The Adeptus Astartes fight as the few, the dear, and the superhuman. A Chapter commits no horde to the field but a small strike force of transhuman warriors, each the equal of a squad of mortal soldiers. Their endurance is written into the flesh — the wide chest, the fused ribcage, the doubled hearts — so that a battle-brother weathers wounds that would fell any lesser fighter and never breaks under fire. Where other warhosts drown a foe in numbers, a Chapter answers with discipline: a gang-wide doctrine, declared afresh each round, that shifts the whole force from massed fire to swift advance to the closing charge as the battle demands. Every Chapter shares this spine — the transhuman body, the unbending nerve, the shifting doctrine — and expresses its own character through which end of that discipline it leans into and the relics its heroes carry. They are a strike force of demigods waging war across the galaxy, and each brother lost is a grievous loss to the Chapter.
Composition4
Identity2
The Imperial Fists are the Imperium's wall made flesh. Where other Chapters manoeuvre, the Sons of Dorn dig in: they take the same Astartes strike force every Chapter fields and fight it as a fortress, leaning every doctrine hard toward the guns and firing the deadlier the longer they refuse to give ground. A held position is their whole art. A fighter that plants its feet and holds still ranges truer with each passing round, and any ruin or slab of rockcrete becomes a strongpoint the enemy must break rather than pass.
They are the immovable wall to the Blood Angels' unstoppable blade. Not the Codex perfected, as the Ultramarines keep it, but the Codex braced: dug in, guns ranged, and waiting behind its line for the charge that must come to it. A House of Imperial Fists rewards the patient hand — the player who builds a gunline of heavy weapons and stoic line-brothers, anchors it on terrain, and makes the enemy pay in full for every inch of ground he crosses to reach it.
Gang Composition2
- Starting credits: 1500
- Exactly 1 Leader (Captain / named Chapter Master)
- 0-2 Champions (Lieutenant); 0-1 each specialist (Librarian / Chaplain / Apothecary / Techmarine)
- Marines are the bulk; Scouts cheap and plentiful; backbone (Marines + Scouts) >= Leaders + Champions
- 0-X Cavalry (0 for foot-only chapters) - 0-1(-2) Centurion - 0-1 Brute
- Champion / specialist / Brute slots unlock with Reputation
- Combat Doctrines is declared as a stance each round; it is never stored or carried between rounds
A Chapter strike force musters on 1500 credits. It is led by a single commanding officer — a Captain, or a named Chapter Master fielded on that body — and no gang may field more than one. Beneath the Leader stand up to two Champions of Lieutenant rank, and one apiece of the specialist brethren: Librarian, Chaplain, Apothecary and Techmarine, as the Chapter's needs demand. The bulk of the force is its battle-brother Marines, stiffened by cheap and plentiful Scout neophytes; together these gangers and juves must always at least match the officers set above them in number. A Chapter may also field its mounted brethren, a lone Centurion in his warsuit, and a single interred Brute. Further Champion, specialist and Brute slots open as the Chapter's Reputation grows. The gang's Combat Doctrines stance is declared anew each round and never carried between them.
- Starting credits: 1500 (converter-wide default)
- Every fighter is a doctrine-bearer: the line fights to the declared Combat Doctrine, and the Imperial Fists' siege lean biases it toward Devastator
- Exactly 1 Leader (Captain); 0-2 Champions (Lieutenant / Librarian / Chaplain / Apothecary / Techmarine); each specialist 0-1
- Backbone: Marines + Scouts >= Leaders + Champions (the line is battle-brothers and neophytes, not command)
- Marines and Devastators bulk; Scouts cheap and plentiful; Heavy Intercessor and Champion slots unlock with Reputation; 0-1 Brute (the Land Raider counts)
- Hold and grind: a fighter that did not move fires harder (see the Bolter Drill signature). A heavy-weapon-rich, terrain-anchored line
A starting House of Imperial Fists musters on 1500 credits. It is built around exactly one Leader, the Captain who declares the gang's Doctrine and anchors its line, and up to two Champions drawn from the Lieutenant, Librarian, Chaplain, Apothecary and Techmarine — each of those specialists taken no more than once. The backbone must hold: the count of Marines and Scouts is always at least the number of Leaders and Champions, so the force reads as a body of battle-brothers and neophytes rather than a knot of command.
Marines and Devastators give the gang its weight, Scouts its cheap forward numbers. Heavy Intercessors and the Champion slots open as the House earns Reputation, and a single Brute may be fielded — the Land Raider fills that slot. Every fighter fights to the declared Doctrine, leaned toward Devastator, and one that holds still fires harder for it. The House rewards a heavy-weapon-rich, terrain-anchored muster that plants itself and makes the enemy come to the guns.