Looking for Ideas and Inspiration for my WHFB Empire Marines

[Brother Lunkhead]

As a big fan of the original Warhammer Old World setting I absolutely love what you are doing here. This project of yours is truly at full speed in development. This is truly ripe as a Liber campaign setting. Model projects alone could keep you busy for years. Keep it up

[Black_Cat_41]

Feel free to contribute to the project. The more the merrier :D 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Malleus Prime is like the Old World, I imagine Secundus to be more similar in climate etc to Lustria.

How about making Malleus Secundus' climate like Catachan or Cretacia's? That would explain why a relatively hospitable planet was ignored until the Great Rift's opening destroyed Malleus Prime: no humans wanted to live on a death world overgrown with maneating plants.

 

Note: Secundus may have human inhabitants before Prime was abandoned, e.g., descendants of survivors of scout ships from the colonization fleet that conquered Prime in eons past- ships that crashed when pterosaurs attacked, while broadcasting terrifying sounds and images of the winged beasts tearing the crewmembers out the ships' armored hulls. Scenes like that would make the very idea of living on Malleus Secundus one of utter insanity, or sheer desperation.

 

As for how the ship's all-female surviving crew can maintain their numbers through millennia? Say they carry manufacturing facilities for vat-growing (cloning) servitors' organic components. When your Chapter evacuates Malleus Prime, the Techmarines can make peace with the Amazons by offering to repair the "goddess' wombs" (the aforementioned vats).

 

Say hello to death world Sisters of Battle as the Chapter's most loyal allies!

Edited January 9, 2020 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Black_Cat_41]

That sounds pretty cool!

 

Should "Deathclaw" be Franz' personal Repulsor Executioner or an actual griffon?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Should "Deathclaw" be Franz' personal Repulsor Executioner or an actual griffon?

If you can get a griffin model large enough to fit a Gravis armored rider, go ahead. If not, go with an armored vehicle.

 

I personally want someone to adopt my Knight Conquistador idea (an Imperial Knight with a Land Raider replacing its original torso, so it may transport Space Marines), but I understand the necessary kitbashing will likely be difficult.

[Black_Cat_41]

This is Stormcast scale, so maybe? Obviously it'd need wings and 40K weapons/ armour though.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Black_Cat_41

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Games Workshop didn't make a Sigmar on Deathclaw model for its Age of Sigmar line?

[Lord_Caerolion]

There's still the Freeguild General on Griffon, which used to be able to make Karl Franz on Deathclaw, who became the Incarnate of the Heavens/Sigmar during the End Times, so... kinda?

[Black_Cat_41]

Franz could have a personal "Knight Elector"

 

Similar to the Knight Conquistador concept,but with a Repulsor body being from an Ultima Founding Chapter. Remove the grav plates and add limbs, with the heavy laser destroyer on one arm and the heavy onslaught on the other, strapped to a gauntlet wielding a knight sized version of Ghal-Maraz. Head is a double headed Griffon.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Best have two gauntlets, so the Knight Elector may wield the warhammer in both hands, if necessary. We should give the mighty weapon two profiles for this reason.

 

Retain the Repulsor turret as the Knight's head, after visually modifying it so a griffin's head frames each of the turret-mounted weapons?

[Black_Cat_41]

That seems to make sense.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

If each Knight model kit only has a single Thunderstrike gauntlet, get two and use the other for Knight Captain Marius Leitdorf's two-sword Knight Elector?

[Black_Cat_41]

Reaper Chainsword "Runefangs" ?.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Black_Cat_41

[Grey Hunter Ydalir]

You have so much material from WHFB it beggars belief.

 

My Blazing Sons started originally as being inspired by the Knights of the Blazing Sun back when I spent a bit of time in Warhammer Online (shame, such a missed opportunity), and had a love for the WHFB setting. I don't get any inspiration or draw from Age of Sigmar, beyond using it as a bits box for conversions.

 

I still love the colour scheme and may go back and rejig it since my Blazing Sons have evolved in a different direction.

 

Any of the Empire Knight Orders. The Cult of Ulric for a more barbarous take. Hell, the Dogs of War mercenary bands are ripe for inspiration. Al Muktar's Desert Dogs, Leopold's Leopards, Pirazzo's Lost Legion, hell even Braganza's Besiegers would work.

 

In short, pick one that appeals to you and adapt it.

[Black_Cat_41]

(Beginning of IA entry)

 

Chapter Name: Imperial Griffons 

Legion Primogenitor: Created from Iron Hands gene-seed, though some of their customs differ from their gene-sires significantly

 

Primarch Primogenitor: Ferrus Mannus 

 

Founding: Ultima Founding (Primaris Chapter)
 

Homeworld: Malleus Secundus (Formerly Malleus Primus, before the former was desolated in a warp-storm following the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum)
 

Fortress Monastery: "The Iron Talon", located at the heart of Malleus' capital city of Altdorf
 

Chapter Master: Knight-King Karl Franz
 

Strength: ~1000 battle-line Astartes, though numbers fluctuate depending on strategic situation
 

Combat Specialty: Combined arms (armour, infantry, assault) warfare, armoured spearheads, mechanised warfare
 

Heraldry: A double-headed griffon over a quartered shield, with the inscription "Sigmar mit uns" beneath the griffon's talons
 

Chapter Colours: Red and white represent the Chapter as a whole, each provincial company has its own heraldry and colours displayed upon the left shoulder pad 

 

Motto: Various, the most popular being  "Sigmar mit uns!" (Sigmar with us!) 

 

++I. Introduction++

 

"We are Sigmar's heirs. He is our Emperor, our shield, our strength. We find strength in Him, and we fight in His name.

Blessed be the God-Emperor, in his guise as Sigmar. Blessed are we, the Heirs of the Heldenhammer. Blessed be His Imperium, on Malleus and on Holy Terra."

-War Prayer of the Imperial Griffons

 

The Imperial Griffons, successors of the Iron Hands and defenders of the distant world of Malleus, are an Ultima founding Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Although the Griffons have just recently accepted the mantle of their role as defenders of Humanity, circumstances have transformed these once proud Indomitus Crusaders into a war-ravaged force of desperate warriors, their quest for compliance transformed into one of defence and self-preservation. Beset on all sides by their enemies and isolated from their brother Astartes by the constant void of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Imperial Griffons must fight for their very survival with each passing day.

 

Despite the odds set against them, however, the Griffons continue to endure. Under the watchful guidance of their Chapter Master, Karl Franz, the discipline and martial skill of the Imperial Griffons Chapter has become renowned throughout the entire Malleus sub-sector. Indeed, the backbone of the Chapter’s military might, and the reason it has endured in a corner of the galaxy filled with bloodthirsty heretics and relentless Xenos invaders is the renowned discipline and enduring strength of the Primaris Marines at its command.

 

A strike force of the Imperial Griffons deployed for battle is a magnificent spectacle. The Chapter’s forces comprise columns of battle-brothers clad in scarlet and bone-white ceramite, marching to war beneath glorious banners. These seasoned warriors are supported by a wide assortment of other forces: thunderous Dreadnoughts, powerful grav-tanks, and powerful Psykers who harness the power of the God-Emperor upon His foes in a formidable display of lightning, thunder, and divine fury.

 

When the brunt of the enemy has broken itself upon the ranks of the battle-line, the Griffons counterattack with all haste. Shock cavalry mounted upon alien Demigryhons and Ulrican Stormwolves surge ahead of waves of soaring Inceptors, the claws and beaks of their alien mounts rending through flesh, armour and bone as efficiently as any chainsword. Master-crafted Invictor warsuits and the Gravis armoured Aggressors of the Reiksguard break through the fragmented lines of the enemy in brutal frontal assaults, crashing through enemy ranks without quarter and leaving only ruin in their wake. When at last the fog of war lifts and the smoke settles, the banner of the Imperium flutters high above the fallen, triumphant against the unending tide of the enemies of Man.

 

++II. Chapter History++

 

Part One: Indomitus Crusaders

I am Karl Franz, and I was born into this galaxy, just like you. A galaxy of unceasing war and endless terrors. But with a nation of men at its heart, a bastion of hope and courage: The Imperium. Led by the craven, torn apart by the greedy, weakened and exposed, forever on the defence. But no longer.

Now, under the banner of the Indomitus Crusade, we unite, to purge the evils that dare to confront Humanity! Follow me, my sons, and we shall banish this darkness! I swear this in the Emperor's name! 

-Karl Franz, prior to the Chapter's initial departure from Mars 

(To be continued)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're off to a good start. What do the red right arm and left leg symbolize? The Griffons are here to take a stand between the Imperium and its enemies, and to shed the enemies' blood? (Elector-Count Marius Leitdorf can claim the red left leg is from kicking the posteriors of all enemies of the Imperium, but few have tolerance for his crude humor, in or out of the Chapter.) Edited January 13, 2020 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Black_Cat_41]

Red arm and leg are a simplified version of the quartered scheme on State Troops (easier to paint, and also separates my Chapter's scheme from that of the similarly named Howling Griffons.) Though I can imagine some members of the Chapter thinking that the division in color represents the divide caused by the Great Rift, the red represents bloodshed, and the white represents the purity of the Imperium. Thus, the Chapter intends to purify the divide caused by the Cicatrix Maledictum, while shedding the blood of its foes in the process.  

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Well said.