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When I did this myself for a vanilla SM chapter, I got around 1060, at full strength. I did not count scouts or 'vehicle crew' and I definitely did not include servitors. Vehicle crew wasn't included because I assumed tanks are driven by the techmarines (which I counted) or a reserve marine and that rhinos are driven by either their squad or a servitor. I didn't include dreadnoughts either as they have gone beyond being a marine and are now 'interred' in what is pretty much a vehicle. So if you discount the master, captains, and their guards as supernumerary, you get around 1000. Alternately, some may view the libs, chaps, techs or apothecaries as supernumerary, to get the same number.

So, 1060 is around the number of walking, talking space marines in a chapter, while 1000 is the number for on the ground battle brothers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Of course this can vary considerably based on the size of the honor guards or other departments.

@ Retrias. What?

Also, SW and BT intentionally don't follow the codex astartes and have many times the usual number. Even the chapters that follow the codex rigidly can have more than 1000 marines as certain strategic and leadership roles are marked as supernumerary, meaning they don't count towards the 1000.

Good article. He makes a good assessment that I mostly agree with. However, he does count scouts, which aren't 'full' space marines. He puts up good points for the existence of dedicated vehicle crew and pilots who aren't part of the company structure.

I can see how some may view scouts as battle brothers, but, imo, they aren't. In some background they don't receive the title 'brother' until they have earned power armor. They also do not have all of the implants that make a space marine and can't wear the armor. They may have a lot of experience in comparison to guard, but they are still missing things that make a space marine. I wouldn't call half a rhino in the manufactorum a rhino. Also, in the codex, tactical, assault and devastator squads have 'space marine' as the models' names. The scout squad models are just called 'scout.'

Anyways, that's how I see and it is supported by background material. I'm sure there is background material that says otherwise though. Besides....

Calgar: Oh, those 100 scouts don't count yet. They're not real marines. Take them off your list, bureaucrat.

Well, no. My first post pointed out you can get 1060 about, without counting scouts. Don't forget honor guard, which can be large, and all the captains and their respective command squads. Also, any of the specialties may or may not be supernumerary. There really is a lot of supposition either way.

Perhaps it is really much simpler, the scouts do count, the 1000 is the 10 man, 10 squad, 10 company number and all else are supernumerary. In this case this chapter number may be very high, like the OPs guess or the BoLS article.

Lol. We have a very different interpretation of a SM chapter organization.

I disagree here too. Command and honor guards are outside of the main 100 in a company. In the 5th ed SM codex, the Ultra's organization chart lists the honor guard separately with the master. I'm not sure, but the command squads my be this way too. Also, in the Salamander book, when that guy (can't remember name) is promoted to the command squad he worries about who's replacing him in his squad, meaning the squad remains full without him.

Anyways, what counts as supernumerary really is the trick here and can swing the total in a chapter by + or - ~200-300. Scouts can also swing by + or - 100. This is starting at a base of 900, from the 9 agreed upon companies. My estimate came from a low supernumerary count and didn't count scouts.

This can probably go on ad nauseam, so suffice it to say, the number is much more than 1000 battle brothers, but can vary based on interpretation.

Good points with the scouts Cad.

I agree with Melissa that the Techmarines could be the 'motorpool' insofar as driving the larger tanks and ships. Tactical squads or servitors can handle the rhino/razorbacks. Although this would be stretching them pretty thin for any large deployment of armor.