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 Iron Hands field the standard Astartes line and fight it as a war of pure attrition. Their thesis is a single cold article of faith — the flesh is weak — and everything about how they fight follows from it. They field the most resilient bodies of any Chapter, replace lost flesh with iron, and revere the machine above the living man: the Dreadnought over the brother, the bionic over the limb it replaced. Where a faster force wins on the opening blow, the Iron Hands win by refusing to fall and refusing to stay down; where the Salamanders endure through faith and the Imperial Fists through a held wall, the Iron Hands endure through augmetics and the machine cult. Every fighter carries an inherent resilience no one else has to pay for, and a Techmarine projects the cult over the revered walkers to keep them standing. This is not the Codex perfected but the Codex hardened into logic — emotionless, augmetic and pitiless — a strike force that out-endures a quicker enemy and lets bionic recovery snowball its survivors across a grinding campaign.
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
- Every fighter fights to the gang's declared Combat Doctrine; the Machine Cult overlays it with the walker buff and the inherent bionic-resilience
- Exactly 1 Leader (Captain, the Iron Council commander); 0-2 Champions (Techmarine-forward - Lieutenant / Techmarine / Librarian / Chaplain / Apothecary); each specialist 0-1
- Backbone: Marines + Scouts >= Leaders + Champions (the line is battle-brothers and neophytes, not command)
- Marines bulk; Scouts cheap and plentiful; Techmarine, Champion and Dreadnought slots unlock with Reputation; Dreadnought 0-2 (the walker-heavy emphasis), Centurion 0-1
- Iron Within: every fighter carries bionic resilience (Feel No Pain 6+ and the better Lasting-Injury outcome, inherent); a Techmarine projects the Machine Cult, letting friendly walkers within 6in re-roll a failed Save. No chassis bans. A walker-heavy, bionics-saturated line
A starting Iron Hands gang musters on 1500 credits. The controlling player fields exactly one Leader — the Captain who commands the Iron Council — and up to two Champions, drawn Techmarine-forward from the Lieutenant, Techmarine, Librarian, Chaplain and Apothecary, each specialist taken no more than once. Marines and Scouts form the backbone and must together at least equal the Leaders and Champions: this is a brotherhood of battle-brothers and neophytes, not a knot of command. Marines bulk out the line and Scouts come cheap and plentiful, while the Chapter leans harder than most into the walkers — up to two Dreadnoughts and a single Centurion, their slots opening as the gang's reputation grows. Every fighter fights to the gang's declared Combat Doctrine and carries the inherent bionic resilience, and a Techmarine projects the machine cult to let friendly walkers within 6" re-roll a failed Save. No chassis is barred; the muster simply runs heavy on iron.