These chaps constantly knock around my head. Since there seems to be some interest in marines I thought I'd share what I had come up with to date. Rather than simple stick up the 2 lists I have for them I thought instead I'd go back to concepts and the practical implementation of them rules wise.
First off - the idea of the AM's closest marine allies having no equipment because of one campaign 10,000 years ago is dropped. Thats just dumb. They can found new chapters but when it comes to re-supply its impossible and their own facilities have no capacities for this? Come on.
So Iron Hands. Half Man, half Machine, Half Superhuman and half mad. Believing themselves no doubt to be twice that of a lesser marine the Iron Hands have an unhealthy love of replacing bits of themselves as a reward for getting in the thick of combat. Indeed many wish only for the joy of being drednoughted as you can't get much more obviously mechanical than that. Other chapters have accused them of having entirely upgraded marines who are robots in power armoured shells. But the cybermen deny this.
The 'hands are simply too far from the Imperial cult for the Imperiums priests to pretend to tolerate their beliefs like they do other chapters (i.e. pretend they think the Empoeror was a God rather than the normal marine view that he was a top bloke), so no crosis arcanum for their chaplains. Indeed their chaplains are downright odd, serving as they do 3 roles, Techmarine, Chaplain, and apothacary, no doubt in that order of importance.
Very little is known about the chapter to outsiders, even other marines. Many squad markings and awards are in machine code or other arcane languages. Indeed though it is presumed the chapter follows the Codex pattern - weakened at the end of the heresy and reeling from the death of their Primarch they had no choice but to make the changes the Ultramarines demanded - this cannot be confirmed. Each clan company operates independently, recruiting its own scouts, maintaining its own pool of veterans and protecting its own fortress monastery. This dates back to the time of the Primarch and tales abound of numerous empty fortress monasteries, a legacy of past greatness, criss crossing the surface of Medusa making sucessful targeting of the chapters current bases of operations even more difficult. There is no known permanent Chapter master, instead a council of clans, that often includes dreadnoughts, is used by the chapter that shows disdain for other, more fleshy, Astartes. Not all the clan company names are widely known. Indeed the various clans seem to regularly raid and compete with each other, behaviour that has at times been extended to other Imperial forces. Even the belief that the chapter worships the machine God is supposition, impossible to easily confirm.
The army
At the core are, as always, Warhounds, sorry I mean marines.
These chaps have no terminator formations (suits are mainstreamed into other units to inspire and motivate them). Dreadnoughts are the most revered unit in a clan company. Further extensive bionic 'enhancement' makes them stronger, faster and tougher than a regular marine. They have the technology, etc.
So obviously the way to show this (mixed in terminator armour and bionics) is to up the save.
3 options with various pros and cons are there.
58% chance of saving 4+ and invulnerable save. + side easy to understand. Downside affects the utility of special characters (what to do, add a special rule saying the stand has a 5+ inv save? Drop inv and price of characters? Give characters something else, though DA already have fearless), is an extra dice to always roll and finally the benifits of bionic codpieces are many, surviving defence laser fire should not be one of them.
56% chance of saving 5+ RA. + side as above. Also is less of a bonus than the above so not as tough (with implications for balance etc). No problems adding character invulnerable saves. Downsides is its still two dice to roll and the bionics remain suspiciously tough against mega weapons.
67% chance of save. 3+ save. +side, its one dice to roll, no special ability verses high powered weapons, no problems with characters etc. Downside is they are now pretty damn tough and this has implications for points and activations.
So you have your tough marines. This of course means higher costs, less activations. This in turn means probably a higher reliance on air assults to make the most of them, scout formations etc. How to throw a spanner in the works?
The answer I feel is the dreadnought. 0-2 as normal, but these chaps have inspiring. The iron fathers are more mechanics than orators and they may repair battle brothers but cant inspire like another chapters chaplain. This instead falls to dreadnoughts. This has all sorts of interesting implications and I think really makes a difference to the list.
Finally list structure. Somewhat cosmetic it is more complex than it needs to be and presented as a structured decision tree. This is solely for fluff, though does have opportunities to address balance.
2 lists
To show a bit more interesting background these exist to show a schism in the ranks. And because everyone was horrified last time this was suggested with just the fundamentalist one.
The first is a conventional selection of troops alongside the above changes. Maybe have the option of adding 1 or maybe 2 terminator units but not common practice. The differences here revolve around the
The second is far more fun and represents a schism in the chapters beliefs. The unknown number of clan companies following this ideology are fundamentalists, for them the conclusions of the heresy were not enough. Faith allowed them to succeed with their Primarch in the great crusade. His death was a failure of faith on the chapters part. These marines believe innovations past this dark time are irrelevant, what is needed is the purity of spirit and action the chapter possessed prior to its great loss. In practical terms this means equipment and assets date back to the heresy. Some are, at least in spirit for every component has been replaced many times over, the same machines, the majority though are manufactured within the automated fortress monasteries, upgraded production lines politely refused. It is also a cunning excuse to use all that 1st ed gear and feel good about it
Anyway I'll post the lists in a few days after people give their reflections on the above and whether or not its enough to justify a separate list.
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