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I'm intrested in material where space marines fail. As an example: in DoW 2 the scout sergeant mentions how the Kaurava was a complete mistake and that the captain should never have been granted a commanding position. Kaurava is a reference to DoW 1:s last expantion where the space marine commander has been known for making... Less then stellar tactical choices. I don't consider the DoW games to be canon but just an example. There's another reference in the 4th edition space marine codex where one of the space marine drawbacks has the (writing from memory) flavour text: The space marines have a history of heroic last stands, at least some that where probably unnecessary.

So, do we have some examples of botched space marine operations? Preferably due to incompetent command or mistaken battlefield choices. Bonus points for Primaris operations.

Not sure if it's exactly what you're after, but the Iron Hands had the Gaudinian Heresy and the Battle for Columnus.

In Shroud of night the marines fail to defend a vital hive against chaos, even with saint celestine's aid.

I'm writing a story where the Blood Angels get their gak kicked in pretty hard. Not canon or anything, but I'm interested in this thread and I'm commenting so I can keep track of it.

The Blood Angels nearly got wiped out when they came across a Space Hulk, the entire Chapter went in, less than a hundred came out IIRC.

The Avenging Sons. In every FW campaign book they appear in, they kicked around like a ball.

beast_gts wrote:
Not sure if it's exactly what you're after, but the Iron Hands had the Gaudinian Heresy and the Battle for Columnus.

I'm not sure these exactly count. The Iron Hand won both battles. They were just not won well.

Similarly though ,we can put the Battle for Maccrage. Hive Fleet Behemoth did destroyed their polar fortresse, killing all their veterans. The Swarmlord outsmarted then almost killed Calgar. The Tyranid themselves were defeated thanks to the Segmentum battlefleet and then purged from the surface mostly through bombings. The Space Marines didn't so much defeat the Tyranids as much as they weathered them.

I'm not a great specialist of Space Marine battles, but the assault on the Imperial Palace during the Reign of Blood was a failure. Four Chapters and support troops from the mechanicus got pushed back by the Brides of the Emperor. The Space Marines would have underestimated their foes in this instence. While they did triumph in the end, the battle on Rynn World started with the Crimson Fist blowing up a large chunk of their own fortress with a defective missile. Space Marines being protagonists in almsot all instence are rarelly shown defeated and in the rare cases they are, its against insurmontable odds and even then, they sometime pull an heroic victory on those too.

I was actually thinking about making a thread about instances where SM made serious military blunders or got caught with their pants down. I know that the Imperium would probably edit such losses to the heroic last stands common in GWs fluff, but just like on the table top, sometimes they've gotta be wiped unceremoniously from the field.

The Imperial Fists get wiped out down to just double figures during the Beast Arises series set in late 30K. It’s then swiftly covered up and, outside of that series, unrecorded in the fluff.

During the story it is hinted that it had happened before.

Skaorn wrote:
I was actually thinking about making a thread about instances where SM made serious military blunders or got caught with their pants down. I know that the Imperium would probably edit such losses to the heroic last stands common in GWs fluff, but just like on the table top, sometimes they've gotta be wiped unceremoniously from the field.

I suppose that it at least happened once when Space MArine missed their drop pod insertion and ended up in open ground and in range of a full battery of Basilisks, but that's not the sort of story you tell. On the other side, I was suprise to see that loyalist Space Marines are rarely the main antagonist in 40K. Usually xenos end up fighting guards and sometime Sisters if they need to look more badass.

Everyone on the wrong side of the Badab War and a couple of Chapters on the right side.

Skaorn wrote:
I was actually thinking about making a thread about instances where SM made serious military blunders or got caught with their pants down. I know that the Imperium would probably edit such losses to the heroic last stands common in GWs fluff, but just like on the table top, sometimes they've gotta be wiped unceremoniously from the field.

From my vague memories of reading the 4th-ed Tau codex, you may want to look into the exploits of commander Shadowsun.

Blood Angels got destroyed like the Imperial Fists I think at least twice.

There was also a certain captain, formerly of the Lunar Wolves, renowned for his dozen or so failures.

 Danielle Rae wrote:

Skaorn wrote:
I was actually thinking about making a thread about instances where SM made serious military blunders or got caught with their pants down. I know that the Imperium would probably edit such losses to the heroic last stands common in GWs fluff, but just like on the table top, sometimes they've gotta be wiped unceremoniously from the field.

From my vague memories of reading the 4th-ed Tau codex, you may want to look into the exploits of commander Shadowsun.

True, there is,recently, the time where she baited and killed the Chapter Master of the Raven Guard and defeated his forces.

Trial of the Mantis Warriors by CS Goto. It's an after-action report on all the mistakes that led to the Badab War, with entire chapters turning coat on the Imperium.

It's also one of my more favorite Black Library short stories.

 BrookM wrote:
The Blood Angels nearly got wiped out when they came across a Space Hulk, the entire Chapter went in, less than a hundred came out IIRC.

Yep, it's mentioned in the Novella 'Sin of Damnation'