Space Marines!

[TheRightToArmBears]

Eldar are the best race. Everyone knows it, really. But out of your crappy Imperium dudes, Salamders and Blood Angels are probably my favourites. But still, Eldar. Biel-Tan will fuck you up.

Oh, and everyone hates Ultramarines.

 

[an_luas]

I'm a Tau player myself but I do like the look of the Raven Guard, reminds me of the Templars from the crusades

 

[Zillafan94]

I hate to be generic but i have to go with the Ultramarines, i love their Colors and their history. Least favorite chapter? Howling Griffons, they look like a pack of court jesters!

 

[Silvertongue]

Never been a fan of the Ultramarines, so vanilla to me.

Yeah, the movie, as good as it was, made them look so much more badass than they actually are.

As for me, Space Wolves all the way. For Russ and the Allfather!

I'm also kind of in the design stages of my own chapter called the Accalian Legion. Like the Space Wolves, only replace the savage viking aspect with orderly rank-and-file Roman aesthetics.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Eldar are the best race. Everyone knows it, really. But out of your crappy Imperium dudes, Salamders and Blood Angels are probably my favourites. But still, Eldar. Biel-Tan will fuck you up.

Ulthwe, man! We've got Eldrad!

EDIT:

Least favourite? Toss up between the emo Dark Angels and transhumanist Iron Hands.

Most favourite? Again a toss up between the Byronic/Romantic era Blood Angels and Roman Ultramarines

[sub]Yes I like the smurfs, gonna go get my flame shield....[/sub]

I almost lost all respect for you, mate! (Blood Angels aside.) =P

 

[Togs]

Least favourite? Toss up between the emo Dark Angels and transhumanist Iron Hands.

Most favourite? Again a toss up between the Byronic/Romantic era Blood Angels and Roman Ultramarines

[sub]Yes I like the smurfs, gonna go get my flame shield....[/sub]

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Ulthwe, man! We've got Eldrad!

Had Eldrad.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Ulthwe, man! We've got Eldrad!

Had Eldrad.

What are you talking about?! It's only just turned 900.M41 where I am. =P

 

[Doclector]

Least favourite? Toss up between the emo Dark Angels and transhumanist Iron Hands.

Most favourite? Again a toss up between the Byronic/Romantic era Blood Angels and Roman Ultramarines

[sub]Yes I like the smurfs, gonna go get my flame shield....[/sub]

I don't like ultrasmurfs to any extreme degree, but I see their place in the lore. They're knights in shining armour. The typical White (blue) knights that are incredibly loyal and only really have beliefs toward honour and dying for their emperor. This brings them a lack of depth, the other reason people hate them besides the fact that they're pretty much the most famous legion despite their lack of depth but I always admired loyalty.

And they seem to go closer to the roman-esque leanings of the emperium than other legions. And Romans are awesome.

 

[R1CK_D0M]

For fluff, most favorite would be White Scars.
For crunch, there really isn't one. I play Tau and Necron.

For Fluff, most hated would be either Ultramarines for pure generic-ness, or Salamanders because priorities what.

Ultramarines for crunch hate too because of the same reason.

 

[Sonicron]

Hopefully "Wrath of Iron" will rock (new space marine battles book).

Oooohh, thanks for making me aware of that! Awesome! The Iron Hands are quite appealing from what little I read about them so far, but I never got a hold of the Jonathan Green novel, so this will finally be my chance to read a story with them as the protagonists.

Don't know much about alot of these legions, being a fairly new fluff fan, but since reading "the first heretic" (my first black library novel) I've become rather fond of the word bearers.

If your first BL novel was The First Heretic, you may as well go ahead and read the entire Horus Heresy series; almost no better way to delve into the world of W40k. Two of the 16 that are out so far kind of suck ('Descent of Angels' and 'Battle for the Abyss'), but the others are anywhere between 'pretty good' and 'awesome'.
Of course, you can also browse the Black Library by author. I recommend anything by Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, James Swallow and Graham McNeill.

OT:
I can only judge from the Black Library novels, seeing how I don't really care about the tabletop. From what I've read there, the most appealing chapter around are the Space Wolves, especially in their earlier days (as seen in 'Prospero Burns' and 'Battle of the Fang').
Of course, I also have a close connection to the Tomb Drakes. Why? Because I made them up. I created the chapter for the Deathwatch RPG and made the effort to write a detailed background for them, so they're a labour of love.

That said, the traitor legions are just more interesting.
For me, it's a toss-up between the Night Lords and the Thousand Sons. Both have delightfully tragic elements to their backstories, and their legion customs and ways of warfare are special even among the other traitors. Also, the Alpha Legion is always good for a laugh.
Anyone who wants to understand why I have a faible for these legions should read the following novels: 'Soul Hunter', 'Blood Reaver', ('Lord of the Night'), 'A Thousand Sons', 'Battle of the Fang', 'Atlas Infernal', 'Legion'.

 

[Valkyrie101]

That's my problem, space marines are always a kind of mid-point in the 40k balance table. They can be fast, but not Eldar fast. They can be hard-hitting, but not Ork or Chaos hard hitting. The different chapters don't play sufficiently differently to really feel like different armies.

That's because they aren't different armies, they're fundamentally the same. They're painted different colours and have different backgrounds, but on the battlefield operate in a similar manner (both in the fluff and the TT game). They might have their own dispositions and overall personalities, but an Astartes is an Astartes and so their fighting styles, equipment and tactics remain broadly similar throughout the chapters. The same could be said of any modern military force, and they lack a universal Codex to guide them.

I think preferences mostly come down to either aesthetics or background, rather than actual playstyle with the exception of the chapters with separate codices: and, as you said, even they aren't very different.

 

[Togs]

To be honest I don't even see that much difference in their fluff, there's nothing really radical after years of various writers sanding the corners off. I think the codex fluff writers (Matt Fucking Ward) are too afraid to take risks with the space marine's reputation.

There's one, it maybe a little on the subtle side but each chapter does have different aesthetics, but I do agree with you how annoying it is that each new codex eliminates any mechanical differences between them (e.g. Everyone now has Vanguard Veterans and Venerable Dreadnoughts).

And Im no fan of Matt Fucking Ward (after buying the 5th edition SM codex I was horrifed by what he'd done to my favourite chapters lore) but the Space Marines reputation is why people pick them- I love the whole genetically engineered warrior monk/paladins in space thing and would be very gutted if they tried changing that.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

I don't like ultrasmurfs to any extreme degree, but I see their place in the lore. They're knights in shining armour. The typical White (blue) knights that are incredibly loyal and only really have beliefs toward honour and dying for their emperor. This brings them a lack of depth, the other reason people hate them besides the fact that they're pretty much the most famous legion despite their lack of depth but I always admired loyalty.

And they seem to go closer to the roman-esque leanings of the emperium than other legions. And Romans are awesome.

I think most people tend to forgot that for something to be SPECIAL there needs to be some point of reference, something that provides the base assumptions that then can be subverted.
Enter the Ultramarines.
Which is why I personally like them alot.
If everyone is a special, Codex-betraying, rebelious snowflake,
no one is.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I love the Imperial Iists, so much so my custom chapter is a descendant of them.
I hate the smurfs for obvious reasons.

Let me guess, that reason would be Matt Ward? The man who shouldn't be allowed within a ten mile radius of a pen or keyboard?

 

[RobCoxxy]

I love the Imperial Iists, so much so my custom chapter is a descendant of them.
I hate the smurfs for obvious reasons.

Let me guess, that reason would be Matt Ward? The man who shouldn't be allowed within a ten mile radius of a pen or keyboard?

Bingo.
Yahtzee.
Got it in one.

SM Codex special units. About 70% are UM only. Whut.

Two powerfists, really?

 

[rawrmonsta]

Again another tau player. I originally played blood angels (and would be my fave amongst the space marines) Then played the old Tau fie warrior game for PS2 and saw the models and read a bit about them and love the idea and basically switched on the spot.I haven't played properly in ages but still love seeing40k themed products around.

As for most hated space marine chapter? I would say ultramarine but there's enough hate for them going on in here already. Id have to go with white scars, because all those fast moving units were a pain in the ass for my tau army and something about a commander that let you deep strike the whole army? :s its been a while lol.

 

[ace_of_something]

Psht, easy. GREY. MOTHERTRUCKING. KNIGHTS
I'd post a picture of their sheer manly sexy appeal, but I don't know how to do that, so just google them.

Most hated? Ultramarines, easily. They are far too spoiled by GW and their fluff is ridiculous...Marneus calgar blocking an Avatar's blade with his fist...*GRRR*

Like this [ img] put the url of the picture in here [/img]

Just take out the space between [ and the first img. Easiest way to learn how to do these things is to 'quote' someone who has done something you would like to do and see what the tags are.

 

[SammiYin]

Psht, easy. GREY. MOTHERTRUCKING. KNIGHTS
I'd post a picture of their sheer manly sexy appeal, but I don't know how to do that, so just google them.

Most hated? Ultramarines, easily. They are far too spoiled by GW and their fluff is ridiculous...Marneus calgar blocking an Avatar's blade with his fist...*GRRR*

Like this [ img] put the url of the picture in here [/img]

Just take out the space between [ and the first img. Easiest way to learn how to do these things is to 'quote' someone who has done something you would like to do and see what the tags are.

Thank you very much my good sir, I shall now apply my new found knowledge

Neato!
But just look at him, Mmm mm.