Increase Chapter size

Hey, Veeky Forums I'm looking for a way to bump up my chapter size above 1000 without getting blammed.

Any suggestions?

Be codex adherent.

Spread your chapter out across a large area.

Even then, you'd probably only be able to stretch it to like 1500 or 2000 before attracting a lot of attention, and 4-5000 is about the absolute max you could cleverly get away with. Even then, that'd be hard, and you'd make quite a few enemies in doing so, and you'd have the Inquisition breathing down your necks at literally every turn.

screw you, smurf.

do support roles count towards the limit?

Usually.

However, I don't think Scouts count, only fully blooded Space Marines count towards it, so you could maintain higher numbers of Scouts who serve as elite infantrymen, the hardest of which become Space Marines.

Though if they do count, there are Chapters who suffer from genetic abnormalities, usually terminal, that necessitate the creation of a Death Company to give the terminally insane a shot at causing more damage to the enemy than the parent Chapter. In those cases, Death Company don't count towards the chapter's 1000 active member cap because they are already dead and counted among the deceased.

I'm not sure, but it could be possible that Deathwatch members aren't counted, but even the Chapters that send the most members to the Deathwatch only ever have at most a few dozen active members in their service, so hiding a sizeable reserve in Deathwatch black isn't a viable strategy.

Alternatively, the Dark Angels spawn successors who basically just follow whatever the Dark Angels are doing and might as well just be extended Dark Angels companies, and the Black Templars can go above that limit because the limit is lifted while a Chapter is on crusade, and the Black Templars have not stopped crusading since their inception.

Do what smart legions did post heresy. Have various chapters who pretend to be separate on paper but are still beholden to spiritual lieges, dark covenants, and blood curses.

Or you could go full Lufgt and just try to get big enough that when you get caught you can pull it off. Didn't exactly work as planned, but there are more than 1000 Red Corsairs.

I think some space marines get assigned duties to guard certain facilities, spread out across space.

Imperial fists were apparently defending that one monastery in bumfuck nowhere in the Ultramrine movie, and a bloodraven librarian was working with some sisters of battle in a isolated archaelogical/research base on Rahe's paradise.

If one spreads out their forces to hold grounds far apart from one another, would that work?

There's no cap on a Chapter on Crusade.

There's no cap on Scouts.

That's why I love Black Templars.

There's nothing quite as satisfying as using loopholes to betray the spirit and intent of the rules.