Brothers of the Grid

On the hive-world of Nemean, a world once besieged by orcs, the Brothers of the Grid first planted their roots. Nemean, an urban world long tortured by frequent orc WAAAGHS!, found solace in entertainment and rallied behind the sports heroes that inspired them. The Brothers of the Grid were founded in hopes of stabilizing the system and drew heavily from the stock of highly competitive athletes the planet was so famous for producing. This shaped the beliefs of the chapter; eventually causing them to incorporate sportsmanship, competition, and teamwork into their core values. Their training often incorporates playing various sports, physical contests, and athletic training regimens while their battlefield tactics look more like plays.
Now the Brothers of the Grid take the field for the Emperor, going 12 rounds with his foes and bring home the gold for the Imperium.
== Founding ==
A 14th Founding chapter, the Brothers of the Grid are of Ultramarine stock and were established in order to combat the constant orc threat in the Nemean Ultrus system. It had been hit by several major WAAAGHS! and it seemed as if they would pop up every decade years or so. They were founded using genetic material of an unknown Ultramarine descendant and, while they initially maintained a close relationship with their progenitors they eventually grew apart.
== Organization ==
The Brothers treat their marines as a single pool to draw from. Marines are sorted into 3 “lines”- the offense line, the defensive line, and special teams. This is determined by their specialty and sometimes a marine will bounce between them over the course of their career. Some of the elder marines who have mastered tactical analysis, known as “coaches”, draft marines onto “teams” for missions. Teams are deployed on a per-mission basis and generally is comprised of squads draw from all three lines. The leader of their chapter (or “Club” as they call it) is the head coach. A small cadre of “referees”, members of the Chaplain corp, keep the Brothers honest and heresy free.
=== Unit Types ===
The Brothers of the Grid have atypical unit types. This is due to their unique organization structure and the influence their world had on them.
* Striker Squads (Offensive Line): These squads are lightly armored, highly mobile (often riding motorcycles or jump jets), and hit with insane precision. They are often described as “trick riders”- they can shoot accurately with bolt or plasma pistols with one hand while beheading enemies with chainswords with the other.
* Thrower Squads (Offensive Line): Throwers are long range units who specialize in anti-armor. They get their name from the fact that they are trained to throw absurdly well, able to bounce, and ricochet grenades off things to get into hard-to-reach places. They can also hurl them a half mile accurately.
* Blocker Squads (Defensive Line): Shield-wielding terminators who wield either combat shotguns or flamers. Their main job is to take a hit and keep on rolling. Many will physically engage their opponents.
* All-Stars (Special Teams): Most teams will have at least 1 All-Star but never more than 1. An all-star is a unique champion of the chapter who possess amazing agility and versatility. Many have compared them Chapter champions from the Black Templar but that is not a fair comparison. All-Stars are staunch individualists who take their own gear, pick their own plays, and are a constant wild-card on the field. Their brilliant plans often involve solo-actions, daring raids, actions that draw enemy fire at the perfect moment, etc. Each all-star is unique and it is what all marines of the chapter aspire to be.
* Coaches (Special Teams): A coach leads their team, but isn’t always active in the combat themselves. They often act as communications, detection, and tactical experts rather than top-of-the-line players. Many are former all-stars who learned the play on a team.
* Referees (Special Teams): The Chaplains of the Brothers of the Grid are referred to as “refs”. They keep everyone ordered and honest, punishing particularly unruly enemies as well.
=== Comparison to a Codex-Compliant Chapter ===
Strikers and throwers are more or less analogous to assault squads and devastators. Strikers are probably closer to “tactical marines, but with a jump pack or motorcycle” and throwers have a much lighter armament than most devastator squads, but have a large supply of grenades (at least 4 per marine) that they can throw almost as far as they can shoot, ignoring cover. All-stars are more or less similar to captains or chapter champions in what they can take. Coaches, which one might think of as their “captain” are probably closer to Chaplains or Standard Bearers in that they raise the abilities of whoever they are in a group with.
The Brothers of the Grid are also known to employ ogryn in their retinues of serfs. Such serfs are reserved for combat and are primarily used as a sparring partners for the marines. They are effectively gladiator-slaves who help the marines hone their skill against strong opponents. Most are former guardsmen and a few, who lived long enough or who the chapter valued enough to give cybernetics, are deployed alongside the other serfs in battle.
== Tabletop Options ==
=== Brothers of the Grid Battle Hardened Formation ===
Battle Forged Armies of the Brothers of the Grid benefit from the “And They Shall Know No Fear”, “Defenders of Humanity”, and the following tactic:
Chapter Tactic- Heroic Display: BROTHERS OF THE GRID characters can move up to its Move distance to perform a Heroic Intervention (not just 3”). In addition, BROTHERS OF THE GRID units gain +1 to their Leadership for every unit they killed on their last turn to a maximum of +4. This increase only last 1 round.
SportTac2.png|A Striker Marine of the Brothers of the Grid
SportTac.png|A Striker Marine of the Brothers of the Grid
SportsChamp.png|An All-Star of the Brothers of the Grid
== Trivia ==
* In the Blood Bowl universe there is a chaos deity named Nuffle that, if it were present in the 40k universe, would likely have had some corrupting influence on the Brothers of the Grid.
Category:Ultramarines Successors