Alright I'm back from a week long vacation and ready to get back into the interwebz again. So here it is, another instalment of 40k as I see it. (Or a weird look at the history of 40k)
The SPACE MARINE!!!1!!!!111!!!!
Ahh space marines, the boys in power armor, everyones starting army, the basis of the entire game mechanic. Everyone has had at least one army in their gaming closet once in their gaming careers. (Ive had about 7) Everyone knows the iconic defenders of humanity and the tales of their exploits. But where did they come from? I'm here to give a abridged history of them through the timeline of 40k. Names and chapters have been changed to protect the innocent.
Space marines have always been a staple of the far off future but they haven't always been as bad ass as they are nowadays. Back in the far flung past of rouge trader they were just regular men in heavy armor. Outstanding recruits that were trusted with the heaviest armor to get them in and out of the heaviest fighting on the battlefields of the 40th millennium.
These guys were placed into organizations known as chapters even back then, but they weren't as rigorously structured as they are today. There wasn't a set number of troops in a chapter, there wasn't the strict company structure. Hell back then you could have marines from the same chapter with completely different paint schemes on fighting in the same battle zones.
I remember in the RT book that there would be whole sections showing off the camouflage schemes used on a certain planet. A practice unheard of today. Imagine a blood angel smearing his Red painted power armor with browns and greens to better blend in. Its unthinkable that they would mess up their battle plate in such a way. Hell we all know that under those red ceramite plates there is a sparkly chested man who hates having his lipstick smeared let alone roll in the mud to avoid detection. Its just too uncivilized.
Back then there were a huge number of chapters, from the "Fighting Abbots" to "Ziggy's malcontent weasels". The "Space Sharks" were tearing through orks left and right and the "Rainbow Warriors" were in full blown limp wrist mode. And there was such a thing as chapter pride, there wouldn't be two marine players of the same chapter in a store. If you went to your FLGS and you saw blue marines and green marines fighting with red marines and purple marines then by god you made a black marine chapter so your army could stand out from the rest.
Then something shifted in the 41st millennium. It was a little thing called 2nd edition. All of a sudden the guys in the power armor weren't just guys in power armor. They were supermen genetically enhanced and conditioned to fight better than they already were. They were now gods of the battlefield, they were told to be able to take a tank round to the chest and keep on fighting. To go into the most inhospitable wastelands carry out the mission and get back home in time for tea without losing a single man. They were immortal and could whip anything the universe could throw at them. And they had all the cool gear to do it too. Ahh I long for the days that GW gives the marines back jetbikes.... *sigh* never gonna happen though.
The problem with all of this fluff was that when you hit the board thinking your men were nigh invulnerable to the enemy you were in for a rude awakening. Marines die, allot, and often.
So fast forward a few more years and the tectonic plates of the game shifted again to 3rd edition. This is where 40k hit its stride (I can hear all the old hats like me getting ready to write nasty comments about this.) It opened up allot more of the universe and expanded allot of the story lines and let kids get into the game as it simplified everything.
In late 2nd and beginning at 3rd you started to see some of the chapters getting uppity and decide to have their own codexes because, well, they just didn't want to listen to the ultramarines anymore, they aren't our daddies. So you started to get the new chapters which wasn't terrible, the FOCs changed a bit and there were some cool new special rules for the different codexes. This continued for a while and all was right with the world of 40k.
Fast forward some more and low and behold we get a new edition, and with it a whole new crop of marine codexes. The 4th ed codexes started with a noble goal. One that would see the incredibly powerful hero's fade into the background and get the game back to its roots of having your troops do all of the fighting and the characters lending a hand here and there. This was in my opinion a great change, I was tired of having the Chapter master tooled up with a retinue plow into my lines and pac man all the way across both flanks. The marines got mobile again and instead or rolling around in coffins on tracks, rhinos and razorbacks had a chance to actually get you men where they needed to go. (I ran a full drop pod army at the time btw) Marines took up the mighty bolters again and holstered the pistols and chainsword. Commanders had to learn tactics like fire lanes, torrent of fire, and defensive deployment again. The game was back to its shoot out style roots.
Then something started to happen as more and more marine codexes rolled out. The rules were diverging more and more from the original codex. The chapter pride was slowly starting to chip away as newer books started to have more competitive rules and the community started to look toward the Internet for advice on army builds and construction. It didn't hit a head until the clouds parted and from on high came a shining light, then on wings of angels 5th edition was released to the masses.
All of a sudden chapter pride and individuality of your army vanished. The codexes started to get more and more powerful. The chapters that had the bad luck of not getting a book yet started to get complacent as their powerful 4th ed. army started to fade into obscurity. And that is when I saw the most abhorrent sickening thing I have ever seen in my entire 40k career.
Dark Angels using the Space Wolf codex...
I'm gonna let that sink in.....
Dark Angels using the Space Wolf codex...
It was an abomination! Going against all that is holy in the fluff of 40k! As soon as I saw this I reached back and pulled my plasma pistol to purge the heretic. Then I promptly rolled a 1.
As I came to from my backfiring coma I was told of this new phenomenon called "counts-as". I was heart broken. I realised that on that day, chapter pride was dead. The blue marines were no longer blue marines they were black marines in disguise. The guy who had the purple marines now said they were red. The red marines some how were able to convince their opponents that they were grey marines.... Oh I'm gonna be sick.
There started to be new kits and units released for the red and grey marines. It was like a school yard bully taking your ball and holding it above his your while you flail your arms. "Ha ha you cant have this, I know you want it but you cant because I said so." The deathwing, something I thought was always gonna be the dark angels started to pop up in grey armor as something called the "logan wing". Storm ravens were released for tyhe red guys. Blood claws, whole bike armies, baal predators, fast transports, thunderwolves, furiosos, deep striking land raiders, thunderfire cannons, FREAKING VULKAN!!!!!!!
Oh I need to calm down before i give myself an aneurysm.....
In conclusion what I am trying to say is that the marines have come along way but I believe they left some things in the past. Chapter pride is dead and buried. I haven't seen a whirlwind on the board in over half a decade. Marines can no longer feel pain. The internet tells you what is overpowered and crap. And finally like the company commanders I to feel like I have been stuffed into the bottom of the troop transport and will never see the light of day again.
Rant over, I need to get a beer to go drown my memories into.
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