Jungle Juice: February 2008  by Patrick Eibel
Sometimes it takes awhile to get around to your e-mails.  This is one I received back in April of 2007:

Hello,

I need some help with my Space Marine army. I'm stuck on pretty much everything, even the name. The only things I do know are: 

• It's an Iron Hands offshoot, 
• Gamewise, it'll be a Dreadnought-heavy, drop-pod army,
• The Traits I want to use are Heed the Wisdom of the Ancients and Scions of Mars, 
• The drawback will be Eye to Eye
• I'll use it in conjunction with my Daemonhunters army

I haven't bought anything yet, so that should make things easier, planning-wise. Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this! I really appreciate it.

Ethan

The Army List
Here then is what a potential army list would look like:

HQ
Techmarine – as per Scions of Mars trait, must upgrade at least one Techmarine to have two Wounds.  All other options remain the same.

Chaplain – as per Codex: Space Marines, must take Terminator armor.  If a Command Squad is used, it must be a Terminator Command Squad.

Elites
Venerable Dreadought – as per Heed the Wisdom of the Ancients trait, all Dreadnoughts chosen as Elites must be venerable.

Techmarine – as per Codex: Space Marines, but with upgrades allowed by Scions of Mars trait

Terminator Squad, Terminator Assault Squad – as per Codex: Space Marines

Troops
Tactical Squad – as per Codex: Space Marines, must take Razorback or Rhino transport.

Fast Attack
0-1 Land Speeder Squadron, or 0-1 Bike Squadron, or 0-1 Attack Bike Squadron – as per Codex: Space Marines. Limitation due to Eye to Eye drawback.

Heavy Support
Vindicator, Predator Annihilator, Predator Destructor, Whirlwind, Land Raider, Land Raider Crusader – as per Codex: Space Marines.

Dreadnought – as per Wisdom of the Ancients Trait.

Clearly, the idea with this army is to present a highly mechanized force.  The role of the Techmarines is to keep the vehicles functioning. The tanks hunt other tanks and heavily armored troops.  Everything else is for troop killing.

Modeling
This army relies heavily on vehicles and as adherents of the Machine God, the vehicles should be adorned with honor and kept in the best repair.  Also, since the chapter has limited adherents, bionics would be appropriate to be seen amongst the troops as limbs need to be replace due to injury (though they may not have any in-game effect).  You could get a few Necron warrior sprues to hack up and use as prosthetics for any figure you want to add a little flavor to (or the entire army, if you really want some work.) 

The color scheme for the army should also involve some metallics, probably Boltgun Metal or Mithril Silver for the armor, and muted colors like blue, black and dark green for accents.  Some variation on the Adepticus Mechanicus techno-skull would make an excellent chapter symbol, or possibly the Techmarine cog-like badge of office could be incorporated as well.

Conclusion
Hopefully, Ethan can use some of these ideas to really flesh out his army.  With a little additional background, the potential for a truly unique army is amazing. I really like the idea of some secret alliance with the Necrons.  That alone could lead to a series of campaigns.  It is elements like these that can continue to add depth to your army through game play and character development, which is what you really want your background to be a springboard for.  

If you would like me to develop some ideas for you, check the introduction page of this series for the e-mail address.
 

Related Pages
More Jungle Juice

Posted February 2008. Used with permission.
 

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