In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are superhuman warrior-monks who fight for the Imperium of Man. They wear mechanised suits of armour and have modified genomes that grant them superhuman strength and endurance. Some Space Marines have betrayed the Imperium and serve the Gods of Chaos, and are thus known as Chaos Space Marines or Heretic Astartes.
Warhammer 40,000 is a miniature wargame, where Space Marines are one of the playable factions that can be used. They are the best-known and most popular characters in Warhammer 40,000, always featuring in the artwork and starter set of each edition of Warhammer 40,000 and other spin-off games such as Space Hulk and Epic (excluding the 2nd edition Titan Legions), and simpler derivative games such as Space Crusade. Likewise, they are the most popular protagonists in spin-off fiction such as novels and video games.
Publication history
Space Marines were first introduced in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1987) by Rick Priestley, which was the first edition of the tabletop game.
The book Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (Rick Priestley and Bryan Ansell, 1990) was the first book from Games Workshop to give a backstory for the Space Marines. It introduced the original 20 Space Marine Legions as well as their Primarchs. It also first described the Horus Heresy, the civil war of the 30th millennium in which nine of the Legions converted to the worship of the Chaos Gods and rebelled against the Emperor.
Two of the original 20 Legions and their respective Primarchs are not named and are described as "redacted" from the records of the Imperium. Rick Priestley explained that this was to illustrate the Imperium's practice of erasing embarrassing or incriminating events and figures from Imperial records (damnatio memoriae).
Tabletop games The following tabletop games from Games Workshop use miniature models of Space Marines:
Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team The Horus Heresy Space Hulk (discontinued) Space Crusade (discontinued) Epic: Armageddon (discontinued) Legions Imperialis
Warhammer 40,000 As far as non-hero infantry go, Space Marines are rather powerful and have a high point cost. A Space Marine Intercessor is worth 20 points, whereas a normal human soldier is worth only 4 points.Warhammer 40,000: Index: Imperium 1 (8th ed.), p 202Warhammer 40,000: Index: Imperium 2 (8th ed.), p 142 Consequently, an army based on Space Marines will be relatively small compared to, say, a Tyranid army of equal strength. This means that a player can assemble a functional army for relatively little money and effort. In terms of playing style, a Space Marine army neither excels nor fails at any particular tactic, though certain Chapters do have variant rules (e.g. the Salamanders specialise in flamethrowers). Individual units are typically not strongly specialised and can roughly substitute in other roles, meaning most mistakes and setbacks are easy to compensate for. Their tough armour and generally unspecialised weaponry means that they do not have to be manoeuvred as carefully as units of other armies (such as the powerful but frail Aeldari). These qualities make them ideal for beginners, and may help them succeed more often in their early gameplay stages.
Kill Team Much like in Warhammer 40,000, Space Marine teams in Kill Team tend to be small teams of powerful warriors. For instance, a Space Marine team will consist of six warriors, whereas an Imperial Guard team will consist of 10 to 14 warriors.
The Horus Heresy
Space Marines in The Horus Heresy are the most widely featured faction, with the original 18 Space Marine Legions represented in a great variety of standard Legion units (accessible to virtually everyone), supplemented by unique specialty Legion rules and units. In comparison to Warhammer 40,000, Horus Heresy-era units tend to be larger, to represent the epic extent of the conflict. Players are also required to declare their allegiance, whether they are loyal to the Emperor of Mankind (Loyalist), to the Warmaster Horus (Traitor), or occasionally, something else (Blackshields + Shattered Legions).
Each Space Marine unit's combat capabilities and resiliency vary widely in The Horus Heresy. Basic Tactical Marines tend to be more expendable, with a very low cost and modest weapons and armour, while Elite units, such as the Emperor's Children Palatine Blades, Ultramarines' Invictarus Suzerains, or Sons of Horus Justaerin tend to be very resilient and powerful (but consequently more expensive) compared to their more mundane counterparts. Horus Heresy Space Marine units also tend to be less general in tactical function, with units such as Tactical Support Squads and Recon Squads dedicated to virtually a single purpose on the battlefield, compared to the more mixed units of the Warhammer 40,000 era.
Space Hulk In Space Hulk, Space Marines in Terminator armour move through narrow corridors fending off attacks by alien monsters known as "genestealers". Genestealers are faster and stronger than Space Marines but limited to melee attacks only, whereas the Space Marines possess both ranged and melee weapons.
Legions Imperialis In Legions Imperialis, Space Marines are one of two playable factions. They may be painted as either loyalist or traitor. This is at a 6-millimeter scale. This force may be supplemented with titan legions.
Miniature design
The archetypal Space Marines in game lore and miniature variety don protective exosuits known as Power Armour. Bob Naismith created the initial design of these Space Marines for the first edition, with the helmet having a gas mask with an airtube connected to the snout, and this was used for a pre-Rogue Trader limited release model, and later re-released in 1991. However designers at Games Workshop felt that this concept was too banal and derivative, and they made a conscious decision to give the Space Marine, and Warhammer 40,000 in general, a "medieval-in-space" aesthetic, so the exosuit was redesigned to resemble medieval plate armour. The helmet was modified to resemble a medieval hounskull helmet with prominent conical snouts, popularly known as the "beaky" helmet (in-universe it is called Mark VI Corvus Power Armour). Jes Goodwin redesigned the Power Armour for the second edition (1993), where the helmet's beak was replaced by a flat grill, and the chestplate features a winged skull (known in lore as Mark VII Aquila Power Armour); this armour design would be continue to be used for the third through to the seventh editions. The differences in the various Marks of Power Armour are cosmetic and have the same attributes for in-game purposes, and Space Marines with these types of armour are collectively known as the 'Firstborn' since the eighth edition onward.
With the eighth edition (2017), Games Workshop introduced the Primaris Space Marine models with a new type of Power Armour (known in lore as Mark X Power Armour). The Primaris Marines are taller and have a new helmet design compared to existing Marines in earlier types of Power Armour (retroactively known as the 'Firstborn'). In-game, Primaris Marines are distinct units with different attributes compared to Firstborn Marines (all Firstborn marines are considered equivalent units regardless of the edition of their Power Armour design); also Primaris Marines have their own accompanying vehicles as they are not compatible with those of the Firstborn. Firstborn and Primaris miniatures were sold alongside each other between 2017 and 2023 for the eighth and ninth editions, however many Firstborn sets have been discontinued coinciding with the release of the tenth edition. This decision by Games Workshop to retire Firstborn miniatures via planned obsolescence is controversial, as Primaris Marine units have better in-game abilities than their Firstborn counterparts for a given points cost, and longtime players who have collected large Firstborn armies have complained that they are being forced to purchase Primaris miniatures in order to remain competitive at official Games Workshop tournaments.
Space Marine Terminators first appeared in 1989 for the spin-off board game Space Hulk and were eventually included in army lists for the battlefield Warhammer 40,000 game.UK White Dwarf WD112 04/1989 Compared to regular Marines in Power Armour, Terminators don a bulkier kind of armour that provides heavier protection and carry stronger weapons (some of which are incorporated as part of the Terminator suit), making Terminators particularly suited to close quarter battle environments such as boarding enemy spaceships. The Terminators included in the Space Hulk sets have always been plastic, however for Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition only metal Terminator miniatures were initially offered, until a plastic Terminators set (same as included for the Space Hulk 2nd edition box set) was made available for sale in July 1997. For subsequent editions of Warhammer 40,000, all Terminator miniatures have been offered in plastic as Games Workshop transitioned away from metal miniatures. The 3rd edition featured unique plastic Terminators designed specifically for Space Hulk, instead of being shared with the sets for the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000. The current style of the Terminator (known in-game as Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour) debuted in 1989 and has been retained through successive editions of Warhammer 40,000, although the latest iteration of Terminators for the 10th edition "Leviathan" have been enlarged to keep pace with the Primaris Marines.
Space Marine Scouts initially appeared in 1989, and then received a significant overhaul in 1997 which was one year before the release of the third edition, and the latter design has continued through to the seventh edition. Marine Scouts wear Scout Armour, which is not a full exosuit and provides lesser protection compared to the Marines' Power Armour and Terminator Armour, however that facilitates the Scouts' role of infiltration and skirmishing.
Simplified miniatures of Space Marines in Power Armour, Space Marine Scouts, and Space Marine Terminators are found in the board games Space Crusade and Tyranid Attack.
The Space Marine Dreadnought, often confused as an extra-large fighting suit or robot, is actually a powerful cyborg battle walker with a mortally wounded Marine entombed permanently inside the sarcophagus. The second iteration of the Dreadnought (known in lore as the Castraferrum Pattern Mark V Dreadnought) has been produced since 1993, initially in metal for the 2nd edition and plastic for subsequent editions of Warhammer 40,000, but has been discontinued as of 2023 as part of the winding down of the Firstborn Marine miniatures. The third iteration of Dreadnought (Redemptor Dreadnought) made its debut in the 8th edition as part of the Primaris Marine model range.
The Space Marine's iconic main battle tank and transport, the Land Raider, is based upon the British Mark series of tanks in World War One with its rhomboidal hull and sponson armament. For Warhammer 40,000 all variants been produced as plastic kits, the first iteration (Mark I) appeared in a 1987 Rogue Trader book, while the second iteration (Mark III) was released in 1998 and this design continues to be available as of 2023.
Fictional characteristics