The Space Marines wip page
The No-Brainers from Outer Space

This is will be RTSC's Space Marines guide page.

In the game, Space Marines are the product of high technology and genetic engineering. They are like Special Forces crossed with warrior monks, dressed up in powered space armour. They are the elite defenders of the Human Imperium, charged with its defence and the destruction of its enemies - of which there are many. The Imperium is partly feudal: Space Marines are organised into Chapters, self-organising, religious military clans with their own badging, traditions and character that have more in common with Medieval lords dedicated to the service of the King, than they do to science fiction. Space Marines truck around in their own giant gothic spaceships, delivering righteous wrath upon the sorry skulls of all who oppose them.

Ruling over the Human Imperium is the God Emperor, who is part Pope, part absolute ogliarch, and part minor deity preserved for millennia by high technology and arcane powers. He rules with an iron fist. The Imperium, when it isn't engaged in total war with everything and everyone, is a hard line theocracy; and what it lacks in exobiological ethnic cleansing, it more than compensates with an unending string of holy Inquisitions, routing out heretics, mutants and anyone who deviates from the norm. Luckily for us grateful and sniveling serfs, the forces of evil ranged up against the Imperium are so totally off the scale that they make the Space Marines look good.

And these are Warhammer's good guys!

As an army in the game, the Space Marines are easily the most straightforward to use: they're the beginner's race. Compared to the other armies (with the possible exception of the Necrons) they're about as easy to play as falling off a log. Our experience with SM came after playing a lot with other armies umerous games as other armies, losing lots and then swapping over to the SM to try something different - and then being appalled by a string of lazy victories that seemed to need no skill or expertise by comparison. In the older versions of the Orks, or Chaos, or Imperial Guard (after they were fixed), there would be points in your game where

Space Marines have no disadvantages of any kind. About the only perks they don't get are the new ones added in Dark Crusade, like Mass Ressurection or Cannabalism. They have superior armour, superior firepower, superior morale, superior healing, superior heavy weapons, superior vehicles, ridiculously over the top unit upgrades, above average turrets, and three mighty Heroes, each packing at least one game breaking spell and/or offering colossal healing and morale perks. Even their basic Tier 0 Scouts enjoy a barrage of perks that immediately put any SM player in an advantageous position simply by being able to build them immediately. They have the toughest builder, the cheapest, easiest and most effective spotters, spammable vehicles and a highly efficient economy. Its not that hard to outnumber the "green horde" of Orks with massed Marines, or erase entire screens of Guardsmen, Orks and Eldar with two kitted out Heavy Bolter squads.

If that wasn;t enough, SM in Tier 3 can deepstrike everywhere it likes and torment its enemies to its hearts content.

If you really can't get the Space Marines worked out then you're going to find it bloody hard with everything else. Except the Necrons.

Apart from a slow start, where they seem a little vulnerable and expense, once Space Marines get established its largely plain sailing for most SM players - experience and skills notwitthstanding. Whatever you decide to do, with only one or two exceptions, there's at least two or three ways to do anything, at any time, and its a fairly strong move to take. Its not that there's that many wildly imbalanced units, its just that Space Marines enjoy many overlapping advantages that seem to stack very easily. Nevertheless, there isn't a single unit in the SM line-up that doesn't have some attribute that puts it at the top of its class somewhere compared to other units of that type. With the possible exception of the builders. You troops wear battleship plate, have average or above average weapons, have a number of significant upgrades, a trio of immensely powerful Bosses, each equipped with at least one game breaking or game turning spell when used in the right context - and all of them are available by mid game. Teching up is little more than building the right building and pressing a single button. Two at worst. Economically speaking, they're one of the cheapest forces to upgrade. Space Marine units remain useful pretty much throughout the game - investing heavily in basic troops gives SM a significant advantage over other forces that basically find their early army rendered obsolete by teching.

They're a general purpose force and the easiest to get your head around. Their tech tree is very flat, with few upgrades. At its centre is the ubiquitous Space Marine, signature unit of Warhammer 40,000, and elite fighting unit of the Imperium. Marines can be equipped with all kinds of heavy weapons and you'll be using them extensively throughout the game. The Space Marines have an impressive assortment of vehicles, ranging from the infantry crushing Dreadnought mech through to the impressive Land Raider God unit and the fearsome Annihilator Predator tank.