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I was wondering what loyalist space marine founding chapters are the most uncommon. What do you least come across? I'm leaving out the 'common' chapters in the poll. I have never seen an Iron Hands, White Scars, Salamanders or Raven guard army. Does anyone play with them?

HenryH wrote:I was wondering what loyalist space marine founding chapters are the most uncommon. What do you least come across? I'm leaving out the 'common' chapters in the poll. I have never seen an Iron Hands, White Scars, Salamanders or Raven guard army. Does anyone play with them?

Umm... Salamanders? Uncommon?

I'll say White Scars, simply because an army entirely in white is excruciatingly hard to pull off well.

White scars, and imperial fist are very hard to paint, so people tend to avoid them. I play Raven guard, and know about 4 other players at my local store. I know 2 salamanders players. The store manager has a imperial fist army. But I would say Crimson fist are really uncommon

I'd say White Scars, have yet to see any around in my local area at all.

I've seen everything but a raven guard player.

Has anyone ever seen and Irob Hands force. They even have a tac squad themselves. But the amount of conversion work required must turn people off.

White Scars gets the players who want to run an all bike army.

Salamanders actually had their own rules for a while (I believe it was in Codex: Armageddon). And, I still see plenty of those armies.

Iron Hands and Imperial Fists are somewhat rarer, but I've seen both before.

Raven Guard, though... I don't know if I've ever seen a Raven Guard army. Having to get the special helmets for them would be a pain, and their paint scheme is really similar to Black Templar (which are much more popular) and their playstyle has been basically usurped by Blood Angels.



Edit: Wait... Iron Hands... Sorry, I was confused. Yeah, I've definitely never seen an Iron Hands army.

I've seen a lot of Salamanders, and even White Scars....but I've never seen Raven Guard. If I played SM's I'd probably play them though, just because they seem so rare.

Got Salamanders, Raven Guard, Iron Hands and a white scar based bike army myself, just went with Black Templars instead of Imperial fists because of the pain that is yellow.

Salamanders got a bit attention since C: armageddon featured them and shouldn't be the rarest. Plus BL support. Plus FW support.
Decals. A SC that wasn't unwelcome when C: SM hit. As common as UM around here.
Raven Guard suffered from no decals/special bitz and a modus operandi that is hard to translate to the TT. I know a few RG, but they may be rare as 40k is a worldwide hobby.
Iron Hands got screwed with almost no support, except the still available conversion pack in its form of a Tac squad plus metal bionics.
I'd guess they are the most uncommon.
White Scars may lack the fluff support of others, but had a bike squad kit and a few 'all bike army' fans. As a white army, not so common, plus the bikes aren't cheap ( until you get a few ravenwing boxes and they become affordable ). Never seen any in person, thus another uncommon
chapter for me.
Imperial fists had a Imperial fists force once and the IF upgrades were one of the few upgrades directly sold by GW. The yellow scheme may have reduced possible recruts, a lot. Seen them just once in person. Third in my list of uncommon, going by the OP's choice of chapters.

Looks like:
- Iron Hands
- White Scars
- Imperial Fists
- Raven Guard
- Salamanders

I'm surprised Salamanders are here. I've found them to be pretty common.

Local game store:

White Scars: 1
Salamanders: 2
Raven Guard: 2
Imperial Fists: 0
Iron Hands: 0

I have seen an Imperial Fists army, about 2,500 points. Never seen an Iron Hands in person.

To add to the lists of not seen often:

Lamenters (Blood Angels successor)

Salamanders are a very common Marine army. I've seen far more of them this edition than Ultramarines or any other Marine army save Space Wolves. Imperial Fists aren't too rare either. Iron Hands were much more common last edition, but they're just really underutilized in the actual Space Marine codex, where there is literally a single picture of an Iron Hands Sternguard Marine and one tiny color plate of one Marine and some threadbare fluff. Raven Guard aren't too common, but Forgeworld makes awesome models for them so they at least have some support. I'd say White Scars are the rarest since white is hard as hell to paint well.

I personally wouldn't ever start Raven Guard or Iron Hands, since Marines in black armor tend to be very boring to paint. Even so, if I were to do a Marine army in predominantly black armor, it would be Black Templars.

Hahaha, actually in my lil brother's gaming group of 7, we have a raven guard player, a salamanders player, a crimson fist player, an imperial fist player, black templars, blood angels and Space Wolves, and then me with my Dark Angels.

I have yet to see an Iron Hands force, but I have seen a White Scars at the FLGS.

I love the Salamanders, but they're pretty much the most common distinct first founding Chapter. The Iron Hands are the only first founding Chapter with no way to make them distinct (no special Codex, no special characters) which makes them the clear winner here, in my opinion. I've at least seen one of all the other options here. I've never seen an Iron Hands army fielded.

I think its the lack of fluff and the conversion work.involved.


Salamanders get a lot of keep up from Vulkan.

Never seen Iron Hands or White Scars, I think when I was asked by someone if I was ever to play a Space Marine chapter, I answered Iron Hands, he had no clue who I was talking about. Honestly, for a 1st Founding legion these guys get very little attention.

If I had one wish for the 6th ed Marine dex it would be a solid page of insight for EACH LOYALIST MARINE FIRST FOUNDING CHAPTER. Well, maybe just a half page for the chapters with codecies, but really there is no reason why 2nd and 3rd founding chapters get more press than ones that used to be LEGIONS. So disappointing. I'm trying to quell the urge to make up Imperial Fists, myself...

I would want to see more Dark Angels out there. They certiantly aren't the most underused chapter though

Nagashek wrote:If I had one wish for the 6th ed Marine dex it would be a solid page of insight for EACH LOYALIST MARINE FIRST FOUNDING CHAPTER. Well, maybe just a half page for the chapters with codecies, but really there is no reason why 2nd and 3rd founding chapters get more press than ones that used to be LEGIONS. So disappointing. I'm trying to quell the urge to make up Imperial Fists, myself...

Agreed. The more we hear about the 'lesser know' founding chapters the better. I'm sure if they had cool backstories a lot more people would want to collect them.

Vulkan He'stan makes the salamanders more popular than ever before... his ridiculous OP ability to re roll pretty much most of that armies shooting is a magnet for SM Vanilla players....

I have NEVER seen a Whtie Scars army even after they got some love back in 3E.... Too hard to paint. White and Red ugh...

Nagashek wrote:If I had one wish for the 6th ed Marine dex it would be a solid page of insight for EACH LOYALIST MARINE FIRST FOUNDING CHAPTER. Well, maybe just a half page for the chapters with codecies, but really there is no reason why 2nd and 3rd founding chapters get more press than ones that used to be LEGIONS. So disappointing. I'm trying to quell the urge to make up Imperial Fists, myself...

You would have to give the same press to the Crimson Fists thpugh. They were featured on the cover of RT. They were on the cover of a battleforce. Its only.right...

Personally I just really like the salamander fluff. In the grim dark future, someone to actually help the little guy tends to stand out as something special.

I've actually seen an Iron Hands army if that helps.

Really, if I was going to go for an underused chapter, I wouldn't be looking at first founding chapters at all. While some are more uncommon than others, they tend to be the most popular Marine chapters.

I'd be looking at chapters Forgeworld have fleshed out - Raptors, Minotaurs, Space Sharks, Lamenters and Red Scorpions among others. The bonus here is not only do you get a bunch of fluff in an IA book for them, you also get detailed information on their insignia, combat preferences, etc, and, if you want to spend a bit more money, lots of conversion packs for these chapters.

You're looking at using a vanilla Marine force anyway, and these fit right in. Plus if you end up playing against people who will allow Forgeworld stuff, you have a wide range of characters you can include depending on who you go with (like Commander Culln and Tyberos the Red Wake).

Oppressor wrote:
Umm... Salamanders? Uncommon?

True Salamanders are - Ultrasmurfs with Hulkan Vest'an is probably more popular.

Raven guard are so so. Iron hands deffo underrepresented.

Phototoxin wrote:
True Salamanders are - Ultrasmurfs with Hulkan Vest'an is probably more popular.

What does this even mean? Marine armies with Vulkan's rules and a different paintscheme? If not then I have no clue what you're trying to say.

Brother SRM wrote:

Phototoxin wrote:
True Salamanders are - Ultrasmurfs with Hulkan Vest'an is probably more popular.

What does this even mean? Marine armies with Vulkan's rules and a different paintscheme? If not then I have no clue what you're trying to say.

Well since they took away traits and instead made special characters the key to changing the way a codex marine force plays, people use the special characters in the codex with whatever army.

Brother SRM wrote:

Phototoxin wrote:
True Salamanders are - Ultrasmurfs with Hulkan Vest'an is probably more popular.

What does this even mean? Marine armies with Vulkan's rules and a different paintscheme? If not then I have no clue what you're trying to say.

That's what he's saying. Like, you have an Ultramarine army heavy on the thunder hammers, meltas and flamers, so you take a blue Vulkan.