Like it or not- Space Marines are everything.
The popular game Warhammer 40,000 would not be around today if it wasn’t for the popularity of the Legiones Astartes. Without 40k as a gateway drug, who knows if Games Workshop would be around at all. Without GW as a flagshipm, the miniature wargaming industry might never have gotten off its feet. So yes, it’s all about the Space Marines.
On that note, GW has decided some legions of the Astartes deserved their own codices while others did not. I would be tempted to guess that this wasn’t a planned occurrence but something that developed over time, but stuck in the time we are for some reason Black Templar get a codex and others do not. So let’s look at three members of the cadre of Space Marines that do disserve their own book.
*Ultramarines not included as the vanilla marine book is almost basically an Ultramarine book
1. Raven Guard – the 19th Legion
The Edgar Allen Poe Legion. Literally Corvus Corax, the Raven Guard Primarch, quoted the dead poet in his final words during the Horus Heresy on Isstvan V. The marines themselves even have a degenerated gene pattern that makes them grow paler. Their homeworld is Deliverance, which is actually not a planet at all but a moon.
The Raven Guard are the masters of unseen and guerilla warfare, only engaging in frontal assaults when no other option presents itself. The Raven Guard is also rightly feared for the potent units of Assault Marines they field, who use a pair of Lightning Claws instead of the usual Bolt Pistol and Chainsword.
2. Salamanders – the 18th Legion
Everybody knows the Salamanders. They are the other green marines- the ones that get down with fire. Like Corax, the Salamander Primarch Vulkan was present at the massacre on Isstvan V to witness the betrayal of Horus. The legion was devastated and crippled in the opening battles of the Heresy and never really recovered. That doesn’t mean you should sleep on the green men from Nocturne, they are pretty damn handy with a melta.
The Salamanders as a Chapter are unusually concerned with civilian casualties compared to most other Space Marines and believe that one of their most important duties is to protect the lives of the Emperor of Mankind’s innocent subjects whenever and wherever possible. This is an attitude that developed as a consequence of the Salamanders’ own unusually close connections to the Nocturnean people, as they are one of the only Chapters of Astartes who continue to interact with their families and the people of their homeworld after their transformation into Space Marines.
“On the Anvil of War are the strong tempered and the weak made to perish, thus are men’s souls tested as metal in the forge’s fire.”
- — Primarch Vulkan
3. Imperial Fists – the 7th Legion
Siege Warfare. Iron-clads and boarding shields. The Phalanx. I really shouldn’t need much more than that to convince you that the Imperial Fists need their own codex. They’re from Terra (Earth for all intensive purposes) for God sakes! Okay yes, after being total badasses in the Horus Heresy they eventually have a second birth as Black Templars / Crimson Fists, but neither is quite as good as the original. This, hands down, is my favorite of the Space Marine legions without a book. I just mean, look at these guys. Common!
The Imperial Fists are one of the First Founding Chapters of the Space Marines and were originally the VII Legion of Astartes raised by the Emperor Himself. They stand out from other Space Marine Chapters since they possess no fixed homeworld, although they are most frequently based on Terra. Instead, the Imperial Fists rely on their 10,000-year-old mobile space fortress, Phalanx, to serve as their fortress-monastery. They maintain recruitment-chapels on various worlds spread throughout the Imperium.
So there you have it. Three deserving legions that need to campaign for their own books. Agree/Disagree? Leave a comment!
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