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So I just inherited a bunch of forgeworld Legion stuff. 20 or so models in MKIV armor, another 10 in MKIII, 10 in MKV, an MKIII Assault squad, a spikey Sons of Horus reaver squad, and a set of Justaerin Termies. A guy from my FLGS was moving and decided he didn't want to fool with it anymore.

I originally picked them up to ebay, but the more I look at them, the more I like the little buggers. Surprising to me, because I've never really been compelled by Space marines to begin with. Now I'm inclined to keep them / do something with them.

I've no interest in trying to find a 30k HH game around here, so I think I'll pick up a copy of the new C:SM. I've always wanted to try my hand at a custom chapter.

Now the real question:

Anyone have any fluffy ideas how to explain why this chapter is made up predominantly of 10,000 year old armors and weapons?

All the old armour types are still valid suits. There are a few chapters taht are known for their regular use of relic type gear. Maybe the chapter specifically crusades to go and recover lost technology. It hunts down famous defeats and lost chapters to reclaim their kit and bring it back into use in the service of the Emperor. Alternatively, maybe the whole chapter doesn't use the relic tech, but one of the companies (first company maybe) routinely uses it for historical and traditional reasons. Do you fancy fielding lots of vanguard and sternguard?

A chapter that has a lot of relics in there armory, so they can afford to use the old and blesses armor.

ps. use Iron hands chapter trait for the 6+ fnp, that can be the in game explanation for the better quality armor.

- either they were all on a planet during a major climate change and all froze?
- they were in a distant area in space, all planet side when their fleet was destroyed, (take your pick who by), and with no communication channels, have been stuck on the planet ever since
- could have been stuck in the warp....and maybe...just maybe....they managed to stave off physical mutation, but they could have mutated internally (allows you to then decide to play Chaos marines!)
- could use is armour for specific units such as honour guards, stern guard, van guard and bulk out the rest of your army with regular armour
- could be that the emperor froze this specific chapter and they were only reawaken in the time hour of mans greatest need?

And yes guys, I know, thank whichever god you prefer that I wasn't employed by GW to write fluff!

I like the idea of a warp storm lost chapter.

The 1st Co of a chapter that venerates its relics is also plausible, as would be a chapter that found ancient battlefields and salvaged ancient tech.

A pre-Heresy legion division races back through the warp to defend/attack earth, only to arive 10.000 years late!

some chapters, such as the dark angels sucessor chapter "the concecrators" are specificly known for mostly wearing older armor marks.

another option is, given your sons of horus minis, to paint em up as a chaos warband

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
A pre-Heresy legion division races back through the warp to defend/attack earth, only to arive 10.000 years late!

And then gets wiped out for turning up in the most heavily defended place in the Imperium with a full war fleet and without the latest IFF codes

 Flinty wrote:

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
A pre-Heresy legion division races back through the warp to defend/attack earth, only to arive 10.000 years late!

And then gets wiped out for turning up in the most heavily defended place in the Imperium with a full war fleet and without the latest IFF codes

If they were members of a loyal legion, i dont think they would be blown out of the sky. The charcharadons had out of date iff codes, but this didnt stop them from getting show down by the loyalists during the badab war thefirst time they showed up without warning.

Now if they were had markings and iff codes from the renegade legions, fire away orbital defense guns.

BrianDavion wrote:
some chapters, such as the dark angels sucessor chapter "the concecrators" are specificly known for mostly wearing older armor marks.

another option is, given your sons of horus minis, to paint em up as a chaos warband

That's what I thought of.

If you read up the "experimental rules" for a lot of forge-world models for the Horus Heresy, they almost always include a disclaimer somewhere that says "Although extremely rare, some chapters have held onto and still field these sacred relics today" for most of them.

I think Forge-World has made it very clear that you're fluff-wise allowed to field 10,000 year old weaponry, equipment, and armour in the 40th Millenium by simply saying it's an old relic.

(although the latest relic models from Forge World now include special rules that you must also field a space marine in charge of relics like a tech marine or warpsmith with them if you take more than one, but eh)

I'm now torn between playing them as a Chaos Space Marines who, for whatever reason, have extremely minimal mutations.. and going with the "we arrived 10,000 years too late!" schtick.

I'll have to dig into the respective codexes and see if I want C:SM or CSM. Decisions, decisions.

I know CSM was kinda met with a resounding "Meh," are they still.. hmm. "competitive?

How many Helldrakes can you afford?

 Flinty wrote:
How many Helldrakes can you afford?

You could of cource say that most of the armour is modern mk7 armour that has been modified to look like old armour.

Think of a second founding chapter that is made up of legion marines. Sucessor chapters honour the parent legion by keeping the look of the original armour used to fight Horus.
Over the years those armours become lost, destroyed but they decide to modify their new armour to look like the old stuff.

well i would say you have three options

1) the chapter could have been caught in the warp for the time and they would live as the passage of time is less then in reality and coming out were honored as a complete chapter

2) they are tech hunters for the adpet mechanicum or them selfs even and use it to go back to the glory days in wearing the amour

3) they hold on to the amour in honor of the fallen members from the horus heresy and made a vow to stamp out heresy and they use captured armours and relics they find (space hulks or in the remnants of legion bases )

Mk III onwards isn't exactly unheard of in the 41st millenium, particularly amongst the first/second founding chapters. And the Minotaurs, but they're a somewhat unusual case.

Generally speaking, if you want to do a "fluffy" loyalist force, choose one of the first/second founding chapters; any of them are valid candidates to make use of older armour, but older armour marks tend to fill specialist niches based on their characteristics. Mk. III is generally used by Devastators or assault marines; heavy frontal armour being valued in those scenarios, Mk. IV would generally be used by 1st Company Veterans or other senior staff, being generally superior to everything short of Mk. 8, with Mk. V generally only fielded by line troops or fresh forces; Mk V is an inferior armour type, a slapdash mix of components rather than a fixed set of specifications.

Given what you listed, maybe one box of tacticals to mix in for regular line troops and you'd have a decent footslogging list.

They found a (relatively) huge cache of them on a lost world that once forged the suits? Maybe a small machine cult maintained the suits if and when the angels and gods that wore them would return? I'm considering that as an option since I'm going to be using exclusively Corvus armor for my sternguard. That or the typical reason why Blood Ravens have what they would shouldn't.

Mk V is particularly venerated as the armour that kept the Imperium fighting during the Heresy.

I also thought Mk VI Corvus was supposed to surpass Mk IV Maximus? It has superior autosenses and lighter plates for mo loss in protection? And that Mk VII Aquila was superior still being an upgrade to Mk6?

Don't you mean blud magpies?

You could say that it was one of the 2 missing legions that were never found that is why they would have like mk 2 or mk 3 as mk 2 and 3 are the virtually the same type as they never were found.

Maximus mk 4 is the pinnacle of power amour design the tech to make it has been lost mk 6, 7 and 8 are the easiest to make.

i would use the sallies or iron hands rules to represent the way they still have the old mk's working.

the salamanders master artisans rule will reflect that well you could chuck away flamecraft if you want.

Plenty of use as artificer armor/honor guard/characters.

Also a great start for thieving magpies indeed.

Id love a bunch of random mishmash 30k equipment (trying to make honor guard my self )

Also IIRC Miniatures have a bum load of heresy equipment. and im sure salamanders have a lot of well kept gear (im probably wrong about all of these)

Warp storm + old frigot is an easy one though.

They are a sub-group of Alpha Legionnaires who did not turn. As such they routinely use older armour to Infiltrate into CSM warbands.

 Barbarus wrote:
Anyone have any fluffy ideas how to explain why this chapter is made up predominantly of 10,000 year old armors and weapons?

You could say they're a current chapter that has been forced to scavenge the ruins of old battlefields for replacement parts (this is part of my chapter's back story).

I'm torn between "we steal relics" and the "Legiones Anachronistic" 30k lost-in-the-warp concept.

if you went loyalist you could say they were relics gifted to the successor chapter by the parent chapter. Or add to that, that the suits( and possibly their wearers) were found by your chapter and they bore the heraldry of a legion so your tech marines lovingly repaired what they could and otherwise restored the old armor for return to its chapter along with the remains of the heros within. Upon recieving the remains of their fallen the parent chapter could have been so moved by the honorable act that they allowed your chapter to hold on to the armor as a reminder of a their gratitude.