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I have this image swirling in my head now. Imagine a Cardinal World, a city that is a mix between center-European Gothic and Venetian architecture. This city has plenty of mighty towers. For example a Librarium, a building full of sacred tomes, where scholars discuss the nature of the Emperor on a daily basis and also dabble in other theological subjects, while scientists research their work or members of the military come to educate themselves on certain things. Other towers have astronomical relevance, they predict things like movement of celestial bodies, coordinate fleets, track warp storms and manage other things in space. Giant cathedrals can be seen here of there and tribunal towers where the necessary acts of judgement must be done in order to keep heresies from spreading. Orbital elevators that function with the help of gravity tethers can be seen moving between the planet, space stations or large ships. Some places can not be reached by usual means. Imagine at the top of a building is a door. It opens outside and a small bridge extends. It seems to lead nowhere, but then an Arcane Portal opens. A flickering field of energy, surrounded by circles with engraved holy symbols and texts.
A big trading hub has developed in this sector and gave this planet wealth unimaginable. Holy sites are scattered across the world and are visited by pilgrims from across the Imperium.

That is the world I am picturing. Maybe some Inquisitors have their base of operations there. Scholars arguing in massive halls. Archways that are being held up by statues of angels. Knowledge, wealth and faith combined into a jewel of the Imperium of Man.

A holy order is based here. They have the rulership over the sector and the planet in collaboration with the Ecclesiarchy and the elected planetary government. What was once a Knight House and the Fraternis Templar are now combined into a holy force of knights after Vandire's Reign of Blood.

Their Chapter House is located on this very planet. Access to it is only allowed on special occasions. Amidst their hallways there are statues of heroes and angels, but there are also sinister dealings deep down in the catacombs. Daemons are being captured, bound and questioned for information. Heretics are being apprehended. Only the most dedicated and faithful minds can live up to some of those tasks, but no price is too high to save mankind from the ruinous powers.

Do you get the picture? While I usually play UM, I feel a simple Ultramarine army does not do it justice in terms of unit composition. It seems too simple to just put a few Tacs, Scouts and TFC on the board. I am aiming for one primary army, one auxiliary and a Knight Detachment. Usually there will be two of three factions on the board, something all three.

What army composition do you think could do this vision justice? Cheers

It could be a Space Marine Chapter with ties to the Inquisition. It could be Sisters of Battle. It could be Inquisitorial assets, like Storm Troopers. It could be all of those things.

SoB, GK or a successor SM chapter

Why not an Imperial Guard regiment recruited from the world, with an Inquisition detachment for allies?

I really like the concept of this world, by the way!

Inquisition, or play human models with harlequin/eldar rules.

Have you looked at the D-99 Regiment? They're Ordo Xenos and their rules reflect that, but they have some other good rules in there that might might fit the 'anything goes' mentality you seem to want this world to have.

The way I imagine that holy order, without attaching rules to them, would be an elite core that consists of the higher ranked members, who would have access to archeotech (given that they were originally a Knight House, they will have their own fair share of blueprints). For example movement-enhancing exo-skeletons, amongst other things. The forced surrounding said core would be more numerous and thus more expendable. They still have higher than average training and equipment, but not to be compared with the elite core. And then there are the obligatory Knight Titans.

If you imagine a 11th/12th Century Crusader army, you have your well equipped and trained Templar Knights, either on foot or mounted, and the Marshall of the Templars leading an army of sergeants, militia or even just religious fanatics. Basically a triangle-shaped hierarchy. The further you get down, the more numerous they get.

Edit: By the way, here is a good image of how the world might look (or at least one part of it).
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QJKc2RX_AAE/VAYt8-gmC3I/AAAAAAAAIDQ/4z8nQq4DCFk/s1600/DarkHeresy_ShrineWorld_MarkMolnar.jpg

Gonna have to be Sisters of Battle (the world is ruled by the Ecclisiarchy) and a Space Marine chapter allied directly with the Inquisition.

 Signet-Powers wrote:
Gonna have to be Sisters of Battle (the world is ruled by the Ecclisiarchy) and a Space Marine chapter allied directly with the Inquisition.

The SoB would probably not be thrilled if they heard about the dark deals and daemon summonings though. A good chance for the leadership of the world to be purged by fire. :-)

Well, this is less about what faction it is and more about the rule set. The faction is set in stone as a merger between the Frateris Templar and a Knight House after the Reign of Blood, when the Ecclesiarchy was forbidden to have men at arms and the Knight House took them under their wing so to speak. Long story, but we are looking at faithful humans with varying degree of tech to justify T4/T5 if SM rules are chosen.

The choice of rules is more interesting. What will I represent? The top echelons of the Order? The regular troops under command of the Order? With or without civilian characters on the board? A lot of factors. I wonder, which one would be the most realistic given the factors above and point limitations in regular 40k games.

could even be a Guard regiment. guard goes good with anything

That's a great concept by the way, absolutely love it. Like others have said, sister of battle would be ideal, or a marine chapter like the Grey Knights or similar. A guard regiment with strong links to the inquisition could work too.

I would suggest for Space marines that it could be the Red Hunters.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Hunters

Heavily connected with the Inquisition.

Spetulhu wrote:

 Signet-Powers wrote:
Gonna have to be Sisters of Battle (the world is ruled by the Ecclisiarchy) and a Space Marine chapter allied directly with the Inquisition.

The SoB would probably not be thrilled if they heard about the dark deals and daemon summonings though. A good chance for the leadership of the world to be purged by fire. :-)

True but only if they find out. The Sisters are ultimately a private military police force funded by the Ecclisiarchy, who'll be funded by sponsors and lobbyists, in this case the Holy order. If they don't want the sisters looking in the places they're keeping daemons those sisters probably ain't looking in those places.

Well, those true names are not going to write down themselves. Someone's got to do the dirty work to toss those buggers back into the warp

I would definitely look at using Sisters rules - humans, but with power armour and heavier weaponry than Guardsmen might have.

Supporting them with D-99 is a good move - a city full of towers and spires is just begging for aerial insertions in full riot gear.

You could definitely use guard for the for you more run of the mill troops. I could also see Admech filling some of the roles especially skitarii as elites, ironstriders as metioned calvary, ruststalkers as melee zealots and the doctrinas lend themselves well to "divine guidance" or a zealous frenzy.

You could also use Kastelans as sort of mini knight suits?

I have tried AdMech. While they worked out fine, I disliked that there was no individuality in the units. No big choppy HQ, no Command Squad. While it hits the AdMech feel right on the nose, it fails to represent the order.

Quite a few people have recommended using SM. This would mean that I would focus on representing the higher ranks and the heart of the order (well, basically just the order) while leaving the masses off-screen. The gaming narrative would focus on the performance of the order within a larger army that consists of auxiliary troops, screaming fanatics and others.

I could ally in some IG (Vets with Tauroxes as lower ranked support, Conscripts as fanatics), but this would give me less points to flesh out the order itself. Worth it?

Finally, SoB come in second in terms of recommendations. Using male models would basically turn them into the Frateris Templar. The army also has plenty of auxiliary options and the option to model a saint. However, their unit selection is a bit limited. I suppose I could use the same models for SM and SoB though. Still, I think it ultimately will come down to a SM faction (probably DA) or SoB as primary faction.

Thoughts?

I feel sisters of battle would be your best bet, although that could be personal bias. But a lot if the models- especially the vehicles beautifully reflect this world. DA have some great aesthetics what with flyers and landspeeders practically looking like mobile cathedrals, combining SOB and DA would give a nice aesthetic appearance, maybe even throw in some inquisition as well- Karamazov in that gorgeous Gothic chair comes to mind.
I know that this isn't all that helpful for the rules side, but you've got such a beautiful world description I'd hate to see it sullied with filthy vanilla marines...

I agree with that sentiment. C:SM is a bit too bland and generic for that.
While I consider DA inferior to SM the way I like to make my army, their units, converted or not, bring a lot of flavour to the board.

However, consider this: I can easily spice up UM to fit that image.
For scouts, I would use Scion bodies with either Skitarii Vanguard or just generic human heads.
Tacs would receive Templar-esque plate armour. I would combine SM limbs with Chaos Warrior armour and Bretonian Knight helmets (without the feathers).
Sternguard would need to be a step further up. They would get armour that reflects the appearance of angels in 40k (as depicted in Talon or Horus... and now in AoS as well, what a coincidence). I will be using Sanguinary Guard sets and add tabard and robes to them. The Command Squad on bikes would look the same, but mounted on Demigryphs.
The Chapter Master, who would be a living saint in the fluff, will be that Lord-Celestant guy from the AoS box.
Thunderfire Cannons can also receive a major gothic/venetian touch. Maybe make them into mobile shrines that fire holy promethium.

That... actually didn't sound half bad

But SM also have the drawback that their 'elite-ish' units are not as impressive and useful compared to the generic versions. DA does those elite-ish units better.

If you were to use IG then make it a specialist rule set like the Death Korps of Krieg.

But otherwise SoB all the way

I love this setting and this planet. Very nice!

I would imagine that you would use a few sources. Space Marines or Grey knights to represent the holy order. Inquisitor Karamazov comes to mind with this planet.

So you would just need an Inquisitor and/or Karamazov, a couple terminator units and a DreadKnight (exoskeleton)

Then, for troops you could either run the Codex: Inquisition book for acolytes or assassins or even crusaders.
Or you can do Scions or Imperial Guard for the masses and the fanatics.

But honestly I think Codex: Inquisition and Grey knights will fit your purposes just fine. They have priests and fanatics in there, as well as daemonhosts.

If you want to use the sanguinary guard models you can use them as the Grey Knight Interceptors.

Though a big conscript blob made out of those Fantasy Empire fanatic guys would probably look sweet. Either way, GK + INQ has crossed my mind. The only issue is that I do not really see a point in using PAGK over TDA in terms of rules, but I definitely prefer PAGK in terms of looks.

But I will look into possible combinations of GK, INQ and maybe IG. As of right now, I am gravitating more towards UM or DA.

GK are a bad idea, any group of psychics that large outside the control of the AAT is just a daemonic incursion waiting to happen.

Imperial Guard Regiment (from the planet) primary detachment.

Space Marine or Sisters of Battle ally detachment.

Knight detachment.

Inquisitorial detachment.

Right now, I think I will go with Dark Angels. They have nice modelling opportunities, flying and hovering chapels, plenty of knightly stuff.

GK would be second, but I can not for the life of me, make a list that I would like and that would hold up against today's Meta.