models in a Deathwatch army, and since buying old style models feels like throwing good money after bad at this point, some Primaris may appear in that army soon.

 

Really, I just need to pick one.

[Trevak Dal]

I think unless you are a fan of a set named chapter (Crimson Fists, Ultramarines etc) that the best Cost Effective, and balance between Fluff and Crunch is to have your own chapter where the core guys are vanilla Mk4/3 Marines, and you add on chapter specific stuff like Thunder Wolves, Death Company, Deathwing Knights, Ravenwing Knights painted as your chapter so you can plug and play whatever space marine chapter's rules are best.

 

That way you have one pool of vehicles.

 

Vanilla Marines are codex Ultramarines in all but name (more Ultramarines characters and the only loyalist Primarch so far) and the game is shooting heavy. Units like Assault Marines have their place...but are outshone by stuff like Vanguard Veterans with power weapons or two chainswords for even more add clear.

 

Magnetize everything so you can adapt to changes in the meta (grav guns for example). Don't have more than three of a given unit, excepting vehicle chassis which you should splurge on, to fully magnetize so you can have rhinos, razorbacks, predators, hunters etc.

 

 

All that said, my Chaos are divided as such:

 

My world Eaters have the mauler Doges, helbrutes, helturkey, helDaemon Prince, and HelBerserkers in HelRhinos.

 

My black legion has largely been disassembled because...I had a lot of betrayal at calth Marines that better fit that "clean cut no bs" regimented look. I have a crazy amount of chaos terminators that just sort of happened from buying sets over the years. I think I'm going to make a Vanguard and Outrider detachment (Black Legion or Emperor's Children and maybe Night Lords or Alpha Legion) with my terminators and raptors. Like I can bring 30 Terminators to a game. And I can bring 30 raptors to a game. But they don't fit with what my Zerkers are meant to play as (:cuss ton of Khorne Berserkers in rhinos, with some mauler Doges and a daemon Prince running rally round the family) maybe with my token Defiler Sebastian (wish I could put two Hades auto cannons on him...) I got two contemptors I don't know what to do with.

 

I'm honestly probably just going to throw away a lot of :cuss to pare things down.

[Boldthreat]

Well I have 3 main chapters. Crimson Fists, Eagle Warriors and my own DIY Chapter.

 

My Crimson Fists came out of the Dark Imperium boxset, as well as the 1st wave of Primaris. My Eagle Warriors army came about around Killteam. My DIY is my new Repulsor army. I enjoy having an army that I can play with the various chapter tactics and even codexes. It will be my main moving forward.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

My suggestion would be to play a few games in row with your wolves and just your wolves, and see how it compares to your fists. If you like both armies, then I would try to make them have contrasting styles, which shouldn't be too tough. That said if you play a few games in a row with your wolves and just want to go back to fists then you should consider just having a large Imperial fists force.

 

I've started other chapters at various points but I always end up going back to space wolves. I've held onto my deathwatch because they felt different enough but I wise enough to go slow so I don't feel like I need to run them.

[Halandaar]

I've struggled with this problem for several years until i finally decided just to repaint everything as a single homebrew chapter. That way I can have all the chapter-unique stuff but I don't need to duplicate generic things like vehicles, Tac Squads and so on.

 

The justification for rule differences is the different companies; so 6th Company specialises in Assault = use Blood Angels rules, 8th Company is long range/siege warfare, so Imperial Fists rules etc.

[Maritn]

[...]My DIY is my new Repulsor army. I enjoy having an army that I can play with the various chapter tactics and even codexes. It will be my main moving forward.

  

 

I've struggled with this problem for several years until i finally decided just to repaint everything as a single homebrew chapter. That way I can have all the chapter-unique stuff but I don't need to duplicate generic things like vehicles, Tac Squads and so on.

 

The justification for rule differences is the different companies; so 6th Company specialises in Assault = use Blood Angels rules, 8th Company is long range/siege warfare, so Imperial Fists rules etc.

Yes, that's a great idea to justify this.

Does anyone of you use special characters or just chapter specific units?

[Trevak Dal]

Nope. I don't really like special characters. I think I have a stand in for Khârn, but I prefer the daemon prince, exChamp and dark apostle.

[Maritn]

Back in the days of 3rd/4th, I didn't care about special characters. Now I'm not so sure anymore. But let's see what the IF guy will be, and Calgar with his Victrix Guard has been tempting. Damn, I'm really jealous of UM players for these Victrix Guard models. ;)

 

How big are your DIY collections?

[Zustiur]

Broadly, non primaris Dark angels, primaris crimson fists.

The fists are allowed to have other SM units that aren't available to Dark angels.

[Focslain]

I have three wolf, an Ultra and then my Crusading SM force. When deciding what goes where it depends on the style of the army. The two I'm working on currently is my Ultramarine and Crusading army. 

 

For the Ultras I have a general set of units I want for them, all primaris and in a standard battle company for what the force will have. I'm still pinning down vehicles for them, but it's looking like 3 replusors and three of the new Implusors. 

 

The Crusading force is a bit more free form as I want to have one of every unit in the codex and other then groups from box sets (in this case the old blackreach and the recent Shadowspear) and HQs, no two units can be from the same chapter. Basically it's an army that I can paint something different and just for rules I'll just pick a custom chapter set-up and run with it.