# 40k Fight Styles, on Screen!



## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

I caught the first part of Hellboy on TV last night, and I saw a great representation of a 40k fight style. In the vision of the bad guys letting loose the Demon in the museum, the clockwork Dude takes on, and takes out, a group of security guards. The attacks were so fluid and graceful, one strike flowing into the next flowing into defense turned instantly to attack; I watched it and Striking Scorpion jumped to mind. In fact, it could be a couple of the Eldar aspects.
My question is, has anyone seen a film that they think shows h2h combat who's style would fit with one of the 40k races?

GFP


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

For reference:






Don't mind the emo music but it's a good comparison. Hellboy represents a big but slow Space-Marine (not a fan of this description of them tbh but some authors potray them this way in comparison to the Eldar) and even has a power-fist.


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## General-jwj (Sep 22, 2011)

(starts at 5 minutes)

It's pretty obvious, really : shit rifles, ineffective body armor and lack of melee expertise VERSUS oversized hungry alien killing machines

Though actually I feel this movie is less _representative_ of those combat styles and more_ influenced_ by the 40K combat styles, but whatever.


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

I've always imagined Astartes fighting something like this






Quick, to the point with economy of motion while remaining incredibly effective.


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## General-jwj (Sep 22, 2011)

Holy balls he just wiped the ground with those two guy's posteriors.

I have to agree with your vision of Astartes close quarters fighting. Though I can't help but wonder how power armour would factor into the equation.


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Never take staged demonstrations as a way of determining the effectiveness of a certain martial art. There is a reason why Muay Thai or elements of it is employed by almost every fighter in the UFC/other tournaments similar to it.


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Don't for get that Muay Thai is a competition style, Krav Maga was never designed to be used in competition fighting, too many eye gouges, strikes to the throat and below the belt. Just because it isn't used in UFC doesn't mean it doesn't work.


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Real Muay Thai is a different story. The UFC/other tournaments impose strict rules in order to avoid serious injuries for obvious reasons.


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

I'm not saying that Muay Thai doesn't have real world applications, just that Krav Maga was developed purely for real world application and not competition, which is why it very rarely appears as a style within UFC (or other promotions). Studying Krav Maga for competition fighting would be a waste of time, the style relies too heavily on what would be deemed illegal strikes or attacks, eye gouges, throat strikes, hair pulling and slaps to the knackers. All of the above work in street fights or self defence situations but are illegal in competition fighting (for very good reasons).


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Muay Thai was formed originally by soldiers in war.

All the things you listed can be found in your everyday street brawl.


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

Malus Darkblade said:


> All the things you listed can be found in your everyday street brawl.


Because they work, plain and simple, that is why Krav Maga has incorporated them into it's fighting style. 
Punches and kicks are seen in street brawls too but I'd much rather be kicked by a chav in a brawl than kicked by a Krav Maga expert who has been training to do just that for years. The same goes for anything else I've mentioned, there's a difference between what happens when someone with no training hits you and when someone who is an expert in hurting people hits you.


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## SonOfStan (Feb 20, 2011)

> Muay Thai was formed originally by soldiers in war.
> 
> All the things you listed can be found in your everyday street brawl.


Many martial arts have been inspired by soldiers during war. Few have been as successful at actual self-defense as krav maga. Don't get me wrong, muay thai will help you kick some ass...but for straight up life-ending throat-ripping teeth-gnashing violence, krav maga is kinda tough to beat. 

Back on topic though, I really think that Space Marine fight styles would have to vary wildly Chapter to Chapter. The only thing in common would be effeciency and brutality. :grin:

I can't even think of a video to demonstrate Tau fighting styles...


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## General-jwj (Sep 22, 2011)

SonOfStan said:


> I can't even think of a video to demonstrate Tau fighting styles...


That movie Zulu Dawn where the British colonial's gun-line gets overrun by a wave of Zulu warriors and they get slaughtered by savages with spears despite their long-range superiority ?


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## Chompy Bits (Jun 13, 2010)

As someone who has actually been practicing Muay Thai for a couple of years, I can tell you that UFC/MMA only use the most basic of moves from that fight set. Basically just the most simple straight punches, kicks, knees and elbows. I've seen techniques that would straight up kill you or at least leave you a quadriplegic if someone connected you with it. Like it has been said, it's a fighting style that was developed to be applied for military/wartime situations, so there are plenty of techniques that do some pretty horrific things to you, but the average person has no idea because they simply watch MMA and think 'that's Muay Thai' when it's really only the tip of the iceberg. Muay Thai can be just as brutal as Krav Maga, they just don't advertise it.

Anyway, back on topic, I'd actually picture marines using a lot of grappling and very close fighting, so that they would be able to maximize their strength and size. Imagine taking a suplex from a 2.5m tall slab of angry muscle.

The Eldar I'd expect would probably have a very flowing or acrobatic fighting style like maybe Taekwondo or Capoeira, or even Kung Fu. Or maybe some 'soft' martial art like Aikido, where they use their opponent's own strength and momentum against them, which I think would probably be very effective against marines. 

Side track for awesome clip of Shaolin Monk vs Taekwondo master: 





Not really an actual fight but, motherfucker, those guys are fast.

The Tau probably just shout "not the face" and then crawl into the fetal position and then wait for the Kroot to show up.


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## General-jwj (Sep 22, 2011)

But then how would the Kroot fight ?

I read somewhere in (maybe the Tau Codex or that Ciaphas Cain book set on a Tau-occupied world) that they had ultra-dense muscular fibres, so despite their wiry frame they have plenty more strength than the average human and that their poleaxe-shaped Rifles are built especially to maximise the lightning quick-jabs and sweeps that their built is best suited for.

Any ideas on the subject ?


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

I'd actually imagine Storm Troopers/Kasrkin fight in a style similar to Krav Maga, nothing showy just utterly ruthless and brutal.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

....Krav megai is a modern martial art designed to disable and or kill people in modern combat settings. Note the sever lack of methods used to avoid someone blowing your fu^%ing head of in most muay thai schools? That because its generally obsolete by modern combat standards. And no most industrialized countries base next to nothing strictly on it, as they far prefer grappling and joint locks (The things that actually stop the person from reaching for their side arm to shoot the idiot trying to kick him). 

As someone who has seen both arts I would give the combative edge to a thai expert over a krav magai expert, but people often forget that one is designed to fight people in a relatively fair fight while the other is designed for modern battle fields. Hence for practicality reason any modern CQC training trumps all classical martial art in terms of practicality in a modern setting.


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

I've always liked the idea of Astartes fighting with a Krav Maga-esque style. However, whilst a Human-Human fight would lead to broken limbs and nerve damage, an Astartes-Human/Human-sized opponent fight would see limbs torn off or mangled beyond any hope of repair, as well as snapped spines and massive crush damage, as the Astartes would also be using their size, height and weight advantage; not only that but PA would make each blow so much more deadly and make stamping attacks that much more lethal.

GFP


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## cegorach (Nov 29, 2010)

Now, I basically have no grounds for voice here seeing as I have literally 0 experiance with any form of combat. But I would have thought that Space Marines and humans would have had surprisingly few parallels where martial arts were concerned. 

For one thing, Space Marines are definitly not human, therefore all martial arts designed to kill humans would be rendered obselete, Space Marines dont need to worry nearly as much about making a lethal blow to a human because almost all their blows would be lethal. Also Space Marines are a hell of a lot more difficult to kill than humans, so I would have thought that they had much more focussed around weapons, or disabelling or obtaining them to kill another space marine more easily. 

Which brings me on smoothly to my next point. All martial arts are designed against humans, I dont think a kick to the nuts would slow down an ork for long enough for you to survive the axe it would smash into your brains. Space Marines would be far more concerned with disabling opponents like orks as they are just a pain to kill, and have very different physiques to humans, and usually if a space marine is fighting against a horde or a squad, very rarely do they get the chance to go on a one to one fight. So, I don't know how many marital arts hold up to that. 

Also I would love to see someone try Krav megai or Muay Thai against a tyranid, love to see someone stop a razor blade without losing their arm in the process. 

Please correct me as I am most likely wrong, all I hope to do is expand my knowledge and hopefully give all you martial arts boffins something to think about, although if you all totally disregard this, I wont get offended


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## cegorach (Nov 29, 2010)

Giant Fossil Penguin said:


> I've always liked the idea of Astartes fighting with a Krav Maga-esque style. However, whilst a Human-Human fight would lead to broken limbs and nerve damage, an Astartes-Human/Human-sized opponent fight would see limbs torn off or mangled beyond any hope of repair, as well as snapped spines and massive crush damage, as the Astartes would also be using their size, height and weight advantage; not only that but PA would make each blow so much more deadly and make stamping attacks that much more lethal.
> 
> GFP


:goodpost:
Why is it the one time I think I am going to make a good contribution to a thread, someone posts it while I am typing my overly long responce?


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## Rapperport (Dec 27, 2009)

I can't see Space Marines fighting like that to be honest, I agree with Cegorach. Space Marines are so strong and fast that one blow is going to kill any normal Human. Another thing is when is an Astartes realistically going to be without any weapons? I can imagine a fighting style similiar to the Clerics in Equilibrium. Superhuman speed and accuracy with their firearms, destroying as many enemies as possible within the shortest amount of time and with the minimum effort.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Surely an Astartes would train so that they could beat another Astartes? If you can beat, what is arguably, the most frighteningly potent soldier in the Galaxy then it sort of covers the bases for any other infantry sized opponent you'd face.
Whilst the Astartes can withstand the sort of punishment that would kill or cripple a human and still operate at post-human levels they also mete out a proportionally greater force. So an Astartes V. Astartes brawl would require a level of skill, because you can't rely on raw strength or intimidation when the other combatant is of equal mass and brutality.

I think the Astartes fighting style would be entirely dependent on their opposition- human-sized fighters could be dealt with efficiently by using the methods Penguin described, anything of a similar bulk though would necessitate the Astartes using his superb reflexes and comparative agility, not quite flowing martial arts but something not entirely dissimilar.


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## Sothot (Jul 22, 2011)

Love how it took four posts for the thread to derail into a "my martial art is more effective" thread. It always happens when martial artists talk about their hobbies...
In topic, I highly doubt any forms of our martial arts are employed in the 41st millennium. There is no way, in the mayhem of war, that I can picture space marines or guardsmen attempting locks, throws, or strikes relevant to any form or style. A swirling combat of slamming pistols on skulls, rifle butts into faces, point blank shots into the enemy, and roaring chainsword hacks. Raw brutality over practiced finesse. It's war, not a street fight or one on one or even a one on five.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

True and when dealing with 9 foot tall monsters with chainsaws, or giant axes as big as a car door martial arts don't so much come into place as knowing how to avoid being split in half while dumping a bolt pistol into somethings face.


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## Anfo (Jul 17, 2009)

Sothot said:


> Love how it took four posts for the thread to derail into a "my martial art is more effective" thread. It always happens when martial artists talk about their hobbies...


There are no superior martial arts, only superior students.

From the reading I've done, it seems that the only time marines have finesse in CC in when sword fighting. Otherwise it is just a seven foot tall juggernaut crushing everything around it.


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## Deadeye776 (May 26, 2011)

I think it's funny how people see UFC as the expression of the root of most of these arts.Even the greco-roman wrestling you do in high school was designed for military applications by the......you guessed it Greeks and romans. While it can be used for competitive applications no fighting style is safe. They are all designed to put someone down. I also like the comment that just because it isn't in the UFC doesn't mean it doesn't work. When I was in the military I began practicing escrima/arnis/kali. Before anyone get's a hard on thinking they can live the dream too, I did this on my own personal time, not the military's. The root of this art was basically being more than able with a bladed weapon and bare handed. Let's get back into the astartes though.

I don't think human fighting techniques would be what an astartes should train with.Their capabilities make that kind of limiting when some of them can fly,spit acid, see at night,and have warp based powers. Some of the basics of fighting obviously will be universal but you couldn't apply something like krav maga to a tyranid swarm. It may float with an eldar (barely since they are faster) or ork though. Systems like Krav Maga are geared towards taking down human opponents. You think that shit would work on a daemon who's body is just housing a warp essence? Ovcourse not. Who the hell would look at something like a great Unclean one and think "Yeah, bro, it's time to show this bastard what all that MMA training can do." One phrase I heard from some guys when I younger was "If your too close to shoot,your too close period." That's why they have chainswords,power axes, power hammers, and other lethal tools. If it comes to hand to hand it's usually because your in a bad way.


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## SonOfStan (Feb 20, 2011)

LukeValantine said:


> As someone who has seen both arts I would give the combative edge to a thai expert over a krav magai expert, but people often forget that one is designed to fight people in a relatively fair fight while the other is designed for modern battle fields. Hence for practicality reason any modern CQC training trumps all classical martial art in terms of practicality in a modern setting.


 
Lethality on a battlefield is really what it's all about. Don't get me wrong...any master of any martial art is a bad dude to get punched in the face by. They can all be pretty brutal. I trained in taekwondo for eleven years, and my instructors were some mean dudes. All that classical training is great, but like you said, any training that is designed to help you, completely unarmed, fight off another opponent, completely unarmed, while adhering to any sort of tourney-style rules WHATSOEVER, is going to be inherently inferior to actual CQC training. When I joined the Army that was a real wake up call for me. :biggrin: I got beat up a lot during sparring. 



I can see the Marines training in a form of hand-to-hand combat that emphasizes using their entire bodies (since all of them is literally a weapon) I don't think that simply because they have thunder hammers and power swords that they'd disregard utilizing the rest of their bodies. Plus, for some of the more philosophically minded Chapters, I bet a particular style created by a founding member might be seen as important.


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## Davidicus 40k (Jun 4, 2010)

Yes, it's more of an experimental cutscene: the Marines are a bit disproportionate, the Chaos Marine's "DERP" moment in which he does not pull the trigger immediately is inexplicable, and it's only 38 seconds, but it fits my description of what Marine melee combat would be like. Extremely fast, extremely brutal, with full force behind every blow and the main objective being to incapacitate and eliminate your opponent immediately. Every strike is meant to kill.

I'll let you guys argue what real-world combat style follows that line of thinking, but I personally vote for Krav Maga :biggrin:.

Edit: As Baron Spikey said, Marines do spar with each other to prepare themselves for facing an opponent of comparable strength. Marines can swat regular humans aside like flies without a second thought, but only when faced with a foe equal to them must they consider how to fight effectively. Fortunately, they've been bred to know that.


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

I think we need to understand that the martial arts that we talk about, if they exist in the far future, aren't going to be based purely on Human-Human fighting. Muay Thai or Krac Maga might exist as descriptions of fighting styles, but will mean something different. The Muay thai of 40k, unless the practitioner is going to be dealing exclusively with other Humans, is by necessity going to have been adapted to fight Xenos.
Personally, I think Astartes will know a number of h2h styles; their foes would make that a certainty. Fighting Orks would be dead-set Krav Maga-type brawling; fighting 'nids would probably need pure speed to kill as many as possible as quick as possible; fighting Eldar would probably need something much more formalised and flowing, not wanting to leave any gaps that the viper-fast Eldar (of both kinds) could use to get a killing blow in.
The one thing I would imagine most Astartes styles using would be stamping instead of any type of high/spinning kick; I could, though, see spinning backhand strikes and Superman punces, specially with a Powerfist!

GFP


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## doofyoofy (Mar 8, 2011)

First off, for the different martial arts Anfo said it all.
is that clip from above from the video game space marine that jsut came out?

I could see most space marines knowing a martial art, simply becasue most of them grew up in brutal places where knowing how to fight is a requirement, but like a couple of people have said once they become space marines i believe all their training would revolve around their weapons, chainswords, power fist etc. And in the case of them losing all their weapons they would fallback on whatever martial art they learned before becoming space marines.


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## Lux (Apr 17, 2010)

From the way Kurze was described in savage weapons, it sounds like his style of fighting is very similar to Krav Maga.


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## the_man_with_plan (May 3, 2011)

I would have to agree with giant fossil penguin. due to the vast variety of different enemies a marine faces, they will need a vast variety of different fighting styles.


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

I think the best cut scene on Astares fighting styles would be during the intro of Lord of The Rings, with Sauron fighting at the base of Orodruin, where he just swings his Astares-sized mace and a dozen dead bodies go flying 20-30 feet.

I agree with the prior posts about the difficulty comparing modern styles that could be utilized by a 2.5 meter, 225 kilo Astares to anything today. That size and strength make a huge difference, especially when coupled with a like acceleration in reflexes and toughness of the joints... this calculus is far different for developing a fighting style(s), either empty handed or including weapons, than anything we can get our heads around today. Taking this concept further, the Astares is then encased in a '57 Chevy worth of steel plate and exhaust that itself takes their reflexes, endurance, strength, and toughness into the unreal realm. This doesn't even include the spikey bits all the Chaos Marines get to include :wink:

For Astares v. IG, a flick of the gauntlet would be enough to destroy. Add another hundred years of constant combat training and experience and I don't think you can even have someone render that in animation sufficiently... it's just too cool.

You really want to impress me? Let's have a video with a battle-dressed Astares making a souffle that doesn't fall... any pussy can throw a punch.


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## Deadeye776 (May 26, 2011)

Conrad Kurze fighting is nothing like anything humans have come up with. Why? What martial art would train its student to rip out throats with your teeth,tear through armor with talons,and drink blood. I know the Jews have a badass fighting techinique,but I don't think Krav Maga,while brutal, comes within the vicinity of Kurze. Look at the Dark King. They teach you in Krav Maga to obliterate light sources with warp power and make yourself immune to any type of night vision? I must have missed the part where they instruct you to tear off limbs and literally butcher your opponent like farm cattle. 

Again, these beings in my opinion fight like Superman. He doesn't have a fighting techinique.Why? When you can stop airplanes,have heat vision,ice breath,and are faster than the speed of sound, fighting like a human seems a bit measured. Batman trains in every fighting techinque because he's an above average human who doesn't have those gifts naturally. Same thing with Cpt. America. While he's a more technical fighter than Superman he still would demolish a normal man with any fighting technique. Super humans don't use human fighting sytles because they are capable of so much more than a human would be. Also to add to my point. The talk of fighting styles is good but in truth irrelevant. I've never,thank god, been in this situation but some of the men who trained me have. When your in combat and you run out of ammunition and it goes hand to hand, I'll leave it at this: Fighting someone and even defending yourself are another world apart from when you've made up your mind to kill someone with your hands. Most of these arts today are geared toward defending and fighting, sometimes brutally. I promise if you showed up and asked to be trained to kill someone, most intelligent instructors would ask you to leave. 

That clip with the space marine showed one thing, he wanted to kill that csm. Conrad Kurze is a killer. His technique is to butcher his opponent. Leman Russ if you looked at his depcition in thousand sons was shown to have an innate sense of taking his opponent apart to find the weakeness. All of these men are killers and to add to that, when you are superhuman killing someone is a lot different because of capability to how a normal man would.


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## MEQinc (Dec 12, 2010)

Giant Fossil Penguin said:


> Fighting Orks would be dead-set Krav Maga-type brawling; fighting 'nids would probably need pure speed to kill as many as possible as quick as possible; fighting Eldar would probably need something much more formalised and flowing, not wanting to leave any gaps that the viper-fast Eldar (of both kinds) could use to get a killing blow in.


Actually I figure you'd want to do it the other way around. Orks are generally pretty close to Marines in terms of raw strength but can't come close in terms of speed; a brawl between the two is risky for the marine, he'd be better off dueling. Conversly Eldar (even barely trained ones) are much faster than Marines but get them in a hold and their dead.



Deadeye776 said:


> Conrad Kurze fighting is nothing like anything humans have come up with. Why? What martial art would train its student to rip out throats with your teeth,tear through armor with talons,and drink blood. I know the Jews have a badass fighting techinique,but I don't think Krav Maga,while brutal, comes within the vicinity of Kurze. Look at the Dark King. They teach you in Krav Maga to obliterate light sources with warp power and make yourself immune to any type of night vision?


Actually I'm guessing (and this is just a guess as I've never actually studied martial arts) that Krav Maga does teach you to use everything you possibly can to your advantage. Unfortunetly, most students of Krav Maga like psykic powers, so blowing lights with your mind probably isn't on the lesson plan. It's more about the mentality, than the actual rote lessons because, as others have mentioned, nothing practised now is going to be 100% applicable to Space Marines (let alone Primarchs).


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

I appreciate the point about Ork fighting, h2h, should really be fast. Looking at that snippet of Krav Maga posted above, even though it is a demo and so rather far from the reality of battle, the defender is all about continous movement and speed; his assailants seem plodding and single-thoughted, whilst the defender is always looking how to turn the next contact/movement into a disabling/crippling/killing blow. 
I see speed inherent in KM, but I could certainly see Astartes being trained the speed=Orky death!
I've been torn between the thoughts that Astartes are taught lots of different types of martial arts, or are taught a couple of basic ones that are based around their inherent size and speed. I quite like the idea that many different type of fight styles is favoured so that each Astartes is always prepared for any situation, the fighting almost a meditation in violence. As Aspirants, such sparring might be a way to help them become accustomed to their new bodies; that it has a later value is just an added benefit.
I can also see certain Chapters, looking at the DW/GK/XH here, who might be given training in useful Xenos fighting styles, as their missions might make such confrontations more common and so the better guarantor of mission success and so worth the possible heresy of anything Xenos being given value above something Human.

GFP


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## Deadeye776 (May 26, 2011)

Force aware humans are trained as Jedi or Sith because with their abilities they can do things (speed,mind tricks,telepathy,telekenetics,etc.)other humans can't. Why would someone with those abilities learn something as limiting as krav maga or jiu jitsu? You think the Hulk would be better off if he knew escrima,like at present he isn't dangerous enough? Human martial arts are made to take you to the height of human lethality. These aren't universal concepts though. You think a telepath wouldn't just shut down their mind if they were faced with a martial arts master? It would be like the scene in Indiana Jones with the guy twirling the sword and Jones just shot him. The Astartes are post-humans. While some of the concepts of fighting are would be basic in any species I think when you look at their capabilities and the myriad of enemies they face they would need more than human H2H has to offer.


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## andygorn (Apr 1, 2011)

I'm not saying it's better or worse than any other martial arts moves:
I always imagined that (for me) the martial art of Iaido seemed to be pretty well suited to what I imagined sword-armed Eldar styles would be. i.e. waiting for the exactly right moment + one perfect strike = dead enemy.

I realise some people might think it doesn't work with the 40K ideas of sprawling melees and fields full of bodies, but it's more the philosophy/timing/etc of it (rather than anything like "you can't do that move in Aspect armour" or whatever).

If Mat Ward wrote a battle scene, or the "Marneus Calgar beats up an entire Eldar army on his own" fight scenes (from the Space Marine Codex), I think they would be like the scenes in Equilibrium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPDK6vpV9po&feature=fvst


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## GoRy (Apr 1, 2008)

I've done a bit of Jujitsu - about 18months worth while a student, not to any decent level. I did however see our Sensei fight an Akido master. The guy must have been 75 and our Sensei was 20 (In my class in actual fact), Black belt 3rd dan. he got utterly schooled, made to look like an idiot by a 75 year old that runs a newsagent.

The akido master afterwards told us that the night before, 2 hoosd tried to rob his shop, walked in, pulled a stanley knife and demanded money. So he pulled out 2 butterly knives and asked them if they wanted money or if they just wanted a bit of fun.

They legged it, nuff said.

Back on topic, Krav is also the kind of style i'd imagine for SM. Brutal, efficient, nothing showy. Although in a few HH books you see the odd passage about blocks with "chops of the hand" and "kick to the face" which isn't too Krav-esque.


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## General-jwj (Sep 22, 2011)

I now dearly want to see a space marine kick someone in the face Bruce Lee style.


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

General-jwj said:


> I now dearly want to see a space marine kick someone in the face Bruce Lee style.


I dunno, it would probably look more like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story :grin:


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## The Dog Boy (Oct 6, 2011)

I can't believe I read this whole thread. All of you are silly. And now I am, too.


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

Why are we silly, Dog Boy? When we read 40k fiction, or play games, or just think about what might happen when the various factions fight, how do we picture those fights occurring? How _does_ an Astartes actually fight, is it a rigid defined system or just a madcap throwing of arms and legs safe in the knowledge that anything that connects is going to cause damage, a connection that is made more likely by their sheer speed? Now, if we have that image in our mind, is there any film-clip/real-world fight-style that we can tell others about that might illustrate that?
Certainly, any real-world example that we use is not going to be 100% accurate, ignoring the fact that we're talking about things that don't exist. we've already accepted that any example we give is going to need some mental adjustment; so with the Astartes and Krav Maga, we know that they *won't* use this, but it does give us all a base point from which to build an example that fits in our head. Anyway, I reackon that this thread is quite good fun and could provide the basis for a fun discussion and comparison of how we all view the h2h aspect of the 40k 'verse.

GFP


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

This always struck me as something like how an exarch might fight.

Beyond that, when it comes to SMs in unarmed combat, it would be very short and very brutal with little emphasis on defence. You don't need to defend a whole lot when you're wearing a ton of powered armour. Marines don't often come up against anything capable of breaching their armour, so all out overwhelming application of force would be the way to go. It wouldn't subtle or pretty, but it'd be damn effective.


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## Grins1878 (May 10, 2010)

Not OT, but why do all the fella's fighting the long coat chap in that equilibrium clip miss with every shot? Is he invunerable to gunshots, are they really bad shots, or is it pure thick cheese? Sorry just curious!


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## General-jwj (Sep 22, 2011)

Grins1878 said:


> Not OT, but why do all the fella's fighting the long coat chap in that equilibrium clip miss with every shot? Is he invunerable to gunshots, are they really bad shots, or is it pure thick cheese? Sorry just curious!


I didn't really see the movie but I think the hero practices some weird gun-based martial art based on placing oneself at the least statistically likely place where the opponent will shoot or something weird like that.

So he can essentially dodge bullets by guessing in advance where his opponents are gonna shoot based on intensive training and memorization of the most likely fire patterns.


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## Sothot (Jul 22, 2011)

He has a 2+/2++ save for being batman.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Imperial Assassin unarmed, Custodes with a pole.

Midnight


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## Nashnir (Apr 3, 2010)

MidnightSun said:


> Neo vs Smiths - YouTube
> 
> Imperial Assassin unarmed, Custodes with a pole.
> 
> Midnight


Before I came to this forum or even read the novels, I thought that is how Custode vs. Astartes fight would be.


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