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Hey y'all. I play 99% 40k, but I have played a few games of fantasy and I frequent my club on fantasy day even though I don't play to talk with my friends and because it's literally two doors from my house, so why not on a Wednesday night?

What I've observed is interesting regarding army composition. In fantasy the armies trend towards whatever's best at the time and whatever's newest, but not heavily. There's a very large variety of armies. New players pick their favorite traditional fantasy race and go.

On 40k nights, the same trends apply, but much more heavily is the trend towards playing space marine armies (be it marines, wolves, etc) and new players almost exclusively go marine and switch when they get bored.

This can largely be attributed to the fact that the marine is clearly the posterboy of 40k: in the starter set, on the rulebook, on the posters, video games, etc. Some would argue that's a problem and that 40k would benefit from a more balanced approach, while others argue that an easy to learn and relatively inexpensive army is a good leaping off point that gets more people into the hobby.

So what do you think, dakka? Would 40k be improved by a few ork/eldar posters? Chaos daemons clashing with tyranids? Or is the space marine where he should be: a functional balanced race providing a new players a leaping off point as well as old hands a tactically flexible force?

Marines are where they are for good reason. They're relatable enough because they're still somewhat human, are more or less the "good guys" compared to monstrous devouring aliens and literal daemons, and fulfill enough adolescent power fantasies that a lot of players will like them. You said it yourself though; they're an easy to learn and relatively inexpensive army that makes for a good foray into the game.

Personally I'd love to see more matchups in the fluff, artwork, WD, and what have you, but Marines are pretty cool. I can understand why GW would want to keep Marines as a central focus because marketing benefits from consistency.

Space marines are aristocrats. They're the social elite going off to war, which has been a recurring theme in western culture since ancient Greek times (ἀριστοκρατία) when the rich were the only ones who could afford the tools nessesary for war.

It carried on throughout medieval times with knights. So yeah, I can't see that changing any time soon, even though I would love to see a blob IG vs blob IG starter set

One of my friends that just started 40k is a perfect example to why SM are where they are. He fell HARD in love with Chaos Deamons, got an army and got killed constantly, never even came close to winning. Then he got a contingent of CSM...and all of a sudden, well look at that, he hits on threes, wounds on threes, saves on threes.... why he has a fighting chance!

Space Marines (for the most part) are easy mode...then you can move up. I did. I went from CSM to Nids to BA, then GK, and now I have Dark Eldar, Eldar and Nids...exclusive Xenos because I WANT a challenge.

Marines tend to be easy to learn, mid-tier or better on the competitive ladder, cheaper to buy, and easier to paint than other armies; that's the reason you run into so many Marine players. Fantasy doesn't work that way, armies bounce around competitively more frequently, and they're all about as expensive to buy and difficult to paint.

I got started the hard way with an Eldar army, but it was a massive relief to get to my Dark Angels and find that I could finish a model with three coats of paint, a bit of detailing, and some decals. Eldar squads were projects of weeks or months, Dark Angel squads were projects of days.

Easy to paint, easy to play and low model count. You always know what you're getting when the new codex comes out (444 3+), their weapons never change, and they will never ever be nerfed. Being the badass hero man in oversized armor that is better than everyone else is the teen boy's dream come true.

Everyone knows derpmode sells, look how easy video games have gotten in the past couple decades.