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Codex Astartes

2016-02-29T06:48:43Z

2601:245:4201:C2E0:94C2:5E6C:2784:2B3D: /* Chapters with differences in formations or composition */

<center> '' The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us....shape us as Ultramarines...teach us how to hold duty and honor sacred above all.'' '''''But how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine...'''''
 -[[Captain Titus]], [[Ultramarines]] 2nd Company</center>

<center> '' ‘But your teachings…’ '''‘Are yet flawed,’ said Guilliman. ‘No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed.''' There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed.’'''''
 -[[Roboute Guilliman]], [[Primarch]] of the Ultramarines</center>

<center> '' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_rwCenX9o Is that wise, captain? The Codex Astartes does not support this action-]"'''''
 -[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Leandros]]</center>

The Codex Astartes was written by [[Roboute Guilliman]] [[Imperium Secundus|over the course]] of the [[Horus Heresy]] and presented it when things settled down; among other things, its suggested organizational scheme split the remaining [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] into small, manageable chunks. It also includes tactical doctrines for just about every situation, like the formidable [[Steel Rain]]. Most loyalist Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes to varying degrees. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, while the [[Space Wolves]] only find it useful for toilet paper.

==Chapters==
Under the Codex Astartes, the Space Marine legions were to be split into one thousand-strong [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]]s (often already a subunit within some pre-Heresy legions like the [[Blood Angels]], [[Dark Angels]](heh), [[Salamanders]], Ultramarines, and [[Word Bearers]]) composed of ten companies. The 1st Company is composed of [[Veteran Squad|Veterans]], and are the only company in the chapter to employ [[Terminator]] armor.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies are called Battle Companies, composed of six [[Tactical Squad]]s, two [[Devastator Squad]]s, and two [[Assault Squad]]s. They train together, and when a Space Marine Company deploys as a single unit, it will be one of these.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies are the reserve squads, and are more specialized than the first five companies. The 6th and 7th Companies are composed entirely of Tactical Marines (who specialize in using [[Bike Squad|bikes]] and [[Land Speeder]]s, respectively), the 8th Company of Assault Marines, and the 9th Company entirely of Devastator Marines.

The 10th Company is composed entirely of [[Scout]] Marines, who are eventually promoted to other companies after a certain number of years.

Of course, one thousand Marines assumes ten Companies, with ten Squads, with ten Marines, and nothing more. But, including vehicle crews, [[Librarian]]s, [[Techmarine]]s, [[Chaplain]]s, Company [[Command Squad]]s, [[Apothecary|Apothecaries]], Honor Guard, [[Dreadnought]]s and other support personnel, it turns out that a Chapter with a full roster will have something like 1500 Marines, not counting a scout company that doesn't have a fixed limit of 100 scouts so attrition doesn't put a hamper on chapter reinforcements, plus who knows how many unaugmented human serfs and Auxilia. It's also a figure which assumes no battle casualties; given that the mandate of the Space Marines is to seek out and destroy the direst enemies of the Imperium, this is a state of affairs which is hardly ever the case - indeed, one of the reasons Reserve Companies exist is to provide a pool from which to keep the Battle Companies at fighting strength.

==Marine roles==

Among the tenets of the Codex, Guilliman outlined the roles of various Marines to be used in Chapters. They include the following:

*'''[[Scout|Scout Squad]]''': Scout Marines are Neophyte Space Marines who are charged with scouting terrain and enemy positions. A risky job, but this has the effect of ensuring that the more cautious ones survive while the reckless and foolish are weeded out.

*'''[[Devastator Squad|Devastator]]''': Devastator Marines can be summed up in three words: Blow shit up. The purpose of the Devastator is to provide heavy weapons fire in battle, artillery strikes, and hunting tanks. Once a Scout earns his Black Carapace and Power Armor, he will be attached to a Devastator Squad, allowing him to bond with his armor while learning its strengths by lugging heavy weapons around.

*'''[[Assault Squad|Assault]]''': Assault Marines are those who specialize in melee combat, using [[Chainsword|Chain]] and [[Power weapon]]s alike to fuck up the enemies of the [[Imperium of Man]]. In addition, they also possess jump packs which can allow them limited flight. This is the next stop in a new Marine's career, helping to familiarize him with any weapons he hasn't used yet, and putting him through the crushing psychological stress of hand-to-hand combat under something resembling optimal conditions.

*'''[[Tactical Squad|Tactical]]''': The backbone of a Battle Company, Tactical Marines are those who are flexible in combat, relying on both ranged weapons and melee weapons in combat. Note that due to the order of the Companies, they usually have served as both Assault and Devastator Marines, so they definitely know the basics of both, granting the majority of the chapter great theoretical tactical flexibility.

*'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran]]''': Veteran Marines are those who have seen through several centuries, allowing them access to all the cool toys in the Chapter's armory since they're hopefully experienced and cool-headed enough not to, say, super-glue the sacred sword of the Founder to the codpiece of their armor and pretend that it's their willy. Chapter veterans get to wear [[Terminator]] armor (the Crux Terminatus is a cross between a medal and authorization papers), but they sometimes stay with normally-sized power armor instead, which is instead slowly turned into Artificer armor by all the bling and enhancements. Power-armored Veterans are divided into two subgroups: Vanguard (who focus on close quarters combat) and Sternguard (who focus on bolter drills and other forms of ranged warfare).

==Ranks==

The Codex Astartes formalized and simplified the ranks among the Adeptus Astartes, eliminating some ranks like "commander" and "lieutenant", while adding some more. They include:

*'''[[Chapter Master]]''': The grand poobah of the Chapter. He is the one who gives Marine companies their assignments, and ultimately recognizes no external authority save for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]. That being said, it's a very silly (or [[Logan Grimnar|very manly]]) Chapter Master that can tell an [[Inquisitor]] to sit on a [[Nova Cannon]] and rotate. Whilst Inquisitors are technically outside the Space Marine chain of command, they have the ability to requisition squads, Companies or entire Chapters if need be.

*'''[[Brother-Captain|Captain]]''': Captains are the commanders of Companies, overseeing their Marines from the front line instead of the back. Captains are usually promoted from the senior Sergeant in the Company. The most senior is the First Captain, who commands the Veteran 1st Company, and is often the official heir apparent to the Chapter Master. Each Company Captain also holds a Chapter-level position of authority, supervising his Chapter's fleet, vehicle pool, recruits, or territory, for example.

*'''[[Brother-Sergeant|Sergeant]]''': Sergeants lead squads of four to nine other Marines depending on the influx of recruits. There are approximately ten sergeants per Codex approved Company. Often, the most senior sergeant will be the commander of a company's "First Squad" ''(usually a Tactical Squad)'' and will likely be next in line for a promotion if the Captain is ever slain, but not always. Members of the Captain's Command Squad may also be Sergeants who get additional duties as the Captain's role might require.
**'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran-Sergeant]]''': Not a "rank" exactly, but more of a recognition of status for those who have been members of a Chapter's First Company, quite frequently these guys get redistributed back to the lower companies to act as squad leaders where their experience will do some good, hence "Veteran Sergeant". These guys will usually get to wear the "Crux Terminatus" even when in power armour, to represent the fact that they have earned the right to use Terminator Armour. Note that Veteran Sergeants can serve in the ranks of the Scouts, Devastators, and Assault Marines despite being technically overqualified, in each case helping the new recruits to adapt to Chapter life. In old 3rd Edition rules you could get Captains without terminator honours, which kind of implied that they never passed through the first company but still got command, nowadays a Captain is just one thing.
**Old second edition fluff also gave us the "Veteran" position within regular Battle-Company squads who was marked with a different form of insignia, but was wholly unconnected with the first company. His job to act as the second-in-command under his sergeant ''(Veteran Sergeant or otherwise)'' of his squad and to take command of a combat squad when the unit gets split up. Essentially this was just an organisational position and made no difference to the skill or rules of the model.

*'''Champion''': The best close quarters fighter in a company, the Company Champion is charged with protection of the Captain from all hostile threats. Given that your average Captain is a badass in power armor, this may seem redundant, but it's supposed to allow him to focus on coordinating the battle. Almost always part of a Command Squad. The most elite of these is the Chapter Champion, who is charged with protecting the Chapter Master.

*'''Force Commander''': Not a rank but a title given to the leader of a force (duh) either given if more than one company is fighting at the same time, or if the company has to split up and the Captain gives an XO like the leader of his command squad. For a tabletop comparison, this could be any senior sergeant since any character can be made the army's warlord and it would fit the description quite nicely.

*'''[[Honour Guard]]''': Like a veteran-veteran, assumed to be the best of the best. These guys get bunched together and given some of the best gear available to the chapter. The fluff tells us that these guys are peers of Captains in terms of battlefield experience, but do not have the command rank to actually issue any orders, though when Honour Guard speak up it's advised that the officers nearby listen carefully. Thankfully the tabletop game is balanced not to give a whole squad full of Captain-equivalent soldiers.

*'''Standard Bearer''': The Company Standard Bearer, given the title of '''Ancient''' ''(the old term for Ensign, who was traditional standard bearer)'', is charged with carrying and protecting the Company Standard, or banner. Also frequently joins the Command Squad. Should a Company Standard Bearer drop the banner and let it fall to the ground, he will essentially forfeit his honor. If the Standard Bearer should be killed and the banner stolen, then the entire Company will be dishonored until the banner is reclaimed. Which means that if you steal a Company Standard, you now have nearly one hundred Space Marines who were just trying to kill you, but now you had to go and make it personal. The most elite of these is the Chapter Standard Bearer ''(often a member of the Honour Guard)'', who carries the Chapter banner in war.

Outside of the above mentioned battle ranks, there are other senior positions within a Chapter:

*'''Chief Librarian''': The head of the Librarium, who assigns [[Librarian]]s to assist in battlefield communications. Also tests to see whether or not his battle-brothers are tainted by [[Chaos]] ("Yes brother, this is standard Codex procedure." *Snaps Latex gloves*)

*'''Master of the Apothecarion''': The head of the Apothecarion, who assigns an [[Apothecary]] to each Company. The Apothecarion in turn also takes care of the [[gene-seed]] that Chapters place such holy emphasis on, and for good reason: no gene-seed - no new recruits.

*'''Master of the Forge''': The head of the Armoury, who assigns [[Techmarine]]s to oversee maintenance of the machine-spirits of the chapter's wargear and motor pool.

*'''Master of Sanctity''': The head of the Chaplaincy, and spiritual leader of the Chapter. He assigns [[Chaplain]]s to the Companies to oversee the spiritual health of the Chapter.

*'''Reclusiarch''': The Chaplain who oversees the Chapter's Reclusiam ''(where they keep the relics and other secret historical stuff)''. But quite often the job gets rolled-up into the Master of Sanctity's job description. It's uncertain what interaction ''(if any)'' they have with the Master of Relics, or it is quite possible that a Chaplain receives the role if that Captain of the 9th company gets a different position.

*'''Lord Admiral''': Often the Captain of the 4th company gets this position by default as "Master of the Fleet", but it's [[Uriel Ventris|not unheard of for a Captain to step down]] from the position if someone else would be better suited to the role, they call that person "Lord Admiral" and gets command over the Chapter's fleet assets. Though it might be perfectly reasonable that that space marine holds a battlefield rank of Battle-Brother or Sergeant, so he's probably just on secondment until the Captain ''(or his replacement)'' wants the job back.

*'''Lieutenant Commander''': We know of [[Marines Errant|only one example]] of this rank, and it applies to the commander of a vessel, which makes sense since most Space Marine chapters have more ships than Captains, so ''somebody'' has to get the job of commanding them. Though often we assume it's just a techmarine or sergeant of whichever squad gets attached to that vessel or more likely a badass high ranking [[Chapter Serf]] who doesn't need to be superhuman to understand how space ships operate.

==What the Codex set out to Accomplish==

While the Codex Astartes has a few good points on how Space Marines should fight, it contains a truckload of a lot of bad points on even how an army should be. Due to Guilliman's unending paranoia over the fact that none of his brothers are possibly loyal anymore (and to cover up on how fucking useless he was during most of the [[Horus Heresy]]), he made it so that he ruined the Space Marines entirely ([[skub|though the matter is highly debatable]]), [[Matt Ward|which in comparison is oddly prophetic to this man who worked on the Space Marine Codex and butchered it with Ultramarine fanboyism]].

===Splitting up the Legions===
One fatal flaw of the Codex is the splitting up of the legions and maintaining a maximum of 1,000 battle brothers at any given time, this made the Space Marines even more of a fragmented force concerned with their own agendas than a unified fighting force along with making it longer for them to rebuild and reform whenever they sustain heavy casualties after a major campaign that can only deploy half of its forces at a given time except in the gravest emergencies. This was foolish for another reason. After all, you know the enemy matches your numbers, so you would normally wish to take advantage of the million worlds of the Imperium to outnumber your foe, right? Apparently Guilliman decided that outnumbering the enemy is for chumps. Ten thousand marines per chapter would have made far more sense, especially given the size of the Imperium and the fact that the Chapters will rarely have the option of focusing their full might on one target.

''This is disputable.'' The original [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes]], while the most dangerous forces assembled since the [[War in Heaven]], would have a far too centralized leadership to be effectively deployed across a galaxy-spanning Imperium with thousands of conflicts that needed Astartes support. Stress-fractures were already appearing in the established structure at the time of the Heresy. Furthermore a Battle Company or less would likely be more than enough for most campaigns.

*Except that Expeditionary Fleets and Task Forces were a thing that already existed in the Great Crusade. After all, the Legiones Astartes were already organized into chapters. They were given particular missions and most eventually developed trends of their own. An example were Perturabo's Grand Batallions, which were formations given their own missions, warzones and initial resources, and were expected to become [[Space_Marine_Chapter|self-sufficient]] and eventually increase size; this independency within a Legion's chapters is what allowed [[Blood_Ravens|Loyal elements]] to secede from [[Thousand_Sons|Traitor legions]]. All this allows tactical flexibility while still keeping an unified command, which is pretty much what the [[Dark Angels]] <s>kept on doing</s> ABSOLUTELY DIDN'T DO, FOR THE SONS OF THE LION FOLLOW THE CODEX ASTARTES TO THE LETTER.

But wait, you might exclaim, what about wars that DO require a Legion level deployment. Well, with the exception of the First War for [[Armageddon]] and the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|First Tyrannic War]], Legion sized forces '''were''' present at those conflicts albeit from various Chapters but with an unified theater-exclusive command structure. Notably [[Dante]] and [[Logan Grimnar]] assumed such a role in the Second Armageddon Wars and the [[13th Black Crusade]] respectively, in either case with the almost-unanimous consent of their fellow chapter-masters.

While the Grand/Clan/Fighting Company system of non-codex Chapters offers a greater degree of flexibility in terms of galactic force projection, it leaves the individual non-Codex Companies much more vulnerable to the debilitation of heavy casualties. As a whole though, the Codex Astartes does not structurally hamstring its adhering Chapters. The character of the Chapter does that.''

It transpires that Guilliman's first intention with the codex was never to actually break up the Legions AT ALL, but saw the usefulness after discussions with one of his sergeants: '''Aeonid Thiel''' and figured out that smaller forces of marines can respond and deploy with far more efficiency than the Legions of the past, and that if larger deployments ever became necessary then the chapters would support and adapt to one another.

===Codifying Conformity===
The other flaw was turning each chapter into a generic army using a different name. The Codex Astartes details specifically how a Space Marine should act in every combat situation that [[Roboute Guilliman]] had encountered. While this does give Marines a good idea on how to act when they're staring down a [[Chaos]] warband or a marauding pack of Flesh Hounds, this makes them far too predictable for those who have faced the Space Marines for a long time. As Sun Tzu said, ''"Do not face your opponent too many times or you will reveal your art of war;"'' ''(Any body else find it ironic that Sun Tzu, a notoriously proverb-y text of what to do in any given situation, is invoked to denounce the Codex?)'' ''(Not really. Have you actually read the Art of War? It's a book of generalized tips for managing huge groups of people, including basics you might not think of, like "let the enemy retreat, or else they'll fight your balls off". In contrast, the Codex Astartes is very specific on how things are to be organized at all times)'' given that Guilliman expected Space Marines to be the same thing, except for their colors and whatever they scream at their enemies, the enemies of man will basically be expecting the same thing again and again.

Because of this, an intelligent and experienced opponent with enough dakka to survive one encounter with a Codex Chapter will quickly realize how to deal with any Marine force strictly adhering to the Codex Astartes' tactics. This fault is compounded by the fact that the Codex has no information on threats encountered after Guilliman's time. The [[Ultramarines]] experienced this personally when they got their asses beaten hard when they faced the [[Tyranid]] incursion in their sector for the first time, numerous encounters with [[Necron]]s that ended hilariously poorly for them, the Ultramarines constantly got themselves outdicked and outmaneuvered by [[Tau]], and when [[Uriel Ventris|one of their Captains]] developed a novel set of tactics for successfully dealing with the Tyranids, he was punished for deviating from the Codex (OK, the reason is because he left his men to join a [[Deathwatch]] mission)!

It should also be noted that their [[Chaos Space Marines|greatest enemy]] are comprised almost entirely of <s>former Loyalists</s> millennia old veterans who are familiar with the tactics and approaches listed within the Codex Astares, so it's a wonder the Ultramarines ever survive in combat against Renegades. It's probably because Chaos Marines are all batshit insane by the time loyalist Astartes encounter them.

Compare this to chapters who follow their own standard operating procedures, like the [[Space Wolves]] and [[Black Templars]], and those who do not fully embrace all of the tactical doctrines of the Codex, like the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Blood Angels]]: they and their successors have a much more extensive list of victories, and a shorter list of failures. Consider the [[Damocles Crusade]], wherein the Ultramarines failed to beat up the Tau for years due to their unfamiliar nature (and due to Farsight [[Just as Planned|deciphering the Codex and using it to predict the actions of codex-chapters]]), while the independent Black Templars had much better luck. As in all matters, moderation is key: Guilliman was no fool, but he was not omniscient, either.

In actual fact his original intention for the Codex Astartes was to REMOVE all of the varied and idiosyncratic legions of the past and create a single UNIFIED Legion with a more flexible doctrine. In the past, the Legions were made up of companies of soldiers who fought in the way that best suited them, thus the White Scars would be bikers, the Blood Angels would be Assault marines etc, or even within individual Legions you would have found that certain companies fought in a particular manner according to their experience, creating a stagnation in tactical flexibility. In the same conversation he had with '''Aeonid Thiel''' he realised that training your soldiers to behave in a more tactical manner was actually better, so basically that an Assault Marine could change his loadout and become a Devastator or whatever role needed filling at a particular time. ''(Ironic in that the [[Alpha Legion]] were the only guys doing that pre-heresy, but Guilliman would scorn Alpharius's overall strategies as being too wasteful, but that had nothing to do with an individual unit's tactical flexibility)''

This is precisely why [[Captain Titus]] (who was ironically an Ultramarine himself) said Matt Ward can go fuck himself with all that spiritual liege bullshit, and that Space Marines are at their best when they mix the Codex's advice with the ability to think for their own damn selves. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaHJgzxmyj0 But here is what he really thinks of the Codex Astartes and Leandros]

Worse than that, ''even Guilliman himself'' said the Codex could not supplant brains. Too bad he hadn't wrote it on the books cover, or at least on first page. Then again, no one, not even amongst the Ultramarines, has read the ''entire'' codex. They all have large sections but not everything (yet stupidly act on out-of-context information). Besides, it could be in the foreword or something, no one reads the foreword. Heh, "for Ward".

===Did it really manage that?===
Despite Ward's assertion that the codex is rigidly followed, even his own shitty writing admits that most of the Ultramarines successors/codex chapters are just picking and choosing the bits they like from the codex and ignoring the rest. And you can pretty much guarantee that any chapter that gets it's own novel is going to deviate from the codex. Notable examples are the [[Silver Skulls]], who have combo librarian/chaplains, a scout hardwired into a strike cruiser in a similar fashion to a [[dreadnought]] (yes, it's tech heresy; yes, they know it; no, they don't care) and assault squads in the 9th (devastator) company. Also the [[Hawk Lords]] who are so into flying that other chapters send their pilots to the Hawk Lords "Talon Wings" for training, the [[Aurora Chapter]] who are treadheads above all, the [[Exorcists]] with 2 extra scout companies (12 companies total), the [[Mortifactors]] whose chapter rituals are so far from codex as to be offensive to a visiting Ultramarine and the [[Relictors]] using chaos weapons against chaos.

All Ultramarines successors, all codex chapters, all just using the bits they feel like. Dammit Ward, you can't even keep your fluff-rape consistent. It's very obvious that contrary to Ward's writing in Codex: Space Marines that pretty much nobody follows the Codex Astartes rigidly apart from some of the Ultramarines. The [[Imperial Fists]], [[Salamanders]], [[Raven Guard]], [[White Scars]] and [[Iron Hands]] are also theoretically Codex chapters with varying degrees of divergence from the Codex, tweaking and modifying it to suit their favoured tactics, organisation, rituals and markings. The list of official codex chapters that diverge from the Codex Astartes is so long its just easier to list the chapters that do follow it rigidly. In that category, we have the Ultramarines and... um... well, nobody else really. Oh wait, scratch that, Ultramarines do now have non-Codex formations, such as Tyranic war veterans, so even they cannot hold the title of rigid Codex followers. That role has since been picked up by the [[Red Scorpions]]. Except that the Red Scorpions have the non-codex compliant Apothecary-Sergeant. The only Chapter that literally follows the codex to the LETTER, are the [[Hammers of Dorn]].

Guilliman's intention was to create many smaller chapters of equally flexible forces rather than large forces that adhere to a rigid and imbalanced doctrine. Thus it's either a case that the less hidebound chapters who loosely adhere to the codex and make ''practical'' adjustments to suit their levels of experience and available equipment are [[Skub|more]] in tune with the spirit of the codex than anyone else and that those who follow the codex [[Lawful Stupid|"rigidly"]] have missed the point... Either that or the deviants have failed to realise that the Codex [[Skub|"should"]] have already covered their situational needs in the first place and that deviation from it was unnecessary. It depends on what [[Your dudes|YOU as the reader]] think the codex actually encompasses...

Of course it should be noted that GW has never really shown what's in the Codex and writers have different views. For example, [[Dan Abnett]] views it similar to ''The Art of War'', with general tips and tactics, while [[Graham McNeill]] views it like a football play book. Since all of Ward's codex quotes seem to favor Abnett's ideal of what the Codex is like, its possible that by following it "rigidly" its following the basic ideal of the codex, i.e. the general organization and being flexible in combat (which is why the smurfs can choose to fail morale tests when they're making tactical withdraws). It's a stupid way to word it but that's the norm for the Imperium.

==Boundless Amusement==

[[Captain Titus]] of the Ultramarines in the recent [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREEN]] game, tells young Leandros that the Codex is not always a good thing to follow literally.

The usefulness of the Codex Astartes is also a major theme in [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Ultramarines'' novel series. When [[Uriel Ventris]] is on trial for violating the Codex, First Captain [[Severus Agemman]] comes and confides in him, saying that while his decisions made sense, the Ultramarines must stick to the letter and spirit of the Codex, as the Codex Astartes is not how to be a good Space Marine, it's about how to be a ''loyal'' Space Marine. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, as the [[Imperium of Man]]'s average response to free thinking is to start screaming incoherently and beat the free thinker to death, but we digress. By the end of the series, [[Marneus Calgar]] is admitting that blindly following the Codex might be costing them in the war with [[M'kar]] and [[Honsou]], who in particular knows how the Ultramarines will react due to their adherence to the Codex.

Which is the exact same lesson they learn during the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|first Tyranid war]]. Which is why so many people turned on McNeill after Chapter's Due as it sums up as "Ultramarines can only be cool if they act like Space Wolves". This combine with more recent portrayals of Ultrmarines showing them as extremely tactical flexible. And the codex itself is portrayed as not a static thing but something that has been revised and added to over the years.

[[Nick Kyme]] also plays with it a bit, however far differently. Unlike McNeill who uses it as a strawman to make Uriel look cool. He treats is more or less like everyone else does. However many Ultramarines follow it differently. [[Cato Sicarius]] plays it more loosely, resulting in him being more unpredictable but also more willing to take high risk, high reward actions, and his own personality means he'll do things the codex speaks against like trying to hunt down and kill the enemy commander in a duel. Agemman meanwhile follows it more to the letter, but also follows the more willing to take pragmatic tactics because of it.

=="Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex)==
More commonly, are those chapters which follow the codex at an organisational level, but disregard certain tactical aspects contained within, most likely because they have their own modus-operandi that they have a preference for, or because they create their own unique tactics that had never been considered.

'''[[Aurora Chapter]]'''
*Follows the Codex Astartes, yet has a large number of vehicles.
*They have a lot of vehicles.
*For a 1000 man sized Chapter, they have a lot of tanks.
*Of all the Codex Chapters they have the most tanks.
*Their armored spearhead attacks are pretty devastating.

'''[[Charnel Guard]]'''
*Cannot say too much about those guys since they are very secretive, thus their organisation and structure are completely unknown.
*Rumored to be Blood Angels successors, yet as said before, they are totally unknown from a organisational and structural P.O.V.
*Have a lot of Great Crusade and Horus Heresy Era stuff, including a Fellblade.

'''[[Crimson Fists]]'''
*More tactically oriented [[Imperial Fists]].
*Actually do follow the Codex more closely than other Sons of Dorn (but not that much like the Hammers of Dorn).
*At the time of their founding, they were known to be the most level-headed members of the Imperial Fists Legion, therefore took in the Codex much faster and easier.
*Only deviation is the existence of a Crusader Company that is a 1st Company that has 128 Veterans. A result of an event where they were reduced to 128 members during the Crusade of Righteous Liberation.
*Due to the whole situation with Rynn's World, the Chapter became very capable at fighting [[Orks]].

'''[[Emperor's Shadows]]'''
*Iron Hands Successors that follow the Codex.
*Put more emphasis on projectile weapons (like Bolter Weapons) and Dreadnoughts.

'''[[Executioners]]'''
*Choose to go into close combat with the enemy.
*Heavy emphasis on their own skills and superhuman abilities enhanced with sheer Determination.

'''[[Hammers of Dorn]]'''
*Follow the Codex to the letter, yet do put more emphasis on heavy weapons and overwhelming firepower.
*No really, they follow the ABSOLUTE LETTER of the codex.
*Not even the [[Ultramarines]](Famous for having the primarch that wrote the damn thing) follow the codex more rigidly than them.
*They probably actually read the Codex from cover to cover.

'''[[Hawk Lords]]'''
*Codex compliant, yet put large emphasis on flyers.

'''[[Minotaurs]]'''
*Instead of sending out a single company, the Minotaurs utilize mob and berserker tactics along with sending out all ten of their companies to utterly overwhelm and crush their foes.

'''[[Raptors]]'''
*[[Reasonable Marines|Camouflage Power Armour]]. Technically this IS in the codex, but they're the [[Derp|only space marine chapter out of literally thousands]] that actually bothers to do it. They're also sneeki beekies, just like their Raven Guard progenitors.

'''[[Raven Guard]]'''
*Sneeki Cheeki [[beakie|Beekies]]. While they do follow the codex, their chapter made amusingly extensive use of mutants (during the [[Horus Heresy]]), and [[Reasonable Marines|stealth tactics and guerilla warfare]] due to their situation.

'''[[Space Sharks|Space Sharks/Carcharodons]]'''
*Greater emphasis on infantry and terror tactics.
*Will sneak up as close as possible to the enemy to later tear them a new one in close combat while berserking.
*May be organisationally non compliant as well, but they are quite tight lipped about it.

'''[[Storm Giants]]'''
*Codex compliant, but utilize armoured assaults, Drop Pod strikes, and heavily use Scouts to get intel before ruining someone's day.
*Due to their heavy use of Scouts, they have a larger than average 10th Company.

'''[[White Scars]] and some Successors'''
*Disproportionate emphasis put on bikes and speeders compared to heavy vehicles, still adhering to codex formation however.

==Non-Codex Chapters==
As mentioned, there are so many chapters in the Imperium and very few of them follow the codex absolutely to the letter. Many chapters have their own preferred mode of warfare based upon their experiences, supplies and dispositions, often they generate their own interpretations and deviations from the codex. Here follows a comparative listing of those chapters and the way in which they differ from what the codex actually prescribes.

===Chapters with drastic differences in formations or composition===
A rare case of deviation from the codex is when a Chapter outright ignores most or all the elements of the Codex Astartes in order to pursue their own independent take on warfare. Much larger number of battle brothers than the standard 1000 men, often unique ranks that even combine elements from other specialists, ignoring the tactics Roboute Guilliman wrote down, and even unique units that sometimes do not even have a counterpart seen among those who follow the Codex more closely or completely. As mentioned before, these Chapters are extremely rare and may very well be under Inquisitorial surveillance. [[Horus Heresy|Because we all know how that well ended the last time when there was much more than a thousand brothers]]. Then again, these Space Marine Chapters may seem to concentrate a lot of power, yet are as loyal as any other Chapter. Paranoia is a staple of the Imperium.

'''[[Astral Claws]]'''
*'''Pre-[[Red Corsairs]] Times''': Before [[Lugft Huron]] went pants-on-heads retarded, the Chapter was known for being exceptionally stubborn with skilled Bikers and favoring lightning strikes and boarding actions while still following the Codex.
*'''[[Badab War]] Times''':
**Due to Huron's pants-on-heads retarded thinking, the Chapter seized the Badab Sector's industry and made it so that Bolter rounds and Rhinos were mass-produced to the point being expendable, not to mention the larger-than-standard number of marines due to them purposefully not paying their geneseed tithe.
**Emergence of specialized units (such as the hated Corpse-Takers) and human Auxilia. Squads larger due to aforementioned not paying of the geneseed tithe.

'''[[Black Templars]]'''
*"Chapter" made up of ad-hoc crusade fleets and fighting companies, their numbers thus swelling up to six times the size of everyone else's.
*No Scout company, instead recruits are apprenticed to fully fledged battle-brothers, aka "Crusader squads".
*No Librarians.
*Doctrinal emphasis on close quarters combat.
**Abundance of previously unsanctioned Land Raider "Crusader"s to deliver said Crusader squads to CQC. See the trend here?
*Outright [[Word_Bearers|deification of the Emperor]] (contrary to the usual, more restrained veneration other chapters profess).
**The position of "Emperor's Champion", a Chapter Champion-esque title but of faith significance.

'''[[Grey Knights]]'''
*Due to their unique training and equipment (not to mention the [[Chaos|intimidatingly]] [[Chaos Space Marines|insane]] [[Daemon|shit]] they have to deal with), the Codex would actually hamper them instead.
*All psyker Chapter of Demon hunting marines. Nuff said.
*The infamous [[Dreadknight]].
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear.
*Do not have any artillery weapons like Whirlwind Artillery Tanks or lack of certain vehicles other Chapters have.

'''[[Legion of the Damned]]'''
*Previously Codex adherent [[Fire Hawks]] (maybe, now it's uncertain if they are Fire Hawks or somebody/something completely different), now a horde of angry hellfire powered, space/time/dimension travelling, [[AWESOME|spectrerevenantdemonspacemarines]].
*Utilize more powerful, but unstable early versions of existing Imperial Weapons like early Horus Heresy Era Plasma Weapons.

'''[[Space Wolves]]'''
*Ignore the codex outright. It would be easier to go [[Space Wolves|their page]] to find out how they are organised.
*Simply put, Leman Russ wanted them to be forged in his vision instead that of Roboute Guilliman.
*Although they do however take some (KEYWORD: SOME) useful tactics from the codex because they like them, but that is only this.
*Fenrisian Wolves/Thunderwolves used by the Chapter.
*Have more than a thousand marines, yet not that much as the Black Templars.
*Longfang Veterans take place of Devastator Marines, whereas instead of having normal Scouts, the Chapter has Veteran Scouts instead.
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear. They are then put into the Blood or Sky Claws (the latter if they are too troublesome even by Blood Claw standards).
*In the previous editions, they had access to Leman Russ tanks (logical, since the tank was named after their Primarch).
*Wolf Priests combine both Chaplain and Apothecary roles.

===Chapters with differences in formations or composition===
Some chapters have taken the idea of a "Chapter" and tweaked it with their own unique spin on its organization, either by adding units or ranks that aren't found anywhere else, or have their own composition of companies that doesn't fit with the approved codex model. In some cases they may ignore the codex altogether and do their own thing.

'''[[Black Dragons]]'''
*Dragon Claw squads, made up of mutants who make use of adamantium coated wrist blades.

'''[[Blood Ravens]]'''
*'''Pre-Aurelian Crusade''':
**Usually, the Chapter Master was the Chief Librarian too, like [[Azariah Kyras]]. This tradition of Chapter Master/Librarian combo started with Azariah Vidya (as in Vidya Games).
**Their gene seed causes them to have an above average number of Librarians, so many they can field two whole squads of them in the First Company. Librarians are so recurrent among Blood Ravens that it's not uncommon for one to be even a Captain.
**Actually Codex Compliant in structure, yet utilize their Librarians to scry and predict the movements of their enemies (so their Scouts are Librarians too?) and use the intel to formulate a counter strategy (because they appeared in [[Dawn of War]], their way of war is an emulation of how RTS gamers play when they are serious).
**Non-standard patterns of [[Apollo_Diomedes|speech]], incidents of [[Blood_Ravens_Force_Commander|hairesy]], compulsive [[Blood_Ravens#Bloody_Magpies|kleptomany]] and emphasis on [[Indrick_Boreale|devastating, defensive deepstrikes]].
*'''Post-Aurelian Crusade''':
**With [[Gabriel Angelos]], a non-psyker, taking the position of Chapter Master they returned to a more codex-compliant organization, albeit severely undermanned.

'''[[Blood Angels]] and Successors'''
*[[Scout]]s graduate to [[Assault Squad]]s rather than to Devastator squads.
*The use of [[Heresy|non-standard tech]], like Baal Predators, Furioso and [[Dreadnought#Chapter_Specific_Dreads|Librarian Dreadnoughts]].
*Sanguinary Priests (Apothecaries) make up part of the chapter priesthood equivalent to Chaplains, who are busy tending to...
*...The [[Death Company]].

'''[[Dark Angels]] and Successors'''
*The [[Deathwing]] & [[Ravenwing]] instead of First and Second companies.
*Inner Circle in place of usual chapter command structure.
*Chaplains taking the additional role of [[Chaplain#Dark_Angels_Interrogator-Chaplain|Interrogators]].
*Battle Companies incorporate an additional squad of [[Veteran Squad|veteran marines]].
*Some nifty STC that they do not share with anybody apart of their own successors.

'''[[Exorcists]]'''
*Have two additional scout companies to account for the high attrition rate amongst recruits.
*...said attrition rate being caused by subjecting recruits to daemonic possession.

'''[[Iron Hands]]'''
*Have a Chapter Council instead of a fixed [[Chapter Master]], though a leader may be nominated.
*Chaplain Techmarines, aka "[[Chaplain#Iron_Hands_Iron_Father|Iron Fathers]]".
**The current leader is thus a Chapter Master Chaplain Techmarine. And people say the Blood Ravens are the crazy ones.
*Terminator Armour was distributed to squad sergeants instead of being reserved only for the First company.
*Pre-6th Edition fluff indicated that individual companies (clans) had their own veterans and recruits, newer fluff put them more in line with the Codex.

'''[[Iron Snakes]]'''
*Instead of having five regular battle companies and five reserve companies, the Iron Snakes have ten battle companies with an equal number of veterans, regulars and neophytes for perfect balance.
*Each squad has a Apothecary, personal Squad Standard Bearer and a number of specialists of their own.

'''[[Red Scorpions]]'''
*Apothecaries act in squad command roles instead of sergeants.

'''[[Salamanders]]'''
*Have seven oversized companies instead of ten, but otherwise broadly conform to the codex.

'''[[Star Phantoms]]'''
*Each company takes a devistator squad over a tactical squad, leaving five tactical and three devistators in the battle companies
*The chapter is never at full strength, seldom even at half, but maintains weapons as though they were. Their "tactical" reserve companies can fill in for full devistator squads, if needed.

'''[[Storm Wardens]]'''
*Tempest Blades being a non-codex formation.
*Heavy emphasis on mechanized warfare and mano-a-mano honorable duels to the death.

'''[[Ultramarines]]'''
*Tyrannic War Veterans are a non-codex formation.

'''[[White Consuls]]'''
*Have [[Alpharius|two Chapter Masters]] instead of one

==Purpose for Gamers==

Of course, there's a reason [[Games Workshop]] included the Codex Astartes in their fluff (long before Matt Ward came along, by the way). Basically, it makes it easier for players to invent their own Chapters.

Players who just have an idea for a cool color scheme or name but don't want to put any effort into making up a whole organizational layout can just make a Chapter that rigidly follows the Codex, like the [[Ultramarines]]. Those who want to have one or two unique organizational or tactical features can make a Chapter that generally follows the Codex but has some variances, like...well, most of them (see above). And players that want to make up entirely independent structures themselves can make Chapters that ignore the Codex entirely, like the [[Space Wolves]] or the [[Black Templars]].

This means that Matt Ward's Codex worship isn't just lame, but actually bad for GW's business: By telling players that only Codex Chapters are any good, he's discouraging players with their own ideas from investing in models, paints, tournaments, and maybe even later editions of the game. Truly, there is no end to his failure.

==Codex Astartes, as according to [[Matt Ward]]==
{{MattWard}}

The Codex Astartes was written by the greatest of Space Marines, <s>Matt Ward</s> [[Roboute Guilliman]], shortly after the [[Horus Heresy]]. It includes unbeatable tactical doctrines for just about every situation. All but [[Black Templars|the]] [[Raven Guard|most]] [[Blood Angels|despicable]] of Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes as much as they can. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, and as a result are the best fighters in the galaxy, while the [[Space Wolves]], the freaks of the Spare Marine factions, barely use it at all.

The Codex is flawless and infallible, and even many non-human races aspire to its word (<< implying not killing xenos).

Bollocks.

Nay my friend, this be [[Heresy]].

{{Marines-Codex}}
[[Category:Space Marines]] [[category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Imperial]]

Codex Astartes

2016-02-29T06:45:19Z

2601:245:4201:C2E0:94C2:5E6C:2784:2B3D: /* Chapters with differences in formations or composition */

<center> '' The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us....shape us as Ultramarines...teach us how to hold duty and honor sacred above all.'' '''''But how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine...'''''
 -[[Captain Titus]], [[Ultramarines]] 2nd Company</center>

<center> '' ‘But your teachings…’ '''‘Are yet flawed,’ said Guilliman. ‘No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed.''' There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed.’'''''
 -[[Roboute Guilliman]], [[Primarch]] of the Ultramarines</center>

<center> '' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_rwCenX9o Is that wise, captain? The Codex Astartes does not support this action-]"'''''
 -[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Leandros]]</center>

The Codex Astartes was written by [[Roboute Guilliman]] [[Imperium Secundus|over the course]] of the [[Horus Heresy]] and presented it when things settled down; among other things, its suggested organizational scheme split the remaining [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] into small, manageable chunks. It also includes tactical doctrines for just about every situation, like the formidable [[Steel Rain]]. Most loyalist Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes to varying degrees. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, while the [[Space Wolves]] only find it useful for toilet paper.

==Chapters==
Under the Codex Astartes, the Space Marine legions were to be split into one thousand-strong [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]]s (often already a subunit within some pre-Heresy legions like the [[Blood Angels]], [[Dark Angels]](heh), [[Salamanders]], Ultramarines, and [[Word Bearers]]) composed of ten companies. The 1st Company is composed of [[Veteran Squad|Veterans]], and are the only company in the chapter to employ [[Terminator]] armor.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies are called Battle Companies, composed of six [[Tactical Squad]]s, two [[Devastator Squad]]s, and two [[Assault Squad]]s. They train together, and when a Space Marine Company deploys as a single unit, it will be one of these.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies are the reserve squads, and are more specialized than the first five companies. The 6th and 7th Companies are composed entirely of Tactical Marines (who specialize in using [[Bike Squad|bikes]] and [[Land Speeder]]s, respectively), the 8th Company of Assault Marines, and the 9th Company entirely of Devastator Marines.

The 10th Company is composed entirely of [[Scout]] Marines, who are eventually promoted to other companies after a certain number of years.

Of course, one thousand Marines assumes ten Companies, with ten Squads, with ten Marines, and nothing more. But, including vehicle crews, [[Librarian]]s, [[Techmarine]]s, [[Chaplain]]s, Company [[Command Squad]]s, [[Apothecary|Apothecaries]], Honor Guard, [[Dreadnought]]s and other support personnel, it turns out that a Chapter with a full roster will have something like 1500 Marines, not counting a scout company that doesn't have a fixed limit of 100 scouts so attrition doesn't put a hamper on chapter reinforcements, plus who knows how many unaugmented human serfs and Auxilia. It's also a figure which assumes no battle casualties; given that the mandate of the Space Marines is to seek out and destroy the direst enemies of the Imperium, this is a state of affairs which is hardly ever the case - indeed, one of the reasons Reserve Companies exist is to provide a pool from which to keep the Battle Companies at fighting strength.

==Marine roles==

Among the tenets of the Codex, Guilliman outlined the roles of various Marines to be used in Chapters. They include the following:

*'''[[Scout|Scout Squad]]''': Scout Marines are Neophyte Space Marines who are charged with scouting terrain and enemy positions. A risky job, but this has the effect of ensuring that the more cautious ones survive while the reckless and foolish are weeded out.

*'''[[Devastator Squad|Devastator]]''': Devastator Marines can be summed up in three words: Blow shit up. The purpose of the Devastator is to provide heavy weapons fire in battle, artillery strikes, and hunting tanks. Once a Scout earns his Black Carapace and Power Armor, he will be attached to a Devastator Squad, allowing him to bond with his armor while learning its strengths by lugging heavy weapons around.

*'''[[Assault Squad|Assault]]''': Assault Marines are those who specialize in melee combat, using [[Chainsword|Chain]] and [[Power weapon]]s alike to fuck up the enemies of the [[Imperium of Man]]. In addition, they also possess jump packs which can allow them limited flight. This is the next stop in a new Marine's career, helping to familiarize him with any weapons he hasn't used yet, and putting him through the crushing psychological stress of hand-to-hand combat under something resembling optimal conditions.

*'''[[Tactical Squad|Tactical]]''': The backbone of a Battle Company, Tactical Marines are those who are flexible in combat, relying on both ranged weapons and melee weapons in combat. Note that due to the order of the Companies, they usually have served as both Assault and Devastator Marines, so they definitely know the basics of both, granting the majority of the chapter great theoretical tactical flexibility.

*'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran]]''': Veteran Marines are those who have seen through several centuries, allowing them access to all the cool toys in the Chapter's armory since they're hopefully experienced and cool-headed enough not to, say, super-glue the sacred sword of the Founder to the codpiece of their armor and pretend that it's their willy. Chapter veterans get to wear [[Terminator]] armor (the Crux Terminatus is a cross between a medal and authorization papers), but they sometimes stay with normally-sized power armor instead, which is instead slowly turned into Artificer armor by all the bling and enhancements. Power-armored Veterans are divided into two subgroups: Vanguard (who focus on close quarters combat) and Sternguard (who focus on bolter drills and other forms of ranged warfare).

==Ranks==

The Codex Astartes formalized and simplified the ranks among the Adeptus Astartes, eliminating some ranks like "commander" and "lieutenant", while adding some more. They include:

*'''[[Chapter Master]]''': The grand poobah of the Chapter. He is the one who gives Marine companies their assignments, and ultimately recognizes no external authority save for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]. That being said, it's a very silly (or [[Logan Grimnar|very manly]]) Chapter Master that can tell an [[Inquisitor]] to sit on a [[Nova Cannon]] and rotate. Whilst Inquisitors are technically outside the Space Marine chain of command, they have the ability to requisition squads, Companies or entire Chapters if need be.

*'''[[Brother-Captain|Captain]]''': Captains are the commanders of Companies, overseeing their Marines from the front line instead of the back. Captains are usually promoted from the senior Sergeant in the Company. The most senior is the First Captain, who commands the Veteran 1st Company, and is often the official heir apparent to the Chapter Master. Each Company Captain also holds a Chapter-level position of authority, supervising his Chapter's fleet, vehicle pool, recruits, or territory, for example.

*'''[[Brother-Sergeant|Sergeant]]''': Sergeants lead squads of four to nine other Marines depending on the influx of recruits. There are approximately ten sergeants per Codex approved Company. Often, the most senior sergeant will be the commander of a company's "First Squad" ''(usually a Tactical Squad)'' and will likely be next in line for a promotion if the Captain is ever slain, but not always. Members of the Captain's Command Squad may also be Sergeants who get additional duties as the Captain's role might require.
**'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran-Sergeant]]''': Not a "rank" exactly, but more of a recognition of status for those who have been members of a Chapter's First Company, quite frequently these guys get redistributed back to the lower companies to act as squad leaders where their experience will do some good, hence "Veteran Sergeant". These guys will usually get to wear the "Crux Terminatus" even when in power armour, to represent the fact that they have earned the right to use Terminator Armour. Note that Veteran Sergeants can serve in the ranks of the Scouts, Devastators, and Assault Marines despite being technically overqualified, in each case helping the new recruits to adapt to Chapter life. In old 3rd Edition rules you could get Captains without terminator honours, which kind of implied that they never passed through the first company but still got command, nowadays a Captain is just one thing.
**Old second edition fluff also gave us the "Veteran" position within regular Battle-Company squads who was marked with a different form of insignia, but was wholly unconnected with the first company. His job to act as the second-in-command under his sergeant ''(Veteran Sergeant or otherwise)'' of his squad and to take command of a combat squad when the unit gets split up. Essentially this was just an organisational position and made no difference to the skill or rules of the model.

*'''Champion''': The best close quarters fighter in a company, the Company Champion is charged with protection of the Captain from all hostile threats. Given that your average Captain is a badass in power armor, this may seem redundant, but it's supposed to allow him to focus on coordinating the battle. Almost always part of a Command Squad. The most elite of these is the Chapter Champion, who is charged with protecting the Chapter Master.

*'''Force Commander''': Not a rank but a title given to the leader of a force (duh) either given if more than one company is fighting at the same time, or if the company has to split up and the Captain gives an XO like the leader of his command squad. For a tabletop comparison, this could be any senior sergeant since any character can be made the army's warlord and it would fit the description quite nicely.

*'''[[Honour Guard]]''': Like a veteran-veteran, assumed to be the best of the best. These guys get bunched together and given some of the best gear available to the chapter. The fluff tells us that these guys are peers of Captains in terms of battlefield experience, but do not have the command rank to actually issue any orders, though when Honour Guard speak up it's advised that the officers nearby listen carefully. Thankfully the tabletop game is balanced not to give a whole squad full of Captain-equivalent soldiers.

*'''Standard Bearer''': The Company Standard Bearer, given the title of '''Ancient''' ''(the old term for Ensign, who was traditional standard bearer)'', is charged with carrying and protecting the Company Standard, or banner. Also frequently joins the Command Squad. Should a Company Standard Bearer drop the banner and let it fall to the ground, he will essentially forfeit his honor. If the Standard Bearer should be killed and the banner stolen, then the entire Company will be dishonored until the banner is reclaimed. Which means that if you steal a Company Standard, you now have nearly one hundred Space Marines who were just trying to kill you, but now you had to go and make it personal. The most elite of these is the Chapter Standard Bearer ''(often a member of the Honour Guard)'', who carries the Chapter banner in war.

Outside of the above mentioned battle ranks, there are other senior positions within a Chapter:

*'''Chief Librarian''': The head of the Librarium, who assigns [[Librarian]]s to assist in battlefield communications. Also tests to see whether or not his battle-brothers are tainted by [[Chaos]] ("Yes brother, this is standard Codex procedure." *Snaps Latex gloves*)

*'''Master of the Apothecarion''': The head of the Apothecarion, who assigns an [[Apothecary]] to each Company. The Apothecarion in turn also takes care of the [[gene-seed]] that Chapters place such holy emphasis on, and for good reason: no gene-seed - no new recruits.

*'''Master of the Forge''': The head of the Armoury, who assigns [[Techmarine]]s to oversee maintenance of the machine-spirits of the chapter's wargear and motor pool.

*'''Master of Sanctity''': The head of the Chaplaincy, and spiritual leader of the Chapter. He assigns [[Chaplain]]s to the Companies to oversee the spiritual health of the Chapter.

*'''Reclusiarch''': The Chaplain who oversees the Chapter's Reclusiam ''(where they keep the relics and other secret historical stuff)''. But quite often the job gets rolled-up into the Master of Sanctity's job description. It's uncertain what interaction ''(if any)'' they have with the Master of Relics, or it is quite possible that a Chaplain receives the role if that Captain of the 9th company gets a different position.

*'''Lord Admiral''': Often the Captain of the 4th company gets this position by default as "Master of the Fleet", but it's [[Uriel Ventris|not unheard of for a Captain to step down]] from the position if someone else would be better suited to the role, they call that person "Lord Admiral" and gets command over the Chapter's fleet assets. Though it might be perfectly reasonable that that space marine holds a battlefield rank of Battle-Brother or Sergeant, so he's probably just on secondment until the Captain ''(or his replacement)'' wants the job back.

*'''Lieutenant Commander''': We know of [[Marines Errant|only one example]] of this rank, and it applies to the commander of a vessel, which makes sense since most Space Marine chapters have more ships than Captains, so ''somebody'' has to get the job of commanding them. Though often we assume it's just a techmarine or sergeant of whichever squad gets attached to that vessel or more likely a badass high ranking [[Chapter Serf]] who doesn't need to be superhuman to understand how space ships operate.

==What the Codex set out to Accomplish==

While the Codex Astartes has a few good points on how Space Marines should fight, it contains a truckload of a lot of bad points on even how an army should be. Due to Guilliman's unending paranoia over the fact that none of his brothers are possibly loyal anymore (and to cover up on how fucking useless he was during most of the [[Horus Heresy]]), he made it so that he ruined the Space Marines entirely ([[skub|though the matter is highly debatable]]), [[Matt Ward|which in comparison is oddly prophetic to this man who worked on the Space Marine Codex and butchered it with Ultramarine fanboyism]].

===Splitting up the Legions===
One fatal flaw of the Codex is the splitting up of the legions and maintaining a maximum of 1,000 battle brothers at any given time, this made the Space Marines even more of a fragmented force concerned with their own agendas than a unified fighting force along with making it longer for them to rebuild and reform whenever they sustain heavy casualties after a major campaign that can only deploy half of its forces at a given time except in the gravest emergencies. This was foolish for another reason. After all, you know the enemy matches your numbers, so you would normally wish to take advantage of the million worlds of the Imperium to outnumber your foe, right? Apparently Guilliman decided that outnumbering the enemy is for chumps. Ten thousand marines per chapter would have made far more sense, especially given the size of the Imperium and the fact that the Chapters will rarely have the option of focusing their full might on one target.

''This is disputable.'' The original [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes]], while the most dangerous forces assembled since the [[War in Heaven]], would have a far too centralized leadership to be effectively deployed across a galaxy-spanning Imperium with thousands of conflicts that needed Astartes support. Stress-fractures were already appearing in the established structure at the time of the Heresy. Furthermore a Battle Company or less would likely be more than enough for most campaigns.

*Except that Expeditionary Fleets and Task Forces were a thing that already existed in the Great Crusade. After all, the Legiones Astartes were already organized into chapters. They were given particular missions and most eventually developed trends of their own. An example were Perturabo's Grand Batallions, which were formations given their own missions, warzones and initial resources, and were expected to become [[Space_Marine_Chapter|self-sufficient]] and eventually increase size; this independency within a Legion's chapters is what allowed [[Blood_Ravens|Loyal elements]] to secede from [[Thousand_Sons|Traitor legions]]. All this allows tactical flexibility while still keeping an unified command, which is pretty much what the [[Dark Angels]] <s>kept on doing</s> ABSOLUTELY DIDN'T DO, FOR THE SONS OF THE LION FOLLOW THE CODEX ASTARTES TO THE LETTER.

But wait, you might exclaim, what about wars that DO require a Legion level deployment. Well, with the exception of the First War for [[Armageddon]] and the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|First Tyrannic War]], Legion sized forces '''were''' present at those conflicts albeit from various Chapters but with an unified theater-exclusive command structure. Notably [[Dante]] and [[Logan Grimnar]] assumed such a role in the Second Armageddon Wars and the [[13th Black Crusade]] respectively, in either case with the almost-unanimous consent of their fellow chapter-masters.

While the Grand/Clan/Fighting Company system of non-codex Chapters offers a greater degree of flexibility in terms of galactic force projection, it leaves the individual non-Codex Companies much more vulnerable to the debilitation of heavy casualties. As a whole though, the Codex Astartes does not structurally hamstring its adhering Chapters. The character of the Chapter does that.''

It transpires that Guilliman's first intention with the codex was never to actually break up the Legions AT ALL, but saw the usefulness after discussions with one of his sergeants: '''Aeonid Thiel''' and figured out that smaller forces of marines can respond and deploy with far more efficiency than the Legions of the past, and that if larger deployments ever became necessary then the chapters would support and adapt to one another.

===Codifying Conformity===
The other flaw was turning each chapter into a generic army using a different name. The Codex Astartes details specifically how a Space Marine should act in every combat situation that [[Roboute Guilliman]] had encountered. While this does give Marines a good idea on how to act when they're staring down a [[Chaos]] warband or a marauding pack of Flesh Hounds, this makes them far too predictable for those who have faced the Space Marines for a long time. As Sun Tzu said, ''"Do not face your opponent too many times or you will reveal your art of war;"'' ''(Any body else find it ironic that Sun Tzu, a notoriously proverb-y text of what to do in any given situation, is invoked to denounce the Codex?)'' ''(Not really. Have you actually read the Art of War? It's a book of generalized tips for managing huge groups of people, including basics you might not think of, like "let the enemy retreat, or else they'll fight your balls off". In contrast, the Codex Astartes is very specific on how things are to be organized at all times)'' given that Guilliman expected Space Marines to be the same thing, except for their colors and whatever they scream at their enemies, the enemies of man will basically be expecting the same thing again and again.

Because of this, an intelligent and experienced opponent with enough dakka to survive one encounter with a Codex Chapter will quickly realize how to deal with any Marine force strictly adhering to the Codex Astartes' tactics. This fault is compounded by the fact that the Codex has no information on threats encountered after Guilliman's time. The [[Ultramarines]] experienced this personally when they got their asses beaten hard when they faced the [[Tyranid]] incursion in their sector for the first time, numerous encounters with [[Necron]]s that ended hilariously poorly for them, the Ultramarines constantly got themselves outdicked and outmaneuvered by [[Tau]], and when [[Uriel Ventris|one of their Captains]] developed a novel set of tactics for successfully dealing with the Tyranids, he was punished for deviating from the Codex (OK, the reason is because he left his men to join a [[Deathwatch]] mission)!

It should also be noted that their [[Chaos Space Marines|greatest enemy]] are comprised almost entirely of <s>former Loyalists</s> millennia old veterans who are familiar with the tactics and approaches listed within the Codex Astares, so it's a wonder the Ultramarines ever survive in combat against Renegades. It's probably because Chaos Marines are all batshit insane by the time loyalist Astartes encounter them.

Compare this to chapters who follow their own standard operating procedures, like the [[Space Wolves]] and [[Black Templars]], and those who do not fully embrace all of the tactical doctrines of the Codex, like the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Blood Angels]]: they and their successors have a much more extensive list of victories, and a shorter list of failures. Consider the [[Damocles Crusade]], wherein the Ultramarines failed to beat up the Tau for years due to their unfamiliar nature (and due to Farsight [[Just as Planned|deciphering the Codex and using it to predict the actions of codex-chapters]]), while the independent Black Templars had much better luck. As in all matters, moderation is key: Guilliman was no fool, but he was not omniscient, either.

In actual fact his original intention for the Codex Astartes was to REMOVE all of the varied and idiosyncratic legions of the past and create a single UNIFIED Legion with a more flexible doctrine. In the past, the Legions were made up of companies of soldiers who fought in the way that best suited them, thus the White Scars would be bikers, the Blood Angels would be Assault marines etc, or even within individual Legions you would have found that certain companies fought in a particular manner according to their experience, creating a stagnation in tactical flexibility. In the same conversation he had with '''Aeonid Thiel''' he realised that training your soldiers to behave in a more tactical manner was actually better, so basically that an Assault Marine could change his loadout and become a Devastator or whatever role needed filling at a particular time. ''(Ironic in that the [[Alpha Legion]] were the only guys doing that pre-heresy, but Guilliman would scorn Alpharius's overall strategies as being too wasteful, but that had nothing to do with an individual unit's tactical flexibility)''

This is precisely why [[Captain Titus]] (who was ironically an Ultramarine himself) said Matt Ward can go fuck himself with all that spiritual liege bullshit, and that Space Marines are at their best when they mix the Codex's advice with the ability to think for their own damn selves. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaHJgzxmyj0 But here is what he really thinks of the Codex Astartes and Leandros]

Worse than that, ''even Guilliman himself'' said the Codex could not supplant brains. Too bad he hadn't wrote it on the books cover, or at least on first page. Then again, no one, not even amongst the Ultramarines, has read the ''entire'' codex. They all have large sections but not everything (yet stupidly act on out-of-context information). Besides, it could be in the foreword or something, no one reads the foreword. Heh, "for Ward".

===Did it really manage that?===
Despite Ward's assertion that the codex is rigidly followed, even his own shitty writing admits that most of the Ultramarines successors/codex chapters are just picking and choosing the bits they like from the codex and ignoring the rest. And you can pretty much guarantee that any chapter that gets it's own novel is going to deviate from the codex. Notable examples are the [[Silver Skulls]], who have combo librarian/chaplains, a scout hardwired into a strike cruiser in a similar fashion to a [[dreadnought]] (yes, it's tech heresy; yes, they know it; no, they don't care) and assault squads in the 9th (devastator) company. Also the [[Hawk Lords]] who are so into flying that other chapters send their pilots to the Hawk Lords "Talon Wings" for training, the [[Aurora Chapter]] who are treadheads above all, the [[Exorcists]] with 2 extra scout companies (12 companies total), the [[Mortifactors]] whose chapter rituals are so far from codex as to be offensive to a visiting Ultramarine and the [[Relictors]] using chaos weapons against chaos.

All Ultramarines successors, all codex chapters, all just using the bits they feel like. Dammit Ward, you can't even keep your fluff-rape consistent. It's very obvious that contrary to Ward's writing in Codex: Space Marines that pretty much nobody follows the Codex Astartes rigidly apart from some of the Ultramarines. The [[Imperial Fists]], [[Salamanders]], [[Raven Guard]], [[White Scars]] and [[Iron Hands]] are also theoretically Codex chapters with varying degrees of divergence from the Codex, tweaking and modifying it to suit their favoured tactics, organisation, rituals and markings. The list of official codex chapters that diverge from the Codex Astartes is so long its just easier to list the chapters that do follow it rigidly. In that category, we have the Ultramarines and... um... well, nobody else really. Oh wait, scratch that, Ultramarines do now have non-Codex formations, such as Tyranic war veterans, so even they cannot hold the title of rigid Codex followers. That role has since been picked up by the [[Red Scorpions]]. Except that the Red Scorpions have the non-codex compliant Apothecary-Sergeant. The only Chapter that literally follows the codex to the LETTER, are the [[Hammers of Dorn]].

Guilliman's intention was to create many smaller chapters of equally flexible forces rather than large forces that adhere to a rigid and imbalanced doctrine. Thus it's either a case that the less hidebound chapters who loosely adhere to the codex and make ''practical'' adjustments to suit their levels of experience and available equipment are [[Skub|more]] in tune with the spirit of the codex than anyone else and that those who follow the codex [[Lawful Stupid|"rigidly"]] have missed the point... Either that or the deviants have failed to realise that the Codex [[Skub|"should"]] have already covered their situational needs in the first place and that deviation from it was unnecessary. It depends on what [[Your dudes|YOU as the reader]] think the codex actually encompasses...

Of course it should be noted that GW has never really shown what's in the Codex and writers have different views. For example, [[Dan Abnett]] views it similar to ''The Art of War'', with general tips and tactics, while [[Graham McNeill]] views it like a football play book. Since all of Ward's codex quotes seem to favor Abnett's ideal of what the Codex is like, its possible that by following it "rigidly" its following the basic ideal of the codex, i.e. the general organization and being flexible in combat (which is why the smurfs can choose to fail morale tests when they're making tactical withdraws). It's a stupid way to word it but that's the norm for the Imperium.

==Boundless Amusement==

[[Captain Titus]] of the Ultramarines in the recent [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREEN]] game, tells young Leandros that the Codex is not always a good thing to follow literally.

The usefulness of the Codex Astartes is also a major theme in [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Ultramarines'' novel series. When [[Uriel Ventris]] is on trial for violating the Codex, First Captain [[Severus Agemman]] comes and confides in him, saying that while his decisions made sense, the Ultramarines must stick to the letter and spirit of the Codex, as the Codex Astartes is not how to be a good Space Marine, it's about how to be a ''loyal'' Space Marine. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, as the [[Imperium of Man]]'s average response to free thinking is to start screaming incoherently and beat the free thinker to death, but we digress. By the end of the series, [[Marneus Calgar]] is admitting that blindly following the Codex might be costing them in the war with [[M'kar]] and [[Honsou]], who in particular knows how the Ultramarines will react due to their adherence to the Codex.

Which is the exact same lesson they learn during the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|first Tyranid war]]. Which is why so many people turned on McNeill after Chapter's Due as it sums up as "Ultramarines can only be cool if they act like Space Wolves". This combine with more recent portrayals of Ultrmarines showing them as extremely tactical flexible. And the codex itself is portrayed as not a static thing but something that has been revised and added to over the years.

[[Nick Kyme]] also plays with it a bit, however far differently. Unlike McNeill who uses it as a strawman to make Uriel look cool. He treats is more or less like everyone else does. However many Ultramarines follow it differently. [[Cato Sicarius]] plays it more loosely, resulting in him being more unpredictable but also more willing to take high risk, high reward actions, and his own personality means he'll do things the codex speaks against like trying to hunt down and kill the enemy commander in a duel. Agemman meanwhile follows it more to the letter, but also follows the more willing to take pragmatic tactics because of it.

=="Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex)==
More commonly, are those chapters which follow the codex at an organisational level, but disregard certain tactical aspects contained within, most likely because they have their own modus-operandi that they have a preference for, or because they create their own unique tactics that had never been considered.

'''[[Aurora Chapter]]'''
*Follows the Codex Astartes, yet has a large number of vehicles.
*They have a lot of vehicles.
*For a 1000 man sized Chapter, they have a lot of tanks.
*Of all the Codex Chapters they have the most tanks.
*Their armored spearhead attacks are pretty devastating.

'''[[Charnel Guard]]'''
*Cannot say too much about those guys since they are very secretive, thus their organisation and structure are completely unknown.
*Rumored to be Blood Angels successors, yet as said before, they are totally unknown from a organisational and structural P.O.V.
*Have a lot of Great Crusade and Horus Heresy Era stuff, including a Fellblade.

'''[[Crimson Fists]]'''
*More tactically oriented [[Imperial Fists]].
*Actually do follow the Codex more closely than other Sons of Dorn (but not that much like the Hammers of Dorn).
*At the time of their founding, they were known to be the most level-headed members of the Imperial Fists Legion, therefore took in the Codex much faster and easier.
*Only deviation is the existence of a Crusader Company that is a 1st Company that has 128 Veterans. A result of an event where they were reduced to 128 members during the Crusade of Righteous Liberation.
*Due to the whole situation with Rynn's World, the Chapter became very capable at fighting [[Orks]].

'''[[Emperor's Shadows]]'''
*Iron Hands Successors that follow the Codex.
*Put more emphasis on projectile weapons (like Bolter Weapons) and Dreadnoughts.

'''[[Executioners]]'''
*Choose to go into close combat with the enemy.
*Heavy emphasis on their own skills and superhuman abilities enhanced with sheer Determination.

'''[[Hammers of Dorn]]'''
*Follow the Codex to the letter, yet do put more emphasis on heavy weapons and overwhelming firepower.
*No really, they follow the ABSOLUTE LETTER of the codex.
*Not even the [[Ultramarines]](Famous for having the primarch that wrote the damn thing) follow the codex more rigidly than them.
*They probably actually read the Codex from cover to cover.

'''[[Hawk Lords]]'''
*Codex compliant, yet put large emphasis on flyers.

'''[[Minotaurs]]'''
*Instead of sending out a single company, the Minotaurs utilize mob and berserker tactics along with sending out all ten of their companies to utterly overwhelm and crush their foes.

'''[[Raptors]]'''
*[[Reasonable Marines|Camouflage Power Armour]]. Technically this IS in the codex, but they're the [[Derp|only space marine chapter out of literally thousands]] that actually bothers to do it. They're also sneeki beekies, just like their Raven Guard progenitors.

'''[[Raven Guard]]'''
*Sneeki Cheeki [[beakie|Beekies]]. While they do follow the codex, their chapter made amusingly extensive use of mutants (during the [[Horus Heresy]]), and [[Reasonable Marines|stealth tactics and guerilla warfare]] due to their situation.

'''[[Space Sharks|Space Sharks/Carcharodons]]'''
*Greater emphasis on infantry and terror tactics.
*Will sneak up as close as possible to the enemy to later tear them a new one in close combat while berserking.
*May be organisationally non compliant as well, but they are quite tight lipped about it.

'''[[Storm Giants]]'''
*Codex compliant, but utilize armoured assaults, Drop Pod strikes, and heavily use Scouts to get intel before ruining someone's day.
*Due to their heavy use of Scouts, they have a larger than average 10th Company.

'''[[White Scars]] and some Successors'''
*Disproportionate emphasis put on bikes and speeders compared to heavy vehicles, still adhering to codex formation however.

==Non-Codex Chapters==
As mentioned, there are so many chapters in the Imperium and very few of them follow the codex absolutely to the letter. Many chapters have their own preferred mode of warfare based upon their experiences, supplies and dispositions, often they generate their own interpretations and deviations from the codex. Here follows a comparative listing of those chapters and the way in which they differ from what the codex actually prescribes.

===Chapters with drastic differences in formations or composition===
A rare case of deviation from the codex is when a Chapter outright ignores most or all the elements of the Codex Astartes in order to pursue their own independent take on warfare. Much larger number of battle brothers than the standard 1000 men, often unique ranks that even combine elements from other specialists, ignoring the tactics Roboute Guilliman wrote down, and even unique units that sometimes do not even have a counterpart seen among those who follow the Codex more closely or completely. As mentioned before, these Chapters are extremely rare and may very well be under Inquisitorial surveillance. [[Horus Heresy|Because we all know how that well ended the last time when there was much more than a thousand brothers]]. Then again, these Space Marine Chapters may seem to concentrate a lot of power, yet are as loyal as any other Chapter. Paranoia is a staple of the Imperium.

'''[[Astral Claws]]'''
*'''Pre-[[Red Corsairs]] Times''': Before [[Lugft Huron]] went pants-on-heads retarded, the Chapter was known for being exceptionally stubborn with skilled Bikers and favoring lightning strikes and boarding actions while still following the Codex.
*'''[[Badab War]] Times''':
**Due to Huron's pants-on-heads retarded thinking, the Chapter seized the Badab Sector's industry and made it so that Bolter rounds and Rhinos were mass-produced to the point being expendable, not to mention the larger-than-standard number of marines due to them purposefully not paying their geneseed tithe.
**Emergence of specialized units (such as the hated Corpse-Takers) and human Auxilia. Squads larger due to aforementioned not paying of the geneseed tithe.

'''[[Black Templars]]'''
*"Chapter" made up of ad-hoc crusade fleets and fighting companies, their numbers thus swelling up to six times the size of everyone else's.
*No Scout company, instead recruits are apprenticed to fully fledged battle-brothers, aka "Crusader squads".
*No Librarians.
*Doctrinal emphasis on close quarters combat.
**Abundance of previously unsanctioned Land Raider "Crusader"s to deliver said Crusader squads to CQC. See the trend here?
*Outright [[Word_Bearers|deification of the Emperor]] (contrary to the usual, more restrained veneration other chapters profess).
**The position of "Emperor's Champion", a Chapter Champion-esque title but of faith significance.

'''[[Grey Knights]]'''
*Due to their unique training and equipment (not to mention the [[Chaos|intimidatingly]] [[Chaos Space Marines|insane]] [[Daemon|shit]] they have to deal with), the Codex would actually hamper them instead.
*All psyker Chapter of Demon hunting marines. Nuff said.
*The infamous [[Dreadknight]].
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear.
*Do not have any artillery weapons like Whirlwind Artillery Tanks or lack of certain vehicles other Chapters have.

'''[[Legion of the Damned]]'''
*Previously Codex adherent [[Fire Hawks]] (maybe, now it's uncertain if they are Fire Hawks or somebody/something completely different), now a horde of angry hellfire powered, space/time/dimension travelling, [[AWESOME|spectrerevenantdemonspacemarines]].
*Utilize more powerful, but unstable early versions of existing Imperial Weapons like early Horus Heresy Era Plasma Weapons.

'''[[Space Wolves]]'''
*Ignore the codex outright. It would be easier to go [[Space Wolves|their page]] to find out how they are organised.
*Simply put, Leman Russ wanted them to be forged in his vision instead that of Roboute Guilliman.
*Although they do however take some (KEYWORD: SOME) useful tactics from the codex because they like them, but that is only this.
*Fenrisian Wolves/Thunderwolves used by the Chapter.
*Have more than a thousand marines, yet not that much as the Black Templars.
*Longfang Veterans take place of Devastator Marines, whereas instead of having normal Scouts, the Chapter has Veteran Scouts instead.
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear. They are then put into the Blood or Sky Claws (the latter if they are too troublesome even by Blood Claw standards).
*In the previous editions, they had access to Leman Russ tanks (logical, since the tank was named after their Primarch).
*Wolf Priests combine both Chaplain and Apothecary roles.

===Chapters with differences in formations or composition===
Some chapters have taken the idea of a "Chapter" and tweaked it with their own unique spin on its organization, either by adding units or ranks that aren't found anywhere else, or have their own composition of companies that doesn't fit with the approved codex model. In some cases they may ignore the codex altogether and do their own thing.

'''[[Black Dragons]]'''
*Dragon Claw squads, made up of mutants who make use of adamantium coated wrist blades.

'''[[Blood Ravens]]'''
*'''Pre-Aurelian Crusade''':
**Usually, the Chapter Master was the Chief Librarian too, like [[Azariah Kyras]]. This tradition of Chapter Master/Librarian combo started with Azariah Vidya (as in Vidya Games).
**Their gene seed causes them to have an above average number of Librarians, so many they can field two whole squads of them in the First Company. Librarians are so recurrent among Blood Ravens that it's not uncommon for one to be even a Captain.
**Actually Codex Compliant in structure, yet utilize their Librarians to scry and predict the movements of their enemies (so their Scouts are Librarians too?) and use the intel to formulate a counter strategy (because they appeared in [[Dawn of War]], their way of war is an emulation of how RTS gamers play when they are serious).
**Non-standard patterns of [[Apollo_Diomedes|speech]], incidents of [[Blood_Ravens_Force_Commander|hairesy]], compulsive [[Blood_Ravens#Bloody_Magpies|kleptomany]] and emphasis on [[Indrick_Boreale|devastating, defensive deepstrikes]].
*'''Post-Aurelian Crusade''':
**With [[Gabriel Angelos]], a non-psyker, taking the position of Chapter Master they returned to a more codex-compliant organization, albeit severely undermanned.

'''[[Blood Angels]] and Successors'''
*[[Scout]]s graduate to [[Assault Squad]]s rather than to Devastator squads.
*The use of [[Heresy|non-standard tech]], like Baal Predators, Furioso and [[Dreadnought#Chapter_Specific_Dreads|Librarian Dreadnoughts]].
*Sanguinary Priests (Apothecaries) make up part of the chapter priesthood equivalent to Chaplains, who are busy tending to...
*...The [[Death Company]].

'''[[Dark Angels]] and Successors'''
*The [[Deathwing]] & [[Ravenwing]] instead of First and Second companies.
*Inner Circle in place of usual chapter command structure.
*Chaplains taking the additional role of [[Chaplain#Dark_Angels_Interrogator-Chaplain|Interrogators]].
*Battle Companies incorporate an additional squad of [[Veteran Squad|veteran marines]].
*Some nifty STC that they do not share with anybody apart of their own successors.

'''[[Exorcists]]'''
*Have two additional scout companies to account for the high attrition rate amongst recruits.
*...said attrition rate being caused by subjecting recruits to daemonic possession.

'''[[Iron Hands]]'''
*Have a Chapter Council instead of a fixed [[Chapter Master]], though a leader may be nominated.
*Chaplain Techmarines, aka "[[Chaplain#Iron_Hands_Iron_Father|Iron Fathers]]".
**The current leader is thus a Chapter Master Chaplain Techmarine. And people say the Blood Ravens are the crazy ones.
*Terminator Armour was distributed to squad sergeants instead of being reserved only for the First company.
*Pre-6th Edition fluff indicated that individual companies (clans) had their own veterans and recruits, newer fluff put them more in line with the Codex.

'''[[Iron Snakes]]'''
*Instead of having five regular battle companies and five reserve companies, the Iron Snakes have ten battle companies with an equal number of veterans, regulars and neophytes for perfect balance.
*Each squad has a Apothecary, personal Squad Standard Bearer and a number of specialists of their own.

'''[[Red Scorpions]]'''
*Apothecaries act in squad command roles instead of sergeants.

'''[[Salamanders]]'''
*Have seven oversized companies instead of ten, but otherwise broadly conform to the codex.

'''[[Star Phantoms]]'''
*Each company takes a devistator squad over a tactical squad, leaving five tactical and three devistators in the first five companies
*The chapter is never at full strength, seldom even at half, but maintains weapons as though they were. Their "tactical" reserve companies can fill in for full devistator squads, if needed.

'''[[Storm Wardens]]'''
*Tempest Blades being a non-codex formation.
*Heavy emphasis on mechanized warfare and mano-a-mano honorable duels to the death.

'''[[Ultramarines]]'''
*Tyrannic War Veterans are a non-codex formation.

'''[[White Consuls]]'''
*Have [[Alpharius|two Chapter Masters]] instead of one

==Purpose for Gamers==

Of course, there's a reason [[Games Workshop]] included the Codex Astartes in their fluff (long before Matt Ward came along, by the way). Basically, it makes it easier for players to invent their own Chapters.

Players who just have an idea for a cool color scheme or name but don't want to put any effort into making up a whole organizational layout can just make a Chapter that rigidly follows the Codex, like the [[Ultramarines]]. Those who want to have one or two unique organizational or tactical features can make a Chapter that generally follows the Codex but has some variances, like...well, most of them (see above). And players that want to make up entirely independent structures themselves can make Chapters that ignore the Codex entirely, like the [[Space Wolves]] or the [[Black Templars]].

This means that Matt Ward's Codex worship isn't just lame, but actually bad for GW's business: By telling players that only Codex Chapters are any good, he's discouraging players with their own ideas from investing in models, paints, tournaments, and maybe even later editions of the game. Truly, there is no end to his failure.

==Codex Astartes, as according to [[Matt Ward]]==
{{MattWard}}

The Codex Astartes was written by the greatest of Space Marines, <s>Matt Ward</s> [[Roboute Guilliman]], shortly after the [[Horus Heresy]]. It includes unbeatable tactical doctrines for just about every situation. All but [[Black Templars|the]] [[Raven Guard|most]] [[Blood Angels|despicable]] of Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes as much as they can. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, and as a result are the best fighters in the galaxy, while the [[Space Wolves]], the freaks of the Spare Marine factions, barely use it at all.

The Codex is flawless and infallible, and even many non-human races aspire to its word (<< implying not killing xenos).

Bollocks.

Nay my friend, this be [[Heresy]].

{{Marines-Codex}}
[[Category:Space Marines]] [[category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Imperial]]

Codex Astartes

2016-02-29T06:44:26Z

2601:245:4201:C2E0:94C2:5E6C:2784:2B3D: /* "Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex) */

<center> '' The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us....shape us as Ultramarines...teach us how to hold duty and honor sacred above all.'' '''''But how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine...'''''
 -[[Captain Titus]], [[Ultramarines]] 2nd Company</center>

<center> '' ‘But your teachings…’ '''‘Are yet flawed,’ said Guilliman. ‘No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed.''' There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed.’'''''
 -[[Roboute Guilliman]], [[Primarch]] of the Ultramarines</center>

<center> '' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_rwCenX9o Is that wise, captain? The Codex Astartes does not support this action-]"'''''
 -[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Leandros]]</center>

The Codex Astartes was written by [[Roboute Guilliman]] [[Imperium Secundus|over the course]] of the [[Horus Heresy]] and presented it when things settled down; among other things, its suggested organizational scheme split the remaining [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] into small, manageable chunks. It also includes tactical doctrines for just about every situation, like the formidable [[Steel Rain]]. Most loyalist Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes to varying degrees. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, while the [[Space Wolves]] only find it useful for toilet paper.

==Chapters==
Under the Codex Astartes, the Space Marine legions were to be split into one thousand-strong [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]]s (often already a subunit within some pre-Heresy legions like the [[Blood Angels]], [[Dark Angels]](heh), [[Salamanders]], Ultramarines, and [[Word Bearers]]) composed of ten companies. The 1st Company is composed of [[Veteran Squad|Veterans]], and are the only company in the chapter to employ [[Terminator]] armor.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies are called Battle Companies, composed of six [[Tactical Squad]]s, two [[Devastator Squad]]s, and two [[Assault Squad]]s. They train together, and when a Space Marine Company deploys as a single unit, it will be one of these.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies are the reserve squads, and are more specialized than the first five companies. The 6th and 7th Companies are composed entirely of Tactical Marines (who specialize in using [[Bike Squad|bikes]] and [[Land Speeder]]s, respectively), the 8th Company of Assault Marines, and the 9th Company entirely of Devastator Marines.

The 10th Company is composed entirely of [[Scout]] Marines, who are eventually promoted to other companies after a certain number of years.

Of course, one thousand Marines assumes ten Companies, with ten Squads, with ten Marines, and nothing more. But, including vehicle crews, [[Librarian]]s, [[Techmarine]]s, [[Chaplain]]s, Company [[Command Squad]]s, [[Apothecary|Apothecaries]], Honor Guard, [[Dreadnought]]s and other support personnel, it turns out that a Chapter with a full roster will have something like 1500 Marines, not counting a scout company that doesn't have a fixed limit of 100 scouts so attrition doesn't put a hamper on chapter reinforcements, plus who knows how many unaugmented human serfs and Auxilia. It's also a figure which assumes no battle casualties; given that the mandate of the Space Marines is to seek out and destroy the direst enemies of the Imperium, this is a state of affairs which is hardly ever the case - indeed, one of the reasons Reserve Companies exist is to provide a pool from which to keep the Battle Companies at fighting strength.

==Marine roles==

Among the tenets of the Codex, Guilliman outlined the roles of various Marines to be used in Chapters. They include the following:

*'''[[Scout|Scout Squad]]''': Scout Marines are Neophyte Space Marines who are charged with scouting terrain and enemy positions. A risky job, but this has the effect of ensuring that the more cautious ones survive while the reckless and foolish are weeded out.

*'''[[Devastator Squad|Devastator]]''': Devastator Marines can be summed up in three words: Blow shit up. The purpose of the Devastator is to provide heavy weapons fire in battle, artillery strikes, and hunting tanks. Once a Scout earns his Black Carapace and Power Armor, he will be attached to a Devastator Squad, allowing him to bond with his armor while learning its strengths by lugging heavy weapons around.

*'''[[Assault Squad|Assault]]''': Assault Marines are those who specialize in melee combat, using [[Chainsword|Chain]] and [[Power weapon]]s alike to fuck up the enemies of the [[Imperium of Man]]. In addition, they also possess jump packs which can allow them limited flight. This is the next stop in a new Marine's career, helping to familiarize him with any weapons he hasn't used yet, and putting him through the crushing psychological stress of hand-to-hand combat under something resembling optimal conditions.

*'''[[Tactical Squad|Tactical]]''': The backbone of a Battle Company, Tactical Marines are those who are flexible in combat, relying on both ranged weapons and melee weapons in combat. Note that due to the order of the Companies, they usually have served as both Assault and Devastator Marines, so they definitely know the basics of both, granting the majority of the chapter great theoretical tactical flexibility.

*'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran]]''': Veteran Marines are those who have seen through several centuries, allowing them access to all the cool toys in the Chapter's armory since they're hopefully experienced and cool-headed enough not to, say, super-glue the sacred sword of the Founder to the codpiece of their armor and pretend that it's their willy. Chapter veterans get to wear [[Terminator]] armor (the Crux Terminatus is a cross between a medal and authorization papers), but they sometimes stay with normally-sized power armor instead, which is instead slowly turned into Artificer armor by all the bling and enhancements. Power-armored Veterans are divided into two subgroups: Vanguard (who focus on close quarters combat) and Sternguard (who focus on bolter drills and other forms of ranged warfare).

==Ranks==

The Codex Astartes formalized and simplified the ranks among the Adeptus Astartes, eliminating some ranks like "commander" and "lieutenant", while adding some more. They include:

*'''[[Chapter Master]]''': The grand poobah of the Chapter. He is the one who gives Marine companies their assignments, and ultimately recognizes no external authority save for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]. That being said, it's a very silly (or [[Logan Grimnar|very manly]]) Chapter Master that can tell an [[Inquisitor]] to sit on a [[Nova Cannon]] and rotate. Whilst Inquisitors are technically outside the Space Marine chain of command, they have the ability to requisition squads, Companies or entire Chapters if need be.

*'''[[Brother-Captain|Captain]]''': Captains are the commanders of Companies, overseeing their Marines from the front line instead of the back. Captains are usually promoted from the senior Sergeant in the Company. The most senior is the First Captain, who commands the Veteran 1st Company, and is often the official heir apparent to the Chapter Master. Each Company Captain also holds a Chapter-level position of authority, supervising his Chapter's fleet, vehicle pool, recruits, or territory, for example.

*'''[[Brother-Sergeant|Sergeant]]''': Sergeants lead squads of four to nine other Marines depending on the influx of recruits. There are approximately ten sergeants per Codex approved Company. Often, the most senior sergeant will be the commander of a company's "First Squad" ''(usually a Tactical Squad)'' and will likely be next in line for a promotion if the Captain is ever slain, but not always. Members of the Captain's Command Squad may also be Sergeants who get additional duties as the Captain's role might require.
**'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran-Sergeant]]''': Not a "rank" exactly, but more of a recognition of status for those who have been members of a Chapter's First Company, quite frequently these guys get redistributed back to the lower companies to act as squad leaders where their experience will do some good, hence "Veteran Sergeant". These guys will usually get to wear the "Crux Terminatus" even when in power armour, to represent the fact that they have earned the right to use Terminator Armour. Note that Veteran Sergeants can serve in the ranks of the Scouts, Devastators, and Assault Marines despite being technically overqualified, in each case helping the new recruits to adapt to Chapter life. In old 3rd Edition rules you could get Captains without terminator honours, which kind of implied that they never passed through the first company but still got command, nowadays a Captain is just one thing.
**Old second edition fluff also gave us the "Veteran" position within regular Battle-Company squads who was marked with a different form of insignia, but was wholly unconnected with the first company. His job to act as the second-in-command under his sergeant ''(Veteran Sergeant or otherwise)'' of his squad and to take command of a combat squad when the unit gets split up. Essentially this was just an organisational position and made no difference to the skill or rules of the model.

*'''Champion''': The best close quarters fighter in a company, the Company Champion is charged with protection of the Captain from all hostile threats. Given that your average Captain is a badass in power armor, this may seem redundant, but it's supposed to allow him to focus on coordinating the battle. Almost always part of a Command Squad. The most elite of these is the Chapter Champion, who is charged with protecting the Chapter Master.

*'''Force Commander''': Not a rank but a title given to the leader of a force (duh) either given if more than one company is fighting at the same time, or if the company has to split up and the Captain gives an XO like the leader of his command squad. For a tabletop comparison, this could be any senior sergeant since any character can be made the army's warlord and it would fit the description quite nicely.

*'''[[Honour Guard]]''': Like a veteran-veteran, assumed to be the best of the best. These guys get bunched together and given some of the best gear available to the chapter. The fluff tells us that these guys are peers of Captains in terms of battlefield experience, but do not have the command rank to actually issue any orders, though when Honour Guard speak up it's advised that the officers nearby listen carefully. Thankfully the tabletop game is balanced not to give a whole squad full of Captain-equivalent soldiers.

*'''Standard Bearer''': The Company Standard Bearer, given the title of '''Ancient''' ''(the old term for Ensign, who was traditional standard bearer)'', is charged with carrying and protecting the Company Standard, or banner. Also frequently joins the Command Squad. Should a Company Standard Bearer drop the banner and let it fall to the ground, he will essentially forfeit his honor. If the Standard Bearer should be killed and the banner stolen, then the entire Company will be dishonored until the banner is reclaimed. Which means that if you steal a Company Standard, you now have nearly one hundred Space Marines who were just trying to kill you, but now you had to go and make it personal. The most elite of these is the Chapter Standard Bearer ''(often a member of the Honour Guard)'', who carries the Chapter banner in war.

Outside of the above mentioned battle ranks, there are other senior positions within a Chapter:

*'''Chief Librarian''': The head of the Librarium, who assigns [[Librarian]]s to assist in battlefield communications. Also tests to see whether or not his battle-brothers are tainted by [[Chaos]] ("Yes brother, this is standard Codex procedure." *Snaps Latex gloves*)

*'''Master of the Apothecarion''': The head of the Apothecarion, who assigns an [[Apothecary]] to each Company. The Apothecarion in turn also takes care of the [[gene-seed]] that Chapters place such holy emphasis on, and for good reason: no gene-seed - no new recruits.

*'''Master of the Forge''': The head of the Armoury, who assigns [[Techmarine]]s to oversee maintenance of the machine-spirits of the chapter's wargear and motor pool.

*'''Master of Sanctity''': The head of the Chaplaincy, and spiritual leader of the Chapter. He assigns [[Chaplain]]s to the Companies to oversee the spiritual health of the Chapter.

*'''Reclusiarch''': The Chaplain who oversees the Chapter's Reclusiam ''(where they keep the relics and other secret historical stuff)''. But quite often the job gets rolled-up into the Master of Sanctity's job description. It's uncertain what interaction ''(if any)'' they have with the Master of Relics, or it is quite possible that a Chaplain receives the role if that Captain of the 9th company gets a different position.

*'''Lord Admiral''': Often the Captain of the 4th company gets this position by default as "Master of the Fleet", but it's [[Uriel Ventris|not unheard of for a Captain to step down]] from the position if someone else would be better suited to the role, they call that person "Lord Admiral" and gets command over the Chapter's fleet assets. Though it might be perfectly reasonable that that space marine holds a battlefield rank of Battle-Brother or Sergeant, so he's probably just on secondment until the Captain ''(or his replacement)'' wants the job back.

*'''Lieutenant Commander''': We know of [[Marines Errant|only one example]] of this rank, and it applies to the commander of a vessel, which makes sense since most Space Marine chapters have more ships than Captains, so ''somebody'' has to get the job of commanding them. Though often we assume it's just a techmarine or sergeant of whichever squad gets attached to that vessel or more likely a badass high ranking [[Chapter Serf]] who doesn't need to be superhuman to understand how space ships operate.

==What the Codex set out to Accomplish==

While the Codex Astartes has a few good points on how Space Marines should fight, it contains a truckload of a lot of bad points on even how an army should be. Due to Guilliman's unending paranoia over the fact that none of his brothers are possibly loyal anymore (and to cover up on how fucking useless he was during most of the [[Horus Heresy]]), he made it so that he ruined the Space Marines entirely ([[skub|though the matter is highly debatable]]), [[Matt Ward|which in comparison is oddly prophetic to this man who worked on the Space Marine Codex and butchered it with Ultramarine fanboyism]].

===Splitting up the Legions===
One fatal flaw of the Codex is the splitting up of the legions and maintaining a maximum of 1,000 battle brothers at any given time, this made the Space Marines even more of a fragmented force concerned with their own agendas than a unified fighting force along with making it longer for them to rebuild and reform whenever they sustain heavy casualties after a major campaign that can only deploy half of its forces at a given time except in the gravest emergencies. This was foolish for another reason. After all, you know the enemy matches your numbers, so you would normally wish to take advantage of the million worlds of the Imperium to outnumber your foe, right? Apparently Guilliman decided that outnumbering the enemy is for chumps. Ten thousand marines per chapter would have made far more sense, especially given the size of the Imperium and the fact that the Chapters will rarely have the option of focusing their full might on one target.

''This is disputable.'' The original [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes]], while the most dangerous forces assembled since the [[War in Heaven]], would have a far too centralized leadership to be effectively deployed across a galaxy-spanning Imperium with thousands of conflicts that needed Astartes support. Stress-fractures were already appearing in the established structure at the time of the Heresy. Furthermore a Battle Company or less would likely be more than enough for most campaigns.

*Except that Expeditionary Fleets and Task Forces were a thing that already existed in the Great Crusade. After all, the Legiones Astartes were already organized into chapters. They were given particular missions and most eventually developed trends of their own. An example were Perturabo's Grand Batallions, which were formations given their own missions, warzones and initial resources, and were expected to become [[Space_Marine_Chapter|self-sufficient]] and eventually increase size; this independency within a Legion's chapters is what allowed [[Blood_Ravens|Loyal elements]] to secede from [[Thousand_Sons|Traitor legions]]. All this allows tactical flexibility while still keeping an unified command, which is pretty much what the [[Dark Angels]] <s>kept on doing</s> ABSOLUTELY DIDN'T DO, FOR THE SONS OF THE LION FOLLOW THE CODEX ASTARTES TO THE LETTER.

But wait, you might exclaim, what about wars that DO require a Legion level deployment. Well, with the exception of the First War for [[Armageddon]] and the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|First Tyrannic War]], Legion sized forces '''were''' present at those conflicts albeit from various Chapters but with an unified theater-exclusive command structure. Notably [[Dante]] and [[Logan Grimnar]] assumed such a role in the Second Armageddon Wars and the [[13th Black Crusade]] respectively, in either case with the almost-unanimous consent of their fellow chapter-masters.

While the Grand/Clan/Fighting Company system of non-codex Chapters offers a greater degree of flexibility in terms of galactic force projection, it leaves the individual non-Codex Companies much more vulnerable to the debilitation of heavy casualties. As a whole though, the Codex Astartes does not structurally hamstring its adhering Chapters. The character of the Chapter does that.''

It transpires that Guilliman's first intention with the codex was never to actually break up the Legions AT ALL, but saw the usefulness after discussions with one of his sergeants: '''Aeonid Thiel''' and figured out that smaller forces of marines can respond and deploy with far more efficiency than the Legions of the past, and that if larger deployments ever became necessary then the chapters would support and adapt to one another.

===Codifying Conformity===
The other flaw was turning each chapter into a generic army using a different name. The Codex Astartes details specifically how a Space Marine should act in every combat situation that [[Roboute Guilliman]] had encountered. While this does give Marines a good idea on how to act when they're staring down a [[Chaos]] warband or a marauding pack of Flesh Hounds, this makes them far too predictable for those who have faced the Space Marines for a long time. As Sun Tzu said, ''"Do not face your opponent too many times or you will reveal your art of war;"'' ''(Any body else find it ironic that Sun Tzu, a notoriously proverb-y text of what to do in any given situation, is invoked to denounce the Codex?)'' ''(Not really. Have you actually read the Art of War? It's a book of generalized tips for managing huge groups of people, including basics you might not think of, like "let the enemy retreat, or else they'll fight your balls off". In contrast, the Codex Astartes is very specific on how things are to be organized at all times)'' given that Guilliman expected Space Marines to be the same thing, except for their colors and whatever they scream at their enemies, the enemies of man will basically be expecting the same thing again and again.

Because of this, an intelligent and experienced opponent with enough dakka to survive one encounter with a Codex Chapter will quickly realize how to deal with any Marine force strictly adhering to the Codex Astartes' tactics. This fault is compounded by the fact that the Codex has no information on threats encountered after Guilliman's time. The [[Ultramarines]] experienced this personally when they got their asses beaten hard when they faced the [[Tyranid]] incursion in their sector for the first time, numerous encounters with [[Necron]]s that ended hilariously poorly for them, the Ultramarines constantly got themselves outdicked and outmaneuvered by [[Tau]], and when [[Uriel Ventris|one of their Captains]] developed a novel set of tactics for successfully dealing with the Tyranids, he was punished for deviating from the Codex (OK, the reason is because he left his men to join a [[Deathwatch]] mission)!

It should also be noted that their [[Chaos Space Marines|greatest enemy]] are comprised almost entirely of <s>former Loyalists</s> millennia old veterans who are familiar with the tactics and approaches listed within the Codex Astares, so it's a wonder the Ultramarines ever survive in combat against Renegades. It's probably because Chaos Marines are all batshit insane by the time loyalist Astartes encounter them.

Compare this to chapters who follow their own standard operating procedures, like the [[Space Wolves]] and [[Black Templars]], and those who do not fully embrace all of the tactical doctrines of the Codex, like the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Blood Angels]]: they and their successors have a much more extensive list of victories, and a shorter list of failures. Consider the [[Damocles Crusade]], wherein the Ultramarines failed to beat up the Tau for years due to their unfamiliar nature (and due to Farsight [[Just as Planned|deciphering the Codex and using it to predict the actions of codex-chapters]]), while the independent Black Templars had much better luck. As in all matters, moderation is key: Guilliman was no fool, but he was not omniscient, either.

In actual fact his original intention for the Codex Astartes was to REMOVE all of the varied and idiosyncratic legions of the past and create a single UNIFIED Legion with a more flexible doctrine. In the past, the Legions were made up of companies of soldiers who fought in the way that best suited them, thus the White Scars would be bikers, the Blood Angels would be Assault marines etc, or even within individual Legions you would have found that certain companies fought in a particular manner according to their experience, creating a stagnation in tactical flexibility. In the same conversation he had with '''Aeonid Thiel''' he realised that training your soldiers to behave in a more tactical manner was actually better, so basically that an Assault Marine could change his loadout and become a Devastator or whatever role needed filling at a particular time. ''(Ironic in that the [[Alpha Legion]] were the only guys doing that pre-heresy, but Guilliman would scorn Alpharius's overall strategies as being too wasteful, but that had nothing to do with an individual unit's tactical flexibility)''

This is precisely why [[Captain Titus]] (who was ironically an Ultramarine himself) said Matt Ward can go fuck himself with all that spiritual liege bullshit, and that Space Marines are at their best when they mix the Codex's advice with the ability to think for their own damn selves. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaHJgzxmyj0 But here is what he really thinks of the Codex Astartes and Leandros]

Worse than that, ''even Guilliman himself'' said the Codex could not supplant brains. Too bad he hadn't wrote it on the books cover, or at least on first page. Then again, no one, not even amongst the Ultramarines, has read the ''entire'' codex. They all have large sections but not everything (yet stupidly act on out-of-context information). Besides, it could be in the foreword or something, no one reads the foreword. Heh, "for Ward".

===Did it really manage that?===
Despite Ward's assertion that the codex is rigidly followed, even his own shitty writing admits that most of the Ultramarines successors/codex chapters are just picking and choosing the bits they like from the codex and ignoring the rest. And you can pretty much guarantee that any chapter that gets it's own novel is going to deviate from the codex. Notable examples are the [[Silver Skulls]], who have combo librarian/chaplains, a scout hardwired into a strike cruiser in a similar fashion to a [[dreadnought]] (yes, it's tech heresy; yes, they know it; no, they don't care) and assault squads in the 9th (devastator) company. Also the [[Hawk Lords]] who are so into flying that other chapters send their pilots to the Hawk Lords "Talon Wings" for training, the [[Aurora Chapter]] who are treadheads above all, the [[Exorcists]] with 2 extra scout companies (12 companies total), the [[Mortifactors]] whose chapter rituals are so far from codex as to be offensive to a visiting Ultramarine and the [[Relictors]] using chaos weapons against chaos.

All Ultramarines successors, all codex chapters, all just using the bits they feel like. Dammit Ward, you can't even keep your fluff-rape consistent. It's very obvious that contrary to Ward's writing in Codex: Space Marines that pretty much nobody follows the Codex Astartes rigidly apart from some of the Ultramarines. The [[Imperial Fists]], [[Salamanders]], [[Raven Guard]], [[White Scars]] and [[Iron Hands]] are also theoretically Codex chapters with varying degrees of divergence from the Codex, tweaking and modifying it to suit their favoured tactics, organisation, rituals and markings. The list of official codex chapters that diverge from the Codex Astartes is so long its just easier to list the chapters that do follow it rigidly. In that category, we have the Ultramarines and... um... well, nobody else really. Oh wait, scratch that, Ultramarines do now have non-Codex formations, such as Tyranic war veterans, so even they cannot hold the title of rigid Codex followers. That role has since been picked up by the [[Red Scorpions]]. Except that the Red Scorpions have the non-codex compliant Apothecary-Sergeant. The only Chapter that literally follows the codex to the LETTER, are the [[Hammers of Dorn]].

Guilliman's intention was to create many smaller chapters of equally flexible forces rather than large forces that adhere to a rigid and imbalanced doctrine. Thus it's either a case that the less hidebound chapters who loosely adhere to the codex and make ''practical'' adjustments to suit their levels of experience and available equipment are [[Skub|more]] in tune with the spirit of the codex than anyone else and that those who follow the codex [[Lawful Stupid|"rigidly"]] have missed the point... Either that or the deviants have failed to realise that the Codex [[Skub|"should"]] have already covered their situational needs in the first place and that deviation from it was unnecessary. It depends on what [[Your dudes|YOU as the reader]] think the codex actually encompasses...

Of course it should be noted that GW has never really shown what's in the Codex and writers have different views. For example, [[Dan Abnett]] views it similar to ''The Art of War'', with general tips and tactics, while [[Graham McNeill]] views it like a football play book. Since all of Ward's codex quotes seem to favor Abnett's ideal of what the Codex is like, its possible that by following it "rigidly" its following the basic ideal of the codex, i.e. the general organization and being flexible in combat (which is why the smurfs can choose to fail morale tests when they're making tactical withdraws). It's a stupid way to word it but that's the norm for the Imperium.

==Boundless Amusement==

[[Captain Titus]] of the Ultramarines in the recent [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREEN]] game, tells young Leandros that the Codex is not always a good thing to follow literally.

The usefulness of the Codex Astartes is also a major theme in [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Ultramarines'' novel series. When [[Uriel Ventris]] is on trial for violating the Codex, First Captain [[Severus Agemman]] comes and confides in him, saying that while his decisions made sense, the Ultramarines must stick to the letter and spirit of the Codex, as the Codex Astartes is not how to be a good Space Marine, it's about how to be a ''loyal'' Space Marine. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, as the [[Imperium of Man]]'s average response to free thinking is to start screaming incoherently and beat the free thinker to death, but we digress. By the end of the series, [[Marneus Calgar]] is admitting that blindly following the Codex might be costing them in the war with [[M'kar]] and [[Honsou]], who in particular knows how the Ultramarines will react due to their adherence to the Codex.

Which is the exact same lesson they learn during the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|first Tyranid war]]. Which is why so many people turned on McNeill after Chapter's Due as it sums up as "Ultramarines can only be cool if they act like Space Wolves". This combine with more recent portrayals of Ultrmarines showing them as extremely tactical flexible. And the codex itself is portrayed as not a static thing but something that has been revised and added to over the years.

[[Nick Kyme]] also plays with it a bit, however far differently. Unlike McNeill who uses it as a strawman to make Uriel look cool. He treats is more or less like everyone else does. However many Ultramarines follow it differently. [[Cato Sicarius]] plays it more loosely, resulting in him being more unpredictable but also more willing to take high risk, high reward actions, and his own personality means he'll do things the codex speaks against like trying to hunt down and kill the enemy commander in a duel. Agemman meanwhile follows it more to the letter, but also follows the more willing to take pragmatic tactics because of it.

=="Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex)==
More commonly, are those chapters which follow the codex at an organisational level, but disregard certain tactical aspects contained within, most likely because they have their own modus-operandi that they have a preference for, or because they create their own unique tactics that had never been considered.

'''[[Aurora Chapter]]'''
*Follows the Codex Astartes, yet has a large number of vehicles.
*They have a lot of vehicles.
*For a 1000 man sized Chapter, they have a lot of tanks.
*Of all the Codex Chapters they have the most tanks.
*Their armored spearhead attacks are pretty devastating.

'''[[Charnel Guard]]'''
*Cannot say too much about those guys since they are very secretive, thus their organisation and structure are completely unknown.
*Rumored to be Blood Angels successors, yet as said before, they are totally unknown from a organisational and structural P.O.V.
*Have a lot of Great Crusade and Horus Heresy Era stuff, including a Fellblade.

'''[[Crimson Fists]]'''
*More tactically oriented [[Imperial Fists]].
*Actually do follow the Codex more closely than other Sons of Dorn (but not that much like the Hammers of Dorn).
*At the time of their founding, they were known to be the most level-headed members of the Imperial Fists Legion, therefore took in the Codex much faster and easier.
*Only deviation is the existence of a Crusader Company that is a 1st Company that has 128 Veterans. A result of an event where they were reduced to 128 members during the Crusade of Righteous Liberation.
*Due to the whole situation with Rynn's World, the Chapter became very capable at fighting [[Orks]].

'''[[Emperor's Shadows]]'''
*Iron Hands Successors that follow the Codex.
*Put more emphasis on projectile weapons (like Bolter Weapons) and Dreadnoughts.

'''[[Executioners]]'''
*Choose to go into close combat with the enemy.
*Heavy emphasis on their own skills and superhuman abilities enhanced with sheer Determination.

'''[[Hammers of Dorn]]'''
*Follow the Codex to the letter, yet do put more emphasis on heavy weapons and overwhelming firepower.
*No really, they follow the ABSOLUTE LETTER of the codex.
*Not even the [[Ultramarines]](Famous for having the primarch that wrote the damn thing) follow the codex more rigidly than them.
*They probably actually read the Codex from cover to cover.

'''[[Hawk Lords]]'''
*Codex compliant, yet put large emphasis on flyers.

'''[[Minotaurs]]'''
*Instead of sending out a single company, the Minotaurs utilize mob and berserker tactics along with sending out all ten of their companies to utterly overwhelm and crush their foes.

'''[[Raptors]]'''
*[[Reasonable Marines|Camouflage Power Armour]]. Technically this IS in the codex, but they're the [[Derp|only space marine chapter out of literally thousands]] that actually bothers to do it. They're also sneeki beekies, just like their Raven Guard progenitors.

'''[[Raven Guard]]'''
*Sneeki Cheeki [[beakie|Beekies]]. While they do follow the codex, their chapter made amusingly extensive use of mutants (during the [[Horus Heresy]]), and [[Reasonable Marines|stealth tactics and guerilla warfare]] due to their situation.

'''[[Space Sharks|Space Sharks/Carcharodons]]'''
*Greater emphasis on infantry and terror tactics.
*Will sneak up as close as possible to the enemy to later tear them a new one in close combat while berserking.
*May be organisationally non compliant as well, but they are quite tight lipped about it.

'''[[Storm Giants]]'''
*Codex compliant, but utilize armoured assaults, Drop Pod strikes, and heavily use Scouts to get intel before ruining someone's day.
*Due to their heavy use of Scouts, they have a larger than average 10th Company.

'''[[White Scars]] and some Successors'''
*Disproportionate emphasis put on bikes and speeders compared to heavy vehicles, still adhering to codex formation however.

==Non-Codex Chapters==
As mentioned, there are so many chapters in the Imperium and very few of them follow the codex absolutely to the letter. Many chapters have their own preferred mode of warfare based upon their experiences, supplies and dispositions, often they generate their own interpretations and deviations from the codex. Here follows a comparative listing of those chapters and the way in which they differ from what the codex actually prescribes.

===Chapters with drastic differences in formations or composition===
A rare case of deviation from the codex is when a Chapter outright ignores most or all the elements of the Codex Astartes in order to pursue their own independent take on warfare. Much larger number of battle brothers than the standard 1000 men, often unique ranks that even combine elements from other specialists, ignoring the tactics Roboute Guilliman wrote down, and even unique units that sometimes do not even have a counterpart seen among those who follow the Codex more closely or completely. As mentioned before, these Chapters are extremely rare and may very well be under Inquisitorial surveillance. [[Horus Heresy|Because we all know how that well ended the last time when there was much more than a thousand brothers]]. Then again, these Space Marine Chapters may seem to concentrate a lot of power, yet are as loyal as any other Chapter. Paranoia is a staple of the Imperium.

'''[[Astral Claws]]'''
*'''Pre-[[Red Corsairs]] Times''': Before [[Lugft Huron]] went pants-on-heads retarded, the Chapter was known for being exceptionally stubborn with skilled Bikers and favoring lightning strikes and boarding actions while still following the Codex.
*'''[[Badab War]] Times''':
**Due to Huron's pants-on-heads retarded thinking, the Chapter seized the Badab Sector's industry and made it so that Bolter rounds and Rhinos were mass-produced to the point being expendable, not to mention the larger-than-standard number of marines due to them purposefully not paying their geneseed tithe.
**Emergence of specialized units (such as the hated Corpse-Takers) and human Auxilia. Squads larger due to aforementioned not paying of the geneseed tithe.

'''[[Black Templars]]'''
*"Chapter" made up of ad-hoc crusade fleets and fighting companies, their numbers thus swelling up to six times the size of everyone else's.
*No Scout company, instead recruits are apprenticed to fully fledged battle-brothers, aka "Crusader squads".
*No Librarians.
*Doctrinal emphasis on close quarters combat.
**Abundance of previously unsanctioned Land Raider "Crusader"s to deliver said Crusader squads to CQC. See the trend here?
*Outright [[Word_Bearers|deification of the Emperor]] (contrary to the usual, more restrained veneration other chapters profess).
**The position of "Emperor's Champion", a Chapter Champion-esque title but of faith significance.

'''[[Grey Knights]]'''
*Due to their unique training and equipment (not to mention the [[Chaos|intimidatingly]] [[Chaos Space Marines|insane]] [[Daemon|shit]] they have to deal with), the Codex would actually hamper them instead.
*All psyker Chapter of Demon hunting marines. Nuff said.
*The infamous [[Dreadknight]].
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear.
*Do not have any artillery weapons like Whirlwind Artillery Tanks or lack of certain vehicles other Chapters have.

'''[[Legion of the Damned]]'''
*Previously Codex adherent [[Fire Hawks]] (maybe, now it's uncertain if they are Fire Hawks or somebody/something completely different), now a horde of angry hellfire powered, space/time/dimension travelling, [[AWESOME|spectrerevenantdemonspacemarines]].
*Utilize more powerful, but unstable early versions of existing Imperial Weapons like early Horus Heresy Era Plasma Weapons.

'''[[Space Wolves]]'''
*Ignore the codex outright. It would be easier to go [[Space Wolves|their page]] to find out how they are organised.
*Simply put, Leman Russ wanted them to be forged in his vision instead that of Roboute Guilliman.
*Although they do however take some (KEYWORD: SOME) useful tactics from the codex because they like them, but that is only this.
*Fenrisian Wolves/Thunderwolves used by the Chapter.
*Have more than a thousand marines, yet not that much as the Black Templars.
*Longfang Veterans take place of Devastator Marines, whereas instead of having normal Scouts, the Chapter has Veteran Scouts instead.
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear. They are then put into the Blood or Sky Claws (the latter if they are too troublesome even by Blood Claw standards).
*In the previous editions, they had access to Leman Russ tanks (logical, since the tank was named after their Primarch).
*Wolf Priests combine both Chaplain and Apothecary roles.

===Chapters with differences in formations or composition===
Some chapters have taken the idea of a "Chapter" and tweaked it with their own unique spin on its organization, either by adding units or ranks that aren't found anywhere else, or have their own composition of companies that doesn't fit with the approved codex model. In some cases they may ignore the codex altogether and do their own thing.

'''[[Black Dragons]]'''
*Dragon Claw squads, made up of mutants who make use of adamantium coated wrist blades.

'''[[Blood Ravens]]'''
*'''Pre-Aurelian Crusade''':
**Usually, the Chapter Master was the Chief Librarian too, like [[Azariah Kyras]]. This tradition of Chapter Master/Librarian combo started with Azariah Vidya (as in Vidya Games).
**Their gene seed causes them to have an above average number of Librarians, so many they can field two whole squads of them in the First Company. Librarians are so recurrent among Blood Ravens that it's not uncommon for one to be even a Captain.
**Actually Codex Compliant in structure, yet utilize their Librarians to scry and predict the movements of their enemies (so their Scouts are Librarians too?) and use the intel to formulate a counter strategy (because they appeared in [[Dawn of War]], their way of war is an emulation of how RTS gamers play when they are serious).
**Non-standard patterns of [[Apollo_Diomedes|speech]], incidents of [[Blood_Ravens_Force_Commander|hairesy]], compulsive [[Blood_Ravens#Bloody_Magpies|kleptomany]] and emphasis on [[Indrick_Boreale|devastating, defensive deepstrikes]].
*'''Post-Aurelian Crusade''':
**With [[Gabriel Angelos]], a non-psyker, taking the position of Chapter Master they returned to a more codex-compliant organization, albeit severely undermanned.

'''[[Blood Angels]] and Successors'''
*[[Scout]]s graduate to [[Assault Squad]]s rather than to Devastator squads.
*The use of [[Heresy|non-standard tech]], like Baal Predators, Furioso and [[Dreadnought#Chapter_Specific_Dreads|Librarian Dreadnoughts]].
*Sanguinary Priests (Apothecaries) make up part of the chapter priesthood equivalent to Chaplains, who are busy tending to...
*...The [[Death Company]].

'''[[Dark Angels]] and Successors'''
*The [[Deathwing]] & [[Ravenwing]] instead of First and Second companies.
*Inner Circle in place of usual chapter command structure.
*Chaplains taking the additional role of [[Chaplain#Dark_Angels_Interrogator-Chaplain|Interrogators]].
*Battle Companies incorporate an additional squad of [[Veteran Squad|veteran marines]].
*Some nifty STC that they do not share with anybody apart of their own successors.

'''[[Exorcists]]'''
*Have two additional scout companies to account for the high attrition rate amongst recruits.
*...said attrition rate being caused by subjecting recruits to daemonic possession.

'''[[Iron Hands]]'''
*Have a Chapter Council instead of a fixed [[Chapter Master]], though a leader may be nominated.
*Chaplain Techmarines, aka "[[Chaplain#Iron_Hands_Iron_Father|Iron Fathers]]".
**The current leader is thus a Chapter Master Chaplain Techmarine. And people say the Blood Ravens are the crazy ones.
*Terminator Armour was distributed to squad sergeants instead of being reserved only for the First company.
*Pre-6th Edition fluff indicated that individual companies (clans) had their own veterans and recruits, newer fluff put them more in line with the Codex.

'''[[Iron Snakes]]'''
*Instead of having five regular battle companies and five reserve companies, the Iron Snakes have ten battle companies with an equal number of veterans, regulars and neophytes for perfect balance.
*Each squad has a Apothecary, personal Squad Standard Bearer and a number of specialists of their own.

'''[[Red Scorpions]]'''
*Apothecaries act in squad command roles instead of sergeants.

'''[[Salamanders]]'''
*Have seven oversized companies instead of ten, but otherwise broadly conform to the codex.

'''[[Star Phantoms]]'''
*Battle companies have three [[Devastator Squad]]s instead of two.

'''[[Storm Wardens]]'''
*Tempest Blades being a non-codex formation.
*Heavy emphasis on mechanized warfare and mano-a-mano honorable duels to the death.

'''[[Ultramarines]]'''
*Tyrannic War Veterans are a non-codex formation.

'''[[White Consuls]]'''
*Have [[Alpharius|two Chapter Masters]] instead of one

==Purpose for Gamers==

Of course, there's a reason [[Games Workshop]] included the Codex Astartes in their fluff (long before Matt Ward came along, by the way). Basically, it makes it easier for players to invent their own Chapters.

Players who just have an idea for a cool color scheme or name but don't want to put any effort into making up a whole organizational layout can just make a Chapter that rigidly follows the Codex, like the [[Ultramarines]]. Those who want to have one or two unique organizational or tactical features can make a Chapter that generally follows the Codex but has some variances, like...well, most of them (see above). And players that want to make up entirely independent structures themselves can make Chapters that ignore the Codex entirely, like the [[Space Wolves]] or the [[Black Templars]].

This means that Matt Ward's Codex worship isn't just lame, but actually bad for GW's business: By telling players that only Codex Chapters are any good, he's discouraging players with their own ideas from investing in models, paints, tournaments, and maybe even later editions of the game. Truly, there is no end to his failure.

==Codex Astartes, as according to [[Matt Ward]]==
{{MattWard}}

The Codex Astartes was written by the greatest of Space Marines, <s>Matt Ward</s> [[Roboute Guilliman]], shortly after the [[Horus Heresy]]. It includes unbeatable tactical doctrines for just about every situation. All but [[Black Templars|the]] [[Raven Guard|most]] [[Blood Angels|despicable]] of Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes as much as they can. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, and as a result are the best fighters in the galaxy, while the [[Space Wolves]], the freaks of the Spare Marine factions, barely use it at all.

The Codex is flawless and infallible, and even many non-human races aspire to its word (<< implying not killing xenos).

Bollocks.

Nay my friend, this be [[Heresy]].

{{Marines-Codex}}
[[Category:Space Marines]] [[category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Imperial]]

Codex Astartes

2016-02-29T06:42:56Z

2601:245:4201:C2E0:94C2:5E6C:2784:2B3D: /* "Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex) */

<center> '' The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us....shape us as Ultramarines...teach us how to hold duty and honor sacred above all.'' '''''But how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine...'''''
 -[[Captain Titus]], [[Ultramarines]] 2nd Company</center>

<center> '' ‘But your teachings…’ '''‘Are yet flawed,’ said Guilliman. ‘No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed.''' There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed.’'''''
 -[[Roboute Guilliman]], [[Primarch]] of the Ultramarines</center>

<center> '' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_rwCenX9o Is that wise, captain? The Codex Astartes does not support this action-]"'''''
 -[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Leandros]]</center>

The Codex Astartes was written by [[Roboute Guilliman]] [[Imperium Secundus|over the course]] of the [[Horus Heresy]] and presented it when things settled down; among other things, its suggested organizational scheme split the remaining [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] into small, manageable chunks. It also includes tactical doctrines for just about every situation, like the formidable [[Steel Rain]]. Most loyalist Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes to varying degrees. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, while the [[Space Wolves]] only find it useful for toilet paper.

==Chapters==
Under the Codex Astartes, the Space Marine legions were to be split into one thousand-strong [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]]s (often already a subunit within some pre-Heresy legions like the [[Blood Angels]], [[Dark Angels]](heh), [[Salamanders]], Ultramarines, and [[Word Bearers]]) composed of ten companies. The 1st Company is composed of [[Veteran Squad|Veterans]], and are the only company in the chapter to employ [[Terminator]] armor.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies are called Battle Companies, composed of six [[Tactical Squad]]s, two [[Devastator Squad]]s, and two [[Assault Squad]]s. They train together, and when a Space Marine Company deploys as a single unit, it will be one of these.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies are the reserve squads, and are more specialized than the first five companies. The 6th and 7th Companies are composed entirely of Tactical Marines (who specialize in using [[Bike Squad|bikes]] and [[Land Speeder]]s, respectively), the 8th Company of Assault Marines, and the 9th Company entirely of Devastator Marines.

The 10th Company is composed entirely of [[Scout]] Marines, who are eventually promoted to other companies after a certain number of years.

Of course, one thousand Marines assumes ten Companies, with ten Squads, with ten Marines, and nothing more. But, including vehicle crews, [[Librarian]]s, [[Techmarine]]s, [[Chaplain]]s, Company [[Command Squad]]s, [[Apothecary|Apothecaries]], Honor Guard, [[Dreadnought]]s and other support personnel, it turns out that a Chapter with a full roster will have something like 1500 Marines, not counting a scout company that doesn't have a fixed limit of 100 scouts so attrition doesn't put a hamper on chapter reinforcements, plus who knows how many unaugmented human serfs and Auxilia. It's also a figure which assumes no battle casualties; given that the mandate of the Space Marines is to seek out and destroy the direst enemies of the Imperium, this is a state of affairs which is hardly ever the case - indeed, one of the reasons Reserve Companies exist is to provide a pool from which to keep the Battle Companies at fighting strength.

==Marine roles==

Among the tenets of the Codex, Guilliman outlined the roles of various Marines to be used in Chapters. They include the following:

*'''[[Scout|Scout Squad]]''': Scout Marines are Neophyte Space Marines who are charged with scouting terrain and enemy positions. A risky job, but this has the effect of ensuring that the more cautious ones survive while the reckless and foolish are weeded out.

*'''[[Devastator Squad|Devastator]]''': Devastator Marines can be summed up in three words: Blow shit up. The purpose of the Devastator is to provide heavy weapons fire in battle, artillery strikes, and hunting tanks. Once a Scout earns his Black Carapace and Power Armor, he will be attached to a Devastator Squad, allowing him to bond with his armor while learning its strengths by lugging heavy weapons around.

*'''[[Assault Squad|Assault]]''': Assault Marines are those who specialize in melee combat, using [[Chainsword|Chain]] and [[Power weapon]]s alike to fuck up the enemies of the [[Imperium of Man]]. In addition, they also possess jump packs which can allow them limited flight. This is the next stop in a new Marine's career, helping to familiarize him with any weapons he hasn't used yet, and putting him through the crushing psychological stress of hand-to-hand combat under something resembling optimal conditions.

*'''[[Tactical Squad|Tactical]]''': The backbone of a Battle Company, Tactical Marines are those who are flexible in combat, relying on both ranged weapons and melee weapons in combat. Note that due to the order of the Companies, they usually have served as both Assault and Devastator Marines, so they definitely know the basics of both, granting the majority of the chapter great theoretical tactical flexibility.

*'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran]]''': Veteran Marines are those who have seen through several centuries, allowing them access to all the cool toys in the Chapter's armory since they're hopefully experienced and cool-headed enough not to, say, super-glue the sacred sword of the Founder to the codpiece of their armor and pretend that it's their willy. Chapter veterans get to wear [[Terminator]] armor (the Crux Terminatus is a cross between a medal and authorization papers), but they sometimes stay with normally-sized power armor instead, which is instead slowly turned into Artificer armor by all the bling and enhancements. Power-armored Veterans are divided into two subgroups: Vanguard (who focus on close quarters combat) and Sternguard (who focus on bolter drills and other forms of ranged warfare).

==Ranks==

The Codex Astartes formalized and simplified the ranks among the Adeptus Astartes, eliminating some ranks like "commander" and "lieutenant", while adding some more. They include:

*'''[[Chapter Master]]''': The grand poobah of the Chapter. He is the one who gives Marine companies their assignments, and ultimately recognizes no external authority save for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]. That being said, it's a very silly (or [[Logan Grimnar|very manly]]) Chapter Master that can tell an [[Inquisitor]] to sit on a [[Nova Cannon]] and rotate. Whilst Inquisitors are technically outside the Space Marine chain of command, they have the ability to requisition squads, Companies or entire Chapters if need be.

*'''[[Brother-Captain|Captain]]''': Captains are the commanders of Companies, overseeing their Marines from the front line instead of the back. Captains are usually promoted from the senior Sergeant in the Company. The most senior is the First Captain, who commands the Veteran 1st Company, and is often the official heir apparent to the Chapter Master. Each Company Captain also holds a Chapter-level position of authority, supervising his Chapter's fleet, vehicle pool, recruits, or territory, for example.

*'''[[Brother-Sergeant|Sergeant]]''': Sergeants lead squads of four to nine other Marines depending on the influx of recruits. There are approximately ten sergeants per Codex approved Company. Often, the most senior sergeant will be the commander of a company's "First Squad" ''(usually a Tactical Squad)'' and will likely be next in line for a promotion if the Captain is ever slain, but not always. Members of the Captain's Command Squad may also be Sergeants who get additional duties as the Captain's role might require.
**'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran-Sergeant]]''': Not a "rank" exactly, but more of a recognition of status for those who have been members of a Chapter's First Company, quite frequently these guys get redistributed back to the lower companies to act as squad leaders where their experience will do some good, hence "Veteran Sergeant". These guys will usually get to wear the "Crux Terminatus" even when in power armour, to represent the fact that they have earned the right to use Terminator Armour. Note that Veteran Sergeants can serve in the ranks of the Scouts, Devastators, and Assault Marines despite being technically overqualified, in each case helping the new recruits to adapt to Chapter life. In old 3rd Edition rules you could get Captains without terminator honours, which kind of implied that they never passed through the first company but still got command, nowadays a Captain is just one thing.
**Old second edition fluff also gave us the "Veteran" position within regular Battle-Company squads who was marked with a different form of insignia, but was wholly unconnected with the first company. His job to act as the second-in-command under his sergeant ''(Veteran Sergeant or otherwise)'' of his squad and to take command of a combat squad when the unit gets split up. Essentially this was just an organisational position and made no difference to the skill or rules of the model.

*'''Champion''': The best close quarters fighter in a company, the Company Champion is charged with protection of the Captain from all hostile threats. Given that your average Captain is a badass in power armor, this may seem redundant, but it's supposed to allow him to focus on coordinating the battle. Almost always part of a Command Squad. The most elite of these is the Chapter Champion, who is charged with protecting the Chapter Master.

*'''Force Commander''': Not a rank but a title given to the leader of a force (duh) either given if more than one company is fighting at the same time, or if the company has to split up and the Captain gives an XO like the leader of his command squad. For a tabletop comparison, this could be any senior sergeant since any character can be made the army's warlord and it would fit the description quite nicely.

*'''[[Honour Guard]]''': Like a veteran-veteran, assumed to be the best of the best. These guys get bunched together and given some of the best gear available to the chapter. The fluff tells us that these guys are peers of Captains in terms of battlefield experience, but do not have the command rank to actually issue any orders, though when Honour Guard speak up it's advised that the officers nearby listen carefully. Thankfully the tabletop game is balanced not to give a whole squad full of Captain-equivalent soldiers.

*'''Standard Bearer''': The Company Standard Bearer, given the title of '''Ancient''' ''(the old term for Ensign, who was traditional standard bearer)'', is charged with carrying and protecting the Company Standard, or banner. Also frequently joins the Command Squad. Should a Company Standard Bearer drop the banner and let it fall to the ground, he will essentially forfeit his honor. If the Standard Bearer should be killed and the banner stolen, then the entire Company will be dishonored until the banner is reclaimed. Which means that if you steal a Company Standard, you now have nearly one hundred Space Marines who were just trying to kill you, but now you had to go and make it personal. The most elite of these is the Chapter Standard Bearer ''(often a member of the Honour Guard)'', who carries the Chapter banner in war.

Outside of the above mentioned battle ranks, there are other senior positions within a Chapter:

*'''Chief Librarian''': The head of the Librarium, who assigns [[Librarian]]s to assist in battlefield communications. Also tests to see whether or not his battle-brothers are tainted by [[Chaos]] ("Yes brother, this is standard Codex procedure." *Snaps Latex gloves*)

*'''Master of the Apothecarion''': The head of the Apothecarion, who assigns an [[Apothecary]] to each Company. The Apothecarion in turn also takes care of the [[gene-seed]] that Chapters place such holy emphasis on, and for good reason: no gene-seed - no new recruits.

*'''Master of the Forge''': The head of the Armoury, who assigns [[Techmarine]]s to oversee maintenance of the machine-spirits of the chapter's wargear and motor pool.

*'''Master of Sanctity''': The head of the Chaplaincy, and spiritual leader of the Chapter. He assigns [[Chaplain]]s to the Companies to oversee the spiritual health of the Chapter.

*'''Reclusiarch''': The Chaplain who oversees the Chapter's Reclusiam ''(where they keep the relics and other secret historical stuff)''. But quite often the job gets rolled-up into the Master of Sanctity's job description. It's uncertain what interaction ''(if any)'' they have with the Master of Relics, or it is quite possible that a Chaplain receives the role if that Captain of the 9th company gets a different position.

*'''Lord Admiral''': Often the Captain of the 4th company gets this position by default as "Master of the Fleet", but it's [[Uriel Ventris|not unheard of for a Captain to step down]] from the position if someone else would be better suited to the role, they call that person "Lord Admiral" and gets command over the Chapter's fleet assets. Though it might be perfectly reasonable that that space marine holds a battlefield rank of Battle-Brother or Sergeant, so he's probably just on secondment until the Captain ''(or his replacement)'' wants the job back.

*'''Lieutenant Commander''': We know of [[Marines Errant|only one example]] of this rank, and it applies to the commander of a vessel, which makes sense since most Space Marine chapters have more ships than Captains, so ''somebody'' has to get the job of commanding them. Though often we assume it's just a techmarine or sergeant of whichever squad gets attached to that vessel or more likely a badass high ranking [[Chapter Serf]] who doesn't need to be superhuman to understand how space ships operate.

==What the Codex set out to Accomplish==

While the Codex Astartes has a few good points on how Space Marines should fight, it contains a truckload of a lot of bad points on even how an army should be. Due to Guilliman's unending paranoia over the fact that none of his brothers are possibly loyal anymore (and to cover up on how fucking useless he was during most of the [[Horus Heresy]]), he made it so that he ruined the Space Marines entirely ([[skub|though the matter is highly debatable]]), [[Matt Ward|which in comparison is oddly prophetic to this man who worked on the Space Marine Codex and butchered it with Ultramarine fanboyism]].

===Splitting up the Legions===
One fatal flaw of the Codex is the splitting up of the legions and maintaining a maximum of 1,000 battle brothers at any given time, this made the Space Marines even more of a fragmented force concerned with their own agendas than a unified fighting force along with making it longer for them to rebuild and reform whenever they sustain heavy casualties after a major campaign that can only deploy half of its forces at a given time except in the gravest emergencies. This was foolish for another reason. After all, you know the enemy matches your numbers, so you would normally wish to take advantage of the million worlds of the Imperium to outnumber your foe, right? Apparently Guilliman decided that outnumbering the enemy is for chumps. Ten thousand marines per chapter would have made far more sense, especially given the size of the Imperium and the fact that the Chapters will rarely have the option of focusing their full might on one target.

''This is disputable.'' The original [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes]], while the most dangerous forces assembled since the [[War in Heaven]], would have a far too centralized leadership to be effectively deployed across a galaxy-spanning Imperium with thousands of conflicts that needed Astartes support. Stress-fractures were already appearing in the established structure at the time of the Heresy. Furthermore a Battle Company or less would likely be more than enough for most campaigns.

*Except that Expeditionary Fleets and Task Forces were a thing that already existed in the Great Crusade. After all, the Legiones Astartes were already organized into chapters. They were given particular missions and most eventually developed trends of their own. An example were Perturabo's Grand Batallions, which were formations given their own missions, warzones and initial resources, and were expected to become [[Space_Marine_Chapter|self-sufficient]] and eventually increase size; this independency within a Legion's chapters is what allowed [[Blood_Ravens|Loyal elements]] to secede from [[Thousand_Sons|Traitor legions]]. All this allows tactical flexibility while still keeping an unified command, which is pretty much what the [[Dark Angels]] <s>kept on doing</s> ABSOLUTELY DIDN'T DO, FOR THE SONS OF THE LION FOLLOW THE CODEX ASTARTES TO THE LETTER.

But wait, you might exclaim, what about wars that DO require a Legion level deployment. Well, with the exception of the First War for [[Armageddon]] and the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|First Tyrannic War]], Legion sized forces '''were''' present at those conflicts albeit from various Chapters but with an unified theater-exclusive command structure. Notably [[Dante]] and [[Logan Grimnar]] assumed such a role in the Second Armageddon Wars and the [[13th Black Crusade]] respectively, in either case with the almost-unanimous consent of their fellow chapter-masters.

While the Grand/Clan/Fighting Company system of non-codex Chapters offers a greater degree of flexibility in terms of galactic force projection, it leaves the individual non-Codex Companies much more vulnerable to the debilitation of heavy casualties. As a whole though, the Codex Astartes does not structurally hamstring its adhering Chapters. The character of the Chapter does that.''

It transpires that Guilliman's first intention with the codex was never to actually break up the Legions AT ALL, but saw the usefulness after discussions with one of his sergeants: '''Aeonid Thiel''' and figured out that smaller forces of marines can respond and deploy with far more efficiency than the Legions of the past, and that if larger deployments ever became necessary then the chapters would support and adapt to one another.

===Codifying Conformity===
The other flaw was turning each chapter into a generic army using a different name. The Codex Astartes details specifically how a Space Marine should act in every combat situation that [[Roboute Guilliman]] had encountered. While this does give Marines a good idea on how to act when they're staring down a [[Chaos]] warband or a marauding pack of Flesh Hounds, this makes them far too predictable for those who have faced the Space Marines for a long time. As Sun Tzu said, ''"Do not face your opponent too many times or you will reveal your art of war;"'' ''(Any body else find it ironic that Sun Tzu, a notoriously proverb-y text of what to do in any given situation, is invoked to denounce the Codex?)'' ''(Not really. Have you actually read the Art of War? It's a book of generalized tips for managing huge groups of people, including basics you might not think of, like "let the enemy retreat, or else they'll fight your balls off". In contrast, the Codex Astartes is very specific on how things are to be organized at all times)'' given that Guilliman expected Space Marines to be the same thing, except for their colors and whatever they scream at their enemies, the enemies of man will basically be expecting the same thing again and again.

Because of this, an intelligent and experienced opponent with enough dakka to survive one encounter with a Codex Chapter will quickly realize how to deal with any Marine force strictly adhering to the Codex Astartes' tactics. This fault is compounded by the fact that the Codex has no information on threats encountered after Guilliman's time. The [[Ultramarines]] experienced this personally when they got their asses beaten hard when they faced the [[Tyranid]] incursion in their sector for the first time, numerous encounters with [[Necron]]s that ended hilariously poorly for them, the Ultramarines constantly got themselves outdicked and outmaneuvered by [[Tau]], and when [[Uriel Ventris|one of their Captains]] developed a novel set of tactics for successfully dealing with the Tyranids, he was punished for deviating from the Codex (OK, the reason is because he left his men to join a [[Deathwatch]] mission)!

It should also be noted that their [[Chaos Space Marines|greatest enemy]] are comprised almost entirely of <s>former Loyalists</s> millennia old veterans who are familiar with the tactics and approaches listed within the Codex Astares, so it's a wonder the Ultramarines ever survive in combat against Renegades. It's probably because Chaos Marines are all batshit insane by the time loyalist Astartes encounter them.

Compare this to chapters who follow their own standard operating procedures, like the [[Space Wolves]] and [[Black Templars]], and those who do not fully embrace all of the tactical doctrines of the Codex, like the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Blood Angels]]: they and their successors have a much more extensive list of victories, and a shorter list of failures. Consider the [[Damocles Crusade]], wherein the Ultramarines failed to beat up the Tau for years due to their unfamiliar nature (and due to Farsight [[Just as Planned|deciphering the Codex and using it to predict the actions of codex-chapters]]), while the independent Black Templars had much better luck. As in all matters, moderation is key: Guilliman was no fool, but he was not omniscient, either.

In actual fact his original intention for the Codex Astartes was to REMOVE all of the varied and idiosyncratic legions of the past and create a single UNIFIED Legion with a more flexible doctrine. In the past, the Legions were made up of companies of soldiers who fought in the way that best suited them, thus the White Scars would be bikers, the Blood Angels would be Assault marines etc, or even within individual Legions you would have found that certain companies fought in a particular manner according to their experience, creating a stagnation in tactical flexibility. In the same conversation he had with '''Aeonid Thiel''' he realised that training your soldiers to behave in a more tactical manner was actually better, so basically that an Assault Marine could change his loadout and become a Devastator or whatever role needed filling at a particular time. ''(Ironic in that the [[Alpha Legion]] were the only guys doing that pre-heresy, but Guilliman would scorn Alpharius's overall strategies as being too wasteful, but that had nothing to do with an individual unit's tactical flexibility)''

This is precisely why [[Captain Titus]] (who was ironically an Ultramarine himself) said Matt Ward can go fuck himself with all that spiritual liege bullshit, and that Space Marines are at their best when they mix the Codex's advice with the ability to think for their own damn selves. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaHJgzxmyj0 But here is what he really thinks of the Codex Astartes and Leandros]

Worse than that, ''even Guilliman himself'' said the Codex could not supplant brains. Too bad he hadn't wrote it on the books cover, or at least on first page. Then again, no one, not even amongst the Ultramarines, has read the ''entire'' codex. They all have large sections but not everything (yet stupidly act on out-of-context information). Besides, it could be in the foreword or something, no one reads the foreword. Heh, "for Ward".

===Did it really manage that?===
Despite Ward's assertion that the codex is rigidly followed, even his own shitty writing admits that most of the Ultramarines successors/codex chapters are just picking and choosing the bits they like from the codex and ignoring the rest. And you can pretty much guarantee that any chapter that gets it's own novel is going to deviate from the codex. Notable examples are the [[Silver Skulls]], who have combo librarian/chaplains, a scout hardwired into a strike cruiser in a similar fashion to a [[dreadnought]] (yes, it's tech heresy; yes, they know it; no, they don't care) and assault squads in the 9th (devastator) company. Also the [[Hawk Lords]] who are so into flying that other chapters send their pilots to the Hawk Lords "Talon Wings" for training, the [[Aurora Chapter]] who are treadheads above all, the [[Exorcists]] with 2 extra scout companies (12 companies total), the [[Mortifactors]] whose chapter rituals are so far from codex as to be offensive to a visiting Ultramarine and the [[Relictors]] using chaos weapons against chaos.

All Ultramarines successors, all codex chapters, all just using the bits they feel like. Dammit Ward, you can't even keep your fluff-rape consistent. It's very obvious that contrary to Ward's writing in Codex: Space Marines that pretty much nobody follows the Codex Astartes rigidly apart from some of the Ultramarines. The [[Imperial Fists]], [[Salamanders]], [[Raven Guard]], [[White Scars]] and [[Iron Hands]] are also theoretically Codex chapters with varying degrees of divergence from the Codex, tweaking and modifying it to suit their favoured tactics, organisation, rituals and markings. The list of official codex chapters that diverge from the Codex Astartes is so long its just easier to list the chapters that do follow it rigidly. In that category, we have the Ultramarines and... um... well, nobody else really. Oh wait, scratch that, Ultramarines do now have non-Codex formations, such as Tyranic war veterans, so even they cannot hold the title of rigid Codex followers. That role has since been picked up by the [[Red Scorpions]]. Except that the Red Scorpions have the non-codex compliant Apothecary-Sergeant. The only Chapter that literally follows the codex to the LETTER, are the [[Hammers of Dorn]].

Guilliman's intention was to create many smaller chapters of equally flexible forces rather than large forces that adhere to a rigid and imbalanced doctrine. Thus it's either a case that the less hidebound chapters who loosely adhere to the codex and make ''practical'' adjustments to suit their levels of experience and available equipment are [[Skub|more]] in tune with the spirit of the codex than anyone else and that those who follow the codex [[Lawful Stupid|"rigidly"]] have missed the point... Either that or the deviants have failed to realise that the Codex [[Skub|"should"]] have already covered their situational needs in the first place and that deviation from it was unnecessary. It depends on what [[Your dudes|YOU as the reader]] think the codex actually encompasses...

Of course it should be noted that GW has never really shown what's in the Codex and writers have different views. For example, [[Dan Abnett]] views it similar to ''The Art of War'', with general tips and tactics, while [[Graham McNeill]] views it like a football play book. Since all of Ward's codex quotes seem to favor Abnett's ideal of what the Codex is like, its possible that by following it "rigidly" its following the basic ideal of the codex, i.e. the general organization and being flexible in combat (which is why the smurfs can choose to fail morale tests when they're making tactical withdraws). It's a stupid way to word it but that's the norm for the Imperium.

==Boundless Amusement==

[[Captain Titus]] of the Ultramarines in the recent [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREEN]] game, tells young Leandros that the Codex is not always a good thing to follow literally.

The usefulness of the Codex Astartes is also a major theme in [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Ultramarines'' novel series. When [[Uriel Ventris]] is on trial for violating the Codex, First Captain [[Severus Agemman]] comes and confides in him, saying that while his decisions made sense, the Ultramarines must stick to the letter and spirit of the Codex, as the Codex Astartes is not how to be a good Space Marine, it's about how to be a ''loyal'' Space Marine. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, as the [[Imperium of Man]]'s average response to free thinking is to start screaming incoherently and beat the free thinker to death, but we digress. By the end of the series, [[Marneus Calgar]] is admitting that blindly following the Codex might be costing them in the war with [[M'kar]] and [[Honsou]], who in particular knows how the Ultramarines will react due to their adherence to the Codex.

Which is the exact same lesson they learn during the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|first Tyranid war]]. Which is why so many people turned on McNeill after Chapter's Due as it sums up as "Ultramarines can only be cool if they act like Space Wolves". This combine with more recent portrayals of Ultrmarines showing them as extremely tactical flexible. And the codex itself is portrayed as not a static thing but something that has been revised and added to over the years.

[[Nick Kyme]] also plays with it a bit, however far differently. Unlike McNeill who uses it as a strawman to make Uriel look cool. He treats is more or less like everyone else does. However many Ultramarines follow it differently. [[Cato Sicarius]] plays it more loosely, resulting in him being more unpredictable but also more willing to take high risk, high reward actions, and his own personality means he'll do things the codex speaks against like trying to hunt down and kill the enemy commander in a duel. Agemman meanwhile follows it more to the letter, but also follows the more willing to take pragmatic tactics because of it.

=="Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex)==
More commonly, are those chapters which follow the codex at an organisational level, but disregard certain tactical aspects contained within, most likely because they have their own modus-operandi that they have a preference for, or because they create their own unique tactics that had never been considered.

'''[[Aurora Chapter]]'''
*Follows the Codex Astartes, yet has a large number of vehicles.
*They have a lot of vehicles.
*For a 1000 man sized Chapter, they have a lot of tanks.
*Of all the Codex Chapters they have the most tanks.
*Their armored spearhead attacks are pretty devastating.

'''[[Charnel Guard]]'''
*Cannot say too much about those guys since they are very secretive, thus their organisation and structure are completely unknown.
*Rumored to be Blood Angels successors, yet as said before, they are totally unknown from a organisational and structural P.O.V.
*Have a lot of Great Crusade and Horus Heresy Era stuff, including a Fellblade.

'''[[Crimson Fists]]'''
*More tactically oriented [[Imperial Fists]].
*Actually do follow the Codex more closely than other Sons of Dorn (but not that much like the Hammers of Dorn).
*At the time of their founding, they were known to be the most level-headed members of the Imperial Fists Legion, therefore took in the Codex much faster and easier.
*Only deviation is the existence of a Crusader Company that is a 1st Company that has 128 Veterans. A result of an event where they were reduced to 128 members during the Crusade of Righteous Liberation.
*Due to the whole situation with Rynn's World, the Chapter became very capable at fighting [[Orks]].

'''[[Emperor's Shadows]]'''
*Iron Hands Successors that follow the Codex.
*Put more emphasis on projectile weapons (like Bolter Weapons) and Dreadnoughts.

'''[[Executioners]]'''
*Choose to go into close combat with the enemy.
*Heavy emphasis on their own skills and superhuman abilities enhanced with sheer Determination.

'''[[Hammers of Dorn]]'''
*Follow the Codex to the letter, yet do put more emphasis on heavy weapons and overwhelming firepower.
*No really, they follow the ABSOLUTE LETTER of the codex.
*Not even the [[Ultramarines]](Famous for having the primarch that wrote the damn thing) follow the codex more rigidly than them.
*They probably actually read the Codex from cover to cover.

'''[[Hawk Lords]]'''
*Codex compliant, yet put large emphasis on flyers.

'''[[Minotaurs]]'''
*Instead of sending out a single company, the Minotaurs utilize mob and berserker tactics along with sending out all ten of their companies to utterly overwhelm and crush their foes.

'''[[Raptors]]'''
*[[Reasonable Marines|Camouflage Power Armour]]. Technically this IS in the codex, but they're the [[Derp|only space marine chapter out of literally thousands]] that actually bothers to do it. They're also sneeki beekies, just like their Raven Guard progenitors.

'''[[Raven Guard]]'''
*Sneeki Cheeki [[beakie|Beekies]]. While they do follow the codex, their chapter made amusingly extensive use of mutants (during the [[Horus Heresy]]), and [[Reasonable Marines|stealth tactics and guerilla warfare]] due to their situation.

'''[[Space Sharks|Space Sharks/Carcharodons]]'''
*Greater emphasis on infantry and terror tactics.
*Will sneak up as close as possible to the enemy to later tear them a new one in close combat while berserking.
*May be organisationally non compliant as well, but they are quite tight lipped about it.

'''[[Storm Giants]]'''
*Codex compliant, but utilize armoured assaults, Drop Pod strikes, and heavily use Scouts to get intel before ruining someone's day.
*Due to their heavy use of Scouts, they have a larger than average 10th Company.

'''[[White Scars]] and some Successors'''
*Disproportionate emphasis put on bikes and speeders compared to heavy vehicles, still adhering to codex formation however.

'''[[Star Phantoms]]'''
*Each company takes a devistator squad over a tactical squad, leaving five tactical and three devistators in the first five companies
*The chapter is never at full strength, seldom even at half, but maintains weapons as though they were. Their "tactical" reserve companies can fill in for full devistator squads, if needed.

==Non-Codex Chapters==
As mentioned, there are so many chapters in the Imperium and very few of them follow the codex absolutely to the letter. Many chapters have their own preferred mode of warfare based upon their experiences, supplies and dispositions, often they generate their own interpretations and deviations from the codex. Here follows a comparative listing of those chapters and the way in which they differ from what the codex actually prescribes.

===Chapters with drastic differences in formations or composition===
A rare case of deviation from the codex is when a Chapter outright ignores most or all the elements of the Codex Astartes in order to pursue their own independent take on warfare. Much larger number of battle brothers than the standard 1000 men, often unique ranks that even combine elements from other specialists, ignoring the tactics Roboute Guilliman wrote down, and even unique units that sometimes do not even have a counterpart seen among those who follow the Codex more closely or completely. As mentioned before, these Chapters are extremely rare and may very well be under Inquisitorial surveillance. [[Horus Heresy|Because we all know how that well ended the last time when there was much more than a thousand brothers]]. Then again, these Space Marine Chapters may seem to concentrate a lot of power, yet are as loyal as any other Chapter. Paranoia is a staple of the Imperium.

'''[[Astral Claws]]'''
*'''Pre-[[Red Corsairs]] Times''': Before [[Lugft Huron]] went pants-on-heads retarded, the Chapter was known for being exceptionally stubborn with skilled Bikers and favoring lightning strikes and boarding actions while still following the Codex.
*'''[[Badab War]] Times''':
**Due to Huron's pants-on-heads retarded thinking, the Chapter seized the Badab Sector's industry and made it so that Bolter rounds and Rhinos were mass-produced to the point being expendable, not to mention the larger-than-standard number of marines due to them purposefully not paying their geneseed tithe.
**Emergence of specialized units (such as the hated Corpse-Takers) and human Auxilia. Squads larger due to aforementioned not paying of the geneseed tithe.

'''[[Black Templars]]'''
*"Chapter" made up of ad-hoc crusade fleets and fighting companies, their numbers thus swelling up to six times the size of everyone else's.
*No Scout company, instead recruits are apprenticed to fully fledged battle-brothers, aka "Crusader squads".
*No Librarians.
*Doctrinal emphasis on close quarters combat.
**Abundance of previously unsanctioned Land Raider "Crusader"s to deliver said Crusader squads to CQC. See the trend here?
*Outright [[Word_Bearers|deification of the Emperor]] (contrary to the usual, more restrained veneration other chapters profess).
**The position of "Emperor's Champion", a Chapter Champion-esque title but of faith significance.

'''[[Grey Knights]]'''
*Due to their unique training and equipment (not to mention the [[Chaos|intimidatingly]] [[Chaos Space Marines|insane]] [[Daemon|shit]] they have to deal with), the Codex would actually hamper them instead.
*All psyker Chapter of Demon hunting marines. Nuff said.
*The infamous [[Dreadknight]].
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear.
*Do not have any artillery weapons like Whirlwind Artillery Tanks or lack of certain vehicles other Chapters have.

'''[[Legion of the Damned]]'''
*Previously Codex adherent [[Fire Hawks]] (maybe, now it's uncertain if they are Fire Hawks or somebody/something completely different), now a horde of angry hellfire powered, space/time/dimension travelling, [[AWESOME|spectrerevenantdemonspacemarines]].
*Utilize more powerful, but unstable early versions of existing Imperial Weapons like early Horus Heresy Era Plasma Weapons.

'''[[Space Wolves]]'''
*Ignore the codex outright. It would be easier to go [[Space Wolves|their page]] to find out how they are organised.
*Simply put, Leman Russ wanted them to be forged in his vision instead that of Roboute Guilliman.
*Although they do however take some (KEYWORD: SOME) useful tactics from the codex because they like them, but that is only this.
*Fenrisian Wolves/Thunderwolves used by the Chapter.
*Have more than a thousand marines, yet not that much as the Black Templars.
*Longfang Veterans take place of Devastator Marines, whereas instead of having normal Scouts, the Chapter has Veteran Scouts instead.
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear. They are then put into the Blood or Sky Claws (the latter if they are too troublesome even by Blood Claw standards).
*In the previous editions, they had access to Leman Russ tanks (logical, since the tank was named after their Primarch).
*Wolf Priests combine both Chaplain and Apothecary roles.

===Chapters with differences in formations or composition===
Some chapters have taken the idea of a "Chapter" and tweaked it with their own unique spin on its organization, either by adding units or ranks that aren't found anywhere else, or have their own composition of companies that doesn't fit with the approved codex model. In some cases they may ignore the codex altogether and do their own thing.

'''[[Black Dragons]]'''
*Dragon Claw squads, made up of mutants who make use of adamantium coated wrist blades.

'''[[Blood Ravens]]'''
*'''Pre-Aurelian Crusade''':
**Usually, the Chapter Master was the Chief Librarian too, like [[Azariah Kyras]]. This tradition of Chapter Master/Librarian combo started with Azariah Vidya (as in Vidya Games).
**Their gene seed causes them to have an above average number of Librarians, so many they can field two whole squads of them in the First Company. Librarians are so recurrent among Blood Ravens that it's not uncommon for one to be even a Captain.
**Actually Codex Compliant in structure, yet utilize their Librarians to scry and predict the movements of their enemies (so their Scouts are Librarians too?) and use the intel to formulate a counter strategy (because they appeared in [[Dawn of War]], their way of war is an emulation of how RTS gamers play when they are serious).
**Non-standard patterns of [[Apollo_Diomedes|speech]], incidents of [[Blood_Ravens_Force_Commander|hairesy]], compulsive [[Blood_Ravens#Bloody_Magpies|kleptomany]] and emphasis on [[Indrick_Boreale|devastating, defensive deepstrikes]].
*'''Post-Aurelian Crusade''':
**With [[Gabriel Angelos]], a non-psyker, taking the position of Chapter Master they returned to a more codex-compliant organization, albeit severely undermanned.

'''[[Blood Angels]] and Successors'''
*[[Scout]]s graduate to [[Assault Squad]]s rather than to Devastator squads.
*The use of [[Heresy|non-standard tech]], like Baal Predators, Furioso and [[Dreadnought#Chapter_Specific_Dreads|Librarian Dreadnoughts]].
*Sanguinary Priests (Apothecaries) make up part of the chapter priesthood equivalent to Chaplains, who are busy tending to...
*...The [[Death Company]].

'''[[Dark Angels]] and Successors'''
*The [[Deathwing]] & [[Ravenwing]] instead of First and Second companies.
*Inner Circle in place of usual chapter command structure.
*Chaplains taking the additional role of [[Chaplain#Dark_Angels_Interrogator-Chaplain|Interrogators]].
*Battle Companies incorporate an additional squad of [[Veteran Squad|veteran marines]].
*Some nifty STC that they do not share with anybody apart of their own successors.

'''[[Exorcists]]'''
*Have two additional scout companies to account for the high attrition rate amongst recruits.
*...said attrition rate being caused by subjecting recruits to daemonic possession.

'''[[Iron Hands]]'''
*Have a Chapter Council instead of a fixed [[Chapter Master]], though a leader may be nominated.
*Chaplain Techmarines, aka "[[Chaplain#Iron_Hands_Iron_Father|Iron Fathers]]".
**The current leader is thus a Chapter Master Chaplain Techmarine. And people say the Blood Ravens are the crazy ones.
*Terminator Armour was distributed to squad sergeants instead of being reserved only for the First company.
*Pre-6th Edition fluff indicated that individual companies (clans) had their own veterans and recruits, newer fluff put them more in line with the Codex.

'''[[Iron Snakes]]'''
*Instead of having five regular battle companies and five reserve companies, the Iron Snakes have ten battle companies with an equal number of veterans, regulars and neophytes for perfect balance.
*Each squad has a Apothecary, personal Squad Standard Bearer and a number of specialists of their own.

'''[[Red Scorpions]]'''
*Apothecaries act in squad command roles instead of sergeants.

'''[[Salamanders]]'''
*Have seven oversized companies instead of ten, but otherwise broadly conform to the codex.

'''[[Star Phantoms]]'''
*Battle companies have three [[Devastator Squad]]s instead of two.

'''[[Storm Wardens]]'''
*Tempest Blades being a non-codex formation.
*Heavy emphasis on mechanized warfare and mano-a-mano honorable duels to the death.

'''[[Ultramarines]]'''
*Tyrannic War Veterans are a non-codex formation.

'''[[White Consuls]]'''
*Have [[Alpharius|two Chapter Masters]] instead of one

==Purpose for Gamers==

Of course, there's a reason [[Games Workshop]] included the Codex Astartes in their fluff (long before Matt Ward came along, by the way). Basically, it makes it easier for players to invent their own Chapters.

Players who just have an idea for a cool color scheme or name but don't want to put any effort into making up a whole organizational layout can just make a Chapter that rigidly follows the Codex, like the [[Ultramarines]]. Those who want to have one or two unique organizational or tactical features can make a Chapter that generally follows the Codex but has some variances, like...well, most of them (see above). And players that want to make up entirely independent structures themselves can make Chapters that ignore the Codex entirely, like the [[Space Wolves]] or the [[Black Templars]].

This means that Matt Ward's Codex worship isn't just lame, but actually bad for GW's business: By telling players that only Codex Chapters are any good, he's discouraging players with their own ideas from investing in models, paints, tournaments, and maybe even later editions of the game. Truly, there is no end to his failure.

==Codex Astartes, as according to [[Matt Ward]]==
{{MattWard}}

The Codex Astartes was written by the greatest of Space Marines, <s>Matt Ward</s> [[Roboute Guilliman]], shortly after the [[Horus Heresy]]. It includes unbeatable tactical doctrines for just about every situation. All but [[Black Templars|the]] [[Raven Guard|most]] [[Blood Angels|despicable]] of Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes as much as they can. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, and as a result are the best fighters in the galaxy, while the [[Space Wolves]], the freaks of the Spare Marine factions, barely use it at all.

The Codex is flawless and infallible, and even many non-human races aspire to its word (<< implying not killing xenos).

Bollocks.

Nay my friend, this be [[Heresy]].

{{Marines-Codex}}
[[Category:Space Marines]] [[category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Imperial]]

Codex Astartes

2016-02-29T06:40:49Z

2601:245:4201:C2E0:94C2:5E6C:2784:2B3D: /* "Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex) */

<center> '' The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us....shape us as Ultramarines...teach us how to hold duty and honor sacred above all.'' '''''But how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine...'''''
 -[[Captain Titus]], [[Ultramarines]] 2nd Company</center>

<center> '' ‘But your teachings…’ '''‘Are yet flawed,’ said Guilliman. ‘No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed.''' There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed.’'''''
 -[[Roboute Guilliman]], [[Primarch]] of the Ultramarines</center>

<center> '' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_rwCenX9o Is that wise, captain? The Codex Astartes does not support this action-]"'''''
 -[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Leandros]]</center>

The Codex Astartes was written by [[Roboute Guilliman]] [[Imperium Secundus|over the course]] of the [[Horus Heresy]] and presented it when things settled down; among other things, its suggested organizational scheme split the remaining [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] into small, manageable chunks. It also includes tactical doctrines for just about every situation, like the formidable [[Steel Rain]]. Most loyalist Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes to varying degrees. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, while the [[Space Wolves]] only find it useful for toilet paper.

==Chapters==
Under the Codex Astartes, the Space Marine legions were to be split into one thousand-strong [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]]s (often already a subunit within some pre-Heresy legions like the [[Blood Angels]], [[Dark Angels]](heh), [[Salamanders]], Ultramarines, and [[Word Bearers]]) composed of ten companies. The 1st Company is composed of [[Veteran Squad|Veterans]], and are the only company in the chapter to employ [[Terminator]] armor.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies are called Battle Companies, composed of six [[Tactical Squad]]s, two [[Devastator Squad]]s, and two [[Assault Squad]]s. They train together, and when a Space Marine Company deploys as a single unit, it will be one of these.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies are the reserve squads, and are more specialized than the first five companies. The 6th and 7th Companies are composed entirely of Tactical Marines (who specialize in using [[Bike Squad|bikes]] and [[Land Speeder]]s, respectively), the 8th Company of Assault Marines, and the 9th Company entirely of Devastator Marines.

The 10th Company is composed entirely of [[Scout]] Marines, who are eventually promoted to other companies after a certain number of years.

Of course, one thousand Marines assumes ten Companies, with ten Squads, with ten Marines, and nothing more. But, including vehicle crews, [[Librarian]]s, [[Techmarine]]s, [[Chaplain]]s, Company [[Command Squad]]s, [[Apothecary|Apothecaries]], Honor Guard, [[Dreadnought]]s and other support personnel, it turns out that a Chapter with a full roster will have something like 1500 Marines, not counting a scout company that doesn't have a fixed limit of 100 scouts so attrition doesn't put a hamper on chapter reinforcements, plus who knows how many unaugmented human serfs and Auxilia. It's also a figure which assumes no battle casualties; given that the mandate of the Space Marines is to seek out and destroy the direst enemies of the Imperium, this is a state of affairs which is hardly ever the case - indeed, one of the reasons Reserve Companies exist is to provide a pool from which to keep the Battle Companies at fighting strength.

==Marine roles==

Among the tenets of the Codex, Guilliman outlined the roles of various Marines to be used in Chapters. They include the following:

*'''[[Scout|Scout Squad]]''': Scout Marines are Neophyte Space Marines who are charged with scouting terrain and enemy positions. A risky job, but this has the effect of ensuring that the more cautious ones survive while the reckless and foolish are weeded out.

*'''[[Devastator Squad|Devastator]]''': Devastator Marines can be summed up in three words: Blow shit up. The purpose of the Devastator is to provide heavy weapons fire in battle, artillery strikes, and hunting tanks. Once a Scout earns his Black Carapace and Power Armor, he will be attached to a Devastator Squad, allowing him to bond with his armor while learning its strengths by lugging heavy weapons around.

*'''[[Assault Squad|Assault]]''': Assault Marines are those who specialize in melee combat, using [[Chainsword|Chain]] and [[Power weapon]]s alike to fuck up the enemies of the [[Imperium of Man]]. In addition, they also possess jump packs which can allow them limited flight. This is the next stop in a new Marine's career, helping to familiarize him with any weapons he hasn't used yet, and putting him through the crushing psychological stress of hand-to-hand combat under something resembling optimal conditions.

*'''[[Tactical Squad|Tactical]]''': The backbone of a Battle Company, Tactical Marines are those who are flexible in combat, relying on both ranged weapons and melee weapons in combat. Note that due to the order of the Companies, they usually have served as both Assault and Devastator Marines, so they definitely know the basics of both, granting the majority of the chapter great theoretical tactical flexibility.

*'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran]]''': Veteran Marines are those who have seen through several centuries, allowing them access to all the cool toys in the Chapter's armory since they're hopefully experienced and cool-headed enough not to, say, super-glue the sacred sword of the Founder to the codpiece of their armor and pretend that it's their willy. Chapter veterans get to wear [[Terminator]] armor (the Crux Terminatus is a cross between a medal and authorization papers), but they sometimes stay with normally-sized power armor instead, which is instead slowly turned into Artificer armor by all the bling and enhancements. Power-armored Veterans are divided into two subgroups: Vanguard (who focus on close quarters combat) and Sternguard (who focus on bolter drills and other forms of ranged warfare).

==Ranks==

The Codex Astartes formalized and simplified the ranks among the Adeptus Astartes, eliminating some ranks like "commander" and "lieutenant", while adding some more. They include:

*'''[[Chapter Master]]''': The grand poobah of the Chapter. He is the one who gives Marine companies their assignments, and ultimately recognizes no external authority save for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]. That being said, it's a very silly (or [[Logan Grimnar|very manly]]) Chapter Master that can tell an [[Inquisitor]] to sit on a [[Nova Cannon]] and rotate. Whilst Inquisitors are technically outside the Space Marine chain of command, they have the ability to requisition squads, Companies or entire Chapters if need be.

*'''[[Brother-Captain|Captain]]''': Captains are the commanders of Companies, overseeing their Marines from the front line instead of the back. Captains are usually promoted from the senior Sergeant in the Company. The most senior is the First Captain, who commands the Veteran 1st Company, and is often the official heir apparent to the Chapter Master. Each Company Captain also holds a Chapter-level position of authority, supervising his Chapter's fleet, vehicle pool, recruits, or territory, for example.

*'''[[Brother-Sergeant|Sergeant]]''': Sergeants lead squads of four to nine other Marines depending on the influx of recruits. There are approximately ten sergeants per Codex approved Company. Often, the most senior sergeant will be the commander of a company's "First Squad" ''(usually a Tactical Squad)'' and will likely be next in line for a promotion if the Captain is ever slain, but not always. Members of the Captain's Command Squad may also be Sergeants who get additional duties as the Captain's role might require.
**'''[[Veteran Squad|Veteran-Sergeant]]''': Not a "rank" exactly, but more of a recognition of status for those who have been members of a Chapter's First Company, quite frequently these guys get redistributed back to the lower companies to act as squad leaders where their experience will do some good, hence "Veteran Sergeant". These guys will usually get to wear the "Crux Terminatus" even when in power armour, to represent the fact that they have earned the right to use Terminator Armour. Note that Veteran Sergeants can serve in the ranks of the Scouts, Devastators, and Assault Marines despite being technically overqualified, in each case helping the new recruits to adapt to Chapter life. In old 3rd Edition rules you could get Captains without terminator honours, which kind of implied that they never passed through the first company but still got command, nowadays a Captain is just one thing.
**Old second edition fluff also gave us the "Veteran" position within regular Battle-Company squads who was marked with a different form of insignia, but was wholly unconnected with the first company. His job to act as the second-in-command under his sergeant ''(Veteran Sergeant or otherwise)'' of his squad and to take command of a combat squad when the unit gets split up. Essentially this was just an organisational position and made no difference to the skill or rules of the model.

*'''Champion''': The best close quarters fighter in a company, the Company Champion is charged with protection of the Captain from all hostile threats. Given that your average Captain is a badass in power armor, this may seem redundant, but it's supposed to allow him to focus on coordinating the battle. Almost always part of a Command Squad. The most elite of these is the Chapter Champion, who is charged with protecting the Chapter Master.

*'''Force Commander''': Not a rank but a title given to the leader of a force (duh) either given if more than one company is fighting at the same time, or if the company has to split up and the Captain gives an XO like the leader of his command squad. For a tabletop comparison, this could be any senior sergeant since any character can be made the army's warlord and it would fit the description quite nicely.

*'''[[Honour Guard]]''': Like a veteran-veteran, assumed to be the best of the best. These guys get bunched together and given some of the best gear available to the chapter. The fluff tells us that these guys are peers of Captains in terms of battlefield experience, but do not have the command rank to actually issue any orders, though when Honour Guard speak up it's advised that the officers nearby listen carefully. Thankfully the tabletop game is balanced not to give a whole squad full of Captain-equivalent soldiers.

*'''Standard Bearer''': The Company Standard Bearer, given the title of '''Ancient''' ''(the old term for Ensign, who was traditional standard bearer)'', is charged with carrying and protecting the Company Standard, or banner. Also frequently joins the Command Squad. Should a Company Standard Bearer drop the banner and let it fall to the ground, he will essentially forfeit his honor. If the Standard Bearer should be killed and the banner stolen, then the entire Company will be dishonored until the banner is reclaimed. Which means that if you steal a Company Standard, you now have nearly one hundred Space Marines who were just trying to kill you, but now you had to go and make it personal. The most elite of these is the Chapter Standard Bearer ''(often a member of the Honour Guard)'', who carries the Chapter banner in war.

Outside of the above mentioned battle ranks, there are other senior positions within a Chapter:

*'''Chief Librarian''': The head of the Librarium, who assigns [[Librarian]]s to assist in battlefield communications. Also tests to see whether or not his battle-brothers are tainted by [[Chaos]] ("Yes brother, this is standard Codex procedure." *Snaps Latex gloves*)

*'''Master of the Apothecarion''': The head of the Apothecarion, who assigns an [[Apothecary]] to each Company. The Apothecarion in turn also takes care of the [[gene-seed]] that Chapters place such holy emphasis on, and for good reason: no gene-seed - no new recruits.

*'''Master of the Forge''': The head of the Armoury, who assigns [[Techmarine]]s to oversee maintenance of the machine-spirits of the chapter's wargear and motor pool.

*'''Master of Sanctity''': The head of the Chaplaincy, and spiritual leader of the Chapter. He assigns [[Chaplain]]s to the Companies to oversee the spiritual health of the Chapter.

*'''Reclusiarch''': The Chaplain who oversees the Chapter's Reclusiam ''(where they keep the relics and other secret historical stuff)''. But quite often the job gets rolled-up into the Master of Sanctity's job description. It's uncertain what interaction ''(if any)'' they have with the Master of Relics, or it is quite possible that a Chaplain receives the role if that Captain of the 9th company gets a different position.

*'''Lord Admiral''': Often the Captain of the 4th company gets this position by default as "Master of the Fleet", but it's [[Uriel Ventris|not unheard of for a Captain to step down]] from the position if someone else would be better suited to the role, they call that person "Lord Admiral" and gets command over the Chapter's fleet assets. Though it might be perfectly reasonable that that space marine holds a battlefield rank of Battle-Brother or Sergeant, so he's probably just on secondment until the Captain ''(or his replacement)'' wants the job back.

*'''Lieutenant Commander''': We know of [[Marines Errant|only one example]] of this rank, and it applies to the commander of a vessel, which makes sense since most Space Marine chapters have more ships than Captains, so ''somebody'' has to get the job of commanding them. Though often we assume it's just a techmarine or sergeant of whichever squad gets attached to that vessel or more likely a badass high ranking [[Chapter Serf]] who doesn't need to be superhuman to understand how space ships operate.

==What the Codex set out to Accomplish==

While the Codex Astartes has a few good points on how Space Marines should fight, it contains a truckload of a lot of bad points on even how an army should be. Due to Guilliman's unending paranoia over the fact that none of his brothers are possibly loyal anymore (and to cover up on how fucking useless he was during most of the [[Horus Heresy]]), he made it so that he ruined the Space Marines entirely ([[skub|though the matter is highly debatable]]), [[Matt Ward|which in comparison is oddly prophetic to this man who worked on the Space Marine Codex and butchered it with Ultramarine fanboyism]].

===Splitting up the Legions===
One fatal flaw of the Codex is the splitting up of the legions and maintaining a maximum of 1,000 battle brothers at any given time, this made the Space Marines even more of a fragmented force concerned with their own agendas than a unified fighting force along with making it longer for them to rebuild and reform whenever they sustain heavy casualties after a major campaign that can only deploy half of its forces at a given time except in the gravest emergencies. This was foolish for another reason. After all, you know the enemy matches your numbers, so you would normally wish to take advantage of the million worlds of the Imperium to outnumber your foe, right? Apparently Guilliman decided that outnumbering the enemy is for chumps. Ten thousand marines per chapter would have made far more sense, especially given the size of the Imperium and the fact that the Chapters will rarely have the option of focusing their full might on one target.

''This is disputable.'' The original [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes]], while the most dangerous forces assembled since the [[War in Heaven]], would have a far too centralized leadership to be effectively deployed across a galaxy-spanning Imperium with thousands of conflicts that needed Astartes support. Stress-fractures were already appearing in the established structure at the time of the Heresy. Furthermore a Battle Company or less would likely be more than enough for most campaigns.

*Except that Expeditionary Fleets and Task Forces were a thing that already existed in the Great Crusade. After all, the Legiones Astartes were already organized into chapters. They were given particular missions and most eventually developed trends of their own. An example were Perturabo's Grand Batallions, which were formations given their own missions, warzones and initial resources, and were expected to become [[Space_Marine_Chapter|self-sufficient]] and eventually increase size; this independency within a Legion's chapters is what allowed [[Blood_Ravens|Loyal elements]] to secede from [[Thousand_Sons|Traitor legions]]. All this allows tactical flexibility while still keeping an unified command, which is pretty much what the [[Dark Angels]] <s>kept on doing</s> ABSOLUTELY DIDN'T DO, FOR THE SONS OF THE LION FOLLOW THE CODEX ASTARTES TO THE LETTER.

But wait, you might exclaim, what about wars that DO require a Legion level deployment. Well, with the exception of the First War for [[Armageddon]] and the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|First Tyrannic War]], Legion sized forces '''were''' present at those conflicts albeit from various Chapters but with an unified theater-exclusive command structure. Notably [[Dante]] and [[Logan Grimnar]] assumed such a role in the Second Armageddon Wars and the [[13th Black Crusade]] respectively, in either case with the almost-unanimous consent of their fellow chapter-masters.

While the Grand/Clan/Fighting Company system of non-codex Chapters offers a greater degree of flexibility in terms of galactic force projection, it leaves the individual non-Codex Companies much more vulnerable to the debilitation of heavy casualties. As a whole though, the Codex Astartes does not structurally hamstring its adhering Chapters. The character of the Chapter does that.''

It transpires that Guilliman's first intention with the codex was never to actually break up the Legions AT ALL, but saw the usefulness after discussions with one of his sergeants: '''Aeonid Thiel''' and figured out that smaller forces of marines can respond and deploy with far more efficiency than the Legions of the past, and that if larger deployments ever became necessary then the chapters would support and adapt to one another.

===Codifying Conformity===
The other flaw was turning each chapter into a generic army using a different name. The Codex Astartes details specifically how a Space Marine should act in every combat situation that [[Roboute Guilliman]] had encountered. While this does give Marines a good idea on how to act when they're staring down a [[Chaos]] warband or a marauding pack of Flesh Hounds, this makes them far too predictable for those who have faced the Space Marines for a long time. As Sun Tzu said, ''"Do not face your opponent too many times or you will reveal your art of war;"'' ''(Any body else find it ironic that Sun Tzu, a notoriously proverb-y text of what to do in any given situation, is invoked to denounce the Codex?)'' ''(Not really. Have you actually read the Art of War? It's a book of generalized tips for managing huge groups of people, including basics you might not think of, like "let the enemy retreat, or else they'll fight your balls off". In contrast, the Codex Astartes is very specific on how things are to be organized at all times)'' given that Guilliman expected Space Marines to be the same thing, except for their colors and whatever they scream at their enemies, the enemies of man will basically be expecting the same thing again and again.

Because of this, an intelligent and experienced opponent with enough dakka to survive one encounter with a Codex Chapter will quickly realize how to deal with any Marine force strictly adhering to the Codex Astartes' tactics. This fault is compounded by the fact that the Codex has no information on threats encountered after Guilliman's time. The [[Ultramarines]] experienced this personally when they got their asses beaten hard when they faced the [[Tyranid]] incursion in their sector for the first time, numerous encounters with [[Necron]]s that ended hilariously poorly for them, the Ultramarines constantly got themselves outdicked and outmaneuvered by [[Tau]], and when [[Uriel Ventris|one of their Captains]] developed a novel set of tactics for successfully dealing with the Tyranids, he was punished for deviating from the Codex (OK, the reason is because he left his men to join a [[Deathwatch]] mission)!

It should also be noted that their [[Chaos Space Marines|greatest enemy]] are comprised almost entirely of <s>former Loyalists</s> millennia old veterans who are familiar with the tactics and approaches listed within the Codex Astares, so it's a wonder the Ultramarines ever survive in combat against Renegades. It's probably because Chaos Marines are all batshit insane by the time loyalist Astartes encounter them.

Compare this to chapters who follow their own standard operating procedures, like the [[Space Wolves]] and [[Black Templars]], and those who do not fully embrace all of the tactical doctrines of the Codex, like the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Blood Angels]]: they and their successors have a much more extensive list of victories, and a shorter list of failures. Consider the [[Damocles Crusade]], wherein the Ultramarines failed to beat up the Tau for years due to their unfamiliar nature (and due to Farsight [[Just as Planned|deciphering the Codex and using it to predict the actions of codex-chapters]]), while the independent Black Templars had much better luck. As in all matters, moderation is key: Guilliman was no fool, but he was not omniscient, either.

In actual fact his original intention for the Codex Astartes was to REMOVE all of the varied and idiosyncratic legions of the past and create a single UNIFIED Legion with a more flexible doctrine. In the past, the Legions were made up of companies of soldiers who fought in the way that best suited them, thus the White Scars would be bikers, the Blood Angels would be Assault marines etc, or even within individual Legions you would have found that certain companies fought in a particular manner according to their experience, creating a stagnation in tactical flexibility. In the same conversation he had with '''Aeonid Thiel''' he realised that training your soldiers to behave in a more tactical manner was actually better, so basically that an Assault Marine could change his loadout and become a Devastator or whatever role needed filling at a particular time. ''(Ironic in that the [[Alpha Legion]] were the only guys doing that pre-heresy, but Guilliman would scorn Alpharius's overall strategies as being too wasteful, but that had nothing to do with an individual unit's tactical flexibility)''

This is precisely why [[Captain Titus]] (who was ironically an Ultramarine himself) said Matt Ward can go fuck himself with all that spiritual liege bullshit, and that Space Marines are at their best when they mix the Codex's advice with the ability to think for their own damn selves. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaHJgzxmyj0 But here is what he really thinks of the Codex Astartes and Leandros]

Worse than that, ''even Guilliman himself'' said the Codex could not supplant brains. Too bad he hadn't wrote it on the books cover, or at least on first page. Then again, no one, not even amongst the Ultramarines, has read the ''entire'' codex. They all have large sections but not everything (yet stupidly act on out-of-context information). Besides, it could be in the foreword or something, no one reads the foreword. Heh, "for Ward".

===Did it really manage that?===
Despite Ward's assertion that the codex is rigidly followed, even his own shitty writing admits that most of the Ultramarines successors/codex chapters are just picking and choosing the bits they like from the codex and ignoring the rest. And you can pretty much guarantee that any chapter that gets it's own novel is going to deviate from the codex. Notable examples are the [[Silver Skulls]], who have combo librarian/chaplains, a scout hardwired into a strike cruiser in a similar fashion to a [[dreadnought]] (yes, it's tech heresy; yes, they know it; no, they don't care) and assault squads in the 9th (devastator) company. Also the [[Hawk Lords]] who are so into flying that other chapters send their pilots to the Hawk Lords "Talon Wings" for training, the [[Aurora Chapter]] who are treadheads above all, the [[Exorcists]] with 2 extra scout companies (12 companies total), the [[Mortifactors]] whose chapter rituals are so far from codex as to be offensive to a visiting Ultramarine and the [[Relictors]] using chaos weapons against chaos.

All Ultramarines successors, all codex chapters, all just using the bits they feel like. Dammit Ward, you can't even keep your fluff-rape consistent. It's very obvious that contrary to Ward's writing in Codex: Space Marines that pretty much nobody follows the Codex Astartes rigidly apart from some of the Ultramarines. The [[Imperial Fists]], [[Salamanders]], [[Raven Guard]], [[White Scars]] and [[Iron Hands]] are also theoretically Codex chapters with varying degrees of divergence from the Codex, tweaking and modifying it to suit their favoured tactics, organisation, rituals and markings. The list of official codex chapters that diverge from the Codex Astartes is so long its just easier to list the chapters that do follow it rigidly. In that category, we have the Ultramarines and... um... well, nobody else really. Oh wait, scratch that, Ultramarines do now have non-Codex formations, such as Tyranic war veterans, so even they cannot hold the title of rigid Codex followers. That role has since been picked up by the [[Red Scorpions]]. Except that the Red Scorpions have the non-codex compliant Apothecary-Sergeant. The only Chapter that literally follows the codex to the LETTER, are the [[Hammers of Dorn]].

Guilliman's intention was to create many smaller chapters of equally flexible forces rather than large forces that adhere to a rigid and imbalanced doctrine. Thus it's either a case that the less hidebound chapters who loosely adhere to the codex and make ''practical'' adjustments to suit their levels of experience and available equipment are [[Skub|more]] in tune with the spirit of the codex than anyone else and that those who follow the codex [[Lawful Stupid|"rigidly"]] have missed the point... Either that or the deviants have failed to realise that the Codex [[Skub|"should"]] have already covered their situational needs in the first place and that deviation from it was unnecessary. It depends on what [[Your dudes|YOU as the reader]] think the codex actually encompasses...

Of course it should be noted that GW has never really shown what's in the Codex and writers have different views. For example, [[Dan Abnett]] views it similar to ''The Art of War'', with general tips and tactics, while [[Graham McNeill]] views it like a football play book. Since all of Ward's codex quotes seem to favor Abnett's ideal of what the Codex is like, its possible that by following it "rigidly" its following the basic ideal of the codex, i.e. the general organization and being flexible in combat (which is why the smurfs can choose to fail morale tests when they're making tactical withdraws). It's a stupid way to word it but that's the norm for the Imperium.

==Boundless Amusement==

[[Captain Titus]] of the Ultramarines in the recent [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREEN]] game, tells young Leandros that the Codex is not always a good thing to follow literally.

The usefulness of the Codex Astartes is also a major theme in [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Ultramarines'' novel series. When [[Uriel Ventris]] is on trial for violating the Codex, First Captain [[Severus Agemman]] comes and confides in him, saying that while his decisions made sense, the Ultramarines must stick to the letter and spirit of the Codex, as the Codex Astartes is not how to be a good Space Marine, it's about how to be a ''loyal'' Space Marine. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, as the [[Imperium of Man]]'s average response to free thinking is to start screaming incoherently and beat the free thinker to death, but we digress. By the end of the series, [[Marneus Calgar]] is admitting that blindly following the Codex might be costing them in the war with [[M'kar]] and [[Honsou]], who in particular knows how the Ultramarines will react due to their adherence to the Codex.

Which is the exact same lesson they learn during the [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|first Tyranid war]]. Which is why so many people turned on McNeill after Chapter's Due as it sums up as "Ultramarines can only be cool if they act like Space Wolves". This combine with more recent portrayals of Ultrmarines showing them as extremely tactical flexible. And the codex itself is portrayed as not a static thing but something that has been revised and added to over the years.

[[Nick Kyme]] also plays with it a bit, however far differently. Unlike McNeill who uses it as a strawman to make Uriel look cool. He treats is more or less like everyone else does. However many Ultramarines follow it differently. [[Cato Sicarius]] plays it more loosely, resulting in him being more unpredictable but also more willing to take high risk, high reward actions, and his own personality means he'll do things the codex speaks against like trying to hunt down and kill the enemy commander in a duel. Agemman meanwhile follows it more to the letter, but also follows the more willing to take pragmatic tactics because of it.

=="Codex" Chapters with doctrinal variations (aka: Quirky Chapters that still are close to the spirit of the Codex)==
More commonly, are those chapters which follow the codex at an organisational level, but disregard certain tactical aspects contained within, most likely because they have their own modus-operandi that they have a preference for, or because they create their own unique tactics that had never been considered.

'''[[Aurora Chapter]]'''
*Follows the Codex Astartes, yet has a large number of vehicles.
*They have a lot of vehicles.
*For a 1000 man sized Chapter, they have a lot of tanks.
*Of all the Codex Chapters they have the most tanks.
*Their armored spearhead attacks are pretty devastating.

'''[[Charnel Guard]]'''
*Cannot say too much about those guys since they are very secretive, thus their organisation and structure are completely unknown.
*Rumored to be Blood Angels successors, yet as said before, they are totally unknown from a organisational and structural P.O.V.
*Have a lot of Great Crusade and Horus Heresy Era stuff, including a Fellblade.

'''[[Crimson Fists]]'''
*More tactically oriented [[Imperial Fists]].
*Actually do follow the Codex more closely than other Sons of Dorn (but not that much like the Hammers of Dorn).
*At the time of their founding, they were known to be the most level-headed members of the Imperial Fists Legion, therefore took in the Codex much faster and easier.
*Only deviation is the existence of a Crusader Company that is a 1st Company that has 128 Veterans. A result of an event where they were reduced to 128 members during the Crusade of Righteous Liberation.
*Due to the whole situation with Rynn's World, the Chapter became very capable at fighting [[Orks]].

'''[[Emperor's Shadows]]'''
*Iron Hands Successors that follow the Codex.
*Put more emphasis on projectile weapons (like Bolter Weapons) and Dreadnoughts.

'''[[Executioners]]'''
*Choose to go into close combat with the enemy.
*Heavy emphasis on their own skills and superhuman abilities enhanced with sheer Determination.

'''[[Hammers of Dorn]]'''
*Follow the Codex to the letter, yet do put more emphasis on heavy weapons and overwhelming firepower.
*No really, they follow the ABSOLUTE LETTER of the codex.
*Not even the [[Ultramarines]](Famous for having the primarch that wrote the damn thing) follow the codex more rigidly than them.
*They probably actually read the Codex from cover to cover.

'''[[Hawk Lords]]'''
*Codex compliant, yet put large emphasis on flyers.

'''[[Minotaurs]]'''
*Instead of sending out a single company, the Minotaurs utilize mob and berserker tactics along with sending out all ten of their companies to utterly overwhelm and crush their foes.

'''[[Raptors]]'''
*[[Reasonable Marines|Camouflage Power Armour]]. Technically this IS in the codex, but they're the [[Derp|only space marine chapter out of literally thousands]] that actually bothers to do it. They're also sneeki beekies, just like their Raven Guard progenitors.

'''[[Raven Guard]]'''
*Sneeki Cheeki [[beakie|Beekies]]. While they do follow the codex, their chapter made amusingly extensive use of mutants (during the [[Horus Heresy]]), and [[Reasonable Marines|stealth tactics and guerilla warfare]] due to their situation.

'''[[Space Sharks|Space Sharks/Carcharodons]]'''
*Greater emphasis on infantry and terror tactics.
*Will sneak up as close as possible to the enemy to later tear them a new one in close combat while berserking.
*May be organisationally non compliant as well, but they are quite tight lipped about it.

'''[[Storm Giants]]'''
*Codex compliant, but utilize armoured assaults, Drop Pod strikes, and heavily use Scouts to get intel before ruining someone's day.
*Due to their heavy use of Scouts, they have a larger than average 10th Company.

'''[[White Scars]] and some Successors'''
*Disproportionate emphasis put on bikes and speeders compared to heavy vehicles, still adhering to codex formation however.

"[[Star Phantoms]]"
*Each company takes a devistator squad over a tactical squad, leaving five tactical and three devistators in the first five companies
*The chapter is never at full strength, seldom even at half, but maintains weapons as though they were. Their "tactical" reserve companies can fill in for full devistator squads, if needed.

==Non-Codex Chapters==
As mentioned, there are so many chapters in the Imperium and very few of them follow the codex absolutely to the letter. Many chapters have their own preferred mode of warfare based upon their experiences, supplies and dispositions, often they generate their own interpretations and deviations from the codex. Here follows a comparative listing of those chapters and the way in which they differ from what the codex actually prescribes.

===Chapters with drastic differences in formations or composition===
A rare case of deviation from the codex is when a Chapter outright ignores most or all the elements of the Codex Astartes in order to pursue their own independent take on warfare. Much larger number of battle brothers than the standard 1000 men, often unique ranks that even combine elements from other specialists, ignoring the tactics Roboute Guilliman wrote down, and even unique units that sometimes do not even have a counterpart seen among those who follow the Codex more closely or completely. As mentioned before, these Chapters are extremely rare and may very well be under Inquisitorial surveillance. [[Horus Heresy|Because we all know how that well ended the last time when there was much more than a thousand brothers]]. Then again, these Space Marine Chapters may seem to concentrate a lot of power, yet are as loyal as any other Chapter. Paranoia is a staple of the Imperium.

'''[[Astral Claws]]'''
*'''Pre-[[Red Corsairs]] Times''': Before [[Lugft Huron]] went pants-on-heads retarded, the Chapter was known for being exceptionally stubborn with skilled Bikers and favoring lightning strikes and boarding actions while still following the Codex.
*'''[[Badab War]] Times''':
**Due to Huron's pants-on-heads retarded thinking, the Chapter seized the Badab Sector's industry and made it so that Bolter rounds and Rhinos were mass-produced to the point being expendable, not to mention the larger-than-standard number of marines due to them purposefully not paying their geneseed tithe.
**Emergence of specialized units (such as the hated Corpse-Takers) and human Auxilia. Squads larger due to aforementioned not paying of the geneseed tithe.

'''[[Black Templars]]'''
*"Chapter" made up of ad-hoc crusade fleets and fighting companies, their numbers thus swelling up to six times the size of everyone else's.
*No Scout company, instead recruits are apprenticed to fully fledged battle-brothers, aka "Crusader squads".
*No Librarians.
*Doctrinal emphasis on close quarters combat.
**Abundance of previously unsanctioned Land Raider "Crusader"s to deliver said Crusader squads to CQC. See the trend here?
*Outright [[Word_Bearers|deification of the Emperor]] (contrary to the usual, more restrained veneration other chapters profess).
**The position of "Emperor's Champion", a Chapter Champion-esque title but of faith significance.

'''[[Grey Knights]]'''
*Due to their unique training and equipment (not to mention the [[Chaos|intimidatingly]] [[Chaos Space Marines|insane]] [[Daemon|shit]] they have to deal with), the Codex would actually hamper them instead.
*All psyker Chapter of Demon hunting marines. Nuff said.
*The infamous [[Dreadknight]].
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear.
*Do not have any artillery weapons like Whirlwind Artillery Tanks or lack of certain vehicles other Chapters have.

'''[[Legion of the Damned]]'''
*Previously Codex adherent [[Fire Hawks]] (maybe, now it's uncertain if they are Fire Hawks or somebody/something completely different), now a horde of angry hellfire powered, space/time/dimension travelling, [[AWESOME|spectrerevenantdemonspacemarines]].
*Utilize more powerful, but unstable early versions of existing Imperial Weapons like early Horus Heresy Era Plasma Weapons.

'''[[Space Wolves]]'''
*Ignore the codex outright. It would be easier to go [[Space Wolves|their page]] to find out how they are organised.
*Simply put, Leman Russ wanted them to be forged in his vision instead that of Roboute Guilliman.
*Although they do however take some (KEYWORD: SOME) useful tactics from the codex because they like them, but that is only this.
*Fenrisian Wolves/Thunderwolves used by the Chapter.
*Have more than a thousand marines, yet not that much as the Black Templars.
*Longfang Veterans take place of Devastator Marines, whereas instead of having normal Scouts, the Chapter has Veteran Scouts instead.
*When the Neophyte ends his training, he becomes a battle brother and is issued a suit of power armour and his standard wargear. They are then put into the Blood or Sky Claws (the latter if they are too troublesome even by Blood Claw standards).
*In the previous editions, they had access to Leman Russ tanks (logical, since the tank was named after their Primarch).
*Wolf Priests combine both Chaplain and Apothecary roles.

===Chapters with differences in formations or composition===
Some chapters have taken the idea of a "Chapter" and tweaked it with their own unique spin on its organization, either by adding units or ranks that aren't found anywhere else, or have their own composition of companies that doesn't fit with the approved codex model. In some cases they may ignore the codex altogether and do their own thing.

'''[[Black Dragons]]'''
*Dragon Claw squads, made up of mutants who make use of adamantium coated wrist blades.

'''[[Blood Ravens]]'''
*'''Pre-Aurelian Crusade''':
**Usually, the Chapter Master was the Chief Librarian too, like [[Azariah Kyras]]. This tradition of Chapter Master/Librarian combo started with Azariah Vidya (as in Vidya Games).
**Their gene seed causes them to have an above average number of Librarians, so many they can field two whole squads of them in the First Company. Librarians are so recurrent among Blood Ravens that it's not uncommon for one to be even a Captain.
**Actually Codex Compliant in structure, yet utilize their Librarians to scry and predict the movements of their enemies (so their Scouts are Librarians too?) and use the intel to formulate a counter strategy (because they appeared in [[Dawn of War]], their way of war is an emulation of how RTS gamers play when they are serious).
**Non-standard patterns of [[Apollo_Diomedes|speech]], incidents of [[Blood_Ravens_Force_Commander|hairesy]], compulsive [[Blood_Ravens#Bloody_Magpies|kleptomany]] and emphasis on [[Indrick_Boreale|devastating, defensive deepstrikes]].
*'''Post-Aurelian Crusade''':
**With [[Gabriel Angelos]], a non-psyker, taking the position of Chapter Master they returned to a more codex-compliant organization, albeit severely undermanned.

'''[[Blood Angels]] and Successors'''
*[[Scout]]s graduate to [[Assault Squad]]s rather than to Devastator squads.
*The use of [[Heresy|non-standard tech]], like Baal Predators, Furioso and [[Dreadnought#Chapter_Specific_Dreads|Librarian Dreadnoughts]].
*Sanguinary Priests (Apothecaries) make up part of the chapter priesthood equivalent to Chaplains, who are busy tending to...
*...The [[Death Company]].

'''[[Dark Angels]] and Successors'''
*The [[Deathwing]] & [[Ravenwing]] instead of First and Second companies.
*Inner Circle in place of usual chapter command structure.
*Chaplains taking the additional role of [[Chaplain#Dark_Angels_Interrogator-Chaplain|Interrogators]].
*Battle Companies incorporate an additional squad of [[Veteran Squad|veteran marines]].
*Some nifty STC that they do not share with anybody apart of their own successors.

'''[[Exorcists]]'''
*Have two additional scout companies to account for the high attrition rate amongst recruits.
*...said attrition rate being caused by subjecting recruits to daemonic possession.

'''[[Iron Hands]]'''
*Have a Chapter Council instead of a fixed [[Chapter Master]], though a leader may be nominated.
*Chaplain Techmarines, aka "[[Chaplain#Iron_Hands_Iron_Father|Iron Fathers]]".
**The current leader is thus a Chapter Master Chaplain Techmarine. And people say the Blood Ravens are the crazy ones.
*Terminator Armour was distributed to squad sergeants instead of being reserved only for the First company.
*Pre-6th Edition fluff indicated that individual companies (clans) had their own veterans and recruits, newer fluff put them more in line with the Codex.

'''[[Iron Snakes]]'''
*Instead of having five regular battle companies and five reserve companies, the Iron Snakes have ten battle companies with an equal number of veterans, regulars and neophytes for perfect balance.
*Each squad has a Apothecary, personal Squad Standard Bearer and a number of specialists of their own.

'''[[Red Scorpions]]'''
*Apothecaries act in squad command roles instead of sergeants.

'''[[Salamanders]]'''
*Have seven oversized companies instead of ten, but otherwise broadly conform to the codex.

'''[[Star Phantoms]]'''
*Battle companies have three [[Devastator Squad]]s instead of two.

'''[[Storm Wardens]]'''
*Tempest Blades being a non-codex formation.
*Heavy emphasis on mechanized warfare and mano-a-mano honorable duels to the death.

'''[[Ultramarines]]'''
*Tyrannic War Veterans are a non-codex formation.

'''[[White Consuls]]'''
*Have [[Alpharius|two Chapter Masters]] instead of one

==Purpose for Gamers==

Of course, there's a reason [[Games Workshop]] included the Codex Astartes in their fluff (long before Matt Ward came along, by the way). Basically, it makes it easier for players to invent their own Chapters.

Players who just have an idea for a cool color scheme or name but don't want to put any effort into making up a whole organizational layout can just make a Chapter that rigidly follows the Codex, like the [[Ultramarines]]. Those who want to have one or two unique organizational or tactical features can make a Chapter that generally follows the Codex but has some variances, like...well, most of them (see above). And players that want to make up entirely independent structures themselves can make Chapters that ignore the Codex entirely, like the [[Space Wolves]] or the [[Black Templars]].

This means that Matt Ward's Codex worship isn't just lame, but actually bad for GW's business: By telling players that only Codex Chapters are any good, he's discouraging players with their own ideas from investing in models, paints, tournaments, and maybe even later editions of the game. Truly, there is no end to his failure.

==Codex Astartes, as according to [[Matt Ward]]==
{{MattWard}}

The Codex Astartes was written by the greatest of Space Marines, <s>Matt Ward</s> [[Roboute Guilliman]], shortly after the [[Horus Heresy]]. It includes unbeatable tactical doctrines for just about every situation. All but [[Black Templars|the]] [[Raven Guard|most]] [[Blood Angels|despicable]] of Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes as much as they can. The [[Ultramarines]] and their successors follow it like holy writ, and as a result are the best fighters in the galaxy, while the [[Space Wolves]], the freaks of the Spare Marine factions, barely use it at all.

The Codex is flawless and infallible, and even many non-human races aspire to its word (<< implying not killing xenos).

Bollocks.

Nay my friend, this be [[Heresy]].

{{Marines-Codex}}
[[Category:Space Marines]] [[category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Imperial]]

Space Marines

2016-02-29T06:15:02Z

2601:245:4201:C2E0:94C2:5E6C:2784:2B3D: /* Space Marine Chapter Masters */

{{Editwar}}
''For the vidya gaem, please see: [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]''

[[File:Silver Skull.jpg|300px|right|thumb|WE ARE THE EMPRAH'S FUREH!]]
''"O my brothers, I dedicate and direct you to a new nobility: you shall become procreators and cultivators and sowers of the future — verily, not to a nobility that you might buy like shopkeepers and with shopkeepers' gold: for whatever has its price has little value. Not whence you came shall henceforth constitute your honor, but whither you are going! Your will and your foot which has a will to go over and beyond yourselves — that shall constitute your new honor."'' --Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

''"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall [[Finecast|mould]] them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great [[Pauldrons|armour]] shall I clad them and with the [[Bolter|mightiest guns]] will they be armed. They will be untouched by [[Nurgle|plague]] or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have [[Deep Strike|tactics]], [[Steel Rain|strategies]] and [[METAL BOXES|mach]][[Centurion Squad|ines]] so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against [[Chaos|the Terror]]. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my [[Robert Heinlein|Space Marines]] and they shall know no fear."'' --The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQwTyGeoprA the Creation of the Space Marines]

The '''Space Marines''', also known as '''[[Indrick Boreale|SPESS MEHREENS]]''' (canonically named the Adeptus Astartes; Astarte is the Greek name for the Mesopotamian goddess of war, Ishtar. Ironic given that the Astartes is an all-male organization) are an army in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They are bio-enhanced super soldiers clad in [[Power Armour]], and are generally regarded as the toughest warriors to ever serve the [[Emprah|Emperor]] (except for the Adeptus Custodes and Imperial Assassins). The average Space Marine is around eight feet tall. They used to be seven feet in the old fluff, but [[Dan Abnett]] and the rest of Games Workshop have a hard-on for gigantism (though they have addressed the problems real-life gigantism can cause by throwing in more bio-engineering) so they jacked them up a foot, though RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games and games by THQ scaled them back to the more reasonable seven feet. Although do note that the height of Marines can vary greatly; some can even reach ''ten'' feet, like [[Asterion Moloc]].

Internally, they have bones that can repel anything short of a boltgun round and can breathe underwater even without their helmets on because they have a third lung. They can also breathe all but the most potent of toxic fumes with little to no damage to their respiratory system, have two hearts, and live for hundreds of years (they may be functionally immortal, but they usually die in battle after a few centuries, so nobody can be sure). They are vastly more powerful in their [[fluff|official descriptions]] than they actually are in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game (although the Marines statted in [[Dark Heresy]] or [[Rogue Trader]] are walking rapemachines, and the [[player character]] Marines in [[Deathwatch]] are hard as nails). Much like the [[Chaos Space Marines]] are the 40k successors of the [[Warriors of Chaos]], Space Marines are the 40k successors of Warrior Priests, right down to their BALD. Portrayals range from hardcore but plausible super-soldiers to shameless [[Mary Sue]]s who could fight off Batman with one hand and the Joker with the other. Although occasionally, they serve to make other galactic forces seem superior. ''More like the Ineptes Astartes.''

They account for approximately 35% of the playable armies (counting chaos space marines) in 40k, over 21.4% (yeah, I thought that was a pretty conservative estimate too) of played armies among the 40k fandom (factoring in that people can collect and play more than one 40k army), and as of October 2010, receive about 50% or more of new releases.

Contrary to that, fluff-wise Space Marines are amongst the smallest factions in the game, second only to the Sisters of Battle. With all Chaos and Loyalist Marines combined they number below two millions in a galaxy where Imperium alone have tens of millions of honest to good inhabited worlds (not some dipshit colonies with a population of only few millions). In fact any single capital-class space ship have a population higher than the entirety of Marines in the Galaxy. Furthermore, marine armies are extrmelly fractured, very rareluy deployed at above a few companies per war zone. GW never cared to explain how forces so small could have such a huge impact on the battlefields, when Orks, Guard and Tyranids could field their troops in millions, and Chaos can convert entire populations of planets (which is often tens of billions). Regardless, everything that is something in the setting has a tendency to at least have a bit Space Marines in it, if they aren't flat-out the protagonists. Expect enormous campaigns to revolve around a few companies, regardless of the involved numbers of Guardsmen and enemy xenos and chaotic characters, and the Marines to be the key to victory in any given war.

Off the many kinds of 40k fans, the Space Marine fanboy might be the most obnoxius ''and'' common one. They closely resemble fans of a politically radical movements; having little to no ability to see their own faction's obvious and glaring faults, while demonstratingly arguing that all other factions are below them. The Space Marine fan fervently believes that any Marine-centered Bolter Porn presents the truth about the setting, which will lead to many a SM Fan proclaiming that they know ''exactly'' how all other factions are weaker in relation to Marines, regardless of what the actual fans of those factions and accepted lore actually says. Space Marine fans are often fans who have been reading the books or playing Dawn of War before getting into the wider setting, and as such get their views in a bit of a twist. Fortunately, many Space Marine fans end up migrating to another faction, becoming bored with the Marines and getting into a faction [[Orks|with some]] [[Imperial Guard|meat in]] [[Dark Eldar|it]], or, in search of further elitist kicks, get's [[Eldar|into something]] [[Tau|even worse]].

[[Games Workshop|Geedubs]] [[Meme|has a hard-on for Space Marines]]. [[Slaanesh|Between the writers favoritism and the "Spots the Space Marine" fiasco, it's gotten to the point where they should seek professional help]]."

==History==
After the end of the [[Age of Strife]], the Emperor of Mankind wanted to reunite [[humanity]] in a [[Great Crusade]] across the galaxy, and he realized that in order to do this he would need one epic-ass army and equally epic generals to lead it. He created the [[Primarchs]], his sons, to be his generals, and let me tell you, these guys were some of the most insanely powerful badasses in all the lore of 40k, and that is saying something. (There is a story in which [[Sanguinius|one of them]] snaps a fucking [[Bloodthirster]]'s spine [[Awesome|OVER HIS GODDAMN KNEE]]. Yeah.) From their DNA, he created the [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes, the first Space Marines]]. Their first task was to locate their Primarchs, because the [[Chaos Gods|Gods]] of [[Chaos]] had scattered them across the galaxy in an attempt to foil the Emperor's efforts at human reunification. All of the Primarchs were eventually recovered and reunited with their respective legions, but then, at the height of the Space Marines' power, disaster struck. [[Horus]], the Emperor's most trusted Primarch, fell to Chaos and turned traitor along with his legion, the [[Luna Wolves]], and several others followed suit. After much [[Grimdark|sorrow, pain, and civil warring]], the Emperor killed Horus personally, but was mortally wounded in the process, which is why he is now a zombie being kept alive by the technologies of the Golden Throne. The traitor legions, who are now known as the [[Chaos Space Marines]], were defeated and pushed back to the [[Eye of Terror]]. All of the Primarchs that did not fall to Chaos during the Horus Heresy have either disappeared or been killed, and none remain to lead the Space Marine legions (though [[Roboute Guilliman]], primarch of the [[smurfs]], is [[Matthew Ward|according to some people]] healing in stasis). In addition, after the Heresy, the legions were mostly [[Second Founding|split into smaller "Chapters"]] of up to a thousand Marines according to the teachings of the [[Codex Astartes]] (although some Chapters, such as the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Black Templars]], do not follow Astartes orthodoxy and maintain forces in much greater numbers, and [[Dark Angels|some chapters]] go so far as to form almost legion-strength forces.)
[[File:Prayer before battle.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Marine with half his face missing, skulls in the wall, bolter laying ready and servitors with hoods swinging censors. Ladies and gents, [[Warhammer 40k]].]]

The Space Marines are most commonly looked upon as warrior-monks, generally referring to each other as "Brother", "Battle Brother" or some variation thereof based on rank, spending most or all of their time training, in battle, or venerating the Emperor. However, no two Chapters are exactly alike, and many differ wildly from the standard perception of the Marines. The Space Wolves, as one example, appear to be much less disciplined than most other Chapters, maintaining a much larger force than permitted by the Codex and frequently having great feasts with much merriment and drinking (the Space Wolves happen to produce the only intoxicating beverage known to have any effect on Marine physiology, and which liquefies the innards of non-Astartes). <s>Space Wolf players are nearly all metalhead virgins with a number of insecurities relating to their latent homosexuality.</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|HERESY!!!}} {{BLAM|(Who told Matt Ward about this page?)}} Their attitude toward others in the Imperium can also differ greatly from Chapter to Chapter or even from marine to marine. Some are very idealistic, believing very strongly in their role as protectors of humanity (such as the [[Celestial Lions]] or the [[Salamanders]]). Others, like the [[Black Templars]], tend to disregard the ordinary elements of the Imperium, and emphasize much more their role as a weapon against its enemies.

Their attitude towards the Emperor can also vary. Although they are typically believed to worship him as a deity like most of the rest of the Imperium, the Space Marines are, by virtue of their gene-seeds, derived from the Primarchs and hence the Emperor himself, making them much closer to him than most humans. In fact, many of the Space Marine chapters' beliefs maintain some of the old [[Imperial Truth]] that the Emperor was not a god, but simply the greatest of mortal men, worthy of praise and veneration but not a deity proper. Although it is true that the majority of the chapters certainly venerate him in an orthodox manner, others just scream his name a lot because that's tradition.

[[Image:Blingmarine.jpg|thumb|right|The great Papa Smurf hisself.]]
Space Marines are generally regarded as having something of an "unfair advantage" in the tabletop, mainly because every young 40k player has a strong liking for them, and almost every unit in the listings has at least a 3+ armor save, making them rather hard to kill, especially when considering armies such as the Blood Angels have models that allow players to roll an additional "Feel No Pain" 4+ save if they fail the 3+ one. The problem is that it took 3 Space Marine chapter books in 5th edition to come up with a Space Marine Codex framework that didn't suck (almost nothing in C:SW is non-competitive or poorly priced), which is why Long Fangs are usually 50 points cheaper than their Space Marine counterparts, while being twice as effective. Why are Devastators supposedly more expensive? Combat tactics. Yeah, you're never going to use it. The Ultramarines in particular are an extremely popular choice of Space Marine chapter, and their blue design coupled with the small size of the miniatures often leads to them being referred to as "Smurfs". Thanks to [[Indrick Boreale]], the Space Marines in general are frequently called "Spess Mehreens", or variations to that effect.

The Space Marines of today look very different from the glory days of Rogue Trader, when they earned the nickname "[[beakie|beakies]]" because of their signature helmets.

Also, contrary to popular belief, Chaos Spess Mehreens are better then their non-heretical counterparts. This includes better at failing (I'm looking at you, [[Abaddon]]) and making memes ([[SPESS MEHREENS|SIINDRI]] and [[Metal Boxes|METAL BAWKSES]]).

Denizens of /tg/ are prone to claiming a wide variety of things about the Space Marines, usually about their sexual activity (or lack thereof), ranging from assertions that the genitalia of a Space Marine is nonfunctional to claims that they are castrated during the creation process. They never have any supporting evidence for these theories and it is not clear whether or not Space Marines are allowed to have sex, which chapters would allow them to have sex, if they even can have sex, if they're still capable of normal human reproduction, or what bits they may or may not still possess. Still, that doesn't stop anyone from stating their personal opinion as if it were fact.

[[File:Sons of Corax by MajesticChicken.jpg|450px|thumb|left|When the going gets tough, the tough get going.]]

There is also some fan-wank about whether or not they are biologically immortal, which has been consistently disproven in the codices. Codex: Angels of Death mentions that [[Blood Angels]] are noted for having exceptionally long lifespans, namely a 1000 years give or take, meaning Marines from other chapters have considerably shorter lifespans and are in fact not biologically immortal. Despite being from 2nd edition, this has been reaffirmed in the current Blood Angels Codex (Page 12) confirming biological immortality as fan-wank (Note: the current Blood Angels codex was written by GW's biggest Space Marine fanboy. Yes, even Ward says Space Marines can die of old age). Both Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill wrongly claim that they are indeed immortal, and that although they physically age (grey hair, wrinkles, etc.) it is only skin deep and they are in just as good physical condition as when they first joined the Astartes. However, Black Library has a tendency to be inconsistent with the established lore. The reason for this is twofold: firstly, some gamers would think less of the Space Marines if they could die of old age, and Games Workshop doesn't want that. Secondly, Games Workshop seems to agree that they would be awesome if they didn't die of old age, but they don't want to anger the (reasonable) part of the fanbase that would disapprove of Space Marines being biologically immortal, so they're deliberately vague about it.

There was one Space Marine from the [[Salamanders]] Chapter who was lost on a world struck by warp storms. When the storms ended, the Salamanders came in to investigate. When they landed there was a rift in the ground, which they entered to investigate. And behold, there were humans living in a secret underground "vault" that only a few knew about. It was in fact a Salamanders starship from the Horus Heresy that had crashed there. While searching inside, they found one Astartes still alive. His armor had melded into the metal of the ship and he could no longer move, but he was alive. He sat there watching over empty, ancient suits of armour from his fallen brothers. The other Salamanders recovered what they could and gave the ancient survivor the Emperor's Peace. He was one of the longest living Astartes that was not in Dreadnought armour.

To summarize, yes, Space Marines CAN die of old age. In practice, this rarely happens as they live a life of near-constant war. This means they usually die in battle, whether in regular battles, during a suicide mission, or, if they can't fight at their peak anymore (because of age or injury), while interred in a Dreadnought.

==Creation==

[[File:1396451926378.jpg|400px|thumb|right|From deranged lab-experiment to fucking [[awesome]].]]

Knowing [[Chaos|just]] [[C'tan|what]] [[Necron|the]] [[Dark Eldar|fuck]] [[Ork|was]] [[Eldar|waiting]] for humanity in space, the Emperor of Mankind designed the [[gene-seed]], nineteen special organs to enhance the regular human body to keep the Space Marines going when fighting these monstrosities. Over a series of several years, human adolescents, dubbed aspirants, are selected through a rigorous process which varies from Chapter to Chapter. They are always male, with cited reasons including that Astartes are basically clones of their Primarchs, and by extension the Emperor, and that the geneseed requires portions of the Y-chromosome to function.

When their training goes to the next stage, the aspirants are implanted with the initial gene-seed. They then become neophytes, Space Marines in training. As the gene-seed is implanted into them, the neophytes also go through hypnotic conditioning to hone their responses. By the time they're done, the subject has few impulses beyond fighting and killing in the name of the Emperor (it's sometimes thought that this is what kills their sex drive) and most of their memories of their earlier lives are all but forgotten.

After receiving all these organs and conditioning, it's highly arguable if a Space Marine still qualifies as human. Though the [[Imperium of Man]] has basic "kill on sight" orders for most non-humans and venerates the "Holy Human Form", the topic of whether or not Space Marines violate this edict is ignored, mostly because they were designed by the Emperor and thus considered holy creations. There is also an understandable hesitance to declare war on the only thing standing between the Imperium and the unfathomable evil of the [[Chaos Gods]]. Arguably marines are no less human than Mechanicum, just with organic implants instead of bionics, and mechanicums are likewise still count as 100% right and proper humans (even if most of them consider themselves a separate species or at least "humans 2.0" ).

In fact, this religious need to adhere to the Holy Human Form may be why the Emperor designed the gene-seed to be a bio-enhancement project and not a genetic modification one; all of a Space Marine's inhuman abilities are a result of the artificially engineered organs shoved into their bodies during their creation, either directly (the secondary heart or multi-lung) or indirectly (the Ossmodula, which alters their hormone balance and so makes their skeleton growth go berserk). Consequently, this means a Space Marine would technically pass a genetic scan of being "human" better than an [[abhuman]] like an [[Ogryn]] or [[Ratling]] would.

Yes, this tramples all over the spirit of the law whilst technically adhering to the letter, but it's hardly unique -- see the Ecclesiarchy having its own army of [[Sisters of Battle|power-armored gun-toting nuns]] despite being formally forbidden to have "men" under arms.

Another theory is that the Space Marines were designed this way for more symbolic reasons. Done this way Marines retain a link to humanity; all were born human, no more than any other citizen. They became more through science and training but they aren't some new species or a warrior caste. As marines they are beyond humans but they know where they came from. The regular citizens see the marines as the best of humanity, proxies for the emporers power. The marines remember humans are their kin and while they are more than human they are still the same species all coming from the same root. The power vested in them doesn't pass by blood, it passes by (in theory) merit and a normal citizen can still aspire to becoming an astartes even if that's a long shot. The emperos whole deal was based around humanity, so he built something that could be a symbol to all humanity. He could have bred a new war species but he altered us becuase his dream of the imperium was the dream of humanity. Symbolic difference, sure, but it matters. There's a reason space marines are venerated not feared.

Incidentally, bio-enhancements like the gene-seed are actually more controllable than a genetic enhancing procedure would be, since the resultant outcome is more predictable, more easily mass-produced, and it means that even if a Space Marine could have kids, they would in all likelihood not be different from ordinary humans, since their abilities aren't tied to them on a genetic level.

==Official /tg/ Space Marine Chapters==
[[File:Cloten.jpg|300px|right|thumb|THE RAPE TRAIN HAS NO BRAKES!!!]]
One of /tg/'s favorite pastimes is creating new and exciting chapters of the Adeptus Astartes based on silly concepts. [[/tg/|/tg/'s]] [[/tg/'s homebrews|homebrew]] chapters include:

*[[Adeptus Orthodontus]]
*[[Angry Marines]]
*[[Aqua Marines]]
*[[Bald Marines]]
*[[Bro Marines|Alpha Sigma Sigma]]
*[[Butthurt Marines]]
*[[The Wonderful Misadventures of: Inquisitor Fob and the Classy Marines|Classy Marines]]
*[[Censor Marines]]
*[[Comedy Marines]]
*[[Disco Marines]]
*[[Dorf Marines]]
*[[Drunk Marines]]
*[[Sigmar Marines|Emperor's Hammers]]
*[[Emperor's Paragons]]
*[[Galactic Partridges]]
*[[Golden Aquilas]]
*[[Lazy Marines]]
*[[Manly Marines]]
*[[Metal Marines]]
*[[Mexicarines]]
*[[Mole Marines]]
*[[Obstinate Marines]]
*[[Pretty Marines]]
*[[Reasonable Marines]]
*[[Scary Marines]]
*[[Section 8]]
*[[Silly Marines]]
*[[Sleepy Marines|Dream Warriors]]
*[[Star Shanks]]
*[[Elderly Marines]]
'''As you can see, /tg/ has a problem with creativity.'''
===Second Founding of /tg/ Space Marine Chapters===
After the release of Deathwatch: Rites of Battle, /tg/ quickly flung itself at the chapter creation rules and began to produce a second wave of /tg/ chapters. Noticeably more serious business than the previous chapters, these Spess Mahreens range from the widely popular Emperor's Nightmare, to the derpy Flesh Helms.

*[[Abyssal Jaws]] - Institutionally sharky.
*[[Black Locks]] - Institutionally <s>pirate</s> corsair.
*[[Blood Jaguars]] - Institutionally Aztec.
*[[Brotherhood of the Gauntlet]] - Institutionally Arabic Ghazi.
*[[Brotherhood of the Megalith]] - Institutionally rocky.
*[[Conservators]] - Institutionally poor and under-equipped. It's what happens when you piss of the Mechanicus.
*[[Deep Ones (Tiji Sector)|Deep Ones]] - Institutionally aquatic and environmentally resistant.
*[[Desert Fangs]] - Institutionally <s>not</s> [[Angry Marines]] taken seriously.
*[[Dune Walkers]] - Institutionally Arabic Nomads.
*[[Emperor's Bears]] - Institutionally lost.
*[[Emperor's Nightmare]] - Institutionally <s>not</s> [[Sleepy Marines]] taken seriously.
*[[Eyes of Mordred]] - Institutionally <s>not</s> [[Scary Marines]] taken seriously.
*[[Flesh Helms]] - Institutionally <s>not</s> the <s>[[Imperial Guard]]</s> [[FAIL]] of the Adeptus Astartes.
*[[Guardians Exemplar]] - Institutionally equal to the [[Marines Malevolent]].
*[[Ice Serpents]] - Institutionally [[Baneblade|mechanized]] for war.
*[[Ice Wraiths]] - Institutionally [[Awesome|cyborg-ice-vampire-yeti-riders]].
*[[Knights Inductor]] - Institutionally <s>not</s> <s>[[Reasonable Marines]] taken seriously. [[Mary Sues|MARY SUES]] (actually it must be seen how they do warfare, since they only got how they made their home sector better). Currently rebooting to make them more acceptable.</s> /tg/ doesn't like to talk about it.
*[[Knights Repentant]] - Institutionally UTTERLY LOYAL and true pre-heresy [[Word Bearers]].
*[[Lumbermarines]] - Institutionally lumberjacks.
*[[Rising Sons]] - Institutionally BANZAI!!!
*[[Screaming Eagles]] - Institutionally <s>AMERICAN</s> 'MURICAN!!! FUCK YEAH!
*[[Talons of Corvus]] - Institutionally a more heroic [[Command and Conquer|Nod]].
*[[The Sovereign's Appraisal]] - Institutionally loyal and sympathetic despite mutations, being declared renegade, [[Slaanesh]] trying to seduce them and the [[Ultramarines]] and their successors trying to terminate them.
*[[War Brothers]] - Institutionally not giving a damn about what the [[Dark Angels]] want from them.
*[[The Adeptus Estates]] - Institutionally home building.
*[[Mourning Sons]] - Institutionally shedding [[Fist of the North Star|Manly Tears]].
*[[Star Krakens]] - Institutionally <s>tentacular</s> Viking, yet not [[Space Wolves|THAT]] Viking. Plus one of the biggest of shits that /tg/ has done right. AND HOW!
'''The second wave WOULD show improvements to creativity... If they didn't use a RPG system as a crutch, among other issues. '''

==GW Space Marine Chapters==
[[File:40k RPG.jpg|300px|right|thumb|We honestly can't tell whether this is a dude or a chick, so you'll just have to make a guess and face the consequences.]]
*[[Aurora Chapter]] - Institutionally lazily named.
*[[Astral Claws]] - Institutionally secessionist.
*[[The World Engine|Astral Knights]] - Institutionally crazy awesome, but totally dead.
*[[Alpha Legion]] - Institutionally closet loyalists
* [[Black Dragons]] - Institutionally taking their cue from Wolverine.
*[[Black Templars]] - Institutionally <s>way too numerous</s> crusaders.
*[[Blood Angels]] - Institutionally <s>blonde</s> <s>[[Black Rage|unstable]]</s> <s>bloody</s> <s>anime Catholic vampire angels</s> <s>BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} THE BLOOD ANGELS SPILL BLOOD FOR THE EMPRAH!
*[[Blood Ravens]] - Institutionally <s>thieves</s> relic hunters.
*[[Celestial Lions]] - Institutionally RAPED BY TEH INQUISITION.
*[[Crimson Fists]] - Institutionally <s>underdogs</s> <s>Mexican</s> outnumbered.
*[[Dark Angels]] - Institutionally <s>hooded zealots</s> <s>treasonous</s> <s>shady</s> LOYAL!
*[[Death Spectres]] - Institutionally albino.
*[[Deathwatch]] - Institutionally, intentionally and professionally xenocidal. Employed by the [[Inquisition]], recruited from other chapters.
*[[Doom Eagles]] - Institutionally <s>grim</s> <s>emo</s> doomed.
*[[Excoriators]] - Institutionally ugly.
*[[Flesh Tearers]] - Institutionally <s>unstable</s> <s>treasonous</s> <s>hungry</s> RIP AND TEAR.
*[[Fire Lords]] - Institutionally [[Flamer|burny]], possibly more so than the Salamanders (see below).
*[[Genesis Chapter]] - Institutionally [[Ultramarines]].
*[[Grey Knights]] - Institutionally killing [[Daemon|Daemons]].
*[[Guardians of the Covenant]] - Institutionally record-keeping catholic space monks.
*[[Hammers of Dorn]] - Institutionally trolling the Ultramarines.
*[[Imperial Fists]] - Institutionally <s>camping</s> <s>boring the enemy to death</s> waiting tactically.
*[[Invaders]] - Institutionally trading blows with Eldar.
*[[Iron Hands]] - Institutionally <s>[[Awesome|Scottish]] [[Necrons|metallic]]</s> [[Adeptus Mechanicus|mechanized]].
*[[Lamenters]] - Institutionally unlucky.
*[[Legion of the Damned]] - <s>Institutionally undead</s> Unfortunately incorporeal, awesomely incandescent.
*[[Marines Malevolent]] - Institutionally <s>assholes</s> MASSIVE assholes.
*[[Mantis Warriors]] - Institutionally <s>Kamen Rider</s> misdirecting.
*[[Mentors]] - Institutionally academic. Has not been heard from [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|for a long time]].
*[[Minotaurs]] - Institutionally <s>paranoid </s> <s>assholes</s> <s>teamkilling</s> <s>mysterious</s> mysteriously paranoid teamkilling assholes. They are suspected to be in league with the [[High Lords of Terra]] as an attempt to police the Adeptus Astartes. Cause that'll work.
*[[Mortifactors]] - Institutionally goth.
*[[Raptors]] - Institutionally [[Reasonable_Marines|reasonable]] and [[shooty]].
*[[Raven Guard]] - Institutionally [[Troll|tricksy]] and speedy.
*[[Red Scorpions]] - Institutionally <s>nazi</s> pure.
*[[Relictors]] - Institutionally radical.
*[[Salamanders]] - Institutionally <s>black</s> [[Flamer|burny]]. Also, surprisingly nice for all their... fiery nature. {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Making terrible puns is heresy!}}
*[[Sable Swords]] - Institutionally ignored
*[[Scythes of the Emperor]] - Institutionally <s>[[C'tan|Grim Reapers]]</s> <s>[[Squats|Tyranid munch]]</s> NOT DEAD YET.
*[[Silver Skulls]] - Institutionally [[Shaman|shamanistic]].
*[[Sons of Medusa]] - Institutionally lime green.
*[[Soul Drinkers]] - Institutionally rebellious.
*[[Space Sharks]] - Institutionally <s>[[choppy]]</s> <s>genocidal</s> [[Shark|SHARK]]S, BITCH!
*[[Space Wolves]] - <s>Institutionally [[viking]]</s> <s>Drunk</s> <s>Institutionally wolves</s> <s>wolfstitutionally wolf</s> <s>WOLF WOLF WOLF</s> Wolf-like.
*[[Star Phantoms]] - Institutionally SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!.
*[[Storm Wardens]] - Institutionally Celtic.
*[[Ultramarines]] - Institutionally [[Codex_Astartes|orthodox]].
**[[Matt Ward]] Ultramarines - Institutionally No longer exist.
*[[White Scars]] - Institutionally <s>Mongolian</s> speedy bikers.

==Space Marine Chapter Masters==
[[File:Angels of the Rock.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Tiny head syndrome is a common side effect of the augmentations]]
*[[Marneus Calgar]] (A.K.A Papa Smurf) - Chapter Master of the Ultramarsmur.....I mean [[Ultramarines]]. Received the rank by having the most plot armor.
*[[Dante]] - Chapter Master of the [[Blood Angels]]. '''Beware!!!!'''. Dante is watching you! Received the rank for being so old and always wearing a mask so no one knows what his face looks like anymore.
*[[Logan Grimnar]] - Great Wolf of the [[Space Wolves]]. Is the wolfiest of all the wolf lords without being a furry.
*[[Azrael]] - Supreme Grand Master of the [[Dark Angels]]. Best at <s>hunting the fallen</s> VANQUISHING FOUL TRAITORS FROM OTHER LEGIONS.
*[[Vorn Hagen|Vladimir Pugh]] - Chapter Master of the [[Imperial Fists]]. Appointed for [[Truly Immovable Rod|standing in place without moving for a full year]].
*[[Jubal Khan]] - Chapter Master of the [[White Scars]]. Proved his speediness by outracing a bike mounted captain wearing only rollerskates.
*[[Tu'Shan]] - Master of the Fire Drakes, [[derp|de-Facto]] Chapter Master of the [[Salamanders]]. Forged the burniest flamer.
*[[Kardan Stronos]] - Chapter Master of the [[Iron Hands]](sort of). Was actually democratically elected for diplomatic reasons, temporarily. It's complicated.
*Corvin Severax - Former Chapter Master of the [[Raven Guard]], nicknamed "Master of Shadows". Got the job by being the sneakiest of the sneaky marines(they were looking for him to officially grant him the rank until the last day). Unfortunately some [[Shadowsun|blue-skinned bitch]] had him killed in the Damocles Gulf. [[Kayvaan Shrike]] was decided unanimously to be his successor, adding to his [[awesome]].
*[[Kaldor Draigo]] - Supreme Grand Master and of the [[Grey Knights]] and one of [[Matt Ward]]'s [[Mary Sue|Special Snowflakes]]. Honored for being the single biggest mary sue in the whole damn setting.
*[[Helbrecht]] - High Marshall of the [[Black Templars]]. Was voted High Marshall for being the angriest of the not angry marines.
*[[Pedro Kantor]] - Chapter Master of the [[Crimson Fists]]. Got the most votes (read: all three) during the election.
*[[Gabriel Seth]] - Chapter Master of the [[Flesh Tearers]]. Ripped and tore the most during the chapter master audition(also kicked one of the judges in the balls).
*[[Azariah Kyras]] - Former Chapter Master of the [[Blood Ravens]] who was killed for being a filthy, despicable, traitorous, no good follower of Chaos. Later replaced by [[Gabriel Angelos]].
*Sarpedon - Chapter Master of the [[Soul Drinkers]].
*Carab Culln - Lord High Commander of the [[Red Scorpions]]. Got promoted after the last one was killed.
*Artekus Bardane - Chapter Master of the [[Relictors]]. Collects and uses chaos artifacts better then anyone in the chapter.
*[[Asterion Moloc]] - Chapter Master of the [[Minotaurs]]. No clue how he got the job, our inquiries were met with death threats and top level cease and desist orders. Has a laser-shooting pimp cane.
*[[Lugft Huron]] - Chapter Master of the [[Astral Claws]]. Got the rank by being absolutely awesome, unfortunately he overdid it and caused the [[Badab War]].
*Lias Issodon - Chapter Master of the [[Raptors_(Chapter)|Raptors]]. The most reasonable of the not-reasonable marines.
*[[Tyberos the Red Wake]] - Chapter Master of the [[Space Sharks]]. Showed the best technique when it came to applying '''RIP AND TEAR''' to heretic asses, assisted by his [[awesome|lightning chainfists]].
*Omadon Tiresias - Chapter Master of the [[Star Phantoms]]. Blinded by warp storms during the evacuation of the Star Phantom home world, he forsook his own sight to save the relics of his chapter.

== Rivalries ==
[[File:Moloc.JPG|300px|right|thumb|Everyone hates the Minotaurs]]

*'''Space Wolves and Dark Angels''' - The Space Wolves and Dark Angels have a rather tumultuous and sometimes violent rivalry, but in a way their legions truly reflect the relationship between brothers. The rivalry itself stems from a confrontation between their primarchs that stemmed from the different cultures the primarchs had come up in. During a joint operation between the Wolves and the Dark Angels, the planet's ruler had insulted Russ personally, so Russ resolved to slay him personally. The Lion tried to cut Russ in on his deep strike plan, but Russ would have none of it: He didn't want to defeat the enemy, he wanted to utterly crush them. Frustrated with his brother's lack of cooperation, the Lion launched his strike without the wolves help, and Russ fought his way into the planetary ruler's palace just in time to watch the Lion behead him. Furious, Russ threw down his weapons and punched the Lion, starting a lengthy fist fight that only ended when Russ started laughing upon realizing how pointless the fight was and how stupid he'd been. Thinking that Russ was laughing at him, the Lion punched Russ unconscious. When Russ awoke he sought out the Lion to make amends, but he had already departed with his fleet. Though the two would work together again, the Lion was rather unforgiving (oh the irony) towards Russ. To Russ the Lion seemed the antagonist. After all, in the halls of Fenris a brawl between angry brothers was hardly unusual. When the fight ended you'd toast each other and drink away the bruises and move on. To the Lion Russ seemed at fault. After all, in the knightly orders of Caliban striking one's brothers was not done: petty infighting could not be tolerated when monsters slavered at the gate. As is so often the case between brothers, both were at fault and neither would back down. To this day the Space Wolves and Dark Angels (and their successor chapters) will fight (usually) non-lethal honor duels to "settle the score," though "the score" has never really been agreed on. Occasionally tensions between the two chapters will boil over into open warfare which is often caused by <strike>Fallen Angels</strike> TRAITORS UNASSOCIATED WITH THE DARK ANGELS hiding amidst the Space Wolves' protectorate worlds, using the tensions to their advantage. Finally it's worth noting that even though the two (former) legions often fight, they never show that rivalry to the wider imperium, and they'll set aside their rivalry whenever they need to [[get shit done]] together.

*'''Ultramarines and the Word Bearers''' - The Ultramarines are pissed off at the Word Bearers for a great many things: 1) They turned traitor 2) They used millions of cultists as meat shields during the battle of Calth, which the Ultramarines saw as dishonorable and disgusting 3) They almost destroyed Calth

*'''Ultramarines and the Alpha Legion''' - The Alpha Legion led the Ultramarines halfway across the galaxy on a fool's errand that ultimately ensured they were nowhere near the Imperial Palace during the Horus Heresy. Adding insult to injury, they inflicted enormous casualties on the Ultramarines, and though they succeeded in killing Alpharius (or did they?), the Alpha Legion's command structure was so decentralized that it did little to affect them.

*'''Ultramarines and the Black Templars (also the Imperial Fists, the Crimson Fists, the Space Wolves, and the Salamanders)''' - When Roboute Guilliman tried to force the Codex Astartes on the Space Marine legions after the Horus Heresy, some legions - most notably the Imperial Fists - outright refused, not wanting their legions to be broken down into smaller chapters. Rogal Dorn called Guilliman a coward, while Guilliman called Dorn a rebel. The Space Wolves and the Salamanders ended up backing Dorn, while the Raven Guard and the White Scars supported Guilliman. The rivalry became so intense that the Imperial Navy even fired on the Imperial Fist strike cruiser ''Terrible Angel'', and it seemed that the Space Marines would war against one another once again. Finally, Rogal Dorn yielded to prevent another war and broke his legion into the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists. As the Ultramarines still were wary of the loyalties of the Imperial Fists and their successors, Sigismund - the first Emperor's Champion and the man that Dorn had appointed to be the Black Templars Chapter Master - declared a 10,000 year crusade in the Emperor's name to prove their loyalty. Even though tensions have since cooled between the Ultramarines and the other chapters, the Ultramarines are still suspicious about (read: sticking their nose into the business of) the Black Templars as they still refuse to conform to the Codex Astartes, and won't tell the Ultramarines just how huge their chapter is. In short, Sigismund and Leman Russ told Guilliman where he can shove his Codex Astartes, and he's all anal pained about it.

*'''Ultramarines and the Iron Warriors''' - [[Uriel Ventris]] and Pasanius Lysane, of the Ultramarines, were sworn to a Death Oath by their Chapter Master Marneus Calgar as punishment for violating the Codex Astartes (specifically, because they had abandoned the rest of their company to assist a Deathwatch Kill-team during the Battle of Tarsus Ultra). Their mission: find and destroy the [[Daemonculaba]]. The quest took the Ultramarines pair to the nightmarish [[Daemon World]] of [[Medrengard]], within the [[Eye of Terror]] itself. Medrengard was the homeworld of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. It was also the location of [[Honsou]], the evil Iron Warriors Warsmith who oversaw the Daemonculaba project from within his fortress, Khalan-Ghol. The Ultramarines were successful in destroying the Daemonculaba, and were also able to bring ruination to Khalan-Ghol and Honsou's forces. Uriel Ventris also managed to shoot Honsou in the head. Unfortunately, the Warsmith survived the headshot. Upon realizing the extent of the damage Uriel had caused, Honsou swore revenge and also the utter annihilation of [[Ultramar]]. Honsou was aware that before he ever dealt with Uriel Ventris, the Ultramarines spent years and countless resources and lives to repel a [[Tyranid]] incursion at Tarsis Ultra. Honsou thus unleashed a plan which destroyed every living thing on Tarsis Ultra, and reduced the planet itself to a lifeless rock. Destroying the planet provided no strategic gain to the Iron Warriors; Honsou carried out his horrific genocide simply to spite Uriel Ventris and the Ultramarines. Following this, the Iron Warriors use an army won from the [[Red Corsairs]] to free the [[Daemon Prince]] [[M'kar]], and invade [[Ultramar]]. Though the "Bloodborn" army is beaten back, the Ultramarines lost over one third of their battle-brothers in the attempt, leaving them open to attack for the first time since the First Tyrannic War and unable to properly participate in the Imperial counter-offensive for the [[13th Black Crusade]]. The Ultramarines and the Iron Warriors have thus become bitter enemies-- with Uriel Ventris and Honsou in particular becoming sworn foes.

*'''Ultramarines and the Hammers of Dorn''' - The Hammers adhere rigidly to the Codex Astartes, to the point where they point out any deviations from the codex by the Ultramarines. According to the Hammers of Dorn, Guilliman may have had the genius to pen the codex, but the sons of Dorn are the only ones that can bring out its full potential.

*'''Ultramarines and the Minotaurs''' - While the Minotaurs are hated by everyone the Ultramarines have a special grudge against them, due to the Euxine Incident during the Macharian Heresy. During the heresy the loyalist Doom Warriors and Inceptors chapters were busy [[skub|fighting each other over a matter of honor]], and refused to stop and aid Imperial forces. The Minotaurs were sent to quell the dispute, which they did in their [[rip and tear|usual manner]]. They attacked both sides in force, nearly destroying them both. The Doom Warriors were badly beaten and forced into a barely-organized retreat almost immediately. The Interceptors weren't so lucky. With no way to withdraw they suffered the full onslaught of the Minotaurs and finally surrendered with less then 100 marines left. The honored 2nd founding chapter was subsequently [[Blood Ravens|robbed of most of their chapter relics, the Minotaurs stealing them right off their dead bodies]], including their flagship, a relic of the Great Crusade. This brought them a great deal of hatred from the Ultramarines and their successors, who have since forbidden the Minotaurs from entering Ultramar and seek vengeance whenever the opportunity arises.

*'''Blood Angels and the World Eaters''' - Both constantly compete for superiority in melee combat and also the angriest motherfucking berserker full of rage.

*'''Raven Guard and White Scars''' - Supposedly dates back to a huge fucking argument between [[Corax]] and [[Jaghatai Khan]], where the two had a massive spat over the proper use of rapid-reaction forces. Corax insisted they be used as part of infiltration and deep-strike units, and Jaghatai insisted they were to be on the front lines - the two never really saw eye-to-eye, Corax seeing Jaghatai as devastatingly effective, but with the tactical sense of a drunken Space Wolf, and Jaghatai seeing Corax as too cautious and tactical for proper man-fighting. The two would eventually make up after the Horus Heresy, and both the Raven Guard and White Scars would be forced to ally on several occasions - most notably during the infamous Hunt for Voldorius - but an intense rivalry over whose fast-attack doctrine is better persists to this day, and the two factions are still kind of assholes to one another as a result.

*'''Blood Angels and the Black Legion''' - Considering that Horus killed their Primarch (who, before the Heresy, were closer than any other Primarchs) which resulted in them suffering from the Black Rage which eventually causes every descendant of Sanguinius to have visions of being killed by Horus, the Blood Angels probably despise the Black Legion to the point of pure obsession. Also as a rule, the Blood Angels have a special hatred for the [[Abaddon|owner]] of the '''Talon of Horus''', since it killed their father.

*'''World Eaters and the Grey Knights''' - Angron was banished back to the Warp by Grey Knights during the first battle of Armageddon, which resulted in the World Eaters' defeat. Angron has since been resurfacing, and has sworn revenge.

*'''Raven Guard and the Black Legion (also the Word Bearers, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion)''' - The Raven Guard were the second hardest hit by the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V ''(the Salamanders got hit worse, but there weren't really enough survivors to hold a grudge)''. Though all of the traitor legions except the Thousand Sons were involved, the Raven Guard holds a special hatred for the former Luna Wolves and Horus, a hatred which has transferred over to [[Abaddon]] and the Black Legion. That said, the Raven Guard go absolutely murderous on any of the Legions who turned on them at Istvaan V.

*'''Grey Knights and the Space Wolves''' - Officially, there really isn't a rivalry at all. Because officially the Grey Knights don't exist. Unofficially, during the First War for Armageddon, Grey Knights were ordered to fire on dozens of civilian ships because there was a fraction of a shadow of smidgen of a chance that they were tainted by Chaos. The Space Wolves decided this was pretty dickish, and protected the civilians. Naturally, the Inquisition made it worse. Then old [[Logan Grimnar|Loggy]] chops a Grey Knight Grand Master's head off and kills four Justicars, the ugly downward spiral of '''''WTF!?'''''s started there. Eventually, an understanding was reached where the remaining civvies weren't murdered but just mindwiped a bit and Inquisitorial ships would never again come to Fenris or the wolves would tear them a new asshole.

*'''Imperial Fists and the Iron Warriors''' - Imagine their rivalry akin to World War I. The Imperial Fists are the Brits who love making defenses, while the Iron Warriors are the Germans who also love making defenses but also love destroying stuff. Also, Perturabo hated Rogal Dorn for being Daddy's golden boy and his constant boasting of the fortifications of the Imperial Palace. Perturabo eventually bested Dorn and the Imperial Fists by making a huge space fortress that Dorn then tried to attack in an effort to bring Perturabo to justice. Inside the fortress was nothing but inwardly-faced gunlines, meaning the entire thing was a trap and wound up cutting down enormous numbers of the Imperial Fists before they could retreat. The Imperial Fists were too fierce for the Iron Warriors to destroy without making the ultimate sacrifice however, proving that they get shit done. Perturabo, naturally, found his plan fucking hilarious.

*'''Thousand Sons and the Space Wolves''' - The Space Wolves despised the Red Sorcerers for their practice of magic, and didn't question a goddamned thing after Horus had intentionally given the Wolves incorrect orders (to destroy the Thousand Sons, as opposed to talking Magnus down). Suffice to say, the Space Wolves caused colossal damage to the Thousand Sons, and in the process, destroyed one of the largest repositories of knowledge in the entire fucking Imperium, including a huge amount of information that would have helped the Imperium better fight off its enemies. Horus' dick move forced the Thousand Sons to eventually turn to Tzeentch just to survive. Though the Wolves' offense devastated the Sons, the Legion would nonetheless resurface to attack the Space Wolves: they led a siege on their homeworld and succeeded in causing considerable damage before being driven off. During this offensive, they managed to destroy a series of laboratories, including one that held an entire generation worth of the Space Wolves' Gene-Seed (as well as the cure for the Wulfen curse), and Magnus himself was responsible for killing the Space Wolves' chapter-master.

*'''White Scars and the Space Wolves''' - Thousand Sons were the biggest bros of the Scars during the Great Crusade, their primarchs were total bros too, so when they figured out that Wolves destroyed Prospero, killed most of the (still totally loyal) Thousand Sons, forced surviving ones into going heretic, and don't even feel any guilt or remorse about it, none were surprised Scars kept a huge grudge against the Space Yiffs. Also during the crusade, the Scars hated being compared to the Wolves because of the apparent link to barbarism. The Wolves themselves also have a thing or two to say about the multiple times Scars hadn't come to help when they could, starting from when they left Wolves alone against entire Alpha Legion fleet.

*'''Iron Hands and the Emperor's Children''' - Prior to the Heresy, Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus were '''extremely''' close friends. Their bond ran so deep that even as Fulgrim declared his intentions of joining the forces of Chaos to Ferrus, asking him to join him in overthrowing the Emperor, Ferrus couldn't open fire on his brother's ship. Naturally, this had some rather nasty effects in the long term, not least of which was Fulgrim decapitating the Gorgon with his own sword. The Iron Hands did not take kindly to this. Also, getting all repressed and logical over the next 10,000 years caused Slaanesh to take breaking them as a challenge.

*'''World Eaters and The Emperor's Children''' - In addition to following rival deities, the Emperor's Children lost huge numbers of troops to the World Eaters at Skalthrax. Really, all you need to know is that [[Kharn]] and a Flamer were involved, and that before this incident, the World Eaters were a much more coordinated force.

**'''World Eaters and World Eaters''' - This event caused the World Eaters to break up into warbands

*'''Emperor's Children and the Iron Warriors''' - Given that Fulgrim tried to sacrifice Peturabo's soul to Slaanesh to fuel his ascension to Daemon Prince...

*'''Dark Angels and <s>Fallen Angels</s> FOUL TRAITORS''' - Do ''not'' get between them and a <s>member of their chapter that fell to Chaos</s> FOUL TRAITOR TO THE IMPERIUM WHO CERTAINLY HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE SONS OF THE LION. It can only end in tears.

*'''Thousand Sons and World Eaters:''' Khorne hates sorcery, and so the World Eaters hate the Sons. Sadly for the World Eaters, they're usually well out of the Sons' league; the Thousand Sons tend to pick conflicts selectively, which means the followers of Khorne have rarely even had the chance to fight them. Also, it doesn't do much to appease Khorne's bloodlust, since there is no blood or skulls to offer, just dust.

*'''Blood Ravens and EVERYONE:''' Apart from Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, almost every Marine Chapter mentioned in having contact with the Blood Ravens have not been on good terms. Most likely due to their rampant kleptomania. This animosity extends beyond the Space Marines, and into the rest of the Imperium as well; Imperial Guard forces hate them for exterminating the Kronus Liberators, and the Inquisition doesn't like them for their secrecy.

*'''Blood Angels and the Emperor's Children''' - [[Fabius Bile]] stole the blood of Sanguinius from the Blood Angels' Fortress-Monastery as part of a plot to make a clone of the God-Emperor. As the neophyte initiation process for the Blood Angels requires the consumption of some of the aforementioned blood, the Blood Angels and all their Successor Chapters have sworn to find and kill Bile at all costs. (For a while, it looked like they succeeded- that is, until they found out that Bile had begun cloning ''himself''.)

*'''Iron Hands and Raven Guard and Salamanders''' - The Iron Hands are still pissy about the whole [[Drop Site Massacre|Isstvan V]] thing. They believe that had the Salamanders and Raven Guard followed their Primarch Ferrus Manus they would have won at the dropsite massacre. Completely overlooking the fact that they were surprised, surrounded, outgunned and outnumbered nearly 3 to 1. They don't like the Raven Guard in particular for their use of stealth and subterfuge, and also for having a pretty much identical color scheme. The Raven Guard and Salamanders never pulled any of this bullshit with each other, though, and remain close allies, if for nothing other than the Hands constantly being dicks to both of them.

*'''Marines Malevolent and Salamanders''' - What happens when the galaxy's greatest assholes meet the galaxy's greatest humanitarian marines? Hilarity that's what. The hate fueled rivalry that was first widely known came during the Third War for Armageddon where a squad of Marines Malevolent used their [[Whirlwind|Whirlwinds]] to fire upon an Ork-occupied camp, when they ''knew'' that the camp contained hundreds of Imperial civilian hostages, mostly women and children. Oh and guess what their response was, something to do with "Meh, we only serve the Emprah only" and "We didn't know there were ''"that"'' many civilians". As you can imagine, this both horrified and royally pissed off the Salamanders, and when these two Chapters met again after the war, Chapter Master Tu'Shan, to put it simply, bitch-slapped the Captain of the Marines Malevolent in front of ''everybody in the city.,'' prompting much sniggering and cheering among both Guardsmen and civilians alike. Because of such reaction to complete dickwards, the Salamanders were considered as the '''Heroes of Armageddon''' by popular vote.

==Bros To the End==
As there are several chapters and legions who despise one another, there's a few that get along damned well.

*'''Raven Guard, Salamanders, and Iron Hands''' - True since the great crusade, where these three found they worked extremely well in-concert - The Raven Guard acting as the advance and cutting off critical locations and eliminating command units, the Salamanders in providing the heavy punch to follow this up, and the Iron Hands providing the tide of firepower to support both. That being said, the Iron Hands' relationship with the Raven Guard and the Salamanders has deteriorated since the Horus Heresy; they believe that had their allies not retreated from the Drop Site Massacre, Ferrus Manus would not have been killed and Horus would have been defeated before he could pose a threat to the Imperium. (It doesn't take a genius to realize that this would have just led to the complete annihilation of their Legions in practice.) It's not really clear if the Hands still fight alongside their former best bros in the 41st millenium, but given the whole "feeding a Raven Guard company to psyker orks for lulz" thing, it doesn't seem likely.

*'''Blood Angels and Imperial Fists''' - Both fought and died in the defense of the Imperial Palace. Broforce = very yes.

*'''Ultramarines and Imperial Fist''' - Similar to the Space Wolves and Dark Angels above, beef about the codex aside, the two chapters have always been on very good terms.

*'''Dark Angels and Dark Angel successors''' - <s>because of the existence of the fallen, the Dark Angels and their successor Chapters work closely together, to the point where each Chapter Master is a part of the inner circle, and so they coordinate their movements not as a chapter, but as a legion.</s> THE DARK ANGELS HAVE NO SUCH RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS. RUMORS THAT DARK ANGEL SUCCESSORS ARE STILL UNDER DIRECT COMMAND FROM THEIR PARENT CHAPTER, EFFECTIVELY STILL MAKING THEM FUNCTION AS A LEGION, ARE OBVIOUSLY LIES AND SLANDER FABRICATED BY THE FOUL HERETICS OF CHAOS, AS SUCH AN ACT WOULD BREAK THE GUIDELINES OF THE CODEX ASTARTES, WHICH LOYAL CHAPTERS WOULD NOT DO.

==Other specializations of Space Marines==
[[File:Sperm Marine.jpg|200px|thumb|right|I'm in ur w0mb, fertulizan yo eggz]]
*[[Terminator]]
*[[Apothecary]]
*[[Techmarine]]
*[[Librarian]]
*[[Scout]]

==GW Linguistic Failure==

The name Adeptus Astarte is usually portrayed as meaning Star Adepts. However [[Just As Planned|Astarte is actually Greek]] for [[Not As Planned|Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, love, war, sex and sexuality.]] The Emprah [[HERESY|may have been horny and/or romantically interested]] [[Rule 63|in the idea of a badass God-Empress]] and [[What|named his sons to symbolically show this]] using a language that he and [[Ollanius Pius]] [[Derp|are the speakers of]] besides dead people and three of [[Khorne|the]] [[Nurgle|Ruinous]] [[Tzeentch|Powers]], or this is just the Emperor keeping himself sane by engaging in humor he knows only one loyal person will get, which does not include his last [[Malcador the Sigillite|two]] [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Constantin_Valdor friends]. [[Grimdark|No wonder the Emprah doesn't smile much.]]

==See Also==
*[[Beakie]] - When the Spehss mahreens were awesome.
*[[Chaplain]] - The spiritual leaders of the space marines.
*<s>[[Female Space Marines]]</s> - Records officially decommissioned and terminated by the [[Inquisition]] on the grounds of [[Heresy]], there is nothing here trust us. E-Commissars will blam you from your monitor when attempting to access said heretical records.
*[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]- The official game of [[Pauldrons]] (despite the fact that the pauldrons in this game are smaller than they should be)
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines|Tactics/Space Marines]]
*[[Guidelines of the space marines]]
*Despite the considerable amount of hate at the space marines nowadays, [[The World Engine|they can still be awesome.]]

==External Links==
* [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Marine Lexicanum on Space Marines]
* [http://wackycamper.deviantart.com/art/Space-Marine-Commandments-88741651 The Commandments of the Space Marine]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13nM17TV_sU/ Rap song dedicated to the mighty-ass space marines.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMzWrDSNN4Y/ Another rap dedicated to the mighty-ass space marines.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzPuK1vib_c Emperor's quote about the Space Marines in a remix done from If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device glory.]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Warhammer 40k space marines we'll find your mom mother storytellers storytime missing child lost little girl.jpg|Now gather around children as I recount to you the exploits of the Emperor's chosen...
image:steelrain.jpg|Steel Rain in action!
Image:1207335921499.jpg|<s>Whoever made this was a heretical faggot</s> The Space Wizards of Warpwarts have mastered the art of profecting the power of the warp through small wooden sticks. How they refrain from breaking them is a mystery.
Image:LEGO_SpaceMarines_by_Jerac.jpg|Brick by brick we shall conquer
Image:1228559892410.jpg|The scary thing is that this isn't fan art, seriously, this was an official GW product
Image:Horny Marine.gif|'''Hump the heretic, penetrate the mutant, cum in the alien''' '''Goodness [[Emperor's Children|me]]!''' I didn't know you loyalists had [[FATAL|it]] in you.
File:1294948918986.jpg|Salamander Space Marines training starts at a reasonably young age
Image:1227373581722.gif|Space Marine chicks...do they exist?
Image:Femalemini.jpg|Yes, yes they do.
Image:Primarchs_as_teen_girls.png|'''[[Rule 63]] Primarchs are the most popular girls at [[HS40K]]'''
File:Gearing up.jpg|A rare glimpse at a Space Marine without his <s>fuckretarded</s> awesome pauldrons on
File:1285382081001.jpg|Apparently, marines '''DO''' in fact have tiny heads
File:Amuricuh.jpg|What historians didn't want you to believe
File:Correction.JPG|Drill Abbots '''hate''' him!
File:Stuffy.jpg|Build a Marine Workshop
File:Pauldronius.png|[[Pauldron]]ius
File:Xenos sighted.jpg
File:Brother Sergeant Aznable.jpg|'''EEECK!'''
File:Yes they can.jpg|[[Skub|A matter of some contention.]]
File:Pingas.png|
File:Pyramidheadspacemarine.jpg|
File:Reasonablemarine.png|Don't fuck with [[Reasonable Marines]]
File:Troll Emperor.jpg
File:SpessM.jpg|Indrick Boreale nearly turned Space Marines into the laughing stock of the entire franchise.
File:Angels of Derp.jpg|Space Marines as depicted during the dark ages of GW art (aka 2nd Edition)
File:False.jpg|Taking a page from their fallen brothers.
File:New Marine.jpg|<s>If GW ever decided to get off their ass and redesign Space Marines, Emperor knows they need it.</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM| Heresy!}}
File:Smik.jpg|A perfectly drawn space marine.
File:Armour of Bulk.png|Space Marines and ridiculous suits of armour go hand in hand.
</gallery>
</center>

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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Matt Ward]]