Hammers of Dorn
| Hammers of Dorn | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Battle Cry | Unknown | |
| Number | Unknown | |
| Founding | Unknown | |
| Successors of | Imperial Fists | |
| Successor Chapters | Unknown | |
| Chapter Master | Unknown | |
| Primarch | Rogal Dorn | |
| Homeworld | Unknown | |
| Strength | Perfectly 1000 | |
| Specialty | Being perfectly adherent to the Codex, trolling to hell and back the Ultramarines, having superior firepower and putting emphasis on Devastators, Terminators, Dreadnoughts and Vindicators (basically emphasis on things that kick the shit out of everything) | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Black and Brass | |
A Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists, this is what you get when you try to out-perform Ultramarines and Red Scorpions. The Hammers of Dorn were created in an unknown founding and are known to maintain a friendly (for a given definition of friendly) rivalry with the Ultramarines.
The Hammers of Dorn are ridiculously compliant with the Codex Astartes to the point that they'll call out the Ultramarines on every divergence from the great book of war Roboute Guilliman wrote. They also extend it to other Ultramarine Successor Chapters. Also note how their chapter symbol looks like the flag of the Soviet Union, a nation also ridiculously obsessed with following rules.
These marines take pride in Rogal Dorn further than any Imperial Fists Successor (as well as the Imperial Fists themselves), for Dorn fought alongside the Emperor during the final stages of the Horus Heresy during the Siege of The Emperor's Palace. This caused them also to believe that while Roboute Guilliman was a great strategist and tactician, only the sons of Dorn are capable of mastering the Codex he wrote, infuriating the Ultras and their successors (not to mention trying to steal the Ultramarines' boyfriends greatest rivals, the Word Bearers, away from them).
Although it would seem that they fail at reading the Codex as a great book of everything and instead as a guide on how marines are supposed to be (ironically meaning they unintentionally succeed in how Guilliman intended it to be read), it could also be said that they read the Codex cover to cover and learned how to use every tactic in it, while also using their brains. They've actually been pretty successful at utilizing it in a multitude of campaigns, notably the Damocles Crusade where their rapid adaptability actually gave the Tau problems, at least until Farsight cracked the Codex and used it to predict their every action. Even though they follow the Codex to the letter, they do put emphasis on firepower and protection (hence their frequent use of Devastators, Terminators, Dreadnoughts and Vindicators). This technically means that they actually don't strictly follow the Codex as they wouldn't be able to emphasise anything if they did (unless the Codex supports this method of warfare, of course). This also means that Farsight couldn't have predicted their moves because they wouldn't actually have been fully following the Codex. Luckily, being predictable doesn't matter if you are so good at adapting that an opponent's counter is countered and/or you have enough armor and firepower to simply slaughter everything anyway. Besides, the Codex is so massive that even Ultramarines do not memorize the whole thing (each knows a different piece), so a Tau brain wouldn't be physically capable of comprehending enough of the Codex to predict how Space Marines would use it. If a Space Marine can't do it, a mortal can't do it, let alone a species the Eldar abandoned due to their "crippling lack of creativity". Farsight got lucky (or Chaos dicked around) and didn't realize it. Alternatively, the Tau may have put the Codex into an easily searchable database so that they wouldn’t have to memorize it, because they remember how computers work and haven’t devolved into medieval primitives who store all their information on literal paper scrolls. Maybe, but the search would take so long the battle would be over by the time it completed. You're talking about something it took many years to write and was made by someone can, in a moment, conceive every aspect of a planetary invasion down to the slightest detail. And he still took years to make this thing. Besides, the Hammers would've have brought much of the tactics and such out as there just wouldn't have been a reason to. The Codex seems to focus on the situation, and the Tau are rather limited on the methods of combat they employ and their tactics reflect this and enjoy very little variation and adaptation. It's basically just "get to a vantage point and shoot a lot". Perhaps the simplicity (or stupidity) of Tau tactics forced the situation which there isn't much variation from the Codex available for that situation. I mean, there are only so many ways to handle someone simply sitting back and shooting at you from a hill or something.
Given how fanatical the Hammers are about the Codex, they're probably not terribly happy about Guilliman coming back and starting a full rewrite of their rulebook. A sentiment /tg/ can sympathize with, actually. If they have a problem with the author of the Codex: Astartes changing it, then they weren't loyal to it for the right reasons. I mean, if you obey something because a primarch wrote it and then the primarch changes it and you have a problem with the changing...well, really, it just means you're an idiot.