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Love the lore behind the Storm Wardens. Thinking of running them as White Scars:
1. for access to storm-based psychic powers, and
2. Fluff wise they lost their founding chapter, but with stable gene-seed, tribal recruiting method and hunt of special characters/enemies I think there's a strong argument for them being a White Scars successor.

Otherwise custom chapter tactics using Whirlwind of Rage (all round assault phase buffs) and Scions of the Forge in-game. Maybe Born Heroes or Duelist over Whirlwind would be slightly more fluffy by name only, but I think a general army-wide buff to assault fits the theme of claymore wielding tribesmen where the Wardens draw their recruits from. As for Scions, I feel it captures their close ties to the Mechanicum.

I also wanted to go with a full-Primaris Company:
1. I like the models. A lot.
2. The Wardens have been decimated on multiple occasions, quite an issue when your zealously guard your home-world by blowing up anyone who accidently comes near, devote 3 3. whole companies to the Jericho Reach's Achilus Crusade and skirmish in the Halo Stars, some chapter reinforcement would be required.
The Wardens also have close ties to the Inquisition - who I believe may have some pull on who/how/where Primaris are divided out to.

Anywhere, here's my head-cannon Company disposition. Although I am unsure if the Command Staff portion counts toward the 100 marine-per-company limit?

Happy for critiques as well, please.

(Hope the image is not too blurry, or should have posted 40K background.)

Its 100 Rank and File Marines - not counting the Company/Chapter Command i.e. 10x10 squads:

6x10 Tacs
2x10 Assaults
2x10 Devs
10x10 Marines.

100 men is the line strength, not including command. Troopers should the a 60/20/20 split for a classic battle company. This is from the Codex, but minor deviations for tradtion and tactical considerations may be tolerated. I’d have to check with the latest codex, as it’s something they sometimes shuffle around, but chaplains are part of the company, not just attached, while techmarines are the other way around.

Captain
Chaplain
2x Lieutenants
Apothecary
Ancient
Champion
(company vets for command squad)
a few dreads (3 is a good number)

From a TOE POV, I like to see 10 man squads whenever possible. As a practical consideration I always have a second in command in the back half the the squad who could serve as a sarge when combat squadded. Sometimes painted/modeled as a full sarge, other times just a notable trooper. All the 3 man squads make it hard for primaris. I’m going with 1x10 man squad and 3x3 man squads for the FA/HS parts of my company. When I was first putting together my firstborn company I did something similar, with one squad of assault marines and then another of bikes and speeders. But as I got more troops the extras got shuffled off to the swap shelf and formal deployment settled down to 2x10. It was implied that when the bikes were on the field it one one of the AM squads swapping their jump packs for wheels for the battle. I would make it more clear on your chart what the “shelf/official” deployment is and what’s on the swap shelf. Listing the bikes and stuff down in the company armory section is good. They probably shouldn’t also be duplicated in the troop section.

Until they give us better rules for a primaris company champion, I’m having the Judicair fill that role in my company. Kitbashing some company vets is also on my to-do list. As an Ultramarine, I have the option to go with the Victrix Honor Guard for rules. BGVs will do in a pinch.

Suppressors are technically a HS pick, not FA. (page 16 of the codex). They are a unit on the edge, so I could see them be swapped in some chapters.

I personally don’t like phobos units in my line company. I keep them over in the 10th. YMMV. With the number of them on your roster, make sure one of your command staff is geared to join them (probably a Lt.)

100 men is the line strength, not including command.

Thanks that makes sense, nearly all the charts and such show command elements separate. Time to do some adjusting.

chaplains are part of the company, not just attached, while techmarines are the other way around.

Fair enough, I can shuffle the Chaplain's into the Company Command. Is it conceivable to have a Reclusiarch, Chaplain and Judiciar in the command? My line of thought was the Reclusiarch, second only to the Master (Captain), is for the command element, with the Chaplain deploying alongside a Warden (Lieutenant) with a larger portion of a demi-company and the Judiciar understudying as necessary. Also easy enough to move the Techmarine's out to being seconded from the overall Chapter Command. I might bump up their numbers a bit more seeing as the 4th is Master of the Fleet, ships need maintaining.

Question on Apothecary's, would a Company generally only have the one Company Command organisation? And if yes, would there usually be more added from Chapter Command? One just seems pretty small.

From a TOE POV, I like to see 10 man squads whenever possible. As a practical consideration I always have a second in command in the back half the the squad who could serve as a sarge when combat squadded. Sometimes painted/modeled as a full sarge, other times just a notable trooper.

I've read somewhere the concept of a demi-sergeant, can't remember where. This makes sense to me, sort of a corporal. The idea I was going to use for helmet colours is below. I suppose I could make the sergeant have a full lilac helmet with the demi-sergeant a stripe. This structure does keep in line with the more common UK/Ireland structure. I think my decision here was influenced by how I'd mainly field them on the table.

Suppressors are technically a HS pick, not FA.

I was going by Close Support/Fire Support as opposed the the FA/HS. Like how Aggressors are considered Fire Support (even though I'd want them close-assaulting) but occupy an Elites on the FOC. I might need to dust up on what I know though.

I personally don’t like phobos units in my line company. I keep them over in the 10th.

It's another idea I've toyed with. I do like Incursors and Infiltrators as troops both in fluff and on the tabletop. If I factored in some 10th I might move the Eliminators into there as well. I'm just worried about "bloating" the Company with outside support elements. I know that largely, reserves will go where needed, if this wouldn't bloat it. I would probably run a Librarian in Phobos or bring in a 10th Company LEUT.

I really appreciate all the feedback and points you've given, they've been great!

Building a Primaris company is a little bit funky compared to a Firstborn company and it's been highlighted by Nev with the structure of 3-man primaris squads making it annoying to collect 10-man squads. The structure of 2x Close Support, 2x Fire Support has led to a few issues of my own, as I have more than 2x of he respective support squads (but not full 10-man!).

I've ended up painting extra units in different company colours but does affect the overall "look" of the army. Vanguard marines make this worse too unfortunately and now my 5th company is more 5th company and friends.

There are exactly one regular chaplain and one apothecary in each company’s colors. Think of them as the HR and medical officers needed to maintain each lot of 100 line marines. Other chaplains and apothecaries are chapter HQ.

I don’t think storm wardens use different company trim colors so it’s not that important

The insignia for a Squad Leader (the second or corporal) is a red iron halo painted on the armour. See this picture for its use in primaris

https://i.redd.it/4yu396ngla961.jpg

The only members of a company in excess of the 100 are the officers you’ve already covered including the standard bearer. Company veterans are squaddies who can be used as a command squad on an ad hoc basis, in fact you should paint a couple of your regular squad members with veteran markings to show the ones who are eligible for command squad duties but doing their primary jobs atm.

In fact since Indomitus everything is ad hoc. A company can have more than ten sergeants because of all the small squads, or some small squads can be temporary and led by squad leaders. Of course in third edition a standard company had ten sergeants and five veteran sergeants, a separate rank, so having many sergeants is traditional.

The 2018 codex gives the example of brother pollandus. He fights rotations in Phobos armour in all three reserve companies he passes through, crews a repulsor as part of a battle line role, and makes sergeant at the same time as he’s formally assigned to a battle company.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
107 marines can take a long time to paint. Probably not necessary to pin down everything right away. GW now explicitly says that first and reserve company sometimes re-paint their trim to match the battle company they’re attached to, so you don’t have to worry about having too many marines of one type.

Before this fell too far off the top on the page I wanted to add another datapoint on constructing Primaris battle companies with my plan.

Ultramarines 3rd Company (take 2, I already built them as a firstborn company)

I don’t have a nice graphic of how things are laid out. Just a sheet of paper with a bunch of circles which get crossed off and filled in as things for from built/primed/painted.

1 Captain done- alt
1 Chaplain done
1 Judicair (filling the role of company champion) done
1 Apothecary done
2 Lieutenants done
1 Ancient done
(probably 2 bodyguard vets)
(not sure if I’ll get fresh redemptor dreads, or just attach some older models to help guide the new boys, need 2-3)

Battleline:
10 intercessors, bolt rifles - front done back 5 to build
10 intercessors, bolt rifles - front 5 done, need pic, back 5 need to buy
10 intercessors, autobolt rifles - done front-back
10 intercessors, 5 bolt rifles, 5 specialists for Killteam operations - Front need pic, back built
10 intercessors, stalker bolt rifles - done -front-back
10 heavy intercessors - front done Need 5 more

Close Support:
10 assault intercessors - done 1 - 2
3 outriders - done
3 inceptors - done
3 <to be determined>

Fire Support:
10 Hellblasters - done 1 - 2
3 suppressors - done
3 eradicators - done
3 aggressors - built

I need better pis of a bunch of guys. Both as full squads, and a lot of the basic bolt rifles snuck across the paintbench without geting photographed at all

Look very codex and clear to read Nevelon, thanks.

I've done some tweaking and just using it as a project to switch off from work. Now I'm just deciding if they are Achilus Crusade Salients reinforcements or one of the three Company's (+ reserves) that weren't committed and continue to patrol the Halo Stars. Anyway below is the re-tweak.

A write-up for my Homebrew Captain.

Master Tempest Blade Cu Chulainn, Master of the Fleet.
(Koo-KUL-in, it's Gaelic)

Cu Chulainn is the current Master, or Captain of the 4th Company of the Storm Wardens Space Marines Chapter.

As the Master of the 4th Company, Chulainn is also master of the Chapters’ Fleet.

Chulainn was initiated into the Storm Wardens in 450.M41, and assumed the mantle of Master in 773.M41, taking command of the 8th Company.

Cu Chulainn, like all Storm Wardens, was recruited from the barbaric warrior-clans of Sacris, the Feral World in the Calixis Sector.

Born to a Chieftain of a tribe in the lowland moors, Chulainn was pitted against the other tribe-children to constantly prove himself worthy of the son of a Chieftain. This naturally brought the attention of the warriors from the sky.

During the Neophyte trials, Chulainn strayed from the anticipated path set by recruiting Astrtes, and happened upon the outskirts of their encampment. He mistook one of the patrolling hounds for a feral Fen Wolf and slayed it.

Enraged, a staff Techmarine by the name of Culann draws his pistol through the thick mist to kill the aspirant. Culann’s hand is stayed by the overseeing Reclusiarch Cathbad, for the slaying of a Fen Wolf is no small feat.

Upon reaching Cathbad, overseeing the contest, Chulainn is instructed to face off against the three aspirants that arrived before him. Each has been armed with a dull blade from Culann. Chulainn is able to slay rivals despite this, using a piece of driftwood scavenged from the moors as a crude spear.

Upon his initiation, Chulainn would prove himself worthy of joining the 8th Company as an Assault Squad Battle Brother, by besting the twenty-four other initiates in ritual combat. Unlike that of a majority of his kinsmen, Chulainn preferred to fight with a two-handed spear as opposed to a claymore.

Chulainn honed his skills in mobile assault combat as an Assault Marine Brother and Land Speeder Pilot, before being moved from the reserve 8th Company to the battle 4th Company.

Chulainn quickly obtained the rank of Sergeant in the 4th, and went on to attain the rank of Tempest Blade through ritual combat, earning him a position within the Inheritors 1st Company, as a Vanguard Veteran.

As not uncommon for Storm Wardens, Chulainn took the Apocryphon Oath, standing a Vigil of the Long Watch. He was sent to Fort Pykman where he served in a Malleus Kill-Team. During his service to the Death Watch, he earnt his Terminator Honours, fighting campaigns against the Necron, Orks, Slaanesh cultist and Death Guard Chaos Space Marines.

Chulainn returned the Chapter where he briefly served as a Veteran Sergeant in a Terminator squad, before re-joining the 4th as the Company’s Champion across the Damocles Gulf Crusade and First Tyrannic War. It was during this time Chulainn studied under the Company Master, developing his Fleet knowledge, which he displayed natural talent for.

Chulainn’s prowess earned him the honour of promotion to Master of the 8th in 773.M41, validated by the Chapter Ancients of the 4th and 8th.

In 777.M41, the 8th Company was part of Ward-Master Lorgath Maclir’s contribution to the Achilus Crusade. Chulainn was able to provide the battle companies of the Chapter reserve close support squads and his previous experience in Fleet work assisted greatly in the coordination and movement of his troops.

As the crusade ground on, Chulainn was given temporary command of the 4th Company by Maclir at the Council of Ashes in 786.M41, before being awarded full command of the 4th for his actions in the Destruction of the Crimson Harvest in 805.M41.

Maclir had begun slowly reducing the Storm Wardens commitment to the campaign, and the 4th was sent back to the Calixis Sector to bolster the patrols around their homeworld’s system and assist Imperium forces against WAAAGH! Grimtoof.

Chulainn would then lead the 4th through the Calixis Sector combatting continual chaos uprisings and Tyrant Star events as the events of the 13th Black Crusade evolved.

By fortune, the 4th had returned to Sacris before the Noctis Aeterna split the galaxy asunder. With best speed they made their way to Hive World Vigilus, arriving as the War of Beasts raged. Chullainn brought his forces to bear, taking lead from Ultramarines Chapter Master Marnues Calgar.

With the system secured, the Storm Wardens began to cross the Rubicon Primaris.

Chulainn now leads the 4th, with supporting elements from the 1st, 8th, 9th and 10th Company’s back to the Calixis sector. Word has reached Chulainn from both the Master of the 1st Company, Master of the Keep and Ward-Master himself. The Master of the Keep urges the return of Chulainn to the Calixis Sector, with fragmented reports mentioning the Tyrant Star. Meanwhile Maclir urges forces to the Hadex Anomaly and back to the damnable Achilus Crusade.