Space Marine Battle Companies - Do they need revision? Have they already been revised?

[ChapterMasterGodfrey]

Hello brothers,

 

My current hobby project has got me thinking about the composition of Battle Companies in codex compliant chapters. As we all know, in old lore, a Battle Company was composed of:

• x6 10-man Tactical Squads (Battleline in new money)
• x2 10-man Assault Squads (Close Support in new money)
• x2 10-man Devastator Squads (Fire Support in new money)

 

Following Guilliman's return and the advent of the Primaris Marines, we are told Guilliman revised the codex to allow for up to 20 five-man squads. However, the split between battlefield roles, we're led to believe, has remained the same. But should they and, have they?

 

In the 10th Ed. Blood Angels codex, on the chapter organisation page, it no longer reads "6 battleline squads, 2 Close Support and 2 Fire Support squad" (or words to that affect) as it did. It now basically just reads "Battleline squads, Close Support Squads and Fire Support Squads" (again, or words to that affect). Can we take that to mean that from deployment to deployment, there can be divergences from the traditional 60/20/20 split?

 

I think yes and welcome the change. The codex offers balance in war yet was overly weighted one way. Surely splitting a flexible Battle Company 40/30/30 across Battleline, Close Support and Fire Support makes way more sense? Or, can a Captain outfit his battle company literally in any configuration he pleases for a specific engagement or campaign? 

 

Would love to hear your thoughts, brothers.

[jaxom]

I can give a full explanation when I get home from work. This is a special interest of mine.

[firestorm40k]

With my own Ultima Founding Chapter, I'm still working on the 60/20/20 principle of Battle Companies for the miniatures I've been painting. As I paint on squads of 5, 1st-12th Squads are Intercessors or Heavy Intercessors, 13th-16th are Assault Intercessors or Inceptors, and 17th-20th are Hellblasters, Desolation Squads, or Aggressors. 

[jaxom]

4 hours ago, ChapterMasterGodfrey said:

Hello brothers,

 

My current hobby project has got me thinking about the composition of Battle Companies in codex compliant chapters. As we all know, in old lore, a Battle Company was composed of:

• x6 10-man Tactical Squads (Battleline in new money)
• x2 10-man Assault Squads (Close Support in new money)
• x2 10-man Devastator Squads (Fire Support in new money)

 

Following Guilliman's return and the advent of the Primaris Marines, we are told Guilliman revised the codex to allow for up to 20 five-man squads. However, the split between battlefield roles, we're led to believe, has remained the same. But should they and, have they?

 

The 8th edition codex lays out the two big changes to company structures; both stem from a "this is how it should have been read, I'm just clearing things up" explanation from Guilliman to avoid accusations of allowing chapters to be larger than the roughly 1000 battle-brothers everyone understood a Codex chapter to be.

 

1) Squads seconded from reserve companies can be formally attached to a battle company, not just attached to them. For example, a Heavy Support Squad from 9th Company is seconded to the 4th Company; the squad now takes the heraldry of 4th, and is put into the 4th Company's chain of command as Squad 10+n (where n is the number of squads in the 4th Company seconded from reserve companies). These squads are part of their new company, while also not not part of their original reserve company, and .... 

2) .... and reserve companies are meant to be topped off when they fall below 100 battle-brothers to keep a smooth flow of replacements for battle company casualties. Any reserve squad seconded to a battle company should be immediately replaced to keep the reserve company at 100 battle-brothers.

 

See after next quote block for what this means for company structure.

 

At the squad level, there was a similar "this is how it should have been read, I'm just clearing things up." Guilliman (supposedly) never meant to limit battle and reserve companies to only three squad variants (Tactical, Assault, Devastator), but they were (supposedly) the three squad roles he was describing - to be filled as appropriate. The 8th edition codex gives Centurion squad variant as an example of the Devastator role. In this way, a hardliner can point at the Codex Astartes and said, "The 8th Company should be all Assault Squads! Those are Incursor Squads!" and get the answer, "Someone messed up the translation from M31 formal High Gothic to M36 scribe High Gothic! The 8th Company is all Assault role squads! Assault Squads are a squad variant for the Assault role and so are Incursor Squads!"

 

4 hours ago, ChapterMasterGodfrey said:

In the 10th Ed. Blood Angels codex, on the chapter organisation page, it no longer reads "6 battleline squads, 2 Close Support and 2 Fire Support squad" (or words to that affect) as it did. It now basically just reads "Battleline squads, Close Support Squads and Fire Support Squads" (again, or words to that affect). Can we take that to mean that from deployment to deployment, there can be divergences from the traditional 60/20/20 split?
*SNIP*

Surely splitting a flexible Battle Company 40/30/30 across Battleline, Close Support and Fire Support makes way more sense? Or, can a Captain outfit his battle company literally in any configuration he pleases for a specific engagement or campaign? 

 

The formal company structures remain unchanged and provide a minimum distribution for squad types. However, because the battle companies (2-5) theoretically have no upper limit on the squads seconded to them from the reserve companies, they can skew the ratio beyond the minimum. For example, the Ultramarines 2nd Company shortly after Acheran became captain was 7 Battleline/3 Close Support/2 Fire Support (though less than 100 marines, presumably due to casualties).

 

This not to say something like 4/3/3 is not possible. Earlier works about the Codex Astartes state, "some Chapters may organise include more or less Assault and Devastator Squads but never more than the number of Tactical Squads in the Company. It is unclear if that means the total Assault and Devastator squads can never be more, or if any one can never be more.

 

[ChapterMasterGodfrey]

That is very interesting about the seemingly permanent secondment from the reserve companies - even, if I’m understanding correctly, allowing a Battle Company to have 20+ 5 man squads of varying roles.

 

As a Blood Angel though that does leave me with the problem of squad iconography. There are only 20 prescribed squad icons, which are also laid out 12/4/4 in the traditional role split.

 

If I’m understanding correctly though, it sounds like I’d be allowed to do 40/30/30 role split for my Blood Angels second company. After all, any laid out organisation is just for a certain deployment. 
 

Thank you for your help!

[jaxom]

4 hours ago, ChapterMasterGodfrey said:

As a Blood Angel though that does leave me with the problem of squad iconography. There are only 20 prescribed squad icons, which are also laid out 12/4/4 in the traditional role split.

If it were me, I'd use the color combination for squad number and the iconography for type. So if squad 11 is Close Support, I'd use the lightning bolt with black background and yellow icon.

Edited 11 hours ago by jaxom