Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Which are your Top 3 original space marine chapters (The 18 originals) and which are your bottom 3? You can, if you don't want to be seen as a heretic, choose a chapter pre-heresy.

For me the top 3 are:
1. Alpha legion, or are they my least favourite...
2. Thousand sons, gotta love a little bit o' sorcery
3. Emperors children, mmmmm... That cult was amazing...

Bottom 3:
1. Space wolves, cause muh Prospero and muh Angron
2. Ultramarines, BLAND
3. Black legion, not enough heresy (or too much)

What about you?

My fav are Crimson fists.

Ultramarines aren't OG in my mind, never will were, never will be! Ruddy third founding chapter!

 Baldeagle91 wrote:
My fav are Crimson fists.

Ultramarines aren't OG in my mind, never will were, never will be! Ruddy third founding chapter!

Crimson fists are nice but they are also a successor chapter, NOT OG ENOUGH! You can have imperial fists though.

In order:

Top Favorite-
1) Space Wolves, I'm quite a fan of them
2)Emperors Children, love the colours and the models
3) Death Guard

Least favorite-
1) Ultramarines, there is literally nothing I hate more in the entire universe of 40k than Ultramarines.
2) Dark Angels, just not a fan and it's hard to put my finger on why
3) Black Legion, boring

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Baldeagle91 wrote:
My fav are Crimson fists.

Ultramarines aren't OG in my mind, never will were, never will be! Ruddy third founding chapter!

Crimson fists are nice but they are also a successor chapter, NOT OG ENOUGH! You can have imperial fists though.

They're on the cover of the first edition of 40k. They´re more OG than everybody else combined!

 Gargantuan wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Baldeagle91 wrote:
My fav are Crimson fists.

Ultramarines aren't OG in my mind, never will were, never will be! Ruddy third founding chapter!

Crimson fists are nice but they are also a successor chapter, NOT OG ENOUGH! You can have imperial fists though.

They're on the cover of the first edition of 40k. They´re more OG than everybody else combined!

NOT OG ENOUGH! THEY NEED TO HAVE BEEN CREATED 10,000 YEARS AGO TO BE TRULY OG! (Although 25 years ago is pretty OG )

Favourite:
1) Blood angles - Badass, noble, and a primarch with a powerful and compelling story and death rather than another "maybe hes alive and will return one day????"
2) Thousand sons - I enjoy the tragic downfall/victims of a bad situation thing, plus they look dope and I like Ahriman
3) Imperial fists - I think they exemplify what all the legions should have been. Probably the most loyal, and Dorn understood the Emperor better than anyone else

Least Favourite:
1) Word Bearers - only legion I actively dislike. Also only Primarch who is actually stupid
2)Emperors Children - arrogant, annoying, and generally pretty unlikeable
3) Ultramarines - same reasons as everyone else. However its not really their fault, its Games Workshops fangirling, so ill give them some lee-way

Game-wise, the original Mentor Legion (not the revised "Mentors" and their alternate logos) and the Crimson Fists.

Heresy/lore-wise...don't much care about any of the original 20 legions.

Top favs: Alpha Legion (sneak professionals) and Ultramarines (more than warriors).

Least favorite: Night Lords (a-holes) and Word Bearers (useless a-holes).

Favourite:

1. Space Wolves: Vikings in spehs!
2. Emperors Children: Drug addled swordsmen!
3. Word Bearers: The one that started it all. (World Eaters would be 4 if there was one)

Least Favourite:

1. Iron Hands: So boring. I forget they even existed half the time.
2. Sons of Horus: The mary sues of the Horus Heresy.
3. Thousand Sons: Because Magnus destroyed the webway thing Big E was working on.

Top:
1 Death Guard, Nurgle, Poison, Gas, Terminators, Scythes, Infantry tactics...
2 Night Lords, Batman, Raptors, and they were never loyal
3 Iron Warriors great paint scheme, and enuff dakka

Bottom:
3 Alpha Legion Go full Chaos or go home
2 Imperial Fists boring... and yellow
1 Ultramarines boring

I forgot who iron hands were/that they existed twice now.

Top 3:
1) Ultramarines
2) Night Lords
3) Emperor's Children/Imperial Fists

Love the Greco-Roman theme of the Ultramarines, plus their 30k lore is far better than 40k. Night Lords are just pretty damn cool, on aesthetic and playstyle. 30k Emperor's Children are pretty cool, but are one of my least favourite in 40k. I have the Fists on here too, for their prevalence of Breachers, but they tie with the EC.

Bottom 3:
3) White Scars
2) Iron Hands
1) Space Wolves

The Scars and Hands just feel too bland to me - their lore just doesn't interest me at all. I'd pass.
The Wolves just strike me completely bad - but that's my opinion.

 Jaxler wrote:
I forgot who iron hands were/that they existed twice now.

Does anyone know/care about the iron hands? The only reason I didn't consider them in top or bottom 3 is because all I know about them is that Fulgrim beheaded their primarch... What was his name again?

Favorite: (In descending order)

1: Ultramarines. They have some of the best looking SM minis out there and their paint scheme is really nice. Their lore, while sometimes overblown, is pretty good.

2: Death Guard: Reading Flight of the Eisenstein really makes you like these guys. Space Marines not afraid to get neck deep in mud and gore. But they aren't a bunch of raving lunatics.

3: Night Lords. A bunch of shameless brutal killers. They are hardly fit to be a Legion yet their fear tactics makes them very effective at conquering planets.

Least favorite: (In descending order)

1: Space Wolves. WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF

2: Alpha Legion: Flanderized much like the Space Wolves. They are basically the Scooby Doo marines.

3: World Eaters: Kind of one dimensional in my opinion. They kill and maim and slaughter and brutalize and butcher and hurt and murder and slay and, let's not forget, assault people. But I know that is why some people like them so YMMV.

1. Salamanders (These guys are what the Emperor wanted Space Marines to be, I think.)
2. Space Wolves (Weirdly divergent, but so great. The Emperor's Gift made me love them all the more.)
3. Night Lords (Once again, the writings of Aaron Dembski-Bowden earned them a special place in my heart.)

Least Favorite: (mostly because they're boring)
3. White Scars
2. Iron Warriors
1. Death Guard

The title is a little misleading. The OP lists chapters but makes reference to the original 18 legions.. So I am going to refer to Chapters for my choices.

Top 3 chapters:
#1 Crimson Fists, the original Rouge Trader cover boys, before the Ultramarines took that spot.
#2 Iron Warriors, I love the way these guys can hold a grudge, and prove folks wrong when another chapter/LEGION makes boasts that are untrue.
#3 Pre Heresey Dark Angels, their color scheme was the best, Black with the red sword with wings, then the HH came along and their color scheme changed to Vermillion green and a white logo. Boooooooo for fluff retconning,

The bottom 3 chapters:
#1 Rainbow Warriors, a chapter painted in the colors of the rainbow? Yuck!
#2 & #3 is a tie for the 2 missing Original legions. Why bother mention them at all in the fluff?

Favourite, in no particular order, are Thousand Sons, Dark Angels, and Salamanders.

The only Legion I really don't like is the Space Wolves, there's something thuggish and depressingly anti-intellectual about them that smacks of a Hollywood-esque 'good is dumb/dumb is good' attitude. (Or it may just be the players.) (That was a joke, please don't kill me).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Jaxler wrote:
I forgot who iron hands were/that they existed twice now.

Does anyone know/care about the iron hands? The only reason I didn't consider them in top or bottom 3 is because all I know about them is that Fulgrim beheaded their primarch... What was his name again?

Ferrus Manus. It's easy enough, it's terrible Latin for 'Iron Hand'.

The funny thing to know about the Iron Hands is that after Fulgrim killed Ferrus Manus and stole his hammer (Forgebreaker) it made its way through a convoluted and nonspecific behind-the-scenes sequence of wielders to turn up in the Aurelian sector getting looted by the Blood Ravens in Dawn of War II. Somewhere in the galaxy there's a Blood Raven captain running around hitting people with Forgebreaker.

Favourite Chapters?
Well these are more legions but what the heck... Based on the first few novels in the HH books

Luna Wolves,
Emperors Children,
And then finally...

The Lamenters.

The two legions above I really enjoyed how they were portrayed in the books, I loved the characters, and their styles of fighting. And the Lementers because I love the fact they are constantly getting fethed over, but they always carry on.

I dislike the following..

Space Wolves, I think everyone (aside from SW players) hates what they have become, I love their FW HH representation though.

Imperial Fists - Ugh, they just annoy me for some reason, I don't know why.

Black Templars - Maybe because I dropped out of the hobby just before 3rd edition, I missed the hype surrounding the BTs and why everyone thinks they are a big deal. I just don't though. Again they just annoy me for some reason. Am I being irrational? Probably.

Top 3:
1) Ultramarines.
They get too much flak, but Guilliman was an incredible general, empire builder and visionary. The legion themselves were also superlative warriors, knew how to give and follow orders, and they looked after planets they conquered vefore moving on.

2) World Eaters.
Theirs is a tragic story, and they could have been so much more.

3) White Scars.
The rft between Terrans and those from Chogoris is very well portrayed, and the traitors among them were a refreshing concept.

Bottom 3:
3) Sons of Horus.
Their fall was too easy, there was never much resistance past Istvaan, and even before, most just went along with it.

2) Iron Hands.
Yeah, your uncle killed your dad, but chill out and go do something useful, most of them just lost all ability to function properly. Which is sad, as I love them 40k.

1) Emperor's Children.
Could they not have left Fulgrim as possessed? That was one of my favourite pieces of fluff ever, not this Dorian Grey, is he isn't he a daemonhost rubbish we have now. Similarly, his legionnaires seem to just go along with everything, barring one torture session that didn't convince me of anything.

First of all, I don't own or plan to make any Space Marine army (I love some of the fluff + models but I can't bring myself to make ANOTHER space marine army, and by another I mean among the entire 40k playerbase).

Favourite
1. Word Bearers -
I don't want to get in a flame war over this, but I like them because their religion is actually true. They've found literal beings of immense power and influence that can bestow gifts that would be deemed miraculous; unlike every other actual religion ever (don't flame me!). They're not traitors because they have Daddy issues etc. but because they're right from their perspective. What they do is evil which makes them the quintessential bad guys because they know it but believe it's right because of their real gods.

2. Thousand Sons -
How can you not feel for them? Persecuted and vilified by their own brother legions, thrown under the bus by the Emperor (ordered not to use an intrinsic part of their nature) and then sanctioned by his Executioners (however illegal and wrong the order actually was). The worst part is, not only did the Wolves slaughter innocents in their sanctioning but they effectively razed one of the greatest repositories of knowledge and learning in the 30th millennium.

3. Salamanders -
They remember what they're fighting for, not arbitrary borders or themselves but for the people of the Imperium. They're also more than one dimensional warriors, being artisans and craftsmen in their own right. Plus I'm a pyromaniac and love their idea of waging war. I'm not such a fan of their colour scheme and their focus on the Salamander theme (scales + firedrake skin + special units 30k) but it's not as over the top as the Space Wolves.

Least
1. Space Wolves. I dislike them not only for what they did to Prospero - destroying knowledge and progress, along with an innocent legion and the people of that world but because of the wolf theme; wolfity wolf wulfen with wolves with an added wolf thrown in. FINE. You're called Space Wolves. FINE. You don't need to put 'Wolf' into every item or unit name! Oh and I also hate them for their hypocrisy at Nikae - 'these are Rune-Priests that draw on a different power to your dirty psykers'.

2. Ultramarines. The Codex - it was even written by Roboute that those were GUIDELINES and a marine should be adaptable. Then there's the Mary-Sue'ism - they should not have survived a lot of their recent engagements and if they did, they should have been in a lot worse shape. A few examples - Hive Fleet Behemoth, Damnos (both incidents) and the Invasion of Ultramar. I also dislike their actions back in the Heresy -- Guilliman could and should have mobilised earlier to assist Terra against the rest of the Traitor forces but he chose to look to his own worlds first; a rather scummy act in my opinion.

3. World Eaters. To clarify, I liked them pre-ruinstorm. They were martial and honourable and Angron's history was regrettable and pitiable. After they fell fully to Khorne though, I found them to become too one-dimensional; I understand that Khorne is all about blood and skulls but the World Eaters seemed to have devolved fully into raging madmen. Why can't you be a scholar and a gentleman yet still harvest blood and skulls for your God?

Favorite chapters are:
-Dark Angels, my main
-Death Guard
-Imperial Fists

Least Favorite:
-Space Wolves, too wulfy
-Black Legion, too boring
-Ultramarines, too uptight and Mary Sue, although they do have some decent fluff (like Battle for McCragge)

Top 3:

1) Night Lords: I love Curze! every Primarch has an aspect of The Emperor within them and Curzes was the Emperors Justice, the main problem was that he landed on the one of the worst planets known to the Imperium and it twisted his sense of justice into something far more darker, and I love the theme of his slow decent into madness from noble intent. Then we have Sevatar who's just a prick but an awesome prick. He is Curzes twisted ideology made manifest, he held a sense of justice whilst also executing that sense in the twisted ways he was taught by his Gene-Father, heck in Prince of Crows he even questions Curze on his ideology as thought his Father made a wrong mix of Justice with Battle-lust when

2) Iron Warriors: Perty's story I like, just a guy who wanted to make and innovate and then got told to break things.. but just heaving tanks all the time and throwing tanks at the enemy like no tomorrow sounds like fun.

3) Crimson Fists: One of the things why I like Chaos over The Imperium is that its honest, right by might or sneakiness in many cases but it never sugarcoats itself in all honesty, the lowest cultists has a chance to become something greater if its stronger or more cunning than his or her other peers. Meanwhile with the IoM you're born into a society where you know what you're doing day in, day out, its not the best lifestyle and the only option you get is to go to be a guardsman in which your life expectancy suddenly becomes very short. The Hierarchy in the IoM is very much fixed and theirs very little an average citizen can do.. And on top of that there is a constant fear of being labotomised into a Servitor, or face the wrath of the Arbies. in a dark poetic yet comical essence, the only way the IoM can save Humaity is to lose its sense of Humanity in the process. This is where I like the Crimson Fists. These 8ft demi-gods don't take the avaerge citizen as a lesser being and they know that at the heat and soul of the Imperium isn't forged through many acts of glory but that they are made to serve Humanity. Pedro Kantor knows this and AFAIK the majority of the Chapter knows this. I do remember hearing of a story where Pedro carried a woman for a week to get to safety and that's something you don't see from many Astartes. To me they are one of the few Chapters I would be willing to give SM a go at collecting with.

My Bottom 3)

1) Dark Angels: Lion feels Schizophrenic in the HH novels, sometimes is a cool guy then others hes just a prick. Emperors Text-To-Speech Device puts his character perfectly.

2) Imperial Fists: Dorn is the Steve Jobs of 30/40k.

3) Space Wolves: Russ to me at times just feels like a Mary Sue along with various acts the Chapter does like Fighting the Inquisition.

You guys think that Iron Hands have it tough? Raven Guard have it just as bad. Being remembered as just "the loyalist version of the Night Lords", if they get remembered at all, isn't so great.
Rant aside, for favorites:
1: World Eaters.
2: Alpha Legion
3: White Scars

Least favorite:
1: Imperial Fists
2: Dark Angels
3: Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus

Favorite Loyalist Legions:

1: Blood Angels
2: Ultramarines
3: Space Wolves

Favorite Traitor Legions:

1: Sons of Horus
2: Night Lords
3: Emperor's Children

Least Favourite Loyalist Legions:

1: White Scars
2: Salamanders
3: Imperial Fists

Least Favourite Traitor Legions:

1: Word Bearers
2: iron Warriors
3: Death Guard

Favorite Second Founding Chapters:

1: Black Templars
2: Grey Knights
3: Minotaurs