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.

Do Space Marines just drop in, conquer a planet, and have the Adeptus Mech come in and build fortifications?

Or can they deploy something similar to an Ork Landa, which is a one time ship, that crashes unto the ground, becoming a fortress?

Codex Planetstrike mentions the Imperial Navy dropping prefabricated fortifications for the Guard. I would assume that the Space Marines can make use of them as well - although I would add that "fortifying" isn't exactly an Astartes thing. The Space Marines are shock troops; go in fast, blow stuff up, move out again. Fortifying and prolonged defense are tasks left to the Guard units that follow in their wake. The bases that they do erect seem to be nothing but temporary forward camps from which they launch their assaults, and which can be relocated in short time.

Some Chapters could very well deviate from this norm, but I don't think that any of them would get close to the IG-level.

A while back there was a rather neat bunker design based on the Rhino chassis that the Thunderhawk Transporters were supposed to drop in as instant fortifications. Otherwise I guess they now use Aegis lines (and always have, obviously )

Servitors are your friend here. Chapters all maintain large numbers of them.

 Lynata wrote:
Codex Planetstrike mentions the Imperial Navy dropping prefabricated fortifications for the Guard. I would assume that the Space Marines can make use of them as well - although I would add that "fortifying" isn't exactly an Astartes thing. The Space Marines are shock troops; go in fast, blow stuff up, move out again. Fortifying and prolonged defense are tasks left to the Guard units that follow in their wake. The bases that they do erect seem to be nothing but temporary forward camps from which they launch their assaults, and which can be relocated in short time.

Some Chapters could very well deviate from this norm, but I don't think that any of them would get close to the IG-level.

I agree with everything, when in campaign the Astartes are always in Blitzkrieg regime. They strike fast and they bail out fast, and so on.
When they have to defend they usually pick the place where the main body of enemy army will pass and face them. This was shown in the fluff numerous time, with the most notable exampel being the Battle for Macragge where 1'st company decided to defend the Northern Fortress because they knew that main Tyranid attack will be there.

But in campaign, if they really need it, they can deploy sentry turrets from orbit ( Tarantula is the most notable that is used by Marines ). In IA you have example of droppods that is equipped with heavy bolters instead of Astartes troops that can be used to either defend position or wreck havoc between enemy troops.

There will always be a need for marines to fortify areas. The Imperial Fists are famed for their prowess in fortification and defence.

The Space Marines are glorified Special Troopers. So they will have the Imperial Guard to head after them making the defensive positions, then again a chapter like the Imperial Fists would be rather defensively inclined and likely fitting in their style take up advisory positions and such much like the US did in Vietnam before they invaded the south.

They play Dawn of War and airlift whole buildings.

 Arcsquad12 wrote:
They play Dawn of War and airlift whole buildings.

Well, even that wouldn't be sufficient to fortify an entire planet. Tbh, nothing short of a truly massive undertaking, either trough years of construction or thousands of airlifted fortifications, would.

 KingDeath wrote:

 Arcsquad12 wrote:
They play Dawn of War and airlift whole buildings.

Well, even that wouldn't be sufficient to fortify an entire planet. Tbh, nothing short of a truly massive undertaking, either trough years of construction or thousands of airlifted fortifications, would.

You can never fortify entire planet ( not every planet is Cadia ), you can however fortify important cities and passes trough the planet and trough that control it.

 KingDeath wrote:

 Arcsquad12 wrote:
They play Dawn of War and airlift whole buildings.

Well, even that wouldn't be sufficient to fortify an entire planet. Tbh, nothing short of a truly massive undertaking, either trough years of construction or thousands of airlifted fortifications, would.

Drop in a few orbital-laser platforms in the general vicinity (same continent) as the major urban areas, supported by long-range anti-aircraft batteries, and you've got yourself a Fortress World. This arrangement can shoot ships out of orbit and also shred inbound landers/pods/etc. One would need to use teleportarium or web-way technologies to get boots on the ground, unless one were lucky to smash a crashing ship into one of the defense laser platforms and knock a hole in the wall, in a manner of speaking.

Sure, these are major undertakings, but that's what the IoM is good at: exhausting entire worlds of resources for a single objective.

I did not mean an entire planet, nor a sector either. I was implying, and asking if Marines temporarily fortified an area by dropping bunkers from orbit, etc.

IE: Aegis Defense lines, Tarantula turrets, Firing lines, and if possible, buildings.

That is what I was asking, I should have broadened my question.

You guys do know what an Ork Landa craft is, right? I mentioned it in my OP. It's a ship that crashes, and never lifts off again, similar to the Roc, and creates a base.

I was asking if Marines had some sort of counterpart, IE: Dropping gun batteries, Imperial Bastions, etc.

I remember back when GW had articles, and there was a kitbash of a Imperial Bastion, with Skyshield bits, created to make a "Drop Bastion" for planetstrike games or whatever. So I was curious if there is any fluff to back this up.

Bit irritated about that, it was one of my favorite conversions.

Ninja edit, sure Aegis there you go lol

What? How can it be a Ninja edit if I just made the post? I edited three times to remove typos.

Something I suggest you do too, as your post is a bit unclear.

The Marines themselves? Probably not. They are more likely to take over pre-existing fortifications and convert them to their own use. The Black Templars may be a notable exception to this, though they tend not to fortify a world until they have completely crushed any resistance, though even they are probably more likely to simply use whatever fortifications are already present. Why build a castle when you've got a great fixer-upper opportunity right over there?

Marines supported by the Munitorum? Almost definitely. I believe one of the later Gaunt's Ghosts novels mentions a modular command center complex that is delivered by a bulk-hauler transport that drops in from orbit, and then ground crews "insert tab A into slot B" to put the whole thing together. I would imagine that they can deliver pill-boxes, bunkers, and other buildings in much the same way, setting up in a matter of hours what would take weeks to build.

 Stormsung wrote:
What? How can it be a Ninja edit if I just made the post? I edited three times to remove typos.

Something I suggest you do too, as your post is a bit unclear.

Try not to suggest things to d3m01iti0n, he tends to get cranky if addressed directly.

On the subject of fortifications, I don't think Marines really need to fortify a planet. But if they did, I imagine it being dropped down mostly built, like DoW.

 d3m01iti0n wrote:
Ninja edit, sure Aegis there you go lol

lulz, I wrote a long ass essay on fortifications, posted, and then noticed you said "temporary" fortifications and not planetwide or sector. Just editing myself for not paying attention

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:

 Stormsung wrote:
What? How can it be a Ninja edit if I just made the post? I edited three times to remove typos.

Something I suggest you do too, as your post is a bit unclear.

Try not to suggest things to d3m01iti0n, he tends to get cranky if addressed directly.

Oh, sorry, a bit off my game........*cough* *cough* ahem *cough* SHADDAP.

Better?

From what I've read in a few books and whatnot, I think the Space Marines rarely construct their own buildings, they just commandeer a building and have the techmarines bolster the defences, then get servitors to build up defences in outlying areas. And IIRC, they don't usually build a city in the middle of nowhere, they conquer a city and build up from their.

I'd like to point out that in the SM codex, the Ultramarines are noted as producing large IG regiments in Ultramar, and that they can be trained in the same place as the SM's.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that some chapters simply drag along a few thousand IG, and accompanying warships/deployable fortifications/artillery etc.

Space marines hold and fortify planets with the Imperial Guard.

Space marines, almost without exception, are an offensive force. Defensive fortifications are largely a waste of time. They exist to drop pod in, cut of the head of the bad guys, weaken the resistance to the point where the guard can handle it, and then get airlifted off to handle the next crisis. Having them sit around in fortresses is a horrible waste of space marine resources.

The only aforementioned exception to this is the various chapter homeworlds and battle barges. Those are just built in the conventional way defenses are made.

It comes down in a giant ACME box.

 Ailaros wrote:
Space marines hold and fortify planets with the Imperial Guard.

Space marines, almost without exception, are an offensive force. Defensive fortifications are largely a waste of time. They exist to drop pod in, cut of the head of the bad guys, weaken the resistance to the point where the guard can handle it, and then get airlifted off to handle the next crisis. Having them sit around in fortresses is a horrible waste of space marine resources.

The only aforementioned exception to this is the various chapter homeworlds and battle barges. Those are just built in the conventional way defenses are made.

Space marines are not under the control of the ministerium. They don't have to use their resources to 100% effectiveness, and will always value loyalty to their chapter as being more important than their loyalty to the Imperium (obviously these are not mutually exclusive). "Having them sit around in fortresses" makes sense. Those guys are completely dedicated to warfare. If they want time off, let them. Hell if they're not in a hurry it's probably a good thing maybe the imperium isn't so screwed as everyone thinks if the elite warriors of the Imperium stand around in basements and store-rooms gossipping.

But the Codex Astartes decrees that ...

On a more serious note, "being shock troops" is the specialty of the Space Marines. Some few Chapters branch into other things such as siege warfare, but all in all I would imagine that Astartes Pride does keep them from acting like line troops spending decades sitting around doing nothing whilst the rest of the Imperium burns.

And this is aside of that they can actually be ordered around - some Chapters just have a history of saying "no" and getting away with it.

There is a difference between constructing and using fortifications and "sitting around for decades". There are all kinds of references to marines being a solid bulwark in a defensive system, especially in the early stages in a planetary siege when the full might of the Guard may not have gathered.