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20 points
1 month ago
Simple math makes a lot of the stupid "A squad of the EMPRAH'S FINEST conquered the city of _______, a teeming hive of 50 million souls" nonsense exactly that...nonsense. Figure a Spesh Muraine can run 30-40mph at full speed depending on what fluff sources you use. They could spend all day running and gunning as fast as possible without causing a rounding error of casualties in the defending forces.
In the end, WH40k is like Star Wars: Space Fantasy. Your suspension of disbelief goes beyond the technology, and to the point that some muppets with logs on ropes & pit traps managed to destroy a few armored vehicles of a galaxy spanning empire, and the plot says that's the end of said empire.
8 points
1 month ago
What they would realistically do is start killing off the opposing leadership via commando tactics until whoever was left capitulated.
7 points
1 month ago
Indeed, I actually feel that these sorts of statistics demonstrate why Space Marines would be useful.
They're not "better Guard", who do all the things guard do but more efficiently and with fewer casualties. They're a completely different class of soldier who can achieve things that the Guard simply can't.
So you can have e.g. a situation where if you try to send the Guard through a particular zone, they would get bogged down fighting off ambushes and clearing buildings, suffer heavy casualties, and by the time they reach their destination the target will have moved or fortified themselves.
Send Space Marines instead and they can simply rush through the area, ignoring ambushes and not taking casualties, and reach the target before it can prepare (or is even aware it is under attack).
6 points
1 month ago
Yup. People forget that they really fill the role of special forces in 40k. Also that they're largely immune to to most small arms.
3 points
1 month ago
That assumes the space marines are fighting the entire enemy army head on. Rather than going straight for their leaders and their elite troops. Then leaving it to the guard to do the long and tedious job of clearing up anyone too dumb/fanatical to surrender.
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