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I'm trying to solve a bet...

Which Space Marine Chapter is the most Tacticool? Aka, looks like they are Special Forces with the dial turned up to 11?

These are the finalists:

1. Raven Guard
2. Raptors
3. Deathwatch

I'm not going to give you my opinion, because I'm in on this bet.
I want you to think about this for at least two minutes before responding.

I mean, it's definitely Raptors, right? Most practical color scheme for camouflage purposes. Back when they had bespoke chapter rules, their shtick was turning their guns into pseudo sniper rifles because of their defining event that made them make every shot count. Probably bonus points for surviving for an extended period of time in the jungle dealing with tyranids as part of a guerilla war.

Raven Guard are plenty tacticool but lose points for "flashy" shadow teleportation and working noisy, flaming jump packs into some of their preferred tactics.

Death Watch aren't "tacticool" so much as they're using flashy and exotic tech. Pulling out your glowing green xenos axe or your tower shield isn't what I'd call "tacticool." I'm tempted to give them one point back for their special ammo though, which sits right on the borderline between tacticool and comic book-y.

Raptors.

They are the sensible modern special forces marines.

Raptors also started off being bright yellow and blue...

 Lord Damocles wrote:
Raptors also started off being bright yellow and blue...

Leman Russ started off being a guard commander, but it's safe to assume anyone discussing the guy in the modern day is talking about a giant guy wearing power armor and wolf pelts.

And we used to have pages of codex-compliant camo schemes. But these days it’s mostly bright colors and flags flying.

As much as I love the Deathwatch, I'm not entirely sure how stealthy the silver arm is. If you're looking at it from more of the elite team perspective though they're the best.

No matter how tacticool chapter are. They are damn armored hypo who rushind and shooting with their cannons...
As if choose from list I think raven guard most tackticool one.

If you view tacticool as loaded up with pouches spare ammo, grenades etc, a strong argument could be made for DW. They tend to have more of that sort of thing going on.

Plus the Kill Team roots.

 Nevelon wrote:
If you view tacticool as loaded up with pouches spare ammo, grenades etc, a strong argument could be made for DW. They tend to have more of that sort of thing going on.

Plus the Kill Team roots.

Good point. I was kind of assuming we'd be looking at the infiltrators of a given faction though, which means you're kind of getting maximum pouches regardless. DW always just struck me as having *too* fancy of toys to be properly "tacticool", you know? Like, the difference between a G.I.Joe character and a more grounded spec-ops character. Personally, I'd probably rank it like this:

Raptors - Most Tacticool
+ Mostly working with marine "standard kit" which is advanced enough to be "tacticool" without being "flashy." More Call of Duty, less Destiny.
+ Paint scheme is meant to imply the use of camo. Known for being stealthy in general.
+ Rules have emphasized taking the time to aim and conserve ammo.

Death Watch - 2nd Place
+ The whole Kill Team thing.
+/- Lots of fancy toys, but those fancy toys include flashy stuff like glowing alien tech.
- Sometimes prone to decidedly untacticool behaviors depending on who is on the team. A space wolf reciting his saga while charging headlong into the enemy isn't very "tacticool" even if it's effective in the moment.

Raven Guard - 3rd Place (which feels weird.)
+ Default to being stealthy (just like the other two.)
+/- Mostly working with standard marine kit, but jump packs are a big part of their M.O. Jump packs are also loud, and shoot fire.
- Shadow magic is rad, but it's more superhero than tacticool.

Speaking of Camo.

Do the Techmarine's still wear their bright red with these chapters?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Speaking of Camo.

Do the Techmarine's still wear their bright red with these chapters?

I can't speak for these chapters but usually when a Techmarine uses the chapters colors rather then the standard red the pauldron with the Mechanicum icon is kept red to show his connection to Mars. As for the DW since they have a unique pauldron system I believe I have seen artwork were the back and a few areas with the mechanicum icon are red but otherwise it is standard.

Raptors are pretty cool.

My personal preference for techmarines and other "special" marines, like apothecaries, etc, is that they keep chapter colors and only have like.. one arm and shoulder pad in the "special" color.

There's not been too many Deathwatch characters painted over the years, but the Apothecary had black armor, but wasn't wearing his helmet. Mine is painted white, which is fairly common. Notably, the Librarian in Kill Team Cassius has black armor with his shoulder pad trim and psychic hood both painted blue.

I would think that if a chapter is covering their normal heraldry in camo, that would go the same for specialists as well. They can wear their codex schemes when the rest of the unit is painted for parade.

From an out of universe standpoint, it makes sense to keep at least some of the specialist colors on them. The whole point of the blue/red/white/black thing to call out your librarians/techmarines/apothocaries/chaplains is so you can pick the minis out of your army at a glance. That need as a wargamer does not go away. If you paint everyone in realistic camo, with helmets sensably on and no sniper-bait bling, it gets real hard to tell who’s who on the table.