Space Marine dilemma

[LordGrise]

::sigh:: Hi, all. My name is Craig, and I'm a 40K addict...

Okies, it's not that bad - that was my wife after I explained what was bugging me this weekend. But it's a weird feeling to realize you're much more deeply invested in a game than you thought you were.

Here's my thing: I play Tau, have done for years and years, and I have built up this internal storyline concerning my army. My personalized Commander (Commander Longshot, in honor of how often I won in 5th edition) what the hell they're doing on this tabletop today (Expeditionary Command sent them - The Mission Continues!) so on and so forth. LongShot sorta-kinda belongs to Farsight's forces - mostly because I had a shortage of most everything but crisis suits for awhile. That has corrected itself, mostly. I've never actually fielded Farsight - I have him, but I've never used him. So that part is kind of undefined and subject to change.

I know - it's sad. But there you are, the reason my wife suggests counseling sometimes.

So I have this REALLY COOL opportunity present itself, that I jumped on: an unopened Space Marine Spearhead box, on clearance sale because they've had it since 08 and it never sold. Hey, there's my Ally detachment! I even have OT in the check to pay for it and everything - and the wife says, Happy Early Anniversary, dear - I want to go shopping at Yarnivore next month, okay? (Yarnivore is a San Antonio yarn and fiber store for knitting enthusiasts - check em out on the web if you or your other is into spinning or knitting)

So. Everything good, right?

Except now it's bugging me. Why would a Spearhead Detachment of ANY chapter of (presumably) loyalist Space Marines come and hang out, fist bumping and all (vanilla Space Marines are BBs with Tau) with Commander Longshot's Force Echo? For a while I told myself, oh, they just happened to be in the area, and they just happen to have a bigger issue with the opponent of the moment than with the Tau... but damn, that's getting old, and my story doesn't like it. Esp with one of my recurring opponents playing Grey Knights/Inquisition and buying Dark Angels. I need a better excuse. Not to mention a paint scheme for them. It feels very throwaway to just paint'em up as Ultramarines and be done with it. I need a renegade Space Marine Chapter that is NOT Chaos. Ooooog.

Thoughts? Besides the need for counseling - I know that, and I ain't doing it til I find a counselor who plays - cuz that's be the one who would understand.

[ElectricPaladin]

Just brainstorming here:

1) Commander Longshot's sept includes numerous human auxiliaries. The Space Marines are helping out of a desire to protect those humans, reasoning that in the long view, temporary cooperation is the best way to return them to the Imperium's auspices.
2) The Space Marines - some of whom remember, in story if not in fact, the way a young humanity took to the stars during the Great Crusade - admire the spirit and ambition of the Tau and have been won over by a vision of a Galaxy of thinking beings united against all threats.
2a) Perhaps the Space Marines are more than just helping the Tau... perhaps they've lost faith in humanity entirely and think mankind would do better under Tau rule. Remember - some Space Marines don't see themselves as truly human anymore.
3) The Space Marines represent an experiment on the part of the Tau to duplicate the Astartes by using stolen geneseed on human auxiliaries. With their technical superiority, the Tau were able to create a small number of Space Marines out of human subjects, and equipped them with salvaged or re-engineered Space Marine equipment stolen during the last Empire/Imperium conflict.
4) A crusading chapter returns to their old fortress-monastery to discover that it has become a Tau sept world and their Chapter serfs have become Gue'vesa. However, rather than cleanse the world of its xenos taint, the Space Marines have decided to cooperate in the face of greater threats to their ancestral home and the galaxy at large. Conflict may be coming, but there are no shortage of splinter fleets, eldar raiders, ork hulks, and chaos warbands to fight, and the allure of Tau firepower is strong...

[ElectricPaladin]

...and the wife says, Happy Early Anniversary, dear - I want to go shopping at Yarnivore next month, okay?

Is your wife on Ravelry (https://www.ravelry.com)? It sounds like your wife and my wife would have a lot to say to each other. Maybe they already know each other, in fact... :D.

[Nabterayl]

Since it sounds like you're looking for a permanent alliance, do you object to having a renegade chapter? I can imagine a chapter that decided the Imperium's best interests lay in an alliance with the Tau, given the trouble that Ultima Segmentum can get into. I'm sure the Adeptus Terra would condemn that as heresy tantamount to sacrificing babies to Chaos, but I can see a chapter master making that decision. After all, there are plenty of those within the Imperium who work with xenos. Even if the alliance is theoretically temporary (such as "until this sector of the Farsight Enclaves is properly secure against this Waaagh!/hive fleet tendril/Chaos renegade attack/whatever"), it could take all the time you need for narrative purposes. If the chapter is allied (even "temporarily") with the Tau for the good of the Imperium, that also gives you plenty of excuse for them to fight Imperial armies alongside your Tau.

[LordGrise]

Nab, I have no issue whatsoever with a renegade SM chapter - but I would think such a chapter might well have issues fighting other Chapters, such as oh, Dark Angels or Grey Knights. Now, Whiskey-India-Hotel either of them would be shooting at the Tau, well, that's a question my esteemed opponent has never answered...

Is there such a Chapter in canon? Or am I inventing them? Looking at EP's ideas...

'Lectric - I love your ideas. Concatenate them all and you would definitely have the basis for a renegade Space Marine Chapter that was BB with the Tau AND would not have too many issues fighting the Imperium - poor misguided souls that they are, thanks to the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition. Epecially if you had a Chapter Master who had woken up, smelled the coffee, and realized that the best hope Humanity has of ever raising itself out of absolute ignorance is the Tau. Isn't that what the Emperor wanted in the first place?

::grin:: Maybe he knew the Emperor, back in the day...

[ElectricPaladin]

::grin:: Maybe he knew the Emperor, back in the day...

Yeah... maybe it's a chapter descended from the Imperial Fists or the Blood Angels - probably the Fists, if you want to use the 'nilla Marines codex - and the Chapter Master is a grizzled old motherf^cker who fought at Terra. He saw the Great Crusade. He's seen humanity at it's worst, and he's lost faith in them.

[Psychosplodge]

Just rip-off the Soul drinkers fluff, they're loyal to what they see as the ideals of the Emperor and humanity, but not the corrupt Imperium...

[LordGrise]

In many ways, I really like the Soul Drinkers, from what I've read on the Lexicanum - I have not read the books, and they sound like a seriously depressing read - but there are only four survivors, one of them openly corrupted, another severely mutated, and they all take a walk thru a Warp Gate, essentially commiting suicide. Gah.

Then there's the Relictors - yeah, they're on the path to corruption and damnation, without a doubt. Feh. OTOH, they'd have a better chance of researching their finds in Tau space...

And finally there's the Flame Falcons - I could see them running, and ending up in Tau space... but how in blazes (pun intended) do you model their mutation in the rules?

[Camael]

I really like this idea, I have been toying with the idea of adding an Allied contingent of Tau to my Space Marine army. My chapter is the only known successor chapter of the Salamanders. The Sons of Camael are willing to do anything necessary to preserve human life, as they believe that that is the Emperor's mandate. They will not slaughter countless innocents to kill one heritic, and they believe that any ally against the threats of chaos is a good one. They see the Tau's immunity to chaos as a sign from the Emperor that they will be humanity's greatest ally in the war against the true enemy. just my thoughts.

[plasticaddict]

I feel your pain sir, I to have a longstanding Tau force that has been in the field since late 3rd edition. My Tau have fought under many O's during the years (including Farsight and Shadowsun). I have finally settled on my back story: My Commander, Shas O' Mont'yr Vash'ya, has been charged with protecting tau interests and settlements in his sector as well as assisting the Por caste with assimilating several Gue'la worlds. Some of the Gue'la settlements have pledged themselves to the Tau'va and even provide Gue'vesa to support the Shas in battle (something they've done since the introduction of Apocalypse).

With the introduction of 6th edition allies I decided to add some space marines to help both my Tau and IG armies. I finally decided to do a renegade chapter, the Savage Swords. The Savages were a chapter of the 21st (cursed) founding, they were raised, equipped and sent to settle on a predetermined home world but they never arrived to their intended destination. Their ships were caught in a warp storm during their transit that destroyed all but one of their ships and deposited them several centuries later from Imperial space and the light of the Astronomicon. Their original goal of reaching their home world remains however the survivors now form less than a company of marines and they have had to adapt to survive. During their return to Imperial space they have fought against many enemies and have formed alliances with several non human races, one of these races is the Tau. The Tau offered to help repair and refit the Savage Swords ships, vehicles and equipment and in exchange the Savages agreed to help Tau forces fight against their mutual enemies. Lately Imperial observers have reported seeing Astartes like troops fight along side combined Tau/human forces on the fringes of the Tau western expansion.

For their part the current commanders of the Savage Swords are in agreement that they still owe a honor debt to the Tau that they must repay before they can return to the Imperium and claim their home world. How long that may take is unknown.

[plasticaddict]

I feel your pain sir, I to have a longstanding Tau force that has been in the field since late 3rd edition. My Tau fought under many O's during the years (including Farsight and Shadowsun). I have finally settled on my back story: My Commander, Shas O' Mont'yr Vash'ya, has been charged with protecting tau interests and settlements in his sector as well as assisting the Por caste with assimilating several Gue'la worlds. Some of the Gue'la settlements have pledged themselves to the Tau'va and even provide Gue'vesa to support the Shas in battle (something they've done since the introduction of Apocalypse).

With the introduction of 6th edition allies I decided to add some space marines to help both my Tau and IG armies. I finally decided to do a renegade chapter, the Savage Swords. The Savages were a chapter of the 21st (cursed) founding, they were raised, equipped and sent to settle on a predetermined home world but they never arrived to their intended destination. Their ships were caught in a warp storm during their transit that destroyed all but one of their ships and deposited them several centuries later far from Imperial space and the light of the Astronomicon. Their original goal of reaching their home world remains however the survivors now form less than a company of marines and they have had to adapt to survive. During their return to Imperial space they have fought against many enemies and have formed alliances with several non-human races, one of these races is the Tau. The Tau offered to help repair and refit the Savage Swords ships, vehicles and equipment and in exchange the Savages agreed to help Tau forces fight against their mutual enemies. Lately Imperial observers have reported seeing Astartes like troops fight alongside combined Tau/human forces on the fringes of the Tau western expansion.

For their part the current commanders of the Savage Swords are in agreement that they still owe a honor debt to the Tau that they must repay before they can return to the Imperium and claim their home world. How long that may take is unknown.