u/Separate-Flan-2875

It can be hard sometimes to feel like you're capturing the core fantasy of playing the Salamanders (or any non-big 5 chapter) these days - What ideas outside of the rules do you have to help enhance this aspect of the game?

Can be anything.

From themed objective markers.

Themed terrain.

Taking modeling to the next level with upgrade sprues.

All thematic units - All the time - No matter what.

Etc etc

Again - on the Tabletop, not necessarily the lore. Who currently has the best rules?

Which one would you go with

Which would you rather have

Anything like Epic Spell Wars - Irreverent, Violent, Goofy, Magical AF

In Deliverance Lost by Gav Thorpe, Corax says approximately 5,000 Raven Guard escaped the Dropsite Massacre with him.

Had he then recalled his exiled sons - the warriors who would go on to become the Ashen Claws and Carcharodons - would they have been a big help numbers wise?

Dorn’s inner circle

Famously it is said that Rogal Dorn had no fixed inner circle of commanders and close advisors (like the Mournival, the Trident and others) saying that his advisors were whoever was there to stand beside him in battle.

But that doesn’t mean the Primarch didn’t have sons who were more favored/trusted/held in higher esteem than others.

To start - let’s get the two givens out of the way. Meaning - It’s a given that these two would be close to the Primarch with their respective roles within the Legion.

The Master of his Huscarl Retinue and the 1st Captain of the Legion. Both held unique positions within the Imperial Fists and both, exclusively in the case the Master of the Huscarls, served often at the Primarch’s side.

Beyond that - Three Imperial Fists in the days of the Legion loom large.

Hashin Yonnad - Commander of the 39th Inwit Household. The Legion’s greatest Fleetmaster. One of the First (the first generation of warriors to be inducted into the Legion after Dorn is reunited with the Imperial Fists alongside Archamus-Kye). Born on one of the Empire of Inwit’s most prominent vassal worlds, It was Yonnad who led 20,000 Imperial Fists in bringing the Araneus Continuity to compliance (out of the ashes of which its principal world, Araneus Prime, was renamed to the much more familiar Necromunda) Often as not during the later Great Crusade, we find Yonnad at Dorn’s side. When Rogal Dorn learns of Horus’s treachery and decides to send 30,000 Imperial Fists to join the other loyalist forces heading too Istvaan he initially gives the command to Sigismund - who soon after refuses and asks to return to Terra with the Primarch - Rogal Dorn then places Hashin Yonnad in command. Yonnad was also the mentor of Alexis Polux. Tragically Yonnad is lost on route to Istvaan when the fleet is set upon by powerful warp storms.

Efried - Captain of the 3rd Company. Seneschal and Lord Castellan of the Third Sphere. Often seen at the Primarch’s side, it’s clear that Rogal Dorn holds Captain Efried in high esteem. It’s Efried and Sigismund that Dorn brings with him to meet up with Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit before he heads back to Terra. At some point during the Heresy, Efried was tasked by Dorn to perform surveillance on the Adeptus Custodes who were collaborating with the Temple of Assassins in seeking to assassinate Horus Lupercal which Rogal Dorn did not agree with. Once the Siege of Terra is underway we do not know what becomes of Captain Efried. We know that he was in command of the Third Sphere fleet around Jupiter but that is the last we hear of him. It is unclear if he survived the traitors assault on Jupiter

Camba Diaz - Captain of the 50th Company. Siegemaster and Lord Castellan of the Fourth Sphere. Born on Inwit. Solid and dependable, he is often found at the Primarch’s side. He co-led the expedition to Mars alongside Sigismund in the earliest days of the Horus Heresy to secure as much arms and armor from the forges that had yet to fall to the Heretics. Camba Diaz was placed in command of the largest of the defensive sphere fleet whose mission it was to enforce and maintain the orbital blockade of Mars. Camba Diaz dies during the Siege of Terra.

All three were part of the 1,000 (Only 1,000 out of close to 100,000) Imperial Fists Legion contingent that Rogal Dorn chose to have with him at the Triumph of the Ullanor.

Two of the three would go on to be named Lord Castellans of the Solar Defense and the only reason the third wasn’t is because he was chosen to lead Dorn’s Retribution Fleet in Sigismund’s stead.

Other notables include:

Iapetus - Probably the most famous Imperial Fist we know literally nothing about. Only mentioned once, in passing, in ‘Praetorian of Dorn’ by John French as a warrior of the Legion held in high honour among the likes of Sigismund and Fafnir Rann.

Amandus Tyr - Captain of the 6th Company. Born amongst the Hive sumps of Nord Merica on Terra Captain Tyr is brutal and direct. The assault commander was known to be held in high regard by both Rogal Dorn and Sigismund. Amandus Tyr was part of the Retribution Fleet and took part in the Battle of Phall. It was Amandus Tyr who was placed in command of the strike force tasked with executing the traitor Primarch Perturabo. Tyr led the boarding action against the Iron Blood and valiantly fought his way to the heart of the renegade’s flagship where he penetrated Perturabo’s inner sanctum where he fell in battle against the Primarch.

Halbrecht - Lord Castellan of the Second Sphere of Defense forces around Uranus. Fleet Master. Terran, he hailed from the Nordafrik Conclaves and is known to have the strong accent common among those born there. We don’t have much in the way of lore about him beyond that but it can be inferred that he was clearly an above average and capable warrior and commanded regarded highly by Rogal Dorn. It was Halbrecht who was tasked after the battle for Uranus was lost to join up with the other surviving Legion and Loyalist void forces and make for the rings of Saturn to await Guilliman or the signal from Dorn to evacuate the Emperor. Halbrecht would take overall command of the Imperial Fists among the survivors from aboard the Phalanx as the most senior commander among them.

Fafnir Rann - Lord Seneschal and Captain of the First Assault Cadre. One of Rogal Dorn’s most bellicose and aggressive commanders, Fafnir Rann has led his Legion brothers on hundreds of battlefields during the Great Crusade. He has rightfully garnered a reputation for such unrelenting aggression that he has earned the moniker ‘Dorn’s Executioner’. A peer of Sigismund, Fafnir Rann was recruited into the Legion and swore his oath to Rogal Dorn alongside the future first Captain. The two remained close and fought beside each other throughout the Great Crusade, the wars of the Heresy and stood beside each other in the Siege of Terra.

Art by SorinSik