# Space Marines: Are they too OP?



## SpeshMarines+ (Sep 6, 2011)

Hey mates! First off, I'm a 40K noob, just getting ready to start out with a friend. I've more or less learned the basics of the game, looked up painting vids, ect, ect. However, for my army choice I've chosen the Blood Angels, and now I'm being skeptical about the decision. Basically, are they OP? From all the Battle Reps I've seen, I'm constantly seeing things like the following: A 5 man terminator squad gets swarmed by a good amount of units (that cost more points in total), and then when the dust settles, 4 terminators are left walking with every enemy lying dead. Of course, this doesn't always happen, and like all armies, they're constantly being balanced out by the 40K development team, but I'm still hearing that they're overpowered and too strong. So, are they?
Also, are the space marine armies and blood angel armies too popular? Even though I definitely like the Blood Angels, I don't want to play an army that's: a.)played by too many people and b.)is too easy to play (in other words, too OP to be fun to play). 
Thanks.


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## lemage (Jul 21, 2011)

Well if you think space marines are too overpowered you've got some big suprises coming up. 
Wait untill you see Grey Knights until you call something overpowered.

and the Blood Angels are over played, or that easy to win with.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

You should play whatever the hell you want, no matter what other people say or think. 

Call the Blood Angels Termies OP when they loose one guy to 30? Meh, watch my Paladins as they slaughter double that for no losses.


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## gally912 (Jan 31, 2009)

So, by both of your logic, Space Marines aren't over-powered because they're beaten by more powerful Space Marines?

I... wut?


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## James Tiberius (Sep 1, 2011)

overpowered (excepting GK's) not at all
overplayed, boring and silly looking, goodness yes.


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## rayrod64 (Apr 19, 2011)

If you like them, play them. All Space Marines are supposed to be "Dead Hard" and are a good starter army which forgives mistakes easily...

Learn with them and then if you still feel they are overpowered try tau or IG


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## lemage (Jul 21, 2011)

gally912 said:


> So, by both of your logic, Space Marines aren't over-powered because they're beaten by more powerful Space Marines?
> 
> I... wut?


hella no are they over powered. there possibly the most common army in 40k , but they defiantly aren't over power , if anything there the most overly balanced army in 40k . but Grey Knight are dead to me so never compare them to my precious Marines......................NEVER


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## Xela (Dec 22, 2010)

Space Wolves are overpowered


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## spanner94ezekiel (Jan 6, 2011)

Overpowered? Certain chapters and aspects yes (Long Fangs, GK builds etc)
Overplayed? Most definitely
Should you play them? If you want. No one can tell you what army to play. Except Blood Angels. Never the Twilight Marines. Ever.

:wink:


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Xela said:


> Space Wolves are overpowered


There is no such thing as over powered. There are only shades of... Um...


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

Doelago said:


> You should play whatever the hell you want, no matter what other people say or think.


:goodpost:

If its in the codex then its legit enough for me.


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## jd579 (May 8, 2010)

Space wolves are NOT over powered!


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## the-ad-man (Jan 22, 2010)

jd579 said:


> Space wolves are NOT over powered!


lol and bread doesnt go stale.


but serus, they arent, theres just some cheesy-ass builds for them (same can be said for ig, ba, gk and de)


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## jd579 (May 8, 2010)

No, really they aint, I think people who claim codex's are over powered are playing more to their enemies strength than their own, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, play to your own strengths and force the opponent to play on your own terms instead.


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## chromedog (Oct 31, 2007)

Too overpowered?

No, IMHO, they are just about right in their over-powered-ness.


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## eyescrossed (Mar 31, 2011)

jd579 said:


> play to your own strengths and force the opponent to play on your own terms instead.


You kinda can't with Vendetta-spamming Mechvets.


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## Lubacca (Sep 4, 2011)

The thing is OP, that it doesn't matter if they're overpowered, underpowered, undermanned or overused. Do they seem like fun to you? Because this is a hobby where you are going to be spending alot of time staring at those little gits. From building them, to painting them, moving them around, playing games with them and eventually probably trying to elevate all of those aspects in your hobby. 

Pick what you want, not what others tell you man. Trust me on this.


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## Zion (May 31, 2011)

You know what's REALLY overpowered? Dice. They're always killing my models!


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## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

The reason SM are never considered OP is that they ARE the baseline. Halfway through an edition anything more powerful is OP and anything weaker is UP.

So no, you are using a perfectly balanced army... unless you cheese!:laugh:


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

When talking army lists, there is only one Space Marines, the Space Marines Codex list.

The Blood Angels, Black Templars, Space Wolves, Dark Angels are all separate lists and not "Space Marines", per se.

I would say the most Over Powered aspect of the various space marine chapters is the fluff and the beauty of the models. They embody all that is good and desirable to the average male human. So, naturally, they are extremely popular. So, the models and fluff are definitely overpowered.


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## Wusword77 (Aug 11, 2008)

An army being over powered is mostly in the eye of the beholder. Especially when there is no actual benchmark to measure them against as 40k has many factors to deal with beyond just your army list.

Of course people will continue to say that some codex or another is over powered. This gets really bad when a new codex is about to launch, as the Internet thinks that every new codex will become the MOST POWERFUL BOOK EVER and will utterly ROFLSTOMP/WTFPWN every other codex that has ever been printed.

End of the day play what ever you want to play OP. And should that army be what people consider Over Powered then let them deal with it.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

jd579 said:


> No, really they aint, I think people who claim codex's are over powered are playing more to their enemies strength than their own, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, play to your own strengths and force the opponent to play on your own terms instead.


No offense but this is a tad naive. Some of the newer codex's have generalized builds that do everything a older codex can do just better. Hence playing to your strengths and not the enemies often does not apply in any way. For instance if you playing a CC heavy army and someone drops a venoms spam then it doesn't matter if you play your army like a champ in the way it intended as the enemy will simply rape your army no matter what you do. I mean you can always list tailor but any idiot can win no matter the ods if they list tailor to fight one enemy.

If you think otherwise then you obviously don't have many meta gaming douch bags in your area as those are the people that will show you how crap a codex is as they will beat you with only suffering one or two KP's while decimating your army to the last man.

I mean no codex is truly over powered, but some have obvious power builds that can almost break the game. It doesn't always happen. For instance back when the new orcs and nid codex were released for this addition people complained about certain builds and models, but after the smoke settled people realized that even their power builds were counter able by a good balanced list and sound tactics. Hell even the BA were thought to be more of a threat then they were, but some of their builds are still at the top of the meta pile. Now the DE, and GK are near enough to the end of the cycle that their power builds shit kick everyone else s power builds number wise, and god help you if you playing a pre-SW power list. Yet at the end of the day not everyone is a power gaming ass hole, and most of the unit combination in every list will be within tolerable levels of difficulty.

Ok now that I have killed all naive attempts to say a game that by its nature can never be perfectly balanced is in any way balanced I will address the OP question.

No basic SM space marines are not over powered in any way. In that a balanced space marine list will often struggle to find a edge over any other modern codex. As they don't have any unique tactical edge but combat squading and that can bite you in the ass in KP games. I mean every new army has half a dozen ways to kill entire units of power armored models reliably. Hence wins for a bog standard SM player are often a sign of serious min maxing or good generalship. I mean seriously at this point in the game every army is designed with the ability to kill MeQ as they are the most common enemy people face. 

Matter of fact some of the strongest tactical armies aren't marines, as guard armor equivalents are often given the edge to counter the fact they have horrible stats. I mean judging by the DE codex I actually am kinda fearful of the upcoming Tau and necron codex as my CSM's are already being left in the dust by GK, BA, and DE.

Are they over played? Yes. Should you care? NO.


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## Caratacos (Aug 26, 2008)

Space marines are not overpowered, they are forgiving. If you make mistakes it's not all that bad. Other armies are less forgiving. If you make mistakes your entire frontline might get rolled up.

The better the players are, the less do the differences between the lists actually matter. Some armies (lists) are easier to use and therefore they tend to be more represented on the battlefield.

My view may be wrong, it's just based on my own observations and assumptions.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Caratacos said:


> Space marines are not overpowered, they are forgiving. If you make mistakes it's not all that bed. Other armies are less forgiving. If you make mistakes your entire frontline might get rolled up.
> 
> The better the players are, the less do the differences between the lists actually matter. Some armies (lists) are easier to use and therefore they tend to be more represented on the battlefield.
> 
> My view may be wrong, it's just based on my own observations and assumptions.


me feelings exactly, marines are great for new players for this very reason.


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

i have no issues with any SM army (other than GKs being cheaper than i think they should be) things that others have mentioned that only certain combos/lists are "bad" for the non-competitive game.


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## Weapon (Mar 5, 2009)

All of the newest edition codex's are all about the same. The older codex's are indeed weaker, but if we take a look at the current trend, they'll get their own powerful codex's at some point. So it's not too bad.

The sole exception to this rule would be the Tyranid's codex, but they always seem to get the short end of the stick and would seem to be hard to make a decent codex for (I'm no expert on them). They definitely aren't a beginner army though.


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