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Why do you play precisely Space Marines? What do you like in this faction and why?

Before I stopped playing 40k, I was a Space Marine player solely because I enjoyed Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and GW's Space Marines were the closest approximation to the Mobile Infantry.

Several reasons. First of all they were the first GW miniatures I ever saw and nostalgia is a powerful thing. I also adore powered armour in all forms, and Space Marines (and a few anime) had this down way before anyone else. I also like the look. The heavy armour paired with smooth curves, the evolution of the armour design (I still adore the beaked armour).

They are also fun to paint, convert and play with, without being horribly complex. having said that, I am taking a break from marines after my current project is done. I am keen to have a go at something different. And orks are very, very different!

I play Black Templars because they are just pure space crusaders and their crusades, I can make great conversions with them, their colours are easy and I'm the only person in my local area who does them. I wanted to make a difference at my local GW because all space marine players there are ultra's or blood angels and I got sick of the sight of them. I love the emperors champion he has killed many HQ for me and I'm very happy.

I started playing marines in 1989, the Imperial space marine box set was £9.99 for 30 marines. I think it was a combination of cost effectiveness and the fantastic art work in RT, in particular the page of chapter colours. I was hooked and have never looked back.

StarShade wrote:I started playing marines in 1989, the Imperial space marine box set was £9.99 for 30 marines. I think it was a combination of cost effectiveness and the fantastic art work in RT, in particular the page of chapter colours. I was hooked and have never looked back.

Here here! Those old pics were fantastic, with the 'last stand' images of the Crimson Fists...

I actually have a box of those old plastics knocking about...may have to give them ago and blog their construction.

Mutley wrote:

StarShade wrote:I started playing marines in 1989, the Imperial space marine box set was £9.99 for 30 marines. I think it was a combination of cost effectiveness and the fantastic art work in RT, in particular the page of chapter colours. I was hooked and have never looked back.

Here here! Those old pics were fantastic, with the 'last stand' images of the Crimson Fists...

I actually have a box of those old plastics knocking about...may have to give them ago and blog their construction.

Mate I am well jealous, I had a company of Silver Skulls and all my veteran squads were made up of those old plastics. A friend of mine harassed me for years to sell it to him and eventually made an offer to good to turn down. In hindsight I wish I had kept them, a real piece of GW history.

Basically cause I got a bunch of Ultramarines extremely cheap. They have grown on me and I like the gold and blue style and the versatile units.
I guess I haven't been into 40k long enough to get as tired of them as everyone else seems to be.

Because they were my first army- although I dropped my Scars, I kept the book, which inspired me to go back and start a Fire Lords army. Because, you know, apart from the Ultrasmurf fanboying, the SM codex fluff isn't that bad.

For the EMPEROR!

Was given Space Marines from the starter box, bought the SM and DA codex shortly there after, played them ever since.

I wanted to play the 'default' army. After hearing several of my friends lament the fact that they hadn't had a Codex update in years, I decided I never wanted to go through that. So I picked the army that pretty much gauranteed I would always have a shiny new Codex when each new edition rolled around.

The Dawn of War 1 demo first got me interested in the 40k Warhammer setting (I regularly read the Fantasy BL books, but was mostly unaware of the miniature games, and wasn't as interested in sci-fi)

Having thoroughly enjoyed DoW, I was at the local bookstore and saw only one book obviously about Space Marines (as someone who only knew from the DoW demo, the Horus Heresy series and many other books weren't obviously Space Marine-central to me to me): The Blood Angels Omnibus by James Swallow (thanks to the bright red Space Marine on the front). It's funny because between DoW and that book, I was under the assumption the standard marine was red, and the cool alternate paint scheme would naturally be blue.

Having read those, and being hooked into the personality and brutal nobility of the SM, I started playing the actual tabletop game. And I used the BA PDF White Dwarf codex.

The rest, as they say, is history, I've collected and played BA ever since, when the actual codex came out, I was ecstatic I wouldn't have to use some print-outs with no fluff as my 'dex. (And although I love the idea of the BA being the tragic heroes, I wish for the fluff I've read, where SM are brutal, ruthlessly religious killing machines, very grimdark, where you're not quite sure they're even the good guys.)

I like Knights. I like power armor.

Space marines are knights in power armor.

I was introduced to wh40k by DOW. Really like the epicness of it. Then when winter assault came out i was more impressed by the Imperial Guard. It was a standard human army, fighting to defend other humans, all without power armor and genetics. Fast forward to Fed 2011, FLGS, i walked in ready to buy an army of space marines because every one said they where the easiest to learn. Almost started with space marines, but decided i rather play as sci fi soldiers rather then Knights in space. So i was almost a space marine player, due to the coolness factor, but wanted to play something with more character, imo.

I like the background.
The fact that they're in the AoBR box didn't help either.

A few things,

First, Marines are cool. They embody a lot of concept - Knights in space. The monastic and ascetic training regiment. They value honor and courage and direct confrontation. And they look cool. A lot of 'Marine hates' come from the fact that people are tired of seeing them, playing against them and reading about them - but to a new player, none of those things matter yet. I am personally feeling 'Marine fatigue' now, hence why I started ork.

Second, Marines are cheap. Marines have an almost full plastic range, with very few metal models left - they are one of the few army (only?) to actually have a plastic commander kit. On top of that, you get a bunch of them when you buy AoBR. And the used market for marines is also quite alive. Add that to the fact that they are a (relatively) elite army and don't need all that many models to be viable and you have an army that is rather easy on the wallet as far as those things go.

Third, Marines are kept up to date. The Marine codex is usually the first one to be remade in any given edition. As such, you are more or less guaranteed to always have a decently competitive codex. While the vanilla SM codex has taken a beating with the 5e power creep, it is still in the top half of the listing.

Fourth, Marines are interchangeable. Having a vanilla Marine army means you can easily play with the Blood Angel, Dark Angel and Black Templar codex. WYSIWIG player will grumble if you try to pass them off as space wolves (Tactical Marine are missing a chainsword to be wysiwig grey hunter), but in a lot of less competetive circle, people will also let you play with that codex... or hell, even Grey Knights! And even if people don't... you still have all those Rhinos, Razorback, Land Raiders, etc that can be used to start a SW/GK army.

I dont play marines but am looking to start a ravenguard army. Love the fluff and the characters around this particular chapter. Marines in general i feel are the underdog army and are neglected a lot. All the spotlight is pointed towards BA and space wolves and i love playing the army that no one else plays (currently playing tau). Its a versatile codex that is well written and fairly balanced.

Space romans, with huge guns, huge shields, jetpacks, powered armor, pretty armor colors that also functions as a relatively sane military force? Sign me up. Now.

I have my chaos, which I love to play as they are so versatile with tons of options.

Then I run my iron hands, which focus more on bikes and armor than my chaos, since my chaos runs mostly only infantry and a few dreads.

I started chaos after having AOBR marines left over and didn't want to ebay them. Much later, I wanted to run iron hands because I really liked bikes, landspeeders and thunderfire cannons, and iron hands are really the only chapter I enjoy, besides black templars.

Tarkand wrote:WYSIWIG player will grumble if you try to pass them off as space wolves (Tactical Marine are missing a chainsword to be wysiwig grey hunter), but in a lot of less competetive circle, people will also let you play with that codex...

Considering basic equipment doesn't need to be completely visible (Chaos Marines should all have bolters, bolt pistols and chainswords, but the box can't do it), passing them off as Grey hunters is as easy as saying 'They're Grey Hunters'.

I played eldar from the RT days until 3rd edition came out (which I hated, and didn't have time or scratch to continue).

Then a little over a year ago, when I came back to the game... I was just drawn to the UM fluff. My knowledge of historical Rome is how a make a fairly comfortable living, so it was a natural fit to do Romans in space. I can ad lib fluff as I please... can take my time painting up and entire 2nd Company, and bask in low expectations every time I field my smurfs (which have done fairly well... see my sig).

I also had trended from elves to paladins in RPGs... and I while I see the GK as too ruthless to be the paladins of the IoM, Ultramar, the Warrior Kings of Ultramar, and the Fortress of Macragge seemed like the perfect paladin fit, IMHO

BT, because people always poo-pooed the DA (emo marines, bath robe marines, etc) which were my first love.

So I chose BT so I wouldn't get made fun of.

I regret it sometimes...

I was a fan of Space Crusade.. well, still am. But anyways, I liked them in Space Crusade and later on in Space Hulk. That's how I wanted to have SM as for my 1st army.

I Love the space wolves, The fluff is amazing and i just like the mentality of the guys, awesome space vikings.

Because Blood Ravens are awesome!

I began playing space wolves because I have an Alaskan malamute and she's like a wolf especially if you go for her food lol

They were in the starter set, 'nuff said. (I originally wanted to start with Tau, though im glad I didn't)

Why marines? Well:

1. I love their guns. Boltguns, bolt pistols, heavy bolters, storm bolters... I just love the way they look. And converting them a bit to look modified is not too hard.

2. The rhino chassis. I like it. Looks good in my opinnion and the army is full of different kind of tanks using the chassis. The predator with it's autocannon is the best looking tank in the game (in my opinnion).

3. You can field a small force against hordes of enemies. I think that kind of games are fun.

There is just one problem. I absolutely HATE power armor. My army is mainly built from scouts. I am using models with power armor but am thinking of converting a captain and possibly a command squad out of scouts. Heavy scout armor or something.

I started playing Nids form Battle for Macragge, and had the Tac Squad. I thought why not? Painted them as Enchanted Blue and ASunburts yellow Ultras. Luckily I was saved/liberated by reading DoW 2 by Chris Roberson. I know have 4500ish points of Blood Ravens. And 200 points of Blood Angels in the form of a Stormraven, plus about 1200pts of GK in the form of Draigo, because I love the model. A vindicare for the rules, and LRR, LRC and Rhino and Razorback and Stormraven from marines.