Just for clarification, maybe I am reading Hena's post a little differently.
I understood that a SM chapter was individual and could function as such, whether it be ground or air assault, and has the equipment and training to do so. Every chapter has this capability but also their own specialities, so Imperial Fists specialise as siege breakers
, salamanders are close in ground fire-based-assault
etc. They are more likely to be chosen for a role suiting their speciality, but this is not guaranteed. Hence the complaints that the standard marine list is not suitably capable at ground based assaults.
However, if every chapter could feasibly field any army fielded by any other chapter, is this argument moot? Ultramarines could field an army of bikes if they wanted because surely they would have the capability and equipment. Likewise salamanders could act as seige breakers a la Imperial Fists. You could argue that the specialisations preclude their use in such unfamiliar roles, however I could arge that they have the equipment to hand, and the unfamiliarity of the commanders to the new tactics would be adequately represented by the player controlling the marine army in a new scenario.
Therefore the different chapter lists on the boards are all 'vanilla' marine lists, just renamed for character to suit the specialist chapters that use the various 'extreme' lists (apart from maybe Space Wolves). Occasionally there are the occasional chapter specific special rule (e.g. skill as bikers allow rerolled dangerous terrain tests), but are these changes the only differences between all the chapters, or am I missing some?
However, I see no problem with running Chapter X using any marine list, minus maybe the specialist rules, as they should all be able to do it all. I think the standard list is perfectly valid as a list and I have never faced it with more than two thunderhawks. However I concede that some of the tank stats are unpopular.
This may have been suggested before and thrown away after previous deliberation. If so I apologise
. Why not create one marine list, with constant unit stats across the board. Then treat every chapter as a series of add-ons along the same idea lines as the 'major and minor traits thing' in 40k (do they still even do that, haven't played 40k in ages), or the nid weapons increasing a stat value idea? The traits could be organisational, or the occasional special rule, but all based on consistent unit stats. We could define some preset combinations of traits for the more wellknown chapters, or let players make up their own. With careful planning it may be possible to ensure that different combinations of traits are not overpowered.
That way all the space marine chapters could be printed in a handful of pages. Easy book.
). 