There's only 1,000 of them, right?
I almost commented the same thing, but I just knew some ass would be able to provide something like, "Well actually in Volume 3 of Guilliman's Bogus Journey on audiobook, voice actor Terrance Stamp clearly states that current recruiting methods have temporarily placed Ultramarine numbers at 1280, so it makes sense they're everywhere at once."
Which is damn irritating, because they're not the Black Templars or Space Wolves (who canonically have thumbed their noses at the chapter-size restrictions for a long time).
I'm not usually one to complain about realism, but that seems like the most impractical armor and weapon combination I've ever seen.
I would absolutely stab a bitch for a Carcharodons box set. They're one of my favorite chapters.
I think the Codex Astartes ideal of 1,000 Marines per chapter has always been kind of an "in theory" thing rather than an "in practice" thing. As you pointed out, some chapters just don't give a fuck about the Codex, while other chapters are chronically understrength because of heavy casualties or issues with their gene-seed (Carcharodons, Lamenters, Raven Guard, Flesh Tearers, etc). Moreover, I think that most of the Codex-compliant chapters are technically overstrength anyway, since they usually have extra specialist Marines on hand to maintain their fleets and motor pools and archives and so forth. Even the Smurfs aren't strictly Codex-compliant, since they have the Tyrannic War Veterans operating as a separate unit, the Genesis Chapter effectively acting as a reserve pool, and now an 11th Company formed by Rowboat himself.
I seem to also recall that Guilliman wasn't exactly thrilled with the Marines treating the Codex as holy writ as opposed to a primer on operations. I suspect if he gets the chance to revise the Codex, the frontispiece will look something like the saying from the U.S. Army's Ranger School: 'Here lie the bones of Ranger Jones, a graduate of this institution. He died last night in his first firefight using the school solution.'
He was indeed kind of annoyed by that, which is why he's been rewriting and reworking it since he woke up, and generally encouraging his sons to think for themselves and not be slaves to his writing. He's not wrong, either, considering the Ultramarines got righteously fucked up by Hive Fleet Behemoth specifically because the Codex didn't have any tactical advice regarding "giant hordes of eaty space bugs". They were so reliant on it that they had no idea what to do until after the 1st Company had been obliterated and Calgar had lost all his limbs fighting the Swarmlord.
Realistically (lol) almost any unit is going to be under its on paper strength so you'd probably be looking at 700-800 Ultramarines spread across the entire galaxy even with the non-Codex compliant units.
Yeah cool let's keep taking away the only things that make the Imperium of Man different from every other generic scifi dystopian government.
Gorgon’s not that bad though, great on anything with scything talons. Especially when Kronos is in the same codex.
I rather like Kronos, if only because I tend to include Hive Guard and when I do play, enemy psykers are a constant. Oh, and I like their relic. The only time the Gorgon trait really mattered for me is that it helped Genestealers roll a few more 6's for their Rending Claws, which turned out to be critical in getting rid of some Hellblasters and snagging me a point.
Paint 'em blue and pretend they're Ultramarines?
"Counts as". Doesn't matter what your minis are as long as they're the right size. Unless you want to play at stores.
