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I'm up to start some SM army. And have dilemma.
GW chapters like UM,BA,DA,SW have own cool I it, lots of lore and all.
From other hand my own dudes is always cool.
What's your opinion?

Been a Dark Angels fan since Space Hulk.

Not a fan of Home Brew Codexes, but absolutely nothing wrong in just choosing an existing codex, and coming up with your own paint scheme and overall aesthetic.

Nor do I think there’s anything especially wrong in doing a homemade chapter, and codex hopping game to game. Just let your opponent know beforehand so they know what to expect.

Do you like painting your own custom chapter badge/emblem/shoulderpad?

Then go for it.

I like taking an obscure, but real faction and run with it.

The Ordo Maledictum have maybe a paragraph of information, but have the greatest impossible mission ever: close the Great Rift by any means necessary.

Everyone knows the exploits of the Imperial Fists and have seen them on multiple battlefields... but how many Mantis Warriors or Invaders have you seen grace a tabletop lately?

And remember. The two Missing Legions were initially something included for players to invent for themselves.

If you like receiving internet based emotional abuse, play Ultramarines and then go on 4chan and Reddit and tell them you play Ultramarines.

What's problems with UM? Except they poster boys and there a lot of stupid jokes about them? Actually seen them on table may be 3 or 4 times in many many years.

 kabaakaba wrote:
What's problems with UM? Except they poster boys and there a lot of stupid jokes about them? Actually seen them on table may be 3 or 4 times in many many years.

There is a lot of jealously aimed at the Ultramarines.

People want their personal favorite army (whatever that might be) to be the poster boy chapter and get all the cool new toys... and when someone else gets the attention, they get frustrated.

Lately the Ultramarines have been getting a lot of attention.

I've always been in the 'my own dudes' camp (or gals - Emperor's Children. And others) - but I feel like the appeal of 'your own dudes' will happen even if you're playing a canon chapter. Sure the 41st Millennium is lousy with Ultramarines, but these are your Ultramarines - that's your Intercessor squad that killed a chaos rhino with bolter fire one time, your Aggressor sergeant once spent three turns being mobbed by Ork boyz and they couldn't drag him down, your Librarian's some kind of Precision magnet who always ends up face down in the dirt before the rest of his squad... These are my Ultramarines, there are many like them but these ones are mine. If the blue and Roman look appeals to you, don't suppose that means you can't feel personal affection for them as well.

I see too many people playing Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Blood Angels.

If you are going to do a GW chapter: make it a successor chapter.

If you want to stand out: do a homebrew chapter. Those are almost always cooler.

I would always reccomend making your own chapter. You can paint it how you want and use whatever rules you want. I've been using my "Vanilla Marines", literally white but played as Ultramarines, since 5th ed now.

 kabaakaba wrote:
What's problems with UM?

The opinions of others concerning them.

ccs wrote:

 kabaakaba wrote:
What's problems with UM?

The opinions of others concerning them.

The Interwebs say I'm only supposed to care about the opinions of others... at least that's what they told me.

kabaakaba wrote:What's problems with UM? Except they poster boys and there a lot of stupid jokes about them? Actually seen them on table may be 3 or 4 times in many many years.

It's just the poster boy thing. That, and they're kind of generic/vanilla. It's annoying that they get slots in the release schedule that could have gone towards keeping something like my drukhari grotesques/beasts/court of the archon from being sent to Legends. It's annoying when a given video game/comic/book being about them instead of one of the less explored chapters or other factions. And their "gimmick" is kind of just being tight-assed codex-thumpers with a superiority complex with episodes of Gary Stu syndrome.

But if we weren't complaining about them, we'd probably just be complaining about whatever the next most over-represented faction is. There isn't *actually* anything wrong with UM.

Daia T'Nara wrote:I've always been in the 'my own dudes' camp (or gals - Emperor's Children. And others) - but I feel like the appeal of 'your own dudes' will happen even if you're playing a canon chapter. Sure the 41st Millennium is lousy with Ultramarines, but these are your Ultramarines - that's your Intercessor squad that killed a chaos rhino with bolter fire one time, your Aggressor sergeant once spent three turns being mobbed by Ork boyz and they couldn't drag him down, your Librarian's some kind of Precision magnet who always ends up face down in the dirt before the rest of his squad... These are my Ultramarines, there are many like them but these ones are mine. If the blue and Roman look appeals to you, don't suppose that means you can't feel personal affection for them as well.

techsoldaten wrote:I see too many people playing Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Blood Angels.

If you are going to do a GW chapter: make it a successor chapter.

If you want to stand out: do a homebrew chapter. Those are almost always cooler.

So I'm kind of split on the subject. My gut instinct is to vote for a homebrew chapter so you have more freedom to paint them how you want, write your own fluff, choose your own aesthetic, etc. But that said, there *is* something satisfying about seeing a book mention your faction or having someone else's codex acknowledge your subfaction's existence.

Years ago, I switched from a custom craftworld with all over the place lore to Iybraesil. Iybraesil occupies this sweet spot where it's canon and thus feels connected to the setting, occassionally gets a passing mention, etc., but it's also extremely underexplored. So I'm free to flesh out my little corner of the faction while also getting that hard-to-define satisfaction of feeling like I'm part of a team. Like, it's cool to run into a fellow Iybraesil player because we're semi-obscure.

Personally, I don't have enough enthusiasm for UM or DA to recommend them. If you *really* like the fluff and vampire rage monster gimmick of the Blood Angels but aren't sure you want to commit to BA proper, consider going with one of their more obscure successors so you have more freedom to tweak them as you see fit.

Space Wolves are also cool, but I feel like their successors are in this weird place where so much of what makes space wolves themselves interesting (and the thing that grants them access to their bespoke units) is *Fenris*. I know they have canon successors, but I kind of struggle to accept that said successors are still doing the viking + wolf thing. Like, hi, we're the Ice Wolf chapter. We recruit from this jungle planet where there's not a single creature remotely resembling a wolf on it. Anyway, here are all our dudes with viking rune armor riding wolves... All of which is to say, if you're going to go Space Wolves, I vote you go *actual* Space Wolves and not a successor.

And if you aren't feeling a strong desire to do the rage vampire or viking wolf thing, I say just create your own guys.

 techsoldaten wrote:

If you want to stand out: do a homebrew chapter. Those are almost always cooler.

Just remember, nobody else really cares about your own private lore.
Paint em however you like, call em whatever you like, but at the end of the day you'll still be using the rules of ______ chapter during play.
So all most people will remember is that you're the guy with the odd colored UM/SW/DA/etc.

Perhaps weirdly for Marines (or CSM) I'd pick one of the big chapters or a successor. Marines get so much lore and so many schemes that designing your own feels a bit like being a snowflake in an avalanche.

I feel UM got a lot of hate, but it was back in 2010-2015, and now just feels a bit dated. Not saying you can't find it online but I'm not sure many are going to care in real life. I also think Ultramarines "done well" are kind of impressive - versus Little Timmy slathering some blue on his first Tactical Marine.

For other factions I'd probably go the other way. I think Craftworld Eldar are just about defined enough, but for most other factions the colour schemes/subfactions are pretty vague.

I mean there's nothing wrong with painting Tau as Ochre, White or Red. But much beyond that I think you've got maybe 1 mini in the codex as an example, and lore that could fit onto a stamp.

 Daia T'Nara wrote:
I've always been in the 'my own dudes' camp (or gals - Emperor's Children. And others) - but I feel like the appeal of 'your own dudes' will happen even if you're playing a canon chapter. Sure the 41st Millennium is lousy with Ultramarines, but these are your Ultramarines - that's your Intercessor squad that killed a chaos rhino with bolter fire one time, your Aggressor sergeant once spent three turns being mobbed by Ork boyz and they couldn't drag him down, your Librarian's some kind of Precision magnet who always ends up face down in the dirt before the rest of his squad... These are my Ultramarines, there are many like them but these ones are mine. If the blue and Roman look appeals to you, don't suppose that means you can't feel personal affection for them as well.

Love this take. Haven't heard it expressed this way but its a great response.

My personal answer is Deathwatch, just because it lets me make a collection of "my dudes" mixed with cool things I like from other chapters. Also quite happy to run them AS other chapters with the idea that they play a bit more like their current leadership.

Your personal answer should really come down to what appeals to you. The GW chapters are well done. They have cool color schemes and enticing themes with strong mechanical playstyle incentives. There's a lot of appeal in all of that and it absolutely makes sense to be drawn into it as much as Ork players play Orks to shout Waaagh! If you want your own color scheme or theme though, a custom chapter makes plenty of sense.

 kabaakaba wrote:
I'm up to start some SM army. And have dilemma.
GW chapters like UM,BA,DA,SW have own cool I it, lots of lore and all.
From other hand my own dudes is always cool.
What's your opinion?

Go with whatever choice excites you the most. Even a relatively compact army like space marines is a significant commitment in terms of cost and time painting so I'd definitely go with what is most likely to keep your interest and enthusiasm.

The various chapters are far more fleshed out than when I began (2nd edition) so I'd highly recommend burying yourself in one of the online wikis and reading about them. There's a good chance you'll find one that suits you. Definitely look into some of the slightly lesser known chapters such as Salamanders, Crimson fists, Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, White Scars, etc... Perhaps go another step down the rabbit hole and play an official (or unofficial) successor to a more obscure chapter?

My gaming motto is "Your game, your way". My IG is a homebrew and I still plan to someday do an army of RT Squats, but when it comes to Marines, I do feel drawn to official chapters. I don't regret going with Blood Angels when I started and I love the Dark Angels I got from my friend, but if doing it again I'd go with Salamanders. They really are about as close to "good guys" as you can get in this game.

Of course if nothing in the cannon floats your boat, you'll likely at least get some good ideas for the background for your own Homebrew.

Good luck and enjoy the process.