11/10/2019 All Space Marine Chapters
By GraniteSoldierOctober 1, 2014 5. UltramarinesThe Roman-inspired figurehead of the Space Marines of Warhammer 40k. They are considered 'bland' and 'dull' by some, but these noble warriors are considered to have singlehandedly held the Imperium of Man together after the Horus Heresy. Courageous and and highly disciplined, these warriors follow the teachings of their Primarch and the the edicts of the Emperor, and later the Inquisition, to a fault. This can make them narrow minded, but they also incorporate tactics of other Chapters for a well-rounded approach to combat. Blood AngelsOne of the most noble, and most feared, of all Space Marine Chapters the Blood Angels are known for a ferocity in battle matched only by a civility outside of combat. This is due to a culture forged by their Primarch dating back to the Great Crusade, where Sanguinius tried to hide a dark secret: a genetic flaw in the Blood Angels that could cause them to enter a mindless 'fury' and attack both friend and foe, seeking to not just kill but drink their blood.
List Rules Loyalist Space Marine Chapters only, no Traitors! The Salamanders are one of the Loyalist First Founding Chapters of Space Marines. Their homeworld is the volcanic Death World of Nocturne. The Salamanders as a Chapter are unusually concerned with civilian casualties compared to most other.
Despite this, the Angels remain stalwart defenders that are quick to fight the Imperium's battles, often leaving their ranks far below maximum strength.3. Soul DrinkersThe Soul Drinkers can make a claim that perhaps none other in the galaxy can: they are free. Whether you speak of the corrupt Imperium or the enslaving Chaos Gods, the Soul Drinkers have rejected both.
Still, they follow the Emperor's teachings of protecting Mankind, despite being hunted by the Imperium itself. In the multitude of Space Marine Chapters, this streak of independence is almost unheard of, and the extent the Soul Drinkers took it to is completely unique. Space WolvesIn the grim dark of the far future, the mighty legacy of the Vikings lives on with the Space Wolves. One of three founding chapters originally distrusted by the first Space Marine Legions, the Wolves have distinguished themselves with a history of courage and unmatched bravery and ferocity in combat. This is good, because they also have a history of anti-authoritarian ways and are one of the most extremely Codex Astartes deviant chapters. While they are not quite as concerned with human life as another particular Chapter, they do not blindly follow the decries of the Inquisition and question their methods consistently.
SalamandersThe fire-born sons of Vulkan, the Salamanders love to engage in mid-to-close ranged combat with powerful flame and heat based weapons like melta guns, flamers, and the rare combi-bolters. Every Salamander is a trained artificer, and have some of the best armor, weapons, and wargear in the 41st millennium.The Salamanders believe that the primary duty the Emperor bred them for was the protection of human life of the Imperium. Because of this the Salamanders care more for human life and maintain a closer relationship with the humans of their home world, Nocturne, than any other Chapter. Salamanders retain the full memories of their previous lives before ascending to Space Marines, and some even maintain relationships with their previous families. Always viewed warily by other Chapters to to their ember-red eyes and coal-black skin, considered by some Chapters as 'mutant', the Salamanders earn respect throughout the Imperium by a willingness to charge into battles and give their lives purely to protect the people of the Imperium.
While not quite as anti-authoritarian as their Space Wolf cousins, the Salamanders do question the Inquisition and their methods since the Inquisition tends to view individual human life as disposable as long as it keeps the Imperium running. There are strong hints that the Salamanders would break away from the Imperium, but that without the Imperium, no matter how corrupt, Mankind as a whole would fall to Chaos and alien threats. Their unique outlook on human life and their duties as soldiers, combined with their courage, ferocity, and skill in battle, make the Salamanders the most interesting and best of the Space Marine Chapters.
The differences between Space Marine chapters depend on which book they're from. All chapters that use a single codex have negligible differences. There are essentially 5 different varieties of Space Marines (at present, anyway):Black TemplarsBlood AngelsDark AngelsSpace MarinesSpace WolvesOf the list, the Space Wolves and Black Templars are the most different from standard Space Marines, while the Dark Angels and Blood Angels have smaller deviations.Black Templars are crusading knights in space marine form. They more or less specialize in close combat.
They must field the Emperor's Champion in every army (he's pretty kick ass). He must take a vow, the effects of which apply to the entire army.Blood Angels are also considered to be a close combat specialist army. Their claim to fame is the Death Company, poor souls who have succumbed to the Black Rage.
They are crazed to the point of being fearless and ignoring wounds that would kill a lesser being. Their only release is death.When fielded normally, Dark Angels are very much like regular Space Marines. However, you can also field a Deathwing or Ravenwing army. A Deathwing army is made up almost entirely of Terminator squads.
The Ravenwing consists almost entirely of bikes and landspeeders.Space Wolves resemble vikings in temperament. They can take twice as many HQ choices as other armies, making it resemble a hero and his companions, which suits them very well. Blood Angels are rumored to be next on the release schedule after Tyranids in January. Of course, being a rumor, who knows.Thats interesting.
Like Anthony above. I have also become interested via Space Hulk and I too was looking at the Blood Angels. Can anyone else confirm this rumour?One thing I wish GW would do is produce all their minis in plastic, even the heroes. For example I like the Blood Angels Tyco mini but I am not keen on the pose. Would have been much nicer to have given him a more dynamic pose.
Same for BA Dante & Ragnar in the Space Wolves. Space Wolves resemble vikings in temperament. They can take twice as many HQ choices as other armies, making it resemble a hero and his companions, which suits them very well.I concur!
Very nice brief Dave. If I may take it a stage further. What benefit does the HQ choices mentioned above have on the game table. As opposed to a Blood Angels company.A quick primer on Force Organization:All units in an army fall into one of five categories: HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support.HQ are leaders.
Elites are well, elite units. Troops are the standard grunt types.
Fast Attack includes jump-pack troops, bikes, and light, fast vehicles. Heavy Support is the big guns.For a standard mission, you must take 1 HQ and at least 2 Troops. You are allowed up to a total of 2 HQ, 6 Troops, and 3 each of the others.HQ is where you find most of the really powerful special characters (the Space Wolves have 6, including the Great Wolf himself, Logan Grimnar). By having twice as many HQ choices as other armies, the Space Wolves get more of those powerful characters to play with. It comes at a corresponding loss in other troops, though, because those characters are expensive (in both points and money, as it turns out). You wind up with the classic match-up of a few powerful units against a larger number of individually inferior foes.
A coupple of often overlooked points:While it is true that there are five variant Marine lists, you can make legal armies for those chapters using the standard Marine codex, and vise versa.So, I can have a standard marnie amy as the Blood Angels, representing a BA force where only 'normal' marines are present.Alternitively, I can field a non-BA army uing the BA codex. This is most common for sucessor chapters, but could also represent another chapter with similar problems (or problems with the same end result at least).The important thing is that you decide on one Codex and use the units and rules from just that codex, no mix n match.With regards to plastics: GW is slowly moving to all plastics, it's just an economic consideration that it's still using metal. Metals will be with us a long time yet.
JB: Those minis you're talking about were designed years and years ago, and the older designs tend to be flatter with a spread eagle look. The standard space marine commander is plastic and very customizable. And with a little work can easily fit into any Marine army.Fair point but the new Space Wolves heroes are also in metal. I will admit I took the plunge yesterday and bought the Space Wolves battle set, some Terminators & a SW codex. After looking through the sprues it wouldn't have been that difficult to have made a hero sprue with the conversion bits on it to make a Logan Grimnar, Ragnar Blackmane, Njal Stormcaller And lukas. All the sprue would have required was the relevant heads, special weapons, some unique extras e.g.
Ragnars pelt and Njal's staff/nightwing and they would have been away. You could have converted the standard kits very easily, they could still produce this sprue if they really wanted in my opinion. I will admit the Priest and Canis would be a different proposition but not that far away. Just as a new to the game person. It would seem a much better way of producing Chapter heroes, simply buy a sprue that allows you to make noticeable conversions to the plastic kits. They could put the first four I mentioned in a Space Wolves heroes conversion box in my opinion and make life easier for everyone.Why don't they just go all the way and produce a Chapter heroes box for each Chapter with all the bits in it to produce all the characters from each Chapter in it. Could cost £60 and using the SW as an example have Logan, Ragnar, Njal, Ulrik, Canis, Lukas, Rune Priest, Lone Wolf, Champion, Apothecary and a Standard Bearer.
It would certainly save all the messing about. They could even divide them in two from a cost point of view. With regards to plastics: GW is slowly moving to all plastics, it's just an economic consideration that it's still using metal. Metals will be with us a long time yet.I hope they do it sooner rather than later. I don't know why but I have just never been a lover of metal minis and much prefer the idea of plastic ones that you can pose your own unique way.Thanks for all the other comments. They tipped me over the edge and made me take the plunge.
I am going to try and get a Chaos SM army together over the next couple of months and beef out the SW also. I may even buy some of the rumoured Blood Angels if they come out next year. Just need to get my painting skills up to scratch and get the rules. I am going to approach it from the hobby aspect first and then learn the gaming side. Sorry if someone already posted this, but thought I would also note that the latest Space Marine codex (army list) has a series of special characters who subtly adjust the way a space marine army plays.Most (all?) space marine units and characters have the Combat Tactics rule.
This allows them to automatically fail a morale test if they wish to (sometimes discretion is the better part of valour). If, however, you take Marneus Calgar the chapter master of the Ultramarines in your army his special rule replaces Combat Tactics allowing all of those units to pass or fail any morale test. This is just an improvement, but other characters replace Combat Tactics with other rules, such as Stubborn or Outflank.The rules specifically say that you can use these special characters in other chapters, so there is nothing to stop you building your own force around these rules for flavour. Your force will not be as different from a standard space marine force as one of the chapters with it's own book (Black Templars, Blood Angels etc), but will none the less have it's own feel. You can even flip between these characters using the same other models in your army, something that would be harder to do with say Space Wolves.
As GW has explained several times the plastic vs metal thing is a matter of economics and nothing else. Unless there is a quantum shift in the costs of materials, tooling, machinery etc, there will never be 100% plastics ranges, nor will they return to 100% metal.In a nutshell: moulds for plastics cost.far. more than for metal, but then the actual figures production is much cheaper.
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GW has done it's sums, and basically for troops which people by a lot of then plastics are worth it, and for things like character models which each army will by 0-1 of will always be metal. Really popular armies will tend to get more plactics, niche armies will tend to be more metal.This is why for example in WFB all the core choices are plastic, whilst most of the specials and rares are metal.
Different organisation, but same economics for 40K.Personally I'd rather have everything in metal, but then I know others that would rather have all plastic. Sorry if someone already posted this, but thought I would also note that the latest Space Marine codex (army list) has a series of special characters who subtly adjust the way a space marine army plays.Yes, for most purposes, using the base SM codex is the way forward for most chapters.For Blood Angels I would use core SM (it's not quite the same, but none of the BA schticks is that different or amazing).If you want Deathwing Dark Angels (ie: Terminators as troops) then use the Dark Angels codex. If you are doing anything else including Ravenwing, I'd advise using the core SM.The Black Templars are sadly a bit broken, and you will be much better using their codex for a force of this style. There is only one vow ever used (reroll all HtH attacks) with a negligible flaw offsetting it. Actually, mechanically/powerwise you'd be better using this codex for Blood Angels too.I don't really 'get' Space Wolves myself. If you want the whole Viking band of heroes thing, then you need to use the new codex.
If you just want to play Marines, and like the look of Space Wolves (as someone I know does) then just use the core SM book - it's much more versatile.
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