Why do you play the Chapter you play?

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Why do you play the Chapter you play? Everyone had to start somewhere, and every Astartes player has a Chapter  so I'd like to hear how others got started. I'm especially wanting to hear from Space Wolves, Black Templars, Raven Guard, Blood Ravens and White Scars players.
 
For example, I actually got started with an older Codex: Blood Angels (I think it was actually the first one to introduce a Librarian Dreadnought, go figure, one of the most hated Codices in 40k history turns out to be my key to the franchise) which I picked up from a local Goodwill. It's torn, battered and outdated, but it got me started for the lore. So I play a Blood Angels Successor now with heavy Adeptus Mechanicus ties.

[MARK0SIAN]

For me, I was into the lore and fiction well before I started playing and I loved all the Black Templar fiction, the art, the lore and just the look of the chapter so they were my automatic first choice. The knightly theme first drew me to them when I was just starting to get into the background and lore and I saw this picture from the graphic novel and I was hooked:

 

 

I don’t play them much now sadly because their rules don’t really do enough to make them play as they should, their different organisation and style of warfare more than justifies their own codex but it doesn’t look hopeful.

 

I now play Crimson Fists or Blood Angels mainly. Crimson fists because I’ve liked them since the Rynn’s World novel came out and Blood Angels because my main Heresy Space Marine army is Blood Angels so I can use a lot of the models from that and they play more like how I always wanted Black Templars to play :)

[PeteySödes]

It was kind of a perfect storm for me, I always was fascinated my RL wolves, family very Scandinavian, and in the end loving the playstyle. When I started 40k I immediately wanted to play Space wolves when i read the 3rd ed book but I got vetoed since we had another guy that played them and we were of an age where that mattered.

 

Now, I love them for all the same reasons but having dug into the lore for the past 20 years really just dont think i could go any other way. The sagas, the characters, and the fact that they could be one of the few subfactions that truly are "good guys" are pretty big for me. That and the creative freedom second only to chaos IMO for astartes on the P&M front.

 

Gameplay wise I get everything i need, CC fun, some good shooting, and good bully midrange stuff. I have no desire to gunline but they have a very balanced approach that i find very satisfying and ever entertaining.

[BitsHammer]

I've wandered around the chapters a bit trying to find a good fit and in the end it comes down to a couple of things.

 

I like Imperial Fists because their bright armour makes them stand out on the table, which is great when everyone tends to lean towards dark paint schemes that blend into the table, assuming they paint their models at all. Plus it pushes my painting since yellow, even with GW's current paint line, isn't exactly an easy color to master (and it gives me an excuse to weather the hell out of my models, something I enjoy doing too much).

 

As for the Templars it's a little more complicated. There the like is more in their mentality and playstyle. I tend to lean heavily towards the zealots of the setting (Sisters, Templars, Word Bearers) because their approach to the game isn't to play the game everyone else is playing, but to play their own game and force everyone else to deal with that instead (a great example of this is how Draigowing and Death Company deathstars in 5th edition were incredibly powerful, unless you were facing Sisters who can mass S8, AP1 weapons onto the table to make your 20 model count army vanish in a turn of shooting). I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to painting and modelling though, so for me the models have to feel "right" for the faction they represent leading to converting and paying extra attention to small details (like putting sigils on Word Bearer armour) very important to me. If I can't do that then the army doesn't feel "finished" and I feel like I didn't push my hobbying enough.

 

tl;dr: So basically it comes down to two things: liking the look of the models and breaking the meta by refusing to play the same game everyone else is and draggin them into your own playstyle instead.

[Gederas]

Because I was basically given 3.5k worth of Dark Angels

 

Of which, I've actually sold a bunch (mostly the Dark Vengeance repeats because holy , a majority of the 60 Tactical Marines were all Dark Vengeance). Kept the Dark Vengeance Terminators and Bikers though. I've been expanding them recently using the new Primaris Marines (which look amazing in the Pre-Heresy scheme I went for with my Dark Angels).

 

I like the fact that, as an army, they have VERY distinct ways to play. Even though one of their best tactics is "Azrael + Hellblasters GG", you can still run Ravenwing and Deathwing (and I feel bad for those who do play solely Deathwing ) as distinct forces, or supplementing the normal guys. They're a much more tactics-focused army and I enjoy that quite a bit. Same reason why I like Deathwatch.

 

Which is good, because the other armies I play are World Eaters, Night Lords and Orks. Which the tactic is "beat the out of your target until its dead" and that's it :lol: Well, those and Custodes for when I feel like being "that guy"

[Brother Casman]

I play the Blood Ravens for a few reasons. Dawn of War was my first real introduction to the universe, so my Marines are an homage to that, though my headcanon is rather different from the video games. Their colour scheme is mainly a lovely crimson, one of my favourite colours. Finally, I enjoy a good mystery, and the one surrounding the origins of the Blood Ravens is particularly delicious to me. (I hope it's never revealed, the speculation is fun).

 

I'll admit I have to shake my head at some of the memery surrounding the chapter, but I mostly put up with it.

[HighMarshalAmp]

Can't and could never do freehand I liked, so having molded shoulder pads was important. DW box had some, the icons were mirrored though. Hence, I had to settle for Chapters with a symmetrical icon.

That's how I ended up with UM and BT.

 

Buying box after box of Tac Marines left me with a load of unused Mk VI bitz. Recently, they reached critical mass and I turned them into an almost full RG Battalion.

 

Now THAT left me with

1) loads of unused MK VIII bitz since at one point I ordered more of those that I have Sergeants now (Turns out nly UM Sergeants get MK VIII armor from me and Sword Brethren get Mk VII)

2) 3 Chapters that all stand no chance of winning easily.

So I recycled all my leftovers into MK VIII clad Deathwatch Marines courtesy of the DW Upgrade Pack. That's what I'm working on right now, and for the first time I've even added bikes (Yay!).

[Panzer]

Well when we talked about starting with 40k one of my friends suddenly asked us what faction we'd start.

Not knowing anything about 40k but remembering from back when I was still playing WHFB that someone told me about Blood Angels and that they are all about Jump Packs and could have a whole army with such units I had not really any other reference (except for Necrons which I didn't like the look of back then) so I told him Blood Angels.

Short time later he gave me a Furioso Dread box and the Codex. So now that I officially started with 40k I began actually reading things and luckily I actually like the Blood Angels fluff a lot so I stuck with it. What I like the most about them is of course the twin curse and how it affects the whole chapter culture including the priesthood, the chaplains and the awesome special characters like Mephiston and Astorath. Ironically I decided to go with Knights of Blood Baal instead of the parent chapter though. I love the tragedy of said chapter and the general knight theme (though it's mostly in name) and now that it's gone after Devastation of Baal I had to come up with my own that's basically the same (but with more of a focus on the knight theme).

 

That being said for a long while I was a bit jealous of said friend who himself picked up Space Wolves. The 7e Blood Angels Codex was really bland and not much fun to play with which actually made me start a T'au army about half a year later and I only returned to the Blood Angels when GW released Primaris. Still pretty bland compared to most other armies but at least the models look much much better than the older Space Marines. ^^

[Icosiel]

I always like playing humans in games, and I always like playing 'good guys.' My Dark Eldar friend tempted me into 40k and was going to help me build my first army. I was immediately drawn to Space Marines, but the more I learned about the lore the less I was enchanted by the Imperium of Man. The sacrifice of 1000 psykers a day stood out as particularly egregious to me. The Mechanicum's slavish devotion. The all-consuming church. The Astra Militarum... I don't even know where to start with how horrifying I thought the Astra Militarum was when I first started. Mankind didn't feel heroic, it felt tyrannical and desperate. So I started leaning towards Tau, because they weren't inherently genocidal.

 

But then I discovered the Grey Knights.

 

Here was an army of righteous wizards in gleaming silver armor fighting literal manifestations of evil. Sure the Inquisition is :cussed and the Grey Knights do a lot of extreme purging, but their ultimate foe is undoubtably the greatest villainy in the universe. I fell in love with the space paladins.

 

I've since come to embrace the satyrical and dark nature of the Imperium (I've an Inquisition force now), but the stoic purity of the mission of the Sons of Titan still makes me love them. My main army is Grey Knights and I still contest that they are the coolest sons of bitches in the entire setting.

[FlamingDeth]

(and I feel bad for those who do play solely Deathwing )

Stubbornness and tenacity are defining traits of our legion! Deathwing is technically playable in 8th and you can even get about one win off of a player before the surprise wears off and they start systematically dismantling it.

 

Anyways, I liked the knightly themed stuff and the DA and BT were the most knightly themed. I also liked terminators so the angels of death book was my jam. In fact, my first miniatures were the original space hulk terminators, I pretty exclusively played Deathwing until the 4th edition book, when I was technically an adult with a job and not enough sense to save money instead if dumping it all on models.

 

Anyways, after starting I started digging into the fluff because I'm a giant nerd and liked the tone and Arthurian themes of the legion, and how the history of the Dark Angels was basically a microcosm of the history of the imperium. Yeah. That's what I've got.

[Rik Lightstar]

When I started out with 40k it was with the 2nd edition Box pretty much at release and they were all painted red just like the box showed, unfortunately that was where any similarities to the miniatures on the box ended and that was where my interest in blood angels ended.

 

They were replaced rapidly by the far cooler to me at the time Space Wolves and I had a pretty substantial army of angry space Vikings with plasma pistols and power swords all over the place and Wolf Guard with BOTH Assault Cannons AND Cyclone Missile Launchers all lead by Ragnar Blackmane, to early teens me that was glorious.

 

Then I was drawn back to space vampires, in the form of the Flesh Tearers this time, before Gabriel Seth had ever appeared in a book, that was a pretty small force, as by this point I'd also discovered beer and girls, and that seemed like a far better way to spend my cash.

 

I took a bit of a break and when I came back to the hobby it was to the glory days of Emperor's Children in the 3.5 Codex.

 

Then when I started working for GW I decided I should have another go at loyalists and had a full battle company of Sons of Guilliman, 105 blue and white quartered marines are pretty time consuming I found, when I parted company with GW as an employer I took another hiatus.

 

I was drawn back in a few years later and went for Astral Claws this time in full Badab era, Huron is an incredible character especially in that period, he has the potential to be one of the most decorated and celebrated Chapter Masters of all time, but the Administratum still want some taxes when he's almost got the Maelstrom in retreat. Huron is possibly a bigger tragedy in his own way than Horus, Horus was lead almost willingly to Chaos, the Imperium pushed Huron, I love having an army that's on that brink.

 

Then along came Primaris Marines, and to me they're fantastic models, but there's no way they fit in with a Badab era Astral Claws force. For some time I couldn't decide what to do with them and I'd bought Dark Imperium on release day. Then I decided to keep something of the narrative going this time, so they're Mantis Warriors, they're shunned as a Chapter for their history, yet they've been reinforced by and are mostly comprised of Primaris who haven't been involved in any of those sins. So my Mantis Warriors are all about atoning for inherited sins.

 

Rik

[MajorNese]

Back in 5th when I started, I'd have loved to do an AdMech related force, but skitarii/tech-guard were just not possible with my hobby skills from back in the day. So I settled on the Iron Hands - cold, calculating murder machines with more tech than bling, so that was fun. Not a single named character (which hasn't changed till now), but at least you could take other chapter's chars like Lysander to make things fit. In the following years, GW retconned their fluff again and again with each publication, so I switched over to Brotherhood of Nod IG eventually.

 

When 7th escalated into "this week's insta-win formation", I quit GW codices and went for a few years of 30k. After reading "Legion", I knew which legion I'd choose - the Alpha Legion. Using brains and plans to actually get things done, instead of just gloriously charging the biggest foe with a powered stick, wearing the brightest possible colors and hoping for plot armour to protect them. These guys just made sense. This all went well until end of 7th edition, when I was finally getting sick of painting blue gradients after 10k points, quickly followed by an edition change that made them incompatible with 40k (and ended all but a handfull of 30k armies in the region).

 

I considered a DW project to become my main 40k army next to AdMech. When reading into the possible chapters, I found the Raptors (RG successor). Painted in olive and/or camo, geared up with useful equipment instead of more bling, and actually valuing marksmanship instead of heroically charging the biggest foe wearing a powered stick. These guys were one of the very few Reasonable Marines with a sensible and effective approach to warfare, and opened up a lot of options to customize the models with military equipment instead of just more skulls, purity seals and gold. Ingame, they were not really useful in 7th edition, but it was okay against the few guys you could actually play against without getting wrecked by this week's insta-win formation or quad riptide taudar or crap like that.

In 8th, they became quite useful being a RG successor, and it really fits their playstyle and fluff. Not getting hit that easily made it playable to just field light stuff and not get shot off the board turn one. I've been experimenting with some more fluffy and unusual lists since 6th edition, and these guys open up quite a lot of possibilities beyond the obvious combos you find on the web. Now that primaris are actually giving me more variety than just the same oldmarine sprues over and over again (and vanguard being a perfect fluff fit), that project will probably escalate beyond 10k points this year.

[Kinstryfe]

My current big army project is Lamenters, which came about because I make bad decisions in what color scheme I want to paint 100+ times...

[Marshal Mattias]

Because when my bro and I split a box set as our intro to the game back in 3rd ed, the marines on the box were painted black and white... :lol:

 

But really, that's probably it. There wasn't much lore surrounding the Black Templars, as far as I knew. It was a striking and simple scheme though, which appealed to me as a newbie. I really liked the artwork on the BRB at the time too.

 

I think the reason that I stuck with the army all this time was because it was at such odds with my usual style. Any RPG you can name, I ended up playing a stealth/sniper/infiltrator approach. Diplomacy and charisma over brutish strength. Playing through Halo splitscreen, I got the pistol and sniper every time, while my bro had to make do with the shotty and rockets. My KOTOR Jedi was a pistol-wielding gunslinger, and my DA:Origins character was a pure archer, never once using a melee weapon.

 

But for some reason, this chapter spoke to me, and as the lore developed, I just fell harder for my most zealous sons of Dorn. Now even my stormraven pilot has a powersword and boltpistol in his cockpit, because every Black Templar is an Emperor's Champion!

 

First through the breach, we find the biggest baddest enemy around and we charge; we are the Emperor's wrath given form, and we bring his searing light to the darkest corners of the galaxy!

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

After moving into a new city with no friends or connections, I decided that I'd like a place to hang out and meet new people. At the time I was primarily an RPG player, but I'd dabbled in some strategy games here and there. So, I visited a couple local game shops, and the second one happened to be full of a lot of 40K guys. I'd always been aware of 40K, but only in the vaguest of terms: over the top empire, super duper soldiers in power armor with chainswords, snoody space elf ninjas, mushroom orks that shouted WAAAGH!!! But the community there was strong, and it seemed like something I could have fun with.

 

Later that night I pulled up a list of all the factions in 40K and started reading through them. When I got to Black Templars I was like, 'crazy melee specialists? Deny psychic powers with pure unbridled hatred? A dude who's entire job is to go out and solo the scariest things on the battle field! Oh man...' Everything about the BT lore spoke to me. I love their bloody-minded determination, and how the pitiless zealotry that makes them such a formidable threat is also the source of all of their evil. I don't mind playing bad guys, but when I do, I like to be the bad guy who is convinced he's in the right. Who knows one thousand percent that what he's doing is the only way forward.

 

I was already hooked by the time I read backwards into the history of Sigismund, and his final words to Abadon, but those by themselves probably would have convinced me. The story of Sigismund balances all of the things I love. Grim resolve, smoldering hatred, honor. Both the light side, and the dark side of being a warrior.

 

So in short, BT just spoke to me. The faction was practically custom tailored to all of my preferences: melee specialists, pitiless zealots, spitting in the face of the UM codex. 

 

No Pity! No Remorse! No FEAR!

[Iron Father Ferrum]

When I started I 3rd Edition, what drew me into the game was the grimdark. Previously I'd played BattleTech and a game or two of WFB, so the concept of grimdark for a setting was new to me. It appealed, and I very rapidly found what I thought was the grimmest, darkest, grimdark chapter I could find.

 

The Iron Hands were completely uncompromising. They butchered millions for the crimes of thousands. They despised their brothers in arms for actions taken, or not, ten thousand years in the past. And despite the fact that they were already the hardest, most unyielding bastards in history...that wasn't enough so they lop off weak flesh and replace it with heavy metal. They're like a whole army of Frank Castles if he had bionic arms.

[Brother Quixote]

I didn't really choose a chapter but went for a successor so I could do my own thing with regard to paint scheme, lore and I have never seen the appeal of fielding special characters.

 

The thing is, I initially went for the whole 'unknown successor' bit when I was younger but when I came back to the hobby I reassessed my chapter.

 

Model wise I like infantry heavy armies, scouts and jump packs, they just appeal to me in a way I can't quantify.

Tabletop wise I prefer to try finesse and win by tactical decisions, sticking to the mission rather than brute forcing a win.  I also like finding good ways to make units I have work on the battlefield rather than just take all the 'best' ones. (You know, actual generalship.)

Lore wise I have always liked an underdog, someone who is not flashy, but gets on and does the job anyway without expectations of reward or recognition.

 

These all led me to the Raven Guard.

And come to think about it I am now convinced I am Raven Guard 'til I die.

[Schlitzaf]

Practical standpoint? Their the army I started 40k and don’t have time to make a new one. Originally I am a as one would say a medievalist while initially I choose Salamanders cause green is cool, I was told that “vanilla chapters boring choose another,” so I saw Codex Black Templars on the shelf.

 

The longer reason why still? Beside sunk cost. The flexibility, and the Crusader Squad. I cannot stand the various other Tactical Squads equivalents restrictiveness. The Crusader squad has spoiled and continues to spoil me.

 

The MSU to tide setup. It’s a unit that in many ways is an entire codex in one. Giving Templars Biker Crusaders, and changing CVets to 2-10, would basically ‘fill’. The flexibility the chapter grants me to do essentially anything bar true heresy (witches), is why I love it.

[Johanhgg]

I play Raven Guard because i like their level-headed and smart view of warfare. Im drawn to Raven Guard because of their tragic disaster at isstvan and the raven lords dispair in loosing so many sons cause of betrayal. And i like painting black armour.

 

I play white scars because i like their under-valued and looked over past. Everyone underestimated the white scars. But they were there, at terra. I like that theyre supposed to be like warrior-poets who engages in art and poetry. The laughing killers. And the two Horus Heresy-novels are great!

[bolvar]

I had Empire in WHF and initially I was going the IG way, but then I thought "Marines look pretty good, they must be melee-oriented because of their excellent armor and physical upgrades". One of my friends and our local store have BA and didn't wanted to have a repeated army (althought their theme is pretty nice), that was the moment the owner of the store and friend of mine too said: look this one, this is the last book I have of this chapter: BT.

 

Love at first sight.

[Claws and Effect]

When I first started I was all about doing my own thing and did probably a dozen homebrew Chapters with horrid paint schemes and even worse background. Turns out I copied a bunch of Chapters that already existed totally by accident (like the Firewalkers. Totally Fire Lords).

 

When I returned this last time I decided I wanted to play one of the First Founding Chapters and delved into Lexicanum to read up on them.

 

I found I kept coming back to the Salamanders and Raven Guard more than the others, so I had a choice to make. I settled on the Raven Guard because I found their lore and Primarch just a little cooler, and I figured black armor would be easier to paint.

 

And in looking at my gaming tendencies, I realized I tend to gravitate toward stealthy, ninja-like things in nearly every game I play.

[Panzer]

 and I figured black armor would be easier to paint.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

For the record, being that I really need to learn how to drybrush, I paint black armor the easy way.

[Slave to Darkness]

I have always loved the Wolves since the tail end of first ed when they got an army list printed in white dwarf over a couple of issues introducing Blood Claws, Grey Hunters etc. But being a young un I couldn't afford to purchase said minis... Fast forward 20 ish years and I have a few boxes of the current Wolves that I picked up for bits mainly, decided to watch Vikings to see what all the fuss is about and the rest as they say is history, grabbed the bits I didnt use and started building my Wolves as a slow burn project as a change from Chaos. 

 

Also one of my old opponents had a large Templars army, we have been scrapping it out since the Armageddon campaign so I became familiar with the lore behind them and always loved the Knightly aspect. My fantasy army was Bretonnians (yeah thanks GW) and as they have been canned I was wondering what to do with all my Knights etc. Decided to start my homebrew anti Guilliman/Primaris chapter of pure OG marines, so technically I am not really playing Templars, just using their rules as they are nearest to what I want than any other codex. Sure I may be gimping myself considering GW have :cuss on you guys for ages but hey, the best battles I ever had were against the Templars, and it would be an honour to fight alongside you guys... Hell I'm even supporting y'all in this years ETL if I do enter. 

[Trevak Dal]

So I like Hunters from the Destiny series, the guys who belong in the Wilds and push back dark at the edges of the map.

 

I found out a while ago Jhaghati Khan was called "The Warhawk" and was like "that sounds badass like Blood Ravens and isn't a chapter" (only to find out it's a Imperial Guard regiment, but I'm not letting that bother me).

 

I'm not big on bikes though. They are 2 tacs, 2 devestators and 2 asms (50 Marines) with 10 Tantaros (the best looking terminators outside of Grey Knights and Dark Angels). All mk4 because I like the look/had the models from two boxes of betrayal at calth.

 

Sargents got hooded cloaks made out of green stuff.

 

Really wish the Primaris would have come out before I bought them, I vastly prefer the look of Primaris marines and might have made a 30k legion army out of them (World Eaters Jump pack army)