Hi all..which 40k SM chapter?

[Nadz1lla]

Hi all, name's Nadz. Just started painting minis again the last year or so and forgot how much I loved it when I was a kid, so I'll be building a new 40k Space Marine army and painting them up. I only used to paint the minis before when I was younger, but this time I think I might enjoy actually battling with them, so going to give it a go with some of the other...ahem..*older* gamers around my way, heh.

I guess my first question would be: what is the hot Space Marine chapter of the moment, and are there any new Codex in the pipeline for more Chapters? I've seen some people collecting Salamanders lately, are they quite "current" in GW trend terms? I quite like their chapter colours. I ask what is current at the moment because I have painted all the usual suspects in the past and want to try a Chapter colour scheme that I've not done before, but want it to be in keeping with one of the "Official" chapters rather than create my own for the moment.

Any advice welcomed!

Cheers!

Nadz.

[IBBoard]

Gah, I had a post nearly finished and then my browser threw a wobbly and lost it :\ Here goes for remembering the gist of it!

There are a range of chapters that have popped up on the GW Twitter account recently. At least one person had Silver Skulls (who are quite minor) and the Salamanders are getting attention. The Salamanders also appear to be quite prominent on Black Library as well, so GW is at least pushing them in novels. The other one that popped up most (that I spotted) were Space Wolves.

At the end of the day, the choice of chapter is up to you. I'd always pick something I liked the look of over something that was cool, as you're more likely to stick with it. Salamanders are a bit odd in that they're very melta-focused (and flamer and possibly plasma, IIRC), which can be quite expensive on heavy/special weapons. In general, you can normally use the standard frames with them and just pick the right weapons and paint job. Space Wolves, on the other hand, have a completely distinct character and style and need a lot more of special kits or conversions.

[snowblizz]

Current chapters with their own rules.
Dark Angels ("sucks")
Black Templars ("sucks")
Codex Space Marines
Blood Angels ("good")
Space Wolfs ("good")
Grey Knights ( totally the best of the lot)
...ironically close to the release order as well.
Space Wolfs and Grey Knights are the hottest for the moment. Fewer seem to be doing Blood Angels, not sure why.
SW just got a second wind release though so obviously they are highly visible right now.
Salamanders are in the main codex and can get the chapter master as a special character which allows you to tool the army towards being Salamanders. Really good synergy with the army actually, giving boosts to Flamers and Meltas (the cheaper close assault weapons) as well as Thunderhammers IIRC which makes this type (assault) of Terminator very attractive as well.