Were the Ultramarines the right choice for the main chapter of space marines in W40K space marine?

[Sir Ollie]

Ultramarines pretty much made the space marines into what they are today. That said. They're still boring as hell "We killed some Nids FOR THE EMPEROR!"

I would love to see Dark Angels but they wouldn't work. Since any Dark Angel would abandon their mission if a member of the fallen is located.

Blood Ravens? "TARGET THOSE GREENSKINS" While attacking Chaos. (Alright, silly excuse I know )

Grey Knights? They wouldn't be used to recover a titan. Unless a Greater daemon came out of nowhere.


I'm not sure really. I want something different, like Deathwatch.

 

[Dumori]

They wanted to stray away from the blood themed chapters (Blood raven, Blood angel)

Plus the whole red landscape thing.

It's mostly as when selling 40k to peoples parents the Ultramarines are the safe chapter more or less that's how it started.

The idea of Space Marine would have most certainly been better fit with a Deathwatch kill-team an opitunity I think they really missed allowing them to not focus on a chapter but more on the Space Marines as a whole would also have lead to slightly more interesting chariterisation I'm sure.

Ultramarines and most of their successors are the "perfect" chapters lacking the flaws and unorthodox ways of other chapters. This villina factor added with the really over the top fluff at times (I won't go there but some of it is rage worth Ultramarines hyping toss). Makes them easy to hate for the more involved fans.

The real gold in doing a Deathwatch based game is you'd get to show the different chapters in respect to each other but with out forcing just one down your neck. Ignoring the difficulties of having a Dark Angel and a Space Wolf in the same killteam most other chapters will work well togther after some adjustment.

The fginal annoyance is that given a situation like this needign a small team to stop orks from gigant/titant building even the Ultramrines would likely call in Deathwatch if they could. Unless this was is deep in core sectors not near any recorded xenos threat Deathwatch would have a team ready to be there ASAP.

 

[Legion IV]

I've said it many .... many .... times before.

It should have been Grey Knights ...... or Space Wolves.

Ehhh Grey knights woulda have worked, they wernt aware of Choas's presence right away so theyed never send the grey knights which are basicly the most baller of ballers.

I guess they chose Ultra marines because there the chapter the new fans are ussualy introduced to. Honestly i woulda prefered the White Scars.


Honestly though i would prefer a more obscure chapter.... Angels of Vigilance, these guys are epic yet people tend to know so little about them.

 

[Knusper]

I can understand their choice because the Ultramarines are the chapter that is the chapter that (as far as I'm aware) has the least amount of dark, secretive back story and so they don't need to focus on that in the game's story but rather they can take it where they like.

Dark Angels, awesome they may be, would have been a little harder to right a plot for and still maintain continuity with the 40k universe and not enraging the 40k fans.

 

[bird of hermes]

I've said it many .... many .... times before.

It should have been Grey Knights ...... or Space Wolves.

this, a thousand times this.
I'd take Wolves or Knights any day over the Smurfs. They're just more interesting than Rowboat Girlyman's Ultrasmurfs.

 

[Zbljuv]

Black Templars are made of win but as everyone said already Ultramarines are "standard" and most relateable to newcomers.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

This game is them introducing the WH40k mythos to a mainstream audience. The Ultramarines are the easiest to understand and don't have the little quirks or ticks that require in depth mythos knowledge to understand.

Expecting a chapter like the Space Wolves, whose entire basis is how DIFFERENT they are from the ultramarines, is silly. Expect the first few games like these to focus on the Ultra's.

Besides, everyone knows the best chapter is the ANGRY MARINES.

 

[Sonicron]

Nerds all over the world are quick to forget that, to the uninitiated masses who are supposed to buy this game, Space Marines and the lore surrounding them are weird enough already without adding chapter-specific characteristics and information. Yes, I would have enjoyed seeing a different chapter at the helm for this game, but I can damn well understand the reasoning that went into Relic's choice. Besides, despite my preference for tech-monks and those smelly mutts from Fenris, the concept of Roman legionnaires in space is badass enough to carry a game.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

As everyone's said, the Ultramarines are the easiest to relate to for the players, and for the writers to write for.

Black Templars would come across a absurd zealots, because they are.
Blood Angels would come across as metrosexual italian vampires with huge egos, because they are.
Space Wolves would come across as vikings which are awesome, but their colors are crap and they might just end up as frat boys.
Salamanders would come across as Robin Hood with power armour. Plus, they're black. For whatever reason, very few games do that.
Grey Knights... Do the people advocating that have any idea how much is wrong with that?
Imperial Fists are bright yellow, so would be indistinguishable from the scenery.
Crimson Fists are dark blue, which isn't as bold as ultramarine blue. See above.
Dark angels are anti social even by the standards of astartes because of their secrecy.

Those are the chapters which I can think of off the top of my head, so any others would be even more obscure so less suitable.

Ultramarines are a bright, bold blue to stand out and their cultural counterpart is ancient Greece without the sodomy. Combine that with their adherence to pre-established tactical doctrines and they're the easiest chapter to relate to.

You do realise that thanks to Matt Ward the Ultramarines are however, bland insufferable god-mode Mary Sues nowadays, right?

 

[Svane]

.... or Space Wolves.

No no no, you got it all wrong. Thousand Sons! *angry stare*

Some has said it before in this thread: Ultramarines really is a boring Chapter.... Space Wolves, Thousand Sons or Raven Guard.

Space Wolves and Raven Guard would be really awesome, especially with their equipment and colour schemes.

Thousands Sons are traitors but... they are awesome in colour scheme, armour and have an awesome storyline behind them.

But it may have something to do with the gaming community have "seen" Ultramarines before.... in red armour.

 

[Apocalypse0Child]

I'm gunna say this from my stubborn collecting point of view:
They should have picked one of the legions that left with Horus. THEN you'd probably get a more interesting game (variability for success lies with the retardation of the producers obviously*).

 

[Kiefer13]

Not really, but it was an inevitable choice. Just as the Space Marines are the poster boy army of 40k, Ultramarines are the poster boy chapter of the Space Marines.

 

[Hiname]

Hmm... I want a Sisters of Battle chapter..

Or when defenitly nailed down to the Space Marines... Can I have the Soul Drinker chapter please? *cackles madly*

 

[Suomimaster]

After playing the demo, I really didn't care what chapter it is. All I was thinking was: "SPEH MAHREEN STOMP! SMASH!" Something primal woke in me as I played the demo.

And when we'll get to play as a regular Joe armed with flashlight and wearing paper mache armour, fighting against Chaos Space Marine Army?

 

[Aulleas123]

I'd say yes. There are very few other chapters that seem reasonable to have as the background to seem as the protectors of humanity. Growing up, I knew of the big four chapters: Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Space Wolves. Space Wolves and Blood Angels are awesome but they are also too animalistic and savage to be good representatives. Dark Angels have too much focused on the vengeance and defeat of their back-story so again, they can't really be a good choice. Ultramarines have been called bland and simple, however for introducing new fans into the lore of the 40k Universe this is exactly what we need.

In addition, it's nice to not see Blood Ravens brought up again. They're such a pointless chapter.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

I'd have to go with the answer that non Warhammer 40k fans, that is to say people who know what it is but dont actualy collect armies and so on, probably couldnt name half the chapters apart from the Ultramarines which is probably the most commonly known, as an example long before i got into it properly i knew the Ultramarines by name, this is probably one of the main development choices, as they want the game to appeal to the largest audiance possibly not just the die-hard fans, so they pick the most easily associatable chapter and more importantly the one that non fans can easily relate with knowing even a little bit about. I guess my point is that it wasnt a matter of picking a chapter that was right or wrong for the scenario but picking one that pretty much everyone knows.

As a non-Games Workshop fan, I'm inclined to agree. I honestly have no idea about any of the lore, outside of Ultra-Marines massacre orcs. Sure, they seem a bit generic now-a-days, but that's only because they established the formula in the beginning.

 

[Griffolion]

I played the demo the gameplay was solid and I found myself wanting to see how the story and characters played out but I just that inkling in the back of my head that one of these characters is going to say or do something stupid. In my opinion I thought the Blood Angels would have been a better choice but what do you think?

Grey Knights. Any other chapter just plain loses.

 

[BristolBerserker]

Space marines are the same, they are the 40k incarnation of the US army. You know it's true.

More USMC than US Army... but the point still stands, I guess...[/quote]

Surely the space marines are the best trained, equipped, battle hardened etc... so they are closer to the Royal Marines than the USMC.

 

[hyplion]

well they do stick closest to the codex astartes so in a sense they are closest to what is defined as space marine chapter in the background, they deserve it.
And i do not mind playing as the chapter who singlehandedly crushed the first tyranid invasion into imperial space.