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I've been going to my FLGS alot lately, and I've noticed that EVERYONE
and I mean EVERYONE plays Space marines.

Why is this?

I play space marines because I like land raiders and how cognitive the rules are.

Others thoughts?

They are the the most popular I guess. . . GW gives them the most attention?
but thats the exact oppisite of my FLGS, we just ahd a tournament yesterday, and out of 30 people we had 2 space marine players. . . maybe its just that store?

From what people have told me, they're relatively easy to figure out what to do with, partly because any SM squad is capable of taking down multiple kinds of opposing units. (WS 4, BS 4, S 4, usually one power weapon or power fist per squad - all help.) They're also relatively hard to kill, so even when you make a mistake with them you don't necessarily suffer too much. (T 4, 3+ armor save by default.)

Not that I'd know firsthand. SMs never really appealed to me...

Huffy wrote:They are the the most popular I guess. . . GW gives them the most attention?
but thats the exact oppisite of my FLGS, we just ahd a tournament yesterday, and out of 30 people we had 2 space marine players. . . maybe its just that store?

More than that. Space Marines are the most "mainstream" army in the game. If you were to sit someone who's never heard of 40k before in front of a collection of models from various armies and asked them which ones they think look the coolest, they'd likely pick the space marines. They're a standard super scifi soldier archetype, and with games like Halo, Gears of War, etc. The Marines will draw in the most new players.

There is of course the idea that the Marines are indeed the all comers army. They're flexible, forgiving of player error, easy to figure out and understand etc. In game terms Marines and Orks are probably the easiest armies to pick up and play. In terms of fluff the Marines have the most mainstream appeal for people who are just coming into the game.

A lot of the time, people that are new to the game will try to pick up something as close to a "good guy" as they can. That's what I've noticed at least. The Space Marines(Ultramarines and Salamanders in particular) are about as friendly as 40k armies get.

Note the "a lot of the time" please.

Monster Rain wrote:A lot of the time, people that are new to the game will try to pick up something as close to a "good guy" as they can. That's what I've noticed at least. The Space Marines(Ultramarines and Salamanders in particular) are about as friendly as 40k armies get.

Note the "a lot of the time" please.

Lol, I definitely don't fall under "a lot of the time" I picked up Necrons right off the bat, and they're probably the most evil race in the game

Heretics ask why.

GW asks, why not?

I thinks its because
a. they are in the starter box
b. they are cool but still human
c. they are one of the easiest to pick up and play arm, lordofhats is right, they are the most forgiving of armies
d. with so many choices in characters and chapters it gives alot of room for the imagination while still in a consistant direction.

because twelve year olds love space marines and some people never grow up

Space marines are, unfortuantly, the spoilt brats of the 40k universe, while all the other armies are being condensed down into one army book (craftworld eldar as an example) the space marines in general get 1-3 new army books a year, for space wolves, blood angels or whatever.
They also have the biggest book, the space marine army book is about 3 times the size of my eldar one and its packed with loads more stuff.
The space marines also have the biggest range of models, barely a white dwarf goes by without a new space marine thing being advertised somewhere within it, along with the latest APOCALYPSE (its cool cos its MASSIVE!) battle, in fact, the Space Marine model list is about twice the size of any other model list on the GW website. They also outsell the next best selling army (which happens to be CSM) by a ratio of 3:1 (based on the url below, which may be out of date)
They also have the best rules, with constant 3+ saves and many invulnerables, they also discount the open topped rule due to the fact they are wearing power armour. lolwut?

If I may point you at this rather funny, but also highly accurate rant:

http://www.stephane.info/show.php?code=codex_not_marine

Admittedly, I sometimes buy spess mahrenes, but only to paint, which is why my avatar is a space marine. I will never use them in a battle (probably).

Sorry about the rant, i've been dying to post my thoughts on them somewhere, I actually just logged on to start a new thread about it but then I saw this one.

Captain Solon:

What do you mean by "cognitive"?

Dastardly Dave wrote:Space marines are, unfortuantly, the spoilt brats of the 40k universe, while all the other armies are being condensed down into one army book (craftworld eldar as an example) the space marines in general get 1-3 new army books a year, for space wolves, blood angels or whatever.
They also have the biggest book, the space marine army book is about 3 times the size of my eldar one and its packed with loads more stuff.
The space marines also have the biggest range of models, barely a white dwarf goes by without a new space marine thing being advertised somewhere within it, along with the latest APOCALYPSE (its cool cos its MASSIVE!) battle, in fact, the Space Marine model list is about twice the size of any other model list on the GW website. They also outsell the next best selling army (which happens to be CSM) by a ratio of 3:1 (based on the url below, which may be out of date)
They also have the best rules, with constant 3+ saves and many invulnerables, they also discount the open topped rule due to the fact they are wearing power armour. lolwut?

If I may point you at this rather funny, but also highly accurate rant:

http://www.stephane.info/show.php?code=codex_not_marine

Admittedly, I sometimes buy spess mahrenes, but only to paint, which is why my avatar is a space marine. I will never use them in a battle (probably).

Sorry about the rant, i've been dying to post my thoughts on them somewhere, I actually just logged on to start a new thread about it but then I saw this one.

Though I disagree with it, I've noticed that many older, non-SM players do feel this way.

I will console you with this: SM players are the most numerous. Take heart in that you'll usually find more bad SM players than good ones (myself included). Most of the good players end up playing other armies, because many start with Space Marines when they first get into 40k, and then move on to other armies as they play longer. As a result the best players, and the more experienced, usually end up not playing Space Marines. I plan to pick up Tau or Eldar once my Crimson Fists are finished, and who knows. Maybe I'll never touch my SM again after getting into those armies. Hopefully by then I'll be a better player .

I started Space Wolves for two reasons, 1. I fancied an army where i didn't have to roll high to keep them alive, and 2. I was planning on going to Doubles this year, with a friend ho plays primarilly with Guard, and it was easier to start a new army, than it was to go with my Eldar

Reginleif wrote:because twelve year olds love space marines and some people never grow up

If "growing up" means "playing Emo armies" I'll stay 12, thank you very much.

Space Marines are my second army, and I love them. The models are awesome and the rules are fun. And I don't feel the need to be the virtuous downtrodden gamer who's Codex never gets updated.

The whole "Space Marine Hate" thing seems to stink of Middle Child Syndrome.

picked Necrons first because the idea of a giant horde of robot soldiers on the field appealed greatly. But yeah, at my FLGS there are about 5:1 SM Xenos armies

I started with Tau because folks told me that they were the shootiest army and I'm a big fan of shooting stuff.

Marines are a forgiving army. The new book also lets you play a lot of different ways... 6 Dreads, 3+ Raiders, Bikes as Troops, Sternguard as scoring units, etc.

Dodiez: stick with the Tau. A lot of people think they are weak with the new rules, but whenever they get their new codex (1, 2, ? years) you will only get more toys.

They are the most heavily supported army, they have more books and models than everything else, they are effectively cheaper than other armies because the models are more costly points-wise than say orks and tyranids that requires buying large volumes of miniatures. The fact that they come in the boxed game doesn't hurt either, you practically get an army in the box. They are easy to use and robust against mistakes and a couple of bad die rolls in the game, the total opposite of Dark Eldar then. I also rather feel that they are favoured by the rules too, they seem a bit too good in every way making them an obvious choice for people who take winning games as a factor in choosing an army. GW probably do this so as to make their favourite miniature line sell well. Obviously they can be beaten by other armies but it always seems an uphill struggle and mastery of your forces to overcome the Marines, the Marine player has an easier ride.

I love Superhuman badasses.

Captain Solon wrote:I play space marines because I like land raiders and how cognitive the rules are.

Others thoughts?

You like how the SM rules are not very cognitive?

I'm having a hard time figuring out what "cognitive rules" are...

Mass visual appeal. Big guys in big armor with big guns fighting aliens appeals to the 12 year old boy in all of us. They look cool, you don't need a lot of them to play, and they're not hard to paint.

And almost everyone has an AOBR box set , and they feel "why not expand on what i already have? "

LunaHound wrote:And almost everyone has an AOBR box set , and they feel "why not expand on what i already have? "

That's a very good point.

12 year old boys thinking about superhuman badasses hmmm go PLAY HALO 3!
Thats my answer.
Like a 12 year old comes and picks up the battle for black reach. I asked him
"hey you play halo."
"yes"
"typical"
"why?"
"because Eldar are better Silly."
"ok."
He then buys a eldar battle force.
See it only works the first time they buy something.

To be honest it's kind of unfair to "trick" a new player by telling them that the eldar are better. They would probably be better off using SM as a first army.

I agree. Eldar are very hard to use. Space Marines, for all their flaws, are at least forgiving.

Kurgash wrote:picked Necrons first because the idea of a giant horde of robot soldiers on the field appealed greatly. But yeah, at my FLGS there are about 5:1 SM Xenos armies

lol same here. NECRONS FTW! DEATH TO SPESS MEHREENS AND THEIR STEHL REHN!

Because they just have that badass yet noble feel to them that people like.

Relatively inexpensive.