Tuesday 1 July 2014

Great Crusade Emperor's Children, Fluff, Structure and Personnel

Helloooo Bunnies!!

I have been researching a lot about the Emperor's Children and deciding on which characters I want to focus on in the Great Crusade. 


I have decided to focus most of my stories around Lord Commander Vespasion, little is known on him and I am not sure when he became a Lord Commander so what I may do is have him as a company captain, make up my own lord commander and flesh out his rise through the legion. Here is some of the Great Crusade Emperor's Children fluff I have identified:
Fulgrim:
Had almost completely no whites to his eyes.
Fireblade had a golden blade that shone with the constant light of the forge. 
He went to battle with the Phoenix Guard as his bodyguard, but he was also followed by a company standard (unsure what armour he used). At the time of the battle of Laeren, this companion was called Brother Thestis who carried a legion standard made from purple cloth with a white-gold eagle sat atop it. He had a long blade.

Legion:
When they wear red cloaks or tunics it means they are about to go to war or are at war.
Vespasion was a Lord commander - not sure when this happened anyone have further information?
Julius Kaisoron was 1st captain. He wore terminator armour and he used a combi-bolter and power fist.
Soloman Demeter was 2nd captain. He wore MKIV armour and I believe he had a heavy chainsword.
Marius Verosian was 3rd captain. Anyone know of his wargear?
The Imperial Army contingent attached to the ECs were called the Archite Palatines, they wore crimson tunics with silver breastplates
The legion used chaplains.

Here is some stuff about the structure of the legion during the Great Crusade. Mainly looking at popular units and ones that wouldn't be used.

Great Crusade Structure
HQs
Fluffy:
Champion - an obvious choice due to the fact it is in the rite of war and is a character who exhibits marshall prowess. Coupled with the updated rule that any EC characters in a challenge gain +1 to their initiative, they are a tremendous foe!
Primus Medicae - the Emperor's Children had a very large Medicae department including Apothecaries. Even during the Great Crusade, the ECs were conducting experiments and making 'improvements' to the Emperor's design. As such we are allowing the use of Sonic Shriekers (+1 initiative on the charge). 
Not Fluffy:
Librarian - the ECs believed that the psyker gene was an imperfection and as such, there were no psykers in the legion. Strange considering Fulgrim was a vocal supporter of the Librarius...weird hey?

Elites:
There are not really any fluffy units here outside of the normal, Phoenix Guard, Palatine Blades etc.

Troops:
The ECs used small squads in most engagements, this is because of the early numerical weakness of the legion. Instead the legion grew to use fast tactics and commissioned a large amount of jump packs.
Fluffy:
10 man tactical/despoiler squads - the ECs tended towards more despoiler squads apparently as they had a very effective tactic of using bolters at range and finishing with chainswords. This can be evidenced in the Black Library novel 'Fulgrim' during the cleansing of Laeren.
Small tactical support squads - the 3rd legion had access to all available wargear so any option is fine.
Assault squads - see above :)

Fast Attack:
Fluffy:
Sky Hunters - Fulgrim loved these and compared them to knights on horse. How romantic!

Heavy Support:
Fluffy:
Lascannon Heavy Support squads - were known as the sunkillers and were a very popular option during the Crusade.

This will be a work in progress collection. I know I will have missed some. Please add comments below (with citations where possible) and I will update and correct.

Here are a few WIP pictures of my Phoenix Guard. I will be completing these in the next few days and will then move back to my, now fixed, Javelins.



You can see my champion, Corrinth Lannis on the right here. Really not happy with his pose anymore...*Reaches for heat gun*


I hope you enjoyed my post. Please comment below :)

Khall

16 comments:

  1. That's some awsome fluff knowledge right there dude, where do you get all your info from?

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    1. I have pieced it together from Betrayal - under the 'formations' and 'hierachy' sections. I found the small captions under the legion artwork has loads of useful information too. Secondly, I have been listening to Fulgrim again. Mainly the first quarter over and over. Lol

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  2. That's great information. It will certainly be helpful for my EC when I start them shortly. I didn't know about the Despoiler Squads being used, i will have to take a look at them again. There is also an amazing post on the Warseer forums about the Legion hierarchy that is a must read for any EC fan:

    http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?392927-A-shorty-history-of-nearly-everything-Emperors-Children

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    1. Wow, that is an awesome link. It basically lays out what I am working on lol. I will be showing my starting Millenial hierachy here before we start our campaign. The one thing I dont agree with in that thread, is squad sizes. It clearly says in Betrayal that the ECs used smaller squads. I will contact the author above and discuss :) thank you so much for sharing with me.

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    2. I'm already working with the author of the thread above. The three of us should work on this to improve it even more. Or we could even start a own site for the third legion, what do you think?

      Furthermore I'd be interested where in Betrayal did you read about the small squads? Cause that would change a lot for my three companies :/

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    3. It says on page 107 paragragh 3 that squads were only made up of a handful of ECs. To me this suggests that squad sizes would be of the minimum sizes. Please have a read and let me know what you think :)

      With regards to our own website; I wish I had the time. I am currently working on 5 legions (of which ECs are not even my favourites lol) I would definitely like to contribute, but it would be minimal :(

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    4. Thanks for the Information. :)
      I took a look at page 107 and foudn the paragraph. Hmm, kind of hard to say if this really means that the squads were at minimum size. A handful is hard to define ;) If you think about 110'000 Emeror's Children in 30 Millennials we have about 3700 Marines per Millenial which roughly equals about 35 Companies. I talked to the owner of the Thread above about this matter and we came to the conclusion, that also 20 Man squads existed. But I see the reason behind your interpretation. In the end there are three possibilities:
      -Many squads at minimum size
      -a few squads at maximum size
      -a mixture of both


      Well I've got no idea how I should do a site like this but I'll think about this "side" project

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    5. Happy to share ideas with you anytime :)

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  3. Great job Khall. Makes me feel like I should really research my Legions more lol

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    1. Thanks mate. It is a double edged sword. It takes away freedom, but gives loads of ideas :) well worth doing. Let me know if you need help. I have been researching Alpha Legion with Darko recently....can never know too much :)

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  4. Might be worth creating a page just for Legion Characters and there known look / place in Legion / loadout / look. Wouldn't take me too long to listen to all books again lol.

    Happy you are going for Verspasian. He is one of my EC faves and he epitomises Pre-Heresy EC to me.

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    1. I think I will do my own LC and have Vespasion as captain of the 2nd. Then I will kill off my LC and promote Vespasion. I can then have Demeter step into his shoes as captain.

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  5. Great knowledge there. Loving the look on your Phoenix Guard, how long do you think you have left on them?

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  6. Great knowledge of EC Fluff! I am going to be starting my own EC project soon. Could I ask what Purple you are using?

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    1. Absolutely:
      1. Spray black
      2. A coat of Xereus Purple
      3. 50:50 mix of Xereus Purple and Genestealer Purple
      4. A nice was of Druchii Violet, paying special attention to the gaps

      I hope this helps :)

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    2. Definitely, Thanks. Can't wait to see some more progress on these guys.

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