How to begin to build a Space Marine Company with miniatures

[wedgie2007]

Greetings one and all,

 

I am struggling to find information that helps me understand the composition of Space Marine companies and how i can use my miniatures to build a company.

 

The following is a list of the Primaris Units i have:

 

3x Intercessor Squads

2x Reiver Squads

2x Hellblaster Squads

2x Infiltrator Sqaud

5x Aggressor Sqauds

5x Inceptor Squads

3x Redemptor Dreadnaughts

Captains

2x Ancients

Lieutenants

Librarians

Apothecary

Chaplain 

2x Respulsor

Respulsor Executioner

 

If anyone could advise how these can be organised into a company so i can begin to paint them and give them company and squad markings it would be very much appreciated.

 

Also i have the following first gen Space Marine Miniatures:

 

3x 5 men Terminator squads

5x tactical squads

Sternguard Veterans

2x Vanguard Veterans

2x devastator Squads

3x Assault Squads

3x Bike Squads

4x Rhinos/Razerbacks

4x Land Speeders

2x scouts

scouts with sniper rifles

Gunship

2x Command Squads

Captain

librarian

Chaplain 

3x Dreadnaughts

Attack Bike

Drop Pod

 

If anyone could also advise how these can be organised into a company so i can begin to paint them and give them company and squad markings it would be very much appreciated.

[Bryan Blaire]

Google/chosen search engine "Space Marine Company" and you should be able to get several sources to help understand the general structure of a Space Marine Company. Looking at some older Edition Marine Codexes will help too - I'm sure those are available online somewhere.

 

The elements you have listed are typically broken up across multiple companies (at least of the Classic Astartes), not members of the same company.

[Brother Tyler]

You can find a chart depicting the basic composition of a Codex Chapter on page 17 of the 8th edition version of Codex: Space Marines.

In general, each company includes:

• 1x Captain
• 2x Lieutenants
• 1x Chaplain (these aren't listed above, but have been organic to a company since 2nd edition)
• 1x Ancient (these aren't listed above, but have been organic to a company since 2nd edition)
• 1x Apothecary (these aren't listed above, but have been organic to a company since 2nd edition)
• 1x Command Squad (the 1st Company has an Honour Guard instead, and the 10th Company doesn’t have a Command Squad)
• Some number of dreadnoughts (except the 10th Company)

Techmarines and Librarians are not part of companies, but may be attached to companies/detachments as necessary. Techmarines normally belong to the Forge (under the Master of the Forge), but it's common for 1 or more to be attached to a detachment. Librarians belong to the Librarius under the Chief Librarian(s), but there will be at least one per ship (since one of their roles is to provide communications).

Additional Apothecaries can be sourced from the Apothecarion and additional Chaplains might be sourced from the Reclusiam.

The only vehicles that are organic to most companies are the standard transports (Rhinos and drop pods). Additional vehicles may be attached to companies/detachments as necessary.

Battleline Squads: Tactical, Intercessor, Vanguard Infiltrator

Close Support Squads: Assault, Inceptor, Reiver, Incursor

Fire Support Squads: Devastator, Hellblaster, Aggressor, Vanguard Eliminator, Vanguard Suppressor

Veterans: Sternguard, Vanguard, Terminator [Assault], and soon Bladeguard (and maybe others)

Prior to the Ultima Founding and the introduction of the Primaris Space Marines, Chapter organization would have been largely similar to what you see in the chart above, minus the Lieutenants and Primaris. For example, a Battle Company would consist of 6 Tactical Squads, 2 Assault Squads, and 2 Devastator Squads (in addition to the stuff described above the chart). From that, a pure Battle Company might employ its Assault Squads as bikers or Land Speeders.

Commonly, however, the Adeptus Astartes don’t operate as pure companies. Instead, they’ll form detachments. The core of a detachment will be some portion of a Battle Company and it will be augmented from vehicles from the armoury and squads from other companies (usually the 1st, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Companies).

[MegaVolt87]

As far as I can tell, SM in Dark Millenium era roll as demi companies with extra's in support. That gives them twice the force projection with specialist assets supporting the traditional company structure. In the old 8th ed SM dex, p26-27, shows UM 2nd co, mix of primaris and old marines. The primaris are at minimum squad sizes, so a pure primaris demi co would be tiny and still valid as a company structure. Also post RG's comeback, seems everyone integrates primaris different, some mix, some separate and others just dump the primaris into existing full strength units (BT, SW etc). You are pretty close to hitting a company anyway with what you got right now technicaly with the new lore. 

[painting.for.my.sanity]

I'm assuming these squads are by box size (ie tactical = 10, bike = 3, assault = 5 etc).

 

PRIMARIS

 

Command

Captains
2x Ancients
Lieutenants
Librarians
Apothecary
Chaplain

 

Battleline

3x Intercessor Squads

2x Infiltrator Squad

 

Close Support

2x Reiver Squads

5x Inceptor Squads

 

Fire Support

2x Hellblaster Squads

5x Aggressor Squads

 

Armoury

3x Redemptor Dreadnaughts

2x Repulsor

Repulsor Executioner

 

In terms of units for a Primaris company, the only thing you're short of is battleline units, though you've got more fire support and close support than you need. If you've not finished putting everything together yet, you could use spare arms from some intercessors and a box of hellblasters to make an extra squad of intercessors. That would then give you 60 battleline, 35 close support, and 25 fire support. You could then pick out 15 close support and 5 five support to be seconded from a different company. You could then give your 100 from the main company all the same company markings, and sequentially number them through by squad (ie BL 1-6, CS 7-8, FS 9-10) and then either paint the seconded units with reserve company markings and give them whatever numbers you want (if the secondment was short term) or main company markings and give them numbers >10 if the secondment was long term.

 

FIRSTBORN

 

Command

2x Command Squads
Captain
Librarian
Chaplain

 

Battleline

5x tactical squads

 

Close Support

3x Assault Squads

3x Bike Squads

Attack Bike

 

Fire Support

2x devastator Squads

 

Armoury

4x Rhinos/Razorbacks

4x Land Speeders

Gunship

3x Dreadnaughts

Drop Pod
 

10th Co Detachment

2x scouts

Scouts with sniper rifles

 

1st Co Detachment

3x 5 men Terminator squads

2x Vanguard Veterans

Sternguard Veterans

 

The veterans and scouts will have to be from their own companies - 10th co tend not to use company markings, 1st tend to use white. You've got few enough of each that you can number the squads however you want. Your battleline here is fine - number those tactical squads 1-5 - you just need one more squad, battleline 6. Close support is a bit trickier - you could lump all the bikes (and attack bike) together and call them squad 7. There's then the question of what to do with the 15 assault marines - 10 of them could be called squad 8, and the other 5 could either be seconded in from another company, or you could paint them up as vanguard veterans. Fire support, if those are just the five man squads without filler marines with bolters, is too small - you'd need another ten marines with bolters, five in each squad, or you could do two more half sized devastator squads so you have all the weapon options.

[BrainFireBob]

Promoting one 5 man assault squad to Vanguard with double chainswords is an option