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I'm a little embarrassed to say that I partially got the idea of "romanizing" my Chapter (ranks, titles, phrases etc.) from playing Fallout New Vegas. I guess you have to start somewhere. As I've written about before, Lord Raziel Scryer was a little concerned that since his Chapter would be recruiting from everywhere, there would be eventually be thousands of individual ethnicities, cultures and dialects of Low Gothic represented in the Chapter's ranks. He needed some common ground to unite everyone, and High Gothic would be the obvious choice. This would hopefully help foster a sense of allegiance to the Imperium as a whole, not just an individual planet.
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The closest Roman word to a squad would seem to be "contubernium." This would mean a group of 8 legionaries who lived in the same tent, along with 2 noncombatants who would act as support staff. Contubernium would be the appropriate word to use, but... it doesn't really have a ring to it. So I'll just stick with 'squad.' Each squad would be identified by its number in the company or "centuria." So, primus, secundus, tertius, etc.
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It's been a while since I've brushed up on my codexes (codices?), but I seem to recall that a squad could be split into 2 combat squads for greater tactical flexibility. The modern equivalent would be fireteam, so I'm going with that. Fireteam 1 and 2, or A and B, or something like that.
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Each squad would be led by a decanus (Latin for "chief of ten"). The decanus would be in charge of the squad as a whole and the first fireteam, and his second in command would lead the second fireteam. I'm guessing the team leaders would be equipped for close combat, since that seems like how it's normally supposed to be. So, pistol/chainsword or power sword if they're lucky.
THE DECANUS MUST NOT WEAR OR DO ANYTHING THAT INDICATES HE IS A LEADER. This is one of those deal breakers for me, one of the things that ruins suspension of disbelief (along with everyone not wearing a helmet). The decanus will not wear an iron skull, a red helmet, a red stripe, nothing. Everyone in the squad looks exactly the same. No exceptions. None.
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I suppose every squad needs a squad banner bearer. I really hate the "gonfalone" style of banner that is used by most Chapters; the standard that hangs down from a crossbar stuck on top of the Marine's back pack. I think it looks stupid and impractical. If squads need a banner to rally around, might I suggest the Japanese "sashimono" style? A banner hung from an L shaped frame attached to the person's back in a way that does not make it so awkward and impractical in a fight, throw off balance or whatever. The Romans appeared to have a number of different words associated with "standard bearer," such as vexillarius and signifer.
The decanus cannot wear the banner. It has to be someone else.
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There needs to be two spaces open for the traditional heavy weapons trooper and the special weapons user. From a gameplay perspective this is justified; you don't want a whole squad of Astartes armed with plasma rifles blowing up everything they see. But from a lore perspective, why not stuff in an extra plasma gun or two? Anyway...
The heavy weapons trooper carries the storm bolter, as I've previously written before; when it's appropriate he carries the missile launcher or the lascannon, if it's not too heavy or awkward to lug around. The Dark Swords favor speed and mobility over pure firepower.
The special weapons trooper carries the melta gun or flamer. No plasma, please. If I were a Dark Sword (and I'm not, but if I were), I would not carry around a plasma gun. No, I don't care if it's a thousand year old relic, I don't want to carry around a weapon that might blow up and kill me. Interestingly, in all of the Black Library books I have read so far, no plasma weapon is ever depicted blowing up their user. Plot armor is a wonderful thing... Anyway, melta guns for tanks or when you absolutely, positively have to kill that motherfucker dead. Flamers for orks and other hordes.
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One slot for what I call the "apothecary minor." I have never liked the idea that you have *one* Apothecary for every 100 Marines. Oops, the Apothecary got shot in the head by a sniper! Now what is the rest of the Company supposed to do? Unless someone knows basic battlefield surgery and medicine and how to extract gene-seed, I'd say the Company is in trouble.
I decided to create the concept of an apothecary minor to counter this problem. Minors are regular Astartes selected for special training by the Apothecarion, possibly trained by the Apothecary Major assigned to each Company. They can do at least basic medicine/surgery and, should the worst come to pass, perform gene-seed extraction. They are not strictly meant to replace a full member of the Apothecarion, but they should be able to keep their squad mates alive until they can be extracted and properly patched up. If every Astartes is so valuable and difficult/time consuming to replace, the Chapter should make every possible effort to preserve the ones they already have. A squad medic would be the logical solution to this problem. The more medics a Company has, the less likely they would be screwed over than if they had *one* guy who got capped because the enemy suddenly had an attack of common sense.
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I really like the idea of a designated marksman, so I would like to keep a slot open for that. The DM would be equipped with a "heavy bolt rifle," which should not be too difficult to make or too heretical; but that's a topic for another post. It's basically just a rifle chambered for heavy bolts. The heavy bolt should be designed like a Kraken bolt, for maximum effectiveness against heavy infantry and vehicles.
Not every squad might have a DM; it may depend on the situation or the availability of snipers. DMs must demonstrate truly exemplary marksmanship to qualify for the title; if you absolutely need that target neutralized RIGHT NOW, you ought to be confident that your DM will hit that target 100% of the time or something very close. Of course Astartes are supermen with super accuracy... I may need some more time to think about this squad role.
If no DM is available, the squad has another storm bolter for suppression.
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That leaves four slots open for regular troopers. The average tactical squad would look something like this:
Squad Totally Awesome Kick Ass (or Tertius)
Fireteam 1
- Decanus (squad leader)
- Special Weapon Trooper (flamer or melta)
- Heavy Trooper (storm bolter or ML/L-cannon)
- 2 Regular Troopers (one of which may carry the squad banner)
Fireteam 2
- Second in Command (there needs to be a title for him)
- Apothecary Minor
- DM/Heavy Trooper (storm bolter)
- 2 Regular Troopers (one of which may carry the squad banner)
I was also thinking that the regular troopers could carry underslung grenade launching tubes, but that's another topic for another post.
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