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I have embarked on a project to collect and paint the entire Celestial Guard First Company.
I was wondering... What is the composition of the First Company? I know it is made of Terminators, Sternguard Vets, and Vanguard Vets, but exactly how many of each are there?
So far I have 10 Tactical Terminators, and have 15 more Tacticals and 20 Assaults coming soon. After this, what do I need to get?

In addition, what would the best model to represent a Terminator Captain be? I hate the current GW metal/failcast powersword derpface one.

the first company consists of 100 (sometimes a little less if they're undermanned) veterans. they'll all be qualified for terminator armor but how many will be wearing it will depend on a few factors. first of all deployment patterne etc. sometimes you don't want big heavy terminator armor.
secondly not all chapters have a full 100 suits. in fact I'd say outside of first and some second founding chapters, most do not have a full 100 terminator armor suits for their 1st company.

The First Company is made up of 100ish marines who can deploy as either Sternguard, Vanguard, or Terminator squads. Every member is trained in the use of Terminator armor, but don't always deploy in it.

The number of Terminators they can deploy is basically entirely dependent on how much Terminator armor the chapter has. There is no set rule on how much each chapter has. Some only have 5 suits to go around, others have enough for the entire company to deploy in TDA with extras to spare. The Grey Knights have enough TDA to deploy the entire chapter in Terminator armor if they wish.

Sometimes a mission doesn't warrant the use of TDA, it is rare and difficult to reproduce(but not impossible) so they won't use it if they don't need to. And many missions would be better for PA anyway.


As for a model to use. Just convert a regular plastic terminator with extra bits you have. Get a Deathwing box maybe.

Terminator armour offers massive protection but is more suited to close qauters scenarios or very hevey assault.

Power armour is a better general field armour, more mobile and less bulky. Plus can use rhino and other transports as well as just land raiders etc.

For captain maybe some grey knight bits fused with a assault termies kit?

The First Company is made up of 100 Marines of the Sternguard and Vanguard variety. They are assigned as per preference. Those with an aptitude towards Melee are Vanguard and those who are great shots are Sternguard. I believe its roughly 50/50, but could be wrong. Both typed are trained and capable of deploying in Terminator Armour, and while not explicitly stated, it would make sense in Sternguard deployed as Terminator Squads (stormbolters and guns) and Vanguard as Assault Terminators. Just how many Terminators they can deploy depends entirely on the Chapter. The Firsy Founders like the Ultramarines and Blood Angels can probably get a decent number, maybe enough for 5 full squads of 10 (so 50 suits+ command units), while some of the younger chapters might only have a couple to outfit a Combat Squad, or even only the First Captain. They might not even have any at all.

Exceptions include the Dark Angels, Minotaurs and Grey Knights. The DA Deathwing deploys exclusively in Terminator Armour, suggesting that at any time they have 101 suits minimum (10 squads of 10, plus Belial). The Minotaurs apparently get funding from the High Lords and get loads of suits on demand, and the Grey Knights can apparently outfit almost the entire chapter (probably around 900 suits, considering that there are 800 guys in companies who have the potential to be Terminator Squads, plus Paladins, Captains, Librarians, etc). For the GK, the only ones not able to deploy as Terminators, at least rules wise, are Purifiers and Brotherhood Champions.

 Deadshot wrote:
The First Company is made up of 100 Marines of the Sternguard and Vanguard variety. They are assigned as per preference. Those with an aptitude towards Melee are Vanguard and those who are great shots are Sternguard. I believe its roughly 50/50, but could be wrong. Both typed are trained and capable of deploying in Terminator Armour, and while not explicitly stated, it would make sense in Sternguard deployed as Terminator Squads (stormbolters and guns) and Vanguard as Assault Terminators. Just how many Terminators they can deploy depends entirely on the Chapter. The Firsy Founders like the Ultramarines and Blood Angels can probably get a decent number, maybe enough for 5 full squads of 10 (so 50 suits+ command units), while some of the younger chapters might only have a couple to outfit a Combat Squad, or even only the First Captain. They might not even have any at all.

Exceptions include the Dark Angels, Minotaurs and Grey Knights. The DA Deathwing deploys exclusively in Terminator Armour, suggesting that at any time they have 101 suits minimum (10 squads of 10, plus Belial). The Minotaurs apparently get funding from the High Lords and get loads of suits on demand, and the Grey Knights can apparently outfit almost the entire chapter (probably around 900 suits, considering that there are 800 guys in companies who have the potential to be Terminator Squads, plus Paladins, Captains, Librarians, etc). For the GK, the only ones not able to deploy as Terminators, at least rules wise, are Purifiers and Brotherhood Champions.

The blood angels apparently have over a hundred suits of terminator armor.

And if you go with the old (ancient) fluff, one suit of Ultramarines Terminator armor, lol. There was a short sidebar fluff back in Rogue Trader days about a suit of Ultramarines Terminator armor that was salvaged from a battlefield by the Blood Angels, but whenever the techmarines tried to paint over the Ultramarines iconography, the wearer was killed soon after. So they decided that the repainting was insulting the suit's spirit, so they decided to strip it back to the original battle-hardened scheme.

My latest "wishlist" army project is a "Deathwing" army that portrays a portion of the Blood Angels first company in Terminator armor, centered around the two squads from Space Hulk 3e. I'll be painting a single suit in one of the non-Space Hulk squads in battle-damaged Ultramarines colors as an ode to the old story so make fun of how much of an old grognard I am.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
And if you go with the old (ancient) fluff, one suit of Ultramarines Terminator armor, lol. There was a short sidebar fluff back in Rogue Trader days about a suit of Ultramarines Terminator armor that was salvaged from a battlefield by the Blood Angels, but whenever the techmarines tried to paint over the Ultramarines iconography, the wearer was killed soon after. So they decided that the repainting was insulting the suit's spirit, so they decided to strip it back to the original battle-hardened scheme.

My latest "wishlist" army project is a "Deathwing" army that portrays a portion of the Blood Angels first company in Terminator armor, centered around the two squads from Space Hulk 3e. I'll be painting a single suit in one of the non-Space Hulk squads in battle-damaged Ultramarines colors as an ode to the old story so make fun of how much of an old grognard I am.

That would be the suit Brother Levi wears, in the old fluff. He’s also packing a stormbolter. The story mentions the suit coming from the UM armory a generation before, so I think it’s a loaner, not salvage. I keep on meaning to paint a BA icon on the knee of one of my terminators, to represent the suit returned to the Ultras, but marked to honor all the victories it earned in service with the BAs.

As for the composition of the first company, that’s really up to your taste. In an average chapter, I’d assume about a 50/50 split between assault and shooty. More bloodthirsty chapters might field more assault units then normal, and vs. vs. TDA vs. PA is a question of how well equipped and how mobile the chapter is. I think 40 suits might be average, but that’s me just pulling a number out of the air. Feels right to me though. Gives you a 2-3 ratio between terminator and power armor squads.

Also, don’t forget the chaplain, command squad, and 3-5 venerable dreadnoughts.

From a modeling POV, if you want to spiffy up a captain, you might want to look into the other ranges, particularly GK and DA. Or head over to FW and drool over the different options over there.

According to the 40k Wiki, a codex-compliant 1st company would consist of:

HQ:
captain
librarian
chaplain
command squad

Infantry:
4 terminator squads
2 sternguard squads
2 vanguard squads
2 terminator assault squads

Vehicles:
7 land raiders
2 storm ravens
2 dreadnoughts

lycio wrote:
According to the 40k Wiki, a codex-compliant 1st company would consist of:

HQ:
captain
librarian
chaplain
command squad

Infantry:
4 terminator squads
2 sternguard squads
2 vanguard squads
2 terminator assault squads

Vehicles:
7 land raiders
2 storm ravens
2 dreadnoughts

I don’t know where they are getting their info from. IIRC librarians are never part of a company; they are a chapter level group that is doled out as needed.

40k wiki is a terrible source in general. They have improper references and anyone can edit articles. There is also no distinction between fan-fic and published material. Lexicanum at least always says where something came from.

Thats is also just a general idea of what a first company of a typical chapter may look like. Every chapter is different and won't have the same amount of equipment.

There is a First Company formation for Apocalypse:

10 vet squads (10 men each, chosen freely from sternguard, vanguard, terminators, and assault teminators)
Terminator captain (or Lysander)
Chaplain
Command squad (w/ company banner)
3 venerable dreadnoughts.

Food for thought: Back during Space Marine 2nd edition a standard Terminator detachment was 20 Terminators, with a full Terminator company being 60. The most recent version of Epic (Armageddon) doesn't use company level formations, but retains 20 men as the standard Terminator detachment without a 0-1 limit so I tend to take that as at least 40 suits in the average chapter.

On the known chapters front, the Novamarines and Blood Drinkers deployed almost 200 Terminators between them during the boarding of a Space Hulk, but the Novamarines at least are known to be particularly well equipped.

There are 100 veteran marines and 3 sternguard veteran squads, 3 vanguard veteran squads, 2 assault terminator squads and 2 normal terminator squads.

Well codex compliance chapters
The fire drakes number 120 at full strength.
And from novels seem to be able to deploy a lot in terminator suits.

natpri771 wrote:
There are 100 veteran marines and 3 sternguard veteran squads, 3 vanguard veteran squads, 2 assault terminator squads and 2 normal terminator squads.

And your source for that is?