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So as the title says I would also add power armor and terminator armor? I remember
in fall of damnos a terminator was running along side a space marine and he had to be
left behind because he was to slow.

We all know terms are slower I was just wondering on the general speeds between the two

Depends on how high you roll.

But seriously, because of their large size, their stride must be fairly large as well. I would say they probably top out about 1.5x an Olympic Sprinter, once you figure in stride size and power, given the force amplification bonuses of PA

Well aren't they olympic athletes already?

They also don't have any balls to get in the way of their strides so this is something that should be taken into account.

According to the Black Crusade rulebook (don't know if this lines up with other 40k RPGs) they move 120m per minute, so like 2 meters a second.

7 KM/h then.

By that figure Space Marines are pretty slow compared to an Athlete.

I think that might just be striding pace to be honest.

Well, a "supersonic" plane in 40K at maximum speed moves 36" a turn. Supersonic is defined as > 343 m/s (1.125 ft/s)

A Raven Guard Marine can move 18" a turn max (6" move, 6" run, 6" charge). So it must be > 171 m/s (562 ft/s).

Medium of Death wrote:7 KM/h then.

By that figure Space Marines are pretty slow compared to an Athlete.

I think that might just be striding pace to be honest.

Indeed, that's very slow. Most able people can run at 11/12mph (18kph?) or faster, and the top sprinters at twice that. Perhaps 7kph is the speed of a marine when they're wearing kitted out TDA?

It's supposed to be very fast, so fast it causes Transhuman Shock in regular mortals or something along those lines.

Basically because something so big shouldn't be able to move so fast, in Armour at least.

It varies in accounts though.

Marines can move fast. Probably not Olympic runner fast but definitly above average and they can sustain their running for long periods of time.

PA actually increases their strength and doesn't slow them down at all so it can be ignored.

TDA is slower but as far as speed it is probably still pretty dang fast from a normal humans perspective. a marine in PA may leave him behind but he could still easily outrun a human.


The 7 KM/h is most certaintly just their walking pace. I have about a 1 meter stride just walking normally, which would be about 1 meter a second, and I could easily speed that up with no difficulty. a 2 meter stride would sound plausable for a marine.

Thing is Marines are 7' 6' 'to 8' 6'' in height. Imagine how big their stride length is (the distance from heel to toe when they take a pace). Their power armour is like a second skin to them, so that won't slow them down much (except in terms of air resistance to the bulk).

In my opinion an Astartes running flat out will run faster, even in their armour, than the fastest human athlete could manage. I reckon they would also be able to keep up such a pace for hours on end and still be fresh to fight the enemy where as a human would be too beat to stand/deadfrom sheer exhaustion.

I'm guessing a 2.5-3 meter stride for a marine. Thats walking at a quick pace, not just slowly plodding along talking to someone.

All that really matters is that they can run faster then you. So be respectful.

IIRC studio fluff has never really addressed this.

Some novels have though.

Apparently the Space Wolf novels have Marines keeping pace with tanks, and I recall Prospero Burns showing Bjorn outrunning what I think was his ship (Almost assuredly not at full speed mind you).

Marines are faster than one might think. It has been fairly consistent in fluff that some Marines are capable of bullet-timing, dodging or blocking projectiles and gak.

They are faster than any non-psyker human, but I would say slower than an Eldar.

You gotta remember, table top speed, and fluff speed are two completely seperate things.

A marine fluff wise can move so quickly as to appear "To be a blur" of motion to a normal human, moving quickly enough to outrun people with heavy weapons attempting to track them.

Sprinting, they are insanely fast, given a 2-3 meter stride, I'd imagine they could leisurely stroll 10-11 MPH. Running, I'd imagine they could push that to 20+
just my two cents

Well didn't Usain bolt run at 23mph?

Faster than a JimmyJohn's delivery guy, that's for sure.

In Prospero Burns, the SW were observed to be moving fast enough as to appear to be a blur to the enhanced skjald. This was in battle, but other accounts in the same book have them moving pretty damn quick, fast enough to avoid some humans firing at them.

Brother Ramses wrote:In Prospero Burns, the SW were observed to be moving fast enough as to appear to be a blur to the enhanced skjald. This was in battle, but other accounts in the same book have them moving pretty damn quick, fast enough to avoid some humans firing at them.

Indeed.

Prospero Burns is by no means the only account either, Lucius was very much capable of avoiding gun-fire while moving during combat in Galaxy of Flames, and Argel Tal managed to move quick enough to run a few meters so that he was between Lorgar, his Primarch, and a Custodian to block bolter rounds that were fired at Lorgar, doing this after the Custodian fired.

Kill team gave Space Marines a 3 metre stride from a standing start. 5 Metres IIRC from Angels of Darkness (or it might be the other way around) although we dont know how many strides they take in a given instant (i'm also not sure that he wouldn't be half running half leaping from step to step at that pace.)

A CSM in 'Emperor's Mercy' could run at least at 40 kph, and could keep pace with a Centaur, although those were straight line speeds and momentum meant they couldn't match the turning abilities of the centaur. In Wolf's Honour Space Marines covered 3 km in 3 minutes, which is ~60 kph, although later on they could do a 'forced march' of 100 km in 7 hours which is a fraction of that. So we have to bear in mind that a.) there's a difference betwene speed from a standing start and sustained running, as well as striaght line vs turning (EG more a matter of acceleration there.) and b.) there's a difference between short distance runs and longer distance movement (probably more an issue of endurance and strain on the armour - even Space Marines have limits in those regard.)

There's also likely a stealth component to it - running at automobile speeds, while possible is likely to put some strain on the body or armour (which can probably be healed, but in some cases this might not be a good thing or hamper them in other ways.) and even if it doesn't they're likely to be expending far more energy, which also means more heat that the armour has to dump both from itself and from the marine's own body.

Just put him in front of a Tyranid horde and watch the coward run

If its an angry marine, then they will always run faster than the enemy

Not sure if its canon, but in the game space arine they run quite slowly

cdc500 wrote:Not sure if its canon, but in the game space arine they run quite slowly

considering their stride, they were much faster than a normal person. I did like how loud their running was in the game tough, definitely not stealthy.

They run D6 =]

As fast as Matt Ward tells them to run.

jonolikespie wrote:According to the Black Crusade rulebook (don't know if this lines up with other 40k RPGs) they move 120m per minute, so like 2 meters a second.

Just to put that into context - Usain Bolt ran 100m in less than 10 seconds in 2009 (he secured a new world record of 9.58) and the others weren't that far behind him...

I think marines are fast, but speed isn't their best point, its their power.

I think they would be faster than a sprinter, based on height, length of stride speed of reflexes and strength without PA.

With PA I would say possibly the same or slightly slower but still motoring along. 20mph would seem not unreasonable for a marine in Powered armour, 2 hearts, enhanced blood and organs and a super constitution for days on end. Top Sprinters are fast but only only for a short period.

23.35 mph or 37.578 km/h is Usain's speed for the 9.58. Pretty awesome, a Marine can do that consistently barely breaking a sweat.