Lamenters Project Background Story

The Lamenters have always interested me as a Marine Chapter since I saw the picture of the yellow marine in my Warhammer 40k Compendium sometime in the late 80's. I read the story of the Badab Rebellion and loved the story and background. At that time in the fluff they were on a crusade to repent their crime of rebellion. I was fascinated and I loved the chapter symbol itself.

I honestly didn't think much more about them for years. My first army was Ultramarines, ye olde 8 man terminator box set, and the Lamenters idea was forgotten. As time went on, I stayed with the smurfs as I could not go past them. But whenever I would have a need to open the compendium I would see them and think wow.... yeah that would be cool to paint.

Fast Forward to 2010 and as a slightly older and less wise man, I need a new army to paint. ( My guard army which I will detail at another time is fun, but I still love the marines) Searching for some ideas I went in search of a rare Marine Chapter that I could love but also maintain my adherence to the Codex. (I have a hatred for the SW and BA that goes back ages... its always been a codex chapter I stick with). I then remembered the Lamenters....

I did some digging, there is really very little around on them. Its a shame, as they are such an interesting chapter. For those of you who haven't read the Fall of Malvolion short story I suggest you do. It describes the destruction of the Lamenters quite well. I keep coming back to the line 39 minutes... which after you have read it, will make some sense to you. I also loved the fact that it was a cursed chapter with some interesting things happening in the background.

So there I am, thinking how do I go about building this force.

I decided as I usually do, to go with something that I can compete with, but also is thematic. I read a lot of posts out there and lists with things about what people describe as a theme without it being really thematic at all.

So I did some work and decided to base a SM army (Lamenters) on the forces present at the Fall of Malvolion or forces that could have survived the destruction of the chapter itself.

I came up with the following 2k odd points of stuff I liked.

HQ

Captain
Librarian
Chaplain with a Jump Pack

Elites
Sternguard with a Razorback (I love the Razorback I think its one of the best SM type vehicles out there)
Terminators

Troops
Tactical Squads with Rhino's

Fast Attack
Assault Marines

Heavy Support
Devastators
Predators

The above is what I like myself from the Space Marine Codex. It might not all be the best stuff or even great for the metagame, but I liked it. I have a hatred for Vindicators as well.... so I don't use them and I really don't like SM bikes.

So my challenge now is to get it all and get it painted. I have started, but as I noted earlier I wanted a thematic list. So I decided to add some Ordo Xenos to the mix, as who else but the Ordo Xenos would be present defending the planet or helping against the Nids. I wanted something different, so I went digging about and found a unit of Karskins! perfect... Inq storm troopers! and with some more digging managed to find even some old Adeptus Arbites! Great! I now have the remains of a PDF force or judges for the planet too... with a nice Inq and some retinue figures, my Ordo Xenos component is now complete....