About

[Corai]

So after finally abandoning my steam marines project I've comitted to working on an army of Iron Snakes space marines (as featured in Dan Abnett's 'Brothers of the snake' novel). First off, for the basic info on the chapter, I've quoted 'snake of Ithaka' from the black library forum as he sums it up pretty completely.

Basic Breakdown:

Chapter Name: Iron Snakes
Homeworld: Ithaka “The Cradle of Snakes”, located within the Reef Systems
Fortress Monastery Name: Karybdis – “Fortress Moon”
Primarch: Loyalty to Roboute Guilliman, 2nd Founding
Chapter Number: 1000 Brothers Strong

What we can perceive of the Iron Snakes, is that they are a Chapter based off of our own Ancient Mediterranean ure (Mostly Greeks, some Egyption references as well as some Roman). Any of you interested in Classics will have a fine appreciation for the references and names, as well as imagery used within the Chapter.

Ithaka is a Sea-World, comprised about 90% by ocean, and is home to enormous 300m long Water-Wyrms, the symbol of their Chapter (Also to be noted, a petitioner must kill a Water-Wyrm with a sea-lance (2m long harpoon/spear) before being inducted).

Chapter Grand Master: Seydon. Is the 18th Chapter Master, and carries the ancient sea-lance “Tiborus” and a Wyrmscale cloak.
Chapter Librarian: Petrok. Carries the mighty and ancient Power Sword Bellus.
Master Chaplain: Cyclion. Carries a Thunder Hammer.
Known Captains: Phobor, Locum, Medes (Commander of the Chapter’s Terminators)
Techmarine Suprema: are mentioned as well.
Known Venerable Dreadnaughts: Autolochus - Lascannon, close combat weapon and storm bolter

The 5 “Notables” Squads within the Chapter: Damocles, Thebes, Veii, Parthus, and Skypio (Skypio being commanded by Captain Medes, and are the only terminators within the chapter)

Other Known Squads: Pelleas, Phocis, Manes, Ridates, Hades, Aegis, Ankysus, Nophon, Lakodeme, Laomon.

It should be known that the Iron Snakes are not organized like most Chapters, and have a very different structure.

“Notables” are not to be confused with veterans. There are 5 notable battle brother squads within the IS, and these form the work horse base of the Chapter’s Combat units. 4 of the 10 man squads are regular marines, but Skypio possesses the only suits of Tactical Dreadnaught Armor within the Chapter, led by Captain Medes. All other IS squads are used in turn around these 5.

Squads are never given numbers, but are recognized by the names of the Squad’s founder, as well as carry an artifact from them (like a bolter, or lightning claw passed down by brother sergeants.) as well as the Squad’s standard, worn on the back of 1 marine. Their left shoulder pad houses the Chapter's Icon on a field of white, the double looped blue Water Wyrm, and the right pad depicts the name and symbol of it's squad. These are outlined in a dark red, and have a white lace throughout. Armor is metal grey (Not Metalic in color, but in Grey tones). Symbols of companies on kneepads is at the moment, questionable, as Company formation might not be used to the same degree, however, Wyrmscale cloaks or scales upon the greave is a good sign of status for a Brother-Sergeant, or rank. Apothecaries are in white armor, and **The Iron Snakes DO make use of Robes.** These colors, depending on the campaign can be either a dark red, a white, or a dark grey hue.

Companies are very different among the IS than among other Marines. They are very very unique in organization, as Squad based command and training takes over (This is also a stab at ancient Greek Politics, and it appears that Battle-Brothers are chosen for duty not by company). When a Captain marches to War under the authority of the Chapter Master Seydon, he allows every squad in the Chapter to cast their name into a Pool IF they are battle ready, and in turn, the Captain and Chapter Master decides among the names of which squads to take to war. If 50 brothers are needed, 20 squads might cast their names to be chosen for combat, and only 5 will be taken. Some of the Larger campaign undertakings of the Chapter include the use of up to 25-30 squads (250-300 Marines) led in person by the Chapter Master. These large numbers are very rare indeed, and the normal battle groups often only use 4-6 squads (40-60 Marines). As for Scouts or Neophytes, as far as I can tell, the IS do not bring anything less than a Full phratry Brother into combat. Petitioners are what phratry brothers are called, and untill they are inducted into a squad, they do not fight in any way for the chapter.

It is confirmed that every squad of 9 Iron Snakes is accompanied by an Apothecary, often the eldest of the group, they have the knowledge to act as an advisor to the Brother-Sergeant. Common specialised weapons include the use of Plasma s and s, flamers, rhinos, rhazorbacks, and speeders. There is one particular mentioning of a dreadnaught armed with a lascannon, close combat weapon and storm-bolter.

Each Marine is armed with a large rounded Hoplon-esque combat shield, 1-3 2 meter long sea-lances (a very close mix between a Hoplite’s spear and a harpoon), a short sword sized combat knife, and a bolter. IS brothers are well trained in close combat to wield both bolter and spear, or shield in unison. **It is my best guess that the most appropriate rule for this is True Grit.** The ability to form a tight formation (akin to a phalanx) when pressed by Orks or other horde mobs is quite useful, trading their sea lances as they break, and slowly moving down to their bolters and shields. With this, often we see Wyrmhide scales or cloaks, fashioned on the shoulders or the back, even on legplates. Fangs and are common as well. Also of note, when moving or setting up advances or deffences, it is usually the case of the IS squads to adopt a "snake" like line formation.

With this direct link to snakes or wyrms, IS have an incredibely different system concerning poison. Should a brother be bitten by a snake, it is considered a good omen. The toxins will be momentarily effective on the astartes warrior, then, the poisons will be stored within a particular gland, allowing the stolen toxin to be released from the Iron Snake should it bite an adversary.

IS are very ritualistic in nature, and it is a punishable act to not have a helm on. s in armies can easily represent this by making sure to include one on their person, and it is not uncommon for them to have either crests or Wyrm markings. They also have a ritual regarding the anointing of themselves and the land with water of Ithaka’s ocean before and after a battle. Hair is usually black, tied in either rows or shaved, and their complexion is rather pale. It is standard practice for all brothers to be clean shaven.

I'm still working on a list but have painted the first tactical squad and am working on another:





Thanks
Corai

[Gorbert]

Nice, i perticularly like the banner and how the snake comes from the greek symbol very nice

[Greasus409]

I like the fluff but I find that the colour scheme is rather boring.


 thanks Greasus409

[Fallen_Angel]

woah! where did you get all that info?, love the models, however if it is a punishable offence to not wear a helm(et), why aren't all marines wearing them?

good luck with this one, a change from the old yellow

[Corai]

woah! where did you get all that info?, love the models, however if it is a punishable offence to not wear a helm(et), why aren't all marines wearing them?

All the info is from the black library forum, al though its basically a distiled version of all the info from the Brothers of The snake book (well worth a read even if you arne't anIron Snakes fan)

and I've taken some artisitc license with the army. First of all the chapter symbol should relaly be blue, but I prefer it in black. with the helmets I just really wanted some flesh in there to break up al the dark silver. All the helmetless mariones ahve a helmet belted at their waste, or broken on the base.

good luck with this one, a change from the old yellow

Thanks, and the change of pace was the big draw for me with this army. i love blue and yellow but am just getting a bit bored of them!

Finished squad 2, Laoman squad. They're still proving difficult to photograph and it's late so I'll hold off on pics until tomorrow!

Thanks
Corai

[StephenWonderboy]

looking good, just think they need something else, never had much love for just silver marines.

[Corai]

Squad Laoman:




and the pointing brothers in arms:


Thanks
Corai

[Mentag the Marauder]

Corai if you are interested in getting some custom made transfers go to Veni Vidi Vici. They can do them up for you. It would speed up the painting I guess?

Otherwise these guys are looking good!

[Lexy]

phew, it was time you made a new gnoblog.
What was 2 weeks since the last?

I like them very much, and I like the black and white scheme too

[Corai]

Corai if you are interested in getting some custom made transfers go to Veni Vidi Vici. They can do them up for you. It would speed up the painting I guess? 

I'll look into it Mentag, but I'm thinking that maybe by then end of this I'll be ale to paint the snakle symbol a lot better, and will have learnt some valuable lessons about freehand. then again I do like quick...

phew, it was time you made a new gnoblog.
What was 2 weeks since the last?

To be fair this is more a cleaning up and extension of an existing gnoblog

Thanks
Corai

[Ghworg]

Nice Marines Corai: about time you settled on something cool!

[Mentag the Marauder]

I'll look into it Mentag, but I'm thinking that maybe by then end of this I'll be ale to paint the snakle symbol a lot better, and will have learnt some valuable lessons about freehand. then again I do like quick...

Well if it is an entire company of marines it might b best to go down the transfer route. I could imagine you going crazy with all the free hand. Still it would be a good lesson and by the end of it you would be very proficent.... just to tempt you some more you could even get the squad names done as transfers...

[Corai]

mini update:
I was planning on painting another couple of unitd over the next few days but have got a game lined up for the iron snakes on Thursday so need to get them assembled first! I've built 3 dev squads and an assault squad and have 2 vet squads and a librarien to convert over the next few days. Pics to follow soon.

thanks
Corai

[Corai]

After a veritable gluing frenzy in order to be ready for a game on thursday, I've got my entire 1500 point army glued:

Missile Launcher Dev Squad 1


Missile Launcher Dev Squad 2


Heavy Bolter Dev Squad


Assault Squad


The veteran/notable squads gave me a chance to bring insome mroe of the Iron Snakes Greek imagery and their fondness for sea lances:








And heres an (unfortunatley out of focus) shot of the librarien I've converted from a master of the chapter.


I got them all assembled a day early and am off tomorrow so hopefully should get one of the dev squads painted and posted by the end of the day

thanks
Corai

[lt.mori]

Nice background you gave. Nice pictures you got there. How much did that all cost for you?

[Corai]

Nice background you gave. Nice pictures you got there. How much did that all cost for you?

It's all built from the Battlecompany box which cost £275 IIRC. I've still got 10 tanks and 50 more marines from it that can be asembled at a later date.

Managed to get a solid day of painting in today and knocked out one of the dev squads. I'm not happy witht he freehand on the standard and will redo it at a later date but for now I'm happy to move on and paint the next unit:




managed to get a better pic of my libby as well. I'm thinking of sculpting scales onto the back of his cloak to resemble a wyrmscale cloak. Might not though as it could get confused for the adamantine mantle.


And managed some more pics of the individual notables:










Thanks
Corai

[Wildcard]

nice work - and is that some elements of the hero basing kit I spy there??

I love the pose on the guy with the raised spear - something reminds me of the Predator

[Ghworg]

I love the pose on the guy with the raised spear - something reminds me of the Predator icon_smile

Conversely, he's actually my least favourite model (the pose just seems a little unrealistic). My two favourites (it's hard to bring it down to two ) are the Librarian (I love simple yet awesome conversions) and the spear-armed model above the one Wilcard mentioned.

[Corai]

Thanks guys

The raised spear pointing guy is actually my favourite one, just something about it I like. although I'm happy with the stoic look of the libraian. I was planning on just building one out of plastic but love the ,masters of the chapter models. I plan to use the other 3 to build a chaplain, master and...I dunno, maybe another librarian...I do love painting blue.

and yes wildcard, you see a lot of the basing kit in there (although it's the new 40K one that came out with apocalypse, not the older hero one)

Had my first game with them tonight and took a considerable beating (although I was not short on the handing out of whuppings myself). Overall I think the list performed as wel as could be expected but my total inexperience with it, coupled with bad deployment and terrible use of the librarian cost me the game. Had some awful dice rolls too (2 units of marines fled off the table! 'And they shall know no fear' my arse!). Full bat rep tomorrow if I get chance

Thanks
Corai

Thanks
Corai

[Mentag the Marauder]

Looking nice, I didn't think Marines could run off the board. I thought they auto rallied at the edge?

What are the white plastic helmets Corai? Something you have done yourself?