"For The Chapter and For the God Emperor"

This is a group for warhammer 40k players a Space Marine Community. Design your Space Marine Chapters then play them on DOW.


A Space Marine Chapter is described as having a nominal fighting strength of 1,000 men, with several times that number of support staff. A chapter is divided into 10 semi-autonomous companies made up of roughly 100 men, with each company led by a "Brother Captain". Each company is divided into 10 squads of 5-10 "Battle-Brothers".

One company (usually the First) consists only of Veteran squads. The Veterans are granted full access to a Chapter's armory and therefore are usually far better equipped than their brethren. The veteran company rarely fights as one and is usually spread round the other companies.

Companies 2-5 are designated "Battle Companies" and perform the bulk of a Chapter's operations. They are made up of 6 Tactical Squads (general purpose), 2 Devastator Squads (heavy weaponry) and 2 Assault Squads (Melee specialists). They are usually supported by elements of the reserve companies, as well as the First and Tenth companies.

Companies 6-9 are designated as reserve companies and are comprised solely of one type of squad. Squads are then distributed to other companies as and when they are needed, but they also fight together on occasion. Sixth and Seventh companies consist of Tactical Squads - however, they are trained to drive bikes and Land Speeders respectively and can take to field in them. The Eighth Company consists of Assault Squads while the Ninth consists of Devastator Squads.

Company 10 consists only of "scouts", new Chapter recruits equipped with the lighter "Carapace" armor. This company provides the majority of reconnaissance and infiltration.

There are two Space Marine Chapters that are noted for their rejection of the Codex organization. They are noted in the background material as having far more than the 1000 fighting man limit and are not organized into companies.

The first chapter is the Space Wolves. They use a training system of group initiates into packs and then keeping that group together meaning that the most experienced veterans, "Long Fangs", are smaller than the least experienced, "Blood Claws", as casualties are not replaced. They will form into an organization known as a Great Company which itself can be larger than a normal chapter that adheres to the Codex.

The second chapter is the Black Templars. They use a training system in which an experienced Battle Brother, known as an initiate, will take an individual trainee, known as a neophyte, and form a squad with a mix of experienced and trainee fighting side by side, much like knights and squires of history. The Chapter will organize into Crusades, in keeping with the knight motif, that can be as small as several dozen to as large as over 1000 Battle Brothers which showed up at the planet Armageddon.