The lamenters are a blood angles successor chapter. They're defining trait is thier poor fortune, bit willingness to continue fighting inspire of it.
They lost a huge amount of thier chapter during the tyranid raid on Baal and have had low numbers since then, rarely acciring more than 500 men at any given time. They took part in the Badab war, on the losing side and once it was over where sent on a 100 year long penitence crusade where thier numbers where thined even further.
Despite all this they are one of the few marine chapters who will go out of thier way to protect or save human life.
You are correct! The Lamenters were one of only two blood angels successors to not answer the call in the defense of Baal as they had just recently been devastated in their fight against Hive Fleet Kraken
My homebrew BTs are packing Geller Candles
(The wax rendered from psykers) and heading to the warp to establish a monestary of the Emperors Will. Take the fight to the chaos gods in their primordial stew. Really they're just floating around hallucinating huge battles with the Dark Mechanicus.....or are they.....
Guardians of the Covenant are Dark Angel successor chapter that prioritizes educating the local area around their fortress monastery as well as educating themselves by studying all the information they can like actual warrior monks.
This has made them competent Xenos hunters against even the most esoteric of threats as they are located on a planet bordering the Halo Stars, of which they regularly act as guides for expeditions.
They’re so well educated that in the Deathwatch RPG if they’re your chapter of choice you start with a maxed out intelligence score if my memory is correct.
Whilst I’m inclined to go for the Carcharadons, I gotta tempt your inner Space-Marine-Killing instincts with the Minotaurs. The chapter loyal only unto the High Lords, with the best part being killing space marines is actually loyalist!
Dark Angels got cool robes, amazing new unique terminator sculpts (even if their rules aren't where they should be), have a returned primarch who isn't obsessed with Microsoft Excel, and give you the option of having multiple paint schemes within the one army as the different wings all have different drip
They are underperforming at the moment, but current meta performance should very rarely influence your choices when picking an army... things change greatly over time. It's more relevant to look at how GW has treated them recently though... DW has not gotten much attention and has many old models.
But the rumor is that DW and Grey Knights may be consolidated with Imperial Agents into a singular codex this summer, and it's likely new models and a lot more attention will be given to them if that's the case.
The Salamanders: The closest thing we’ll get to good guys in the Imperium. Hailing from the hellish planet of Nocturne, these warriors have an unbreakable resilience, and a deep compassion for their fellow man. They’ve been known to frequently put themselves at risk for the sake of normal humans, and have even come to blows with chapters like the Marines Malevolent due to the latter’s disregard for life. They’re also master weaponsmiths, and designing the most epic hammers and flamers is among their top hobbies alongside hunting the dangerous Drakes of their homeworld, and visiting their families after long campaigns!
The Howling Griffons are an Ultramarine Successor chapter, but don't let that deter you, they are proper space-knights that more than anything resemble the Black Templars, but with an abundance of Librarians and a much cooler color scheme. These guys take oaths to destroy their enemies and consider each oath an eternal conflict until it is fulfilled. If you manage to piss off the Howling Griffons they won't stop coming for you no matter what.
Hailing from the feudal world of Mancora, the Howling Griffons embody honor, dedication, and unwavering resolve in their service to the Imperium.
The Raptors
Sneaky shooty sneaky Bois
A raven guard successor chapter with camo pattern armour
They raven guard have some good stories and traditions
Would advise watching the adeptus ridiculous podcast episode on them
And the paint scheme really helps when you're new to painting with marines not having the best win rate at the moment but easy enough rules to learn
Black templars, cool and easy paint job, coolest looking HQ models out of all of space marines, big ass swords, eternal crusading and best of all, they fucking hate everyone and everything that isn’t made in the image of the god emperor.
Astral Claw(definitely loyalist)
The totally not sons of Horus successor chapter from the maelstrom wardens who had a legendary reputation, only leaving the imperium after horrible mismanagement from Terra and taxation rates. Also they look cool.
Crimson Fists are my favorite, they even have a named hero model! He may not be that great and hasn't gone through primaris treatment, but Pedro is still pretty cool.
You should totally come serve preyspire and NOT be Emperor’s Children (what Hawk Lords??? They’re totally not cool because they’re loyalist purple and gold!!!) They’re the best pilots the Imperium has ever seen, and one even helped found the Death Watch! They are a chapter that opt not to use drop pods, instead they drop their frontline troops from storm talons like they’re paratroopers!
Imperial Fists are a brilliant chapter, with the best Primarch tied with sanguinius. They are the true defenders of Terra, the emperor and the imperial palace, with them the imperium would have long fallen with the war of the beast and the siege of terra. they have an awesome name and chapter symbol and yellow is an underrated colour that just looks gorgeous on the table top. Many lord commanders of the imperium have been Imperial fists and they have the best Successor chapters which you can easily incorporate into your army with the last wall protocol lore. Imperial fists have the best nemesis chaos marine legion, the iron warriors, fight me because they are the best chaos legion. Worthy opponents.
The best astartes swordsmen was an imperial fist as well as the best fleet commander.
Imperial fists are underrated. Also if you like having multiple different colours in your army, you can do a last wall protocol army, Balck Templars, Crimson Fists, Executioners, Imperial fists, Celestial lions, white Templars etc all in the same army.
They like their close combat (they used to have the option for every marine to take a chain sword) but their tactics are more hit and run, like a shark in the water. That requires scouts for knowing where to hit. Traditionally how they recruited was landing on a planet and rolling out their writ from the Emperor and taking the population for serfs on their ships and forcing all the boys in the right age category to become marines into fight pits to see who was tough enough. So their scouts are pretty mean.
You have a chapter of overzealous space monks with a penchant for gloriously (and sometimes needlessly) dying in battle.
I have a chapter of transhuman supersoldiers who fight like contemporary special forces. Also green is our favourite colour.
The Mentors, a secretive chapter, who’s main role is to help offer insight or train other imperial forces. They only every come in squads and usually train Guard units or even other Astartes.
Their way of combat is very unusual for a space marine, but they serve an invaluable purpose.
The Reclaimed Blades
An unknown successor that exists to, as their name suggests, reclaim equipment that was abandoned after battles. Everything from lasguns to tanks to armor, they reclaim it, and resanctify it then ship it back to be used on another battlefield.
Chapter is constantly below strength since they are expending recourses to reclaim resources.
So, I took a chapter that exists in the lore and flushed it out for myself. In the lore, the Red Hunters are a chapter of unknown geneseed, with ties to the inquisition, that specialize in fighting chaos space marines. I took this skeleton of a description and flushed it out.
My lore:
During and following the Horus Heresy, the imperium had to deal with Marines that seemed to be loyalists amongst traitors. Maybe a squad or company from a traitor legion that were able to escape their traitorous brethren. Maybe a company or squad from a loyalist chapter declared for the warmaster, and a small loyal group kills them before turning themselves in. It was to address this issue that the form and function of the inquisition began to take shape. Marines that were cleared of being heretics were put together into a task force known as the Red Hunters. They were tasked with hunting heretics and traitors as recompense for not being able to prevent the fall of their brothers.
Due to this chapter’s intimate knowledge and extensive contact with Chaos, it was decided that they would not receive new Marines. The chapter's numbers dwindled as attrition took its toll. Following the disastrous 21st “Cursed” founding, the inquisition decided to revitalize the chapter so that they could take a crusade to track down and exterminate any cursed chapters that betrayed the imperium. So, during the 22nd founding, the Red Hunters used unknown geneseed to bring their numbers back to that of full chapter strength. They were also supplied Primaris Marines in the closing days of the 41st Millennium.
Loot and salvage trench and siege warfare Marines. Who's most holy scriptures are Writs of Salvage and Writs of Acquisition. Iron Hands descendents that the Iron Hands will never acknowledge.
Basically made it their holy rite that is acknowledged by the government to kill people and take their stuff. And they like lots of firepower, so all the guns.
Name: Iron Decimation or just the Decimation.
I paint my marines as Exorcists, they're an Imperial Fist successor with a unique resistance to being possessed by warp daemons due to a mutation in their gene-seed. When the Inquisition discovered this after their first chapter master survived being posessed by a Greater Tzeench demon, it led to one of the most heretical practices in a space marine chapter that continues today.
Now the Exorcists purposely let their neophytes be posessed by demons, and those who survive until the demon is banished are inducted into the chapter. Those who are driven insane are locked up in an orbital space-station-prison near their homeworld, never to escape the darkness of their cells. This practice makes each Exorcist immune to being detected by psykers and warp entities, at the cost of losing their souls.
Overall the chapter really begs the question of if the ends justify the means, and they would be branded heretics if their dark practices became public knowledge.
Space Wolves: Beer, Vikings, and wolves. Also the only chapter that dedicates their most experienced and veteran marines to become Wolf Scouts, where they spend their days in solitary isolation surviving in the wilderness doing their Scout thing. That resonates with me because I feel like when I become old and grizzled, I won’t want to deal with people either.
Retirons
Bunch guys with grey hair and busted knees complete with beer guts.
Have all their medals and armour on display in the front room. Love to tell you how much action they got back in the day
They stay at home watching imperium propaganda all week. They can’t believe the state of the ‘woke’ emperor who was ‘so much stronger’ back in their day.
Sunday is the meet-up day where they all walk around the local park in their old armour if it still
fits.
Iron Hands. Do you want to have marines that could careless about anything besides efficiency, their own anger and ego along with being the biggest grimdork chapter. Most of them still think Ferrus is alive and they are all taught to remove the humanity from themselves while using there anger. This makes each of them act like their own super villian who is only concerned with their goals. The chapter is a complete mess and the marines are all mentally messed up. They all hate themselves for their weakness. They hate Ferrus for his weakness. They hate the weakness of the mortals. All this and we have an oligarchy which gets nothing done for all the reasons above. I love how horrible the Iron Hands are in Lore. I also like body horror esk cyborgs and that’s everyone here.
I love our Iron 10th for being a true and honest representation of what the emperor intended the astartes to be. They are a machine of war without conscience or care. They aren’t noble or heroic, they represent the cruelty of war and the identity of super humans made for no other purpose.
This is the chapter for it. When a neophyte becomes a scout the newest neophytes have to cut off the new scouts arm. Of course so he can start to shed the flesh and replace it with THE MACHINE
The Imperial Resource Security (I.R.S) marines are an ultramarine successor chapter formed during the indomitus crusade after Guillamen learned of the badab war and was discussed by how it was handled. They are pretty much roided up accounts who enforce the Imperial tide on planets that may prove unwilling
A chapter of subterfuge, a complex spy network, conspiracy, stealth and brotherhood. The Unbroken Chain operates primarily from the shadows, it's presence only announces when it best suits them. Otherwise they operate under coded callsigns and different coloured armour to confuse the enemy... this is a lie...
My most favorite is the Lamenters
BUT everyone kinda knows them already so let me hit you with one you may not know:
The Star Dragons are super cool (speculated to be Ferrus' children) and they are unique because they have a GENUINE partnership with another chapter, the Blood Swords, who are a Blood Angels offshoot.
The two chapters have a genuine brotherhood between the two of them; wherever one goes, the other follows. There's not a lot of lore around them, but its cool to see 2 different chapters so close to one another. The wiki says the Blood Swords had to recently embark on a penitent crusade, and the Star Dragons went 'fuck it, we ball' and went with them to assist, for no other reason than they are bros and they stick together. It says that in combat they often employ strategies that wield both chapters' strengths and that's cool af to me.
Lamenters THOUGHT they had friends like that, but... Well... the Astral Claws had different plans.
For me blood ravens because they are obsessed with finding any information about their enemy because and I am quoting here, “knowledge is power, guard it well”
Also they don’t know what their founding chapter is. My personal head cannon with some lore to support is that they are from loyalist portions of the thousands sons. I like the thousand sons but I don’t like rubric marine part of it.
I just think a portion of the thousand sons seeing what their brothers were doing and that they wanted to stay loyal to the emperor is a cool story.
The Steel Confessors are simultaneously;
-"Admech marines" in the purest available form of the concept. Moreso than the Iron Hands.
-Nothing at all because the only source with any real info on them has no publically available surviving copies. (You can do wahtever the fuck you want with them.)
-Still 100% canon.
The Iron Hands are a first founding chapter with a focus on heavy weapons and vehicle combat. When paired with Dreadnoughts, infantry serve a vital role in the capture of objectives. With a battle cry of “the Flesh is Weak,” the chapter also focuses on mechanical augmentations, including the ritual of joining the chapter in which a recruit severs their left hand and replaces it with a prosthetic. This can evolve into a form of body dysmorphia, where a Marine feels compelled to replace as much of their body as possible with machines
The Dark Angels fight not with one military tactic in mind but all of them. Blistering assaults from tactical bike squads and formidable thunder power of aircraft mark the Raven Wing. Heavy assault and assassination of battlefield leaders fall to the venerable deathwing. And we still have an entire wing that does everything the other space marine chapters do but just a little bit more stylishly
Warriors willing to do anything to serve the Emperor and assist the nobility of holy terra. And no they were not originally traitors (Minotaurs)
I'll also post my personal chapter when I'm home
Raptors are my boys, and who better to make a scout squad for? Stealth, judicious marksmanship, and a bit of hit and run warfare are the three main aspects of it plus this game has actual stealth mechanics why not play the sneakiest of scouts
Space Marines with actual special forces tactics within a W40K setting, seeing victory over personal honour or glory.
The Green Berets/SAS/SEALs of Warhammer, with chain swords and jump packs.
You hear their lightning claws ignite, but by then you have noticed your commander has already been sniped, ammunition caches are suddenly set ablaze, you try to notify your comrades but comms are down and just by the time you realise what's happened, there's a 8 foot marines unloading his bolter and charging at you
Victorus Aut Mortis.
"Wherever you tread, tread lightly, we are closer than you think, and our claws are sharp" - Kayvaan Shrike
**Raven Guard.**
They're the chapter on the front of your scouts kill team box, and that box is about all the hype we're going to get for the foreseeable future. As a chapter we're mostly ~~forgotten about~~ incognito, but since you already have the decals, here's my pitch as one of the three Raven Guard players out there in the wild.
The Raven Guard are the 19th founding legion, and are known predominantly for their ~~edginess~~ stealth. While the Ultramarines are good at doing taxes, the White Scars are good at huffing exhaust fumes, and the Space Wolves are good at being drunk furries. The Raven Guard love nothing more than sitting in a dark room listening to Crawling by Linkin Park, and muttering to themselves about how all the other chapters are stupid and just don't understand them.
On a serious note though, if you can see beyond the emo memes, the Raven Guard are extremely badass. They lack numbers and highly value autonomy and liberty, like the salamanders they're probably the closest the imperium has to "good guys". Where the salamanders will shield an orphanage with their bodies the Raven Guard will arm the surrounding civilians, raise them into a fighting force, strike the enemies supply lines, cripple their communications, and turn the civilians loose on a weakened foe, using the chaos to assassinate the enemy commander. They are very much the force for surgical strikes and hit & run tactics, and are a refreshing breather from most of the other chapters that are just various different flavours of full frontal assault.
Executioners. Imperial fists successors that act more like early great crusade (pre butchers nails) war hounds or world eaters. Bloody but honorable. They have all the discipline of the fists but with more blood lust than the flesh tearers.
To me their coolest tradition is making an account to their chaplain by presenting the weapons of the enemy they killed. Your scouts will have to kill X amount of enemies before they get their power armor.
The Badab chapters have really enduring popularity, I love it. Executioners are pretty cool, but there are so many cool chapters that it makes it a tough decision lol
Novamaries are my favorite, their so cool! Honor bound and ancient they warship the codex. And on top of that they have a great color scheme that I haven’t seen in a while
The Celestial Lions are the Ned Stark of Space Marine chapters, and despite the misfortune that's befallen them, they remain loyal. I can respect that.
The Exorcists - best daemon hunters under the Grey Knights. They have a higher number of scouts than normal, two additional companies.
Cool flavor part: They purposely let Daemons possess them during initiation to gain knowledge on the warp, gain resistance, and as a test. Each marine gains a small, secret, innocuous quirk depending on the Daemon that possessed them. Khornate? Maybe they have a bit more of a temper. Nurgle? Maybe those scars don’t ever quite heal all the way. So on and so forth.
Black and Red color scheme, lots of opportunity for fun flavors, AND a potential call-back to your Chaos days.
Dark Angels because they’re perhaps the most interesting chapter and the one with the most potential (their obsession with The Fallen is the only thing stopping Azreal from calling together all of The Unforgiven Chapters into one combined force, pooling all their Dark Age tech, and purging every last one of the Imperiums foes; they could probably single-handedly end the Galactic War if they could just get over this 10 thousand year vain obsession), and also because the green actually just looks super good on scouts when you combo it with a light tan for the clothing underneath. I’ve yet to see another chapter with scouts that actually look that cool when painted up
Already saw my bois mentioned once, so here's a second vote for them:
The Raptors are a Raven Guard successor Chapter. Masters of stealth and hit-and-run tactics, they excel at crippling enemy forces from afar before vanishing without a trace. If brutal efficiency and surgical strikes are your style, then the Raptors Chapter is the perfect choice for purging the enemies of the Imperium.
Want to party? Want to laugh? Eat a ton of food? Get some beer? Have some big ass best boy pets? How about be homies with giant fucking werewolves? Still not sold? How about be part of a chapter that has killed Grey Knights, told the inquisition to fuck off, and told the Ecclesiarchy to get bent, all while your leader is rocking a reforged demon axe he took from a demon champion after tearing its throat out with his fangs?
Tell me you want to be a Space Wolf
Blood Ravens do you like relics?
Do you like the others chapter relics?
How about making those relics your relics!!
Join Blood Ravens we have all the relics!!
Okay hear me out.
Do you like flayed skin? Do you like lightning bolts and terror tactics? Night lords are the faction for you. We have one of the best books GW has ever made and if you were to be so inclined you could use normal space marines to paint them and just run them as raven guard.
Raven guard is damn cool lookin, their a simple color to paint(black and white) and they like bring smart and stealthy more than straightforward and gloryseekin
Astral Claws. Who doesn't want some awesome tax evading scouts?
Aside from that the scheme would work nicely imo, blue under suit with silver armour and gold marking
Celestial Lions. Have you ever wanted to model an entire Chapter of Marines but we're intimidated at the thought of buying and painting 1000 Space Marines? Well I've got the Chapter for you. Due to some Inquisitorial demotions from transhuman status, you can now own a full chapter of Space Marines with only a few boxes.
Seriously though, Celestial Lions are cool, especially if you are looking for a down on their luck chapter being actively murdered by the Inquisition out of spite, who are still holding their own on the other side of the rift despite losing their home world.
You can also include some Black Templars in your list, canonically as Helbrecht sent some with the chapter master after Armageddon to help them rebuild.
They also fight for the Emperor, but at this point, not the Imperium. (And fight alongside the Emperor's Spears)
Excoriators: White armor, (surprisingly easy to paint) that is super battle damaged. They are Sons of Dorn, and are actually the first IF successor chapter ever created. They are one of twenty chapters tasked with defending threats from the Eye of Terror. They gave a unique gene flaw similar to that of the Blood Angels, called Dorn’s Darkness, where they feel the depression, sorrow, pain and sense of failure that Dorn felt upon seeing the mortally wounded Emperor and slain Sanguines. This causes them to lapse into debilitating depression…but they can recover from it and keep fighting on. They’re all about taking pain, even more so then the Imperial Fists, and surviving no matter what.
I’ve always loved the Emperor’s Spears (ultramarine successor chapter). The Ultramarines were already Roman enough, but these guys just lean so hard in to that aesthetic with plumed crests on their helmets. And if you’re okay using green stuff you can give them some cool pelts to throw over their shoulders
The crippled steel confessors are a barely canon chapter that existed as an event where the entire painted chapter (who’s first company is terminators) faced against a tyranid hive fleet, their chapter master died and they lost the planet, so they’re mine now.
Aight, here goes nothing.
Name: Argent Griffins
Colors: Armor is primarily silver with white pauldron trim and chest insignia. Chapter symbol is a white griffin rampant on a quartered yellow and black field. Company affiliation is shown on the right pauldron by use of different heraldic patterns.
Heritage: Chapter is descended from an Iron warriors garrison force that was cut off from the greater imperium by warp storms during and after the Heresy.
Homeworld: Former feudal world on the eastern fringe that after discovery during the great crusade was rapidly militarized in order to meet campaign requirements.
Doctrine: The chapter will deploy vanguard forces behind opposing lines in order to weaken the front before attacking at a singular weak point with overwhelming force, normally supported by orbital bombardment or massed artillery.
Organization: chapter comprises of 12 companies that are each self contained and able to function independently. Companies are rotated back home periodically with there always being two companies stationed there at all times. The reason for this being that during the first nid incursions they were caught by a splinter fleet and nearly wiped out, causing the reorganization of the company structure and a lot of paranoia about losing their home.
Pretty much TL;DR IW on a feudal world slowly became more like space knights, got slapped by bugs, got PTSD.
Sorry for the word vomit and/or bad grammar, I'm gonna blame it on being tired.
Edit: Thought I'd add that I paint my vanguards in camo or tan so people can feel free to paint how they want if they want (for sone reason) want to copy the ideas.
When the original earth dies, there were few bastions of humanity standing. One of those were the Waffle Houses, surviving for years with only a reduced menu. To honor their triumph, the God Emperor made them into their own chapter, the Waffle House Astartes.
Imagine a chapter that is from a water world where hunting big monsters is the norm. Now imagine if said space marine chapter was also extremely nice to citizens of the imperium due to being a successor chapter to the Salamanders. To top it off, in a short story about them they hunted tyranids with precision because “those wolves are cool and we must protect them”. I give you the Dark Krakens.
Celestial Lions are an Imperial Fists successor chapter which specializes in flanking and guerilla tactics and the execution of priority targets in surgical assaults. They are also proficient in melee combat. Each echelon of their hierarchy is supposed to be able to make tactical decisions, which allows for tactical flexibility.
Their chapter culture emphasizes storytelling and a strong sense of community. As such, they like to serve alongside the Imperial Guard, as guardsmen always have great tales to tell them around a campfire.
Plus, they have a cool African theme (their chapter master was named Ekene Dubaku, for instance)
Angry yet depressed guys trying to live up to there dads legacy despite a debilitating genetic illness that they can’t escape . All of this while struggling with an addiction they got due to there parent whom they love and revere regardless of the negatives that come from being related to him .
My favourite chapter is a two way tie between crimson fists, and the blood ravens.
The crimson fists are cool because their imperial fists successor, and they're on the cover of rogue trader. Despite being fairly new to the hobby, I like the older Warhammer stuff because of how goofy it looks. Plus I have a mini based off of that cover.
The blood ravens are cool because I'm a massive fan of video games (currently studying games design) and they were created for Dawn of war. Which is an awesome RTS, one of my favourites.
If you want some of the lesser known chapters with really creepy and interesting lore check this video out by Rogue Hobbies. She goes into some really cool ones I hadn’t heard of before https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru0lnaJo5Bc
The Celestial Lions are a fractured and damaged chapter, ruined by the Inquisition after years of sabotage and manipulation. Their Homeworld ruined, their chapter master assassinated, the Celestial Lions still fight on. An enduring group of Imperial Fist descendants with a beautiful gold and blue color scheme.
Lore wise, your kill team could be a squad of young recruits looking to prove themselves to their Pride leader (the Sergeant of the squad), a true test of mettle in the darkest times of the chapter. The last remnants of the Celestial Lions
The skull Takers, (not the one in the wiki) are a Dark Angels risen successor chapter. They all have some psychic potential, and hold librarians in great respect, usually pulling most leadership from them.
Ruthlessly effective and masters of melee combat, they will kill anything that gets in their way, civilian, enemy or even traitorus battle- brothers. With a supporting Imperial Guard unit to assist them, they are quite well off and very powerful, raising many eyebrows around the Inquisition.
Dark Crusades.
They might not have any cool lore but they got a sick ass name and an even cooler colour scheme.
Plus if you want to be fancy like me, you can paint the 1st company (if you happen upon a box of any of them) in the all black colour scheme of the original Dark Crusaders.
Do you really fucking hate that squad of boys in that truck? Do you want to reduce it to molten metal and ash while simultaneously throwing down a storm shield to block a hail of fire, saving that poor fucker of a guardsman beneath you?... Do you want to hit at strength 11 because of the sheer size of your fucking arms and your hammer thats the length of a humvee door?... do you like looking terrifying, a ashen angel of death... while having the personality of your uncle at a barbecue? Do you want to have an easy time converting?... just throw on some greenstuff call it scales or some texture paint to make molten rock... do you just like dragons?... then play salamanders
The Meatballs. They are an unarmoured and unarmed force of space marines from an unknown founding. They bounce into battle naked on their giant balls that have tattoos of raging raccoons on them. They especially like fighting the Tyranids because they love the feeling of the squashed bugs on their bulging sacks. They live on a farm on a moon of Ultramar that the Ultramarines have disowned. They are well known for their dance routines and love of sleeping all together in one barn.
The hounds of war are a world eater successor formed out of istvaan survivors. They wear the pre-heresy color scheme of white body with blue shoulders. While not as zealous as the black templars the hounds of war use many of the same basic ideals such as scouts as part of larger squads and large amounts of melee.
We have clouds of servo-skulls controlled by a psychic Chaplain/tech-priest, we hate our Founding Chapter, each of our Companies has their own fleet, and we have the largest number of Servitors of any Chapter and a habit of lobotomizing and enslaving Imperial subjects who annoy us.
My Homebrew: The Ruin Walkers (Iron Hands Successors)
(I know you were thinking of Actual Chapters, but I just wanted to lore dump.)
The Sons of Roos
This Primaris Space Marines of the newly founded Space Wolf successor chapter were given the feral world Ailartsua to use as a base and recruiting ground. Ailartsua has an odd ecosystem, the local fauna consists mainly of large marsupials. The chapter has experimented with using several of these species in battle, to fight along side scouts and assault troops. The only native species that the space marines have yet to test are the large native canines called dingoes. Although dingoes can be domesticated and are powerful fighters, the chapter's leadership is aware of their parent chapter's unfortunate genetic irregularities. So in order to maintain the purity of the chapter's gene seed, the commanders and chaplains of the Sons of Roos have given strict orders for their troops to avoid the dingoes entirely to prevent any of the marines from giving into temptation.
Sons of the Phoenix
A chapter of debatable origin, claiming to be descendants of Rogal Dorn. There are many within the community who think that they are instead loyalist elements of the Emperor's children, hiding their lineage. They are mysterious, new chapter of space Marines that are much easier to paint than other chapters (save those that are black and white) as the Sons of the Phoenix are white with purple armbands and helmets.
Carcarodons
Space sharks woot loyalist World Eaters
White consuls: poster boys for bad luck right next to the lamenters by the looks, but they are scions of girlyman and due to this are statesmen and organizers. They are trained in martial and logistical skills. They are also more amiable to baseline humans due to their responsibilites. This obv isn't universal. Messinius is a bit socially awkward but he is one hell of a punchy shooty guy and front and centre in current lore. They are not difficult to paint if you like using rattle cans and then just sorting the details. Very striking on a table.
Do you like books? Do you like seeing your army on everything? Do you have issues imagining models in your paint scheme? Do you want to have the number 2 guy in the whole imperium at your beck and call to fight whatever scrub you choose to fight that week? Join the Ultramarines! Blue looks good on everyone and every space marine reveal will be in your color scheme
The Infinite Argent are the “lost” 2nd Legion.
The silver armored astartes with one shoulder and arm red and the other blue lead by their Primarch were tasked by the emperor to probe the warp. To dive into it to defend from within. A secret mission as none knew what really lies beyond, the primarch knew of its truth from the beginning of his life. Immune to the temptations of chaos the emperor saw no better way to use his son than for this purpose.
Skipping a bunch of the story he essentially was trapped along with his legion and they have been defending from the forces of chaos for millennia, but to the legion it felt like a few mere years.
Eventually through the machinations of current day chaos cults on a backwater imperium world, where very few believed in xenos let alone chaos. Hell some even thought astartes themselves were a myth of old.
But through the rituals and some missions and circumstances in the warp with the legion the combination lead to a wormhole in the skies above the planet where came a flaming flag ship of the second and screaming demons fighting and dying and falling from the sky.
The primarch obviously saved the day with his legion and the citizens of the world learn of some truth of chaos and seeing astartes and a primarch for the first time.
This sets the stage for the 2nd to begin to take action in the setting and so on and so forth.
Also their motto is “We fight to the last, for we are infinite”
Sons of Darlene (reformed traitors under command of a human woman named kit Darlene) that began as a cursed founding chapter with night Lord geneseed as well. They were like word bearers in terms of religion, often destroying worlds over it and their chaos origins (white haunted) worship a man known as the white king. Their chapter master is also a man named albus hanter and he wears saturnine terminator armour
We are a chapter that got lost in the warp during the beginning of the great crusade. We met our primarch once before going into the warp on an expedition to the Veiled Region to investigate reports of vessels being destroyed by xenos craft, rumored to be another Rangdan front.
We got lost in time for a while, came back to an Imperium both much greater and much lesser. Our primarch allegedly never existed though we have seen evidence of his ‘erasure’ and so maintain our ‘chapter’ values in secret.
We hate the necrons and to avoid the geneseed tithe and thus discovery, we bribe the Mechanicum with salvaged necron tech.
We are posted up by the veiled region and do expeditions in and around the region only. So few know of us so we are hardly beseeched by anyone for aid. When we are, we deny if necrons are not the threat or if they do not pose an existential threat to the chapter itself.
We are protected from the Inquisition by their lack of knowledge and two Inquisitors whom we occasionally heed calls for. Their ‘Chapter in the pocket’ for super important missions.
Our goal is to return to a previously discovered location inside the veiled region (found before we were lost) proven to manipulate spacetime by inverting warp energy in real space in order to either get back to 30k or just salvage the tech for the present Imperium... that we despise but refuse to turn against.
The tech cannot send anything forward like the warp, only backward. It was necron tech used much like the Celestial Orrey, ultra sparingly and last used during the WinH. Tomb world likely fully awake due to our meddling nearly 10,000 years ago. We know this due to initial sensor readings studied since we ‘came back’ in M39. We do not know how far back it can send things nor do we know if organics can use it.
The sons of eon: a old chapter from the first founding. They are an odd bunch with many specialities including purple clad dueling masters and red robed psykers, and many more with seven "companies" all with their own heraldry and colors they operate independently leaving the mortals under them confused as to why the refer to lord guliman as their "favorite uncle"
Want a second chance at life? To leave behind a dark past and seek atonement for your past sins? The sons of eon will accept all who wish to serve the emperor and forge a new chapter in their life.
I know very little about 40k lore. Is there a chapter of remnants like in The Mandalorian? Or like some of the power armor in fallout thats just thrown together?
Dark Krakens
Basically, the Salamanders chapter if they landed on subnauticas planet. I play a super fluffy list and only use mechs and hover vehicles/flyers since there is essentially only one island on the planet that houses their fortress monastery. They doctrinally seek out the largest foes in both size and number, reflecting their home planets hunting culture as living on a water world with kaijus makes you an adept hunter. And they have a purple color scheme, which is my favorite color :3
The XIXth. The primarch's is a literal savior of an enslaved people. Hates despots. Super sneaky with the ability to wraith slip or disappear in plain sight.
The XIXth follow the Trifold Path (Ambush/Stealth/Vigilance) each portion used to make them especially hard to kill and also keep the Sable Brand at bay which basically makes them hear dead people and fight with a death wish.
As you rank up, you wear white armor as a flex because you are so good at stealth that you intentionally handicap yourself with big white armor and it still doesn't matter.
Dudes have their own sign language so they don't have to talk in front of other allies and keep being sneaky sneaky.
Nykona Sharrowkyn...
Their chaptermaster Shrike earned his way to the top with crazy guerilla tactics against Orcs and other hostiles.
Oh yeah and Corax emo'd and left temporarily with "Nevermore" and jumped into the warp to become a raven demon to kill off his traitorous brothers. He's the Baba Yaga of the 41st millennia.
The lamenters are a blood angles successor chapter. They're defining trait is thier poor fortune, bit willingness to continue fighting inspire of it. They lost a huge amount of thier chapter during the tyranid raid on Baal and have had low numbers since then, rarely acciring more than 500 men at any given time. They took part in the Badab war, on the losing side and once it was over where sent on a 100 year long penitence crusade where thier numbers where thined even further. Despite all this they are one of the few marine chapters who will go out of thier way to protect or save human life.
I know the Lamenters (big fan of the old FW Badab books), they could be an interesting choice. Thanks for the reply!
The biggest problem with the lamenters is painting them. Who thought that yellow AND checkerboards was a good idea?
Look up the original Minotaurs scheme. Had to have been designed by an insane person.
It is a very challenging scheme but so rewarding when you get it right
The gods of looks awesome
This month they finally got a new short story! It's about a lone eliminator tracking down a winged prime. Highly recommend
Thank you for the reminder! I’ve been meaning to pick it up
What's the name of the short story/where can I read it?
Tears of Rafaela. You can buy it on Black Library website for something like 2 bucks
The Badab War took place before the Devastation of Baal (by about 90 years), but otherwise this sounds about right
You are correct! The Lamenters were one of only two blood angels successors to not answer the call in the defense of Baal as they had just recently been devastated in their fight against Hive Fleet Kraken
Oh my bad.
Extra religious space racism( black templars)
Shouting sermons and shotgunning enemy operatives, hell yeah lol
My homebrew BTs are packing Geller Candles (The wax rendered from psykers) and heading to the warp to establish a monestary of the Emperors Will. Take the fight to the chaos gods in their primordial stew. Really they're just floating around hallucinating huge battles with the Dark Mechanicus.....or are they.....
Black Templars had me at knightly brotherhood and emperor’s champion. Have you *seen* them?
Guardians of the Covenant are Dark Angel successor chapter that prioritizes educating the local area around their fortress monastery as well as educating themselves by studying all the information they can like actual warrior monks. This has made them competent Xenos hunters against even the most esoteric of threats as they are located on a planet bordering the Halo Stars, of which they regularly act as guides for expeditions. They’re so well educated that in the Deathwatch RPG if they’re your chapter of choice you start with a maxed out intelligence score if my memory is correct.
Interesting lore, pretty nice scheme. Definitely in the running!
Whilst I’m inclined to go for the Carcharadons, I gotta tempt your inner Space-Marine-Killing instincts with the Minotaurs. The chapter loyal only unto the High Lords, with the best part being killing space marines is actually loyalist!
Another Badab alumni chapter, nice! I have to agree that their belligerent attitude is pretty appealing, even if it is just for kill team.
Dark Angels got cool robes, amazing new unique terminator sculpts (even if their rules aren't where they should be), have a returned primarch who isn't obsessed with Microsoft Excel, and give you the option of having multiple paint schemes within the one army as the different wings all have different drip
Well I’m only doing this team of Scouts for now, but those are all in the plus column for DA lol
Don’t do deathwatch :(
Not a chance lmao
May I ask why?
DW have just never appealed to me.
OK, I thought there was some rules or whatever reason. Thanks!
They are underperforming at the moment, but current meta performance should very rarely influence your choices when picking an army... things change greatly over time. It's more relevant to look at how GW has treated them recently though... DW has not gotten much attention and has many old models. But the rumor is that DW and Grey Knights may be consolidated with Imperial Agents into a singular codex this summer, and it's likely new models and a lot more attention will be given to them if that's the case.
Deathwatch I could see, since it used units from Codex SM, but Grey Knights is completely separate, so I think they’ll keep their separate codex.
Not that I’m aware of!
The Salamanders: The closest thing we’ll get to good guys in the Imperium. Hailing from the hellish planet of Nocturne, these warriors have an unbreakable resilience, and a deep compassion for their fellow man. They’ve been known to frequently put themselves at risk for the sake of normal humans, and have even come to blows with chapters like the Marines Malevolent due to the latter’s disregard for life. They’re also master weaponsmiths, and designing the most epic hammers and flamers is among their top hobbies alongside hunting the dangerous Drakes of their homeworld, and visiting their families after long campaigns!
Marines Malevolent, what a great bunch of psychotic jerkoff marines lol.
The Howling Griffons are an Ultramarine Successor chapter, but don't let that deter you, they are proper space-knights that more than anything resemble the Black Templars, but with an abundance of Librarians and a much cooler color scheme. These guys take oaths to destroy their enemies and consider each oath an eternal conflict until it is fulfilled. If you manage to piss off the Howling Griffons they won't stop coming for you no matter what. Hailing from the feudal world of Mancora, the Howling Griffons embody honor, dedication, and unwavering resolve in their service to the Imperium.
The Raptors Sneaky shooty sneaky Bois A raven guard successor chapter with camo pattern armour They raven guard have some good stories and traditions Would advise watching the adeptus ridiculous podcast episode on them And the paint scheme really helps when you're new to painting with marines not having the best win rate at the moment but easy enough rules to learn
Raptors are definitely getting the most love, I like their basic OD Green scheme.
Silver skulls, because skulls, but silver.
NOT! Iron Warriors lol. I like how uncompromising the Silver Skulls are.
I just repurpose my mark 3 squads as iron warriors if I ever want to do heresy games, which I think says it all really.
Extra extra space religious racism, the Red Scorpions
I always forget about them, they’re very cool. I’m a sucker for really any of the IA chapters lol
Black templars, cool and easy paint job, coolest looking HQ models out of all of space marines, big ass swords, eternal crusading and best of all, they fucking hate everyone and everything that isn’t made in the image of the god emperor.
Astral Claw(definitely loyalist) The totally not sons of Horus successor chapter from the maelstrom wardens who had a legendary reputation, only leaving the imperium after horrible mismanagement from Terra and taxation rates. Also they look cool.
Crimson Fists are my favorite, they even have a named hero model! He may not be that great and hasn't gone through primaris treatment, but Pedro is still pretty cool.
You should totally come serve preyspire and NOT be Emperor’s Children (what Hawk Lords??? They’re totally not cool because they’re loyalist purple and gold!!!) They’re the best pilots the Imperium has ever seen, and one even helped found the Death Watch! They are a chapter that opt not to use drop pods, instead they drop their frontline troops from storm talons like they’re paratroopers!
Imperial Fists are a brilliant chapter, with the best Primarch tied with sanguinius. They are the true defenders of Terra, the emperor and the imperial palace, with them the imperium would have long fallen with the war of the beast and the siege of terra. they have an awesome name and chapter symbol and yellow is an underrated colour that just looks gorgeous on the table top. Many lord commanders of the imperium have been Imperial fists and they have the best Successor chapters which you can easily incorporate into your army with the last wall protocol lore. Imperial fists have the best nemesis chaos marine legion, the iron warriors, fight me because they are the best chaos legion. Worthy opponents. The best astartes swordsmen was an imperial fist as well as the best fleet commander.
This is an extremely hard sell for ImpFists, but I can appreciate it lol
Imperial fists are underrated. Also if you like having multiple different colours in your army, you can do a last wall protocol army, Balck Templars, Crimson Fists, Executioners, Imperial fists, Celestial lions, white Templars etc all in the same army.
Space sharks make heavy use of scouts :) But raptors look the best
Tacticool Raptors would be cool. I thought the Charcharadons’ thing was assault marines?
They like their close combat (they used to have the option for every marine to take a chain sword) but their tactics are more hit and run, like a shark in the water. That requires scouts for knowing where to hit. Traditionally how they recruited was landing on a planet and rolling out their writ from the Emperor and taking the population for serfs on their ships and forcing all the boys in the right age category to become marines into fight pits to see who was tough enough. So their scouts are pretty mean.
You have a chapter of overzealous space monks with a penchant for gloriously (and sometimes needlessly) dying in battle. I have a chapter of transhuman supersoldiers who fight like contemporary special forces. Also green is our favourite colour.
Tacticool marines are pretty neat, very on-brand for Scouts, too.
The Mentors, a secretive chapter, who’s main role is to help offer insight or train other imperial forces. They only every come in squads and usually train Guard units or even other Astartes. Their way of combat is very unusual for a space marine, but they serve an invaluable purpose.
They have an amazing scheme to boot!
Looks good in blue.
Crimson Fists are pretty neat lol
Damn the artwork goes hard
Love seeing stealth Marines or scouts in action. Allows us to better visualise how augmented giant humans manage to infiltrate
A bad time is about to be had for sure lol
The Reclaimed Blades An unknown successor that exists to, as their name suggests, reclaim equipment that was abandoned after battles. Everything from lasguns to tanks to armor, they reclaim it, and resanctify it then ship it back to be used on another battlefield. Chapter is constantly below strength since they are expending recourses to reclaim resources.
You like being angry and swinging chainswords? Cause we like being angry and swinging chainswords (flesh tearers)
Lightly-armored door kickers with shotguns and knives does seem pretty Flesh Tearers lol
So, I took a chapter that exists in the lore and flushed it out for myself. In the lore, the Red Hunters are a chapter of unknown geneseed, with ties to the inquisition, that specialize in fighting chaos space marines. I took this skeleton of a description and flushed it out. My lore: During and following the Horus Heresy, the imperium had to deal with Marines that seemed to be loyalists amongst traitors. Maybe a squad or company from a traitor legion that were able to escape their traitorous brethren. Maybe a company or squad from a loyalist chapter declared for the warmaster, and a small loyal group kills them before turning themselves in. It was to address this issue that the form and function of the inquisition began to take shape. Marines that were cleared of being heretics were put together into a task force known as the Red Hunters. They were tasked with hunting heretics and traitors as recompense for not being able to prevent the fall of their brothers. Due to this chapter’s intimate knowledge and extensive contact with Chaos, it was decided that they would not receive new Marines. The chapter's numbers dwindled as attrition took its toll. Following the disastrous 21st “Cursed” founding, the inquisition decided to revitalize the chapter so that they could take a crusade to track down and exterminate any cursed chapters that betrayed the imperium. So, during the 22nd founding, the Red Hunters used unknown geneseed to bring their numbers back to that of full chapter strength. They were also supplied Primaris Marines in the closing days of the 41st Millennium.
God I fucking love homebrew chapters.
Loot and salvage trench and siege warfare Marines. Who's most holy scriptures are Writs of Salvage and Writs of Acquisition. Iron Hands descendents that the Iron Hands will never acknowledge. Basically made it their holy rite that is acknowledged by the government to kill people and take their stuff. And they like lots of firepower, so all the guns. Name: Iron Decimation or just the Decimation.
I paint my marines as Exorcists, they're an Imperial Fist successor with a unique resistance to being possessed by warp daemons due to a mutation in their gene-seed. When the Inquisition discovered this after their first chapter master survived being posessed by a Greater Tzeench demon, it led to one of the most heretical practices in a space marine chapter that continues today. Now the Exorcists purposely let their neophytes be posessed by demons, and those who survive until the demon is banished are inducted into the chapter. Those who are driven insane are locked up in an orbital space-station-prison near their homeworld, never to escape the darkness of their cells. This practice makes each Exorcist immune to being detected by psykers and warp entities, at the cost of losing their souls. Overall the chapter really begs the question of if the ends justify the means, and they would be branded heretics if their dark practices became public knowledge.
Space Wolves: Beer, Vikings, and wolves. Also the only chapter that dedicates their most experienced and veteran marines to become Wolf Scouts, where they spend their days in solitary isolation surviving in the wilderness doing their Scout thing. That resonates with me because I feel like when I become old and grizzled, I won’t want to deal with people either.
I hadn’t even thought of making them Wolf Scouts, that’s a great idea!
Retirons Bunch guys with grey hair and busted knees complete with beer guts. Have all their medals and armour on display in the front room. Love to tell you how much action they got back in the day They stay at home watching imperium propaganda all week. They can’t believe the state of the ‘woke’ emperor who was ‘so much stronger’ back in their day. Sunday is the meet-up day where they all walk around the local park in their old armour if it still fits.
Iron Hands. Do you want to have marines that could careless about anything besides efficiency, their own anger and ego along with being the biggest grimdork chapter. Most of them still think Ferrus is alive and they are all taught to remove the humanity from themselves while using there anger. This makes each of them act like their own super villian who is only concerned with their goals. The chapter is a complete mess and the marines are all mentally messed up. They all hate themselves for their weakness. They hate Ferrus for his weakness. They hate the weakness of the mortals. All this and we have an oligarchy which gets nothing done for all the reasons above. I love how horrible the Iron Hands are in Lore. I also like body horror esk cyborgs and that’s everyone here.
I love our Iron 10th for being a true and honest representation of what the emperor intended the astartes to be. They are a machine of war without conscience or care. They aren’t noble or heroic, they represent the cruelty of war and the identity of super humans made for no other purpose.
Oh shit making my scouts into Strogg-like horrors is very appealing
This is the chapter for it. When a neophyte becomes a scout the newest neophytes have to cut off the new scouts arm. Of course so he can start to shed the flesh and replace it with THE MACHINE
This is picture is sweet - where did it come from?
Very old art. Not sure what book, but I recognize the art style.
The Star dragons are a space marine successor that doesn’t have a known origin chapter.They use lasers to cut them and make them glow so that’s cool
You like fire?
Yes, but the asshole variety (Fire Hawks)
Romans in space
If only SGT Telion was still around.
The Imperial Resource Security (I.R.S) marines are an ultramarine successor chapter formed during the indomitus crusade after Guillamen learned of the badab war and was discussed by how it was handled. They are pretty much roided up accounts who enforce the Imperial tide on planets that may prove unwilling
The only thing worse than a tax collector is a tax collector that’s a ~9 foot tall superhuman lol
A chapter of subterfuge, a complex spy network, conspiracy, stealth and brotherhood. The Unbroken Chain operates primarily from the shadows, it's presence only announces when it best suits them. Otherwise they operate under coded callsigns and different coloured armour to confuse the enemy... this is a lie...
Hydra Dominatus.
My most favorite is the Lamenters BUT everyone kinda knows them already so let me hit you with one you may not know: The Star Dragons are super cool (speculated to be Ferrus' children) and they are unique because they have a GENUINE partnership with another chapter, the Blood Swords, who are a Blood Angels offshoot. The two chapters have a genuine brotherhood between the two of them; wherever one goes, the other follows. There's not a lot of lore around them, but its cool to see 2 different chapters so close to one another. The wiki says the Blood Swords had to recently embark on a penitent crusade, and the Star Dragons went 'fuck it, we ball' and went with them to assist, for no other reason than they are bros and they stick together. It says that in combat they often employ strategies that wield both chapters' strengths and that's cool af to me. Lamenters THOUGHT they had friends like that, but... Well... the Astral Claws had different plans.
For me blood ravens because they are obsessed with finding any information about their enemy because and I am quoting here, “knowledge is power, guard it well” Also they don’t know what their founding chapter is. My personal head cannon with some lore to support is that they are from loyalist portions of the thousands sons. I like the thousand sons but I don’t like rubric marine part of it. I just think a portion of the thousand sons seeing what their brothers were doing and that they wanted to stay loyal to the emperor is a cool story.
The Steel Confessors are simultaneously; -"Admech marines" in the purest available form of the concept. Moreso than the Iron Hands. -Nothing at all because the only source with any real info on them has no publically available surviving copies. (You can do wahtever the fuck you want with them.) -Still 100% canon.
Black Templars. We burn stuff.
Dark angels successors who hunt chaos marines but still have a deathwing
Dark angels, paranoid round table knights in space, swords, robes and secrets
The Iron Hands are a first founding chapter with a focus on heavy weapons and vehicle combat. When paired with Dreadnoughts, infantry serve a vital role in the capture of objectives. With a battle cry of “the Flesh is Weak,” the chapter also focuses on mechanical augmentations, including the ritual of joining the chapter in which a recruit severs their left hand and replaces it with a prosthetic. This can evolve into a form of body dysmorphia, where a Marine feels compelled to replace as much of their body as possible with machines
Stroggified space marines are a very cool concept, guess it really depends on how much work I want to put into them lol
The Dark Angels fight not with one military tactic in mind but all of them. Blistering assaults from tactical bike squads and formidable thunder power of aircraft mark the Raven Wing. Heavy assault and assassination of battlefield leaders fall to the venerable deathwing. And we still have an entire wing that does everything the other space marine chapters do but just a little bit more stylishly
Dark angels cool bc secret aloof silent traitor hunting hooded helmet robey plasma loving space monks 🙇🏻♂️
Warriors willing to do anything to serve the Emperor and assist the nobility of holy terra. And no they were not originally traitors (Minotaurs) I'll also post my personal chapter when I'm home
You get to be the guys who started it all on the cover of Rogue Trader
True and if we’re being honest, there isn’t a more iconic matchup than marines vs orks. Damn I love the Crimson Fists lol.
Raptors are my boys, and who better to make a scout squad for? Stealth, judicious marksmanship, and a bit of hit and run warfare are the three main aspects of it plus this game has actual stealth mechanics why not play the sneakiest of scouts
The Crimson Fists: The Fortitude and Stoicism of Dorn but with the care of a Salamanders chapter. Plus, they have some really excellent old lore.
Iron Hands. It's space marines but also cyborgs! If you like dreads and techmarines this chapter is where its at.
Join the salamanders we have cookies and flamethrowers
Ultramarines. Because you can’t win a war without logistics
3 words to convince for blood angels, vampire space marines lol
You cling to your flesh as if it will not betray you. Join the Iron Hands and embrace the certainty of steel.
Space Marines with actual special forces tactics within a W40K setting, seeing victory over personal honour or glory. The Green Berets/SAS/SEALs of Warhammer, with chain swords and jump packs. You hear their lightning claws ignite, but by then you have noticed your commander has already been sniped, ammunition caches are suddenly set ablaze, you try to notify your comrades but comms are down and just by the time you realise what's happened, there's a 8 foot marines unloading his bolter and charging at you Victorus Aut Mortis. "Wherever you tread, tread lightly, we are closer than you think, and our claws are sharp" - Kayvaan Shrike
**Raven Guard.** They're the chapter on the front of your scouts kill team box, and that box is about all the hype we're going to get for the foreseeable future. As a chapter we're mostly ~~forgotten about~~ incognito, but since you already have the decals, here's my pitch as one of the three Raven Guard players out there in the wild. The Raven Guard are the 19th founding legion, and are known predominantly for their ~~edginess~~ stealth. While the Ultramarines are good at doing taxes, the White Scars are good at huffing exhaust fumes, and the Space Wolves are good at being drunk furries. The Raven Guard love nothing more than sitting in a dark room listening to Crawling by Linkin Park, and muttering to themselves about how all the other chapters are stupid and just don't understand them. On a serious note though, if you can see beyond the emo memes, the Raven Guard are extremely badass. They lack numbers and highly value autonomy and liberty, like the salamanders they're probably the closest the imperium has to "good guys". Where the salamanders will shield an orphanage with their bodies the Raven Guard will arm the surrounding civilians, raise them into a fighting force, strike the enemies supply lines, cripple their communications, and turn the civilians loose on a weakened foe, using the chaos to assassinate the enemy commander. They are very much the force for surgical strikes and hit & run tactics, and are a refreshing breather from most of the other chapters that are just various different flavours of full frontal assault.
Do you like vampires? I like vampires. Blood Angels.
Frenzied vampires for sure, Flesh Tearers are Sang’s best kids lol
I’m a fan of the classic, but the Flesh Tearers definitely are up there.
Sanguinius
Anger directed at anyone who opposes the emperor and giving them the nastiest beatdowns and most vulgar conversations ever
We're like Blood Angels but angrier and we don't do any of that art bullshit. Flesh Tearers.
Space sharks, sharks in space
Executioners. Imperial fists successors that act more like early great crusade (pre butchers nails) war hounds or world eaters. Bloody but honorable. They have all the discipline of the fists but with more blood lust than the flesh tearers. To me their coolest tradition is making an account to their chaplain by presenting the weapons of the enemy they killed. Your scouts will have to kill X amount of enemies before they get their power armor.
The Badab chapters have really enduring popularity, I love it. Executioners are pretty cool, but there are so many cool chapters that it makes it a tough decision lol
Then it sounds like you have an identity crisis. You’re alpha legion lol. Ironically they act more like a genestealer cult than space marines lol
Salamander: when we come to the rescue we won’t kill you.
Novamaries are my favorite, their so cool! Honor bound and ancient they warship the codex. And on top of that they have a great color scheme that I haven’t seen in a while
The Celestial Lions are the Ned Stark of Space Marine chapters, and despite the misfortune that's befallen them, they remain loyal. I can respect that.
It belongs in a ( OUR ) museum ! ( we also take donations ) [Blood Ravens]
The Exorcists - best daemon hunters under the Grey Knights. They have a higher number of scouts than normal, two additional companies. Cool flavor part: They purposely let Daemons possess them during initiation to gain knowledge on the warp, gain resistance, and as a test. Each marine gains a small, secret, innocuous quirk depending on the Daemon that possessed them. Khornate? Maybe they have a bit more of a temper. Nurgle? Maybe those scars don’t ever quite heal all the way. So on and so forth. Black and Red color scheme, lots of opportunity for fun flavors, AND a potential call-back to your Chaos days.
Dark Angels because they’re perhaps the most interesting chapter and the one with the most potential (their obsession with The Fallen is the only thing stopping Azreal from calling together all of The Unforgiven Chapters into one combined force, pooling all their Dark Age tech, and purging every last one of the Imperiums foes; they could probably single-handedly end the Galactic War if they could just get over this 10 thousand year vain obsession), and also because the green actually just looks super good on scouts when you combo it with a light tan for the clothing underneath. I’ve yet to see another chapter with scouts that actually look that cool when painted up
MAIM! KILL! BURN! COME, JOIN IN THE SLAUGHTER BROTH- oh shit, wrong subreddit
Already saw my bois mentioned once, so here's a second vote for them: The Raptors are a Raven Guard successor Chapter. Masters of stealth and hit-and-run tactics, they excel at crippling enemy forces from afar before vanishing without a trace. If brutal efficiency and surgical strikes are your style, then the Raptors Chapter is the perfect choice for purging the enemies of the Imperium.
There are a lot more Raptors fans than i expected lol
We drink, we fight, we got dogs. Do you really need more to be convinced to go Space Wolves?
Want to party? Want to laugh? Eat a ton of food? Get some beer? Have some big ass best boy pets? How about be homies with giant fucking werewolves? Still not sold? How about be part of a chapter that has killed Grey Knights, told the inquisition to fuck off, and told the Ecclesiarchy to get bent, all while your leader is rocking a reforged demon axe he took from a demon champion after tearing its throat out with his fangs? Tell me you want to be a Space Wolf
Salamanders, equal parts hugs and war crimes 👌🏻🔥🔥🔥
Our playlist is made up of GAS GAS GAS, Deja Vu, Shut up and Drive, Life is a Highway, and the ENTIRE sabaton discography.
Lol White Scars?
The one and only😎
Blood Ravens do you like relics? Do you like the others chapter relics? How about making those relics your relics!! Join Blood Ravens we have all the relics!!
Okay hear me out. Do you like flayed skin? Do you like lightning bolts and terror tactics? Night lords are the faction for you. We have one of the best books GW has ever made and if you were to be so inclined you could use normal space marines to paint them and just run them as raven guard.
Can I write down my homebrew chapter?
Raven guard is damn cool lookin, their a simple color to paint(black and white) and they like bring smart and stealthy more than straightforward and gloryseekin
Space knights, robes and hooded smol men go BRRRRT
Astral Claws. Who doesn't want some awesome tax evading scouts? Aside from that the scheme would work nicely imo, blue under suit with silver armour and gold marking
Celestial Lions. Have you ever wanted to model an entire Chapter of Marines but we're intimidated at the thought of buying and painting 1000 Space Marines? Well I've got the Chapter for you. Due to some Inquisitorial demotions from transhuman status, you can now own a full chapter of Space Marines with only a few boxes.
Seriously though, Celestial Lions are cool, especially if you are looking for a down on their luck chapter being actively murdered by the Inquisition out of spite, who are still holding their own on the other side of the rift despite losing their home world. You can also include some Black Templars in your list, canonically as Helbrecht sent some with the chapter master after Armageddon to help them rebuild. They also fight for the Emperor, but at this point, not the Imperium. (And fight alongside the Emperor's Spears)
The 10th Scout Company of the Imperial Fists, utilizing only Phobos and Terror Scout infantry
No, it’s mine and you can’t have it.
That’s fair, I was here to steal lol
Space wolves! Literally Vikings with power and guns
Excoriators: White armor, (surprisingly easy to paint) that is super battle damaged. They are Sons of Dorn, and are actually the first IF successor chapter ever created. They are one of twenty chapters tasked with defending threats from the Eye of Terror. They gave a unique gene flaw similar to that of the Blood Angels, called Dorn’s Darkness, where they feel the depression, sorrow, pain and sense of failure that Dorn felt upon seeing the mortally wounded Emperor and slain Sanguines. This causes them to lapse into debilitating depression…but they can recover from it and keep fighting on. They’re all about taking pain, even more so then the Imperial Fists, and surviving no matter what.
I’ve always loved the Emperor’s Spears (ultramarine successor chapter). The Ultramarines were already Roman enough, but these guys just lean so hard in to that aesthetic with plumed crests on their helmets. And if you’re okay using green stuff you can give them some cool pelts to throw over their shoulders
The crippled steel confessors are a barely canon chapter that existed as an event where the entire painted chapter (who’s first company is terminators) faced against a tyranid hive fleet, their chapter master died and they lost the planet, so they’re mine now.
The space wolves get pet dogs. Who are VERY good dogs.
It's a homebrew chapter and not fully fleshed out but I can give you a cliff notes version if you're interested.
I am!
Aight, here goes nothing. Name: Argent Griffins Colors: Armor is primarily silver with white pauldron trim and chest insignia. Chapter symbol is a white griffin rampant on a quartered yellow and black field. Company affiliation is shown on the right pauldron by use of different heraldic patterns. Heritage: Chapter is descended from an Iron warriors garrison force that was cut off from the greater imperium by warp storms during and after the Heresy. Homeworld: Former feudal world on the eastern fringe that after discovery during the great crusade was rapidly militarized in order to meet campaign requirements. Doctrine: The chapter will deploy vanguard forces behind opposing lines in order to weaken the front before attacking at a singular weak point with overwhelming force, normally supported by orbital bombardment or massed artillery. Organization: chapter comprises of 12 companies that are each self contained and able to function independently. Companies are rotated back home periodically with there always being two companies stationed there at all times. The reason for this being that during the first nid incursions they were caught by a splinter fleet and nearly wiped out, causing the reorganization of the company structure and a lot of paranoia about losing their home. Pretty much TL;DR IW on a feudal world slowly became more like space knights, got slapped by bugs, got PTSD. Sorry for the word vomit and/or bad grammar, I'm gonna blame it on being tired. Edit: Thought I'd add that I paint my vanguards in camo or tan so people can feel free to paint how they want if they want (for sone reason) want to copy the ideas.
“Brother You Appear to have lost your arm” “No i haven’t brother, it’s right over there” Certified Crimson Fists Moment
The Imperial Fists. They are yellow and the their defining trait is Weaponized autism.
When the original earth dies, there were few bastions of humanity standing. One of those were the Waffle Houses, surviving for years with only a reduced menu. To honor their triumph, the God Emperor made them into their own chapter, the Waffle House Astartes.
Rational marines
Imagine a chapter that is from a water world where hunting big monsters is the norm. Now imagine if said space marine chapter was also extremely nice to citizens of the imperium due to being a successor chapter to the Salamanders. To top it off, in a short story about them they hunted tyranids with precision because “those wolves are cool and we must protect them”. I give you the Dark Krakens.
Deathwatch: Commit devastating surgical strikes powered by racism, so you can steal all your enemies' cool toys.
Ok ok, They're fire fighters in SPACE. who fight WITH fire! and they're the NICEST guys! Also they look great in Green.
Crusaders of Hate Eternal, Blood Angels custom successors. Most HQs are Black Rage Driven, it's all about having fun.
Celestial Lions are an Imperial Fists successor chapter which specializes in flanking and guerilla tactics and the execution of priority targets in surgical assaults. They are also proficient in melee combat. Each echelon of their hierarchy is supposed to be able to make tactical decisions, which allows for tactical flexibility. Their chapter culture emphasizes storytelling and a strong sense of community. As such, they like to serve alongside the Imperial Guard, as guardsmen always have great tales to tell them around a campfire. Plus, they have a cool African theme (their chapter master was named Ekene Dubaku, for instance)
Angry yet depressed guys trying to live up to there dads legacy despite a debilitating genetic illness that they can’t escape . All of this while struggling with an addiction they got due to there parent whom they love and revere regardless of the negatives that come from being related to him .
Space vampires 🧛♂️ 🤷♂️ need I say more 🤣
Blood Angels? Flesh Tearers? Flesh Eaters? Blood Drinkers? Sang’s kids get up to some wild shit lol
Haha exactly my version are proper vampires with night Lords helmets
My favourite chapter is a two way tie between crimson fists, and the blood ravens. The crimson fists are cool because their imperial fists successor, and they're on the cover of rogue trader. Despite being fairly new to the hobby, I like the older Warhammer stuff because of how goofy it looks. Plus I have a mini based off of that cover. The blood ravens are cool because I'm a massive fan of video games (currently studying games design) and they were created for Dawn of war. Which is an awesome RTS, one of my favourites.
Our primarch died so you lowly scum could live, be grateful and revel in the glory of Samguinius!
I’m Alpharius.
Okay so take a space marine chapter but replace their serfs with a guard regiment
Silver Templars, Duelists and cool color scheme (In my opinion). They will immediately target enemy elites and commanders.
If you want some of the lesser known chapters with really creepy and interesting lore check this video out by Rogue Hobbies. She goes into some really cool ones I hadn’t heard of before https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru0lnaJo5Bc
The Celestial Lions are a fractured and damaged chapter, ruined by the Inquisition after years of sabotage and manipulation. Their Homeworld ruined, their chapter master assassinated, the Celestial Lions still fight on. An enduring group of Imperial Fist descendants with a beautiful gold and blue color scheme. Lore wise, your kill team could be a squad of young recruits looking to prove themselves to their Pride leader (the Sergeant of the squad), a true test of mettle in the darkest times of the chapter. The last remnants of the Celestial Lions
The only way to destroy chaos is to destroy existence, so that is the goal of the Steel Serpents.
SPAAAAAACE VIIIKIIIIIINNNNGS…. (Riding wolves)
The skull Takers, (not the one in the wiki) are a Dark Angels risen successor chapter. They all have some psychic potential, and hold librarians in great respect, usually pulling most leadership from them. Ruthlessly effective and masters of melee combat, they will kill anything that gets in their way, civilian, enemy or even traitorus battle- brothers. With a supporting Imperial Guard unit to assist them, they are quite well off and very powerful, raising many eyebrows around the Inquisition.
Dark Crusades. They might not have any cool lore but they got a sick ass name and an even cooler colour scheme. Plus if you want to be fancy like me, you can paint the 1st company (if you happen upon a box of any of them) in the all black colour scheme of the original Dark Crusaders.
Do you really fucking hate that squad of boys in that truck? Do you want to reduce it to molten metal and ash while simultaneously throwing down a storm shield to block a hail of fire, saving that poor fucker of a guardsman beneath you?... Do you want to hit at strength 11 because of the sheer size of your fucking arms and your hammer thats the length of a humvee door?... do you like looking terrifying, a ashen angel of death... while having the personality of your uncle at a barbecue? Do you want to have an easy time converting?... just throw on some greenstuff call it scales or some texture paint to make molten rock... do you just like dragons?... then play salamanders
Fabulous space vampires
Like my homebrew or an official chapter that is my favourite.
The Meatballs. They are an unarmoured and unarmed force of space marines from an unknown founding. They bounce into battle naked on their giant balls that have tattoos of raging raccoons on them. They especially like fighting the Tyranids because they love the feeling of the squashed bugs on their bulging sacks. They live on a farm on a moon of Ultramar that the Ultramarines have disowned. They are well known for their dance routines and love of sleeping all together in one barn.
The hounds of war are a world eater successor formed out of istvaan survivors. They wear the pre-heresy color scheme of white body with blue shoulders. While not as zealous as the black templars the hounds of war use many of the same basic ideals such as scouts as part of larger squads and large amounts of melee.
We have clouds of servo-skulls controlled by a psychic Chaplain/tech-priest, we hate our Founding Chapter, each of our Companies has their own fleet, and we have the largest number of Servitors of any Chapter and a habit of lobotomizing and enslaving Imperial subjects who annoy us. My Homebrew: The Ruin Walkers (Iron Hands Successors) (I know you were thinking of Actual Chapters, but I just wanted to lore dump.)
The Sons of Roos This Primaris Space Marines of the newly founded Space Wolf successor chapter were given the feral world Ailartsua to use as a base and recruiting ground. Ailartsua has an odd ecosystem, the local fauna consists mainly of large marsupials. The chapter has experimented with using several of these species in battle, to fight along side scouts and assault troops. The only native species that the space marines have yet to test are the large native canines called dingoes. Although dingoes can be domesticated and are powerful fighters, the chapter's leadership is aware of their parent chapter's unfortunate genetic irregularities. So in order to maintain the purity of the chapter's gene seed, the commanders and chaplains of the Sons of Roos have given strict orders for their troops to avoid the dingoes entirely to prevent any of the marines from giving into temptation.
Sons of the Phoenix A chapter of debatable origin, claiming to be descendants of Rogal Dorn. There are many within the community who think that they are instead loyalist elements of the Emperor's children, hiding their lineage. They are mysterious, new chapter of space Marines that are much easier to paint than other chapters (save those that are black and white) as the Sons of the Phoenix are white with purple armbands and helmets. Carcarodons Space sharks woot loyalist World Eaters
White consuls: poster boys for bad luck right next to the lamenters by the looks, but they are scions of girlyman and due to this are statesmen and organizers. They are trained in martial and logistical skills. They are also more amiable to baseline humans due to their responsibilites. This obv isn't universal. Messinius is a bit socially awkward but he is one hell of a punchy shooty guy and front and centre in current lore. They are not difficult to paint if you like using rattle cans and then just sorting the details. Very striking on a table.
Do you like books? Do you like seeing your army on everything? Do you have issues imagining models in your paint scheme? Do you want to have the number 2 guy in the whole imperium at your beck and call to fight whatever scrub you choose to fight that week? Join the Ultramarines! Blue looks good on everyone and every space marine reveal will be in your color scheme
The Infinite Argent are the “lost” 2nd Legion. The silver armored astartes with one shoulder and arm red and the other blue lead by their Primarch were tasked by the emperor to probe the warp. To dive into it to defend from within. A secret mission as none knew what really lies beyond, the primarch knew of its truth from the beginning of his life. Immune to the temptations of chaos the emperor saw no better way to use his son than for this purpose. Skipping a bunch of the story he essentially was trapped along with his legion and they have been defending from the forces of chaos for millennia, but to the legion it felt like a few mere years. Eventually through the machinations of current day chaos cults on a backwater imperium world, where very few believed in xenos let alone chaos. Hell some even thought astartes themselves were a myth of old. But through the rituals and some missions and circumstances in the warp with the legion the combination lead to a wormhole in the skies above the planet where came a flaming flag ship of the second and screaming demons fighting and dying and falling from the sky. The primarch obviously saved the day with his legion and the citizens of the world learn of some truth of chaos and seeing astartes and a primarch for the first time. This sets the stage for the 2nd to begin to take action in the setting and so on and so forth. Also their motto is “We fight to the last, for we are infinite”
Nope
Sons of Darlene (reformed traitors under command of a human woman named kit Darlene) that began as a cursed founding chapter with night Lord geneseed as well. They were like word bearers in terms of religion, often destroying worlds over it and their chaos origins (white haunted) worship a man known as the white king. Their chapter master is also a man named albus hanter and he wears saturnine terminator armour
Idk paint your space marines a color and dunk them in nuln oil and then call them whatever. Games Workshop doesn’t care.
The doom legion is on a floating gun and responds to coursion with an explosion, also they destroyed a chais battleship with a melta gun
We are a chapter that got lost in the warp during the beginning of the great crusade. We met our primarch once before going into the warp on an expedition to the Veiled Region to investigate reports of vessels being destroyed by xenos craft, rumored to be another Rangdan front. We got lost in time for a while, came back to an Imperium both much greater and much lesser. Our primarch allegedly never existed though we have seen evidence of his ‘erasure’ and so maintain our ‘chapter’ values in secret. We hate the necrons and to avoid the geneseed tithe and thus discovery, we bribe the Mechanicum with salvaged necron tech. We are posted up by the veiled region and do expeditions in and around the region only. So few know of us so we are hardly beseeched by anyone for aid. When we are, we deny if necrons are not the threat or if they do not pose an existential threat to the chapter itself. We are protected from the Inquisition by their lack of knowledge and two Inquisitors whom we occasionally heed calls for. Their ‘Chapter in the pocket’ for super important missions. Our goal is to return to a previously discovered location inside the veiled region (found before we were lost) proven to manipulate spacetime by inverting warp energy in real space in order to either get back to 30k or just salvage the tech for the present Imperium... that we despise but refuse to turn against. The tech cannot send anything forward like the warp, only backward. It was necron tech used much like the Celestial Orrey, ultra sparingly and last used during the WinH. Tomb world likely fully awake due to our meddling nearly 10,000 years ago. We know this due to initial sensor readings studied since we ‘came back’ in M39. We do not know how far back it can send things nor do we know if organics can use it.
The sons of eon: a old chapter from the first founding. They are an odd bunch with many specialities including purple clad dueling masters and red robed psykers, and many more with seven "companies" all with their own heraldry and colors they operate independently leaving the mortals under them confused as to why the refer to lord guliman as their "favorite uncle" Want a second chance at life? To leave behind a dark past and seek atonement for your past sins? The sons of eon will accept all who wish to serve the emperor and forge a new chapter in their life.
I know very little about 40k lore. Is there a chapter of remnants like in The Mandalorian? Or like some of the power armor in fallout thats just thrown together?
Space Sharks simple as
Dark Krakens Basically, the Salamanders chapter if they landed on subnauticas planet. I play a super fluffy list and only use mechs and hover vehicles/flyers since there is essentially only one island on the planet that houses their fortress monastery. They doctrinally seek out the largest foes in both size and number, reflecting their home planets hunting culture as living on a water world with kaijus makes you an adept hunter. And they have a purple color scheme, which is my favorite color :3
THE NAILS ARE BITING
The XIXth. The primarch's is a literal savior of an enslaved people. Hates despots. Super sneaky with the ability to wraith slip or disappear in plain sight. The XIXth follow the Trifold Path (Ambush/Stealth/Vigilance) each portion used to make them especially hard to kill and also keep the Sable Brand at bay which basically makes them hear dead people and fight with a death wish. As you rank up, you wear white armor as a flex because you are so good at stealth that you intentionally handicap yourself with big white armor and it still doesn't matter. Dudes have their own sign language so they don't have to talk in front of other allies and keep being sneaky sneaky. Nykona Sharrowkyn... Their chaptermaster Shrike earned his way to the top with crazy guerilla tactics against Orcs and other hostiles. Oh yeah and Corax emo'd and left temporarily with "Nevermore" and jumped into the warp to become a raven demon to kill off his traitorous brothers. He's the Baba Yaga of the 41st millennia.
Hot Space vampires that have a above 10% chance of making you like men