Space Marine vehicle company designation roundels; note the colour of the roundel corresponds to the company's Codex-approved colour. Over all of these mighty warriors still presides the Chapter Master, elevated from the greatest of the Chapter's captains. He alone is responsible for the deeds of the Chapter, and answers directly to the Administratum. The 6 th Company can be entirely deployed on Space Marine Assault Bikes and the 7 th on Land Speeders. The 8 th Company can use either Space Marine Bikes or Land Speeders.

The Aurora Chapter is particularly well known for their lightning-fast armoured assaults, leading the way with Land Raider spearheads supported by Land Speeder suppression forces. Following the end of the Horus Heresy and the Great Scouring and the retreat of most of the Traitor Legions into the Eye of Terror, the Codex decreed that the nine remaining Loyalist Space Marine Legions would be divided into 1,000-warrior Chapters, the Chapter Masters of which would be directly beholden to the Emperor Himself and no other, not even the primarchs of their original founding Legions (save in the case of the single Chapter that would remain under each primarch's control and retain its Legion's original name). No one person in the Imperium could ever again control the transhuman might of an entire Legion of 100,000 or more Space Marines.Theirs is a philosophical deviance. Given that they live for the honour of battle, it is almost certain that the younger Space Wolves will abandon a standard tactical structure in favour of simply rushing headlong at the enemy, howling at the top of their lungs. Consider the magnitude of your duty at leisure, but act without hesitation when action is required." Upon its creation, a Space Marine battle tank is given a name that reflects its role as a protector of the Chapter's brethren. From that point onwards, the vehicle is as much a part of the Chapter as the Space Marines themselves, and over the years its many deeds will be celebrated as greatly as those of the Chapter's flesh and blood heroes.

The Space Marines have a number of vehicles designed for besieging foes, such as Vindicators and Ironclad Dreadnoughts, that are ideal at bringing maximum firepower to bear against any fortress. There is no force in the Imperium that can exploit an enemy weakness more rapidly than the Adeptus Astartes. Many Chapters, especially the older and more established amongst them, also retain a handful of battle barges; these potent voidcraft are every bit as formidable as Imperial Navy battleships, and often serve as the storied flagships of each Chapter's fleet. During the meeting between the Ultramarines primarch and Thiel on one of Macragge's space stations in which Thiel reported his experiences, after listening to Thiel's report Guilliman tore apart the documents upon which had been writing his old tactical doctrines and made his message clear: the Ultramarines would no longer be a "horde under a warlord" that followed their primarch but "hundreds of thousands of individual Legionaries each in support of the other." Similarly, squads of the 7th Company are trained to fight with Land Speeders, Storm Speeders and Stormtalons, often acting as a light vehicle reserve formation.

Space Marine tank crew typically display their vehicle's Chapter numerical designation within a roundel upon their right shoulder guard. Whilst every company maintains a permanent number of Rhino armoured transports, other vehicles are attached based upon an individual mission's requirements. When a vehicle is attached to a company, a small roundel shows the company's number and/or corresponding colour. One of the most important accomplishments was the reorganisation of the Imperium's fighting forces. This was undertaken almost single-handedly by Guilliman, who with characteristic speed and efficiency codified the structures of the newly-created Astra Militarum, the Navis Imperialis, and the Adeptus Astartes. Because of this, the Codex encourages Chapter Masters to occasionally review their markings and offers many variants and alternative icons that can be displayed upon Space Marine main battle tanks.

Yet it is a risk often worth taking; a hundred Terminator-armoured Space Marines supported by Land Raiders and Stormravens possess more than enough martial might to lay low the most monstrous of foes, or conquer an entire world in the Emperor's name. A Chapter also includes a number of officers and specialists who exist outside of the formal organisation of the companies. These individuals are known as the headquarters or command staff, and they will often stride out to lead a strike force in battle, or provide essential battlefield support, spiritual leadership, psychic capability and destructive combat prowess. Dreadnought ( Castraferrum Dreadnought • Siege Dreadnought • Hellfire Dreadnought • Ironclad Dreadnought • Venerable Dreadnought • Mortis Dreadnought • Chaplain Dreadnought • Librarian Dreadnought • Furioso Dreadnought • Death Company Dreadnought • Redemptor Dreadnought ( Brutalis Dreadnought • Ballistus Dreadnought) • Wulfen Dreadnought • Doomglaive Dreadnought) • Nemesis Dreadknight • Invictor Tactical Warsuit Furthermore, the Codex now allows for each Battle Company to be bolstered with additional squads reassigned from the Reserve Companies; the presence of these warriors can take a company's numbers temporarily above the traditional limit of 100 Astartes, lending them the additional strength to overcome especially challenging foes.

Pick ‘n’ Mix

Let’s look at some of the new Detachments in closer detail –starting with the 1st Company Task Force . The Space Marines or Adeptus Astartes are foremost amongst the defenders of Humanity, the greatest of the Emperor of Mankind's warriors. They are barely Human at all, but superhuman; having been made superior in all respects to a normal man by a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training. This text became a major part of his legacy and the cornerstone upon which the future of the Adeptus Astartes would be based. No complete copies of his original text is known to exist although the majority of his tome has survived and is available to all Space Marines, if not committed to memory.