How many space marines would it take to conquer earth

I assume they’d run a terror campaign against the population while co-opting powerful countries.

A single space marine chapter is not just battle armor. It includes a small fleet and assets like fighters/bombers.

• Announce their arrival with great fanfare, demonstrations, truth of the universe, etc.

• Co-opt current governments into the Imperium. I.e. you get to keep your positions of power and local governments if you fall into line with the Imperial truth and the tithe.

• Any military that resists is obliterated from orbit. Go ahead and hide inside your deepest bunker, the terminators well teleport inside and assassinate anyone they wish.

• Those countries that fall into line are used to police and coerce the rest.

• No need to worry about an insurrection. Eradicate any population centers or peoples that resist. Give their wealth and lands to those that do fall into line.

Simply put, the space marines have everything they need. Absolute control of orbit and the ability to destroy any city, military base or unit at will.

A strike force for a demonstration of force or to assassinate any group that leads a resistance.

Psykers to co-opt religious institutions. Slip into the Pope’s mind and order him to support the new regime, etc.

They have an absolute willingness to eliminate an insurgency by depriving it of the resources it needs, i.e. burinate the entire population of that region.

If we resist too long then virus bomb the whole place and bring in proper colonists. Go ahead and set off a terror nuke, the Imperium is fine with radiation on its planets. They’ll won’t evacuate any one, just make us all go to work in the fallout.

In history, peoples dealt with insurrection through genocide. There are thousands of tribes and peoples that are little more than half-remembered names. Superior weapons trump everything else if that party has no qualms about “laws of war” and “humanity”.

Topic: how many marines would it take to destroy earth?  (Read 7757 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

My friend wagers that 500 loyal space marines and their toys (tanks, fleet) could take down earth to the last person.  I disagree.  Sure they're space marines.  And knowing their style - they are not going to kill everyone from orbit.  They will come down in person to take attack certain people (presients or the pope) or places.  They might kill 90% of the population from orbit before taking down the last of it in person.  I think the last 10% are going to be the hardest.  I bet if every hidden bunker complex in the world can kill 1/2 of a marine we would win.  And i think that is the case.  Just need one booby trap to own a marine.  Pack of c4 under their boot would take em out.

Besides, on a more comical note : a sniper would have fun plinking away at all the cocky marines with their helmets off

What do you think?  Who would win?  How many marines would it take to kill every person on earth?

Well, if 40k invaded Earth to just kill every one, they wouldn't even need marines, they just need an inquisitor to say ok, then virus bomb the planet...

What, like one button...

In most cases we'll still be trying to talk with these dudes, as the virus bombs hit the crust.....

Now if they wanted Earth Intact...you could compare that situation to the Horus Heresy book, where they pretty much pwned the Earth like planet...with some serious opposition.

If you meet a bear named Sanctjud in the tavern, don't get into his van for candy.  I did once....it's sticky, salty, and really not very nice.

Raptor Jesus will get you Tangi... oh he will.

As many as it takes to crew a battle barge, plus the one inquisitor necessary to authorize exterminatus. Marines don't mess around, see... If their mission is to kill every person on a planet and lay it waste, they aren't going to come down and do the job by hand, they're going to do it properly. And even if we are assuming that some people survive in hidden bunker complexes or whatever, once the marines have used exterminatus wepaons to scour the surface, each bunker complex would be isolated and comically easy for marines to take out one by one.

So your friend's 500 sounds about right to me.

EDIT: Oooh Sanctjud, you beat me by ten seconds.

« Last Edit: August 25, 2007, 05:44:06 PM by myles »

The first problem is the creation of meaningless e-personas. Such personas are undesirable because they lead users to prejudge a post and its content based on their impressions of the author. One is predisposed to criticize a perfectly legitimate comment or praise a stupid one simply because of preconceived notions about who wrote it. Anonymous posting avoids this situation by removing identity from the post, making any praise or criticism directed solely at the content.

Yeah, a fleet of Marines would never invade a planet. Imperial Guard would invade first, lie around in trenches and die for a few years and then call the Marines for back-up. The Marines then (say a couple of companies from a handful of chapters) would make surgical strikes wherever they would do most damage, Drop Pod in and unload.

Marines aren't planet concouring forces - but Imperial Guard is great at that stuff.

Purg

virus bombs would not destroy the planet just kill all life on the planet, so the infrastructure could be stil used after a few hundred years. continious fire from an orbital laser would destroy the planet, marines are there for surgical strikes not destroying a planet, the space fleet and IG are there for that.

The Marines would have a hard time with all those Canadians at their cabins for the summer... that's alot of 5+ covers saves 

Why all these answers that Marines wouldn't be used to take a planet? Who cares? It was a hypothetical question.
I'd reckon 500 is about right, but that's if they all wore their helmets

Are we as offensive as we might be?

Why do people keep saying that they need an inquisitor to authorize exterminatus? If a SM chapter had to do this they can do it on their own authority. They don't need to ask an inquisitor for permission. So really, it would take one SM, the one that's in command of the Battle Barge with the viral bombs. And any bunkers could probally be lanced from space. Modern bunkers aren't really designed to withstand such things, saying as such things don't exist yet.

lol.

Well... i doubt we'd ever be able to even shoot them.
And would C4 hurt them?
I have doubts.
That would only have like... strength 2 or something.
Our bullets on the other hand... AP6, str 1?
>.<

So yea, 500? Easy.
20 of them could probably take down an army imo

C4 would hurt them. Strength 2would barely hurt guardsmen, and C4 blows us up good. An explosive is an explosion, its going to hurt them.
And most of our bullets probably wouldn't have an armour penetration, although some of our bigger rounds would. Most of our sniper rifles would have a chance at penetrating, making sniping them all a viable choice.

And about 20 taking down an army? Only if they were sneaky. I would imagine that if there was only 20, there would not be much variety. Common day soldiers have something called a mind, which guardsmen don't seem to have. We would improvise booby traps, and tank them, although if they got close to our tanks they could tear them apart with their hands. Also we could warhead them. They have superior skills and training and well... everything, but we have numbers, and resources. Twenty marines would not be enough to maintain a fighting front.

I would say that 100 could maybe take on an army. They would have the numbers to sustain a front, although we could still nuke them. Barring warheads, we would have a tough time. They would be hard to find, and would see us before we saw them. I would say that 100 could take on the world, one part at a time.

500 would have a much greater chance, they could split up into groups of 50 or 100, each taking on a country/area, leaving maybe a third in reserves. I would say that that would be a definite.

Still, I think the key to their success would be to keep a low profile, i.e. not gathering in large numbers. We could nuke them if they did.

Then they could also conquer a country and build an army, then a few countries, to build an empire.

It is hard to determine how many marines it would take to conquer the world, it all depends on how they go about doing it. And, did I mention, we could always use nukes.

It all depends on the army the Space Marines are fighting.

I'd wager that marines would struggle against the British Army. Taking out Challenger ll tanks with their almost indestructable armour with a +++classified+++ composite is hard, has one even been taken out in action before? I don't think so.... An SAS regiment would probably completely own a marine company as thats quite a few men in the best regiment in the world.

But if the marines have tanks, landspeeders etc...thats another story.

About how many marines it would take to destroy earth? None, earth would bow down once thay saw the awesome power of the Imperial Navy by it destroying the moon with one of its smaller guns.

Hell, the earth would bow once it saw the size of the guns on the ship, let alone needing a demonstration of them.

Either that or all the Marines would come down and kiss the Hallowed Ground that is Holy Terra.

500 sounds about right.

Rapid Fire RPG's for weapons, indestructable armour and being able to strike when and where ever they wish. If a Thule is a Joule, a Lasgun can put holes in the front of an Abrams tank. A Bolter has +1S while the Lasgun has no armour penetration. I would say we would be royally screwed.

As to why the Space Marines would want to destroy Holy Terra, thats another question entirely...

A better question is how many tyranids would it take to destroy earth in its current technological state against all the armies united ( not that it matter, cause nids will send gaunts till the cows come home) or Eldar (about 10 dark reapers should do, such is the superiority of the eldar, now Thats being a fanboy) But yes, if 500 can do it then best let them get it over with 

Pen On The Screen. Again!

It all depends on the army the Space Marines are fighting.

I'd wager that marines would struggle against the British Army. Taking out Challenger ll tanks with their almost indestructable armour with a +++classified+++ composite is hard, has one even been taken out in action before? I don't think so.... An SAS regiment would probably completely own a marine company as thats quite a few men in the best regiment in the world.

But if the marines have tanks, landspeeders etc...thats another story.

About how many marines it would take to destroy earth? None, earth would bow down once thay saw the awesome power of the Imperial Navy by it destroying the moon with one of its smaller guns.

I'm pretty sure that a Lasconnon could take out a Challenger II.... And I'm also pretty sure that one has been taken out before. (see link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/13/nmod13.xml)

As for the SAS... C'mon... They might be the best but Space Marines are like the SAS just with better training, better guns, power armour and tanks... Big tanks. The SAS would not stand a chance.

My estimate for marines taking over the world would be a full codex chapter (1000 Marines)... Simply because they would need more than 100 men for each continent...

« Last Edit: August 26, 2007, 09:28:32 AM by qwertypp7 »

Well just imagine this.  A single drop pod makes planet-fall into the white-house.  I don't think the presidents body guards would have a chance of repulsing 10 space marines, and the marines would also have the element of surprise.  I dought that anyone expects 10 super-human warriors, encased in rock hard armour, weilding guns that fire mini-missiles and above all else, are extremially well organised and led to just come crashing through the roof.  That estimate of 500 sounds just about right. 

A single drop pod makes planet-fall into the white-house.

probably not, I think pods have cogitaters to help them evade buildings, but still, the idea is the same.

The challenger has ERA (explosive reactive armour) and other types of +clasified+ armour, Acording to fluff on Marines, Space Marine shoulder pads are ERA as well, I think that gives us an idea of how well armoured they are in comparison to modern MBTs.

Allthough modern tanks are far superior to 40k imperium ones lascannons would be ausome tank busters...

CAPTAIN CUSTARD

Allthough modern tanks are far superior to 40k imperium ones lascannons would be ausome tank busters...

Not neccessarily awesome as lascannons are only a little bit better than krak missiles which are liken to standard RPGs. Lascannons are probably liken to the RPG-29 mentioned here:
What the MoD didn't tell us

What I would like to see is a meltagun in action. That would be awesome!

This is getting pretty silly. Here's the deal: they are 38 000 years ahead of us. Where were we 38 000 years ago? Probably beating each other up with sticks and rocks.

In any case, no army this world could muster - be it from England, Israel (one of the most elite armies of the world), USA (duh), Korea (numbers!) and so on - would stand a chance in hell of repelling a force of Space Marines.

Remember lads, Space Marines are way nastier fluff-wise than just S4 T4. Their tactics also allows for an exponential growth in power: 1 Space Marine would perhaps struggle with 10 Guardsmen if he was on his own, but 10 Space Marines could easily take on 100 Guardsmen. Imagine if you had a number of companies from a number of chapters at the same time - 1000-1500 Space Marines, plus equipment in the form of Drop Pods, special weapons and armour (tanks, speeders etc.)

It would be a complete massacre.

Purg

first of all just to point out, our common weapons would have an effect on them...A shotgun in 40k is str 4 with a shoddy range.  A standard rifle for an army has got to be able the strength and range of a lasgun.

Just from a fluff perspective, 300 Soul Drinkers attacked a starfort of X thousand (10,000 maybe?) mutants.  The mutants with no leadership, no tactics, no morale and amphetamine parrotty stubber guns managed to down a dozen or so marines.

So if 10,000 can take out 12 marines, then 6 billion can take down 7,200,000 marines.

Sorry but earth has numbers.  And we have better leadership, tactics, morale and weapons than those mutants.

« Last Edit: August 27, 2007, 02:31:08 AM by BFTrick »

What kills Space Marines?

Can Space Marines survive in space?

How many Space Marines are left?

Can Space Marines breathe water?