If Space Marines and other races had stats that looked more like their book portrayed them, what would they be...

If Space Marines and other races had stats that looked more like their book portrayed them, what would they be? You can go higher than T7 and AV14. And saves on a d8, d10, etc


Tactical Marine: WS6 BS6 S5 T5 W2 I5 A3 LD11 SV3+ (on a d8)

It really varies by book and by the bias of the author. In the Tau Codex they shred through space marines with their plasma weapons with ease, but in most SM-centered books the average marines is far more difficult to kill.

The obvious solution is to autistically stat each unit book by book, then average each statblock together, resulting in the one true statblock for each faction.

I'm trying to decide whether this is something that Veeky Forums would realistically do or not.

Well I think just as it is on tabletop you'd just base it all around the stats of a tactical marine (who's new stats would have to be agreed on). Probably need to have higher value limits too.

They are special forces, not an army.

...

The most basic thing that is an absolute must here is giving a marine 2 wounds. After all, they have 2 hearts, makes sense for them to stay fighting after 1 fatal hit.

>that looked more like their book portrayed them,
Tyranids not withstanding, the fluff is propaganda.

T5 is too much. I've never seen a space marine not instantly die from a lascannon hit.

Of course they can, so long as they don't get hit in the upper chest or head. They can afford to lose an arm or a leg.

Also one major change is STOP USING FUCKING TOUGHNESS TO REPRESENT ACTUAL TOUGHNESS, IT DOESN'T FUCKING WORK.

Use toughness to make shit like marines immune to small arms fire, but for stuff like Carnifexes, use WOUNDS not toughness. Slap five or six wounds on a carnifex and BOOM, suddenly Tyranid MC's don't suck ass anymore.

so, kinda loosely like the chunky salsa rule, where certain types of damage will still cause damage, while others are Ignored? I dunno that's the connection my mind is trying to make

Sorta. I'd boost marine durability to the point that autoguns/lasguns don't do anything while significantly boosting their points cost to make them a "couple squads make an army" army.


Guardsmen meanwhile get a basic unit of 30 guys for dirt cheap.

You know, in a way it's not so much the stats, but how you play them.

For example Marines are said to be worth ten guardsmen, that doesn't mean they should be just as hard and have 10 wounds.
They are more of a special forces kind of deal.

So you'd need to design the rules more around objective based games, instead of open battle lines.

That way one Marine would be able to be kind of worth 10 guardsmen by holding an objective by himself, provided he can take advantage of cover etc.
However out in the open getting riddles with lasgun shots by then guardsmen would kill him quickly.

40k isn't really balanced around that though.
The way the rules are written it's more like Xpts are roughly equal to Xpts in terms of damage output and staying power.

If it was all book canon then fighting tyranids would be simply be unwinnable. Just order exterminatus on every tyranid planet.

If it was book canon the normal 2000 point tyranid army would have several hundreds of models, most of them gaunts

The whole game would need updating if you wanted to make it fluff accurate. Assassins would have to be buffed, all Eldar would have to be buffed, Necrons would have to be buffed, Orks would have to be buffed, etc etc.

Assuming you take Guardsmen as they are as the baseline, your Marines would be:

WS5 BS5 S5 T5 W2 I4 A3 Ld10 Sv 3+/6++

And what does it look like in reality?

I agree with more than 1 wound, but number of hearts has nothing to do with that.

Why is it only ever marine players that start these threats, and always with ridiculous stats.

Damn right, it doesn't even make sense that they'd have their own army in 40k

Space marines no change.

I think you're taking the word 'army' a bit literally there.

This, movie Marines already exist

I don't know what the stats for the Tyranids would look like, but at least they would be taken seriously.
>TFW you're the only Tyranid player and everyone shits on you.

I wouldn't change stats in a huge way for the most part, since the only place where Space Marines are really hardcore is in their own codexes and in novels specifically about them. I would give Tac Marines the following statline on a d6.

WS 4, BS 4, S4, T4, W2, I4, A1, LD 10 SV 3+

I would give their weapons something special to differentiate them from normal human sized weapons of the same kind, though. Bolt weapons and chainswords can reroll failed wounds, plasma weapons don't overheat, etc.

I'd buff up Vets and Terminators to differentiate them more from normal tac marines too, giving Vanguards +1 WS and initiative and Sternguard +1 BS. Terminators would get +1 to everything, more or less.

More important than giving Space Marines higher stats, is that Space Marines should almost always have the strategic advantage.

They are special forces that drop from orbit onto the planet, or teleport into battle from incredibly fast and stealthy spaceships.

That's their entire shtick.

How possible is it to beat the fluff into agreeing with their game stats?

strategy ratings in the base 40k game coming back fucking WHEN

decide on protagonist

every enemy action is averted on 2+ on 2d6

>since the only place where Space Marines are really hardcore is in their own codexes and in novels specifically about them
The Eldar novels portrayed them as just about the most terrifying thing ever. Though it also made it clear they were rare as fuck, the main character exarch having only fought them once before in all his lives he lost that life