Warhammer 40k Space Marines – games, lore, and models explained

Warhammer 40k Space Marines – a.k.a. Adeptus Astartes – are the most famous, popular, and prominent army in Games Workshop’s sci-fi wargame universe. Based on Wargamer’s combined 40+ years’ experience collecting, painting, playing, and reading about GW’s power-armored super-soldiers, this guide explains everything you need to know about the Astartes – from Space Marine 2’s action packed missions to the decades of tabletop gaming and lore that came before.

Space Marines have been the public face (or rather faceplate) of Warhammer 40k since its inception in 1987, and they’re by far the most popular Warhammer 40k faction in the tabletop wargame. With the long awaited, blockbusting release of Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 in September 2024, interest in the Big Shoulder Boys is surging right now – so we’re here to fill you in on all the stuff the game doesn’t tell you.

This guide gives a beginner’s overview of Space Marines, from the tabletop, to the screen, to the page. Opening with Games Workshop’s brand new videogame Space Marine 2, we’ll then delve into the lore background – answering questions like: ‘why are there no female Space Marines?’ and ‘are Space Marines actually immortal?’ Finally, we’ll give some pointers on getting started playing Space Marines in tabletop 40k.

Here’s everything you need to know about Warhammer 40k Space Marines:

Space Marine 2

Warhammer 40k fans have done their waiting – 13 years of it – for Space Marine 2 to bring our beloved sci-fi mega-warriors back to the glitzy, gory, graphically upgraded world of (nearly) triple-A gaming. And now that the game’s finally out, thousands of newcomers to the Warhammer 40,000 hobby (including, perhaps, you) are being introduced to the joy of smashing up aliens with explosive pistols and revving chainswords.

If you’ve already played the game, you know its protagonist, Lieutenant Demetrian Titus is an officer of the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines – highly disciplined and honor-bound warriors filled with pride for their homeworld of Macragge, and their chapter master Marneus Calgar. If you like the boys in blue, good news: they star in lots of the best Warhammer 40k books and other media.

What you may not know is that the Ultramarines’ highest leader (Calgar’s boss, and currently Lord Commander of the entire Imperium of Man) is a guy named Roboute Guilliman, who’s neither a human nor a regular Space Marines, but a demigod-like being called a ‘primarch’, is over 10,000 years old.

Why do we mention this? Well, we love this game, but – as you’ll glean from reading our Space Marine 2 review – it’s only the tiniest drop in the vast and delicious ocean that is Warhammer 40k. Every cool thing in SM2 is the end of a thread which, when pulled, will take you to so many more cool things.

The rest of this guide should give you a taste of what else is out there for you to enjoy!

What other Space Marine games are there?

Until its sequel arrived the original 2011 Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine game was the best 40k action game of all time. It also starred Titus – though back then he was a captain, and was mainly fighting the bestial, green-skinned Orks, not Tyranids.

It obviously feels extremely dated over a decade after release, but in its time it was revolutionary – and if you want to learn the background to Titus’ story in SM2, it’s well worth a play. There’s even a brand new Anniversary Edition now, rolling in all the DLC packs and a bunch of extras – so you really have no excuse.

But there are tons more excellent Space Marine-centered videogames to try, from the recent Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters to classics like the Dawn of War series – we list all our favorites in our guide to the all-time best Warhammer 40k games.

If you’d like to take a step beyond the videogames, read on for a deep dive into Space Marine lore – this is where the fun begins.

What are Space Marines?

Space Marines – also known as the Adeptus Astartes – are surgically enhanced, mentally indoctrinated super-soldiers, who wield the most powerful arms and armor available to the Imperium of Man. They are fanatically loyal to the Emperor of Mankind – trans-human special forces created to the Emperor’s own arcane design – and it’s their job to fight his deadliest enemies, at the sharp end of all humanity’s wars.

Space Marines have been a core part of the Warhammer 40,000 setting since Games Workshop first published its sci-fi miniature wargame in 1987, both as a major playable faction on the tabletop, and as the stars of hundreds of Warhammer 40k books and dozens of videogames.

As a result, there is a colossal amount of in-universe ‘lore’ concerning how Astartes warriors are made, how they live, how they fight, and more or less anything else one might wish to know. Much of it has evolved over the years – but here’s a run-through of just the essential lore details, as they stand in 2024.

How are Space Marines created?

Each Space Marine begins life as a human adolescent, and is selected to enter a chapter through a series of gruelling trials. Those who survive receive a series of genetically-engineered implants, or “geneseed”, including no fewer than 22 completely new, artificial organs, such as a third lung and a second heart (for full details, read our guide to all the Space Marine organs, by Wargamer’s resident physician).

Taken together, these treatments trigger a profound and excruciatingly painful transformation in their body: they grow in height to an average of around ten feet, gain superhuman strength, stamina, endurance, memory, and more.

How are Space Marines trained?

From there, they undergo intensive ‘hypnomatic’ basic training – having decades’ worth of combat experience imprinted into their brains – and psycho-conditioning, which ensures they’re properly indoctrinated with complete loyalty to the Emperor.

They’re then deployed to their chapter as new marines, often referred to as “neophytes”, and traditionally assigned to a company of scouts for the first few decades of their service. Since Space Marines live for so long, a marine might serve as a regular battle brother for well over a century or two before being promoted to Squad Sergeant – and most live and die as a rank and file marine.

Are Space Marines immortal?

Space Marines are not invulnerable, but they are functionally immortal; they do age (after a fashion) but do their enhanced biology is unnaturally fast-healing, resistant to poisons, immune to all natural disease, and does not physically degrade with age, as humans do.

Thus, a Space Marine can continue living, and fighting, for millennia (though very few survive that long without falling in battle). The oldest known surviving Space Marine in the current Warhammer 40k canon, Commander Dante of the Blood Angels, is over 1,500 years old.

Space Marine armor

If there’s one thing about Warhammer 40k Space Marines that immediately sets them apart from other, similar sci-fi heroes (apart from their size), it’s the distinctive silhouette of their hulking power armor – in particular, the iconic huge, domed pauldrons (shoulder-pads) on which marines proudly wear their unit insignia.

We have a dedicated guide to Space Marine armor that’s full of extra detail – but for now, here’s an overview of what it is and how it works.

Space Marines’ power armor is a carefully constructed suit of heavy, interlocking plates made from ceramite (a form of extremely heat and shock resistant ceramic) and inlaid with microscopic electronics that monitor damage and external conditions, sending data to the marine’s helmet display.

These plates are mounted onto a motorized inner exoskeleton, which bonds directly with the marine’s body via ports in the Black Carapace: an implanted, under-skin layer that allows a direct mental bond between marine and power armor. This system gives the marine complete, thought-activated control over their mechanical shell.

As standard, Astartes armor makes the warrior inside practically invulnerable to all small-caliber projectile weapons and lower-power energy weapons – and provides excellent protection even against more powerful explosive and energy blasts.

In the tabletop game, Space Marines have long had a better-than-average standard armor save value of 3+, meaning that if a marine gets hit, their armor has a 66% chance of blocking the damage (unless the shooter’s weapon is optimized to penetrate armor).

Space Marine armor has also always been, to some extent, modular and customizable for special assignments; even as far back as the Mk III, Mk IV, and Mk VI models used during the Horus Heresy, parts could be salvaged, swapped, and modified, so long as you had a skilled Techmarine handy.

But the most recent mark of power armor – the mighty Mark X – is the pinnacle of that versatility, designed from the very start around a multi-purpose core suit, that could be modified with a massive variety of different, specialized plates, modules, and support systems, to create distinct ‘patterns’ optimized for specific battlefield roles.

Spaceship boarding, stealth assassinations, crowd control, massed assaults, armored blitzkrieg – you name it, Space Marines can do it. 

Space Marine weapons

There are over 120 distinct weapon types used by Space Marines across the Warhammer 40k tabletop wargame and fiction, ranging from powered blades, fists, and hammers for close combat; through handheld ranged guns using explosive slugs, energy bursts, or even radiation blasts for ammo; to heavy duty anti-tank or anti-personnel guns mounted on vehicles and Dreadnoughts (more on them later).

We can’t list all of them here – but here’s a summary of the most commonly used Space Marine weapons you’ll see.

Space marine ranged weapons include:

• Boltgun (with several variants)
• Heavy Bolter
• Storm Bolter
• Bolt Rifle (with Auto, Heavy, and Stalker variants)
• Bolt Pistol (with Heavy variant)
• Flamer
• Heavy Flamer
• Pyreblaster
• Plasma Pistol
• Plasma Gun
• Plasma Incinerator
• Meltagun
• Melta Rifle
• Multi-Melta
• Plasma Cannon
• Assault Cannon
• Lascannon

Space marine melee weapons include:

• Chainsword
• Power Sword
• Power Axe
• Power Fist
• Lightning Claws
• Thunder Hammer

Space Marine Chapters

In the 41st millennium (and, per the current lore, the opening years of the 42nd) the Space Marines are organised into hundreds of distinct, independent fighting forces known as Space Marine Chapters – of which the blue-armored Ultramarines who play the lead in SM2 are but one.

We have a whole guide dedicated to explaining the many Space Marine Chapters – and the ancient Space Marine Legions that preceded them – so for the full story, click that link. For now, we’ll provide an overview of what they are, how they operate, and name a few of the most prominent chapters at large in the 40k universe.

A Space Marine chapter is a discrete, organised fighting force of Adeptus Astartes warriors, with its own proud name, history, color scheme, symbology, and heraldry. It’s usually led by a single Chapter Master and, beneath them, split into multiple units (normally called companies) commanded by senior officers. Most chapters contain a nominal 1,000 Space Marines.

Most chapters keep their own fleets of void-borne warships and armories of weapons, munitions, and Warhammer 40k tanks – all maintained with the assistance of allied tech-priests from the Adeptus Mechanicus, whose hallowed task it is to keep all Imperial technology in working order.

Beyond that core definition, chapters often differ wildly from each other, in terms of their numbers; their philosophies and priorities; their power structures and organisation; and especially in their preferred weaponry and ways of war.

Space Marine chapters may protect a region of Imperial space based around their home-world, or they may travel the galaxy on mighty crusades to drive back the Xenos races and forces of Chaos that threaten mankind. Many chapters have no home-world, instead maintaining a base of operations in a mobile fortress monastery ship.

Chapters even diverge from one another at the level of basic genetic makeup. Every chapter officially claims its genetic heritage from the gene-seed of one of the original Warhammer 40k primarchs. But, after 10,000 years of warfare, losses, reinforcements, and extremely shoddy record-keeping, it’s more or less impossible to be sure how true those claims are any more. That’s doubly true for the new Primaris marines (more on them later).

There are thought to be 1,000 chapters in the Imperium of Man, each numbering around 1,000 marines. If that’s true, then there’s at least one Space Marine for every world in the Imperium – but in reality there are almost certainly far more than that.

What is the Codex Astartes?

The Space Marine Chapters were originally created according to the Codex Astartes, a war manual written by Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman which formally limited the size of each Space Marine army to 1,000. This, he hoped, would prevent any one Astartes force from becoming too powerful and turning against the Imperium, as happened in the disastrous Horus Heresy civil war, when colossal Space Marine legions united tens of thousands of Astartes under one banner.

But, while many so-called ‘codex compliant’ chapters still follow these restrictions in the 41st millennium, a significant number definitely don’t – including the Black Templars and Space Wolves, both of whom use their decentralised command structures as an excuse for maintaining forces of many thousands of marines at all times.

Read our dedicated Codex Astartes guide for more details.

Primaris Space Marines

The Primaris Space Marines are the pinnacle of transhuman soldiery, a more physically advanced, better equipped, upgraded version of the Space Marines, engineered over ten millennia by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl – an ingenious, eccentric, and decidedly dangerous senior Tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Introduced to the tabletop game and the fiction at the same time, with the launch of Warhammer 40k’s 8th Edition in 2017, the Primaris Space Marines started off with a small selection of up-scaled Space Marine characters and units that joined the original ‘Firstborn’ Marines. As of 2024, they’re gradually replacing the original marines entirely.

Taller, stronger, and faster than the original Adeptus Astartes, clad in upgraded Mark X power armor, and equipped with a whole range of superior wargear, the Primaris marines do all the same things as their forebears – only better. In the lore, at least. In 10th edition, Primaris and old-style ‘Firstborn’ marines fill different battlefield roles, but have similar stats.

Almost all the Space Marine Chapters have received large influxes of Primaris Space Marine reinforcements. These have either been delivered in person via Roboute Guilliman’s Indomitus Crusade, or by Torchbearer fleets of the Adeptus Custodes transferring the secrets of their creation. Where Primaris and Firstborn have suddenly begun thrust together, friction, distrust, and culture shock have resulted.

Entire new chapters, such as the Fulminators and Rift Stalkers, have been formed entirely of Primaris marines, in the so-called Ultima Founding, ordered by Roboute Guilliman.

Even prominent leaders among the Firstborn Space Marines have undergone arcane and painful surgery to be converted into Primaris marines – led by Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, and followed by many others, including the Black Templars’ High Marshal Helbrecht.

The burning question – both on the tabletop, and canonically in Warhammer 40k lore – is: are the Firstborn marines on the way out? Will the new and improved Primaris breed entirely replace the original Adeptus Astartes that have held firm in defence of the Imperium of Man for 10,000 years? It certainly looks that way.

Space Marine Terminators

Space Marine Terminators are elite warriors clad in Tactical Dreadnought Armor, aka Terminator Armor. This is the most advanced personal protective wargear available to the Imperium of Man. It incorporates both heavy duty armor plating, and powerful forcefield generators, capable of deflecting enemy shots and powerful melee hits alike.

Each suit of Terminator armor is a holy relic to the chapter that possesses it, for the knowledge of their manufacture is almost entirely lost. Only the elite of a chapter, usually its first company veterans and command staff, has the rite to bear this incredible panoply to war.

You can learn more about this awesome wargear in our Space Marine Terminators guide.

Space Marine Dreadnoughts

No guide to the Adeptus Astartes would be complete without introducing you to their grumpy grandpas: the hulking, heavily armored, walking death machines that are Dreadnoughts. You’ll find full details in our Space Marine Dreadnoughts guide, but here’s a summary.

When the heroes of a Space Marine chapter become grievously wounded and beyond ordinary medical help, they are sometimes converted into Dreadnoughts: enormous, two-legged walking weapons platforms encased in thick armor, controlled by the dying warrior’s brain – which remains preserved in a shielded, fluid-filled golden casket at its heart.

It’s a grim existence for these fallen warriors, filled with phantom pains and existential dread, all too aware that they have no body, but live indefinitely in an unfeeling tank of cold iron. As a result, for the good of their own sanity, Dreadnoughts are normally kept in hypnotic stasis until they are awakened for war in times of special need.

Many models of Astartes Dreadnoughts have seen war service over the millennia, fitted with all manner of different armaments to fulfil different battlefield roles, from long-range tank-killing guns to stone-cutting siege drills.

What unites them all is resilience and versatility: Dreadnoughts aren’t as fast as tanks, or as flexible as infantry – but they’re tough as nails and can be loaded up to dish out huge damage both at range and in close combat. Woe betide any enemy that lets their giant motorised fists get in range.

Female Space Marines

There aren’t any female Space Marines. The reasons why, both within the lore and in terms of the history of the Warhammer 40k product range, are surprisingly convoluted – but they boil down to the following: GW’s early 1990s female space marine models didn’t sell very well, were discontinued, and then it simply became canon that all Astartes were men (largely for convenience).

For the full story on this unnecessarily controversial topic, read our dedicated guide to female Space Marines, which recounts the facts and the discourse surrounding the question.

How to play Space Marines in tabletop Warhammer 40k

If all this lore has you wanting to get started playing Space Marines in tabletop Warhammer 40,000, you’ll need three things: an army of miniatures, the latest Space Marines codex rulebook, and a friend to battle against.

We can’t help you on the third thing, sadly – but the section below explains the 10th edition codex (the rulebook for how all your Space Marine miniatures operate in the game), lists a few of the most common tabletop units you’ll meet, and offers some recommendations for picking up affordable minis for your army.

10th Edition Space Marines codex

The most recent Space Marines codex rulebook was released on October 7, 2023, the second full codex to release for Warhammer 40k 10th Edition.

A total of 216 pages long, it’s roughly half filled with lore and backstory about the faction – with the other half made up of the army’s current rules, including 93 unit datasheets and seven Warhammer 40k detachments (building blocks for organizing your army).

The initial community reaction to the new codex was broadly positive, as the main faction rules were largely unchanged from the interim ‘Index’ ruleset provided at the launch of Warhammer 40k 10th edition in June 2023.

The seven detachments added lots of viable and narratively satisfying options to run specific, themed chapters like the Space Wolves, White Scars, or Raven Guard, without the fiddly chapter keyword limitations in previous editions.

Fans generally agreed that the ‘power level’ of this codex placed Space Marines where they usually sit in the competitive tier list – right above the middle – and offered the same balanced, forgiving style of play we’ve come to expect from the Astartes.

Read our full guide tracking the Warhammer 40k codex release dates for more info.

Space Marines FAQ and Errata

Games Workshop has released several tweaks to the Space Marines rules since the codex released, in the form of Errata documents and its quarterly Balance Dataslate – a roundup of game balance changes for multiple armies informed by fan feedback and tournament play.

The most recent version of the Space Marines errata was published on June 20, 2024.

The most recent Warhammer 40k balance dataslate was also published on June 20. It made only minor changes to the faction rules – including a slight increase to the transport capacity of Impulsor and Repulsor vehicles, and wording tweaks for some Enhancements.

You can check the up-to-date points costs for all Warhammer 40k units – including Space Marines – in the current Munitorum Field Manual PDF.

Space Marine units

Space Marines have by far the largest range of fighting units of any of the 22 armies in the Warhammer 40k tabletop game, with over 93 distinct units you can field in your miniature army. Here’s just a few of the most commonly played Space Marine units.

Space Marine infantry units

Space Marine vehicles

Space Marine color schemes

As the photo above should demonstrate, there are effectively unlimited ways you can paint Space Marines. GW’s vast library of lore has fleshed out colors, insignia, and varying amounts of narrative detail for several dozen of Space Marine chapters – and if one of these catches your eye, go for it.

We go into picking Space Marine color schemes in more detail in our guide on how to paint Space Marines.

Where to buy Space Marine deals

If you’re looking for Space Marine deals to pick up a few models without paying a premium for new-in-box product from Games Workshop, there are almost always cheap used miniatures to be found on the second hand market.

Because Space Marines are so popular, included in every Warhammer 40k Starter Set, and are often a new player’s first army, there are more Space Marines available to purchase second hand than any other army.

A great first place to look for used minis is eBay. Not only is it possible to snag a bargain or a big bundle of bits, it provides buyer protection on your purchases.

There are also many Warhammer 40k trading groups on Facebook, as well as plentiful listings on the Facebook Marketplace. While there are bargains to be had, beware scammers. Ensure any payments you make have buyer protection: use the “pay for goods and services” option if you use PayPal, not “friends and family”, for example.

Typically, expect to pay more per item to buy specific, unbuilt kits, and less per item for bundle deals and built and painted models (particularly if they’re badly painted).

It’s possible to remove paint from models by soaking them in isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol), Simple Green (in the USA) or Biostrip 20 (in the UK), then scrubbing the paint off with a cheap toothbrush. Wear cleaning gloves to protect your skin. If you’re under 16, get an adult’s help.

We recommend an ultrasonic cleaning bath as a great hobby tool to aid with this. Be careful when stripping resin miniatures, as they can only survive a very brief immersion in solvents.

If you’re looking to get new Space Marine models cheaper than RRP, most local game stores and online retailers sell them at a discount compared to Games Workshop’s official webstore.

Space Marines Combat Patrol

The best value option for getting brand new Space Marines models is one of GW’s official Space Marines Combat Patrol starter boxes.

The three Combat Patrol boxes all provide a good value bundle of models, costing $160 USD / £95 GBP on the official GW webstore (and cheaper elsewhere) and containing a small starter army.

The Combat Patrols  for the Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Deathwatch all contain models you can use in any Space Marine army, plus upgrade sprues with chapter specific bits. There’s also a Black Templars combat patrol, though this contains models only that Chapter can field in games.

Combat Patrols are small self-contained armies which you can use as the basis of an army, to expand a collection, or in the beginner-friendly Combat Patrol game mode. The Space Marine half of the ‘ultimate edition’ Warhammer 40k Starter Set can also be used in this game mode.

You may also find a slightly older Combat Patrol Space Marines box, containing Vanguard Space Marines, in your friendly local game store. This doesn’t have rules for Combat Patrol in 10th edition, but it’s a great start to an army.

After 30 years, Space Marines are still the go-to army for most newcomers to Warhammer 40k, and with good reason – we can confidently recommend them as a way into the game and hobby alike. If you’re teetering on the edge of starting a Demi-Company of your own, we’d say go for it, don’t be afraid. You’re about to become one of the Emperor’s Angels of Death, after all – And They Shall Know No Fear.

With thanks to Nerodine for his Space Wolves Redemptor Dreadnought, and Repulsor.

Source: Wargamer