In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are superhuman warrior-monks who fight for the Imperium of Man. They wear mechanised suits of armour and have modified genomes that grant them superhuman strength and endurance. Some Space Marines have betrayed the Imperium and serve the Gods of Chaos, and are thus known as Chaos Space Marines or Heretic Astartes. Warhammer 40,000 is a miniature wargame, where Space Marines are one of the playable factions that can be used. They are the best-known and most popular characters in Warhammer 40,000, always featuring in the artwork and starter set of each edition of Warhammer 40,000 and other spin-off games such as Space Hulk and Epic (excluding the 2nd edition Titan Legions), and simpler derivative games such as Space Crusade. Likewise, they are the most popular protagonists in spin-off fiction such as novels and video games.
Publication history
Space Marines were first introduced in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1987) by Rick Priestley, which was the first edition of the tabletop game. The book Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (Rick Priestley and Bryan Ansell, 1990) was the first book from Games Workshop to give a backstory for the Space Marines. It introduced the original 20 Space Marine Legions as well as their Primarchs. It also first described the Horus Heresy, the civil war of the 30th millennium in which nine of the Legions converted to the worship of the Chaos Gods and rebelled against the Emperor. Two of the original 20 Legions and their respective Primarchs are not named and are described as "redacted" from the records of the Imperium. Rick Priestley explained that this was to illustrate the Imperium's practice of erasing embarrassing or incriminating events and figures from Imperial records (damnatio memoriae).
To me the background to 40K was always intended to be ironic. [...] The fact that the Space Marines were lauded as heroes within Games Workshop always amused me, because they’re brutal, but they’re also completely self-deceiving. The whole idea of the Emperor is that you don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. The whole Imperium might be running on superstition. There’s no guarantee that the Emperor is anything other than a corpse with a residual mental ability to direct spacecraft. It’s got some parallels with religious beliefs and principles, and I think a lot of that got missed and overwritten.
Tabletop games The following tabletop games from Games Workshop use miniature models of Space Marines:
Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team The Horus Heresy Space Hulk (discontinued) Space Crusade (discontinued) Epic: Armageddon (discontinued) Legions Imperialis
Warhammer 40,000 As far as non-hero infantry go, Space Marines are rather powerful and have a high point cost. A Space Marine Intercessor is worth 20 points, whereas a normal human soldier is worth only 4 points. Consequently, an army based on Space Marines will be relatively small compared to, say, a Tyranid army of equal strength. This means that a player can assemble a functional army for relatively little money and effort. In terms of playing style, a Space Marine army neither excels nor fails at any particular tactic, though certain Chapters do have variant rules (e.g. the Salamanders specialise in flamethrowers). Individual units are typically not strongly specialised and can roughly substitute in other roles, meaning most mistakes and setbacks are easy to compensate for. Their tough armour and generally unspecialised weaponry means that they do not have to be manoeuvred as carefully as units of other armies (such as the powerful but frail Aeldari). These qualities make them ideal for beginners, and may help them succeed more often in their early gameplay stages.
Kill Team Much like in Warhammer 40,000, Space Marine teams in Kill Team tend to be small teams of powerful warriors. For instance, a Space Marine team will consist of six warriors, whereas an Imperial Guard team will consist of 10 to 14 warriors.
The Horus Heresy Space Marines in The Horus Heresy are the most widely featured faction, with the original 18 Space Marine Legions represented in a great variety of standard Legion units (accessible to virtually everyone), supplemented by unique specialty Legion rules and units. In comparison to Warhammer 40,000, Horus Heresy-era units tend to be larger, to represent the epic extent of the conflict. Players are also required to declare their allegiance, whether they are loyal to the Emperor of Mankind (Loyalist), to the Warmaster Horus (Traitor), or occasionally, something else (Blackshields + Shattered Legions). Each Space Marine unit's combat capabilities and resiliency vary widely in The Horus Heresy. Basic Tactical Marines tend to be more expendable, with a very low cost and modest weapons and armour, while Elite units, such as the Emperor's Children Palatine Blades, Ultramarines' Invictarus Suzerains, or Sons of Horus Justaerin tend to be very resilient and powerful (but consequently more expensive) compared to their more mundane counterparts. Horus Heresy Space Marine units also tend to be less general in tactical function, with units such as Tactical Support Squads and Recon Squads dedicated to virtually a single purpose on the battlefield, compared to the more mixed units of the Warhammer 40,000 era.
Space Hulk In Space Hulk, Space Marines in Terminator armour move through narrow corridors fending off attacks by alien monsters known as "genestealers". Genestealers are faster and stronger than Space Marines but limited to melee attacks only, whereas the Space Marines possess both ranged and melee weapons.
Legions Imperialis In Legions Imperialis, Space Marines are one of two playable factions. They may be painted as either loyalist or traitor. This is at a 6-millimeter scale. This force may be supplemented with titan legions.
Miniature design
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