Company formations and pauldrons

[Rowland]

Guys, 

whilst painting my Exorcist’s and reading up on them I haven’t been paying much attention to what colour the Pauldrons edges and company numbers should be but it seems there’s a lot written about it. I can’t quite work it out. 

So I’m making up my army to 1000 points for example. I’m trying to do it on the cheap (if such a thing exists). So I have a Captain in Terminator armour,  a squad of terminators. An infernus squad .  added to this I have rievers led by a librarian in Phobos armour, a captain leading assault intercessors and a biker chaplain with outriders. 
So it seems that these should all come from various companies and maybe I shouldn’t have two Captains. 
They were all going to be 2nd company with gold lined pauldrons (except the terminators). 
what do you do?

[Dr. Clock]

I chose a Battle Company as the basis of my army (5th), and then anything that fell outside a demi-company (30 battleline, 10 close support, 10 fire support) was brought in from a different Reserve or Veteran company. This way I'll end up with approximately a full company at some point, but with a diverse array of units and colourways. 

 

Reivers will always be 10th Co., but that means they're also not colour-locked. I painted mine with black accents to reflect the Battle Co. they're currently assigned to - I think you're fine to do the same.

 

A note on Assault Intercessors, IMO they make way more sense as Battleline than Close Support. They are Intercessors with different equipment to me, and I've given mine tactical arrows instead of the old fast attack cross. As a Scars successor I'm reserving the close support markings for actual fast movers. 

 

At the end of the day, paint them like you wanna! If your terminators are marked gold because they actually are the 2nd Co. honour guard heirloom suits, that's totally a cool story you can have. If your 2nd 'Captain in Gold' is 'actually a Lt. with jump-pack', again it's just story reason to have it the colour you want it. Do what feels good to you when you paint it.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Rowland]

Thanks Doc,

10th edition doesn’t have an organisational chart.  But since reading your response I googled and It seems that previous issues had some sort of chart which makes it a bit simpler.

I think, because Exorcists and Reivers/scouts are a thing I will take your advice but put them in 10th.  I agree that Assault Intercessors are battleline (I say I agree, but I’m only going off the Army builder in the app).

I have also completely overlooked the squad number, company colour difference.  In all the codex books the images show Company 2 and what looked like II (it could be III or VII) but I assumed the numerals were for company rather than squad, so at least I will have that right going forward.

thanks again.

Rowland.

[Jamafore]

I think I read in one of the recent books, but can't cite this so I could be wrong, that when reserves are added to a force made up around a specific company, in your case the 2nd, they get moved to that company for the duration of the mission/ campaign. So everyone would have the 2nd company pads. That said, it would be a good way to add variety and interest if you kept their original company pads. As for what colors to use, I think I have only seen Exorcists with black rims in official artwork, which I think would be 5th in standard codex colors, but I would also argue for different chapters to use different colors, and the codex does mention changing the different insignia every so often so as to avoid being overly predictable to enemies so paint the rims how you like. 

 

TL/DR - Pick a color, then a number, then it'll work

[Dr. Clock]

7 hours ago, Jamafore said:

moved to that company for the duration of the mission/ campaign.

I think of this as a 'strikeforce assignment' but I don't think it would lead to re-colouring the trim, personally. They'll be integrated to the command structure of the Battle Company strike force and be housed together, and replacements for casualties in the host Battle Company units could indeed be drawn from them, but that's basicaly as a far as it goes in my headcanon. 

 

7 hours ago, Jamafore said:

I have only seen Exorcists with black rims

According to lexicanum there have been different and conflicting suggestions on how company designation works for Exorcists over the years... there's an old reference to helmet striping, for instance, but more recently there was art of one noted from 2nd. Co. with the gold rims.

 

I've likewise always considered that the actual colours for each company may be different chapter to chapter.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Rowland]

All this looking up the Company structure has inspired me to get the Company Heroes pack Capt, standard bearer, champ and 2 vets.  Now if only I had some idea what the 2nd company Exorcist banner looks like…

[Dr. Clock]

Probably just a bunch of REDACTED boxes lol. 

 

Good luck with it - post pics if you have time!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[jaxom]

Chapter structure and heraldry is one of my favorite special topics! There's the first caveat, paint want you want to how you think it looks good. The second caveat is how much do you want effort do you want to put into research. The third caveat is actual lore has a nice loop hole for the second caveat.

 

First thing first: the Codex Astartes is straightforward in recommending Chapters change around their unit markings every once and awhile. Even if you've found 'canon' unit markings, that is not a barrier to doing your own thing. The unit markings with the greatest amount of flexibility are markings for Company and Squad.

 

Company

Company is traditionally indicated by the color of the pauldron rim. Codex-acceptable variations include color of the helmet, a colored helmet stripe, color of the Imperialis/chest design, and color of the left or right kneepad. All examples are for Space Marines of the 2nd Company (Yellow).

   

 

Another Codex-approved method of indicating Company is heraldic field. 

The white area is usually the Company color and the black color is usually the armor color. A Captain will usually have this on their right pauldron; for example, Ultramarine 2nd Company:

 This method is not common for non-officers. When used by non-officers, the field is applied to a kneepad (usually left kneepad).

 

There is also the Codex-approved method of indicating Company by number. This is most common on a kneepad, and may be combined with Company color. Other locations include the shin (rare) and the pauldron.

   

The Doom Eagle (middle) is Company color and number. The Ultramarine pauldrons (right) use the Roman numeral for Squad and Arabic numeral for Company. 

 

Last, the Company indicator is not always included on armor.

 

Squad

Squad is traditionally indicated on the right pauldron. There are numerous ways to indicate the type of squad. The most common are

From left to right: Battleline, Close Support (Assault Intercessors, Outriders, Reivers), and Fire Support (Infernus Squad). The squad number is optional. If included then the order for number squads is: 1-6 Battleline, 7 & 8 Close Support, and 9 & 10 Fire Support. If there are more, then they come from a Reserve Company. Reserve Company squads in the Era Indomitus use the same Company color (2nd Company Yellow in your case) and their number is based on the order they were attached. For example, Reivers can be attached from the 8th Company, and if they're the first squad beyond 10, then their squad number is 11.

Other common indicators exist, like those shown below. 

Simple geometric shapes can be used.

Or even, just squad numbers.

 

Specialists

Chaplains traditionally have black armor. Some Chapters will use their normal color and only have one arm black. Their indicator is the Skull of Humanity [often part of the model].

 

They can indicate the Company they are attached to, but usually do not. The picture above is meant to indicate golden wings on the chest design. 

 

Librarians traditionally have blue armor. Some Chapters will use their normal color and only have one arm blue. Their insignia depends on their rank in the Chapter's Librarius (sub-organization for all the Librarians, tasked with keeping Chapter records and history).

From left-to-right and junior to senior: Lexicanum, Codicier, and Epistolary [usually molded onto molder]. The Phobos Librarian has the Lexicanum indicator as a medallion, on the gloves, on the powerpack, and presumably on the pauldron under the camocloak.

 

Captains

Captains often have the Company's heraldic field backing their own personal heraldry, or will just have their own heraldry on their right pauldron. They may incorporate their heraldry into the Chapter symbol.

They have the greatest leeway in representing their Company allegiance, often multiple times. For example, the Space Marine Captain model has the 2nd Company heraldic field on both right shoulder and right kneepad. Tor Garadon just has the pauldron rims. Cloaks used to an indicator, but not so much anymore.

 

Two honor markings usually seen on a Captain are the Iron Halo (exceptional initiative) and the Silver Skull (exceptional leadership) [this is why Sergeant helmets have the little skull on them, leadership].

 

The Lieutenant decal is a combination of the two. The Terminator Captain has his Iron Halo on it's back thingy, along with the Crux Terminatus which is also common on Captains.

   

Another common honor seen on Captains is the Imperial Laurel (exceptional valor). It's a wreath. Ancients (bearing a Company banner or Chapter banner) always have the Imperial Laurel.

 

I hit my picture upload limit... more in another post.

Edited Wednesday at 10:56 PM by jaxom

[jaxom]

Terminators

Terminator Squads are pretty straightforward. They have the Chapter badge on their right pauldron and the Crux Terminatus on their left pauldron. Leadership is denoted by an elonged bottom point on the Crux Terminatus. Some Chapters will have the helmet be 1st Company White, or another color. Terminator Squads may have squad number on their right pauldron, but this usually only when the 1st Company is acting as a cohesive fighting force. Individual Terminators will often have a variety of honor markings and heraldry painted [or decals] on them.

 

Multiple Captains

This is not unusual on the tabletop. If you do think it's too much, then I recommend demoting the Captain to Lieutenant. First Company Captain observing the command of a Lieutenant, guided by a Chaplain and Librarian has a nice narrative heft. Honestly though, with the vagaries and flow of battle, and how forces are chosen for deployment, two Captains in a single battle space is not uncommon. especially if only one of them is a Battle Company Captain. 

 

I think I covered everything? Ask away, I could talk/type about this stuff all day.