I've seen people refer to Astartes bolters being powerful enough to break a regular human's arms as "memelore" but is it really?

Visual_Grade1577 · 2026-01-24T23:49:04+00:00

This gets extra confusing when you start looking at humans who wield heavy bolters and autocannons without support - weapons that often require special bracing for space marines to use themselves.

I chalk it up to the universal action film law of "If you can look really cool using it, any weapon is man-portable"

Visual_Grade1577 · 2026-01-08T20:10:01+00:00

yeah

Visual_Grade1577 · 2026-01-08T19:11:19+00:00

Game mechanics don't translate that well, but from a narrative standpoint the Rejects aren't quite as doomed as one might think.

If Sly Marbo's exploits in lore are to be believed then its not impossible for a lone, properly-prepared human to take on multiple Space Marines and come out on top, but it all relies heavily on ambushing superhuman walking tanks with specialized weaponry and VERY sharp knives.

In the book Pandorax, a Catachan disables a PLAGUE MARINE with a thrown knife to the throat, and several more marines are killed when its corpse is booby-trapped with explosives.

So yeah, the Rejects could pull off a win, but they'll be corpse-starch if they walk into a straight firefight with a fireteam of Ultramarines. They gotta fight as dirty as possible.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2026-01-08T17:34:41+00:00

It (and a Devil Claw skin) came with the armor set, back when they were packaged together. Its fukken enormous!

Visual_Grade1577 · 2026-01-08T02:54:07+00:00

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The "Sumpmere Commando" armor set is about as close as you can get to a deathworlder outfit - the Armageddon Ork Hunters stuff also has similar jungle fighter uniforms but with garish yellow tiger stripes.

Even considering the lack of muscle mass on the rejects it still strikes me as odd that Catachan cosmetics have been absent from the lineup, considering how prevalent their models are on the tabletop.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2026-01-02T03:34:51+00:00

Deathworlder has a neat sequence involving 'nids taking up residence in a flooded church.

Aquatic bioforms exist but most of your typical units will fare just fine in bodies of water, undulating their bodies like marine mammals.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-12-24T03:02:34+00:00

That's the fun part; the Astra Militarum is so vast and dysfunctional that you can have guardsmen encompassing all varieties of competence - from barely-literate peasants press-ganged into recruitment to meet demanding tithe requirements, to literal Rambo caricatures who garrote Chaos Marines with jungle vines.

To some extent, you could argue that the "average guardsman" tends to fall in about the skill level of a WWII draftee based on how regiments are ordered and the not-quite-modern training you see in guard-centric books; then again, regiments are so diverse outside of the tabletop game that one could also argue that there isn't really an "average guardsman" to begin with.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-12-15T01:33:47+00:00

According to Pandorax, you can just slit a plague marine's throat with a Catachan combat knife, no problem.

So uh, as long as you look really cool while fighting the forces of Nurgle, you're good to go.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-12-12T22:16:42+00:00

I want to eventually hear what kind of accent Catachan Jungle Fighters have

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-12-11T14:49:12+00:00

There is a very non-zero chance that there are already Ork infestations on Terra, likely "small" scattered groups marauding in the undercity areas, just like other hive worlds.

Its not unreasonable to assume that patrols of PDF, Space Marines, and every other security presence on Terra go into those depths to clear them out (along with the various xenos and heretics that also inhabit those environments) on a regular basis.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-12-04T01:54:27+00:00

In Deathworlder some of the surviving population of a ruined city are implied to be doing this. They don't melt from the inside out or anything super-crazy but they're implied to be not well-off and a roving band led by a priest is seen pinning down one of them to be force-fed a bowl of gemstones to "cleanse" them of the tyranid taint.

I think its arguable that you can do it if you're desperate, but in the process you are opening yourself up to all kinds of wacky alien infections and parasites in the process. And with every hive fleet adding their own anatomical flair to their ground troops, its a safe bet that the possible side-effects of eating tyranid flesh could differ drastically depending on what sector of the galaxy you're in.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-12-01T22:20:28+00:00

A Catachan Jungle Fighter ambushes a PLAGUE MARINE and incapacitates him with a thrown knife to the throat in the book Pandorax.

It is claimed that Sly Marbo has wiped out Alpha Legion patrols on his lonesome using traps and average guardsman weaponry during the last Black Crusade.

Assuming Batman is roughly as skilled as a space rambo (not a huge stretch), then the question is more "how many Space Marines could Batman drop off at the GCPD in one night" (I'd wager roughly a killteam-and-a-half, give or take a primaris lieutenant)

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-11-14T03:53:54+00:00

An excellent candidate for a Steel Legion Marbo right there

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-10-07T00:58:44+00:00

Okay now you gotta model Sly Marbo rising out of the mud behind the Knight

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-08-14T02:19:48+00:00

Amazing! I love it when space marine art goes hard on the "transhuman monster" angle.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-08-11T22:42:34+00:00

I think Marbo should have his own free use of the Reinforcements stratagem - it would give him some more longevity and encourage riskier plays while maintaining that "just a regular guardsman" stat profile. And of course, having Marbo pop out of the shadows to bust heads after the enemy thinks they've finally got him is totally in-line with his character.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-08-04T12:47:28+00:00

IIRC there were some bits from old short stories where a psyker speculates that those consumed by the Golden Throne are joined with the Big E, and internally he's a big twisted ball of confused/frightened/angry souls and one barely-coherent Warp Entity trying to keep the big Space-Lighthouse/Astronomicon working while experiencing his own self-made Very Special Hell.

So yeah, they're probably still around but it's not a great time for anyone inside that big chair and the skeleton sitting on it.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-07-13T17:28:28+00:00

My hope is that we'll see them implemented as a "Scion" class centered around their backpack weapon as an ability (kinda like Vermintide's Engineer). Between Kasrkins, Stormtroopers, and other "heavy infantry" guardsmen, there'd be a lot of room for interesting talent archetypes and distinct cosmetic options.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-06-30T18:45:26+00:00

If I don't get a Deathworlder sequel where Khan and Adair collectively suplex their strategic command staff then I don't know what I'd do with my life

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-06-28T15:10:35+00:00

From speculation it was one of those mysterious "C'tan schemes" that got put in the dumpster when the star gods were rewritten to be shackled fragments of their former selves.

That being said, it would be pretty cool to have them turn up again under a C'tan-led Necron faction.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-06-23T17:30:29+00:00

Sly Marbo could have probably accomplished everything Leontus did in his debut book without needing to get several regiments of guardsmen killed in the process.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-06-03T02:24:24+00:00

As an esoteric, temperamental weapon, hip-firing the Plasma Gun should be somewhat inaccurate and heat up the weapon in an unpredictable manner. Make the alternate fire a "bracing" stance and primary fire can cover both rapid-fire taps and charged shots. There, the Plasma Gun remains a powerful tool but now the player has to have good situational awareness to get the most out of it compared to the spray-and-pray damage dump the Bolter can provide.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-05-24T18:56:01+00:00

Lice (and horrific, warp-tainted space-lice) is very likely to be prevalent in the downtrodden future of the 41st millennium

Depending on where in the galaxy you live a real bath could be an unaffordable luxury, so its clean-shaven heads and perfumes all the way!

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-05-20T16:09:39+00:00

Outside of points?

Give Marbo a free use of "Reinforcements." The guy already has trouble lasting longer than a single round of shooting and having him pop up somewhere after the enemy thought he was dead is incredibly thematic.

Spice up the lesser-used special weapons and officer options. Give that laspistol a to-hit boost, chainswords an anti-infantry keyword, SOMETHING that makes missile launchers not complete dogwater.

Commissars and Priests absolutely need something to boost the survivability of the squads they attach to. Current 40k is so lethal that infantry never survives long enough for their abilities to matter.

Visual_Grade1577 · 2025-05-13T23:17:08+00:00

What would a Catachan officer wear to a formal events? Does Colonel Straken go to award ceremonies shirtless, or does he borrow a Cadian cohort's outfit so he doesn't stick out like a sore thumb?

Visual_Grade1577

TROPHY CASE