Wednesday 6 July 2011

Creating a Space Marine Chapter - not as easy as it sounds!


So I thought I had difficulty deciding which Space Marine Chapter to use from the Space Marine Codex!!

Making up your own is even harder. Where to start, coming up with a name first or colour scheme, how about fluff or tactics or background????????????? jeez man this is not so easy, especially for someone like myself with such limited knowledge of the 40k Universe.

Anyhow, got to start somewhere so I began scribbling down thoughts and ideas as they came to me.



The first idea I had was to have a 'Death from Above' type army, Raven Guard style. I like the Screaming Eagles (101st Airborne) of WW2, parachuting in over hostile ground, outnumbered and outgunned but getting the job done none the less. Their emblem was also pretty cool, an Eagle (very 40k). Now to come up with a name that would encapsulate all this, how about..........

                            'The Avenging Eagles'
                                            (it sounded pretty good at the time)

Further to the idea was to have the chapter divided into 3 companies instead of the 10 standard ones as per the Codex Astartes. The 3rd Company is made up of the recon element (Scouts) and called the 'Eagles Eyes'. The 2nd Company is made up of the mobility element (All Vehicles)  and called the 'Eagles Wings'. The 1st Company is made up of the assault element (All fighting troops) called the 'Eagles Talons'. How it works is as follows, imagine an eagle soaring high in the sky using its Eyes to locate its prey, once located it swoops down for the kill using its Wings and finally crunch!! it sinks its Talons into the poor helpless target and game over. That is the combat doctrine I wanted my chapter to utilize. (Laugh here..)


Now how did these guys originate? well same as everybody else' s home made chapter I came across out there in the web (lol), they are a successor chapter of one of the existing chapters, in my case the Raven Guard. Talk about originality!

The fluff went like this, Raven Guard engaged in brutal war with????????? taking heavy losses and regrouping (you've heard this all before, I know). An unusually brave company captain/sergeant????? calls for volunteers, a suicide mission, from the remaining depleted forces to re-engage the foe and 'Avenge' their fallen brothers. Needless to say the suicidal mission is successful in taking out the enemies command structure and forcing them to retreat giving the Marines the day. This battle is known as 'The Battle of  Blood River' due to the nearby river turning red from all the carnage. The Emperor notices this hero and favours him with the creation of a new chapter named in honour of his victory. The captain????? and said surviving volunteers claim the planet???????? as their new 'home world', change their armour to commemorate their fallen brothers and so a new chapter begins.....???


This is still a WIP before anybody gets to excited!

Don't know if all this is feasible, I'm sure you guys will tell me if its not, in the 40k universe but that was the fluff I came up with. If you have any great ideas about what to fill in the ???????? with and how to make it conform to the 40k lore then please let me know.  

So where does the Order of Navaar come into it? (if you looked at my last post) keep reading my series to find out.

Vitor


PS : Next post  -  Order of Navaar colour scheme.


5 comments:

  1. Great ideas man, I'm not brave enough to try and come up with my own stuff, instead I picked a little known chapter and will start that instead.

    I wish you luck and will watch this unfold.

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  2. I like it, original and fresh.

    Only a couple things, and this is more about the general 40k fluff already established, which is meant to be encouraging.

    The battle companies of a chapter are typically broken down into 10, 100 man companies (some of course also are dedicated as reserve, scouts, vehicular etc), so for your purposed 3 companies, I think it should be mentioned that the numbers of each company is exceedingly higher than the 100. Primary reason being that, although marines are hardy, 100 would not live very long - especially in suicide missions. So, I think just touching on the actual numbers would be good to help flesh it out.

    It's a little early right now, but if I recall right, the emperor wasn't really 'around' for the second founding - he would have been interred into the golden throne. But you could make the chapter start sometime during the Horus Heresy, and *insert your established suicide mission, blood river battle*, with which when the second foundings began, these brothers were recognized and given a chapter all their own.

    Now from a gameplay standpoint, I would suggest using the Blood Angels codex because you get access to a lot of fast attack choices as troops. The only downside would be having to live with the blood angels curse, but you can always rename it something to work with your established story line.

    I'm excited to see how this all comes together!

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  3. Hey, Really good, but one small point.

    As I remember, the Emperor was dead and on the Golden Throne by the time the space marine legions split up so you might want to tweak the backstory to have the chapter master of the Raven Guard do it or something.

    Otherwise excellent!

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  4. Great stuff! To fill the ????? you could find a name generator on google and click it till smthg you like comes up or another thing you could do at least for the home world is find a list of named planets and use one you like the sound.

    An alternative is to use a latin word and twist it slightly, for example I am planning to call my Imperial planet Sanctia Prime if that gives you any ideas.

    I really like the 'eagle' idea!

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  5. I think I might go with Dalchene as the Planet name, what do you guys think?

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