Spacemarines from WH40K

master_yoda · Post by **master_yoda** » 2002-07-28 04:16am

How powerful are Space Marines? How strong is one normal space marine? Who can he beat?

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-28 09:42am

OK here we go.

Basic Space Marine:

A space marine starts off as a normal human being, but ends up as something much more. Here is an example of a recruiting process for one of the space marine chapters.

eg. The Space Wolves Chapter:

The Space Wolves recruit marines from their homeplanet of Fenris. This is a harsh iceworld, where survival is hard not just because of the climate but also because there is a large variety of predators that are fully capable of killing people. Recruits normally are noticed if they have killeed a pareticular fearsome animal. These people are then taken to the chapters fortress monastry where they take part in a big feast to celebrate their welcoming into the chapter. This all a big ruse though. they haven't been accepted yet and they still have a long way to go. When they wake up after the feast, where they have got massively drunk on the strong mead, they find that they are naked and some distance from the monastry in the frozen lands of Fenris. The potential recruit must make their way back to the monastry, surviving not only the climate, but the numerous preadtors ,much more dandgerous than the ones that prey on the settlements. The copius (sp) amount of meat devoured at the feast should have given the recruit an extra layer of fat to help him survive for a few hours, but he will soon have to find shelter or kill an animal for its pelt to survive the cold. After weeks or months the recruit may make it back to the monastry, but most do not survive this task. Only the strongest, fitest and most intelligent will ever make it through this task and there is more to come.

(what follows is identical for all chapters)

The recruit now undergos the enhancements that turn him from human to superhuman. The many treatments that the recruit goes through start with accelerated growth. This makes the marine, on average around 10-12 ft. tall. Many surgical procedures are then performed, which include additions of a second heart, third lung and enhancements to many of the other organs. This gives him almost limitless endurance, resistance to most poisons and toxins, the ability to digest almost anything, massively enhanced sensesand the ablity to breathe almost any substance. Various new organs are also introduced to his system including organs for rapid tissue growth(and Regrowth), tougher bone structure and the ability to go into a hibernation state. Assuming he survives all these, the final procedure is perfomed. This gives him a second layer of skin, much tougher than normal skin. However the most important aspect of this skin is that it allows him to wear the powered armour of the space marines. This is where a significant percentage of recruits die.

After all this you will end up with a 10-12 ft tall person with superhuman strength (think someone who could punch through a 3 inch thick sheet of iron), reflexes, speed, toughness (their heavily calcified ribcage gives then a sort of naturl bullet proof vest that can also stop knives and stuff) and endurance.

This is before they are given a suit or armour that makes Stormie armour look like paper, and also further augaments their strength. Low strength laser and progectile weapons (don't ask me for exact details cause all i know is that it's seriously HARD!) need a lucky hit to the eye or joints to even consider injuring the marine.
The standard wepaon for a space marine is the boltgun ( aka bolter) which fire large, caseless rounds. These rounds carry a small explosive charge so that when the round have penetrated the target they explode and cause massive damage. Light body armour is penetrated with ease, and even some heavier armour, as well as light vehicle armour (eg. basic transport). However heavier armour (eg. tanks) are well out of the bolters range.

So in summation, pitting a stormie against a space marine is like pitting the ST federation against the SW Empire

This is not even taking into account things like the "defects" that most chapters have, eg.
Space wolves - further enhanced strength and long canine teeth.
Blood Angels - a tendency for some marines to be over come with bloodlust almost doubling their strength and allowing them to shrug off anti tank weapons.
Black Dragons - Bony growths on each arm. (think Wolverine from the X-Men but with just one blade on each arm)

Darth_Shinji · Post by **Darth_Shinji** » 2002-07-28 09:57am

The best example of thier strenght I can think of at the moment is a fiction from the 2nd edition Angles of Death codex. A group of 5 blood angels killed 30 armed rebels "in moments". It descibes stuff like one ripping a rebels head of with his hands, another cutting a man in half with one swipe of his cainsword. And another throwing a man acroos the room with "cotemptuose ease", and filled the flying body with bullets.

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2002-07-28 07:13pm

In addition to their physical mods, Space Marines are psychologically conditioned to be able to fight, kill and destroy for weeks, months and years on end, throughout their centuries-long lives, without any notable adverse psychological effects. They have absolutely no mercy for the enemy (or even non-combatants or bystanders) and take no prisoners. By our standards, every Space Marine would probably be a war criminal.

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2002-07-28 11:22pm

Space Marines are the ultimate terror trooper. The very mention of Space Marines en-route to a warzone has been enough to achieve victory for the Imperium. Think of them as SW Stormtroopers or Dune Sardaukar taken tot he Nth degree. They really barely qualify as even being human anymore, without their loyalty psycho-conditioning they would be little more than ravening psychopaths. I love them:-)

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-29 07:12pm

Most of the circumstances when whole systems surrendered rather than face the space marines happened when one of the following two chapters were involved:

A) The World Eaters. This is mainly because they are homicidal lunatics and were known to give no quarter. They also prefer close combat to ranged, like Klingons, however, unlike Klingons, they will fight at range and only when they get close enough will they drop ranged weapons in favour of hand-to-hand. Also because of their power armour they stand more chance of actually surviving the charge into combat, unlike Klingons who die in one phaser hit. All these factors, combined with the dismembered corpses that the troops gariisoning the world after the WE had "pacified it" found, led to many systems surrendering rather than facing the WE.

B)The Night Lords. This is mainly due to their tactics. When assualting a world the Night Lords would use a system, simular to the orbital nightcloak of SW in effect, that blocks all offworld communication and puts the planet in a state of permanent night. The NL would then initiate lightning strikes to capture the main communication centers of the planet. This would hamper planetary communication, but the main reason for this was phsycological. The NL would use these centers to continually broadcast the sounds and visions of people being slaughtered. As you can imagine this had a considereable effect on the planets populace and it was discovered that in a typical NL attack a significant amount of casulties actually died from sheer terror. These casulties were not just soldiers but civilians as well.

It should also be noted that both these chapters turned to Chaos (the Evil side of the WH40K universe) during the Horus Heresy

willburns84 · Post by **willburns84** » 2002-07-29 07:30pm

Hmmm, let's not forget some of that Power Weapon lovin'!

No armor save! Kinda like a lightsaber like that.

Yes, yes, they can be turned by "invulnerable" saves - but it's still cool.

Mmmm, tasty possessed marine lovin' too!

Skelron · Post by **Skelron** » 2002-07-29 09:23pm

You forgot my personal favourite Marine addition, the Brain Eating one. (Do they still have it oh well I like it so if it's been done away with sue me...) A Marine can eat the Brain of a deacessed opponment and gather information from the brain, thoughts, feelings, skills it's not a perfect method and is not guarenteed to give the person what they need to know but it can be helpful. (The Space Wolves have a feast once this enhancement has been imported, the Trainees eat a an animal brain and describe the creatures experiancesd to the others. Well almost all of them eat an ani,mal brain one of the initiates is always given a human brain, it's a random choice, just to get over thew point that at sany time you could need to use this. Another old story has a group of scouts eating the brains of a Titan Crew and piloting it from the information gained...)

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-30 04:06pm

Never heard of the brain eating one, but someone did remember that they can live for hundeds, sometimes thousands, of years. If I remember correctly they can also spit acid.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2002-07-30 04:23pm

Yes they still have that, at least according to the most recent spacemarine scourcebook index astartes

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-30 04:26pm

Just think how much the Imperium would kick ass if their FTL drive wasn't so sh*t.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2002-07-30 04:36pm

Yes but they tend to get beaten rather badly by a bunch of crazy pointed ears folks, who dodge laser beams, and project your subconcious fears into your head amplified greatly.....

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-30 04:41pm

Are you suggesting they get their arses kicked by the Eldar? Last tine I checked they couldn't dodge laser bolts. Holo fields could make them miss and some Farseers and Warlocks can predict where they will hit and dodge them, but the vast majority of Eldar can't dodge them.

If not the Eldar then who are you talking about?

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2002-07-30 04:51pm

HA !!! Eldar scum! You have yet to feel the wrath of the Space Wolves

Actually , the brain eating thing I think has been phased out of the SM profile , but it was ever so cool. Space Marines do have vastly extended life spans, the older the Chapter the longer they live , the Space Wolves , Ultra Marines , and other 1st founding Chapters members can live to be over a thousand years old. Also , some particularly revered or brilliant commanders are intered in a Dreadnought (A large fighting robot body) so that they can fight on for the Emperor through eternity. Bjorn the Fell-handed, one of the Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnoughts was a Blood Claw(junior member of the Chapter) when the Emperor was still alive, making him over 10,000 years old

Naturally , he now sleeps most of the time in a special chamber in the Space Wolves home base , the Fang on Fenris, he is only awoken in times of great need for the Chapter.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-30 04:57pm

Ha! Imperial Lap dog. The true power in the galaxy is the power of Chaos! You want long life? Abbadon the Despoiler was captain of the Black Legion during the Horus Heresy and is still alive and kicking Imperial Arse today! BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2002-07-30 05:31pm

DIE TRAITOR!!!

Imperial or Chaos , I think we can all agree Space Marines of all stripes are mighty cool

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-30 05:35pm

They've got a ground army that would dominate the Empire, and to the best of my knowledge the space fleets of the Imperium woiuld also wipe the floor with teh Empires SD's so WHY THE F*CK DO THEY STILL HAVE ONE OF THE LAMEST FTL DRIVES EVER CREATED????!!!!!

Tatterdemalion · Post by **Tatterdemalion** » 2002-07-30 11:46pm

Because if they had the Imperium would've fragged every planet in the galaxy.

[/quote]

Tatterdemalion · Post by **Tatterdemalion** » 2002-07-30 11:46pm

ugh... is there no way to edit posts!

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2002-07-31 01:49am

hmmm heres an idea how would the Federation tke the $0k empire as a neighbor?

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2002-07-31 06:53am

Really, really, really badly. Granted, in space combat the Feds could just run away with their Fancy Dan warp drive, but in any ground engagement or forced space battle the Imperium would muller them effortlessly. They have a full range of ground combat vehicles, decent personal armour for their basic troops, power armour and Terminator suits for their Marines, good personal weapons, teleporters, weapons of mass destruction, fighters, bombers and heavily-armed dropships. A bog-standard Imperial cruiser is 30 kilometres long, heavily shielded and studded with weapons; their battleships are significantly larger and more powerful.

Luke Hares · Post by **Luke Hares** » 2002-07-31 08:44am

The really sad thing is that Marines have got weedier and more theatrical but less effective as time goes by. If we were having this discussion about 10 years ago then I'd even be able to remember some of the names of the addition dozen or so organs that are grafted to them when they survive the training (including the brain eating one!)

And they had better equipment then too.

But they're still pretty cool.

Sniff, guess you can't go back...

Games workshop did to WH40K what B&B are doing to ST, probably for the same reasons...

Cpt_Frank · Post by **Cpt_Frank** » 2002-07-31 09:37am

2000AD wrote:They've got a ground army that would dominate the Empire, and to the best of my knowledge the space fleets of the Imperium woiuld also wipe the floor with teh Empires SD's so WHY THE F*CK DO THEY STILL HAVE ONE OF THE LAMEST FTL DRIVES EVER CREATED????!!!!!

1. conceded
2. any proof for that ie firepower estimates? Or at least a place with pictures of their vessels/vehicles cause I have no clue what they're looking like

Darth_Shinji · Post by **Darth_Shinji** » 2002-07-31 11:10am

Luke Hares wrote:The really sad thing is that Marines have got weedier and more theatrical but less effective as time goes by. If we were having this discussion about 10 years ago then I'd even be able to remember some of the names of the addition dozen or so organs that are grafted to them when they survive the training (including the brain eating one!)

And they had better equipment then too.

But they're still pretty cool.

Sniff, guess you can't go back...

Games workshop did to WH40K what B&B are doing to ST, probably for the same reasons...

Doesn't the newest book bring the organs back? And a 1999 novel I have has the brain eating in it.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2002-07-31 02:19pm

Pah! onyl the servants of the false Emperor of Mankind are getting weaker. Only the spce marines under the true powers, the powers of Chaos are strong. I'd like to see the Feds try and deal with an attack from the Night Lords. Praise be to the Dark Gods!