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After a year and a half of playing 40K at *least* weekly, and in total, a few hundred games under my belt (for some months I played almost daily), I am finally giving in and professing some interest in (vanilla) Space Marines. Largely because they're cheap to start with, easy to paint (unless you're doing White Scars or Imperial Fists), versatile and undoubtedly the least likely army to be left behind on the update curve. I'll be honest, I've been looking at chapters all day, and Ultramarines seems to be the coolest-looking with several unique hero models to boot. Of course, it would be unoriginal enough to pick up the ol' SM. To go Ultramarines would seem like I'm regressing to a newb with the box set. The second biggest reason is that I am wrapping up my small Eldar army, which has a lot of Alaitoc-style mottled blue in it, and I was worrying about not trying something new. So I was considering going Second Founding based off of Ultramarines, like Aurora Chapter.

Here's why I like Ultramarines and their Second Founding chapters:

1:They stick to the Codex (which means nothing crazy is going on and they have versatile assault/range/mech mixes)
2:Their character names tend to go more in line with standard Imperium gothic, the type we've come to know and love. I.E., Greek and Roman sounding names.
3:They don't have an overabundance of grimdark - they maintain pure, strong forces that don't make you wonder if the 2000 point game you're playing is half of the chapter's remaining strength.
4:They care much for the civilians under their protection and tend to work well with the Imperial Guard.

Any suggestions? I've never dwelt among the big SM fans, so I don't know what's generally accepted.

Go for it.
Ultramarines are a good chapter and you can make more or less any list and still have it a little bit fluffy.
They get hate from the haters but haters gonna hate.

Here's the thing - Ultramarines get a lot of flak because they're the posterboys, it's true. However, well-painted Ultramarines can look absolutely stunning, and are easily one of the most attractive schemes when painted by an experienced painter. You could go for a successor chapter, but the boys in blue have a nice scheme. I can understand being burned out on painting blue though - after painting Dark Angels, Orks, then Guard, I've painted enough green to last a lifetime! Then again, I'm painting my Crimson Fists after painting Space Wolves and even Ultramarines way back when, so I obviously can't mind blue that much.

I say go for it, if you want to start a new army Marines are really easy to get into.

Ultramarines it is. I've graduated to the point to where I can make plain blue look good. What color blue is that, again? Enchanted Blue?

diesel7270 wrote:Ultramarines it is. I've graduated to the point to where I can make plain blue look good. What color blue is that, again? Enchanted Blue?

The foundation Mordian Blue with an Ultramarine highlight is fairly popular. An Asurmen Blue wash can be used too. Alternately, priming white, painting Ultramarines Blue, then highlighting with a 50/50 Ultramarines Blue/Space Wolf Grey mix.

Regal blue with a black wash looks pretty good.

Priming black with Regal Blue as an undercoat with a 50/50 Regal Blue/Ultramarine Blue as a "base"coat into Ultramarine Blue looks stunning IMO. It gives a deep rich blue that stands out.

See here on my WIP Dreadnought where I'm testing the scheme for the second time (first time I did it on my Land Raider):

Hey I'm happy to see Ultras getting some love. You've touched on what I like about them most as well. They are the most Roman-y/Greek-y as you have pointed out. I also think their color scheme can look awesome if done right. I particularly like the way the white vet helmets look against the blue. Finally, their care for civilians is something that you don't see a lot of in 40k. It's refreshing to have a Chapter of what are supposed to be humanity's finest warriors show some love for humanity!

coolyo294 wrote:Regal blue with a black wash looks pretty good.

It does, but then you get a really dark blue, like on my Crimson Fists:


It does look cool, but it's too dark for Ultramarines.

Go for it, the Smurfs get alot of flak, but thats just because we love em.



the Greco/roman thing they have is pretty cool although somehow I have always imagined them being Scottish.

can you just imagine Calgar raising his fist to the sky and shouting "FOR McCRAGGE LADDIES, forward and squash the little beasties wots fixing ta eat your omeland"

I think the reason we think they are Scottish is because of the UK voice actors.

Yeah. There was a time when I would have rather played any army other than Space Marines, and the variant chapter codexes aggravated me to no end (they still kindof do), but I have only seen one other person in my entire time of playing this game actually play Vanilla Space Marines, and it was a homebrewed chapter that looked kindof like the White Consuls. I figure as long as I keep playing people who are somewhat competitive, I'll almost never see Ultramarines.

Oh, plus, Vanilla Marines get Artillery. Artillery always dies easy (particularly with eldar) but the Thunderfire Cannon has some insane range. But what ever happened to the Tarantula turret? I see it all the time in the video games.

Tarantulas haven't been in the codex since Codex Imperialis back in 2nd edition. It's unfortunate, because they're kinda cool. There are still Forgeworld rules and models for them though. The Thunderfire is awesome, if fragile, and the whirlwind is decidedly underwhelming. Vindicators are where it's at.

I've always loved artillery in games (which is why if I did IG I'd be loaded with mortars and Basilisks) and emplacements. It's a real shame that the Whirlwind sucks, because I like the concept of the incendiary rounds. I've had a hard time adapting to Eldar mobility. I'm getting there. But frankly, I'm starting to really get interested in the fact that you can get marines that do pretty much everything (except get a squad full of power weapons cheaply like you can with Howling Banshees).

Half the units have invul saves, deep strike mishaps become easy to avoid, the vehicles are significantly harder to slow down, and once you split squads, you have to kill two very seperate elements to get a kill point (...right?).

Frankly, I love standards, banners and guidons. That's why my homebrew eldar craftworld is loaded with pennants. I just think a little bit of plastic makes your guys look a LOT cooler and flashy. Plus the art on the standards is awesome. I only hope my painting skills are up to the task.

How normal is it to stick to the predetermined chapter's companie layouts? I.E., you know a standard company has so-and-so captain, sergeants, and vehicles. 10 companies total. So how flexible is it to do your own thing? Or is the best way to do that is to make your own sergeants and team members and stick with the pre-named captains and such?

EDIT: I may also go air-assault. I know Blood Angels can drop squads in mid-flight and I was wondering if you could do the same with Thunderhawks.

Thunderhawks are Apocalypse only so I can't speak on them.

Running an army as a typical tactical company would be REALLY expensive, points and money wise. Easily a 3000 point army. It's very flexible to do your own thing; there's no limitations beyond FOC slots you need to fill.

Combat squads are worth one killpoint EACH. Never run them in killpoints games. Great for objectives though.