Space Marines¶

This page is a work in progress!

Space Marine Leadership¶

Space Marines are highly organised, efficient and disciplined, allowing them to out-perform their enemy in almost any situation. When randomly generating the Leadership value for a Space Marine ship, use the table here.

D6 ROLL	LEADERSHIP
1-2	Ld 8
3-4	Ld 9
5-6	Ld 10

Attack Rating¶

Space Marines have a starting attack or initiative rating of 3.

Boarding Actions and Hit-&-run Attacks¶

Space Marines are the supreme fighting force of the Imperium, and excel at ship-to-ship boarding actions, where their skill is paramount and their lack of numbers irrelevant. To represent this, Space Marine ships add +2 to their D6 roll when they fight in a boarding action and +1 when they make any hit and run attack.

Enemy hit-and-run attacks against a Space Marine ship deduct 1 from their dice rolls, i.e. to succeed, a 3+ is required against capital ships, and a 5+ against escorts.

Planetary Assaults and Exterminatus¶

Space Marines excel at planetary landings and attacking enemy-held systems. Their entire organisation and the weapons and ships at their disposal are designed solely for the purpose of reclaiming or destroying planets that have fallen into enemy hands.

In a Planetary Assault scenario, Space Marine strike cruisers and battle barges earn 2 Assault points for every turn they spend landing troops or bombarding the planet, rather than 1 point as is normal. In an Exterminatus scenario, a battle barge can be used as an Exterminator, unchanged from the following data sheet (battle barges are equipped with virus bombs and cyclotronic warheads as standard). In addition, once a battle barge is in position to exterminate the planet, you need to roll a 3+ to do so rather than a 4+.

Space Marine Weapons¶

Some weapons function differently on Space Marine vessels, as described below.

Bombardment Cannon¶

Space Marine battle barges carry a heavyweight battery of bombardment cannons as part of their main armament. Bombardment cannons are huge, turret-mounted linear accelerators, capable of launching a salvo of heavy magma bomb warheads. As their name implies, bombardment cannons are used primarily for pounding planetary defences into rubble and giving devastating orbital support to Space Marine landing forces. Bombardment cannons are equally devastating in ship-to-ship combat, capable of blasting apart any capital ship in just a few salvoes.

Bombardment cannons fire in the same way as weapon batteries with two exceptions:

Bombardment cannons always hit on a 4 or more, regardless of the target’s armour (even vs ordnance).
Bombardment cannons inflict critical hits on a roll of 4 or more, rather than just on a roll of 6.

Ordnance¶

Rather than the bombers and fighters employed by Imperial Naval forces, the Adeptus Astartes make exclusive use of the Thunderhawk gunship. They also make use of other types of ordnance not widely used in the Imperial Fleet.

Space Marine vessels may fire boarding torpedoes instead of ordinary torpedoes, as detailed in the Ordnance rules in Battlefleet Gothic. Remember that as these are Space Marines, they will have a +1 bonus to their hit and run attacks if they hit an enemy ship.

Thunderhawk Gunships¶

Thunderhawk gunships combine the abilities of assault boats and fighters, and move like any other attack craft, with a speed of 20 cm. A Thunderhawk counter that is intercepted by enemy fighters or moves onto an enemy ordnance marker removes the enemy as fighters would. However as they are extremely resilient, roll a dice when this happens. On a score of 4+, do not remove the Thunderhawk marker (However, Thunderhawks can only remove one enemy marker in any given ordnance phase and stop moving as soon as they intercept an enemy. Also, if a Thunderhawk marker uses its save to remain in play and comes into contact with another ordnance marker in the same ordnance phase, it is removed normally.). Note that against Eldar fighters, which also have this ability, it is possible that you end up with neither marker being removed! If this happens, either marker is free to move away in their next turn, or they can stay in place and attempt to remove their enemy again.

When a Thunderhawk marker moves into contact with an enemy ship’s base, they are treated exactly like assault boats (with the +1 bonus to their hit and run attack for being Space Marines). Using its 4+ save does not prevent it from attacking a ship if in base contact with one when stopped. Once a Thunderhawk marker has made its hit and run attack, it is removed from play.

Any vessel that earns or pays for a refit to carry Thunderhawks may then ONLY carry them, and its launch bay capacity is reduced by half (rounding up when applicable). This also applies for those earned when rolling a 7 against the Space Marines table on p.157 of the rulebook. Escort carriers may never be upgraded to carry Thunderhawks!

Thunderhawk Annihilator¶

The Thunderhawk Annihilator is a specialized gunship employed only by crusading Chapters. Forsaking its transport capability in favour of a powerful Annihilator cannon, it provides crusading Chapters with the kind of thunderous firepower normally provided by the bombers of the Imperial Navy or the Battle Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Thunderhawk Annihilators combine the abilities of bombers and fighters, and they move like any other attack craft with a speed of 20 cm. They can no longer be used as assault boats.

A Thunderhawk counter that is intercepted by enemy fighters or moves onto an enemy ordnance marker removes the enemy marker exactly the same way fighters would. However, they are extremely resilient and follow all special rules for Thunderhawks described on the previous page.

When a Thunderhawk Annihilator comes in contact with an enemy ship’s base, they attack it like bombers as described for bombers on [???] of the Remastered Rulebook, even if they have used their resilience to remain in play.

As they behave as both fighters and bombers, they apply a bonus to turret suppression by adding +1 attack for each marker in the wave after attacks are modified by turrets – meaning each ordnance marker that survives against turrets will be able to conduct at least one attack and will not have a minimum of zero attacks.

When a wave of Thunderhawk Annihilators attacks a ship, you must decide beforehand if any of the markers will forgo their attack runs in favour of turret suppression. Every one that does so cannot make any attack rolls but adds an additional +1 bonus attack to any surviving Thunderhawk Annihilators when rolling their attacks. Thunderhawks used in this manner cannot contribute more bonus attacks than the defending ship actually has turrets or the number of surviving Thunderhawk Annihilators, whichever number is lower. NOTE: In either case, at least one Thunderhawk Annihilators has to survive against turrets for the wave to attack in this manner.

Once they complete their attack, they are removed normally.

Drop Pods¶

All Space Marine capital ships are equipped with drop pods. These add nothing to their profile and are not treated as ordnance in any respect. Drop pods enable Space Marine capital ships to quickly deploy Space Marines to the surface and impart +2 assault points for each capital ship during a planetary assault instead of +1.

Honour Guard¶

Most Chapters maintain special bodies of honoured Space Marines with extraordinary experience, given over to form the personal retinue of company captains, great heroes within the Chapter or even the Chapter Master himself. Once per turn you may use the Honour Guard, if your fleet list includes them. All the normal rules for teleport attacks apply, except that they may be used in addition to a normal teleport attack that turn. The player may roll two dice and choose which one to use as the result, including the normal +1 bonus for being Space Marines.

Terminator Boarding Parties¶

Taken from the elite First Company and wearing the heaviest armour known to man, Terminators are the greatest ship-to-ship fighters in the galaxy. Once per turn a vessel equipped with Terminator boarding parties may use them when conducting a hit and run teleport attack. They roll two dice for its hit and run attack and apply both results, including the normal +1 bonus for being Space Marines. Terminators may be used in addition to a normal teleport attack that turn.

Space Marines in Campaigns¶

In a campaign, the Space Marine fleet has access to the same refits and crew skills as Imperial fleets on [???] of the rulebook. Space Marines may roll appeals against the Space Marines table on [???] if desired. Ships earned as a result of rolling against this table are considered to be “for free” and do not count against fleet restrictions. For example, a 1,500-point Space Marine fleet with two battlebarges that rolls a 2D6 roll of 2 against this table may waive the point restrictions and gain a third battlebarge, provided the owning player actually has three battlebarge models to represent it. Ships not able to take a particular refit rolled randomly may re-roll the result.

Codex Astartes Fleet List¶

Fleet Commander¶

0-1 Master of the Fleet¶

You may include 1 Master of the Fleet. If your fleet includes any battle barges, he must be assigned to a battle barge in preference to a strike cruiser. If the fleet is worth over 750 points, the Master of the Fleet must be included to lead it.

Master of the Fleet (Ld 10) ........................ 50 pts

You may buy Fleet Commander re-rolls for your Master of the Fleet.

One re-roll ..................................................+25 pts
Two re-rolls ................................................+50 pts
Three re-rolls .............................................+75 pts

In addition, the Master of the Fleet’s ship may carry a Terminator boarding party:

Terminator boarding party .....................+50 pts

Capital Ships¶

0-3 Battle Barges¶

You may include one Space Marine battle barge for every 1,000 points or part thereof in your fleet. The fleet can include a single Venerable battle barge (counting as one of the three allowed), chosen from any available Imperial or Chaos battleship, grand cruiser, battlecruiser or heavy cruiser at the listed cost, plus an additional +35 points for its Space Marine crew.

(0-1) Venerable battle barge (pg. 100) ........... varies
Battle barge (pg. 102) ..................................... 425 pts

0-10 Cruisers¶

Strike cruisers (pg. 103)................................. 145 pts

Escorts¶

You may include any number of escorts in your fleet in squadrons of 2–6.

Nova class Frigate (pg. 105) ............................ 50 pts
Gladius class Frigate (pg. 106)........................ 45 pts
Hunter class Destroyer (pg. 107) ................... 40 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Firestorm) (pg. 104) (pg. 77) . 45 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Sword) (pg. 104) (pg. 80) .. 40 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Cobra) (pg. 104) (pg. 82)... 35 pts

Ordnance¶

Any ship with launch bays carries Thunderhawk Gunships. Ships with torpedo tubes are armed with ordinary torpedoes and boarding torpedoes.

Crusade Fleet List¶

Space Marine Crusade Fleets¶

The Crusade Fleet List represents all the most aggressive, zealous and insular Space Marine Chapters, most notably the Black Templars. They do not rule over great swaths of the Imperium as other Chapters might, and few of them even have a homeworld of their own. Instead, these crusading armies endlessly roam the galaxy, engaged in near constant warfare with the Emperor’s enemies (or in some cases, in endless pursuit of their own ancient foes). This same zeal breeds in them a great distrust of non-Space Marines, indeed a distrust even of other Chapters, who they believe incapable of the same purity which they themselves make a virtue, meaning they will seldom, if ever, seek the aid of other arms of the Imperium.

As well as true Crusade Chapters, the fleet list above is ideal for representing fleet-based Chapters, particularly those that operate from a fortress-monastery, such as the Fire Hawks or Dark Angels. While not strictly a Crusading Chapter, this list is particularly suited to the Dark Angels, since it represents their famously secretive method of operation. Other Chapters, such as the Imperial Fists, the Crimson Fists and so on, occasionally launch Crusades though not exclusively, so they can be equally well represented by this fleet list or the Codex Astartes fleet list on [???] of Armada.

Fleet Commander¶

0-1 Master of the Fleet¶

You may include 1 Master of the Fleet. If your fleet includes any battle barges, he must be assigned to a battle barge. The Master of the Fleet may be assigned to a venerable battle barge or fortress monastery if one is present, but does not have to be. If the fleet is worth over 750 points, the Master of the Fleet must be included to lead it.

Master of the Fleet (Ld 10) ........................ 50 pts

You may buy Fleet Commander re-rolls for your Master of the Fleet, that can be used by the entire fleet.

One re-roll ..................................................+25 pts
Two re-rolls ................................................+50 pts
Three re-rolls .............................................+75 pts

In addition, the Master of the Fleet’s ship may carry a Terminator boarding party:

Terminator boarding party .....................+50 pts

Fortress-monastery¶

0-1 Fortress-Monastery¶

If your fleet is worth at least 2,000 points, it may include one Fortress-Monastery.

Fortress-Monastery (pg. 108) .....................1000 pts

As the base of operations for the entire Chapter, the fortress-monastery may purchase re-rolls, which it may use for its own command checks only. If the Master of the Fleet is assigned to a fortress-monastery, its re-rolls are added to those of the Master of the Fleet and may be used by the entire fleet.

One re-roll ..................................................+25 pts
Two re-rolls ................................................+50 pts
Three re-rolls .............................................+75 pts

Capital Ships¶

0-3 Battle Barges¶

You may include one Space Marine battle barge for every 1,000 points or part thereof in your fleet. The fleet must be worth at least 1,000 points to include a single Venerable battle barge (counting as one of the three allowed), chosen from any available Imperial or Chaos battleship, grand cruiser, battlecruiser or heavy cruiser at the listed cost, plus an additional +35 points for its Space Marine crew.

(0-1) Venerable battle barge (pg. 100) ........... varies
Battle barge (pg. 102) ..................................... 425 pts

0-10 Cruisers¶

Strike cruisers (pg. 103)................................. 145 pts

Escorts¶

You may include any number of escorts in your fleet in squadrons of 2–6.

Nova class Frigate (pg. 105) ............................ 50 pts
Gladius class Frigate (pg. 106)........................ 45 pts
Hunter class Destroyer (pg. 107) ................... 40 pts

Ordnance¶

Any ship with launch bays carries Thunderhawks and Thunderhawk Annihilators. Ships with torpedo tubes are armed with ordinary and boarding torpedoes. All Space Marine capital ships are equipped with drop pods. Any battle barge or strike cruiser in the fleet may be equipped with an Honour Guard for +10 points per ship. A fortress-monastery is equipped with Terminator boarding parties and an Honour Guard as part of its point cost.

Attack Rating¶

A Space Marine Crusade Fleet has an attack rating of 3. If the fleet includes a fortress-monastery, it has an attack rating of 1; even Space Marines find it difficult to launch a surprise blitz with a billion tons of fortress monastery in tow!

Reserves and Allies¶

A Space Marine Crusade fleet will not take ships from or provide ships to any other fleet list as reserves or allies, including Imperial Navy, Rogue Trader or Adeptus Mechanicus fleet lists.

Scenarios¶

A Space Marine Crusade fleet with a fortress-monastery will always be the defender in a scenario. Players should use any method desired to pick a scenario, assigning the Crusade fleet as the defender. An alternative is to determine the attacker and defender normally with the Space Marine player electing if desired to use the fortress monastery if selected as the defender. Like the rules for a Ramilies Star Fortress, the fortress-monastery should only be used as a defence or in some scenarios substituting for the planet itself.

Dominion Fleet List¶

Space Marine Dominion Fleets¶

The Master of each Space Marine Chapter is its leader and spiritual head. He leads his troops in battle and acts as the figurehead for the entire Chapter. As some Chapters rule entire planets or even sub-sectors of space, a Chapter Master may well act as the head of government as well, effectively as the Imperial Commander of a whole planet or system. Particular examples are the Ultramarines, who rule over the dominion of Ultramar, and the Salamanders, which enjoy close ties with the people of Prometheus.

Where this is the case, other local military assets, though not strictly subservient to the Chapter and with their own command structures in place, will nonetheless find themselves more often under the sway of their superhuman neighbours than might other independent regiments and fleets from regions not ruled by Space Marines. Any contact with Space Marines strikes a mixture of fear and awe in the hearts of mortal men, and such preeminence occurs naturally wherever man and Marine stand side by side. In such circumstances Space Marine commanders will assume overall control for the defence of a region, though they are inevitably too few in number to enact such plans themselves. Where a Chapter holds sway over such a dominion, Space Marine fleets and vessels of the Imperial Navy will often be found acting in concert.

Fleet Commander¶

0-1 Master of the Fleet¶

You may include 1 Master of the Fleet. If your fleet includes any battle barges, he must be assigned to a battle barge. If a Venerable battle barge is included in the fleet, the Master of the Fleet must be assigned to it. If the fleet is worth over 750 points, a Master of the Fleet must be included to lead it.

Master of the Fleet (Ld 10) ........................ 50 pts

You may buy Fleet Commander re-rolls for your Master of the Fleet.

One re-roll ..................................................+25 pts
Two re-rolls ................................................+50 pts
Three re-rolls .............................................+75 pts

In addition, the Master of the Fleet’s ship may carry a Terminator boarding party:

Terminator boarding party .....................+50 pts

Space Marine Captains¶

Aside from the Space Marine vessels themselves, certain important Imperial Navy vessels within a Dominion Fleet may well have Space Marine commanders assigned to them. Any Imperial Navy battleship, grand cruiser or battlecruiser may have a Space Marine Captain assigned to it. Space Marine Captains roll against the Space Marines leadership table instead of the normal leadership table. Except for this bonus, Imperial Navy ships led by a Space Marine Captain do not benefit from any of the Space Marines special rules concerning boarding, hit and run attacks, ordnance, etc.

Space Marine Captain ................................ 25 pts

In addition, a ship led by a Space Marine Captain may carry Honour Guard.

Honour Guard ........................................... +10 pts

Capital Ships¶

0-3 Battle Barges¶

You may include one Space Marine battle barge for every 1,000 points or part thereof in your fleet. The fleet must be worth at least 1,000 points to include a single Venerable battle barge (counting as one of the three allowed), chosen from any available Imperial or Chaos battleship, grand cruiser, battlecruiser or heavy cruiser at the listed cost, plus an additional +35 points for its Space Marine crew.

(0-1) Venerable battle barge (pg. 100) ........... varies
Battle barge (pg. 102) ..................................... 425 pts

0-10 Cruisers¶

Strike cruiser (pg. 103) .................................. 145 pts

Escorts¶

You may include any number of escorts in your fleet in squadrons of 2–6.

Nova class Frigate (pg. 105) ............................ 50 pts
Gladius class Frigate (pg. 106)........................ 45 pts
Hunter class Destroyer (pg. 107) ................... 40 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Firestorm) (pg. 104) (pg. 77) . 45 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Falchion) (pg. 104) (pg. 78) .. 40 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Sword) (pg. 104) (pg. 80) ...... 40 pts
Rapid strike vessel (Cobra) (pg. 104) (pg. 82) ...... 35 pts

Ordnance¶

Any ship with launch bays carries Thunderhawks gunships. Ships with torpedo tubes are armed with ordinary and boarding torpedoes. Imperial Navy vessels are equipped with their own standard ordnance (even if they have Space Marine Captains) and cannot be given any form of Space Marine upgrade. This includes those listed on the table on [???] p.157 of the rulebook.

Attack Rating¶

A Space Marine Dominion Fleet has an attack rating of 3. This is reduced to 2 if the fleet has any Imperial Navy, Mechanicus or Rogue Trader vessels at all.

Reserves and Allies¶

A Space Marine Dominion Fleet has close ties with nearby Imperial Navy forces. Contrary to the normal rules, a dominion fleet can take Imperial Navy vessels as normal reserves and reinforcements, including Adeptus Mechanicus and non-xenos Rogue Trader vessels. For purposes of choosing reserves, battle barges count as battleships, and strike cruisers count as cruisers for the selection of any cruiser (battlecruiser, etc.) type. When reserves are taken in this manner, the fleet can have up to twelve cruisers. However, in the course of a campaign, a Dominion Fleet cannot take reinforcements from the Space Marines table listed on [???] of the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook.

Venerable Battle Barge¶

PTS: VARY

A battle barge is not a class of vessel, but rather it is the name given to any vessel configured to fulfil the role of battle barge. Because of this, it is theoretically possible for any large capital ship to fulfil this role, although the battle barges specially designed for the Space Marines by the Adeptus Mechanicus are the most common example. However, some older Chapters, particularly those dating back to the First Founding, maintain much more ancient and revered vessels dating back to a time when the Adeptus Astartes and the Imperial Navy were more closely united than they are now and commonly employed reconfigured Navy vessels as battle barges. Such vessels are completely unique; indeed, some of them were later used as the basis for new Imperial Navy ship classes, and as such are greatly venerated by the Space Marines.

Some Chapters rely on truly unique vessels imparted upon them for a specific role or to meet some dire threat. Others simply retain vessels they received millennia ago or gained through other means. The Space Wolves, a traditionally minded Chapter, is more immersed in the customs of its homeworld of Fenris than most Chapters and has access to only the most rudimentary of shipyards, and they are perhaps the best known example of this, relying as they do on an Emperor class battleship to fulfil the role of battle barge.

Choosing a Battle Barge¶

In addition to their fleet list, any Space Marine fleet may include a single – meaning only one! – Venerable battle barge, which may be any Imperial or Chaos (painted appropriately of course!) battleship, grand cruiser, battlecruiser or heavy cruiser (with the exception of any of the unique vessels like the Terminus Est). This replaces one of the battle barges allowed in the fleet. The normal cost must be paid for the ship, plus an additional +35 points for the cost of the Space Marine crew. This vessel represents an ancient, revered icon or a vessel granted with special dispensation. It is worth 100 % victory points if crippled or 150 % victory points if destroyed.

A Venerable battle barge benefits from all the Space Marine special rules, but since it is already heavily reconfigured to make it into a battle barge, it may not be given any of the optional refits or upgrades listed in its profile – it must be used exactly as is, in its basic form. For example, a Mars battlecruiser taken as a Venerable battle barge may not be given a salvaged targeting matrix and can only earn such a refit in the course of a campaign normally. The only exceptions to this are the special refits that the Space Marines themselves make to their battle barges, as follows:

Launch Bays and Thunderhawks¶

Any launch bays on a Venerable battle barge have their launch capacity halved (rounding up). For example, an Imperial Mars battlecruiser with two launch bays each side is reduced to one each side, and a Chaos Styx heavy cruiser with three launch bays on each side is reduced to two each side. The launch bays are configured to carry Thunderhawks following the rules detailed beforehand and on [???] of Armada, and they cannot be used to launch any other form of attack craft. This is a compulsory refit that applies to all Venerable battle barges equipped with launch bays. A Venerable battle barge not equipped with launch bays cannot take Thunderhawks.

Prow Weapons and Boarding Torpedoes¶

Any Venerable battle barge equipped with a prow weapon (regardless of what it is) may, if desired, replace it with strength-6 torpedo tubes (speed: 30 cm) for no change in cost. As with all Space Marine vessels, these tubes may also be used to launch boarding torpedoes. These boarding torpedoes are manned by Space Marines and get a +1 to their hit and run attacks when they hit an enemy ship.