The Night Reapers Chapter - Origin

I had a couple of e-mails asking about my chapter background due to me mentioning it as part of my Deathwatch articles.

To be honest I have a tonne of stories, character background, Index Astartes style pieces all on my chapter but none of it was done for publication but rather so I had a consistent set of information for my own personal reference. However there now seems to be enough interest for me to compile it into some semblance of order so it at least can be read in some kind of approximation of coherency. It is however going to take a bit of effort to do so don't expect stuff to appear with anything approaching regularity, lol.

At an appropriate juncture in the future I'll publish the rules that I use to portray them as my custom Deathwatch Chapter as well.


Okay, lets get on with it then before I change my mind.....

The Night Reapers Space Marine Chapter.

Origins.

During the Great Crusade the Ultramarines were the largest Legion of all, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Amongst their many Commanders was a warrior named Repus who’s somewhat unorthodox tactics (though successful) resulted in any victories his warriors gained been given far less credit than those gained by other Ultramarine Chapters using more traditional methodology.

Been treated with little respect by other Ultramarines and almost completely ignored (except for the odd reprimand) by Primarch Gulliman, Repus’s 33^rd Company quickly gained the dubious honour of receiving any mission that was considered unsavoury, distasteful or involved contact with Legions that the Ultramarines disapproved of. In particular they fought alongside warriors of the Night Lords, World Eaters and Iron Warriors as well as the Alpha Legion. All of which were looked down upon by the Ultramarines in general and (in the case of the Alpha Legion) by Gulliman in particular.

This reputation was further compounded by the fact that Marines from other companies that were deemed to have similar attitudes inevitably found themselves transferred to Repus’s Company which later due to this influx of men resulted in him effectively having command of the equivalent of companies worth of troops. On occasion Marines of varying ranks with no history of insubordination would also find themselves in the same position, leading many Captains to quietly whisper that Gulliman was purging the other Companies of men with some unknown flaw in their Gene-seed, though such rumours were never spoken of openly for fear of experiencing the same fate. If Captain Repus ever held any resentment for this reputation he never let it show. Rather he and his troops fought all the harder in order to prove themselves, resulting in several spectacular victories in campaigns considered to be close to ‘suicide’ missions by other more favoured commanders.

During the events of the Imperial civil war that later became known as ‘The Horus Heresy’ the 33^rd’s close ties to several Legions that had turned traitor darkened their reputation even further to the point that other Ultramarine companies would actively avoid been required to serve with them. This effectively turned them into an independent force whose activities were rarely even cared about by the Ultramarines high command let alone monitored. As by this time the influx of ‘recruits’ from other units had swelled the company numbers to Chapter strength and beyond they rarely needed support and even on the few occasions it would have been useful they never asked for it from their own Legion knowing that the answer would invariably be no.

Despite this less than cordial relationship with their own Legion they fought alongside companies from other Legions without prejudice in a number of theatres of war. Fighting alongside representatives of the Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Salamanders and even the notoriously independent Raven Guard the 33^rd picked up an increasingly variable set of combat doctrines that even greater distanced them from other Ultramarines. However, by this point Captain Repus own troops had little in the way of any ties to their brother Marines regardless.

The 2^nd Founding.

When Gulliman’s decision to split the Legions into smaller Chapters was announced it barely made a difference to the 33^rd who had to all intents and purposes been operating that way for decades. Returning to Ultramar just long enough for the refuelling of their fleet and the re-arming of their units with equipment and ammunition they were renamed the ‘The Night Reapers’ as they had been referred to by this name for years anyway at this point. Though some commanders queried the fact that ‘The Night Reapers’ were created oversized (though only marginally) by the guidelines in the new Codex Astartes it quickly became clear (though never spoken in their presence) that nobody would have been happy to have Marines from the ‘33^rd’ inducted into their own forces anyway.

“I have no desire to have other Chapters corrupted by their methods. Give them what equipment they need and then send them as far from Ultramar as possible”

Attributed to Primarch Gulliman in reference to ‘The Night Reapers’ creation during the 2^nd Founding.

Organisation.

Due to their haphazard and unpredictable ‘recruitment’ history the ‘Reapers’ would have had trouble organising their companies into the required format laid down in the Codex Astartes (even if they had wanted to), so altered those doctrines to suit themselves.

Marines with similar specialities were grouped together creating Companies that excelled in certain types of warfare and complimented each other’s abilities in those same areas. Those units with a preference for overwhelming firepower were grouped into the 2^nd Company while those who had a greater inclination for brutal assaults were grouped together into the 3^rd and those showing latent psychic abilities were grouped together as the 8^th and so on until twelve distinct companies were created with the thirteenth to fifteenth being designated as Scout Companies in order to supply the others with appropriate recruits. Though traditionally the 1^st company would receive the majority of the Terminator armed veterans many with particular skills were allocated to more appropriate companies. This particular method of organisation owed much to lessons learned fighting alongside the ‘Great Companies’ of the Space Wolves as Repus himself had a great admiration for their efficiency in warfare.

A Fortunate Alliance.

Moving further and further from the newly compliant systems the Reapers fought for the most part as a single immense force destroying any enemy that was weaker than them and simply ignoring any that may have had the ability to cause them significant harm, eventually reaching the far extreme of the eastern fringe.

It was in this sector of space that a distress call was received from an Adeptus Mechanicum Forge World thought destroyed many years previously. Though the distress calls time signature was several years old it was deemed worthy of investigation on the chance that there may be any survivors or (more critically) some useable supplies as resources in this sector were few and far between and certain essentials were reaching dangerously low quantities.

Long Range scanners detected what would turn out to be only the first of a number of significant threats. Several traitor warships were detected on the outskirts of the system apparently hidden from the Forge World by the energy output of a nearby star, who seemed to be waiting there for some nefarious reason of there own. Though a formidable enemy for a mid sized force they were little threat to an entire chapter of Space Marines who had the advantage of surprise. All four of the Chapters Battle Barges combined with the support of their Strike Cruisers opened fire and crippled 6 of the Chaos Vessels and destroyed several more before they had a chance to react with their own weapons. The targets of the Reapers weapons had been carefully chosen to cause the maximum disruption with the minimum structural damage as the need for valuable resources outweighed all other considerations. Boarding torpedoes were launched in order to capture the vessels as intact as possible. Unprepared for the swiftness and efficiency of the attack the Traitors stood no chance at all and were quickly captured or killed.

With the immediate threat neutralised the Reapers had a chance to evaluate the situation and decide on the next course of action. With data taken from the ships systems combined with information gained from interrogation of captured heretics a picture of the traitors intentions became clear. The main Forge World facility and space station had apparently been the victim of a number of attacks ranging from raids by Elder pirates up to their current siege by a large force of Xenos in the shape of an Ork Waaaargh. The traitors had intended to let the Orks weaken themselves destroying the last few defenders of the base and then fall upon them when they were most vulnerable and take what they wished from the now neutralised facility. In an ironic twist of fate they had fallen to exactly the same strategy that they themselves were about to utilise.

Immediately seeing the benefits that an alliance with the followers of the Mechanicum would bring (particularly when combined with the gratitude of being rescued) Chapter Master Repus began to plan the destruction of the Greenskin threat. Having grown weakened by the lack of capable opponents the Orks were ripe for destruction. The large but ramshackle Ork fleet was docked at what was left of the Star Fort and this was the primary target for 1^st and 3^rd Companies with support from elements of several others. While the Ork starships were destroyed by the fleet’s firepower, the aforementioned Marine companies would board the station and purge it of all opponents. Meanwhile the rest of the chapter would fall upon the Orks besieging the remnants of the Mechanicum forces planetside. Using tactics learned fighting alongside many Legions (some of which were now best not mentioned) The Night Reapers fell upon the Ork horde and broke it utterly. Having no way of escape and finally facing opponents they deemed worthy the Ork forces died to the last Greenskin Warrior…

What remained of the Mechanicum forces and their Astartes saviours immediately swore oaths of loyalty to one another and an alliance of mutual benefit was born in that instant. The Forge World and Star Fort (once repaired) would provide resources; equipment and docking facilities while the might of an entire chapter kept the facility defended from all Xenos and Traitor threats.

Even more useful was the fact that the human population of the systems largest world after intensive destruction testing were found to be compatible with the Gene-seed of the Astartes giving a supply of new recruits to ensure the future of the Chapter. As the Mechanicum used the population only as a source of biological material for their Servitors the arrangement was deemed perfect. Within only a decade the System and its facilities were bought back to full operational capability. The Night Reapers now had not only a purpose but a home as well…

.....

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Deathwatch - Brother Mortis's Continuing Adventures...

Well we've been playing Deathwatch pretty much every Saturday for months now so our characters have all come on a long way. We usually spend the whole day at it so we get some fairly substantial missions done.

Over recent months we've captured a Chaos Ship, Cleared a planet of Chaos taint,  Wiped out a Hive Fleet, Cleansed a Space Hulk of Orks (part of which used to be an Imperial Fist Star Fort so we managed to get them some of their relics back as well) and most recently we've had to help out one of the Imperial Fist Strike Cruisers that had come for the aforementioned relics when some followers of Nurgle managed to sneak aboard the vessel using methods that were never really explained adequately.....

What do you mean, I don't look like an Imperial Fist.....

Rather amusingly the leader of the Plague Marines was a former member of our kill-team that we'd presumed had simply returned to his own Chapter. Well as an Imperial Fist I suppose he sort of had.....just not in the way we thought. I'm now eagerly awaiting all the other 'guests' we've had start reappearing in various ways.....No wonder we've got a fucking Chaplain attached to the team now, lol.

The team now consists of a Librarian and a Devastator (the only original characters remaining), A Black Shield Apothecary, My Techmarine (not technically an original member as they'd already done a single session when I started), a Chaplain and a 'Keeper' NPC who's controlled by our GM. We've also had a few 'guest appearances' from other friends for one or two missions but they usually die heroically the next session when our GM gets bored of controlling them on the absent players behalf.

Brother Mortis is now mostly augmented bionics rather than flesh though some organic components do remain. I also had to slightly alter his character model to take into account his 'Signature Wargear' Storm Bolter,

Of course with all the extra hardware he has now, I'm working on a completely new model to represent him and as I'm only 75 XP away from being able to take the 'Forge Master' advanced speciality which gives me Artificer armour, a Servo Harness and a Power Axe* I'll need to add all that stuff as well.

* For some reason the Forge Master only gets a standard Power Axe rather than the far more appropriate Omnissiah Axe. I may have to start negotiating with my GM about that....

My GM has also started insisting on quite detailed reasons for anything other than bog standard upgrades and equipment which forces me to write stuff like this,

"Brother Mortis held his detached forearm in place with his Servo Arm and carefully reattached the neuro connections and servo actuators that joined it to the upper part of his bionic left limb. Once the connections were completed he ran through the sacred rituals of blessing in order to placate the Machine Spirits within. His limb had been designed specifically with this upgrade in mind so it had taken almost no time at all to complete the integration, besides which the enhancements themselves were well known by the Techpriests of a dozen Forge Worlds so the necessary rituals and blessings were freely available (to those initiated in the ways of the Omnissiah at least) and relatively simple to apply...

The Firing Ranges and training areas were almost completely empty as most of the Deathwatch Marines on board were preparing to deal with the recently encountered Space Hulk in one way or another. Mortis activated a combat Servitor and prepared for his newest systems first true test run.

The close combat equipped Servitor jerked clumsily into life and began to advance towards the Battle Brother in front of it, it's simple system programmed with a single purpose.....destruction.....whether it's own or that of it's target however meant nothing to it.....

With the speed of pure thought Mortis activated the weapon now integrated into his left forearm and there was a satisfying mechanical hiss as the firing port in the palm opened up and the unmistakable barrel of a Bolt Pistol slid into place through its carefully aligned counterpart in the Armoured Glove of the Marine's Power Armour. Targeting systems in his helm aligned perfectly with the direction of his outstretched arm and a burst of explosive shells hurtled towards the mindless automaton destroying much of it's armour plating. A second and a third burst tore into the unit at various locations but none of them were particularly critical. Of course had Brother Mortis intended it's destruction then it would now be little more than scrap but then that meant his other new addition could not be tested...

The bulky barrel of the Bolt weapon retracted into it's housing at the same time as a blade slid smoothly from the back of Mortis's other Arm and locked into place, Power flowed from his Potentia Coil through specially designed connections in the blades killing edges. Though having nowhere near the penetrative power of a true Power Weapon it nevertheless increased it's killing power by a satisfying margin. Belying his tremendous bulk Mortis avoided the first swing of the servitors Power Fist having calculated it's most likely direction of attack with startling speed and accuracy and drove his Blade through the gap created by the Bolt rounds and into a vital system in the drones chest...Genetically and Bionically enhanced muscles tore the weapon sideways through the doomed Servitors primary cables and power core before decapitating it with a brutal back-swing. The Techmarine watched impassively as the broken and headless machine fell in a shattered heap on the floor.

The test had been the expected success, both his Bolt Pistol and Combat Blade were now fully integrated into his enhanced form and as an added bonus he no longer needed to think about where to carry them....."

Just to get a couple of Bionics that I'm only taking for 'Fluff' reasons anyway, lol.

As soon as I've made some progress with the new model I'll post some pictures but as I'm off to act as team photographer for a number of people going to the Throne of Skulls tournament in Nottingham this weekend it's unlikely that we'll get any actual Deathwatch done for a couple of weeks. Though on the bright side this means that you'll all have lots of pretty pictures to look at next week ;-)

Deathwatch - Brother Mortis Personal Log.

After forgetting to take an Auspex in the mission before last I had my character upgraded with an Augur Array (basically a built in Auspex) and the 'Security' Ability as apparently I'm brilliant at opening electronic systems but lousy with mechanical ones, lol.

Brother Mortis sat at the Workbench in his quarters making a few final adjustments to the twin-linked Bolter he'd acquired from a dead Chaos Terminator on the Slaaneshi vessel that he and his Kill Team had captured a mission ago. The Terminator in question had little to say in the matter having been torn apart by Bolter fire just before the re-allocation of his equipment had occurred...


Removing the heretical embellishments that had adorned the weapon had been a relatively simple task but much of the internal workings had needed completely replacing. The weapon itself was ancient in design having been at it's most basic level simply two Boltguns configured to fire from a single trigger and therefore lacked many of the advancements that could be seen in the Storm Bolters carried by their loyalist equivalents. Reconfiguring the weapon into a more acceptable form had taken substantially longer than Brother Mortis had accounted for but in his defence he and the team he was attached to had many demands on their time due to the corruption that had been discovered on the planet of Castiel.

After uncovering the corruption of the Imperial Governor they had returned to their own vessel and had almost immediately been forced to board a vessel of the traitor Legion known as the 'Emperors Children'. The   cruiser had been far more lightly defended than expected, though the reason for that had become apparent when they had returned to the mines of Castiel after the vessels capture. Mortis had learned much from interfacing with the Traitorous vessels onboard systems and he had been careful to install his own directives into it's machine spirit which would lay dormant unless he himself activated them. Some of this information had been passed on to his masters at the Deathwatch.....others he had kept to himself in case control of the vessel ever became important to him or his own brothers in the Night Reapers Chapter. On a personal level that mission in particular had taught him much about the limitations of the flesh, his own senses being much weaker than would have been provided by an Auspex. He had rectified this limitation by having an Augur Array fitted into his own systems, It was manufactured based on techniques passed down from Ancient STC designs taught to him during his apprenticeship on Mars though it had required the assistance of the teams Apothecary Brother Zahariel to tie them into his more fragile organic systems. Mortis had also spent some time plugged into the archives researching into the workings of the more mechanical security systems that they were likely to encounter as not all security systems were blessed with Machine Spirits and he wished to be ready if such devices were deployed to bar their progress.


The Augur array had served him and his team admirably during their trip through the mines and though it had detected the first ambush to late for them to avoid it, it had given them information on the numerical strength and locations of those who had ambushed them. He had dealt the killing shots to two of the attackers himself but the bulk of the killing had been accomplished by the teams Devastator (Brother Marcus of the Steel Wings Chapter) and their Assault Marine (Brother Ansum of the Black Templars). The latter of the two had christened his new Power Weapon in more worthy blood than the few pitiful humans he'd tested it upon earlier with the slaughter of two of the enemy Chaos Marines in spectacular combat. That earlier event had caused some tension in the team as Brother Ansum had acted against the wishes of several of his Brother Marines who had attempted to restrain him rather than allow him to slaughter these perceived innocents. The fate of such insignificant mortals meant little to Brother Mortis as he had grown closer to the blessed perfection of form which came with his gradual abandonment of his weak flesh in favour of the gift of technology.

Several failed ambushes later the team had taken an impressive tally of defeated Chaos Marines, Terminators and even a member of the Dark Mechanicum before finding the Emperors Children's true purpose at the complex. Though they themselves had taken damage they were fortunately all still at a state of combat effectiveness sufficient to take on their final foe which turned out to be a Sorcerer who through the sacrifice of innocents was attempting to bring to a state of wakefulness a foul Chaotic type of Dreadnought known as a Defiler. Though the Sorcerers psychic abilities seemed adept at defending from more mundane projectiles it's inability to protect him from Brother Ansums Power Sword was to prove his final undoing. The Defiler itself was crippled by Melta bombs and then buried in a pit by Brother Mortis's carefully laid explosives.


With the complex clear of Chaotic Forces, more mundane ground forces could be called in to retrieve those pieces of machinery that were left untainted and those devices that his team had located that could be reconsecrated into the service of the Imperium.


Brother Mortis finished adding his own additions to the Kill teams Report and returned to the weapon on which he had been working. The work had speeded up considerably with the precise adjustments that his new augmentative arm had allowed him to perform. His requests for more sophisticated augmentations that had been up till recently been politely refused had for some reason been okayed on his return from the planet. Perhaps his contribution to the missions had been noticed by those in command.....Those representatives of the Deathwatch who maintained the armoury had certainly become much more responsive to his requests for equipment and apparently several other members of his team had found certain of their own requests being seen in a far more favourable light.


Permission for the new arm had been granted with no hesitation, however his request for augmentation of his legs had still required some negotiation with the masters of the armoury and he foresaw the usual equipment supply issues for their next mission that always followed his use of Deathwatch facilities for his own personal quest for perfection. Such musings were forgotten as the final component slotted into place in his now fully functional reconsecrated Storm Bolter.....A test of the weapon in the shooting ranges followed by some routine diagnostics of his new bionics would pass the time until Kill Team Epsilon was next called to duty.....

By the end of the 2nd mission I'd reached a sufficient level of renown to be entitled to a free 'Exceptional' level bionic and could actually request a Storm Bolter. I took the Storm Bolter as 'Signature wargear' which basically means that for 500 XP it's mine and I don't have to give it back after missions ;-)
I've spent some of the next missions requisition (I can do that with bionics as it's not like I can give them back now is it, lol) on bionic legs as I have an agreement with our GM whereby I'm gradually dehumanising my Techmarine whenever I get a vague justification for doing so. As I almost died to a Power Sword swipe to the leg from a Chaos Terminator I think that should count as justification don't you?

After that lot I still have 1200 XP to spend which is a bit of a problem as there's no Rank 1 upgrades that I'm really interested in but I can't buy Rank 2 upgrades till I've spent enough points to get to that rank. I suppose I'll spend them on a characteristic upgrade of some description instead though I've no idea which one.

For what it's worth it's difficult to write a strategy article about an RPG so the Deathwatch stuff will mainly be progress reports thinly disguised under an excuse for some 'Fluff'. Plus I forgot to take notes so even the fluffy bits are fairly vague.

I'll make it up to you all with a Primarch post on Sunday night ;-)

'Counts-As' Straken and some 'Fluff'.

The economy of the Imperium is reliant on the tithes required from the planets under it's control. Though these resources can be almost anything, the most common is also the most expendable...manpower...


Arcturus Prime, largest planet of the Arcturus system and main recruitment centre for the Night Reapers Chapter is of course no exception. Having a strong martial tradition, those amongst the population of Arcturus Prime that fail the extensive testing needed to become a Neophyte of the Night Reapers are still easily forged into more than capable soldiers and Arcturan regiments have fought in battles all across the Imperium of mankind.


Early on in the creation of these first regiments it was announced by the then Night Reapers Chapter Master that their progress would be monitored in order to evaluate training methodologies and to ensure that their conduct in no way dishonoured their home world and by extension the Night Reapers themselves. By attaching small units of Marines to these Regiments data on anything from enemy fighting methods to environmental conditions and any number of other important information could be added to the Chapters databases. Of course there were other reasons as well...


In the wake of the Horus Heresy the Legions were not only split into smaller fighting units but also lost control of the vast resources provided by the Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard. However there was no rule that prevented a Space Marine Chapter from offering advice and guidance to those same organisations. It was therefore decided that these duties would become the responsibility of the Night Reapers 12th Company. The 12th were instructed to join these regiments at locations scattered across the galaxy and to return all knowledge gained to their masters in the Fortress Monastery for analysis.


Numbering anything from a single Marine, but rarely anything larger than a Combat Squad these 'advisers' became a common site in all the Arcturan Regiments. Though these advisers were rotated from Regiment to Regiment in order to maintain the greatest flow of information (as well as to prevent those men from 'going native') occasionally issues of logistics resulted in particular Marines staying with the same units for considerable periods of time.


One such Marine has been attached to the 100th Arcturan regiment for several decades and is now so integrated into its structure that he has the honoury title of Company Commander...

Straken has a better than Marine Stat-line in most areas so why shouldn't I use a Space Marine to represent  him?

I'll tidy-up the model and if I decide I like it I'll paint it in Chapter colours with the exception of the bare arms which I plan to paint a Metallic Colour in order to represent certain of his bionics as well as to justify S6 and a  6+2D6 armour penetration roll, lol.

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Representing the Legions - Part 4

For those of you who missed them - Parts One, Two and Three.

Okay I believe we had reached the Salamanders.....

No. 18 - Salamanders.

Handily for Salamanders players they have a special character in the Space Marine Codex (namely Vulkan) that makes both Flamer and Melta weapons better by making them twin-linked. He also improves Thunderhammers by making them 'master-crafted'. As Flamers are free in 10 man Tactical Squads (with a Meltagun being a mere 5 point upgrade) and Multi-meltas also being free in the same 10 man squad we can see that making a characterful and 'Fluffy' Salamanders army using the 'Vanilla' Marine Codex is a piece of piss cake. Obviously that's it then.....or is it.
The most distinctive feature of the Salamanders is their preference for 'heat' based weapons *...

* Which I've always found a bit odd on a planet basically made of lava. Surely a water cannon or gun that fired beams of ice would be far more of a status symbol on a planet where most of the Predators are actually made of fire or eat volcanic rock or are made out of volcanic rock and eat fire.....

...as well as their extreme strength and resilience. If only there was a way of taking elite troops with up to 5 Meltas and/or Flamers, heavy weapon teams with up to 4 Meltas and/or Flamers, Extremely tough troops that could take 2 special weapons and small elite Terminator units that could wield Combi-weapons and a Heavy Flamer.....Oh wait.....That's Chosen, Havocs, Death Guard and Chaos Terminators isn't it.....Before the 'Fluff Nazi's' start planning my brutal assassination** bear in mind that I'm just listing possible alternatives here ;-)

** again.

No. 19 - Raven Guard.

As with the Salamanders, Raven Guard have a special character in the Space Marine Codex (Shrike) that is specially designed for them. He exchanges 'combat tactics' for the ability to Fleet as well as enabling you to infiltrate the unit that he's with. This has unfortunately brought about the rather unfluffy tactic of infiltrating 10 Assault Terminators with Shrike which always seems like a good idea to idiots until an experienced player torrents them to death, feeds them sacrificial units while destroying the rest of their army or (in the case of Space Wolves) just puts a 'Chooser of the Slain' in front of his army and then looks smug. Obviously this is a perfectly legal and viable tactic so go ahead and do it if you like it's just not very 'Ravenguardy' imo.
The downside to using the Space Marine codex is that it limits you to 3 Assault Squads which are quite expensive for what they do and an Honour Guard that becomes stupidly expensive once you equip them properly.
Luckily the Blood Angels Codex helps us out here for a number of reasons. Assault Marines as troops, reliable Deep Striking, viable Vanguard Veterans are all highly in character for the Raven Guard. I'd rather give my Assault Squad Sergeants Power Fists for effectiveness but there's nothing particularly wrong with giving them Lightning Claws if it's the 'look' you want. Also due to the chapters background of genetic instability it's not unreasonable that they would have a high number of Apothecaries (Sanguinary Priests) keeping an eye on things (that can have a Lightning Claw themselves if they like). I already wrote a list for a friend of mine that can be found here if anybodies interested.

And finally,

No. 20 - Alpha Legion.

The Alpha Legion were known for their use of flexible and unorthodox strategies. Many of their victories were bought about by subterfuge, misdirection or rapid attacks from an unexpected direction. They also commonly recruited non-Astartes as agents to perform covert actions for them or simply as spies. To all intents and purposes they operated the same after the Heresy as they had before so that doesn't really factor in our choice of codex for them. In game terms the basic character of the Alpha Legion is best represented by the Infiltrate, Outflank or Scout rules or with any rule-set that allows allies.
So we need to represent a tactically viable force or one that has other people doing the work for them. One way to do this could be to use a standard Marine force that utilises the 'Combat Squads' and 'Combat Tactics' rules to represent this tactical acumen but that (though viable) is a bit boring. We could also take advantage of Kor'sarro Khan's Chapter Tactic which allows all of the units to outflank as well as giving his own unit Hit and Run as well as Furious Charge (both of which can represent superior tactics with little imagination on either players part). As Khan can be taken without a bike (if you like) you don't necessarily have to use your army as White Scars with an Alpha Legion paint job if you don't want to.
Alternatively taking the approach of having a small 'Marine' element supported by other units can be done in a number of ways.

Editors Note : Both of these suggestions are going to annoy 'Fluff Bunnies', give 'Fluff Nazi's' a heart attack and possible piss of the last remaining 'Counts-as' hater who has yet to have a contract put out on me.....Fortunately I've already worked out how to defend my home should the Zombie Apocalypse ever happen so defending it from a few offended 'Fluffers' shouldn't be an issue.....

Firstly, the Grey Knights codex allows us to adopt this approach with minimal difficulty. With Inquisitors as 'Cult Leaders' and their retinues as 'Cultists' we can build an elite Marine force with a few allies. If we use Corteaz as our Cult Leader then we can have six lots of 'Cultists' and a minimal number of actual Marine units to represent their Alpha Legion masters. Taking a Grand Master enables you to even more efficiently represent the Alpha Legions unusual tactics by virtue of the 'Grand Strategy' ability. The psychic abilities of the Grey Knights can be easily explained as daemonic Gifts and as many of their anti-daemon abilities work against other things as well can be put under the 'sneaky Alpha Legion tactics' umbrella. Using these ideas it's entirely possible to have an Alpha Legion army represented with remarkable similarity to how they are portrayed in their various literary appearances.

Secondly, If only there was a way of representing an entire planetary defence force, Guard regiment or other military force under Alpha Legion control.....
Of course a large compliment of Imperial Guardsmen would be the best way to represent.....well.....a large compliment of traitor Imperial Guardsmen, but where do we get a Marine stat-line in the Imperial Guard Codex to represent the Alpha Legionnaire who has single handily corrupted them. Well he'd need decent Weapon Skill, Toughness and Strength of at least four, a 3+ save with perhaps an invulnerable save to go with it and the ability to improve the units around him.....Does such a unit exist in the Guard Codex?

Yes it bloody does. May I present to you Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken ;-)

No, I'm serious. He has a better than Marine Stat-line, makes his unit Fearless and dishes out Counter Attack and Furious Charge to any unit within 12" as well as having access to all the Imperial Guard orders. The rest of the army would be as WYSIWYG as you like. The only explanation necessary would be what a Marine in Alpha Legion colours is doing in the middle of an Imperial Guard Command Squad and that shouldn't take long now should it?

Well that bombshell is probably the best place to end this particular series of articles. Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Editors Note : If people would like example army lists for any specific legion then let me know in the comments section and I'll see what I can do ;-)

How hard would a Primarch be? - Part 2

Carrying on from this rather fluffy post in which I gave my opinions on how powerful a Primarch would be, I have altered my basic template very slightly and renamed some of the abilities so they're a bit more Primarchy*

* Not a real word I know.

My basic intention was to create a 'baseline' Primarch template on which to add abilities in order to create the ones we know about. As they are all based more or less on the same DNA I wanted a set of statistics as a starting point.

Their wargear would be of a highly individual nature so I've just given him some armour and I'll leave weapons and additional equipment for when I do specific Primarchs.

This is what I came up with as that starting point.

'Generic' Primarch

WS 7, BS 6, S 6, T 6, W 5, I 6, A 6, Ld 10, save 1+/3+ inv.

Unit Composition - 1 (Unique)

Unit Type - Infantry

Wargear:

Primarch Armour - The most advanced technology in the Imperium has been utilised to create armour worthy to protect the sons of the Emperor. - Primarch Armour grants a 1+ Armour Save (A dice roll of 1 is still a failure however) and a 3+ invulnerable save.

Special Rules:

Acute Senses, And They Shall Know No Fear, Eternal Warrior, Independent Character, Might of the Primarch*, Relentless, Will of the Primarch**.

* Might of the Primarch - Though not all Primarchs chose the path of the warrior all have the physical might required to impose their will in combat. - The Primarch may re-roll any failed to wound rolls.

** Will of the Primarch - Not only were the Primarchs gifted with a portion of the Emperors physical make-up but that of his mind as well. - The Primarch and any unit he has joined can choose to pass or fail any morale test they are called upon to make and in addition his Leadership score can never be reduced below ten by any means.

This is going to be the base-line from which I attempt to put stats to all the known Primarchs.

I would like to do Curze first as he's my favourite, though I may save him till later and do some of the easier to quantify ones first. I may also throw in some special rules for certain of the Legions Marines if it seems appropriate.
I'll obviously have to ignore my personal biases as well as otherwise Gulliman will end up with a 'run to the Emperor like a whining little bitch' rule...

Thoughts, Comments, etc. (are as usual) most welcome.

How hard would a Primarch be? - Part 1

Had a conversation at my FLGS and another later at a friends house about the various Horus Heresy books which sidelined into a conversation about the Primarchs.

There was an Apocalypse Data-sheet released for Angron a while ago that (imo) didn't really reflect how bastard hard a Daemonic Primarch must be. I mean he was still a killing machine but I was expecting...well...more...

Perhaps I was being unfair though...lets take the system that Games Workshop has provided us with and see how things scale up from human to demi-god ;-)

Let's start at the beginning then with a random guy dragged off the street and given the most basic of training and some weapons.

Conscript

WS 2, BS 2, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 3, A 1, Ld 5, Save 5+

Lasgun, Close Combat Weapon, Flak Armour.

So he has what we presume is average skill with a knife (WS 2) or a gun (BS 2), average reflexes (I3) and is unlikely to stick around when things start to go wrong (Ld 5). Pretty much a 'baseline' human then, lol.

Okay then. Lets presume that the guy survives long enough to actually get some training or is fortunate to have some before he gets sent off to war.

Imperial Guardsman.

WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 3, A 1, Ld 7, Save 5+

Lasgun, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Flak Armour.

So our human now has the benefit of military training which has increased both his WS and BS to 3. This training has already increased his resolve (Ld 7) and enabled him to be trained in the use of additional equipment (Frag Grenades).

Against the untrained human he's much more likely to land a blow with a blade, has a decent chance of hitting what he shoots at and has a good chance of sticking around (ld 7) should things look dicey. So we now have a baseline for a human with some basic training.

With a bit of extra training to elevate him to Sergeant he would be a better fighter (2 attacks) and moves into the group of people who are able to cope with the stresses of warfare (Ld8).

Of course only so much can be taught in the sterile environment of the classroom. Actually combat experience is what elevates the Guardsmen into the veteran.

Imperial Guardsman Veteran.

WS 3, BS 4, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 3, A 1, Ld 7, Save 5+

Lasgun, Close Combat Weapon, Frag + Krak Grenades, Flak Armour.

He's now reached the point where his aim is (by codex numbers) reliable and he can be trusted with better equipment as standard (Krak Grenades) he would also have been either trained in (or gained through personal experience) the ability to handle more specialised weapons such as Meltaguns, Flamers, Plasmaguns and the like.

As with the standard Guardsmen their will be some individuals who are destined for command which generally seems to mean they get an extra attack and an extra point of Leadership.

Lets take our human being and add a load of extra biological hardware and add some basic training see what we come up with.

Space Marine Scout.

WS 3, BS 3, S 4, T 4, W 1, I 4, A 1, Ld 8, save 4+

Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Frag + Krak Grenades, Scout Armour.

And They Shall Know No Fear, Combat Tactics.

All those extra organs and implants have increased his strength, toughness and reflexes (Initiative). His psychological training has given him greater willpower than a normal human (ld.8*) and the ability to overcome his basic instincts (ATSKNF) but apparently it takes a lot of training or experience to push your WS and BS up to 4...

* As were using Games Workshops system I'm obviously taking an average Leadership roll to be 7. This means that under stress a human with Leadership 7 could go either way (fight or flight) but anything lower is bad and anything higher shows a high degree of mental fortitude.

Lets give him all that extra training and psych conditioning now shall we?

Space Marine.

WS 4, BS 4, S 4, T 4, W 1, I 4, A 1, Ld 8, Save 3+

Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Frag + Krak Grenades, Power Armour.

And They Shall Know No Fear, Combat Tactics.

Given how a Marine is described in the background material a stat increase of just one apparently elevates you to a superhuman standard of ability.

Space Marines with greater experience also seem to follow the +1 A, +1 Ld. progression. Of course after a couple of hundred years they get really good...

Space Marine Captain.

WS 6, BS 5, S 4, T 4, W 3, I 5, A 3/4, Ld 10, Save 3+/4+ inv.

Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Frag + Krak Grenades, Power Armour, Iron Halo.

And They Shall Know No Fear, Combat Tactics.

So this is the pinnacle of Space Marine ability (in a broad sense, obviously). An expert in close combat, an excellent shot, faster reflexes even than his Battle Brothers and is able to sustain multiple blows that would kill another Astartes. Combine this with access to pretty much any equipment he desires** and you have an extremely formidable opponent indeed.

** unless he's unfortunate to be a Blood Angel Captain and fancies some artificer Armour, lol.

So if these guys are pale imitations of their Primarchs then those bastards must be impressive indeed. There are many examples in the background (or 'Fluff') of Primarchs carving through hordes of troops and punching through tanks so we need to reflect that in their statistics. We are also obliged to take game mechanics into account as well however if I'm sticking to my initial premise (which I am).

Before we move onto looking at what we'd expect of a Primarch, lets see what extra can be achieved if you push gene-seed to it's limit.

Pushing the envelope.

Marneus Calgar is generally regarded in fluff as being the shining light of Marine potential. In purely statistical terms this is represented by an extra wound and an extra attack as well as re-rolls to wound and various inspiring abilities. However there aren't any examples of 'Vanilla' Marine characters with a 'natural' WS above 6, BS above 5, Initiative above 5 or a Strength or Toughness above 4 so are those the limits of the gene-seed?

Cassius is T6 and has 'Feel no Pain' but those are the results of technological improvements not biological ones. It does however show that it's possible to make someone that tough so we'll bear it in mind.

Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves also seems to have peaked at those limits and even has one less wound than Calgar though he does have 5 attacks. He does have different 'special' abilities but these can still be broadly classified as 'inspirational' rather than genetic.

So we have worked out how far we can push the genetic potential of a Marine then?

Unfortunately not, as the Blood Angels have put several spanners in the works...bastards...

Dante is I6.

The Sanguinor is WS 8, S 5 and (like Dante) is I6 as well as having an impressive 5 attacks base. He may just be a psychic construct of the Blood Angels imagination though so we might be able to ignore him.

And then there was Mephiston...

Mephiston.

WS 7, BS 5, S 6, T 6, W 5, I 7, A 4, Ld 10, save 2+/4+

And They Shall Know No Fear, Fleet.

The Blood Angels Codex seems to attribute his abilities to the unlocking of the potential of his gene-seed by the overcoming of the Black Rage. He could just be possessed though...

Until Games Workshop lets us know one way or another I think we'll have to leave him and The Sanguinor out of our calculations for now.

So lets take the maximum stats from all our top of the line Marines and see what we come up with

Frankenubermarine.

WS 6, BS 5, S 4, T 4, W 4, I 6, A 5, Ld 10, save 2+/4+ inv.

Various cool abilities.

So lets be the Emperor for a day and build ourselves a Primarch.

Lets start at the beginning then with WS,

The chances of a Primarch swinging and missing should be pretty low and the chances of you hitting him back should be pretty low as well. The minimum I think we can get away with is 7, with the Combat monster Primarchs like Leman Russ, Angron and the like going anywhere up to 9 or possibly 10 and the less physical ones (like Lorgar) should still be hitting pretty much everything mortal on 3's so 7 it is then.

Shooting any ranged weapon accurately takes practice. If your senses and physical abilities are 'primarch' good though, I'd think missing would be a rarity. BS6 should reflect this nicely.

Strength is a tricky one, though. Most Monstrous Creatures are around the S6 mark and there are plenty of examples of Primarchs kicking their asses so S6 is a good place to start. Remember we're creating a 'generic' Primarch here and certain ones are going to be stronger.

Primarchs could be hurt so we can't make them ridiculously tough. T6 allows them to potentially be hurt by mere mortals but also makes it fairly unlikely.

Since Primarchs are much bigger than Marines it's only logical that they could take a corresponding increase in damage before succumbing so we we'll give them a 50% increase in wounds over 'Uber Marine' and call it 6...Maybe 6 is too much now I've thought about it...we'll call it 5 for now.

We have Marines that are Initiative 6 but they are rare in the extreme so we can call this an exception rather than a rule for Marines. However it's not an unreasonable baseline for our Primarch. Those known for their speed and skill like Curze or Corax could probably be as high as 9 or 10, Somebody like Lorgar may even be slightly lower than the baseline as his own Legion tried to talk him out of picking fights with the other Primarchs at Isstvan ;-)

Attacks is a pretty big variable but as our Primarchs were basically designed as warriors we'll give them one over the Marine Maximum and call it 6.

Leadership is going to be 10. It's reasonable to assume that a Primarch could easily decide what battles to fight and which he'd rather not so he'd most likely have some equivalent of Calgars 'God of War' power, even if it only applied to himself. Obviously there would be exceptions as I'm reasonably sure Angron would be fearless.

Last but by no means least is our armour save. As were talking about the equivalent of demi-gods here with access to the best armour and equipment ever created , lets break (or at least bend a little) one of the fundamental rules and give them a 1+ armour save. This means that they'd get a save vs. Plasma weapons and similar but not something like a Meltagun and as a 1 always fails this wouldn't be too unbalancing.

We'll give them a 3+ invulnerable save as well. this can represent superior armour, psychic powers or superhuman reflexes depending on his individual abilities.

He'll need some generic abilities as well I suppose. Eternal Warrior is an obvious start as are Calgars 'God of War' and 'Titanic Might' abilities. I suppose there's a good argument for Feel no Pain also but that'd make him almost immune to small arms fire...and were still looking for some form of balance here.

So we've standardised his profile, 'base' abilities and his basic defensive equipment. Weapons are going to be highly individual so we'll leave them alone till we look at specific individuals.

Lets see what we've got,

Primarch 'Template'

WS 7, BS 6, S 6, T 6, W 5, I 6, A 6, Ld 10, save 1+/3+ inv.

Eternal Warrior, God of War, Titanic Might.

That seems fairly reasonable though his actual points value would be effected by the weapons and Legion specific powers he had.

Individual Primarchs would obviously vary from this and it's likely that some individual statistics would be higher.

Many of them like Leman Russ, Angron, Khan and the rest of the more physical Primarchs would have a higher Weapon Skill than the average with those like Lorgar and Magnus possibly even being lower (though Magnus could give himself whatever proportions he liked so the same may apply to his abilities). Corax and Curze would certainly be faster than the average, Dorn would likely be stronger (I know Curze beat him up but presumably when Curze kicked the shit out of him he outfought him rather than wrestled him to the ground, lol).

Anyway, that's what I think a Generic Primarch would be like. I'll put forward my interpretation of specific Primarchs over the next few Sundays most likely starting with Konrad Curze as he's my favourite...

Thoughts, comments and dissenting opinions are (as usual) most welcome.