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I recently stumbled upon the Carcharodons Space Marine chapter and have seen that they are

following the far rarer Nomad-Predation pattern rather than the more common Crusading pattern

From the Fandom article on the Carcharodons

I've never heard of this Nomad-Predation pattern and cannot find any details on it, only people saying that some chapters follow this pattern. What is it and how does it differ to the Crusading pattern?

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  • The article you link is pretty exhaustive about how a "Nomad Predation" pattern works. The description you're looking for is under the "Chapter Homeworld" section: warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Carcharodons#Chapter_Homeworld – Zab Zonk Feb 20 at 21:32
  • @ZabZonk So, it's only that they're "self sufficient" to a greater degree than Crusading pattern fleet based chapters? – Shade Feb 20 at 21:58
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    I would say so. Figure them as pirates, plunderers or independents who adopt hit and run tactics: nothing grand or coordinate like a crusade; instead, they operate on a much smaller level to both get what they need (food, equipment: the "Predation" part) and at the same time cripple the enemies (the "Nomad" part, as in "fleet-based") but without hitting them heavily like a crusade would. In doing so, they still advance the Imperium's agenda, slightly, and with minimal gains. Imagine something along the lines of some Chaos warbands: they come, do what they came for and then disappear. – Zab Zonk Feb 20 at 23:35
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It means that they are mostly independent from other Imperial organizations.

While the crusading chapters fight with the whole righteous wrath of the Emperor followed by the support (including logistics) from Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Guards, Sisters of Battle etc, Space Sharks (Carcharodons) work alone with minimal contact with other imperial groups, to such degrees that even Inquisition barely knows about their existence.

When they need equipment, they trade with Adeptus Mechanicus (aka. Grey Tithe) or take anything that is not nailed down from the battlefield, when they need new recruits or serfs (Red Tithe), they either kidnap all the imperial rejects they can get (prisoners, rebels, orphans etc) or again, they trade - and they don't see anything wrong with working with renegade chapters.

The Sharks are a fleet-based chapter. At some point in their history, Rangu (their word for the Emperor) or the Forgotten One (either the Primarch of the origin legion or the Founding Chapter Master) banished/self-exiled them from their home world and set them to hunt amongst the stars and slaughter the enemies of the Imperium with no quarter. To this day, no one knows why they were banished. To this end, they were granted the rite of Tithe; the Grey, all the physical material they needed for their duty, and the Red, a claim to prisoners, rebels, rejects, and other detritus for ship crew and potential recruits. They are explicitly forbidden from taking serving members of the Adeptus Terra (read - anyone from any other branch of the Imperium) in their tithing. The Grey Tithe is usually a semi-regular swap meet with allied members of the Mechanicum, bartering a few pieces of archeotech for freshly made materiel.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Space_Sharks

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