# Help! Custom Space Marine Chapter.



## Oodles (Feb 24, 2009)

Hey guys! And thanks for the forseen help. Very new to 40k and am wanting to make my own Space Marine Chapter. What exactly are the rules? Can i choose any current chapter (black templars look good so far) and just paint them differently? Or do i have to make a background story to tie them into the chapter and why they are painted how they are? Can my chapter get the "racial" skills/rules/traits, whatever they are called? I read in a post a couple of days ago on here that i just pick and current codex then name and paint my army and away go. 

Once again, thanks for the help:biggrin:

PS: The paint scheme im planning is the one on my avatar.


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## Grik (Jul 28, 2008)

You can do whatever you want when making your own Chapter. There doesn't have to be any specific reason as to why they area painted a certain way or what Chapter their geneseed is from. Just use whatever chapter you like. For fluff purposes it would be nice to have info on what Chapter their geneseed came from, why they are painted that way, what their operating doctrines are, how they recruit, etc. It would fill the Chapter fluff out. 

As for the Chapter Traits, those are no longer viable. They were for 4th Ed only, and with the 5th Ed Codex, GW eliminated them. Just do whatever makes you happy and allows you to enjoy the game when you play. I would advise playing a few games using the Basic Space Marine Codex, the Blood Angels Codex, The Dark Angels Codex, the Black Templars Codex, and maybe even the Space Wolves Codex. That way you can know if you like how that army plays and feels before painting a bunch of models up only to find you hate the way that Chapter plays and feels. Once you find a set of Chapter rules you like, have fun painting.


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## Oodles (Feb 24, 2009)

Cool! Im gna paint my army the same way no matter what chapter/play style i chose. But to be able to save me time as it were, ill tell you how i want to play and if you can, could you guide me to the right chapter?, Im planning on using Tactical squads assisted by Scout squads w/ Sniper rifles, I also would like to make my play style include Terminators and Assault Bikes(if thats what they are called).
I apologise sincerely if i sound like a total NOOB, but i can't help it...I am one! lol


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## Grik (Jul 28, 2008)

Oodles said:


> Cool! Im gna paint my army the same way no matter what chapter/play style i chose. But to be able to save me time as it were, ill tell you how i want to play and if you can, could you guide me to the right chapter?, Im planning on using Tactical squads assisted by Scout squads w/ Sniper rifles, I also would like to make my play style include Terminators and Assault Bikes(if thats what they are called).
> I apologise sincerely if i sound like a total NOOB, but i can't help it...I am one! lol


That's a pretty basic list. I would recommend using the basic 5th Ed Space Marine Codex. If you're local games store sells second hand books, and you can find them for relatively cheap, I'd pick up the Dark Angels, and Black Templars Codexes and read through them and see if you want to use any of those rules. The Blood Angles Codex is a .PDF that can be found on GW's website so it's free to you! Right now I think the basic Space Marine codex would be your best bet though.


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## dtq (Feb 19, 2009)

Personally I have no problems taking a specific chapters codex and applying them to my own army. My "Spacewolves" run either codex space marines or spacewolves as I feel fit. For a long time they followed codex dark angels as well... but they are the "Green Hunters" with some homebrew fluff. 

As long as you follow the complete codex for "a chapter" then paint them your own way you dont have to have them as "relatives" to the chapter whose rules you are borrowing. As for creating your own backstory its not essential in game terms, BUT I find it makes an army far more interesting. It is worth reading up a lot of established fluff to make your own story "fit in".

My army are not a "spacewolves successor chapter" which would be borderline conflicting with established fluff about the lack of space wolves successor chapters. But their long term isolation on a jungle deathworld in ork territory has led them to a more tribal feral existance. Hence I use space wolves codex, space wolves models, my own colour scheme and my own "characters" using rules from the codex. I also ran dark angels models and rules in the chapter as well until my oldest son decided to collect Dark Angels and I repainted all the existing models for his use as pure dark angels.

My fluff at the time had the chapter basically split in two. originally being a dark angels successor chapter. Early on in their history they had came to rescue a imperial world on the border of a massive ork empire. The chapter master of the day had vowed to clear the ork presence with his power axe, which is still carried by the current chapter master to this day. (logan grimnars Axe Morkai rules and model wise.)

The idea of the axe vow was originally put in place to explain why the space marines havent just virus bombed the planet or taken other extreme action, but yet are still in constant conflict with the orks after several millenia. But the fluff grew its own branches and has led to a lot of conversions in my army, I have a lot of them carrying axes, quite often ork choppas, with the story that they only become a full part of chapter on the taking of an axe from an ork nob in single combat. Basically they only recruit from the native feral population who are kept tough by constantly fighting off orks themselves. 

The Axe thing is a big hook for my army, obviously the orks know that the marines are targetting axe wielders for trophies and so being brave neough to carry an axe into battle is badge of courage for the orks as well  This also inspired the look of my army, the idea being that over the millenia the hunters have became like the prey, for a start they wear snot green armour, close to ork colours, they carry ork choppas a lot, they like to charge into ferocious close combat like orks .

Whilst the feral jungle world and millenia of ork conflict would be enough to explain a more barbaric chapter I decided to go a bit further and in order to explain why some of my guys were robe wearers whilst others were covered in wolf pelts I created a schism very early on in the chapter, when a 1st company master came back claiming to have been visited by Leman Russ who claimed them as sons of Russ. (Note I dont claim that this is a fact, only that this is how the chapters legend goes) I basically have a legend Leman Russ visited them after his dissappearance from Fenris, and he brought with him some wolves of Fenris who are as at home in the jungle as they were on Fenris. As the first wolf "Convert" was 1st company master and battle brother for a few centuries to the dark angels successor chapter master of the day he was not "purged" and the wolf cult within the chapter slowly grew.

The chapter is now half and half, but all brothers in battle. There is a side note from an imperial genetecist that in fact the wolves on the planet have came from fenrisian stock, but that they could be there due to actions of rogue traders, past actions of the space wolves during the great crusades etc etc.

What I never do is try to run the army as half following space wolves and half following dark angels I stick to one codex per battle. and use whichever models fill the role Im looking for with wysiwyg rules. These days I dont often fiel dark angels looking models as all those have gone to my son, but my fiction still allows me to use them mingled with my space wolves models.

Its a very "dicey" fiction given the space wolves \ dark angels rivalry, but despite Leman Russ and Lion El'Johnson being "rivals" they were also brothers.


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## sea dragons (Jan 14, 2008)

there is alot of ways to go about it really. u can take a existing chapter and have an off shoot of them kind of like 2 to 3 founding chapters. i think its like on the 30th foundings now. this way u take a chapter like the Black Templars, take most of their traits change one or two to make them diff. re-name them e.g. temple hammers or somthing. paint them a diff colour there u go new chapter. or go for the long way round and create a brand new chapter with its own history. meny do this by having all records lost so there founding is unsure, others do it by having them as part of the cursed foundings. my chapter fluff should be on here somewere if u wana check it out. 

hope this helps.


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## Death Shroud (Mar 1, 2008)

Some players aren't really concerned with army background at all but if you are (like me) you fine that the more effort and thought you put into it the more you get out. There are a few factors worth considering.

1:- How important is the ease of applying chapter iconography. Do you want to be able to use existing forgeworld doors, citadel transfers etc.

2:- What codex are you going to use? Templars, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Space wolves or vanilla flavour. Each book has it's pros and cons and will affect the style of play, models you collect. The background to your army is best if it reflects your army selection.

3:- Who is your chapter's Primarch? Is the primarch reflected strongly in the background of your army? Is the geneseed of your chapter from a questionable or unknown source.

4:- What colour scheme do you want to paint your chapter?

5:- Do you have a piece of backstory that you want to incorporate into your chapter?

6:- What is a cool chapter name that fits all of the above? (this part is really hard for some reason)

Example:

I hated the idea of badly painting tens of shoulder pads so I decided on useing forgeworld pads, brass etching and vehicle doors.

I really liked the forgeworld Red Scorpions stuff so I first thought of creating a chapter created from the Red Scorpions Geneseed and calling them the "Black Scorpions". I'd looked at the armour colours for ease of painting and thought that it would be easy (and different) to have marines primary colour as Deneb Stone with black detailing (I haven't tried a painted example yet so that could change).

The Red Scorpions are a puritanical chapter with a really cool recruiting method and links to an inquisitor who is unusually eager to have more chapter made from their geneseed (Yay, cool background hooks from Forgeworld already).

I looked up Scorpions on Wikipedia and amongst the info I found that the most deadly poisonous scorpion breed is a type called the "Deathstalker" (Yay cool name via wikipedia). The Deathstalker is found in the middle east and african deserts including the deserts of Israel (hmm, hebrew or arabic names for the people on this planet adds to character).

Wikipedia is your friend when looking for background and naming ideas, a thesaurus can be surprisingly useful for this too. 

Hope this helps.


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## gaboo05 (Mar 13, 2009)

I also is very new but i dont understand do i need to have the colors from chapters or can i rly just make up a color scheme my self?


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

If you paint your army differently than the order you are trying to represent with your list, just make sure you tell the person you are playing against what they are before you get started. 

Some players may find it annoying if they army is pink and gold but you are playing them as Black Templar... IMO it might seem like you are trying to sideboard against a particular opponent, which is kinda cheesy. Some players might not have a problem with it though.


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## Captain Ricky (Aug 15, 2011)

do you use the normal space marine codex's then? And how easy do u think it is if any of you have tried it?


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Captain Ricky said:


> do you use the normal space marine codex's then? And how easy do u think it is if any of you have tried it?


You can use whichever Codex you want, as long as it fits with your playing style. All a Codex really is, when you strip it down, is a set of rules that enable you to build a certain style of army to play. 
At the moment I'm putting together a Blood Angels successor army, the Knights of Blood. They are listed in the BA codex and the CSM dex (cool!) so the army I'm putting together is designed to be used with either dex. 
I chose the Knights of Blood for a couple of reasons, I really like their colour scheme and there is almost no fluff written about them at all, freeing me up to make them mine and unique. The same could be applied to any chapter you want using any codex you like the look of. 

At the more extreme end of the scale, depending on how much work you wanted to put into it you could use a codex for a completely different army. Some people will moan but tough! 
You could, for example, use the Necron dex for an Imperial Guard army, you would have to work bloody hard to explain why and how everything works but it could be done. Ultimately what dex and minis you use is entirely down to you, the dex is only rules and the minis are only playing pieces.


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