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I'm about to begin my very first 40K army and I think it's down to normal SM or space wolves.
Would any one of them lend itself to a new comer more than the other?

SMs seem a bit more friendly to paint for a newcomer and suit custom schemes a bit more but SWs are just cool.

Wrong section bro

Vanilla marines!!

TH3FALL3N wrote:Vanilla marines!!

Lol why so?

Go with the one that you find most visually appealing.

Personally, vikings in space have done it for me.

Gonna move this to the 40k general board.....

The nice thing about "Vanilla" Marines is that you can make them uniquely your own. All the other main chapters require you to follow someone else's design lead, however you might customize them.

Your own chapter can have whatever character you wish them to have. I'm still waiting for someone to use the SM codex to make a nice looking Red Corsair force like in the "old days", with the X's over the chapter symbols, the eclectic mix of chapter heraldry, and everything.

Hell, I have an entire army of Codex marines painted as Legion of the Damned, before they got fully revealed as the Fire Hawks, just because I loved the opportunity to paint every figure as an individual.

reds8n wrote:Gonna move this to the 40k general board.....

Sorry I'm new, need to familiarise myself with the forum better

Space wolves are strong and have a great model range now appart from a few 2nd ed IC''s that need updates, if you like the fluff i'd say go with them.

Vanilla marines do have one advantage atm, they can take flyers where SW cant, if you play with people that let you use forgeworld stuff its not a big issue but if not vanilla marines will find it easier to tackle flyer heavy lists.

I would recommend Space Wolves over Codex SM. IMO there are a wider variety of different things you can do with SW over C:SM.

It depends on whether you're looking for mechanical advantages or are more concerned with fluff and style. If you gravitate towards the former, then the SW would seem to be an obvious choice. If you think the latter is equally or more important ... well, some people think the Wolves are a bit too "edgy" and "special", others love them particularly because of that. And, as pointed out above, Vanilla Marines would allow you to do a fully customized Chapter with an original background, or adopt one of the lesser known official ones. Both would make you stand out more than being "SW player #312986" at your local club.

Well..... is there any reason I can't really do custom SWs?

I know there's not much room in the official fluff for successor chapters etc

But what's to stop my buying SWs, painting them (all the following is just for example, not actually what I am thinking about doing) bright orange and calling them "the snow puppies" and saying they was some wolves that got lost and ended up as their own company - then just field them under SW codex rules?

Whats to stop you? all SW players everywhere!!!!

You can have a none codex great company, patrols get lost in the warp from time to time and get drawn away from their home segmentum as they recieve pleas from help that stop them returning to rearm and recruit.

But they dont have the facility to make new SW so you'd have a max 120 men that would dwindle over time untill your destroyed or return to fenris.

hobojebus wrote:Whats to stop you? all SW players everywhere!!!!

You can have a none codex great company, patrols get lost in the warp from time to time and get drawn away from their home segmentum as they recieve pleas from help that stop them returning to rearm and recruit.

But they dont have the facility to make new SW so you'd have a max 120 men that would dwindle over time untill your destroyed or return to fenris.

Cool ok

I suppose for my own "private" back story I can just say something like they happened to get lost with a bunch of stuff needed to make new marines or something.
(Painting and displaying the models for my own enjoyment with custom made scenery is 75% of the reason I am getting into this, playing the game is secondary).
Or maybe they DO make supply trips to Fenris and they are a resent rediscovered company. Whatever, as long as I can do with them whatever I fancy and still play them AS SWs then that's fine.

What is it about the SW that you like? The models, rules or the story?

If it's just the story stick with vanilla marines.

You have a much wider range of models with vanilla and can really create your own themed army.

My first marine army was cream colored with shadow grey and silver everywhere.

Codex:Armageddon came out and they became Black Templars with a few new models and bits swaps.

Codex:Space Wolves (Andy Chambers Edition) came out and I just had to buy a few characters.

I was able to use the models as 3 different armies for quite a few years.

Do whatever you like, it's your army and you are the one putting work into it. My buddy has a "successor" chapter of space wolves he calls the Blood Pack and painted them black with red trim. Currently the space wolf codex is stronger but I think the vanilla marines have more variety.

You can paint them up however you like and use the Space Wolf rules. This happens all the time in this hobby.

A friend of mine painted up his own Space Wolf army as Storm Wardens from the Deathwatch RPG who have a very scottish theme about them.

Be prepared for the occasional random person who will hate on the usage of SW rules for none SW armies.

I get crap all the time about playing an all bike army with my Imperial Fists, a chapter supposedly known for their siege craft, and I just ignore it.

Go for the Wolves.

The nice thing about "Vanilla" Marines is that you can make them uniquely your own. All the other main chapters require you to follow someone else's design lead, however you might customize them.

You are not really penalized for changing main chapter armies as well. It is your codex. Your models. Your paint.

If your Blood angel army is painted camo green it still counts as a Blood Angel army. Since 2006 I have never seen anyone being disqualified in a tournament because of painting your army what you want to paint it in my region.

And if people get too snooty about, you do not want to game with them in the first place.

SW and SM have certain advantages over each other.

I lean towards SW but I got a real nasty SM army as well.

I was thinkning of using all Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard models and Space Wolves rules, just to keep them guessing.

Play Space Wolves if you like crutches and short learning curves.

Codexes come and go, meta shifts and there will be always be the Next Big Thing.
Pick an army you like the look of.
Maybe you love the look of the Space Wolf models. Maybe you've seen some of the ForgeWorld space marine characters. Maybe you've got a really great idea for a homebrew chapter.
You'll have more enjoyment from the hobby if you collect models that appeal to you and paint them a colour that suites your aesthetic


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and as a Space Wolves player of over 20 years, I don't mind if you use different models and/or a different colour scheme and play Codex Space Wolves. Hell just say they're a successor chapter whose details were deleted from imperial records if you can't think of a better reason.
Personally, it was the models and Space Vikings theme that got me in, but you're free to take from the hobby what you will

TH3FALL3N wrote:Vanilla marines!!

This. I do have both armies, but I must say for this question from a new player, van marines are much better to start with.

DeffDred wrote:What is it about the SW that you like? The models, rules or the story?

If it's just the story stick with vanilla marines.

You have a much wider range of models with vanilla and can really create your own themed army.

It's the fact that SWs are basically Vikings, and I am keen on vikings, I like all the wolf pelts etc and the back story is cool.

Before I had a clue about 40K I'd have gone right for CSM based on the models but the basic back story to all the Chaos guys just doesn't do anything for me. At all.



Regular Marines are starting to appeal more to me though just on the number of models available.

Tyranids are gonna be my "B Team" for sure, the army I just add to as and when I find a bargain etc.