Too Many Space marine Chapters?

A couple of weeks back, before the latest copy of white dwarf came out, it was rumoured that the rules for the Stormraven would be published allowing this vehicle to be taken by any space marine chapter. Thankfully, although the rules were in WD, there was no sentence suggesting it could be taken by other chapters. Up until this point there had been lots of chatter of the web about how people would integrate the ‘raven into their army.

This along with the general feel on the web that there are too many power armoured armies available got me thinking.

Are there too many Space marine chapters and are they really that different?

Short answer, no.

Back in the late 80’s early 90’s there was 1 space marine list and you could paint it in any colour you wanted. The only exception to this was the grey knights. They had the basic SM army list, with a few add ons.

When 40K 2ed came out the ultramarines came out with their own codex, shortly to be joined by space wolves. Now the wolves do have power armour but they were/ are a very different army in my opinion. They have comparable units, yes, but each one has its own special rules meaning the army plays differently.

Fast forward to 40K 3ed and you get Ultramarine, Space wolf, Blood Angles, Dark Angles and Black templar Codex’s. Yes each of these army, in the main, had a troop with a standard marine stat line encased in power armour. Each army had/ has its own units and special rules though.

Fast forward again, this time to 40K 5ed and you get, mostly, the same codex’s but this time they seem to have diverged from the standard marine chapter even more! Just looking at the SM codex on its own, it’s got several special characters that change the very essence of the army and how it plays. I think GW was wrong in saying that any SM army can use any SC as this stopped the characters being special, it just made them plain boring characters. I do agree with it on the level that GW isn’t forcing you to paint the army in the way they want you to paint it though!

Going back to the storm raven. If it was allowed in, say, an imperial fist army I think it would just be wrong. The Imperial fists are known for their stubbornness and building fortifications. Giving them a fighter bomber would be wrong! The ‘raven just fits in with the blood angles style of warfare!

So the long answer is still no. Although there are lots of power armoured armies out there they are all different, they all have unique units and/ or special rules. People can’t complain that too many armies are the same then moan that they don’t make a unique vehicle generic!

What would be good is if GW could split the CSM, elder and ork codex’s up. There are different chapters of CSM, different craftworlds and different ork clans after all. Exploring the background behind these different factions would be interesting and also make armies more varied!

That’s my opinion any ways