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Hiya all!

So like I've got a question right; has anyone ever read a Space Marine story where they've whacked their head on a door frame? As they're supposed to be 7-8 feet tall even without armour right? Considering that most civilian architecture is probably not built around their robust physiques, I just can't get over the idea that they can traverse these obstacles without any issues at all. I mean we've seen that even storm troopers have trouble not banging their domes on reasonable sized doors.

If anyone knows any details from the lore of them struggling with confined spaces, moving awkwardly in hallways etc, please tell me, it's vital for painting a realistic picture of my favourite grim-dark, bolter-porn, warp-magic, evil-god, space-elf filled universe.

Note that the 41st Milennium is also the home of ludicrously high ceilings.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Note that the 41st Milennium is also the home of ludicrously high ceilings.

A good point. However, though that will mitigate the issues facing heroic final stands, the day to day clearing of hives surely must still present a problem?

 thetallestgiraffe wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Note that the 41st Milennium is also the home of ludicrously high ceilings.

A good point. However, though that will mitigate the issues facing heroic final stands, the day to day clearing of hives surely must still present a problem?

if the door's too small thats what bolters are for.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Note that the 41st Milennium is also the home of ludicrously high ceilings.

...and of ludicrously deep dark pits with railing-less gantries crossing over them. Or wait - is that Star Wars...?

I like to think that if a Space Marine wearing their helmet bashed their head on a door, they'd just create a new semi-circle hole in the doorframe...

From the first founding to the primaris era the goldilocks indoctrination means they will not attempt to use doors that are too small or too big only those which are just right as defined in the codex

I think it's one of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels where they specifically say the Marines have to duck under the doorframes (and that their weight cracks the ornate mosaics in the floor).

Squats would be safe from SM attack then. They have to attack their buildings on their hands an knees

mrFickle wrote:
Squats would be safe from SM attack then. They have to attack their buildings on their hands an knees

"Death of Integrity" has Marines having to remove their armour to crawl thru ducts.

In a combat situation? Particularly urban environments?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In a combat situation? Particularly urban environments?

TBF, i assume that urban centres would be the most likely scenario in which marines will take heavy casualities.

Lot's off options to mine, trap, hide, etc.

Hitting their head un-helmeted on a door is how they hammer in a service stud.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In a combat situation? Particularly urban environments?

TBF, i assume that urban centres would be the most likely scenario in which marines will take heavy casualities.

Lot's off options to mine, trap, hide, etc.

Mining and trapping are probably less effective when your foe can, relatively freely, forge their own path?

In one of the Gaunt's Ghosts books, a Chaos Space Marine decides to forgo wearing a helmet and gets killed by dozens of "savages" shooting his head full of scores of poison darts, which I found to be hilarious.

There was bit along these lines in one of the ADB Night Lord trilogy books where a boarding party of Blood Angels have boarded the NL ship. A marine sergeant had taken his helmet off to 'smell his enemies' (I am paraphrasing - something pompous along those lines). One of the Night Lords drops down behind them, shoots him in the neck and blows his head off on account of him not wearing a helmet.

mrFickle wrote:Squats would be safe from SM attack then. They have to attack their buildings on their hands an knees

I wonder if Squats are the equivalent of people playing OddJob in N64 Goldeneye. Basically annoying as hell and 'cheating' as every shot fired at waist height goes over their heads.

This is why they were banned

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In a combat situation? Particularly urban environments?

TBF, i assume that urban centres would be the most likely scenario in which marines will take heavy casualities.

Lot's off options to mine, trap, hide, etc.

Mining and trapping are probably less effective when your foe can, relatively freely, forge their own path?

Military forces have been making their own doors during urban fighting since at least WWII [supposedly, the technique for making a hole from one house directly into another so you don't have to go outside was invented by the Canadians at Ortona, but I have a hard time believing that nobody before them figured that out since it doesn't seem that hard of a conclusion to come to]

I'm reasonably certain that mines, traps, and ambushes would still be generally effective against Space Marines.

In the Ian Watson book Space Marine, the Marines are having to fight Squats that are defending tunnel systems and it causes lots of problems. I think one marine gets stuck and the Squats cut his legs off or something like that.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
Military forces have been making their own doors during urban fighting since at least WWII [supposedly, the technique for making a hole from one house directly into another so you don't have to go outside was invented by the Canadians at Ortona, but I have a hard time believing that nobody before them figured that out since it doesn't seem that hard of a conclusion to come to]

I'm reasonably certain that mines, traps, and ambushes would still be generally effective against Space Marines.

I always think of the movie Dog Soldiers where the soldiers are barricading doors at the same time they're smashing new holes in the walls to get from room to room.

Also from the same book Pacific referenced (Night Lords Omnibus) there is a part where First Claw are infiltrating a Marines Errant Fortress Monastery as a favour to Huron and the Red Corsairs.

One of the chapter serfs (Yeshic) gets distracted by a noise in the next room, similar to awakened ceremite (functioning power armour)

In his words/thoughts "But the Marines Errant never ventured into this wing of the fortress. Yeshic smiled at the very idea, an Errant would struggle to even fit through the doorway here".

The Night Lord hidden in the room had to use the maintenance shaft in the ceiling to get there.

Although it does make you wonder, a fortress monastery built for the Adeptus Astartes, but some rooms they would struggle to access

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Note that the 41st Milennium is also the home of ludicrously high ceilings.

Except for one particular place the Lucky 13's regiment had to fight in.

Killer Claw wrote:
Also from the same book Pacific referenced (Night Lords Omnibus) there is a part where First Claw are infiltrating a Marines Errant Fortress Monastery as a favour to Huron and the Red Corsairs.

One of the chapter serfs (Yeshic) gets distracted by a noise in the next room, similar to awakened ceremite (functioning power armour)

In his words/thoughts "But the Marines Errant never ventured into this wing of the fortress. Yeshic smiled at the very idea, an Errant would struggle to even fit through the doorway here".

The Night Lord hidden in the room had to use the maintenance shaft in the ceiling to get there.

Although it does make you wonder, a fortress monastery built for the Adeptus Astartes, but some rooms they would struggle to access

Wait, the doorway couldn't fit a marine but the maintenance shaft could?

This topic turned out to be very different from the one i imagined from the title

*sadly puts aside "space marines on an easter egg hunt" fic until another time*

It's pretty damn stupid to make space marines HUUUUUGE. Not many real advantages and lots of disadvantages, especially in cramped conditions like boarding actions. You know, the thing marines are supposed to excel at. But I guess regular sized marines wouldn't be cool enough for some people.

You think small doorways are a problem? Consider the greatest threat to Marines:

Stairs.

Think how heavy Marines are. Now imagine them coming across a vital objective, but they need to go up some wooden stairs first.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
You think small doorways are a problem? Consider the greatest threat to Marines:

Stairs.

Think how heavy Marines are. Now imagine them coming across a vital objective, but they need to go up some wooden stairs first.

In the grim darkness of the future, there is only wheelchair ramps

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
You think small doorways are a problem? Consider the greatest threat to Marines:

Stairs.

Think how heavy Marines are. Now imagine them coming across a vital objective, but they need to go up some wooden stairs first.

In the grim darkness of the future, there is only wheelchair ramps

Oh, you just know they hit the rickety wooden building with an Auspex scan until they find what they need—after, they do leaping Koolaid-Man entrances and grab what ever.

Yeah there's a whole host of problems that come with being ginormous. Anti-marine pit traps ought to be pretty common considering their weight.

I seem to remember something about anti-gravitic motors to reduce a Marine's weight...? Always struck me as sci-fi mumbo-jumbo nonsense to me, but I guess something like it is kinda necessary.

 Apple Peel wrote:

Oh, you just know they hit the rickety wooden building with an Auspex scan until they find what they need—after, they do leaping Koolaid-Man entrances and grab what ever.

Ahahaha, that's an amazing image, a Blood Angel with his arms spread bursts through, "OH YEEAAAHHH!".

It's also surely realistic though, they not only have some of the hardest, strongest equipment in the universe, but also visors to see through all the dust.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
You think small doorways are a problem? Consider the greatest threat to Marines:

Stairs.

Think how heavy Marines are. Now imagine them coming across a vital objective, but they need to go up some wooden stairs first.

They don't seem to have any issue with them in War of Secrets.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In a combat situation? Particularly urban environments?

TBF, i assume that urban centres would be the most likely scenario in which marines will take heavy casualities.

Lot's off options to mine, trap, hide, etc.

In one of the Gav Thorpe Dark Angel books, a squad comes across a very thick plasteel door that is locked, and would not take demo charges well. Instead, they blew through the adjacent wall which was not marine proof. I imagine there is a lot of "artificial doors" in 40k.

Unless there is a specific objective inside a building, Marines would probably lob a few grenades inside and move on. Otherwise, that is what scouts are for.