US Army Combat Veteran Reacts to Astartes Parts 1 and 2

I checked out the Warhammer 40,000 film Astartes. I can see why this is considered one of the best Warhammer 40k fan films. It is pretty awesome, and over the top, like the best of the Warhammer Universe. Who doesn't love Space Marines, the forces of Chaos, and psychics whose orgins or alignment remain a mystery to me.

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[goliath]

I think you’re over thinking these regular humans. These are just xenos worshiping traitors, rational thought has pretty much left them.

[SuperTyrannical]

The bolters aren't small... It's just that the space marines are so very very big. ;)

[chikitabowow]

The best joke about Space Marines; "They don't need cover, they *are* the cover"

[Nastranai]

What I love is that the Astartes do actually take time to consider their actions but they're on an almost instinctive level. When they encounter the ambush gunners the first marine runs past, the second determines the caliber by sound and angles his shoulder plate to deflect it as he passes and the third marine holds position until the fourth can flank the gunners and take them out. The marine in the corridor cross section also shows awareness by sound as he hears the lone suicide bomber running up behind him, or more precisely he hears the krak charge that he was holding (most people miss it and assume it to be a helmet that the rebel drops, it's more akin to a limpet mine) before smoothly knifing him. The marine that faces the multi-laser does this as well, he understands he has reasonable protection against it's fire (another reason why the rebel infantry were just running away, they know that their lasguns can't do enough damage to the space marine's power armor to down him before he kills them all so they were simply running for their lives) but realizes that his bolter will not penerate the weapon's armor plate so he ducks back into cover as his armor starts to take minor damage, pops a flash grenade and then takes it out with a precise application of a plasma weapon. That's the kind of tactical awareness you rarely see in any media that protrays the marines, and Astartes gets it perfectly.

[johnsulcoski]

"Just because something is risky or insane doesn't mean it won't happen in this (Warhammer 40k) Universe". That's like the greatest understatement ever made.

[kungfuskull]

To help: Bolters aren't small. Astartes are just friggin huge. Look at the opening hallway shot in episode 1 where some navy officers squeeze past them in a hallway. Astartes are huge. And so are bolters.
Also, bolters have around 30 varieties, but the most common variant is a 75cal, so, big, but not ridiculously huge. But they also have explosives inside for even greater effect.
Fun lore facts to consider. 👍

[BlackWolfC]

One funny thing, in the 40k universe it's often the preferred tactic of Space Marines to board an enemy vessel even if the intent is simply to place charges on the reactor and blow the ship up. Between the layered Void Shields and the heavy armor of the ships in 40k, it would often result in drawn out slugging matches when ships attempt to destroy each other through bombardment. Astartes can take down an enemy's Void Shields using their shipboard guns, then slip boarding torpedoes in before the shields recharge, and affect much more damage from within than they could do by just continually blasting away at the ship until the shields come back up. It can often take hours upon hours of continual fire to take down the shields, leaving bare minutes for actual damage to be done before they pop back up, so getting a few squads of armored super soldiers aboard can bring the fight to the enemy directly and start doing damage to the more vulnerable internal systems much more effectively.
The only real advantage a Space Marine ship has over a normal Navy ship is the angry boys inside it, so they use them.

[bryandwyer]

TL;DR Massive lore dump that explains Combat Veteran Reacts' questions.
1. The drones escorting the boarding craft are intercepting incoming missiles, the boarding craft has armor too thick to care about a little space dust. 2. The faction the Astartes are fighting is group of secessionists, not necessarily Chaos worshippers. The dude in the mask is a Psyker and the mask is a device called a psychic hood with works to stabilize the psyker's powers and helps to prevent the psyker from losing control of his abilities and exploding (or worse). 3. Yep, the Astartes are used in raids or QRF. An Astartes company (100 marines) can mobilize very quickly and come to the defense of high level assets within days whereas the slow, grinding wheels of the Imperial Guard which is akin regular army. It could take the Imperial Guard many years if not a decade to mobilize a regiment, but take and hold missions is what the Guard does best. 4. To call a Bolter a pistol. Yes, it's small in the hands of an Astartes but it's a CQB. Imagine an M4 being chambered in 20mm grenades. The bulk of the weapon is nearly all barrel and chamber.

[dylanholderman]

to be fair the guys retreating down the hallway were probably just fleeing in a blind panic after getting stomped so hard and the guy on multilaser either didn't care about his buddy's or panicked as well

[sorain]

40k is also just weird, tactically. It's a warfare theater where shielding and armor has advanced much much faster than munitions and ranged weapons, but because those defensive measures are so good against ranged attacks, melee becomes not only viable but optimal. A dude with a hatchet and a jet pack is a greater threat to an aircraft than a SAM missile is. You kinda gotta twist your head around a little bit to actually strategize for 40k

[Laban]

11:50 They had an equivalent of running away from a tank with aim hack while having nerf guns, so staying back for any amount of time would just mean they'd be picked off a few seconds faster than their buddies.

[DeadWayfes]

Well the 2 dudes are psyckers, basically jedis on steroids and the astartes chapter that is doing the boarding action actually does anti psycker tactics to overcome them. Its one of their specialities

[funnyhydramememan]

Imagine haveing a gun the size of a Coffee machine fireng APHE shells the size of a Redbull can With a Rocket engine at the back that explodes when its Mass increases.

[Malva]

"They don't seem to like clearing rooms deliberately."
As the Codex Astartes clearly states: Fast is smooth, smooth is fast.

[Papercut]

13:20 The gunner was likely so terrified when he saw the space marine that all thought of tactics and preserving friendly life left his mind and he just squeezed the trigger.

[ARandomCustodian]

In 40k Boarding is not such a precision strike like looking for an object or person(in this case it is). But rather a way to deliver troops to another ship and fight a pitch land battle in space. Remember that most of these ships are not CQC. These ships are HUGE, like the size of city blocks type big. The goal is not to kill 1 thing or take 1 thing like how special forces operate. The goal is to *massacre* and *KILL* anyone and everyone Defending the enemy ship and to either take control of it or to blow it up. Think of it as a Hammer rather than a scalpel. Doing as much damage as those broadsides and bombs you were talking about. However the case that you are being shown in Astartes is that specific scalpel task

[robertkb]

Regarding the multilaser at ~12:30 “buzzsawing” their own troops and life having no meaningful value - this is instead a very calculated value: luring in a single space marine for the mere cost of a score of normal humans is a fantastic trade. If you think that’s callous, just remember that was exactly the situation that MAC V SOG faced in Vietnam when they called in Arc Light strikes on their location (my father was on the receiving end of one, and set off metal detectors for the rest of his life. He thought it was worth the risk (and given his shadow box compared to mine, he was right).

[mmmc]

Suggestion: Please put all your War Hammer 40K reactions videos in a playlist. Even casual War Hammer fan community can find you easily.
Great reactions! May your channel grow!.

[alexschmitt]

I just wanted to point out that the technique of using a plank to hook on to an enemy ship in order to board was actually a Roman thing, not Greek. The Greeks would try to brush past the other ship and shear off their oars with the prow of their ship. The Roman boarding plank (called a Corvus, if I remember) was developed during one of the Punic wars (I don't remember which) to make up for the fact that the Romans weren't as comfortable with naval combat as the Carthaginians, and would much prefer to fight a land battle.

And that's my pedantic nitpick done for the day.

[Solkard]

I want to put out the idea that while the traitors did start out using tactically sound strategies at the start, once they realized that they were fighting Astartes and that none of their weapons would even scratch the armor, they were pretty much just retreating en mass. I would say that was around the point they wheeled out the turret and people were rushing down the hallway all together without bothering to provide cover fire.

For their part, I would point out the Astartes almost never broke pace. They recognized that most of the incoming fire wasn’t a threat. They were simply killing them all along the way, because they were traitors and deserved to die.