Chapter Master (game)

Pictured: You

Chapter Master: A Chapter Management Simulation is a mod for Interstellar Army Simulator, formerly one of countless troll-games made up by /tg/ on lonely nights full of wishful thinking. It might have been the greatest shit that /tg/ has ever done- if it weren't for the fact that coding a game is too hard and time-consuming for 99.9℅ of all fa/tg/uys. But then a temporary tripfag named Duke proved the impossible possible, and made the game a reality, before vanishing back into the Warp as an anon.

Chapter Master's premise is that you are the Chapter Master of a Space Marine chapter that you can custom make yourself or choose from a few pre-made chapters. It's your job to take care of your chapter and the sector it's in, and lead them to victory! Potential doers of your defeat can be the Inquisition/Orks/Tau/Eldar/Tyranids/Chaos, and to be honest your chapter getting wiped out by any of those factions happens all too often in the world of Chapter Master. With that in mind you will need to utilize logistics and strategical deployment of your forces to defend the sector and to not loss your chapter and subsequently the game.

To Actually Play Chapter Master you just need this one rar.

The Instructions Manual. You are to read this by Inquisitorial Mandate or die in your ignorance (though most of the information is outdated).

Key Links for the Alpha

• 0.6602 Version 0.6602, the full game. (Windows)Updated 2021-07-23 by The Lion. Fixed several game breaking bugs (boarding is now viable with no limitations, vehicles no longer disappear when transferred) The game no longer ends when the chapter master dies, overhauled promotions, added several cheats, see the changelog.txt files for details.

Changelog for Version 0.6602

Version 0.6602 Version 0.6602 Notes -Sorry for the delay. -I was unable to replicate the Eldar crash but I re-wrote it anyways. Fixed -Bombardment menu now has a close button (Conversion Error) -Scouts being created but have no location. (Source Error) -Promotions to tacticals (My Error.) -Some events causing crashes (These are tricky as I suspect some are conversion errors) -Version number iteration (My Error) Changes -Increased the range required to find the eldar by 25% (300 to 400), increased the chance of finding them by 5% (now 10%). New Cheats recruit# = Created # of recruits with 20xp, that will be ready in one turn (No extra equipment) eventg8 = "meet_eldar" Version 0.6601 Version 0.6601 GMS2 Hotfix Fixed*** -Artifacts can now be equipped (Conversion Error) -Ships that are purchased should now function correctly, included a fix on load in case one is bugged. (Source Error?) -Choosing random will now give you advantages and disadvantages (Source Error, incomplete content) Version 0.6600 Notes -With the conversion to GMS2, I cannot guarantee stability. I am only 90% confident nothing of note is broken. Fixed -Crash caused by getting the STC bonus to vehicle accuracy ad then sending vehicles into combat. -Crash caused by a typo in obj_turn_end_Alarm_0 when Orks invaded. -Transfer showing empty boxes for unit roles company screen. -Ship/world names overlapping with armour in company screen. -Lost ships now return after a random amount of time (10*-100 turns). -Splintered ships on creation to now work as intended (I think it's being weird). -Changed the range of boarding to the max range on the parent ship. -Daemon binders no longer results in instant failure, instead it will take several encounters with the inquisition before they freak out. Changes -Made it, so you always get loot after you clear a space hulk and added a small chance to get Tartaros armour. -Added the option to decrypt saves in the options menu, BACK UP YOUR SAVES; if you break them, you are on your own. -Changed the fleet selection menu, selecting a category (de)selects all within, selecting names (de)selects as well. **--Selecting the background no longer selects all. -Changed how company screen logic works D **--DOUBLE CLICK has been disabled. **--Right-click selected all of the selected unit types. **--All multi-select options no longer inverse selection, but instead select all targeted, and if all are selected, deselects them. **--If none are selected, the group with the most units at a location will be selected. -Made planets random features (????) generate on creation, but also made more of on gen. (Will be adding more options at a later date.) -Added symbols on the planets when they have features of interest or require help. (! Coloured threats) -Activated "Cave Network" planetary feature, however temporarily make it equal to Ancient Ruins. -Assault a Necron tomb without a mission, land troops, end turn. (requires plasma bomb, still decent chance of failure) -Removed the need to have the chapter master present to control the fleet. (It's too buggy without control.) -Increased the chances of the tau spawning on gen from 33% to 66%. Code Changes -Refactored unit selection and unit selection buttons on the company screen. -Converted project from GMS 1.4 to GMS 2. -Added proper documentation (Jsdoc) to some of the existing code. -Started converting dedicated object scripts into object functions. New Cheats (Many of these events will proc but will not create a popup) -eventg0="space_hulk"; -eventg1="promotion"; -eventg2="strange_building"; -eventg3="sororitas"; -eventg4="rogue_trader"; -eventg5="inquisition_mission"; -eventg6="inquisition_planet"; -eventg7="mechanicus_mission"; -eventg8="meet_eldar"; -eventn0="strange_behavior"; -eventn1="fleet_delay"; -eventn2="harlequins"; -eventn3="succession_war"; -eventn4="random_fun"; -eventb0="warp_storms"; -eventb1="enemy_forces"; -eventb2="crusade"; -eventb3="enemy"; -eventb4="mutation"; -eventb5="ship_lost"; -eventb6="chaos_invasion"; -eventb7="necron_awaken"; Version 0.6571 Notes -Just a quick fix, feeling ill from my second covid vaccination, taking it easy for now. Fixed -A few bugs in promotions. -Clicking out from the promotions/transfer/rearm menu now exits the menu, in addition to clicking cancel. -Bottom part of companies now enters into selected company. Version 0.6570 -Saves should be forward compatible but ARE NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE. -There are several options of things I can look at next as everything needs work. -Finish the role/weapon/armour overhaul to bring in more equipment and chapter options. -Overhaul space combat to be more strategic by creating basic ai and better controls for the player. -Overhaul ground combat to be more engaging and include controls for the player. -Make going renegade/chaos viable. -Finish the diplomatic options with different races. -Find out what is causing the infinite guard bug. Fixed -Marines being overloaded into escorts on generation. -Ships not despawning after being defeated in battle. -Transfers to allow all units to be in all companies. -You can now promote units to HQ positions if they are empty. -Board Next Nearest now works with no limit on the number of marines. -Note you can now take on fairly large fleets with minimal losses, -Enemy escorts are still an issue that I am looking into. -Fixed a bug where strike cruisers would not get close enough to shoot. (I think?) Changes -Game no longer ends when your chapter master dies, the most experienced marine is automatically promoted. -Changed ship loading to one company per frigate, including vehicles and 2 companies for battle barges. -Overhauled promoting to be more in line with the lore, 1st = veterans, 2nd-5th = battle, 6-9th = support. -You can only promote in order scout->support->battle->1st-> honour; exceptions are made for command positions. -Increased the max number of promotion options that "can" be shown from 6 to 9. -Randomized starting experince of all units. -Change promotion experience to a single rational number "40", to which most ranks require a multiple of. -Companies 6th-9th= 20 -Companies 2nd-5th= 40 -Company 1st= 80, Terminators= 100 -HQ Honor guard=120. -HQ command positions= 200 -Command positions, 1st company adds +40 Captian=120, Champion= 100, Standard Bearer= 80 -Dreadnought= 100, Venerable Dreadnought= 400 -Specialists exp requires increase 40 per rank, eg: X asprant/Lexicanum= 40, techmarine/Codiciery= 80, Epistolary= 120 Code Changes -Created refactored role name system (Role_Enums) to allow the changing/adding of roles, which needs to be implemented across all code structures. -Rewrote the entire chapter management screen and company management view using Enums as a testbed. -Created a ton of helper tools. Version 0.6600 Changes -More elaborate cheats with the option to turn off debug mode (see cheats) Fixes -Fixed vehicles disappearing when tranfered to HQ -Fixed a boarding bug, unsure which one. -Tons of small things. -*Forgot about this, fixed crash when replacing governer with serf

Cheats for Version 0.6660+

Cheats -Cheats have been updated to allow semi logical strings. -Several cheats can be toggled on and off, just repeat the same cheat. -Several cheats use numbers eg: to use "req#" you could type "req10000" -To start once on the sector/map screen press "p", then enter text that is before the = sign. infreq = Toggle infinate requisition infseed = Toggle, gain 9999 geneseed. debug = Toggle debugmode, use at your own peril. (Right click on sector map to create/destroy fleets/invasions) (On planet view, increase or decrease forces) (On Armanentarium screen add STC research for free) test = Test dialogue, dont use. req# = Set requisition to # amount seed# = Set geneseed to # amount recruit# = Created # of recruits with 20xp, that will be ready in one turn (No extra equipment) *Note all deposition cheats can be negative and are capped between -100 and 100. *Deposition has the format of "depXYZ#" where XYZ is the first 3 letters of a factions name. *EG: "depimp100" sets deposition with the imperium to 100; whereas, depimp-100 sets it to -100. depall# = Set deposition of all factions to an amount. depimp# = Imperium depmec# = Mechanicus depinq# = Inquisition depecc# = Ecclesiarchy depeld# = Eldar depork# = Ork deptau# = Tau deptyr# = Tyranids, this probably wont do anything. depcha# = Chaos New Cheats v0.6600 (Many of these events will proc but will not create a popup) eventg0="space_hulk"; eventg1="promotion"; eventg2="strange_building"; eventg3="sororitas"; eventg4="rogue_trader"; eventg5="inquisition_mission"; eventg6="inquisition_planet"; eventg7="mechanicus_mission"; eventn0="strange_behavior"; eventn1="fleet_delay"; eventn2="harlequins"; eventn3="succession_war"; eventn4="random_fun"; eventb0="warp_storms"; eventb1="enemy_forces"; eventb2="crusade"; eventb3="enemy"; eventb4="mutation"; eventb5="ship_lost"; eventb6="chaos_invasion"; eventb7="necron_awaken";

• Modded version of the Duke release that does not encrypt it's saves (Windows)Updated 2021-06-30 by Chairman Meow. All I've done is remove the save file encryption/decryption, so that you can make changes in the ini file, which is now cleartext.
• The Base Game, we totally swear it has nothing to do with 40k. (for windows) Note that this will always be updated to the latest version. This is not the full game, you need the mod for that.
• The Chapter Master Mod This contains all the visual and textual data to mod the game, and should be as simple to put in as drag and drop.
• A list of names that /tg/ contributed to several factions
• IRC Channel (in the "channels" slot, look for "#InterstellarArmySimulator")
• The FAQ's. Read them.
• Manual: To the right.
• For those lazy fucks who don't want to read here's some gameplays from random dudes: [1] [2] [3] [4] and a video of the latest edition (it will be changed with each major update) is here [5]
• Patch Notes.
• Suggestion File !!UPDATED AND REFORMATTED AS OF JULY 14, 2017!!
• Armanentarium
• Bay12 Forums thread
• Chapter Master Fixed Icons (OLD)
• Heresy Use this for updated marine sprites, extract to IAS main folder. A new folder & subfolder named "sprites" & "selection" will be created. Move "Heresy.png" to sprites folder. Delete .png files in "loading" folder to avoid load screen glitch.
• Diplomacy Screen Fix If diplomacy screen images are messed up, extract to "diplomacy" folder.
• 08/12/2018; New .EXE may help you with some bugs! "fixed exe" Got a bug in the first 10 turns where my marines were loaded into two ships at once. This .exe is only for version 0.6555 !

WARNING:Not reading the manual and FAQ's will likely have the thread laughing at your idiocy. READ THEM AND SPARE YOURSELF THE HUMILIATION.

The Story So Far

And lo, OP did create a thread in which he complained about the Inquisitorial AI in Chapter Master. And /tg/ did jump on the idea, posting many a greentext about this game. Great tales were told, and OP was said not to be a total dipshit.

However, the newfag did soon appear, and fun was ruined forever. "LINKZ PLOX" and other such inquiries were had, but only few had the heart to tell the newfag that no such game existed. But soon, a light was found! By the second thread, interest had reached fever pitch, and /tg/ did set out to do what it did best...

Get Shit Done.

As of October 8th, 2011, anons gathered in various threads to share ideas and possible situations this game should have. A brave few with coding knowledge and creative skill have taken the mantle of creating this future masterpiece.

Many Anons have shed their anonymity and joined the Chapter Master IRC Channel to Get Shit Done. In the timespan of only a few hours, they doth procured many a feature.

A drawfag named Bladebaka has gifted us with a start to the Game Over screen. While not perfect, it does show the ever-popular "Yourchapterhascrumbled.jpg" meme from many a greentext.

Pauldron Guy had also shown great foresight and started crafting sprites for future versions, as the initial release would likely have been ASCII, and did some writefagging.

InquisitorFrollo became the devils' advocate for many an idea spawned in this glorious endeavor, and were it done, would have been rewarded upon its completion.

Come December, vbcoder and Carl_theBearded had created many a feature, and NoiselessMarine came to the IRC with a great sense of wonder and drive. He crafted a combat system, and vbcoder was inspired to work harder still on Chapter Master, creating a weapon generator and nigh finalizing the rest of the game. Carl became admin of the forum, and much dickfuckery was cleaned up. And it was good.

As of 2013, shit slowed to a crawl and nothing of value was lost. But then 2014 came with words and rumours and images, and on August 9, 2014, the humble tripfag known as Duke finally released the thing thought undoable: The Chapter Master Alpha.

Proof that /tg/ can actually get shit done.

The (Actual) Story So Far, a Tale of Truthfulness and Fact

What happens if you hit 2hard'n'2fast the Enter button. Slow down, and purge carefully.

Broadly speaking, the above was bollocks for a time.

It was writ that one day, Chapter Master might actually be in such a state that it may be called... "a game". Prior efforts enabled anons to craft their own chapter and chart a whole sector for them to play around in, but little else aside from that.

ASCII? Pah! The hopers of old transcended such nonsense: they were in the age of 100% fully 3D graphics comprising of not one, but TWO full dimensions of dimensionfulness. Let's just say that your corneas would have hexagons burned into them permanently after a couple of hours and leave it at that. Your ears would have been delighted by over SEVEN discrete, different, and unique sound effects ranging from beeps, to slightly different beeps. (Note that this is all sarcasm. Especially in wake of the current alpha, which has far more than this.)

However, all was not perfect: The attentions of /tg/ were, as they always have been, fickle. For the most part, people departed at almost the same instant that they claimed "oh yeah, sure I can help do <helpful task>". The old forum had 234 registered users - few of them who actually contributed, and far fewer who had any notable commitment to the whole thing. At the moment, for example, it can be relied upon that there will be 2 or 3 people to be around at some point, ready to contribute.

Every now and then, the good old storythread raised the awareness of the game, and some Anons vowed to Get Shit Done. However, sadly, most will find out that they have no idea to code worth a damn and can't be bothered to learn how to do so.

After multiple broken promises from people claiming to work on it with no actual results for years, /tg/ became resigned to the fact that it may never be created, and the people foolish enough to say that they will succeed when literally everyone else has failed were met with suspicion and doubt at best.

And yet...

It was the 21st century, August 9 2014, 12:00AM. For years the denizens of /tg/ had languished in 4chan, despairing that the game would never be created.

But no more.

Chapter Master is among us.

The time is nigh, and the Alpha has been released. Although promising, it has much to learn. But I believe, Chapter Master can save /tg/

But to do that, all anons must do one thing:

ALWAYS BET ON DUKE

Tragedies of Practicality

There came a time when Duke was going to drop the project, but Duke's attempts to find a replacement coder didn't go that well. It turns out that the reason he needed to hand it off in the first place was that he ran out of money and needed to actually support himself and not starve.

Changing names to dodge the Inquisition GW Lawyers

In August 2015 it was announced that the game would be renamed to Interstellar Army Simulator 2015 to preemptively fend off legal trouble (read: a GW blackshirt who had grown fond of the game accidentally mentioned its existence where his boss could hear him, then nearly got fired when he tried to explain why GW shouldn't send a C&D order to shut the game down). Other copyrighted terms and graphics will be removed as well, but the game will be made with "unofficial" mods in mind that could easily restore the original graphics and terms as needed.

The Rebirth

IN September 2015, Duke released the new "Interstellar Army Simulator 2015" which would act as the basis for the mod while allowing him to avoid copyright problems. A few days later, an anon with too much time on their hands, and far too much dedication to the Emperor for his own good, hunted down every image from the entire game that he could find in the archived threads and the use of Google, and pulled together the visual mod. Chapter Master, if not entirely revived, was at least safe from further legal troubles in the future.

The End?

In October 2015, Duke announced that he would no longer be working on the game, his reasons for doing so disclosed here. (TL;DR: It was a mix of burnout and IRL responsibilities like school/work). But being the cool dude he is, he also released the source code, also contained here. So now we await a new champion to take up his noble endeavor, to struggle against GWs lawyers and bring glory to the EMPEROR! etc.

ALWAYS BET ON [insert name here]!

REBIRTH 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

Some time ago, a dude by the nick of Journier is currently doing the project now along with Thy Reaper (since 2nd October 2015). Debugging, cleaning and etc. to make it more easy to update (and make it less prone to crashing).

Chapter Master 2.0

Chapter Master 2.0 has ceased all development. Flow on the Bay-12 Chapter Master thread (page 218) stated that they no longer have the time to work on it due to freelance work, afraid of GW lawyers, and his view that no one will play it if he doesn't make it "blatantly 40K related." Leaving anons to keep dreaming about the game ever being finished, and wondering which retard thought its a good idea to make forums for a questionably-legal game in the first place.

REBIRTH 3: THE SPIRITUAL SUCCESSOR

As of the 2nd of August 2020, a team of two led by SirNuke has started working on reviving Chapter Master and adding to the original vision of the game, calling the project "Chapter Master Restoration". The reason they weren't mentioned earlier is because they apparently forgot to post on the dev forum.

As of the 4th of September 2020, an individual by the name of ndkid on the bay12 forums (Under Chapter Masters old topic), has picked up and put out an Interstellar Army Simulator alpha and Trello.

Also in development - the totally unrelated game by Bitspark Entertainment, Special Space Force. Also visible on the bay12 forums, website and discord.

Factions and Enemies in Chapter Master

So far, there are eight factions that you can interact with via Diplomacy, and two that you cannot.

Factions that you can interact with through Diplomacy

• Imperium: The guys with whom you'll be associated most of the time. The Governors will give some good stuff if you'll be helpful to the systems in the sector (stuff like extra Requisition, Licenses for Crusades and Fleet Repair, extra recruiting worlds) and maintain a high reputation with him. Just don't give him Chaos artefacts (especially Daemonic ones), else Heresy explodes everywhere, Chaos Marines will pay a very unfriendly visit to you and a world will turn Daemonic. They are the ones who will be the most grateful if you give them Relics, not the Ecclesiarchy, but they will only pretend to be if you send them lesser Relics from the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Mechanicus: They are the guys who'll give you all the cool stuff like Land Raiders, Termie Armours and things like Skiitari, Tech-Priests and minor relics if you have a high enough reputation with them and offer up something nice in return, like STC Fragments. However, they are rather stingy even when presented with STC Fragments (One STC Fragment will usually get you a single suit of Termie armour and 3 techpriests). Protect Forge Worlds at all costs if you want new stuff from them and new ships for your fleet. Nothing happens if you give them Chaos Artefacts (unless you want to summon Chaos Marines this way).
• Ecclesiarchy: Sisters of Battle in other words. If you get high reputation with them, then they'll not only send you their own troops when you buy from them, but in certain situations they'll even build a monastery on your homeworld. The sisters will trade you some really useful wargear like Heavy Flamers. Never give them Chaos or Daemonic (especially the latter one) Artefacts, else your reputation will plummet down.

It's something like this with the =][=. And it gets better.

• Inquisition: They hate you. Even with really high reputation, they'll give you missions that will make you RAGE incoherently. Luckily it's not all of the time they do so. Most of the time they'll ask you if you could look after a relic they'll send you. Other times they'll call to blow up Necron Tomb Worlds that are still dormant or kill a Radical (always take the Relic they offer, and then blow up their ships). If you'll have bad reputation with them, then they'll simply excommunicate you and make your life very difficult. Some of the things they give you aren't worth taking, unless those are Crusaders and EXTERMINATUS (the Incinerator is also somewhat good if not only for its bonus against Daemons). They'll be massively disappointed if you trade with Eldar or other Xenos. Their hatred for you is so great that if half the sector is already being invaded by the Orks, and that you are the only one even trying to do something about it (like, sending your entire fleet and a Golden Age Slaughtership to deepstrike at the heart of Orkish territory where they have |26 battleships), they will still find the time to threaten you about your geneseed incubators (you know, what is needed to actually cultivate geneseeds and increase Games Workshop sales...) and having executed governors in world that are already lost to the enemy. They're also the only faction that is happy if you give them Chaos Artefacts (especially Daemonic ones). To submit a planet to Exterminatus will cause the Inquisition to be absolutely furious, but to do Exterminatus on a daemon world will get you popular with both the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy.
• Eldar: They hate you too, but are also attracted to you (especially if the Farseer in charge of the Craftworld is female). They'll always mind their own business and will never, ever attack you unless you provoke them. Have some nifty things to sell and will tell you if any of your battle brothers are corrupted or not. Sometimes they'll ask you for some requisition. Word of advice: do it! This way you'll have some peace and quiet, but don't interact with them too often. The Inquisition will make an inspection and overall reputation with the Imperium will drop. Marginally, but it will drop Scratch that. Don't even interact with them if you want to be 100% loyal. Massive trust drop. Their fleet is much more powerful than yours, so never engage them in Fleet Battles.
• Orks: Kill them. KILL THEM WITH FIRE! There is absolutely no reason to negotiate with Orks. They'll attack Imperial planets and slaughter citizens. Big pain in the power arse if it's the Forge World next to your home system, or your home system. They can also be very difficult to dislodge from systems with multiple planets, as they spread quite easily within Planetary Systems. Don't bother engaging Ork Fleets, unless they're really small; Ork fleets almost entirely consist of nothing but Battleships, though, thankfully, they don't stay around long - when they reach another system, they'll reduce to minimal size as the ships crash onto the planets in that sector. In terms of Ground Forces, they're usually quite easy to deal with - In the typical Orky fashion, they barely ever hit with their ranged weapons, unless they're either firing at point-blank range, or it's stuff like Rokkits and Kannons. Once they get into melee range, though, they can dish out a fair bit of damage, although they're still outmatched by your regular Space Marines. Thankfully, really 'urty stuff like Power Klaws are too slow to hit anything other than vehicles and walkers. Don't bother attacking/raiding when they have above a Heavy presence level; just bombard them from orbit and clean up with your ground forces afterward. Every now and then, a Warboss will show up to take all the orks in the sector on a WAAAGH! All ork fleets in the sector will double in size, travel to the nearest un-infested system and start fucking shit up, instantly gaining Rampant levels on at least one planet in that system. A WAAAGH! coming from outside your sector is EVEN WORSE; MASSIVE Ork Fleets will appear on a random edge of your sector, and will quite often invade multiple systems at once. It usually takes a lot of time and effort to clear out all the systems invaded by an out-of-sector WAAAGH!, which can lead to you having to neglect problems elsewhere in the sector.
• Tau: Just like Orks, Tau shouldn't be negotiated with; they will ruin perfectly functioning Imperial worlds with their Greater Good philosophy and don't give you anything useful. Wipe out the PDF on Imperial worlds they claimed and surgically start purging them. Their fleets are slow and inferior in terms of firepower. The ground forces however, are virtually unassailable. Never engage Tau Ground forces unless you want to take massive casualties; it's much easier to just destroy Tau fleets in space, or just bombard them into the dust if they get a foothold on any planets. alternatively you can send a commando team to "decapitate" them. at which point all their technology and manpower will be yours to do with as you please. make of that what you will.
• Chaos: As if the two above factions weren't already a pain, these guys will instead corrupt worlds and probably turn one into a Daemon World if they get the chance. They start out as small heretical uprisings on a single planet, but then jizz into full-blown Incursions, with Chaos Fleets popping out of nowhere (Usually near the Forge World that's next to your home system or RIGHT ON TOP OF your home system!), and ending with Chaos Marines and Daemons running rampant. No info on what they would offer. To start with, why would anyone even try to talk to them? Unless by talking, one means BOLTER ROUND TO THE FACE. Stamp out Heretical uprisings as early as possible; in the early stages, all you'll have to contend with is Cultists, who are hilariously easy to kill and have next-to-no chance of even wounding a Marine. Watch out for Arch-Heretics though; the plasma pistols/power weapons they are equipped with can kill marines with reasonable ease if they get into range, but they're just as squishy as a regular cultist. After you're done stamping out any Traitor presence, don't forget to purge to bring the Heresy down to 0%, otherwise they'll just keep popping back up. (Always do a Selective Purge unless the Heresy level is particularly high - that way you minimise the negative effect to the Governor's Disposition). If a planet becomes a Daemon World, do not panic... not all of them can actually produce ships, most of the time in fact they can't, as long as you have positive 40 points in Disposition, the Inquisition will consent to sell you Exterminatus devices. To use them, equip one of your marine with an Exterminatus device (probably the 1st Company Champion or another tough as nail warrior like him), play some grimdark music, attack the daemon world, and as long as you win the battle and that your marine equipped with the Exterminatus device and then watch as they burn, while the Inquisition and Ministorum's trust increase en masse. Or not. Daemon Worlds are very useful to farm experience.

Factions that you cannot interact with via Diplomacy

• Tyranids: If you thought that Orks, Tau and Chaos are a pain, then you'll hate Tyranids with all your might. Especially if you start a game with some systems already having massive Tyranid infestations. After they finish eating the planets they appeared on, they'll create Hive Fleets that will start eating system after system. Their fleets are greatly inferior to your own ships, but they make it up with numerical advantages. If there are systems with Nids in them, then purge these systems as fast as possible. Sometimes if you get events like that your psykers detecting a "Shadow in the Warp", then muster everything you can throw at them when they arrive. In terms of ground combat, Tyranids tend to flip-flop from being really squishy to FUCKING TERRIFYING. If they're below Heavy presence levels on a planet, they're easy to deal with; at this stage, Tyrannid armies consist entirely of Genestealer Cultists and the like, plus a few Genestealers (Who, in small numbers, are easy to deal with even if they get close. In large numbers, though, they will absolutely tear your shit up if they get into melee range). When they hit Heavy, Extreme or Rampant levels, engaging them in ground combat is a REALLY FUCKING BAD idea. At these levels, you run into proper Tyranid Bioforms like Gaunts, Carnifexes, Broodlords and all the rest. They will kill large numbers of marines with ease in both ranged and melee combat. At this stage, it's best to either Bombard them back down to manageable levels, or subject the planet to EXTERMINATUS.

• Necrons: A real pain in the power arse if you want to get rid of them from a planet. They regain Rampant levels of warriors in a turn, will start slaughtering the planet their tombs are located on and will be utterly methodical in doing so; and even if you try to stop them, bugs will most likely prevent you from doing so!! If you don't want them to rampage around, just wait when the Inquisition gives you a mission to bomb the living hell out of their Tomb World with a Plasma Bomb (Davian Thule style), send in two to three marines on bikes and make an express delivery. A good advice though : the Inquisition WILL NOT systematically ask for your help in stopping their awakening, and will be utterly unable to prevent it themselves. Although the AdMech may ask you for missions in a Necron Tomb too, the simplest way to solve the Necron problem is to download to a time prior the tomb's discrovery, so that you'll find something else instead.

Factions not implemented

• Dark Eldar: NOPE. I WOULDN'T BOTHER THINKING ABOUT IT IF I WERE YOU.

Tips

• Don't donate a Chaos artifact to anyone but the Inquisition.

• Some disadvantages are more dangerous than the others.

• One of the first things you should do in your playthrough is to put half of your 20 geneseeds (the disadvantage "Siege" gets you a lot more of them, but that's because half of your marines are already dead...) inside test-slaves incubators. If you can't pay the Dime to the Adeptus Mechanicus, you will lose 1 point of Loyalty each time, making it a permanent stain on your Chapter's honor: the only solution at this point is to have one of your marines jailed and cruelly executed (probably a Scout).

• The second thing you should absolutely do is to fill all stocked gear in the Armementarum with 1 item as soon as possible, especially all the power weapons, the Terminator Armor (buy one from the AdMech for 300 requisition, ask several times and they will answer positively, or take off the Terminator armor of one of your First Company's Chaplains, for example), the Iron Halo, all the specialists gears, and the Exterminatus. If you do not buy an Exterminatus device from the Inquisition, it is very likely that your playthrough will end up overrun by Chaos and permanently crash from bugs. For the same reason, you should also take off the Artificer Armor of one of your Masters and replace it with a different set.

• One full company of Astartes with a few tanks can hole up in the fortress monastery against up to seven thousand Orks. Just not more than that. Have it always protected, because heretical fleets and worse might pop up from somewhere to destroy it.

• If you select one of the ready-made Chapters, be aware that all the Chapter Masters have globally disappointing stats compared to the tabletop, and their weaponry most of all have been debuffed. Malakim Phoros of the Lamenters especially has been coined, since his Relic Blade is weaker than those you may find as Relics during your travels, and his Infernus pistol is weakening it further through miscombination, and unequipping this pistol (which is necessary for Malakim's optimisation and the survival of the Chapter) is going to make you definitively lose the Infernus pistol. Papa Smurf though is actually the strongest of the ready-made Chapter Masters in spite of being a Born-Leader, thanks to his Gauntlet of Ultramar doing over 1000 damages: the Power Fist you may select as the starting gear of your Chapter Master is basically the only interesting choice, and you might very well get coined with every other choices, since they give few to no advantages (the Power swords are cheap, and can be combined with a great variety of weapons, save for the Relic Power Fist...

• The "Loyalty" indicator is not only about your own loyalty, but also about suspicions on your chapter's fidelity to the Imperium's cause. Losing parts of your Loyalty percentage is easy. If you lose all your Loyalty, normally, you go into a Crusade of Penance... but since that part of the game hasn't been implemented, it is just a game over.

• Use Techmarines to pick up STC fragments; just unload them from your ships down onto the planet with the STC on it to pick it up. Artifacts can be retrieved in the same way. To give all your artifacts to the AdMech is highly unproductive... if you save before using an STC fragment, you will know what it does and therefore be left in a better position about how to use it.

• Ancient Ruins can be explored in a similar way to retrieving an STC, as mentioned above. They contain all sorts of useful stuff, so explore them whenever you can. BE WARNED! Ancient Ruins are often infested with Chaos Cultists and even Daemons, so always send Terminators if you can! Make sure the landing party has:
  1) A good selection of both ranged and melee weapons. Assault Cannons, Heavy Flamers, Meltaguns and power weapons are a good choice, but don't load up the landing party with too many of a particular type of weapon - a few heavy weapons dispersed throughout the squad is the best way to go.
  2) At least one Techmarine and one Apothecary in the landing party to retrieve any STC fragments and/or relics, and to make sure that the gene-seed is recovered from any marines who are killed.

• Add Bionics to wounded Marines to quickly heal them and get them back in the fight. They can't get more than 10 bionics.

• Sometimes, a bug prevent your Marines from healing. Sometimes, they only heal correctly while resting inside the Chapter's Fortress Monastery.

• Never have your entire chapter in a single fleet as warp storms are full of terrors and pop up at most inopportune times.

• Try to avoid space combat in most cases. But if you have to, set your tacticals to boarders and you've a good chance of winning equal battles without many losses.

• THOU SHALL NOT SEND THE ENTIRE CHAPTER:
  1) On a Crusade
  2) To a Space Hulk
  3) Into a dormant Necron Tomb
  To do so will result in getting Blood Angels'd.

• Sisters of Battle are a cheap and effective addition to your forces. They have the same Armour Class (AC) as marines in Mk 7 power armour, though they do have less health, and you can't (yet) re-equip them to give them anything other than bolters (So no Retributor Squads, Boo!).

• The Sisters Hospitaller make good(ish) replacements for Apothecaries. Though they can't recover Geneseed from dead marines, they can still prevent deaths and decrease healing time for wounded marines in the same way that the Apothecaries do.

• Techpriests work in much the same way as your Techmarines, repairing vehicles damaged in battle. They can be re-equipped with better armour and weapons (Though the conversion beam projector they come with is usually enough). Add bionics to them to give them more health and increase their combat effectiveness.

• It is entirely possible for the ship carrying the Chapter Master (read you) to be sucked into the warp for an instant game over.

• The "Tome" artifacts are dedicated Librarian weapons. Equip them and gain new spells - but beware of the perils of the warp. The Inquisition also won't like your witchery...

• It is unclear if the Chapter's Revelries have any effects on your Astartes' moral, loyalty, dedication, etc. and on diplomatic relationships. Furthermore, the only one you can make is the Grand Feast, nobody is going to implement the other awesome ones, which is just too sad.

• Don't let the Orks grow en masse. If they manage to overcome half the sector, their fleets will grow immense and the game will crash even before you've got your epic last stand.

• Do not let anyone else kill the Leader of the Orks, or else they might stop coming entirely and your playthrough will be eventually lost through peaceful boredom.

• Denouncing the World Eaters's warlord may cause him to abandon his current targets and simply fly over to your fortress-monastery to kill everyone. As long as you put at least 8 full companies, lot of vehicles and so on to defend it, you should win. Except the World Eaters' leader might not die at all and stay in orbit in his fleet, screaming at you each time your request an audience to try and lure the pretentious sissy out, without effect aside from the Inquisition finding out a few centuries latter evidences of correspondence with heretics and being more disappointed than if your chapter had an orgy with Eldar right in front of their Sectorial Headquarters, while being over double strength and armed with a daemonically possessed weapon. Ironically though, for all their threats the World Eaters will let all diplomatic exchanges between you and others and all Inquisitorial shuttles pass through without hindrance, be they containing loads upon loads of geneseed and money, Relics, STCs, or Sisters of Battle reinforcement. So, to sum it up, unless your fleet is more powerful than theirs and that you are willing to sacrifice a lot of ships, nearly all of your chapter will be stuck in the fortress monastery without the Imperial Navy or anyone coming to your help, until the Orks launch a WAAAGH! and smash up the heretics in the process of coming to slaughter your whole chapter (which they will fail to do harder than them), and all the hypocrites allied with you will just act as if nothing was happening, and the Inquisition might even declare you Renegades if you have a Blood Debt or if their trust is so low that they have started to order you to do idiotic jobs without any right to refuse politely. In the real fluff, you could maybe have cried out for help from fellow Chapters, especially the First Founding ones, but not in this game!

• Do not hope for other factions to make kind gestures toward you; the possibility of actually improving diplomatic relationship between your chapter and anybody else solely rests on you. Even if you save their arses from orks, tyranids, necrons, Tau and what not, losing half a company in the process, they will still show no gratitude whatsoever. Extremely rarely, the Prioress, the Lord Inquisitor and the Imperial Sectorial Governor will accept your praise more than once. And sometimes, if you have good relations with them, the Adeptus Mechanicus will propose a mission for you to fulfill, which usually involves sending a small group of Space Marines in a Gladius; and unlike the Inquisition they will actually reward you on the spot.

• If you have taken a Blood Debt and that the sector isn't filed with Tyranids and Orks, restart the game. Because even if you wipe out everyone, and that your only possible recourse is to gift Chaos artifacts to the Imperial Sector Governor so that Heresy starts poppin' up all around, the Inquisition will declare you Excommunicate Traitoris. Even Purging doesn't count to fill the Blood Debt! If you repay the Blood Debt in full, even the Inquisition and the AdMech will (almost) stop hating you, though, so it is kind of a gamble.

• Even if you become Renegade, not everything is lost. The Mechanicus will most likely stop helping you, and you won't receive any more ships, even if you gift them with Relics and STCs so that they turn Neutral instead of Hostile. But the Inquisition will stop killing the serfs you promote as puppet governor, and it will become possible to "kinda" conquer a huge chunk of the sector to turn it into your own petty Imperium. Still, you can make a lot of Geneseed, and sell them to the Adeptus Mechanicus in exchange of "Lesser Relics" : it will become your best way to acquire new sets of power armour and new weapons to equip your space marines.

• If your Chapter Master is a Librarian DO NOT take Biomancy or Runes. All that your Chapter Master will be doing, in all likeliness, is getting stuck using psychic powers to increase his attack but never attacking at all. Sadly, you can't even decide your own behavior in battle (or during the Chapter's revelries...).

• The choice of your Legion of origin may influence the looks of your Honor Guard. To have a Honor Guard right at the beginning of the game might actually be a pretty good advantage, since you can equip them with almost any equipment before the game starts, including Iron Halo, but not Terminator armour.

• Bikes count as vehicles, meaning all Raid type attacks will exclude your bike equipped marines. In other words, you can not make Ravenwing raids. This is very important for Dark Angels wannabes.

• Your worst enemies are the bugs. No, not the Tyranids. Not all bugs will ruin your playthrough, such as the one causing the Spryer to re-appear and therefore allowing you to quickly gain maximum influence on a Hive-World; but most will, such as when a whole ship disappear with all the marines inside (sometimes, it is still possible to land the marines where the ship disappeared, otherwise your Space Marines are as good as lost). To fight them off efficiently, make clever use of your four save slots: always have two saves per playthrough, and preferably put some dozens of turns between them (really dangerous bugs are unlikely in the first hundred of turns).

• 20-25 Geneseeds will ensure you 500 bucks from the Imperial authorities. Do not abuse of this trading though, or the Inquisition, without paying any mind to your hardship, will ask you to stop, by either kindly reminding you of the Law or by making an humiliating reminder of the Sacredness of the Geneseed and therefore of how unethical your actions are. Well done, Duke.

Major

• If unseen / unavailable units block your ships:
  1. Download Cheat Engine
  2. Start the game and cheat engine if you haven't it already open and load your Chapter.
  3. Load Chapter Master in Cheat Engine: press the small Computer-icon "Select a process to open" and select Chapter Master.
  4. Look at the Ship that is blocked. For example, your Strike Cruiser is blocked with 4/250 units
  5. In Cheat Engine, set the "Value" to 4. Now set "Value Type" to "Double". Your "Scan Type" have to been "Exact value". Now press "First Scan".
  6. Now load some Marines / Vehicles in this ship, in this example 96 - you have now 100/250 units in your ship.
  7. Now change the "Value" to 96. Change the "Scan Type" to "Increased value by..." and press "Next Scan"
  8. You should've now only one adress in the left window. The Value should be 100. If you got MORE than one adress, repeat step 6 and 7 with a new value, like adding 2 more Marines.
  9. When you got only one adress left, double click it.
  10. In the bottom screen should your adress apear. Important: Now unload ALL your assets out of that ship!!!
  11. The "Value" in the bottom window should've changed to 4 again - so you know you've done all right. Now double click the "Value" in the bottom window.
  12. Change the "Value" to 0. You've done. No warp-witchery will hinder you anymore !
• Encouter this bug?
  ###############################################
  FATAL ERROR in
  action number 1
  of Alarm Event for alarm 5
  for object obj_controller:
  
  DoSet :: Invalid omparison type
  at gml_Object_obj_controller_Alarm_5
  ###############################################
  Try out the "fixed exe"

Typically happens against Necrons.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 0
for object obj_pnunit:
DoDiv :: Divide by zero
at gml_Script_scr_shoot
############################################################################################
-----------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_scr_shoot (line 0)
gml_Object_obj_pnunit_Alarm_0

Minor

• Every time you send your Marines into Ancient Ruins you HAVE TO reload them to their ships!
• Double Melee-weapons work, but you can't unequip them anymore regulary without bugs. You need to "promote" them to another role, for example an Assault Marine to a Scout. You have to set up the Role Settings with weapons for the Scout! Check the box "Remove Promote EXP Requirements" in Chapter Settings. Dreadnoughts CAN'T restore their weapons! So be careful.
• Your flagship never appears on your Fleet-screen, so you should remember where you parked your shiny cathedral!
• After you send in your Bording Party, sometimes they don't appear on your company screen (but are there). To fix this, fly them over to an enemy planet, drop them off and attack. Reload them and they are there again.
• The Slaughtersong is not only very hard to find & costly to repair, but if you find it in Ruins, your super Starship might automatically disappear before you can attempt to repair it, leaving you without any prize whatsoever.
• Never promote your marines to Terminator (unless one of them is named Matt Ward, somehow). They will simply disappear from your Chapter. You may however change the power armors of all marines with enough experience for them to be Veterans for a terminator armour.

• User interface not allowing recruitment of Techmarines
• Stuck on Celebration Page after battle with no options
• Art failing to load after battle

External Links

/tg/ Threads

• The Origin of Chapter Master
• First thread
• Second thread
• Third thread
• Fourth thread
• Fifth thread, in which shit gets real
• Sixth thread
• Seventh thread
• Eighth thread
• Ninth thread, in which shit appears to get real again. But no guarantees.
• The most recent addition to the battle.
• There is still hope.
• All the hype. Custom icons are taken.
• It has come, it is here. Children bawled. Men Wept. Women orgasmed everywhere.
• Fallout thread, where people began contributing names
• Fallout thread 2, where some more alphas came out.

Dedicated Websites

• The old dev blog
• The old dev forum
• Current Dev Forum

Gallery

• 

  An old concept on how it would play.

• 

  Moar concept art.

• 

  The Emperor hates you. Please die.

• 

  Everyone's favorite chapter, pixelated.

• 

  This guy hates you. Appease him with Archeotech!

• 

  Kill xenos, get bitches.

• 

  A typical example of play...once.

• 

  Read the thread/FAQ/Manual. You have been warned.

• 

  Fixed it!

• 

  CM lives!

• 

  Might need to change the tile to "Regiment Master." at this rate.

See also

• Chapter Master, the leader of a Space Marine Chapter.