That's Aurora Chapter (known as the Marine Chapter with the greatest ammount of armoured vehicles in the Imperium).

I doubt they were based on your idea, as it's damned unlikely that anyone other than Andy Hall (and maybe Jervis) read those things.

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I can't remember if the 200 casualties were kills or just incapacitated, but it's notable that this was an engagement that lasted for ten days of constant fighting and included several battles against Chaos Space Marines, which would likely tend to be deadly engagements.

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There are a lot of very big of high powered guns about in W40k that can kill off even Marines, as can large enough numbers of enemies to 500ish soldiers.

It was a very big battle, harder fought than they'd expected and I'm sure FW did think about the numbers (they are very meticulous with their details and their material is by far the best GW do). Pretty sure there were casualties numbers on top of the 200 kills I believe too but I forget how many offhand.

The mentality and needs of Space Marine warfare in the 41st millenium are just different from those now.  Marines will stay on and fight in situations where modern human military tactics would pull the troops out or where the troops would have fled themselves - it's the essence of They Shall Know No Fear.

Just had a look a Vraks 1, and yeah the Dark Angels send armoured columns 200 kilometres from their main LZ in order to attack the starport (which is the size of a small city). Thunderhawks were present but were mainly used as gunships, using missiles, lascannons, bombs and turbolassers.

The Dark Angels whole operation lasts 13 days, of which 8 involve heavy fighting for the starport/city, and 2 involve mopping up operations and demolitions to put the starport out of action for the rest of the war. Casualties were seemingly light until day 8 which saw the Alpha Legion conduct their largest counter attack/ambush.

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Let us try to remember, in the 40K universe, this is just a detail.  

No real military organization could afford the levels of attrition that 40K formations incur. So's best to leave out reality while figuring how things should work.

I also remember the Aurora Chapter and the fluff behind it (lots of armor). Perhaps as others have suggested, a few tweaks to the existing list if necessary, then approach the Aurora Chapter with the downgraded ground units and then we're off to the races.

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Honda

"Remember Taros? We do"

- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment

I agree with the attritional realism and numbers problems in W40k. Personally I like to think the numbers are heavily scewed by imperial propaganda double-speak and all soldier numbers are in actuality at least 10-1,000+ times larger than given. It's the only way it could vaguely be feasible. No matter how superhuman or well equipped no way could a thousand SM fight and win against the army of a moderately sized country, let alone a planet or solar system. That's another discussion though and one that doesn't really get anywhere


Again I wouldn't be happy with this either... this should remain a generic SM costed more for on the ground list rather than an vehicle heavy chapter specific list IMO. It's a valid style of play for all chapters and should be a highlighted option for SM players generally.

Wonder if Thunderfire Cannons could possibly be an appropriate option in the list?

I'd save 'em for an Imperial Fists (siege) Marines list.

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Going to give the following somewhat-ground pound Blood Angels force a try this weekend (using the latest BA list).  I don't have the exact points per formation handy, but it adds up to 2975 iirc.



I think it's got nearly enough speed to offset the relative lack of aerospace.  The real fear is a lack of MW/TK, but that's a problem with any marine list.  Perhaps dumping one of the assault formations for some terminators would be more effective.

Unfortunately, a lot of Epic players prefer specialized or aspect heavy lists. I'm not one of them, but we had to deal with the same issues with the Tau. Eventually, in order to break through the circular "discussions" we settled on one aspect of the list and de-emphasized other portions. In the Tau's case, it seems to have worked out for the best (JMO).

I just don't see concerned players wanting an all rounder list that allows equal capabilities for multiple list builds.



In a new list, the world is your oyster.

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Honda

"Remember Taros? We do"

- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment

In an ideal world all rounder list might have been best, but it as others have said it would be tricky to balance both aspects. I admit it's not going to happen and the current air style list is too entrenched to be changed and I'm not trying to. I'd like want to get this ground based variant tested and balanced as an alternative option, not to supplant the main 'air' list.

What is wanted is a generic ground based marine list alongside the current generic air one, not a list for xyz particular variant chapter nor a particular chapter that goes especially for armoured vehicle assaults. The list here reduces marine infantry and vehicle units costs to make them more usable on the ground in general, a marine list could be based more around a core of armoured vehicles as the Scions of Iron is or Aurora may be, but that's yet another kettle of fish again.

As far as I know they've been on the Lexicanum site for a few years, they were their when I was looking for painting inspiration for one of my Chapters towards then end of 2007.

However I think Aurora Chapter have only been linked with Armoured Vehicles since the new Marine Codex was released, which came out a long while after Hena started his Scions list.

Coincidence, of course; it's an obvious niche to fill.

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I like the idea it might have been Hena who inspired then and hey if not at least he came up with the idea first

If I was writing official GW publications I'd drop the occasional sneaky throw away reference to things here like the Scions of Irons chapter or the 'Ot-ar' Forge World    

It'd make the people here smile if they noticed and the other 99% of the audience would assume it was something made up and/or not care (similar things happen with the new TV Doctor Who and the older novels and that).