When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Heres how it works.
When you think of Warhammer 40K, you think of Space Marines.
These enormous power-armored warriors are the poster boys for the game and the most popular faction by far.
Artwork depicting a Space Marine of the Ultramarines chapter.
Who are the Space Marines?
The Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are the Imperium of Man’s greatest defenders.
Space Marines are typically clad in huge suits of armor called power armor.
Artwork depicting a Space Marine of the Ultramarines chapter.
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.
Originally created by the Emperor of Mankind, the Space Marines were organized into 20 Founding Legions.
The miniatures in Combat Patrol: Space Marines.
Since then, the Founding Legions weresplit into thousands of smaller Chapters, each containing 1,000 Space Marines.
Beyond the aesthetic differences, each Chapter also has their own unique personality and style of combat.
However, and this is very important,don’t buy Combat Patrol: Space Marines!
The Warhammer 40K starter set.
Have a look through Codex: Space Marines for inspiration and see if any of them catch your eye.
make a run at get a variety of things to see what you enjoy building and painting.
Remember the Warhammer player’s mantra: rules are temporary, beautiful Warhammer models are forever.
Ultramarines fighting Tyranids in a game of Warhammer 40K.
But, how do you actually do that?
As we said before, the Warhammer 40K meta is constantly changing thanks to balance updates and new releases.
Just copy-pasting someone’s tournament-winning list from Goonhammer won’t be enough though.
A collection of Ultramarines miniatures.
Play games… play lots of games.
Enough games to fill out an ’80s movie montage.
Play against good players, get absolutely battered by them, and then learn from those losses.
Space Marines from the Salamanders chapter.
