Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What exactly is a company do you have to choose one. Do you have to follow the format of the company? and also I have just finished some assault marines and I am not sure what the markings are. Is there an easy way to tell where the marking go and what markings I should use? Thanks guys.

Most of your questions are answered in the codex, you should definitely pick that up.

Ultramarines are pretty strict with their organization, so if you want to be 'fluffy' you'll stick with the codex chapter organization. So, basically a chapter (ultramarines for instance) consists of 10 companies, companies consist of 100 basic marines, staff and support don't count. This is effectively 10 10 man squads per company. Companies 2 through 5 or 6 are 'battle companies that basically contain everything they need to fight on their own most of the time. 1st company is veterans, so stern guard, vanguard, terminators. Battle companies consist of 6 tactical squads, 2 assault squads and 2 devastator squads. Plus company command.

In terms of fielding them, most people stick with one company with veterans from 1st and reserves from 7-9 and scouts from 10th. So, you can field everything from a strait battle company force to a mix of reserve squads and vet/scout detatchments.

For the painting... Just do some searching for ultramarines in the gallery.

Space Marines are divided into chapters, such as the Ultramarines. These chapters are further divided into companies, 1-10. The first company is the veteran company, these are the only marines allowed to wear TDA, and are where the Sternguard and Vanguard squads are drawn from. They have white trim on the shoulder guards.

Companies 2-5 are battle companies, they are composed of 6 tactical squads, 2 assault squads and 2 devastator squads. In the Ultramarines the 2nd company has gold trim, 3rd is red, 4th is green, 5th is black.

6 and 7 are reserve tactical companies, comprising of just 10 tactical squads each. 6th are all trained in bike use, 7th in land speeder use. 6th have orange trim, 7th is purple.

8th is the reserve assault company, 10 assault squads, grey trim.

9th is the reserve devastator company, 10 devastator squads, blue trim.

Each of the above companies also has a Captain, champion, Chaplain, standard and attached Apothecary.

The 10th company are the scout company, only scout squads, Captain and Chaplain. No trim colour.

Oh and assault squads have the 'U' on the left pauldron, and the 'X' made of arrows on the right, with the squad number in roman numerals on the right too. There are variations on this, such as slightly different symbols and what not, but for starters, that's all you need to know. The Sergeant also has a red skull as part of his chapter badge.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
Space Marines are divided into chapters, such as the Ultramarines. These chapters are further divided into companies, 1-10. The first company is the veteran company, these are the only marines allowed to wear TDA, and are where the Sternguard and Vanguard squads are drawn from. They have white trim on the shoulder guards.

Companies 2-5 are battle companies, they are composed of 6 tactical squads, 2 assault squads and 2 devastator squads. In the Ultramarines the 2nd company has gold trim, 3rd is red, 4th is green, 5th is black.

6 and 7 are reserve tactical companies, comprising of just 10 tactical squads each. 6th are all trained in bike use, 7th in land speeder use. 6th have orange trim, 7th is purple.

8th is the reserve assault company, 10 assault squads, grey trim.

9th is the reserve devastator company, 10 devastator squads, blue trim.

Each of the above companies also has a Captain, champion, Chaplain, standard and attached Apothecary.

The 10th company are the scout company, only scout squads, Captain and Chaplain. No trim colour. But do I have to follow the scheme or can I just pick random units and play a game and just say they are 2nd company ultra?

Oh and assault squads have the 'U' on the left pauldron, and the 'X' made of arrows on the right, with the squad number in roman numerals on the right too. There are variations on this, such as slightly different symbols and what not, but for starters, that's all you need to know. The Sergeant also has a red skull as part of his chapter badge.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

kadenrosenblatt wrote:

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
Space Marines are divided into chapters, such as the Ultramarines. These chapters are further divided into companies, 1-10. The first company is the veteran company, these are the only marines allowed to wear TDA, and are where the Sternguard and Vanguard squads are drawn from. They have white trim on the shoulder guards.

Companies 2-5 are battle companies, they are composed of 6 tactical squads, 2 assault squads and 2 devastator squads. In the Ultramarines the 2nd company has gold trim, 3rd is red, 4th is green, 5th is black.

6 and 7 are reserve tactical companies, comprising of just 10 tactical squads each. 6th are all trained in bike use, 7th in land speeder use. 6th have orange trim, 7th is purple.

8th is the reserve assault company, 10 assault squads, grey trim.

9th is the reserve devastator company, 10 devastator squads, blue trim.

Each of the above companies also has a Captain, champion, Chaplain, standard and attached Apothecary.

The 10th company are the scout company, only scout squads, Captain and Chaplain. No trim colour. But do I have to follow the scheme or can I just pick random units and play a game and just say they are 2nd company ultra?

Oh and assault squads have the 'U' on the left pauldron, and the 'X' made of arrows on the right, with the squad number in roman numerals on the right too. There are variations on this, such as slightly different symbols and what not, but for starters, that's all you need to know. The Sergeant also has a red skull as part of his chapter badge.

But can I just have random units and just say there 2nd company ultras? Or do I have to follow the company organisation. Also that is way too many points for an army.

It's your army, do whatever you want. If you want to keep it fluffy though, each company is as listed above. If you want more of a certain unit, do it from another company.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
It's your army, do whatever you want. If you want to keep it fluffy though, each company is as listed above. If you want more of a certain unit, do it from another company.

I have seen people play games as ultras and its not in any sort of format. I am thinking of not doing a company but I am not sure what I would put on the shoulder pads. Should I just pretend my army is second company, but the format is way off?

There is no rule saying you have to play as a strict battle company, with units selected accordingly.
A force being deployed might well contain units plucked from several companies within a chapter;

for example you might have a Librarian and a command squad from the 1st company leading, with a tactical squad from 4th company and a scout squad from 10th
Units from the reserve companies would likely fill in for units with men down.

So you can still be fluffy, and have a mix of units from each company. But to remain fluffy you would want to get the shoulder trims right for the company, and any other markings they use to distinguish them.
Alas it doesnt *really* matter, its all upto you and what you want to work towards

further more you might get units from successor chapter working with each other within the same force... effectively on loan if you like. This might be considered a bit naughty, as the chapter layout was introduced post heresy to avoid the problem of one legion becoming too powerful in its own right, the answer was to break down the legions into chapters, some of which retain strong ties to their legion mates. With Ultramarines this might be a bit less so as theyre the goody goody kind of chapter that adhere to the rules within the codex astares and all that.
Dark Angels on the otherhand supposedly hold meetings within the rock between the chapter masters and high ranking members of all the successors, a group known as the Inner Circle working towards the secretive goal that only those present truely know.
So the scope is pretty vast to use your imagination a little, Even with the Ultra's in the recent computer game 'Space Marine' they had the commander (the player character) throw the codex astartes guidlines out of the window within the first 30 seconds of the game.

could I just paint my WHOLE army with 2nd company style? no matter what the unit, or is that illegal?

kadenrosenblatt wrote:
could I just paint my WHOLE army with 2nd company style? no matter what the unit, or is that illegal?

Absolutely. It's your army. There is no rule on how you paint it, even if you're doing a specific chapter.

Its what I did, everything that I had that wasnt sternguard, Terminators or vanguard or Scouts, I painted them up as the 2nd company (gold shoulder pads trims), even some of my bikes that i owned. This includes my assault squad which are painted as the second company.

Generally your veterans (those in terminator armour and sternguard or vanguards) need to have white trimmings so that they are distinguishable as veterans on the table, but if you want to go gold trimmings instead go for it, I started out doing it onto my termi's helmets and things because I was afraid of painting white.

There's no requirement in the rulebook as to how you have to paint your models. If you really wanted to they could be pink with flowers.

If you're trying to stick to the background material though and want to theme your army around something from the background then you'll want to be more selective.

Let's say you want to collect the Ultramarines Second Company. The units in your army that would be drawn from the Second Company (The captain, the tactical squads, the assault squads etc) would be painted in the heraldry of the Second Company. Other units in your army would be painted in the heraldry matching their respective company. Terminators would be painted in the 1st Company's heraldry for example.

You could paint every unit coming from a different Company, explaining in your fluff this is an army drawn from multiple companies. You could even have multiple Chapter colour schemes in your army.

Buy the Space Marine Codex. It has the rules for you to play as well as all the background information and company heraldry and so on.

You are of course free to come up with your own chapter and colour scheme or use any of the existing ones.