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Sorry for being another person putting up a post about this, but I have looked around the web and cannot find anything to help me get to a conclusion about this so sorry for anyone who gets annoyed about these (I would).

So I have finished most of my Tank Company and my Black Templar with their Mechanicus (just got a few more models to paint and 2 tanks to still build) and so it has come for me to find another army that is based on some of my favorite parts of history. Such as BT being medieval knights, tanks for WW1/2 era of warfare and my next type is the roman era. Now many of you may be saying Ultra straight away however I like the more perfect military sort of aspect of their time and how advanced it was so this has come to a couple of chapters as I would still like them to have unique and cool rules to experiment with.

Now with these I like their rules with Ultra being adaptable and their fluff with doing the whole roman thing and a large amount of characters and great way to make them look better with forge world. But then I see Red Scorpions and their fluff with them being stuck to the Astrates like glue is quite cool from a military aspect like the romans sort of did, they have great rules on characters which look awesome thanks to forge world and their chapter tactics with FnP on tacs is a nice bonus, however their paint job sets them back a bit with it being so grey and dismal. And then the last chapter is Imperial Fists with them I love their colour scheme (I remember a friend having them and we called them mustard/custard marines), fluff is cool but 3rd compared to the others and they lack characters as well but they have some nice rules with the Sentinels of Terra book which sets them apart a bit.

So you see my dilemma and so I have tried to give as much details on what I would like but I would like to know what others thought of these 3 chapters. Here's a quick summary - 1. Good fluff regard to military discipline and tactics 2. Good/fun rules to mess with 3. Forge World beef up possibilities 4. Some nice characters 5. Best paint schemes.

And for my thoughts on this by ranking the chapters to the summary from best to worst
1. Red, Ultra, Custard
2. Ultra, Custard, Red
3. Ultra/Custard, Red
4. Red, Ultra, Custard
5. Custard, Ultra, Red

Now I am doing this due to money being tight and 40k getting more expensive the second so this is why so much detail and I not amazing at answering questions so this is to keep it at few, however I won't mind answering if needs be. Also if you think there are better chapters that would fill this then please mention them as these are the ones that I have found so there could be others.

The Red Scorpions tick all your boxes my friend!
1.The Red Scorpions Adhere to the Codex Astartes IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE
2.All their Tactical squads exchange Sergeants for Apothecaries (I.E FNP Tactical Squads)
3.The Red Scorpions is FW's Personal Favourite Chapter
4.The best characters (even though 3 are the same guy) Sevrin Loth is just the best character ever (Picks his Psychic powers AND HAS AN UNDINIABLE 2++ INVUN!!! Carab Culln gives everyone LD10 and has Smash with his sword (the rules write it as the old smash rules, halve attacks for x2 Strength, it also makes his sword AP2) Veteran Sergeant Haas us also prettly good, giving Relentless to his squad (Max the squad out with Grav-Cannons abd Combi-Gravs to get max troll factor)
5.Red Scorpions may not have the best base colour, they do adhere to the codex astartes, thus you can paint them in a camo pattern (just keep their shoulderpad colour the same) and it would still be Lore Friendly (I dont mind the base colour scheme though)
A good colour scheme is black with yellow highlights


The Red Scorpions are your Best Bet

If you want the Roman looks, go for the Ultramarines. Also, these guys invented the Codex Astartes and are seen by many as the perfect example of what Space Marines are supposed to be.

The Red Scorpions have a pretty big deviation from the big book o' rules: they put Apothecaries in Tactical Squads.

Blood Angels

You can be the best... or not, not sure the choice here:

For Ultramar!

The most Codex-compliant chapter is the Imperial Fists, in my opinion. The Ultramarines have the Tyrannic Veterans and the Red Scorpions have their Apothecaries in their tac squads. If you want military discipline and tactics you might consider the Raptors chapter - they're often described as "canon Reasonable Marines." They wear camo, they use cover, they prefer to sit back and shoot with bolters from long range rather than closing to rapid fire or assault (their chapter tactics give bolt weapons a secondary profile of Heavy 1 Rending), and their special character allows them to play Reserves shenanigans and debuff the enemy and he has a sweet custom boltgun with Sternguard ammo.

I probably would not commit to the Red Scorpions until we see if they will get a rules update from FW to match the 7E Codex: Space Marines. I think they are a great army, though. Very versatile, potent, and look like fun to play. I like their Apothecary Sergeants.

Ultramarines are the most basic form of marines. Don't let their history of people hating them get to you, they have a nice aesthetic with their Romanesque armor and helmets. They have upgrade kits available that really make them pop. As a Fists player, I am jealous of all the support they get. Hopefully we get an upgrade kit soon too.

Imperial Fists are great, but if you want to play them, have a look at the Sentinels of Terra supplement. There are some altered special rules and some very potent relics (one of the best relics in the game, the Bones of Osrak, are in there). Their bolt weapons are second to none. The yellow isn't for everyone though.

If you think the Fists have the best color scheme, you 1) are probably colorblind and 2) should pick them.

Dark Angels

If you want Romans and "Military perfection", the Ultrasmurfs are your best friends! If you prefer yellow, you can run a successor chapter (sidenote: As long as you use Chapter Tactics: Ultramarines the special characters are still totes legal, but for fluff/lore I recommend coming up with some sort of stand-in original characters that happen to be similar if you use their rules).
I'd recommend staying away from Red Scorpions because: 1) They're a Forge World army, not good for anyone on a budget and 2) They're Nazis, so those guys!
Imperial Fists don't seem to be what you're looking for at all outside of the color scheme so I can't really recommend them for you.

Lobukia wrote:For Ultramar!

I am very tempted to join them, I do love the support with Forge World like how they can make a rhino seem far more interesting with the ultramarine doors and panels.

casvalremdeikun wrote:I probably would not commit to the Red Scorpions until we see if they will get a rules update from FW to match the 7E Codex: Space Marines. I think they are a great army, though. Very versatile, potent, and look like fun to play. I like their Apothecary Sergeants.

Ultramarines are the most basic form of marines. Don't let their history of people hating them get to you, they have a nice aesthetic with their Romanesque armor and helmets. They have upgrade kits available that really make them pop. As a Fists player, I am jealous of all the support they get. Hopefully we get an upgrade kit soon too.

Imperial Fists are great, but if you want to play them, have a look at the Sentinels of Terra supplement. There are some altered special rules and some very potent relics (one of the best relics in the game, the Bones of Osrak, are in there). Their bolt weapons are second to none. The yellow isn't for everyone though.

I can see that slight flaw with Red Scorpions on how the rules can change so dramatically with forge world, however it does take Forge World a long time to get round to updating stuff so I may not be able to wait for that update due to that reason.

As for ultra I am not put off by all the hate as thats mostly due to fluff and not rules so I can deal with that. I do like that relic for the Fists quite powerful but then Seth just doesn't need that with the gear he has and all he needs to do is join a tac squad for FnP but they do have some nice things in there and also yellow is one of my favorite colours.

EmpNortonII wrote:If you think the Fists have the best color scheme, you 1) are probably colorblind and 2) should pick them.

Funny things is I am colour blind, however only with blues. I may run with them but as their successor Hammers of Dorn because they stick to the book so much they actually say that even Ultra don't hold to the book as much as they do.

As for CrashGordon when I mean "on a budget" I mean I cannot spend over £150 a month for one vehicle so I don't mind getting all the upgrade parts, just not big Forge World centre pieces and it will take time to a mass a large amount of large models.