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First ever post, ho!

I am, at the moment, playing a medium-large Tau Empire army, but I want to try something else as my second army. After looking at Imperial Guard, Necron and several other armies, I landed on the SPESS MAHREENS.

Now, I have the fluff all thought out - They will be a crusading chapter who see their role as defenders of the inoccent and the weak, whereever they might be - They travel around and help out colonies who have problems defending themselves. They do not follow the Codex Astartes, and view the Imperium as rotting and at the brink of destruction. For this reason, they travel the galaxy, saving people, helping them rebuild, and then asking them if they want their culture to have a ship in their fleet (Kinda like Noah and the ark). They assume that they can start a new Imperium in the Emperors honor after the Imperium falls, so the human race won't be completly lost. They rule this fleet with a court of the leaders from all the ships in the fleet, with their own Mechanicum, Imperial Guard regiment and so on. They are seen as enemies of the Imperium, obviously, and might actually attack Imperium Worlds to save civilians from Exterminatus and the like. It is allowed to produce new gear and such in the fleet, so they are generally more advanced than the Imperium.

They prefer planetfall assault, and use a large amount of Assault Marines (I like those). They also use many Drop Pods to get to the surface from the fleet quickly and are mainly a melee force. They even have a small regiment of Chapter Serfs who play the start of the theme (The brass), to signal the people on the planet that their saviours are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdHx_0s-_mQ&list=PL7q8J04HbwN-FSl56NBLhiIS0AJ9tyVNC&index=1

Their colours are ebony white with golden details and red cloth, if any.

But here is the main point - I don't know what chapter they should originate from. I have two thought out, though:

Blood Angels would make them KILLY, and let me have a large amount of Assault Marines, while also giving them some interesting and fitting rules, like the Descend of Angels. On the bad side, I don't feel like the Red Thirst fits the chapter, even less the Black Rage. I also wouldn't be using their awesome Unique characters, and while I could re-fluff the Sanguinary Guard to something else, I wouldn't be able to use the models I adore, like the Vets. Also, I have no need of a flying Dreadnought or Land Raiders with Deep Strike.

The other is the Raven Guard. See, this makes sense, as their fluff describes most of them to be reasonable and defending the peole of the Imperium. they also have some nice buffs to Assault Marines and Scout, but sadly no Troops Assault Marines... Also, the Stealth bonus is yet to useless if I want to use them in close combat, and the stealthy part doesn't fit my chapter at all!

So?

The killy Blood Angels, or the sneaky Raven Guard?

(Also, I don't have a name for them yet, as I don't have their original chapter yet. Celestial Guard, or maybe Descending Angels?)

If Forge World rules are allowed, the Star Phantoms should fit the bill and is similar in colour IIRC.

You can download the rules free from their website.

 The Wise Dane wrote:


The other is the Raven Guard. See, this makes sense, as their fluff describes most of them to be reasonable and defending the peole of the Imperium. they also have some nice buffs to Assault Marines and Scout, but sadly no Troops Assault Marines... Also, the Stealth bonus is yet to useless if I want to use them in close combat, and the stealthy part doesn't fit my chapter at all!

Shadow Captain Korvydae from Imperial Armour 8 makes Assault Marine Troops (or scoring.....don't remember).

Also don't think of the save coming from being stealthy but rather from them assaulting and moving so fast the enemy have a harder time hitting them. Think of it as a homemade special rule called; "Rapid Deployment" that happens to be identical to Stealth.

Steelmage99 wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:


The other is the Raven Guard. See, this makes sense, as their fluff describes most of them to be reasonable and defending the peole of the Imperium. they also have some nice buffs to Assault Marines and Scout, but sadly no Troops Assault Marines... Also, the Stealth bonus is yet to useless if I want to use them in close combat, and the stealthy part doesn't fit my chapter at all!

Shadow Captain Korvydae from Imperial Armour 8 makes Assault Marine Troops (or scoring.....don't remember).

Also don't think of the save coming from being stealthy but rather from them assaulting and moving so fast the enemy have a harder time hitting them. Think of it as a homemade special rule called; "Rapid Deployment" that happens to be identical to Stealth.

I never thought of Stealth that way! "We shall strike the enemy with all haste, and to them appear as a blur, a vision, that deprives them of their prey!"

Also, I have next to no way to get Forge World and other specialist stuff. I also recall you can't use Special Characters in other chapters than their own.

Out of those two, I'd say Raven guard. Then again, the Salamanders also have the whole, "civilian lives are top priority" thing too. A couple of downsides would be that their chapter tactics would look a little weird compared to what you would like and they never had any second founding chapters... or maybe they didn't know about this one.

Also, first post? Well then welcome to Dakka!

SkavenLord wrote:
Out of those two, I'd say Raven guard. Then again, the Salamanders also have the whole, "civilian lives are top priority" thing too. A couple of downsides would be that their chapter tactics would look a little weird compared to what you would like and they never had any second founding chapters... or maybe they didn't know about this one.

Also, first post? Well then welcome to Dakka!

Thank you! I thought of the Salamanders, but I wanted something original...

For my homemade chapter I made 5 companies instead of ten and each company followed a different tactical doctrine from the Codex but kept with the general theme of my army you could do something similar. Since your chapter dose not follow the codex anyway who's to say that they are not diverse in their tactics.

Depending on how big your collection is you can field any type of force you want

But from your description your chapter seem to be a mix of Raven Guard, Black Templar's and Salamanders

Alpha 1 wrote:
For my homemade chapter I made 5 companies instead of ten and each company followed a different tactical doctrine from the Codex but kept with the general theme of my army you could do something similar. Since your chapter dose not follow the codex anyway who's to say that they are not diverse in their tactics.

Depending on how big your collection is you can field any type of force you want

But from your description your chapter seem to be a mix of Raven Guard, Black Templar's and Salamanders

Yes and no. They like the Jump Pack because it gives them the look and abilities of the fabled Angels of old religions, but they are not very tactical - They swoop in from space with Drop Pods and Jump Packs, while the Scouts helps out any Planetary Defence. If the attack isn't stopped there, the fleet's "Imperial Guard" will deploy while the Space Marines keep the forces at bay, and help out the existing defences.

Their idea is to be symbol to the humans they protect, as guardian angels, so their own will to fight might be restored. They want people to defend themselves against any attacker (Including the Imperium), and will stand as protectors of their free will, but believe that these people will recent them at some point, and when that happens, they will retreat and find new mission - properbly rescuing more civilans from the clutches of tyranny and despair elsewhere.

So, yeah and no. I still lack a name, though.

Name suggestion: Arch Angles or simply Legion for we are many

Well when it comes to tactical doctrines look at witch one better suits your fluff really I would suggest kind of Ironing out your army and than choose a tactic or army to base your force on.

Alpha 1 wrote:
Name suggestion: Arch Angles or simply Legion for we are many

Well when it comes to tactical doctrines look at witch one better suits your fluff really I would suggest kind of Ironing out your army and than choose a tactic or army to base your force on.

Thruth is in your words, but I want to build my Chapter up fully around all the different parts of fluff I have available. The gene-seed, tactics, look, behaviour and original chapter have to go into one big whole, if you catch my cold.

Have you written anything? Because with me when I started to write the fluff for my force I found it evolving from what I had originally planned and how they would fit into the 40K universe.
You might find your self going in a different direction than you had originally thought.

It sounds to me like you might want to look at Black Templars, actually.

Crusader Squads are basically Assault Marines without jump packs who get bonuses in single combat (challenges) and can deploy via drop pod.

You could also look at the pre-Badab Astral Claws Chapter Tactics. They get to equip their Tactical Marines with additional Close Combat Weapons, but don't give up access to Librarians to get it.

You don't need to conflate the fluff with the chapter tactics directly - for example, Mantis Warriors are a White Scars successor, but their combat style is more like the Raven Guard's (they get unique Chapter Tactics from forge world).