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I am starting a 40k army, and I am fairly new to 40k, I am familiar with the fluff I have been playing fantasy for a about 17 years but never got into the scifi until recent. so my choice for my first 40 k army has come down to either space orks or space marine. and in particular the Minotaur chapter featured in the imperial armor books from forge world. does anyone know any fluff about them. who are they a successor chapter of. I know they are a fleet based chapter, how can I make that into a theme for my army.

The faq with the Minotaur chapter traits from FW has some good info.

Also, the various IA that they appear in gives you piles of nice fluff.

The Minotaurs are from the 21st Founding of Space Marines (the Cursed Founding), and I don't think it's ever been shown whom they are a successor of so you've got plenty of room to work with.

Like PhillyT said, there's some good fluff on them in the IA, especially the ones dealing with The Badab War.

My thoughts (for fluff) for the 21st Founding is that the Imperium attempted to use some preserved gene seed from the pre-Heresy Traitor Legions in some of the Chapters they created, leading to the "Cursed Chapters" that came out of it. I'd suspect the Minotaurs might be a successor of the World Eaters, reflecting the Berserker aggression of their parent chapter.

Also, they appear to have disappeared from Imperial records for a few thousand years, then suddenly returning, well-armed and supplied. Leaves you plenty of room to invent your own explanations of where they went and why, suddenly, they're so well cared for by the Imperium's supply chain. Does someone owe them a favor? Are they the new "War Hounds" for someone in the Imperium's leadership, filling that shock role that the World Eaters were supposed to for the Emperor?

The Minotaurs were almost entirely wiped out in 0266999.M41, losing the vast majority of their fleet assets and their chapter master (although he "got better"). The survivors were then sent back into Orpheus with a mission to exterminatus every planet in the system, so they're probably all dead now.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The Minotaurs were almost entirely wiped out in 0266999.M41, losing the vast majority of their fleet assets and their chapter master (although he "got better"). The survivors were then sent back into Orpheus with a mission to exterminatus every planet in the system, so they're probably all dead now.

... and by "get better" we of course mean "was replaced with a robot."

Orpheus is detailed in an IA book. 12, I think. Could be wrong.

He wasn't replaced with a robot. He was replaced with another Marine, who was mindwiped and psychically conditioned to believe he was Moloc. And I'm fairly certain it wasn't something that hadn't been done before.

IA12 is probably your best source for fluff. The Badab War books do talk about the Minotaurs some, but because of the sheer number of other chapters involved they don't get as much "screen time" in those books. IA12 is all about them. The Minotaurs are also rumored to be the High Lords of Terra's own attack dogs, taking orders directly from the High Lords. They frequently hunt down those chapters of the Adeptus Astartes declared renegade by the High Lords, and are quite proficient at fighting their Space Marine brothers. This makes other chapters very leery of the Minotaurs, if not outright hostile.

Yeah, the new and improved Minotaurs, recovered from or replacing the devastated one, is a pretty awesome little chapter!

The Minotaurs are bullies

They are the go to chapter for when to exterminate another Space Marine chapter; and when they do they loot all the relics and wargear therefore becoming even stronger. They look for any reason to attack another chapter because of this. Though I do admit the fluff on the CM is pretty cool.

But they need inquisitorial or high lord sanction to do it!

The chapter master, in between times when his chapter of beserkers aren't butchering others in glorious close combat, sits on his brazen throne counting the drops of blood spilled by his chapter. Blood for the Blood Marine!

The Minotaurs seem to have the Grey Knight's trust. There was an incident where some Minotaurs and other Imperial forces were trying to contain a Space Hulk, then the Grey Knights came along and sent away everyone else but the Minotaurs.

(they all died when they exploded the Hulk. Despite this, the chapter master showed up again in a few months even though he was thought to have been exploded on the Space Hulk like everyone else)

space marines hunting space marines. I have to say I like the fluff of this chapter

TiamatRoar wrote:
The chapter master, in between times when his chapter of beserkers aren't butchering others in glorious close combat, sits on his brazen throne counting the drops of blood spilled by his chapter. Blood for the Blood Marine!

The Minotaurs seem to have the Grey Knight's trust. There was an incident where some Minotaurs and other Imperial forces were trying to contain a Space Hulk, then the Grey Knights came along and sent away everyone else but the Minotaurs.

(they all died when they exploded the Hulk. Despite this, the chapter master showed up again in a few months even though he was thought to have been exploded on the Space Hulk like everyone else)

Showed up with his 'special" wargear. He may be a robot or he may be something else, but they're not just slapping a new guy in a suit. Something *bad* is going on with him.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

TiamatRoar wrote:
The chapter master, in between times when his chapter of beserkers aren't butchering others in glorious close combat, sits on his brazen throne counting the drops of blood spilled by his chapter. Blood for the Blood Marine!

The Minotaurs seem to have the Grey Knight's trust. There was an incident where some Minotaurs and other Imperial forces were trying to contain a Space Hulk, then the Grey Knights came along and sent away everyone else but the Minotaurs.

(they all died when they exploded the Hulk. Despite this, the chapter master showed up again in a few months even though he was thought to have been exploded on the Space Hulk like everyone else)

Showed up with his 'special" wargear. He may be a robot or he may be something else, but they're not just slapping a new guy in a suit. Something *bad* is going on with him.

I honestly think he might be a Perpetual. You can condition someone, in universe, to believe they're someone else. However, that doesn't mean they would be as awesome in combat.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:

TiamatRoar wrote:
The chapter master, in between times when his chapter of beserkers aren't butchering others in glorious close combat, sits on his brazen throne counting the drops of blood spilled by his chapter. Blood for the Blood Marine!

The Minotaurs seem to have the Grey Knight's trust. There was an incident where some Minotaurs and other Imperial forces were trying to contain a Space Hulk, then the Grey Knights came along and sent away everyone else but the Minotaurs.

(they all died when they exploded the Hulk. Despite this, the chapter master showed up again in a few months even though he was thought to have been exploded on the Space Hulk like everyone else)

Showed up with his 'special" wargear. He may be a robot or he may be something else, but they're not just slapping a new guy in a suit. Something *bad* is going on with him.

I honestly think he might be a Perpetual. You can condition someone, in universe, to believe they're someone else. However, that doesn't mean they would be as awesome in combat.

I'm starting to think everyone in the galaxy is going to be revealed as a Perpetual the way the fluff seems to be going.

They cut the GK perpetual so... naaaaaa.

 alienvalentine wrote:
IA12 is probably your best source for fluff. The Badab War books do talk about the Minotaurs some, but because of the sheer number of other chapters involved they don't get as much "screen time" in those books. IA12 is all about them.

I think that's a bit misleading. They may be the only chapter to get much screentime in IA12 but they really don't get that much. The Minotaurs section of IA10 gives them almost four full pages of pure text. The Minotaurs section in IA12 simply copy-pastes the most important page and a half of that then throws in a two-page writeup of the Peron Cross Incident of which the Minotaur specific info could have been squeezed into a single paragraph (it was well written, but its clear the author was stoked writing about the Night Reapers, the Minotaurs were little more than a footnote.).

 Gashrog wrote:

 alienvalentine wrote:
IA12 is probably your best source for fluff. The Badab War books do talk about the Minotaurs some, but because of the sheer number of other chapters involved they don't get as much "screen time" in those books. IA12 is all about them.

I think that's a bit misleading. They may be the only chapter to get much screentime in IA12 but they really don't get that much. The Minotaurs section of IA10 gives them almost four full pages of pure text. The Minotaurs section in IA12 simply copy-pastes the most important page and a half of that then throws in a two-page writeup of the Peron Cross Incident of which the Minotaur specific info could have been squeezed into a single paragraph (it was well written, but its clear the author was stoked writing about the Night Reapers, the Minotaurs were little more than a footnote.).

I have read some of the IA books and I am really starting to like the fluff. the Badab book was the one that really inspired me to build this chapter, I like how this chapter gets sent to make sure the other chapters stay in line. like a space marine mp.

 Coldstream wrote:
The Minotaurs are from the 21st Founding of Space Marines (the Cursed Founding), and I don't think it's ever been shown whom they are a successor of so you've got plenty of room to work with.

Like PhillyT said, there's some good fluff on them in the IA, especially the ones dealing with The Badab War.

My thoughts (for fluff) for the 21st Founding is that the Imperium attempted to use some preserved gene seed from the pre-Heresy Traitor Legions in some of the Chapters they created, leading to the "Cursed Chapters" that came out of it. I'd suspect the Minotaurs might be a successor of the World Eaters, reflecting the Berserker aggression of their parent chapter.

Also, they appear to have disappeared from Imperial records for a few thousand years, then suddenly returning, well-armed and supplied. Leaves you plenty of room to invent your own explanations of where they went and why, suddenly, they're so well cared for by the Imperium's supply chain. Does someone owe them a favor? Are they the new "War Hounds" for someone in the Imperium's leadership, filling that shock role that the World Eaters were supposed to for the Emperor?

Problem with the "New World Eater" theory is that prior to Angron introducing the Butcher's Nails they weren't really that berserk. Hyperagression wasn't a genetic trait either, as without the Nails Angron wpuldn't be so angry.

 Deadshot wrote:


Problem with the "New World Eater" theory is that prior to Angron introducing the Butcher's Nails they weren't really that berserk. Hyperagression wasn't a genetic trait either, as without the Nails Angron wpuldn't be so angry.

Well FWIW if you read some of the material on the early days of the War Hounds/World Eaters like FW 'Betrayal' they were already pretty aggressive and prone to attacking Imperial forces that happened to be in their way even as the pre-Angron War Hounds. They began to be held back to be used in situations where an extermination was required or desired.

Granted Angron and the Butcher's Nails made it all worse.