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I have purchased assault on black reach a while ago and some boyz i finished asembling all my orcs and its on to the space marines. I have multiple questions for you my fellow Dakkadians (not quite sure what we are to call ourselves) MUST BE USEABLE WITH THE SPACE MARINE CODEX (not space wolves, blood angels, grey knights, or black templar.)

1.) What chapter should I be (it can be an Official one, It can be one you have made up and are/have been using, or yu can make one up right here and now. If it is either of the last two answer the following questions if not post your answer)

2.) What is the color scheme, pattern, and other things of the like (designs, artistic features etc.)

3.) What is the symbol? (the thing on the left shoulder pad that identifies the chapter)

4.) Why should I use this chapter?

5.) Did you make this up here and now or is it a custom one you use/have been using? If the later please link me to a post/thread about said chapter or army that is that chapter (photos would be great)

Please get anyone and everyone you know that knows about space marines and/or chapters to this thread because i value everyone of your opinions!

NOTE: This is my first Space Marine army so simplicity helps!!!

What do you want/like? It sounds like you have already picked codex marines, which is fine. Do any of the special characters call out to you? They all can work. What colors do you like? How good a painter are you?

If you don't want to free hand every chapter symbol, pick an established chapter. This will let you use transfers and sculpted shoulder pads.

Do you like bikes? White Scars
Do you like hit-and-run fast reaction? Raven Guard
Stubborn gunlines and siege warfare? Imperial fists
Stubborn elite troops, struggling to rebuild? Crimson Fists.
Flexible all-around marines with a dash of roman hubris? Ultramarines
Burning and fiery death? Salamanders

There are so many different ways you can go. It's entirely a personal preference thing. I'd read the codex and the rulebook, and see what jumps out at you.

 Nevelon wrote:
What do you want/like? It sounds like you have already picked codex marines, which is fine. Do any of the special characters call out to you? They all can work. What colors do you like? How good a painter are you?

If you don't want to free hand every chapter symbol, pick an established chapter. This will let you use transfers and sculpted shoulder pads.

There are so many different ways you can go. It's entirely a personal preference thing. I'd read the codex and the rulebook, and see what jumps out at you.

I kinda personally like he crimson fists but I'm doing thins to get ideas, inspiration, and connect with other people on the forums.

Don't go with crimson fists. The first marine army I started yonks ago was Crimson fists, never finished it. The more recent one I got all nostalgic and though Crimson fists and never finished that either. They (marines generally) are boring to paint.

If you want a challenge get a print from the "Compendium" book from the mid 90s showing the colour schemes from the loayal and traitor chapters. The red scorpions (naff old colour scheme for the basic chapter) had a colour scheme for a particular campaign which was some awesome spikey red bits over black armour.

Red and Yellow (and white) are difficult to paint as the pigment is quite thin and it take lots of coats.

The thing to do is a build a army around a special character to take maximum advantages of the special abilities available. A list with Vulcan with little or no meltaguns, thunderhammers or flamers isn't very useful, but one built to have lots of them is tight. Cantor with lots of sternguard is good, though my Ravenguard is starting to feel dated. They were built around a infiltrating, fleet jump pack squad that could assault first turn, but since 6th ed they cannot. oh well, now shrike just gets 10 Assault terminators that much closer to the enemy!

Go Soul Drinkers! Lol they were the first basic marines I had. Most have since been repurposed into Deathcompany at this point. And even more of em are about to BA.

I like the Ravenguard but a true fluffy army for them can be quite difficult to play.

White Scars have gotten better now with the new bike rules. But white can sometimes be a pain to paint.

I suppose it comes down to what color you like to paint. Honestly I think that is why I haven't quite settled down with an army yet. It takes a while to find a color you like painting in. Once you do you can plan around that.

I havnt painted any thing yet but I'll be sure to check out the red scorpions and soul drinkers. I was thinking about a fallen angels chapter with black grey and white as the main colors (don't know if that name already is a real chapter though) with tad bits of other colors on different units representing their corresponding 7 deadly sin (wrath, pride, sloth, greed, lust, envy, and gluttony) like assault would be wrath (red) HQ=pride (silver) terminators=lust (cause they want all the combat, gold) and so on. Any comments?

well, as bad as this sound, go with what you feel haha.

You can never go wrong with the ultra marines they are pretty rocksolid and pretty cool fluff and lots of it. they are fairly simple to paint but you you really get into it you can do some amazing stuff with just blue haha.

Side note i feel like this should be moved into general

I'm a Codex Marines guy, and I decided to do my own chapter. I figured that since I was doing all the painting and modelling already, it might as well be on a chapter of my own invention.

I looked on Lexicanum for a chapter name (so it would be somewhat "official"). They have a list of loyal marine chapters there, some have colors and iconography and others do not.

I took one that did not so I could make my own. You might have fun looking on there for something that looks right to you, or it may inspire a scheme of your own invention. Also, if you make up your own scheme, it can be as simple or complex as you like. I started simple with mine (it was my first SM army), but by the end, I was doing more complex detailing than I did at the start.

Main thing is that you have to really enjoy painting the color scheme, since all of your marines will have it (that's true even if you use one right from the codex). You might also think about the detailing you want to do; that's where the really creative part came in for me. I varied the helmet painting and shoulder pad schemes to distinguish between different types of units and to denote rank/status in the chapter.

NoobWarGaming wrote:
I havnt painted any thing yet but I'll be sure to check out the red scorpions and soul drinkers. I was thinking about a fallen angels chapter with black grey and white as the main colors (don't know if that name already is a real chapter though) with tad bits of other colors on different units representing their corresponding 7 deadly sin (wrath, pride, sloth, greed, lust, envy, and gluttony) like assault would be wrath (red) HQ=pride (silver) terminators=lust (cause they want all the combat, gold) and so on. Any comments?

Fallen Angels, is usually a reference to Dark Angels that fell to the powers of Chaos during the Heresy era. So it would probably be best to use something else. And the whole idea sounds to me like it would better fit Chaos Space Marines, instead of a loyal chapter.

I'd say create your own
If you would want (ofcourse you do!) you can join my awesome marine chapter, the void claws
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/488336.page

Howling Griffons they just look cool.