ADEPTUS ASTARTES ‘The Space Marines are, in my opinion, one of the coolest things about Warhammer 40,000 They 8 et-human warriors, each one worth ‘eit or even twenty normal soldiers. Each Space Marine undergoes years of training and indoctrination in the arts of warfare and the worship of his Primarch, This is combined with areane genetic engineering and _ psycho: ruifining to create the ultimate fighter. A Space Marine can withstand wounds that would Kill a nocmal man, be can stay on his feet fighting for days on end, he can breathe toxie atmospheres and absorb deadly poisons, The list x suffice to say that Space Marines are the vanguard of the Imperium and often they are all that stands between mankind and the abyss of alien {domination and the corruption of Chaos. In short, they are the ultimate good guys! Just recently, the Games Development team of Gav Thorpe, Andy Kettlewell, Andy Chambers and myself have een playing lots of games with Space Marines. From big campaigns and scenarios 10 normal games using mission cards, we've played them all, The games varied greatly in size from big clashes to small gauies wilh wily a squad on each side Dusg dis pesiod we came o the conctusion that the army lists forthe Space Marines were a litle inflexible. The problems that Space Marines cost Tots of points each and only come in en man Squads. This makes picking « Space Marine army abit like tying tn colve one of those puzzles on the Krypton Factor (you know where you have half a dozen funny shaped blocks that have to g0 together to make a square, ora hig K), Well, we had some disenssion about a few of the ‘house’ rules, that we had woe up with fovercome these problems. Eventually, after much ebate, we decided that there was enough stuf? knocking around to make an interesting article about Space Marines, so that you ‘could ty out some nf these things for yourself. ae! In the cmallor of the we played, we found that having a Captain leading a single squad of Space Marines not gly used up a lot of Points, but it was also very out of| character. Why was the company Captain devoting all his time wo a small part of his force? Every company of Space Marines also hac Chaplaine, Librarians, a Company Standard Bearer, not to mention several seasoned Veterans who are all well capable of leading a sizeable foree of Space Marines, Rather than rowrit and sing up lots of space printing the entire characters section of the Space Marine army list, we can just say thot any Space ‘Marine character tn your army ma lead your Space Marines. Of course, whoever you choose to lead your atiy will gain the benefits of being the army commander. so any ‘mits that are within 12° of him may use his Leadership value when they take Leadership tests. Obviously, if you've got a Space Marine Captain and a Vetevan Sergeant in your force, then the Veteran is going to defer te his superior,Baa el iets AAs well as allowing you to choose to have your force led by other characters from the Space Marine command, I thought it would be fun, for bigger games, to include the Chapter Master himself. The Space Marine Codex books have ‘detailed the current Chapter Masters for the Dark Angels, Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Space ‘Wolves, and I know several people have writen 101s or phoned the Roolz Boy2 asking if it's okay to use these characters as the leaders for Chapters t that they have invented themselves. T can : understand why people want to do_ this. t (Commander Dante isa great character, and why shoulda’t you choose to include hin just because you decided to paint your Space “Marines in the colours of the Flesh Tearers instead ff the Blood Angels? However, Commander Dante is the leader of the Blood Angels, so if you decided to invent your own Chapter or paint one of the alternative colour schemes shown in one of the Space Marine Codex books then you should really have a go at creating your own character. have included a simple guide to creating your ‘own Chapter Master below. This is basically a Space Marine mighty hero, but you can also pay extra points for a special profile upgrade. Note that you can only apply these to your own Chapter Masters — you shouldn't go giving them to existing special characters. Mameus Calgar is auite hard enough ashe ist 1 CHAPTER MASTER ‘The Chapter Master isthe leader of an entire chapter of Space Marines, one thousand ofthe finest fighting warriors mankind has ever ereated. 96 points ‘Troop Type. a) ChapterMaster 4-7 7 5 5 3 7 3 10 WEAPONS. Bolt pistol and frag grenades. ARMOUR WARGEAR A Chapter Master may have up to four Wargear cards Power armour (3+ save). ‘The Chapter Master may be given additional equipment from the armour, assault weapons, special weapons and ‘grenades section ofthe Wargear list in any of the Space Marine Codex books. STRATEGY Tho Chapter Master has a strategy rating of 5 SPECIAL, The Chapter Master will always be the army commander. Any ‘Space Marine units from the same Chapter within 12° of him may use his Leadership value when they take leadership tests A Chapter: Master will have served the Emperor as a Space Marine for many centuries. In this time he will have developed his _ own combat specialities. Some Chapter Masters are tactical geniuses, While others excel at hhand-to-band fightin or develop awesome levels of stamina, able to continue fighting despite grievous wounds. To reflect this you. may ‘upgrade your Chapter Master by choosing one of the following ‘characteristic boosts. You should choose abilities that suit the ‘background and fighting style of your Space Marine chapter WEAPON MASTER: The Chapter Master is trained in the use of all weapons, He not only knows how to use and ‘maintain them, but also how to get the maximum potential froma them, “+1 to both WS and BS. 10 points BATTLE HARDENED: The Chapter Master has endured ‘many injuries in his lifetime and is able to shrug off wounds that would bring down other Space Marine #1 Toughne MARTIAL PROWESS: The Chapter Master excels at hand: to-band fighting, be has mastered many forms of close combat ‘and has honed his body to wield a variety of hand-to-hand ‘weapons with devastating results 30 points +1 10 both Attacks and Strength 20 points RESILIENT: The ability of the Chapter Master o stay on his feet despite the most grievous injuries is second to none. On ‘many occasions the Chapter Master has been seen with armour plates blasted open, smashed limbs and scorched flesh and yet he has still led is Space Marines to victory. +1 Wound, 20 points STRATEGIST: The Chapter Master's field of experti the planning and preparation of the upcoming batle. His ‘enemies are left bewildered by his bold strokes of tactical genius as he leads his Space Marines to crushing vietory after crushing victory. 41 Strategy Rating 20 points SWIFT: The Chapter Master is possessed of almost unnatural reflexes and can move across the battlefield with alarming speed. Such bursts of movement are only possible when wearing power armous, and even that will most likely have been specially modified by the Chapter's hest Techmarines. If the Chapter Master is wearing Terminator armour then he will be restricted by its size and bulk and will be unable to use his special abilities, +41 10 both Movement and Initiative 10 points"pt Scouts) a ll Space Marine equadscoct at Teast 300 points ‘To solve this I suggest buying Space Marines as five man combat squads rather than complete ten ‘man squads. This measure allows you to include & of squad types in your any regardless ofthe size of your force. When you play a small game, you are usually eft with the simple choice of buying ether a Tactical iad, an Assault squad, or a Devastator squad. Not only does this mean you only get to use one (of the Space Marine somewhat restrict your tactical pes, it doe This is far easier than you might think, and I've for fairly predictable games. Lven with a larger included a rough army list entry below to give army, you can find yourself picking a force and you some guidance and get you going, I've also having 200 or 250 points left over Itcan then be included the sauuple 500 point Porce Bellsarius very annoying not being able to buy any infantry Blood Angels Patrol as an example, actical nad a his bolt gu