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Honestly, I've never seen them really get any in the grand scheme of things. IG can help as much as they want but the marines will always be the ones in the spotlight getting hailed as heroes of the imperium. Perhaps I've missed the moments IG -does- get credit for winning a battle without throwing near infinite numbers of meatbags at the enemy, does anyone here know of any? I am genuinely interested.

Lol, I like the picture.

That said, 99% of the Imperium's wars are won by the Imperial Guard/Navy, without ever seeing a single Space Marine. The Astartes make an appearance in a minority of conflicts and take a central role in even fewer.

The SM's just happen to be the main characters so they get all the "screen time" as it were.

Perhaps the greatest recognition or reward a Imeprial Guard regiment can receive is the gift of a entire planet to colonise and rule - this happens in the fluff, in BL novels as well.

There are also quite frequent references to great parades, statues and other commerative recognitions of the sacrifice of the guardsmen in the service of the Emperor.

They also get all the "screen time" in-universe. After countless battles and millions of casualties, a single squad of SPACE MARINES appears and save the world / win the war by attacking a single position and taking a relic nobody ever heard of. And the event is described as another victory for the glorious SPACE MARINES.

Given that they usually ignore the chain of command, this vision is probably not shared by the guardsmen.

According to propaganda, they are the "angels of death", sent by God himself, the Emperor. They are his grandsons.

 da001 wrote:
According to propaganda, they are the "angels of death", sent by God himself, the Emperor. They are his grandsons.

I like how they played with this idea in the Space Marine video game.

Mira: I suppose space marines are human after all.
Titus: More than you can imagine Mira...

 Lord Spartacus wrote:

 da001 wrote:
According to propaganda, they are the "angels of death", sent by God himself, the Emperor. They are his grandsons.

I like how they played with this idea in the Space Marine video game.

Mira: I suppose space marines are human after all.
Titus: More than you can imagine Mira...

D'oh how I wish Space Marine got a sequel, bleh, why'd THQ have to go blunder all their money on the uDraw tablet?!

OT: You all raise good points, I've always suspected that most citizens and soldiers borderline revere marines, they're practically demi-gods if we consider the emperor as a godly being (as he often is).

Yeah I think this is more of a central figure problem. Say the IG saves a planet; who do honor? The commander? The bureaucrat that authorized deployment? The Ordos Inquisitor who strong armed them to deploy and then identified the real threat (not that his identity isn't sometimes a secret)? Or the grandson of a god who showed up and did something heroic?

Most of those choices would destabilized the IoM by giving to much power to a single individual who can be politically active. The space marine is prohibited from being part of the political process and he is a heroic center point by just being astartes. The IG usually get rewards and some parades and sometimes central individuals get recognition but the astartes are better focal points for the populace.

This is not to mention that if the astartes were not heroes then they would probably be viewed as dangerous abominations who are a step from killing all the puny humans. They are after all more alien to most humans than many of the xenos.

Imperial Propaganda appreciates the Imperial Guard, at least. That's why they're nicknamed The Sledgehammer of the Emperor (meant to be a complement), and the opening to the Siege of Vraks describes the Kriegsmen who sacrificed their lives as strong and other generally complementary terms.

Whether or not that's actually sincerely the case for the higher up human individuals varies from commander to commander. We never get to see things from the High Lords' point of view so we don't know if the highest up people appreciate them. Presumably this is on purpose so you can choose your own fluff in that regard.

As pointed out, every once in a while Imperial Guard regiments do get rewarded with an entire planet if the situation arises, so there's actually hope for a generally "Happily Ever After" for them, albeit rare (new uncolonized planets don't pop up often).

It is never really individual commendation, certainly at the platoon/dogface level though some commanders and generals will rock a whole chest of medals, so clearly somebody somewhere is getting a solid pat on the back.

Most of the Imperial Guard's battles are against rogue planets within the Imperium. And when the rebellious Planetary Governor (or whoever overthrew him) and his army are defeated and the planet is won back into the Imperium, generally the commander of the IG army that beat them is made at least a temporary governor, with the remnants of his army as a personal bodyguard and planetary defense force. So if nothing else they get a year or so of lavish treatment by a newly returned world until the gears of bureaucracy grind full circle and a new planetary governor is elected and they're sent off to a new conflict.

Lord Solar Macharius and his Crusade

LordSolar wrote:
Lord Solar Macharius and his Crusade

Pretty weird there's not that much stuff about him considering his great achievements.

I wonder why Space Marines make so many people butthurt on this forum.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
I wonder why Space Marines make so many people butthurt on this forum.

Well, I hate to rage (I love to rage), but:


EDIT: They deserve their being Baledrake'd

So basically people hate them because they're popular.

I knew that already. I was looking for a good reason.

Because the Gaunt's Ghost series is the best selling 40K series in the Black Library, and is all about Gary Stu Gaunt and his Gary Stu Ghosts beating up everything.

Space Marine codices despite being popular have almost never been better than "slightly above average" on the power-scale, compared to the lulzy OP arms race we've gotten from the Xenos armies this edition.

The butthurt seems very silly.

The real reason Marines tend to get the credit when they show up is because within a few days after they arrive the battle that may have lasted years is over because of an assassination raid by the marines has killed off all of the enemy high command. This may not be the case every time the marines win but that is what they are suppose to be doing. The is a line in the deathwatch rpg book about how marines win the battles that win the wars that win crusades all at once. No since marine chapter has the resources to take and hold a singe earth population planet. They could however kill everyone that would organize the battle on the enemy side and wait for a guard force to show up an spend years mopping up. The guard does most of the fighting in the universe, wins most of the battles and take most of the planets well the Marines make it possible by doing that once battle to stop a counterattack or destroy the command structure. And as has been said if the guard can win back a planet for Humanity they have a chance of being let loose from the guard to settle and hold it. This doesn't have to be a uncolonized world just one not part of the Imperium. It also doesn't help that to most people Marines are very much divine angels to the God Empra and are therefor something to be worshiped or at least praised.