Why are Space Marines so popular? This is not "stop liking

>>53012673
They're the main characters
The main villains of the setting are evil Space Marines
They're the subject of the majority of the memes
They have a lot of variety in the form of chapters
They're easy to make into "your dudes" and are indeed custom tailored to be good for that
They're an ideal starting point to get into 40k
They have a memorable and easily identifiable aesthetic
They're the pinnacle of the Imperium faction's military might, and the Imperium is the most popular faction- this also plays into the PURGE THE XENOS mentality exhibited in the majority of fans
Reliable and continuous support from GW
Spit acid
Breathe in space
Two hearts
Etc etc

>>53012673
main characters

>>53012673
Pff you kidding me? They don't even have a Blood Bowl team! If you ask me they are very under-represented.

They're really big.

>>53012673
I like the armour variations and all the old 3rd/4th edition illustrations

5th through 7th ed depictions made them less appealing to me, though HH renewed my interest

they're cool super soldiers with the potential for a lot of neat, interesting and most importantly COOL details. It's a shame they're so fucking overused.

>>53012673
Power armor.

They are mary sues who appeal to neo nazis with blatant autism.

You know a lot of autist neo nazis, anon.

one big reason is that they are pretty easy to paint for beginners while also still satisfying for veterans

They're very flexible conceptually (easy to project whatever you want onto them)
They dominate the artwork and other media.
They consistently get new models
They're never really underpowered or weak in game
They're easier to paint than most armies

>>53012673
I got into them because I like super soldiers, and I like big bulky ornate plate armor.

>>53012997
Still triggered about the Space Wolves wearing fur, huh Tumblr?

>>53012673
They have power armor.

That's literally it for me. I love super soldiers. It gets annoying, all the GW bias towards them that makes the fanbase hate them, because no other army holds to my tastes as well.

They're also extremely customization, which is another aspect of the hobby that I love.

>>53012673
They're just fucking cool. They're knights with football team names and coloring, in space with guns and chainsaw swords.

Every single reason in this thread is wrong except >>53013203
>>53013351
>>53013368

I like them because it's a power fantasy. They're big cool super soldiers who can't feel pain and who look awesome (in my opinion)..

>>53012673
Power fantasy is my guess. I can see why people like them because they make humans so weak and easily pushed to the side in the lore. It's hard to have a special human main character that kicks ass when they are so much weaker. Human stories have to focus on smaller things and can't address some of the heavier hitting and more interesting antagonists.

Personally I think Marines are a bore and a big reason why I don't care for much of the fluff in the universe.

>>53012756
fpbp

They're big and strong and smart and secret and special and tough and space and shoot and big and blue and fast and good and cool.

>>53012756
>They're easy to make into "your dudes" and are indeed custom tailored to be good for that
This is why I like them so much. It helps that there are so many conversion parts for them to really customize them. IG could have the same potential, but I think the readily available conversion parts aren't in as wide a variety as rines. I'd imagine IG, Eldar and Deldar would sell more if they got more subfactions with a different looks, like Marines get with their different chapters.
Nids or Necrons are going to be just Nids or Necrons with your own color scheme.
Orks have extensive options for making them your dudes but I think a lot of players find them too comic relief.

Also all of >>53013203 and >>53013351
for myself personally.

>>53012673
Space marines are the standard "LOOK MOM I'M A TOUGH SOLDIER, AREN'T I STRONG?" of 40k.

Chaos is the "I DON'T NEED TO LISTEN TO YOU ANYMORE MOM" of 40k.

There are a lot of manchildren in 40k.

>>53012673
they are cool

>>53012673
because a space marine with a jet pack and a giant chainsaw sword crashing down on someone is probably the coolest thing i can imagine.

>>53012756
>They have a memorable and easily identifiable aesthetic
I'd say this is probably the biggest point. "Genetically engineered gothic warrior-monks in powered armor" has got to be the most distinct idea in 40k.

So glad I grew out of Space Marines and became a mature Guard player.

>>53012673
Power armour is cool desu

>>53012756
>They have a memorable and easily identifiable aesthetic

There's this, but there's also the fact that 4Chan is full of macho idiots who are deathly afraid of showing any kind of weakness. They have to be the smartest, the strongest, the best. This extends into their sense of aesthetics - they have to like the strongest option, the most practical option, the "winning" option. They can't like something despite, or even because of, its flaws.

Notice how, whenever discussions about the Tau, or the Orkz, or the Eldar, or anyone who isn't the Imperium comes up, the discussion is always crowded out by extremely vocal Imperium fans, who insist on pointing out all the myriad ways that the other factions suck. All the times in the fluff where said faction has lost a battle, or a war. Or how every other faction is doomed in the long run. Because god forbid people like these factions for other reasons than masturbatory power-fantasies.

The same happens with D&D (anyone not playing a Wizard is a pleb), WoD (Mages are the strongest, can beat anyone else), even discussions of history (guns > swords, knights > samurai, Rome > everyone else, Imperial Europe > everyone else, the entire Western world > everyone else). If you don't pick the "winning" side, expect to be shit on mercilessly.

>>53012673
Wish fulfillment.

Because they're asexual murder machines that have a high place in society but don't have to actually socialize.

>>53018813
What's fun or interesting about losing, anon?

>>53012673
>big guns
>big armor
>manly yelling and screaming as the pound their foes
>are incredibly varied, and with many color choices
>your dude potential
>easy to learn, easy to paint

>>53016371
Eldar are the 'MOM I'M GAY' of 40k.
Deldar are the 'MOM I'M A WOMAN' of 40k.
Tau are the 'MOM I LIKE TO WATCH UNDERAGE JAPANESE GIRL CARTOONS' of 40k.
Tyranids are the 'MOM EVEN GIRLS CAN LIKE MINIATURES' of the 40k.
Squats are the 'MOM THOSE BOYS WONT PLAY WITH ME' of the 40k.

>>53018889
What's fun or interesting about knowing you were going to win all along, anon?

>>53012858
>They don't even have a Blood Bowl team!
I've long thought that 40K should have a counterpart to Blood Bowl.

A 40K hockey game would work so well. The sticks double as close combat weapons, meaning chainsaw sticks would also be a thing. The goalies could be in whatever passes for the faction's version of heavy armour (Termies for space marines, naturally). And so on.

People could even jokingly call it "Space Marines on Ice".

>>53018889
What's fun or interesting about winning all the time?

>>53018947
I don't think anyone's talking about constantly winning with no challenge, but everyone would agree they like to win.

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>>53018975
But wouldn't it be a lot more awesome to win as the small underdog, than to win as the big muscular superman? To not know whether you'd win to begin with, to not have it be a foregone conclusion, to fight for it?

name a single better supersoldier army in fiction

>>53018975
Yet apparently the anon I quoted can't see anything interesting about being an underdog, or being under genuine threat of losing, or fighting nobly for a lost cause. Or even not caring about winning or losing in the first place! Just enjoying being there, in the moment!

>>53019011
though the SPARTANS would lose a straight fight against an astartes, they are much more well known and popular

>>53019011
Samus.

>army

But that's boring.

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>>53019000
space marines are actually the underdogs as is all of mankind

>>53019037
Imperial Guard is the underdogs. Space Marines never were.

>>53019037
Yet you wouldn't know that from the fiction, or from the way fans talk about them.

>>53012997
>neo nazis
Spotted the german.
>muh nazi muh nazi
Why dont you get a commie friendly hobby? Like shooting up or eating shit.

>>53019057
at least imperial guard aren't often outnumbered so much, have aerial/artillery support, actually have defensive positions, aren't teleported into the thick of it on suicide missions, can act without time constraints

>>53012673
Because every kid who grew up watching star wars WANTED the strom troopers and darth vader to be the good guys.

Warhammer sells that fantasy.
Now the strom troopers are the main characters.

>>53019086
By that logic Superman is an underdog.

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>>53012673

They are easy as fuck to paint, baby's first miniatures ideal for kids.

>>53019090
i was weird among my friends for wanting to be an X-wing pilot, and liking the design of the salad bowl blueshirts more than stormtroopers

>>53019097
being outnumbered isn't a weakness for superman

>>53019104
Nor is it a weakness for supersoldiers with the best guns and armor around.

>>53019109
but it is. a single marine death is a blow felt by the chapter

>>53019098
>tfw I started before Black Templars got their own codex and chose them because the colour scheme was easy to paint.

>>53019119
Meanwhile a single Space Marine in battle is said to be worth... what, a million Guardsmen?

"Oh no, we lost one of our precious, precious nukes! And after it only killed a few million people, too!"

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>>53019119
Yeah, just like how everyone was all sad when Superman died.

>>53019139
depends
they go from gods of battle who are superior to all to infantry+ who are powerful but not invincible

>>53019098
Is that the downs guard?

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>>53019098
Is the reason /tg/ hates on Space Wolves because the models are hard to paint, unlike other Space Marines?
I find the extra talismans, runes and pelts to be much harder to paint than smooth armor.

>>53019169

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3p_VuPIS2c

>>53019150
Yeah, in that small handful of works that recognise that Space Marines being near-invincible makes them extremely boring.

Every other work wanks Marines as hard as possible, and the fans lap it up.

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>>53019000
You know in movies where you have a few really bad dudes fight a whole shit load of not so bad dudes? People tend to like the few bad dudes, and Space Marines are those guys, IG are the fucking waves of bodies washing over you positions. As much as people like to sell the guards as the underdogs because they're just regular guys against space monsters, they're regular guys against space monsters which they outnumber a billion to one, they have more numerous and powerful artillery, and they have the biggest, baddest and mostest tanks too.

When Johnny Rico looks over the top of the walls and sees the entire fucking horizon is full of bugs? That's what it's like to fight the IG. Alternately, the guy just brought as many Valks and Vendettas as he could cram into his list, and suddenly you're a dink in Apocalypse Now who cannot into surf.

>>53019086
The thing that makes the Imperial Guard underdogs isn't anything to do with their equipment or structure. The thing that makes the IG underdogs is the Imperium itself.

The Imperium is a bloated, decadent, crumbling empire, with an ass-backwards bureacracy, a viciously-insular class of technocrats who barely understand how any of their hoarded tech works, an oppressive culture that punishes any independent thought among the unprivileged classes (99.99% of the population), and an aristocracy that is rampantly, nakedly corrupt.

That is the state that the IG defend, and the state that the IG relies on for its manpower and materiel. That's a shitty hand to be dealt. The IG's underdog status comes from the fact that they can still occasionally win, despite having feet of clay.

At least, it did before GW drank the kool-aid, and started gradually ignoring what a self-destructive mess the Imperium was originally written to be, in favour of giving the macho idiots the Imperium they wanted.

>>53019356
imperium does have 9/10 logistics though, even with warp being an asshole sometimes

It's a way for young teen boys to deal with the anxiety of adolescence.

Seriously, that's what all the implant shit is.

>>53019367
They do now. They didn't in the past, when GW still remembered that the Imperium wasn't supposed to win.

>>53018913
What about the Imperial Guard?

>>53019401
Imperial Guard are cool.

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Space Marines are all the Rambos and Commandos and other lone eighties action heroes, going alone (or in small groups) againts an overwhelming force, yet you still know they'll win in the end. Their struggle is fun to watch, you can sort of pretend you're feeling some tension over whether they might be able to beat all those enemy forces, but in the end you won't need to be -too- anxious about it and can just sit back and relax and watch the fireworks.

You all can claim it's terrible and for kiddies, but secretly you love that shit.

>>53019423
I unrepentantly fucking love 80s action movies.

>>53012673
Theyre mythological heroes. Theyre super human fantasy. Theyre the huge badasses that drop in to help save humanity. Theyre integral to lore and are iconic. Theyre also humanity, we see things from their/ imperiums point of view.

They aren't my favourite, but when I was a kid I hated marines, thought they were just boring humans, dull and not exciting. Now im older I can totally see the appeal

>>53019072
>Spotted the german.
Not anon, but why?

>>53012673
Because despite 40k supposedly being a dystopic setting, space marines are exempt from almost all of it.

>No one except those on the top have any freedom or rights in the Imperium
Space marines are almost universally treated as nobility, never answer to anyone, and never want for anything.
>The Imperium is in the vice grip of an incredibly dogmatic religion
Space marines have special insight, don't necessarily believe in said dogma, and have repeatedly given the Inquisition the middle finger.
>The universe is full of powers that outclass humans on a massive scale
Space marines are repeatedly stated to beat anything and have on more than one occation soloed shit like Avatars and daemon princes.
>The universe is full of horror
Space marines are literally immune to fear.

People complain about Tau disrupting the tone of the setting, but they have nothing on space marines.

>>53012673
I hate to say it but a space marine is a male power fantasy and they are the most popular because the players want to be them.

It's also why there is a such a bizarre focus on their penises in a lot of discussions

>>53019644
>It's also why there is a such a bizarre focus on their penises in a lot of discussions

Even though they don't ever even use them?

>>53019666

Much like their players.

>>53019635
>soloed avatars
particularly egregious form of fluff/crunch disparity, considering even terminators and honor guards would have difficulty not dying to one

>>53019635

Space Marines are the setting.

>>53019666
exactly

>>53018813
>There's this, but there's also the fact that 4Chan is full of macho idiots who are deathly afraid of showing any kind of weakness.
You are, by far, reading way too much into shit.

>>53019679

What he meant to say was that certain special characters (like Marneus Calgar) beat things like Avatars and Daemon princes in the fluff, not that every space marine could do it.

He's just letting his Marine hate show a little too hard.

>>53019685

He needs to invent reasons for why he's better than the people who like different groups of fake space men.

>>53019697
can MACdaddy beat an avatar 1v1?

They have the Maximus armor, which is the sexiest shit ever.

>>53019697
Does it somehow not count if the space marine has a name? 'Cause most special characers are just marines who happen to be really good at being marines.

>>53019909
not him but marines do seem to have weird power levels

an imperial guard is just an imperial guard unless you got bionics and the emperor's blessing but marines can go from pretty fucking good to marneus calgar - demiprimarch tier

kinda like if you're a good ork and don't die you're bound to only get better

>>53012673
they are simple yet powerful concept

they get plastered over everything numerous times

>>53018813
This is either projection of insecurity or a bad justification of ones preference. Sometimes a puddle is just a puddle anon, don't dive head first into everything.

>>53019401
the "MOM I WANT TO BE A MAN!" of 40k

>>53012673
They look like angry robots, kids go nuts.

>>53018913
Necrons are the 'MOM I'M A WELL BALANCED ADULT WITH PERFECTLY RESPECTABLE TASTE' of the 40k.

>>53012756
This, and they shoot RPG machine guns.

>>53019681
Not really. They are the focus so rich kids will buy them.

>>53021146
>Not really.
Yes really. The old lead Imperial Marines are literally why 40k was made.

>>53021039
Then again, so do commisars.

>>53021177
Not really. They aren't the setting. They are the focus so rich kid swill buy them.

>>53018929
That would be amazing. there is a conversion mod for blood bowl called cross check that kind of does that but if GW would do something big and official like that it would be godlike to me as a quebecian.

>>53021201
Yes really. The setting was born out of them. They're at its core figuratively and literally.

>>53021244
But also no they aren't. The setting may have been born from them, but they are not "the core" and they are not "the setting".

>>53021277
Everything in W40K revolves around space marines, anon.

>>53021358
Not really, like I've been saying. Sorry, your little boys don't matter as much as you think they do.

>>53021277
>but they are not "the core"
If they weren't, you wouldn't be bitching about all the focus, exposure and fans space marines get.

>>53021381
But they actually do matter that much friendo. not him but thats just how it is.

>>53021384
I'm not bitching, I'm stating. Someone else proclaimed they were the setting, and they aren't.
>>53021393
They don't, sorry.

>>53021405
They do, sorry.

>>53016470
I think its gay.
I like IG way more than space marines. The good guys are supposed to be the underdog

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Because they even put them in warhammer fantasy.

>>53019405
If you are a fucking loser cuck, sure. But don't come bitching when the alpha Space Marine saves the day.

>>53021443
why? there are so many good guy underdogs, why cant there be a good guy ass kicker.
>>53021469
havent storm shields and thunder hammers been in 40k forever? i only play whfb and i do hate the aos stuff, but im sure i have seen marines with hammers and shields for a long long time

>>53015988
Ork is funny 'till you smell his armpits and feel his choppa in your meat.

>>53021633
Nah, the joke is that Empirefags don't get their dicks sucked anymore and now fantasy space marines is the alpha chad in their setting.

>>53018889
The way you lose.
If I lose to some bullshit cheese, I'm gonna be flustered.
If I lose to smart and bold moves, I will buy winner a drink.

And orks can't be defeated in battle anyway.

>>53018813
It is true that discussions of any non-Imperium faction (save IG) tends to derail into a 'Imperium will always win and Emperor is stronger than everyone' spiel.

Not sure about the rest of it at all though.

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>>53021629
>Weakling that needs power armor
>No sexual activity
>Worships and cuckd by a dead fagget in a throne who shits himself and cant wipe own ass
>Alpha

Versus
>Man born on a planet where even the grass can try to kill you
>literally "deadliest jungle-warfare experts in the galaxy"
>Use regular knives instead of faggy chainswords
>This nigga can carry a heavy bolter WITHOUT power armor
>He also choked out a tyranid ravener 1v1, then killed the rest of the brood by himself


Catachans > speezmarines

>>53021648
ahh, im semi new to /tg/, and im an ork and goblin army guy, so fuck empire and their steam tanks

>>53018913
Orks master race?

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>>53021648
except stormcast even get killed by ghouls EZ

>>53021633
Yes. But the joke is that they put space marine-looking dudes in Warhammer Fantasy

>>53021728

Space Marines recruit from death worlds like Catachan.

The manliest Catachan is literally considered a puppy yet to have reached peak potential to Marines

>>53019011
better at what

>>53021728
Yes but Catachans rarely win anything whilst Marines practically win everything.

>>53021791
Which is why marines are gay.
I'm power level 100
Well I'm power level 150
Oh yeah? well now I'm power level 200
Oh YEAH? well now I'm power level 200+1....

Next thing you know you have marines in power armor, inside power armor (centurons)
Lame as shit unless you are 12.

>>53021791
There's a difference between "manly" and "strong". More of the latter doesn't always equal more of the former.

See: Emperor's Children.

because they came with Assault On Blackreach, and that was the codex my Dad bought me when he gave me the set.

>>53021847
I don't see anything gay other than a loser bitching about a guy more famous than him.

Did you know that Black Templars recruit anyone? Why be a weak IG when they even give you the opportunity to be a winner?

>>53019635
You're totally missing the point. The space marine exemplify the dystopic setting. The only reason they are exempt from the normal rules is because they are literal descendants from the Emperor who the Imperium views as a god. They are technically human but are so far removed from the average citizen that they may as well be something else

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>>53021728
>No sexual activity
Keep telling yourself that manlet.

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>>53021797
That's the point.
Superman/Goku/JohnCena is lame because he never loses.

>>53021896
And I share your view but the majority of people clearly do not as the faction most beloved is the faction which most rarely loses.

Basically people like the OP and Gary-stu faction most. Even if I don't like it, I accept that's what the majority of people do like.

Besides Superman has probably lost more times than most of the major Marine Chapters in fluff have.

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>>53021875
>refusing to fight unless you are encased in a walking tank
What a pussy.

>>53021875
Because Black Templars worship the emperor.
An IG like penal legion is a prisoner or criminal

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>>53021936
Good luck walking on airless planet or space with that midget.

>>53018917
When my challenger doesn't know that at the start and I get to watch them realize it, over and over and over.

>>53024534
>>53018947

>>53012874
For you

>>53016371

Isn't this the truth. There are so many people that play 40K that get so bent because you want to play Chaos or Hersey.

I get that this is just a hobby for me and I love the lore and world building but the tabletop isn't an option for me anymore.

I got into 40K because of a PC demo disk I got that had Chaos Gate. I can't wait to get my hands on DoW 3.

>>53019544
Not that anon either, but I have several friends in Germany, and the entire nation has a seemingly programmed hive mind of knee-jerk reactions to anything nazi or nazi related that makes them foam at the mouth and throw tantrums, because obviously the way you show "but we're not like that!" is by being fucking ridiculous and retarded about it.

It's like the fucking 'hate hour' or whatever in 1984 where people spend a span of time just screaming and insulting an image of Oceania's biggest traitor because they're trying to prove they'd NEVER associate with him or his ilk.

For the same reason that Humans are the most played race in WoW, most people are boring and just like going for the most familiar choice.

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>>53022002
>using mk8 errant armour, pinnacle of adeptus astartes power armour
>takes an hour to put on, plus another hour to sanctify
>still manage to die like a pussy butch

>told to fight on zero atmosphere planet, given respirator plus shitty flak armour
>one minute to put on in an emergency
>still manage to hold the line on a regular basis

But at least you guys can spit acid, right?

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>>53033432
You can't hold even your homeworld manling.

>>53033432
>fight on zero atmosphere planet, given respirator
>Respirator
>Zero Atmosphere

Huh. So thats what the Guard does with guardsman who don't pass the IQ and/or equipment exams.

>>53022002
what value is there in an airless planet? why would anyone want to go to one?

>>53033824
STC, warp gate, webway gate, daemon prison, Necron pylon, derelict weapons.

>>53021879
That doesn't work when they're used as the viewpoint characters of almost every game and novel, though. It's like with Judge Dredd; People SAY they want dystopic fiction, but what they really mean is a setting where everyone is more shit than their self-inserts.

I do like how the Cain novels use marines, though. Very sparingly, which means it's actually a big deal when one shows up.

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>>53021728
Name one time the Ultramarines ever lost. Cant do it because they are literally the most pure and best chapter created which is why their everyones favorite in the gaming community if their a real WH40k fan.

>>53021847
there is literally nothing wrong with centurion armor

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>>53018889
You've clearly never played Dwarf Fortress

>>53012874
For the emperor

>>53013071
That's where my mind immediately went.

>>53019180
I dislike them not because they're tough to paint, but because they are so ridiculously hypocritical and unrelateable in the fluff it actually makes it tough to play them on the tabletop.

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Actual most valuable player.

>super soldiers
>power armor
>melee combat
>sort of religious monks
>in a very gothic setting
I like the combination.