Codex Astartes

The Codex Astartes is a set of rules. They guide us....shape us as Ultramarines...teach us how to hold duty and honor sacred above all. But how we live with those rules is the true test of a Space Marine...
-Captain Titus, Ultramarines 2nd Company
‘But your teachings…’ ‘Are yet flawed,’ said Guilliman. ‘No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed. There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed.’
-Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines
"Is that wise, captain? The Codex Astartes does not support this action-"
-Leandros

The Codex Astartes was written by Roboute Guilliman shortly after the Horus Heresy; among other things, its suggested organizational scheme split the remaining Space Marine Legions into small, manageable chunks. It also includes tactical doctrines for just about every situation, like the formidable Steel Rain. Most loyalist Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes to varying degrees. The Ultramarines and their successors follow it like holy writ, while the Space Wolves only find it useful for toilet paper.

Chapters

Under the Codex Astartes, the Space Marine legions were to be split into one thousand-strong Chapters (often already a subunit within some pre-Heresy legions like the Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Salamanders, Ultramarines, and Word Bearers) composed of ten companies. The 1st Company is composed of Veterans, and are the only company in the chapter to employ Terminator armor.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Companies are called Battle Companies, composed of six Tactical Squads, two Devastator Squads, and two Assault Squads. They train together, and when a Space Marine Company deploys as a single unit, it will be one of these.

The 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies are the reserve squads, and are more specialized than the first five companies. The 6th and 7th Companies are composed entirely of Tactical Marines (who specialize in using bikes and Land Speeders, respectively), the 8th Company of Assault Marines, and the 9th Company entirely of Devastator Marines.

The 10th Company is composed entirely of Scout Marines, who are eventually promoted to other companies after a certain number of years.

Of course, one thousand Marines assumes ten Companies, with ten Squads, with ten Marines, and nothing more. But, including vehicle crews, Librarians, Techmarines, Chaplains, Company Command Squads, Apothecaries, Honor Guard, and other support personnel, it turns out that a Chapter with a full roster will have something like 1500 Marines, not counting a scout company that doesn't have a fixed limit of 100 scouts so attrition doesn't put a hamper on chapter reinforcements, plus who knows how many unaugmented human serfs and Auxilia. It's also a figure which assumes no battle casualties; given that the mandate of the Space Marines is to seek out and destroy the direst enemies of the Imperium, this is a state of affairs which is hardly ever the case - indeed, one of the reasons Reserve Companies exist is to provide a pool from which to keep the Battle Companies at fighting strength.

Marine roles

Among the tenets of the Codex, Guilliman outlined the roles of various Marines to be used in Chapters. They include the following:

• Scout Squad: Scout Marines are Neophyte Space Marines who are charged with scouting terrain and enemy positions. A risky job, but this has the effect of ensuring that the more cautious ones survive while the reckless and foolish are weeded out.

• Devastator: Devastator Marines can be summed up in three words: Blow shit up. The purpose of the Devastator is to provide heavy weapons fire in battle, artillery strikes, and hunting tanks. Once a Scout earns his Black Carapace and Power Armor, he will be attached to a Devastator Squad, allowing him to bond with his armor while learning its strengths by lugging heavy weapons around.

• Assault: Assault Marines are those who specialize in melee combat, using Chain and Power weapons alike to fuck up the enemies of the Imperium of Man. In addition, they also possess jump packs which can allow them limited flight. This is the next stop in a new Marine's career, helping to familiarize him with any weapons he hasn't used yet, and putting him through the crushing psychological stress of hand-to-hand combat under something resembling optimal conditions.

• Tactical: The backbone of a Battle Company, Tactical Marines are those who are flexible in combat, relying on both ranged weapons and melee weapons in combat. Note that due to the order of the Companies, they usually have served as both Assault and Devastator Marines, so they definitely know the basics of both, granting the majority of the chapter great theoretical tactical flexibility.

• Veteran: Veteran Marines are those who have seen through several centuries, allowing them access to all the cool toys in the Chapter's armory since they're hopefully experienced and cool-headed enough not to, say, super-glue the sacred sword of the Founder to the codpiece of their armor and pretend that it's their willy. Chapter veterans get to wear Terminator armor (the Crux Terminatus is a cross between a medal and authorization papers), but they sometimes stay with normally-sized power armor instead, which is instead slowly turned into Artificer armor by all the bling and enhancements. Power-armored Veterans are divided into two subgroups: Vanguard (who focus on close quarters combat) and Sternguard (who focus on bolter drills and other forms of ranged warfare).

Ranks

The Codex Astartes formalized and simplified the ranks among the Adeptus Astartes, eliminating some ranks like "commander" and "lieutenant", while adding some more. They include:

• Chapter Master: The grand poobah of the Chapter. He is the one who gives Marine companies their assignments, and ultimately recognizes no external authority save for the God-Emperor of Mankind. That being said, it's a very silly (or very manly) Chapter Master that can tell an Inquisitor to sit on a Nova Cannon and rotate. Whilst Inquisitors are technically outside the Space Marine chain of command, they have the ability to requisition squads, Companies or entire Chapters if need be.

• Captain: Captains are the commanders of Companies, overseeing their Marines from the front line instead of the back. Captains are usually promoted from the senior Sergeant in the Company. The most senior is the First Captain, who commands the Veteran 1st Company, and is often the official heir apparent to the Chapter Master. Each Company Captain also holds a Chapter-level position of authority, supervising his Chapter's fleet, vehicle pool, recruits, or territory, for example.

• Sergeant: Sergeants lead squads of four to nine other Marines. There can be anywhere from ten to twenty Sergeants in a Company. Often, the senior most sergeant will be given the post of Veteran Sergeant, and placed in a Command Squad with the Captain, Company Champion, Standard Bearer, and Apothecary. Note that Sergeants can serve in the ranks of the Scouts, Devastators, and Assault Marines despite being technically overqualified, in each case helping the new recruits to adapt to Chapter life.

• Champion: The best close quarters fighter in a company, the Company Champion is charged with protection of the Captain from all hostile threats. Given that your average Captain is a badass in power armor, this may seem redundant, but it's supposed to allow him to focus on coordinating the battle. Almost always part of a Command Squad. The most elite of these is the Chapter Champion, who is charged with protecting the Chapter Master.

• Force Commander: Not a rank but a title given to the leader of a force (duh) either given if more than one company is fighting at the same time, or if the company has to split up and the Captain gives an XO like the leader of his command squad.

• Standard Bearer: The Company Standard Bearer, given the title of Ancient, is charged with carrying and protecting the Company Standard, or banner. Also frequently joins the Command Squad. Should a Company Standard Bearer drop the banner and let it fall to the ground, he will essentially forfeit his honor. If the Standard Bearer should be killed and the banner stolen, then the entire Company will be dishonored until the banner is reclaimed. Which means that if you steal a Company Standard, you now have nearly one hundred Space Marines who were just trying to kill you, but now you had to go and make it personal. The most elite of these is the Chapter Standard Bearer, who carries the Chapter banner in war.

Outside of the above mentioned battle ranks, there are other senior positions within a Chapter:

• Chief Librarian: The head of the Librarium, who assigns Librarians to assist in battlefield communications. Also tests to see whether or not his battle-brothers are tainted by Chaos ("Yes brother, this is standard Codex procedure." *Snaps Latex gloves*)

• Master of the Apothecarion: The head of the Apothecarion, who assigns an Apothecary to each Company. The Apothecarion in turn also takes care of the gene-seed that Chapters place such holy emphasis on, and for good reason: no gene-seed - no new recruits.

• Master of the Forge: The head of the Armoury, who assigns Techmarines to oversee maintenance of the machine-spirits of the chapter's wargear and motor pool.

• Master of Sanctity: The head of the Chaplaincy, and spiritual leader of the Chapter. He assigns Chaplains to the Companies to oversee the spiritual health of the Chapter.

Dubious helpfulness of the Codex

While the Codex Astartes has a few good points on how Space Marines should fight, it contains a truckload of a lot of bad points on even how an army should be. Due to Guilliman's unending paranoia over the fact that none of his brothers are possibly loyal anymore (and to cover up on how fucking useless he was during most of the Horus Heresy), he made it so that he ruined the Space Marines entirely, which in comparison is oddly prophetic to this man who worked on the Space Marine Codex and butchered it with Ultramarine fanboyism.

One fatal flaw of the Codex is the splitting up of the legions and maintaining a maximum of 1000 battle brothers at any given time, this made the Space Marines even more of a fragmented force concerned with their own agendas than a unified fighting force along with making it longer for them to rebuild and reform whenever they sustain heavy casualties after a major campaign that can only deploy half of its forces at a given time except in the gravest emergencies. This was foolish for another reason. After all, you know the enemy matches your numbers, so you would normally wish to take advantage of the million worlds of the Imperium to outnumber your foe, right? Apparently Guilliman decided that outnumbering the enemy is for chumps. Ten thousand marines per chapter would have made far more sense, especially given the size of the Imperium and the fact that the Chapters will rarely have the option of focusing their full might on one target.

This is disputable. The original Legiones Astartes, while the most dangerous forces assembled since the War in Heaven, would have a far too centralized leadership to be effectively deployed across a galaxy-spanning Imperium with thousands of conflicts that needed Astartes support. Stress-fractures were already appearing in the established structure at the time of the Heresy. Furthermore a Battle Company or less would likely be more than enough for most campaigns. But wait, you might exclaim, what about wars that DO require a Legion level deployment. Well, with the exception of the First War for Armageddon and the First Tyrannic War, Legion sized forces were present at those conflicts albeit from various Chapters but with an unified theater-exclusive command structure. Notably Dante and Logan Grimnar assumed such a role in the Second Armageddon Wars and the 13th Black Crusade respectively, in either case with the almost-unanimous consent of their fellow chapter-masters. While the Grand/Clan/Fighting Company system of non-codex Chapters offers a greater degree of flexibility in terms of galactic force projection, it leaves the individual non-Codex Companies much more vulnerable to the debilitation of heavy casualties. As a whole though, the Codex Astartes does not structurally hamstring its adhering Chapters. The character of the Chapter does that.

The other flaw was turning each chapter into a generic army using a different name. The Codex Astartes details specifically how a Space Marine should act in every combat situation that Roboute Guilliman had encountered. While this does give Marines a good idea on how to act when they're staring down a Chaos warband or a marauding pack of Flesh Hounds, this makes them far too predictable for those who have faced the Space Marines for a long time. As Sun Tzu said, "Do not face your opponent too many times or you will reveal your art of war;" (Any body else find it ironic that Sun Tzu, a notoriously proverb-y text of what to do in any given situation, is invoked to denounce the Codex?) (Not really. Have you actually read the Art of War? It's a book of generalized tips for managing huge groups of people, including basics you might not think of, like "let the enemy retreat, or else they'll fight your balls off". In contrast, the Codex Astartes is very specific on how things are to be organized at all times), given that Guilliman expect Space Marines to be the same thing, except for their colors and whatever the scream at their enemies to be different, the enemies of man will basically be expecting the same thing again and again. Because of this an intelligent and experienced opponent with enough dakka to survive one encounter with a Codex Chapter will quickly realize how to deal with any Marine force strictly adhering to the Codex Astartes' tactics. This fault is compounded by the fact that the Codex has no information on threats encountered after Guilliman's time. The Ultramarines experienced this personally when they got their asses beaten hard when they faced the Tyranid incursion in their sector for the first time, numerous encounters with Necrons that ended hilariously poorly for them, the Ultramarines constantly got themselves outdicked and outmaneuvered by Tau, and when one of their Captains developed a novel set of tactics for dealing with the Tyranids (successfully), he was punished for deviating from the Codex (Ok the reason is because he left his men to join a Deathwatch mission)! It should also be noted that their greatest enemy are comprised almost entirely of former Loyalists millennia old veterans who are familiar with the tactics and approaches listed within the Codex Astares, so it's a wonder the Ultramarines ever survive in combat against Renegades. It's probably because Chaos Marines are all batshit insane by the time loyalist Astartes encounter them.

Compare this to chapters who follow their own standard operating procedures, like the Space Wolves and Black Templars, and those who do not fully embrace all of the tactical doctrines of the Codex, like the Dark Angels and Blood Angels: they and their successors have a much more extensive list of victories, and a shorter list of failures. Consider the Damocles Crusade, wherein the Ultramarines failed to beat up the Tau for years due to their unfamiliar nature (and due to Farsight deciphering the Codex and using it to predict the actions of codex-chapters), while the independent Black Templars had much better luck. As in all matters, moderation is key: Guilliman was no fool, but he was not omniscient, either.

This is precisely why Captain Titus (who was ironically an Ultramarine himself) said Matt Ward can go fuck himself with all that spiritual liege bullshit, and that Space Marines are at their best when they mix the Codex's advice with the ability to think for their own damn selves. But here is what he really thinks of the Codex Astartes and Leandros

Worse than that, even Guilliman himself said the Codex could not supplant brains. Too bad he hadn't wrote it on the books cover, or at least on first page. Then again, no one, not even amongst the Ultramarines, has read the entire codex. They all have large sections but not everything (yet stupidly act on out-of-context information). Besides, it could be in the forward or something, no one reads the forward. Heh, "for Ward".

Despite Ward's assertion that the codex is rigidly followed, even his own shitty writing admits that most of the Ultramarines successors/codex chapters are just picking and choosing the bits they like from the codex and ignoring the rest. And you can pretty much guarantee that any chapter that gets it's own novel is going to deviate from the codex. Notable examples are the Silver Skulls, who have combo librarian/chaplains, a scout hardwired into a strike cruiser in a similar fashion to a dreadnought (yes, it's tech heresy, yes, they know it, no, they don't care) and assault squads in the 9th (devastator) company. Also the Hawk Lords who are so into flying that other chapters send their pilots to the Hawk Lords "Talon Wings" for training, the Aurora Chapter who are treadheads above all, the Exorcists with 2 extra scout companies (12 companies total), the Mortifactors whose chapter rituals are so far from codex as to be offensive to a visiting Ultramarine and the Relictors using chaos weapons against chaos. All Ultramarines successors, all codex chapters, all just using the bits they feel like. Dammit Ward, you can't even keep your fluff-rape consistent. It's very obvious that contrary to Ward's writing in Codex: Space Marines that pretty much nobody follows the Codex Astartes rigidly apart from some of the Ultramarines. The Imperial Fists, Salamanders, Raven Guard, White Scars and Iron Hands are also theoretically Codex chapters with varying degrees of divergence from the Codex, tweaking and modifying it to suit their favoured tactics, organisation, rituals and markings. The list of official codex chapters that diverge from the Codex Astartes is so long its just easier to list the chapters that do follow it rigidly. In that category, we have the Ultramarines and... um... well, nobody else really. Oh wait, scratch that, Ultramarines do now have non-Codex formations, such as Tyranic war veterans, so even they cannot hold the title of rigid Codex followers. That role has since been picked up by the Red Scorpions. Except that the Red Scorpions have the non-codex compliant Apothecary-Sergeant.

Of course it should be noted that GW has never really shown what's in the Codex and writers have different views. For example Dan Abnett views it similar to The Art of War, with general tips and tactics, while Graham McNeill views it like a football play book. Since all of Ward's codex quotes seem to favor Abnett's ideal of what the Codex is like, its possible that by following it "rigidly" its following the basic ideal of the codex, ie the general origination and being flexible in combat (which is why the smurfs can choose to fail morale tests when they're making tactical withdraws). Its a stupid way to word it but that's the norm for the Imperium.

Boundless Amusement

Captain Titus of the Ultramarines in the recent SPEHSS MEHREEN game, tells young Leandros that the Codex is not always a good thing to follow literally.

The usefulness of the Codex Astartes is also a major theme in Graham McNeill's Ultramarines novel series. When Uriel Ventris is on trial for violating the Codex, First Captain Severus Aggeman comes and confides in him, saying that while his decisions made sense, the Ultramarines must stick to the letter and spirit of the Codex, as the Codex Astartes is not how to be a good Space Marine, it's about how to be a loyal Space Marine. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, as the Imperium of Man's average response to free thinking is to start screaming incoherently and beat the free thinker to death, but we digress. By the end of the series, Marneus Calgar is admitting that blindly following the Codex might be costing them in the war with M'kar and Honsou, who in particular knows how the Ultramarines will react due to their adherence to the Codex.

Which is the exact same lesson they learn during the first Tyranid war. Which is why so many people turned on McNeill after Chapter's Due as it sums up as "Ultramarines can only be cool if they act like Space Wolves". This combine with more recent portrayals of Ultrmarines showing them as extremely tactical flexible. And the codex itself is portrayed as not a static thing but something that has been revised and added to over the years.

Nick Kyme also plays with it a bit, however far differently. Unlike McNeill who uses it as a strawman to make Uriel look cool. He treats is more or less like everyone else does. However many Ultramarines follow it differently. Cato Sicarius plays it more loosely, resulting in him being more unpredictable but also more willing to take high risk, high reward actions, and his own personality means he'll do things the codex speaks against like trying to hunt down and kill the enemy commander in a duel. Agemman meanwhile follows it more to the letter, but also follows the more willing to take pragmatic tactics because of it.

Purpose for Gamers

Of course, there's a reason Games Workshop included the Codex Astartes in their fluff (long before Matt Ward came along, by the way). Basically, it makes it easier for players to invent their own Chapters.

Players who just have an idea for a cool color scheme or name but don't want to put any effort into making up a whole organizational layout can just make a Chapter that rigidly follows the Codex, like the Ultramarines. Those who want to have one or two unique organizational or tactical features can make a Chapter that generally follows the Codex but has some variances, like...well, most of them (see above). And players that want to make up entirely independent structures themselves can make Chapters that ignore the Codex entirely, like the Space Wolves or the Black Templars.

This means that Matt Ward's Codex worship isn't just lame, but actually bad for GW's business: By telling players that only Codex Chapters are any good, he's discouraging players with their own ideas from investing in models, paints, tournaments, and maybe even later editions of the game. Truly, there is no end to his failure.

Codex Astartes, as according to Matt Ward

This article or section involves Matthew Ward, Spiritual Liege, who is universally-reviled on /tg/. Because this article or section covers Ward's copious amounts of derp and rage, fans of the 40K series are advised that if they proceed onward, they will see fluff and crunch violation of a level rarely seen.

The Codex Astartes was written by the greatest of Space Marines, Matt Ward Roboute Guilliman, shortly after the Horus Heresy. It includes unbeatable tactical doctrines for just about every situation. All but the most despicable of Space Marines follow the Codex Astartes as much as they can. The Ultramarines and their successors follow it like holy writ, and as a result are the best fighters in the galaxy, while the Space Wolves, the freaks of the Spare Marine factions, barely use it at all.

The Codex is flawless and infallible, and even many non-human races aspire to its word (<< implying not killing xenos).

Bollocks.

Nay my friend, this be Heresy.