Will the Ultramarines become victims of their own success?

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**Nightlord1987**

I've always referred to the UM as the Boys in Blue, which is what we call the Police here in the States. Serve and Protect, Stay in School, Drink your Milk, Obey Imperial Law, and all that gak.

**Marius Xerxes**

Spetulhu wrote:
Even if that is a bit off-topic... What can anyone expect when the world's biggest military spender (more than the next 7-8 spenders combined)

Next 14 combined, actually.

So many better uses that kind of money could be put to.

**clively**

n0t_u wrote:
Harriticus wrote:
It makes little sense that the Smurfs could manage an interstellar empire, guard the Imperium's eastern border, and fight across the galaxy with 1,000 men. That Ultramar Auxillia we never hear about must be mighty good.

It's easy, if you look close enough the Ultramarines, UItramarines, and U|tramarines are all clearly different chapters. So they could have 3 chapters worth who all like to work together and enjoy the same colour and horseshoe.

I foresee a future in which GW adds a zero to that number and drops their points by half....

**Psienesis**

Maximus Bitch wrote:
But unlike the Romans, the space marines are no longer organised into legions, something which gave the Romans great military strength.

the ultramarines have the benefit of a larger selection pool of 11 worlds.

but as always, those who lead comfortable lives don't have the heart to go to war.

Uh... what?

**PrehistoricUFO**

Orblivion wrote:
ZebioLizard2 wrote:
Maximus Bitch wrote:
But unlike the Romans, the space marines are no longer organised into legions, something which gave the Romans great military strength.

the ultramarines have the benefit of a larger selection pool of 11 worlds.

but as always, those who lead comfortable lives don't have the heart to go to war.

Except for the fact that one of Ultramar's main tenants is the protection of all men, one of the main things that is forcefully purged is less altruistic traits such as the selfishness of not desiring to go to war to fight for the Imperium. They value combat, they value war, they view militaristic war life as a way of protecting the Imperium. If you do not pull your weight for Ultramar, you are disdained and considered useless and will not last long.

To Ultramar, the Auxallia PDF of their worlds are their legion, conscription is mandatory and many of which are chosen from to become new Ultramarines.

Do they though? I don't remember reading anything about Ultramarine candidates coming from the Auxilia. AFAIK the Ultramarines follow the same basic geneseed rule as every other chapter and recruit teenagers.

In the UM series, in the flashbacks to the training days, the recruits are indeed very young, prepubescent and early teenagers.

**Maximus Bitch**

Durandal wrote:
In the real world, the wealth and luxury of a power does not mean that its military is filled with weak softies.

Money and resources allow them to equip and train units to the nth degree and make them far more effective then some guy in the backwoods of nowhere living off whatever they can scrape up. US special forces repeatedly owned far larger Taliban groups. I imagine Ultramar is the same way. People compete constantly and the UMs skim the best of the best off the top for their recruits.

Sure, their are people who can't hack it and drop out, but that doesn't drag down the UM at all since the drop outs never even get to the scout level.

But don't the other chapters have similar levels of technology? Leman russ was living in a feral backward environment, but when the empy gave him the big guns he excelled.

P.s. Now for the record, I'm not a fanboy of any chapter.

I just brought up the space wolves because it was an apt example.
I find it very silly to admire fictional characters.

**Orblivion**

Maximus Bitch wrote:
Durandal wrote:
In the real world, the wealth and luxury of a power does not mean that its military is filled with weak softies.

Money and resources allow them to equip and train units to the nth degree and make them far more effective then some guy in the backwoods of nowhere living off whatever they can scrape up. US special forces repeatedly owned far larger Taliban groups. I imagine Ultramar is the same way. People compete constantly and the UMs skim the best of the best off the top for their recruits.

Sure, their are people who can't hack it and drop out, but that doesn't drag down the UM at all since the drop outs never even get to the scout level.

But don't the other chapters have similar levels of technology? Leman russ was living in a feral backward environment, but when the empy gave him the big guns he excelled.

P.s. Now for the record, I'm not a fanboy of any chapter. I just brought up the space wolves because it was an apt example.
I find it very silly to admire fictional characters.

He wasn't saying that only the Ultramarines have access to that technology, he was using it as a modern day example of why having comfortable lives does not necessarily lead to weak armed forces.

Anyways, the real fact of the matter is they've been doing it that way for 10,000 years and they're still one of the best chapters in the entire Imperium.