Ultramarines players: Where's the love?

[Kahoolin]

I was just struck by this throwaway remark in another thread:

On the other hand im not impressed with the ultramarines player who picks up the latest, hardest SM varient dex released and claims it as his own.

I'm not having a go at rbryce in particular, I even understand the point he's making, but it's starting to get me down the amount of bashing the Ultras get online.

The only UM players I've ever actually met (and I've only ever met two, when supposedly every second player has Ultras) were experienced, dedicated players who loved their army despite the fact that it is the uncoolest faction in an uncool hobby. They would never hop codices for an advantage, and they take pride in being UM players. The Ultras have this stigma online as being the army people pick when they don't really care about the game, but in my experience the opposite is true. It's hard to stick to your army when it is constantly being outshined by less subtle variants and used by non-marine players as a buzzword for everything that sucks about 40k.

So this thread will hopefully go a little way to redressing the balance. Tell us about your local UM player, if there is one. If you disagree and think that UM players are gormless n00bs who should pick a real flavour then I guess you can say that too but please give an example.

So props to the boys in blue. Who's with me?

[lobster-overlord]

<<touches nose>>NOT IT!

Blood Angels for a long long time....

But I think what was being stated by that is a person who buys heavily into the C:SM (vanilla style) and then because they already have Space Marine models, jump ship and go with the newest iteration of the Astartes because they're better (codex creep) and feign alegiance to the new codex over the old.

The hard core UM players wouldn't be the ones moving to the new codex, as you've stated.

Our local UM players are quite vocal about UM. One guy has both BA and UM, and keeps them segregated. Another was a noob, so he painted them as UM, then moved on to another faction and repainted (still using C:SM though). The noob is younger, so likely won't spend money to differentiate.

A third is a creeper. He buys almost every codex and builds the uber list, so he'll likely pick up BA and play that for a while (thankfully he's not a tourney player).

Me... I'm an Apoc player so I don't particularly care. I had to pick up C:SM to be able to play using the models I like (the new redeemer for instance), but used the PDF for BA for my regular games. I pick what I like from them all and go from there (BA with Thunderfire, etc.)

John M.

[Mike X]

I haven't actually met an Ultramarines player yet. Sure, I use the generic/vanilla SM codex for my own army, but my color scheme and chapter is original. In fact, my army is often confused with Blood Angels because of the prominent red. However, I don't "jump ship" or practice "counts as" with new codexs.

[therealjohnny5]

i think a lot of the anti UM vibe comes more from them being GW's pet army and for years we couldn't get away from them either in fluff, table tops bc they sold them to new kids, or in products that favored them specifically. i don't think that's necessarily the case anymore. I see a decent number of UM players now and again, but i see just as many or more "codex of the month" armies. The diversity offered for SM players now has alleviated most of that tendency to see UM everywhere for me at least. now however we have the new marine trend which is a bit more annoying to me, except for the long time players, you guys get a kudos, even if you're playing UM.

edit: and another thing is, Marines are the generic, newb\GW's favorite\see them everywhere\ relatively easy army and the UM's have been the overdone armies cover child, so they've gotten the most negativity.

[Ulag Grimskar]

I have to agree, UM Players are subject to lots of hate on the net, something that consistently POs my oldest opponent, who loves his smurfs with a passion, and has done so for the last 15-something years. His army (though I hate to admit it´s better than mine ^^) is the most beautifully painted of all armies I regularly play against. Painting for such a long time, his 2. and 3. Companies are still growing, as are the 1. and 10. (this guy is really serious!!!) He would also NEVER bandwagon or anything, despite being obsessed with CC. He´s expressed a lot of envy for crazy CC builds like SW or BA allow, but to abandon Ultramar??!!?? NEVER!!!
I also know another guy whos been playing UM with and equally beautiful army, whos even started them for Rouge Trader back in the days. This guy is also well serious about his Ultras, although he has other armies, too.

Most other UM players I know or have met over the years also fall into this category, being dedicated followers of Gulliman´s teachings rather than creep-craving bandwagoners waiting to repaint their BA in Black once the Templars are out (in 2040? ^^).

What I´m trying to say is, I guess someone - if anyone at all -whos getting started and decides on BA or SW is more of a bandwagoner than a new UM player, since the Internet itself agrees on how much cooler the Reds and Greys are than the blue dudes. Thats not to say I scorn anyone for the army they like, I just think the overall hatred is directed the wrong way.

[eldargal]

People resent the poster boy, thats all it is. Back when it was Blood Angels on the cover of everything (circa 2nd edition) they had all the hate. Its really rather silly and I don't hold with it myself. I actually think Ultramarines are more interesting than Space Wolves , Black Templar and a bunch of others.

[Capn Stoogey]

"FOR ULTRAMAR!"

I play Ultramarines.

There, it's said.
I first started the hobby back around 2nd ed I think, when you got that little starter kit thing with a couple of paints, a Marine Sgt and a couple of Gobbos. After a day or so that Sgt was a (badly painted) Blood Angel. I played with them for a while until I moved onto space wolves for the whole space viking flavour. Then I played around with Chaos for a bit. After a while I kinda got a bit sick of the whole "grab something sharp and run at the bad guy" feel that these army had, so I decided to try some shooty goodness. Enter the Tau. We had fun for a while but the spark just wasn't there,and none of these armys really grew on me.

I think I turned to Ultras Mainly because I love the colour scheme of the royal blue with gold trimming, but upon delving deeper into the fluff I had finally found the background I had been looking for!
I like the classical flavour of ancient Greek/Roman inspired stylings and tactics. Where Chapters Like the Blood Angels and Space wolves are almost beserk in their race to get stuck in, the Ultramarines are methodical and precise in their attacks, waiting until all pieces are in place before unleashing hell upon the hated foe.This precision and cool, levelheadedness is what has kept me a devoted Smurf lover for all these years.

I must admit I do get sick of all the antismurfites out there raging away at my little blue men, but its also kinda funny to rile them up a bit with a few pointed comments, and then watch them go on a rant about how their own invented chapter, the Super Awesome Happy time Killer Space Emos, are so much more interesting and unique.

Cheers for the Blue love people, its nice to know that not everyone is an antismurfite hate tard.

[rbryce]

to the op, that was an example.if the Dark angels had a recent dex(in terms of marines in general) and jumped to the latest it would stand the same. for me its not the force thats being played, but the idea of "ohmygodthisissomuchbetterthanminegottahaveit! " mentality i dislike. i would be miffed if a player came up to me in a pick-up game set down army x, and then said theyre using army z because it was better than their own ruleset. not specifically marines either, its just a general disgruntlement. i dont "hate marines", yeah they get boring to see all the time, but im looking at 3 ultramarines 4th company on my desk right now...



(and one of them is my own Pasanius, and another Lerchus)

[Lord Azaghul]

I'm starting codex marines (after playing IG for 2 years), mainly cause I like the Ultramar fluff, and drop pods - Most of the time I'll be runing codex marines, but on occation it'll be pedro - cause my paint schemes is crimson fist.

BUT - we do have a few players in my area who manage to pick up every new army(mureeen or other wise), play 2 games with it - and wonder why that still aren't winning...

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I cant really "hate" any toy soldiers, but I dont particularly find any "template" type of army interesting either - I prefer seeing homebrewn chapters, warbands, craftworlds ect..but thats just my personal preference. I think people should just like what they like overall.