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Hey guys, I've recently decided to switch to Space Marines, but am having a heck of a time deciding which chapter I'd like to either run with, or base my army around.
What is a common theme among SM Players? I'd like to say right away that I'd prefer to stay away from Ultramarines. For some reason I just find them TOO vanilla for
me. What are the pro's and cons to the other chapters? Please, shower me with your knowledge!

The majority of Chapters, such as Imperial Fists, White Scars, Ultramarines, Crimson Fists, Lamenters etc have no Special rules. The Count As rule allows you to field Lysander in an ultramarine army, though you should probably give him a new name and file the Imperial Fist logo's off.

ultimately unless you pick one of the divergent Chapters, such as Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels or Black Templar, you're choice will basically be what colour scheme you like best.

Thats what I meant though. Between Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Black Templar. Whats the big difference between all of them? Pro's and Cons.

Why did you crosspost into the Rules forum? </Sad Panda>

Space Wolves Pros: They are Awesome and getting a new codex in a few months
Cons: They are getting a new codex in a few months.

The others: Pros: None
Cons: They are boring.

Space Wolves- They're a very CC based chapter. They are, with the Black Templar, one of the two most divergent chapters.

Dark Angels- Only real reason to do these dress wearing emos is if you want Terminators as Troops.

Blood Angels- Like the Dark Angels, these guys are very, very similar to the generic SM. They have a free codex on GW's website, and get Assault Marines as troops. Their Veteran Assault Squads are incredibly nice.

Black Templars- Maybe even more CC based than Space Wolves, the Black Templars are kinda a swarm army. Their basic squad is a mixture of scouts and regular SM. No psykers, but they do get some nasty CC abilities (one of them being the ability to "fall back" towards the nearest enemy).

Dark Angels are my new preference over regular codex chapters. Cheaper VenDreads, Termies/Bikes as troops, sick librarian powers, and really neat fluff.

Ultimately dude, read the fluff of the chapters and make your decision based on that. If you don't love the fluff, you won't love the chapter.

Forget all these poser Chapters these people are talking about make you an army with some chest hair....

Pre Heresy Space Sharks...... Every model with a beaky...yes....perfect.

i say put all the chapter names into a hat, and do a drawing to see what you use

You could buy the Adeptus Astartus poster and throw a dart at it with your eyes closed. That is if you wanna be a panzy and no play Space Sharks the manliest army ever!!!!

Angry Marines?
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/211252.page


But seriously it depends on how you want to play.

I started out playing as Ultramarines but now am moving towards playing Salamanders because of Vulkan and some of the fluff behind them. Vulkan gives awesome bonuses to the army turning some of my favorite weapons into twinlinked/mastercrafted.

Just make up your own chapter with whatever colour scheme you like.

I'd say paint your army in a scheme that you'll enjoy. All SM armies with the exception of Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Black Templars use the SM codex, which has some nice new additions/changes.

Dark Angels allow you to field a Deathwing Army where termies are counted as troops, or a Ravenwing Army where bikes and speeders are troops. There are some other minor differences with their scouts and dreads as well.

Blood Angels are beastly in CC. Assualt as troops, overcharged rhino's to get into assault range faster, Death Company (Fearless/ Feel no pain/Rending) and a few chapter only vehicles.

I can't post on the Space wolves or Black Templars becase I haven't read their current rules.

The nice thing about the game is that you can paint your army any way you like and use any of the codex for that army and run them as a second/third/forth etc etc founding of that chapter.

Jamocha wrote:Thats what I meant though. Between Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Black Templar. Whats the big difference between all of them? Pro's and Cons.

Dark Angels - If you want terminators or bikes / landspeeders as troops we got something for you! Sammael also has an AV14 landspeeder or a bike with a plasmacannon.
PROS: Terminators as troops. A stronger psychic hood and smoke due to old rules. Bikes and landspeeders as troops
CONS: A lot of units are overpriced and they have a lot of old rules for weapons. AKA. Storm Shield only give a 4+ invuln save in CC and their CML's only shoot one missile.


Space Wolves - A strong assault army with very strong troop choices. This is a great choice to run Drop Pod assault with their troops called Grey Hunters, or run a mechanized army and have 14-15 bloodclaws in a LRC with a Chaplain *the SW equivalent at least* and charge out of it and wreck units.
PROS: Can have strong leaders in all their squads, can shoot and assault very well.
CONS: None that I can think of TBH. Old codex, non-updated rules.

Blood Angels - I forget the exact rules but their Death Company are MONSTERS. Rending, FNP, Fearless and jumpacks. Rerolls to hit due to having a chaplain too. Yum. They are very heavily assault oriented and can get some monster characters that provide some major buffs to your troops. They can also take assault marines as troops. For instance about the special characters, Brother Corbulo gives any unit withing 12" of him in the assault phase Furious Charge. Also, Dante gives all blood angels within his 12" radius preferred enemy. These two's skills combined + having a death company can wreck units. The only problem with blood angels is that it is very easy to spend a lot of points on units with upgrades.
PROS: Jump pack troops are avalible. Your army is VERY mobile. Awesome special character bonuses + very powerful units in the army. Deathcompany. Baal Predator and Furioso Dreadnought.
CONS: Very easy to get carried away and get a lot of expensive units. Old codex, not as many units as vanilla.


Black Templars - A very strong assault army that can give it's troops Landraider Crusaders and has some very strong vows *allows them special attributes, like rerolling to hit in CC* and their terminators are great. They can have 2 assault cannons + furius charge or tankhunters. Their CC terminators are VERY nasty with the ability to re-roll to hit and wound with lightning claws, plus furius charge... STR 5 I5... ouch.
PROS: Great terminators, can get a TON of landraiders. Very strong in CC with everything. Can take special weapons in 5 man marine squads.
CONS: Not as many choices as vanilla. Other than that...

Vanilla - This codex will allow you the most flexibility and the most special characters. You can always "count as" characters for you needs. Aka. call your commander Vulcan but a different name and yeah. It also allows you to take bikes as troops if you get a captain on a bike. If you are in doubt, then just pick this one.
PROS: Tons of special characters. Tons of diverse units. Tons of choices.
CONS: None.

Looks?
1. Black Templars wearing Tabards

Rules?
1. Blood Angels for Assault Marine Troops

Fluff?
1. Black Templars for sheer ass-kickery!

If you're not a massive baby who has no idea what it means to play a hardcore chapter of the Imperium's greatest badasses then you'll play Rainbow Warriors.

Nerf_IG wrote:If you're not a massive baby who has no idea what it means to play a hardcore chapter of the Imperium's greatest badasses then you'll play Rainbow Warriors.

Aw, yeah - a Rogue Trader-era chapter that disappeared into the Warp!

...You know, if you can't decide on a chapter, you could paint it up as a "crusade" made up of different chapters. That's what I decided to do after the first squad of Imperial Fists took so damned long to paint (stupid yellow!)

Go salamanders. Green, black, and gold. Plust their guys are black and have red eyes. What's not ba about that?

Crimson Fists.

They are win. Pedro Kantor is win. Sternguard are win. Winning is win.

Crimson Fists.

Imperial Fists all the way, they are a challenge to paint well but if you can pull it off people will consistently be drawn to your boys in yellow and it looks amazing on the table, you really will stand out amongst all the blue/red/green/black marines. they also have some really cool background and Lysander is a beast.