Why do you play the Chapter you play?

[ERJAK]

-1 to hit outside of twelve inches, didn't have to buy Girlyman.

[Trevak Dal]

As far as crunch is concerned, Primaris are part of their parent chapter, absolutely, considering they get Chapter Tactics. Considering they also get The Red Thirst, for example, I think that Cawl must send out Primaris with some screening process, or kept the Primaris sorted by gene-seed.

Well that really cuts the line between genetic traits (red thirst) and culture/tactical training beyond the basics taught to the marine about the chapter cult and ideology right?

 

You don't have to buy Primarch Guilliman if you don't want to. I don't want to because I don't want to have to paint ANY of the Primarchs. Bit beyond what I'm looking for you know.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I picked wolves because of their background, and have largely stuck with them. I did experiment with deathwatch but I keep coming back to wolves even made a primaris successor.

[Kua]

There was a time, I swore to myself never to start Space Marines.

They were GWs posterboys. Mainstream. They are humans. Boring. Disgusting. Mon Keigh.

 

But years and editions passed, it was 5th edition by then, and I got tempted by the idea of something with a set design and heraldry, with pre-made Forgeworld upgrade kits, and it should be elite enough to not be as much work as, e.g., the DKoK would have been.

Just at that time the Grey Knights were changing from an inquisition force into uncorruptable wannabe-perfects, in short into boring. So I was left with the decision between some sort (successor, that is) of Blood Angels, or Raven Guard. And the latter were just getting their FW sternguard upgrade kit.

I also imagined them to be cooler ones. With a Primarch looking like a goth and having a cellar with an ill-went genetic experiment...

It was before (or I was unaware of) their becoming into sneaky ninjas with nothing else.

 

By times I was short of regretting the choice, because for example the Angels Sanguine would have had a more interesting colour scheme and the Blood Drinkers would have been real vampires (as fas as SMs go), but in the end I agree with my decision.

[SickSix]

When I finally Sat down to pick a SM chapter I believe it was the waning days of 5th edition. I wanted a successor chapter that didn't have a lot of cannon and had a pleasing paint scheme that also wouldn't be hard to paint. I also have a penchant for skull motifs so it wasnt long before the Silver Skulls caught my eye.

 

They had a cool scheme that I felt I would be able to do. They appeared in every SM codex all they way back to rogue trader but only had enough written about them to make them really interesting and a little mysterious. They were also a 'codex' chapter that meant I could basically field in them any way I wanted within the standard force org chart. They were portrayed as headhunters, which meant I had plenty of reason for MORE SKULLS! So nearly everything I read or looked at for them fit perfectly for what I wanted.

 

Then eventually I wanted an excuse to field DA robed veterans and more specific army list while also exploring lore writing. So I formed a custom DA successor chapter. I will play them as a siege breaker company with big guns and lots of plasma (beause DA trope).

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Well, it started with this:

 

 

It was '97, and I thought this was some of the coolest stuff  I had ever seen.

 

I became enamored with the Blood Angels, their lore, and also Terminators. I also had a huge affinity for Chaplains in the grimdark setting that is 40k. I started right off the bat creating my own chapter based on Blood Angels lineage, and I fielded lots of TDA units in my lists. Had a lot of fun, carved out my place in my FLGS meta. Then things got stale.

 

Terminators were slow. My opponents were getting good at screening and "feeding" my expensive units cheap ones. As we started to develop a competitive scene and introduce objective-based victory, I started to gravitate towards cramming as many Jump Pack units into my list that I could. This started off looking like large blocks of Death Company, each accompanied by its own Jump Pack Chaplain, with some cheap troops (Scouts).

 

Eventually I started to realize I was gravitating towards another First Founding Chapter with my unit selection - Raven Guard. I started making changes and trying to play my army as agile as I could. I felt a little hampered by the fluff surrounding the Ravens at that time (back in the late 90's it was basically an Index Astartes fluff piece in WD that I could go off of).

 

Shortly after (when a lot of the vehicle redisgns happened). I decided to shift into another DIY chapter. Heavily mechanized (still speedy/agile). Colors were Teal/Black/Copper, with a heave Egyptian theme. All my troops had tower shields, and I wrote fluff around them disembarking from their rhinos to form a shield wall (Roman Phalanx style). Little did I know I was basically writing up background for Breacher Marines before they existed.

 

I then moved half way across the country and sold everything (supplies, terrain, board, etc). I had an Eldar army as well, along with a good chunk of my original Blood Angels and my new DIY chapter. I only kept a fully painted/completed 2.5k points of Raven Guard for nostalgia (Which I had happened to win Best Overall at a RTT with).

 

Fast forward 9 years later. I move back closer to some old friends, and start back up again where I left off. I had a very outdated 5th edition Raven Guard army that consisted mostly of Assault Marines and Scouts (and Dreads). I have been adding to it ever since, while also cooking up another DIY project chapter that should hopefully see the light of day before 2020.

 

Aesthetically and Thematically, why:

 

Blood Angels: Heroic imagery, noble yet savage. Countless levels of dichotomy. Sad and poetic.

 

Raven Guard: Pragmatic, like all 3 Istvaan 5 surviving legions. Prepared to do what is necessary, as efficiently as possible, but not senseless brutality.