Imperium of Man build

[DreadLindwyrm]

Without Utopia: You can reserach both Geneseed Purification and Psionic Armies tech the same way you can now.
With Utopia: Progressing past the 1st Tech (Psionic Theory) requires the Ascension Perk. Geneseed Purification in particular needs teh 1st Tier of Biological Ascension.


That is one of the bigget issues. Finding out the parts that are in the lore but not that Important.
Another example actually are the Space Marines/Gene Warrior armies. While they are a full blown "Faction" by the games and the Army Rulebooks, thier numbers are highly limited. Official Lore rule States: "There can not be more then 1000 Space Marines per Chapter".

1000 marines is a nominal, and nicely rounded maximum. However, a chapter can easily be overstrength - The organisation slate allows for 100 marines per company, **plus specialists** who aren't numbered in a standard squad or company (chaplains, techmarines, and apothecaries are a separate part of the organisation slate, and the command squads for each company may or may not (depending on the chapter) also be one of the regular 10 squads.

Then we have chapters that don't follow the Codex Astartes in a meaningful fashion :
The Space Wolves nearest equivalent to a Company is a highly variable force - but could potentially be equivalent to 14 squads (6 tactical equivalent, 3 devastator equivalent, 3 assault equivalent, 2 command squad equivalents), and there are 12 Great Companies (or whatever wolfish name they've added *this* time - I think they were on "Great Pack" last I saw??).

Then we have the Black Templars - divided between several Crusades, each of which seems suspiciously strongly manned considering the number of them that are going at any one time.


All in all, saying a Space Marine Chapter has " not more than 1000 Space Marines" is describing the ideal state of affairs, and not the practical reality...
Even the Ultramarines have found themselves in a situation where they've got full (nominal strength) companies... and the Scouts they've been training in anticipation of casualties don't have a space in the ranks to move into, because those casualties didn't happen. They can't just make a new chapter - that has to be approved by a "proper" founding being authorised. So what they *probably* do is let the companies fill out to 6 tactical, 3 assault, 3 devastator, and 2 command squads (one for the captain, one for the chaplain), and slacken off on recruiting Scouts. Of course, an alternative with the Ultramarines is to pass the excess Scouts to their gene-brothers in their subsequent Founding Chapters. Another alternative would be to make additional "grey" reserve companies to hold the excess, and to act as a pool for reserves.
Something like the Space Wolves would just shrug, and add them into the line strength though.

 

[Drakonn]

Wouldn't you need Police State as well?

 

[The Founder]

When people call the Ultramarines Smurfs and their Chapter Master this ^^^, I wonder why Games Workshop A: keeps trying to force them down everyone's throats and B: thinks people will actually take them seriously.

Colors meaning change over time. Purple used to be a highly "Royal" color. Mostly because it was insanely expensive to have and maintain purple clothes, back when the only source of purple color was a kind of snail.
I wonder what the blue of the Ultramraines stands for...

 

[Gnostiko]

Question for experts on the subject:

During the time the Emperor was actually leading the empire and wars personally, did he endorse/encourage the purging of xenos? Or did that come after the Horus Heresy?

"Kill the alien"


Although lacking the religious overtones of the post-Heresy Imperium, the policy was still pretty much 'shoot on sight'. After the horrors of Old Night and the vibrant, expansionist, mentality of the new Imperium, Xenos were seen as either aggressive threats (actively raiding/attacking human worlds) or passive threats (standing in the way of human expansion, would probably evolve into a threat if left alone to develop). The stars belong to humanity; there can be no peace with the Xenos.

 

[Waldek-Mat]

Very rarely Imperium cooperated with Eldars but only in direst hours - for example Tyranid invasion on Ichar IV. But common policy is kill all aliens.

 

[The Founder]

Very rarely Imperium cooperated with Eldars but only in direst hours - for example Tyranid invasion on Ichar IV. But common policy is kill all aliens.

The general rule is "kill the muntant, the alien, the heretic".
But every local commander or ruler can decide to override that if he deems nessary. As long as they do not turn heretic and archieve their objectives/pay thier tributes, the Empire does not care. But naturally straying of the "narrow path" tends to endanger just that longterm.

One way to maybe look at it: The imperium is a Fanatical Purifier Overlord. But each of his own-species vassals/tributaries has autonomy in their realm. They might be within 1 step of the FP requirements, but are not required to have the Civic.
Perfect immitation is not yet possible, until we get the option to release sectors as Tributaries. Or get Tribute from Vassals.