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 Raven Guard are the strike from shadow — a Chapter that fields the standard Astartes line and fights it as a guerrilla shadow-war. They deploy unseen, hit the soft target, and are gone before the counter-blow can land. Where the Imperial Fists hold ground and the Iron Hands out-endure, the Raven Guard refuse to hold anything at all: they infiltrate, they alpha-strike, and they fade. Every fighter runs the standard Combat Doctrines like any other Chapter, but over them the sons of Corax lay their own two disciplines — a larger share of the force sets up hidden, and any warrior that has struck may break away on the same breath. It is a way of war built on patience and vengeance rather than the perfect Codex line, and it buys its lethality by never trading blows: the strike force is fragile, and knows it, and answers with darkness instead of armour. This is the Codex turned to the ambush — an unseen blade that decides the fight in a single stroke from cover and is never there to be caught, a brotherhood that wins the war the enemy never saw begin.
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 fights under Combat Doctrines, with Shadow Masters overlaying the gang-wide hidden-deploy and Hit-and-Run
- Exactly 1 Leader (Captain, the shadow-captain); 0-2 Champions (Lieutenant / Librarian / Chaplain / Apothecary / Techmarine); each specialist 0-1
- Backbone: Marines + Scouts >= Leaders + Champions (the line is infiltrators and neophytes, not command)
- Marines and Vanguard bulk; Scouts cheap and plentiful (the Phobos emphasis); Vanguard and Champion slots unlock with Reputation; Dreadnought 0-1; Centurion 0 and Cavalry 0 by default - the Raven Guard jump and infiltrate, they neither run mounts nor cast a warsuit's shadow
- Strike from Shadow: a larger share of the gang than normal may hidden-deploy, and any fighter that struck may Hit-and-Run; favour the light marks, the jump pack and Phobos concealment. No chassis bans, but no resilience either - the force is fragile and wins by never being caught
A starting Raven Guard strike force is founded on 1500 credits. At its head stands exactly one Leader — the shadow-captain — with up to two Champions drawn from the Lieutenant, Librarian, Chaplain, Apothecary and Techmarine. Marines and Vanguard form the fighting bulk, and Scouts come cheap and plentiful in the Chapter's Phobos lean; together the Marines and Scouts must at least equal the Leaders and Champions, for the line is infiltrators and neophytes, not command. Vanguard and further Champion slots open as the force earns Reputation, a single Dreadnought may be interred, and by default the Chapter fields no Centurion and no cavalry — it jumps and infiltrates, and neither runs mounts nor casts a warsuit's shadow. Every fighter fights under Combat Doctrines with the Shadow Masters overlay laid across it: a larger share of the force than normal deploys hidden, and any fighter that has struck may fade with a Hit-and-Run. The Chapter leans the light marks, the jump pack and Phobos concealment, and bans no chassis — but it buys no resilience either. The strike force is fragile, and wins by never being caught.