Tabletop GamingWarhammer 40,000Beginner’s guide to collecting Space Marines in Warhammer 40KWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Tabletop GamingWarhammer 40,000Beginner’s guide to collecting Space Marines in Warhammer 40KWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Warhammer Community)
Jump to:Who are the Space Marines?How to start collecting Space MarinesHow to play Space Marines
Jump to:Who are the Space Marines?How to start collecting Space MarinesHow to play Space Marines
With that in mind, we’ve put together a beginner’s guide to Space Marines to explain who they are, how they play on the tabletop, and, more importantly, why you should start collecting them in Warhammer 40K.
Who are the Space Marines?
Artwork depicting a Space Marine of the Ultramarines chapter.(Image credit: GamesWorkshop)
The Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are the Imperium of Man’s greatest defenders. They’re an army of genetically-enhanced super soldiers that are stronger, tougher, smarter, and just generally better than any regular human.
Space Marines are typically clad in huge suits of armor called power armor. They stride across the battlefield wielding their iconic weapon of choice, the boltgun — it’s so iconic that it’s got its own Doom-like video game,Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. These aren’t just big machine guns; boltguns fire rocket-propelled explosive shells in rapid succession. Between the guns and the armor, each Space Marine is effectively a walking tank.
These Chapters include descendants of the Founding Legions like the Ultramarines, Blood Angels, and Dark Angels, along with countless successor Chapters who were spawned from one of the original Legions. Notable examples of these successors include the Black Templars and Flesh Tearers, derived from the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels Chapters, respectively.
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Each Chapter has theirown distinctive color scheme, which offers you a ton of creative options when painting up your models. Beyond the aesthetic differences, each Chapter also has their own unique personality and style of combat. Some prefer melee combat (Blood Angels), others specialize in ranged destruction (Imperial Fists), while others are all about using stealth and subterfuge (Raven Guard).
How to start collecting Space Marines
The miniatures in Combat Patrol: Space Marines.(Image credit: GamesWorkshop)
Combat Patrol: Space Marines contains a great starter force for new players, as it comes with a good variety of units that are almost always going to be useful in games. It contains a squad of five Infernus Marines (guys with flamethrowers), 5 Terminators (dudes in even tougher armor), and two Terminator armor-wearing characters to lead your force (a Captain and Librarian).
However, and this is very important,don’t buy Combat Patrol: Space Marines!
It costs $168 / £100, which is decent value for the miniatures inside, but you can get the exact same group of models — plus a bunch ofTyranids, and the core rules handbook, dice, and other accessories — in theWarhammer 40K Starter Set, which costs just $112 / $67.50. This can become even better value if you find a Tyranid player to split the cost of the box with, netting you a Space Marine starter force for $56 / £33.75.
The Warhammer 40K starter set.(Image credit: GamesWorkshop)
If the models in that box set don’t take your fancy, a lot of the special Space Marine Chapters also have their own Combat Patrol boxes for $168 / £100. While these sometimes contain Chapter-specific miniatures, they’re primarily filled with generic units that any Space Marine player can use. These alternative box sets include:
Alongside your models, you’ll need some tools, paints, and paintbrushes to turn them from gray plastic into a fearsome fighting force. You’ll also need to choose a paint scheme, which is a daunting challenge in itself; either paint them up as one of the existing Chapters or you can come up with your own unique heraldry. Have a look through Codex: Space Marines for inspiration and see if any of them catch your eye.
Once you’ve built up your first Combat Patrol box, you can start adding other units to your force. Try to get a variety of things to see what you enjoy building and painting. Most of the starter boxes are solely composed of infantry, so adding a vehicle to your force is a solid next step. The best advice I can offer to burgeoning Warhammer players is to buy the models you like the look of, and don’t worry too much about which units are strong at the moment.
Remember the Warhammer player’s mantra: rules are temporary, beautiful Warhammer models are forever.
How to play Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000
Ultramarines fighting Tyranids in a game of Warhammer 40K.(Image credit: GamesWorkshop)
Once you’ve built up a big enough force to start playing games, it’s time to get your Angels of Death on the table and start purging some heretics. But, how do you actually do that?
Well, the first thing you’ll need to do is pick upCodex: Space Marines, an essential guidebook which contains all the rules you need to play your army in games of 40K (alongside the core game rules which are available for free on theWarhammer Community website). It contains datasheets for your units along with your faction rules, and also a bunch of detachments, each with their own unique stratagems and enhancements that change the way your army plays.
Space Marines are a bit of a jack-of-all-trades army within Warhammer 40K, which makes sense; they’re the first army most players pick up and as such they’re the perfect opportunity to show off a little bit of everything. They’re pretty good at shooting, fighting, and taking a punch, but they’re not the best at any one thing.
Their main army rule is Oath of Moment: this lets you pick one enemy unit at the start of every battle round and your army gets full rerolls to hit against them until the end of the battle round. Basically, you point at a thing and say “I don’t want to see that thing in front of me anymore”. This rule makes Space Marines excellent at bringing down individual tough targets, although it won’t be nearly as effective if you’re facing an opponent who has multiple small units, instead of a few big ones.
Alongside this main army rule, you have access to seven detachments which each have their own additional rules to help you tailor your force to suit your playstyle.
A collection of Ultramarines miniatures.(Image credit: GamesWorkshop)
The Gladius Task Force is the “vanilla” Space Marine detachment, and it’s probably the strongest one of the lot. It has a suite of strong stratagems and enhancements, along with a versatile detachment rule called Combat Doctrines, which gives you access to three powerful abilities that you can use once per game. Whether you want to play an army that favors shooting or close combat, infantry or tanks — the Gladius Task Force will have your back.
The other detachments are more specialized: the Ironstorm Spearhead is all about tanks, while the Stormlance Task Force is all about fast units like bikes and jetpack Marines. You should look to match up the units you’re bringing with the detachment that will benefit them the most.
On top of the different detachments in the base Space Marine Codex, you also have access to the so-called divergent Chapters that we mentioned earlier. These Chapters are sufficiently unique to warrant their own Codex supplements — complete with their own rules, detachments, and special units. Since your paint scheme doesn’t actually lock you into playing a specific subfaction, there is nothing to stop you adding a Dark Angels-specific unit to your force and playing your bright red Space Marines as Dark Angels for a game.
Space Marines from the Salamanders chapter.(Image credit: GamesWorkshop)
Once you’ve got a few games under your belt, you might decide that you’re ready to get into some truly competitive play and hit up some tournaments.
As we said before, the Warhammer 40K meta is constantly changing thanks to balance updates and new releases. However, sometimes all it takes is an unlikely hero to win a big event with a list no one expected, and all of a sudden BOOM — that list is everywhere and the whole competitive scene has flipped around.
It sounds like a lot of work — and it is — but you have nothing to be afraid of, because you are a Space Marine, and the Emperor’s Space Marines shall know no fear!
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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