Who would win?

[YorkNecromancer]

It's a straight fight, one-on-one. They are in a huge white room, no cover, and they are twenty metres apart. The Astartes has the standard kit of a Marine: frag, krak, bolter, combat knife, power armour. The Tyrannosaur has tiny little arms and 'more teeth than the Osmond family'.

My partner and I were discussing this over tea in town today. We came down on the side of the Astartes, but we weren't convinced. I said I'd throw it out to the community, see what the considered response was.

[Mr Mystery]

Astartes.

Better reactions, and most importantly? A lot more intelligent. Would be able to make decent, informed guesses about exactly where to place his shots or blows.

[Rob Godin]

What are the Astartes armed with? If they have bolters (or anything stronger) they will win. They will know to focus their fire on the head.
Astartes are in power armour? Probably safe from T-Rex's bite (except for the sergeant who has taken his helmet off to look more sergeanty).
The inclusion of grenades makes it very 1-sided in favour of the marines.

10 naked Astartes vs 1 T-Rex - My money is on Rexy.

Some modern finds suggest T-Rex may have been a pack hunter. Fossilised footprints with 3 Rexes in formation.

So - 10 Astartes (with bolters but no grenades, special or heavy weapons) vs 3 T-Rex? Much closer fight.

That would depend on how intelligent the T-Rex is/was. Pack animals are often (but not always) smarter than individual hunters because of the need to coordinate their hunt.

[Deadlift]

I think he means the tyranid and not dinosaur ;)


*edit* my bad, indeed it's T-Rex. Lol John Hammonds not going to be too happy.

[Tyrendian]

also, are we talking tabletop level Astartes or novel level SPEHS MEHREEEEENS?
either way, Rex ain't gonna bite through power armour, and I have my doubts if he would ever catch a naked Marine (not if he's Raven Guard, that's for sure... :))

[iheartgrimdark]

The Space Marine as dinosaurs never existed.

[Dlatrex]

I love big Rex! For therapods you cannot get much better. That said, even a 12 Meter T-rex is not really going to be able to do much against an armoured opponent. If the astartes was stupid enough to try to grapple with him it possible he could be injured or killed by the sheer bulk of the dinosaur. From a 'fluff' standpoint they have had feats of space marines (Prospero burns comes to mind) where they handle the local wildlife even when it is many tonnes heavier than a tank!

If a rex snuck up on a helmetless marine and chomped him unawares, then yes, the marine will have a bad day. Any other circumstance will not be in the dino's favor.

[Arkhan Land]

and then, as the dinosaur slumps forward, the exodite riding it lunges, spearing the space marine with his lance!

[Wolfshade]

T-Rex might hypnotise them with their melodic tunes...

[Deadlift]

The Space Marine as dinosaurs never existed.

Oh your one of "those" believers :)

[CoffeeGrunt]

To be fair, I think a Bolter would make a right bloody mess of a T-Rex before it even closed for the kill.

[daboarder]

please the hive tyrant (sorry T-Rex) eats the marine every time

- - - Updated - - -


Oh your one of "those" believers :)

I thought it was meant to be, the dinosaurs existed at the same time as us, a mere few thousand years ago

[Tuatara]

I thought it was meant to be, the dinosaurs existed at the same time as us, a mere few thousand years ago

Erm....65 Million years ago for the T-Rex, Humans started to humans around 200,000 years ago (don't worry - just me being a geek).

As for the OP - Astartes. If a puny little human like Luke Skywalker can kill a Rancor, then an Astartes would kill a T-Rex without breaking a sweat.

[Wolfshade]

So the dinos existed before the earth was created :eek:

[YorkNecromancer]

So the dinos existed before the earth was created

Well, I think we all know what this means.

That's empirical evidence that dinosaurs can survive hard vacuum, which suggests that their hide was actually a lot tougher than previously thought. Based on this finding, I'd have to say that unless the Astartes brought Kraken bolts, I'm now starting to lean in favour of the Tyrannousaur. Anything which can float in space for thousands of years and still evolve into one of nature's fiercest predators (or possibly carrion eaters, the science is inconclusive) has to have at least a shot against the Emperor's Finest.

[Psychosplodge]

An unarmed but power armoured marine would probably use the "swallow me" and then dig his way out method...

[CoffeeGrunt]

I think a T-Rex would struggle to fit an Astartes in its gob.

[Psychosplodge]

Oh.
Aren't they that big?

[CoffeeGrunt]

That documentary with Richard Attenborough in it shows they can barely fit a human in their mouth, not without chewing and ripping a bit.

[Psychosplodge]

Ah. in that case I'd trust in the integrity of power armour. and the strength and tactical acumen of a space marine.

[Wolfshade]

Biting force : 1,440 and 3,011 pounds of force [6.4 -13.4 kN ]

source (http://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/96/960827tyrexbite.html)

[CoffeeGrunt]

Might scratch the blessed paintwork of the Chapter.

[Arkhan Land]

Thought for the day, Space Marine = 1 to 1.5 tons, T-rex = 7 to 9 tons.

At what point do reinforced greaves give out?

[Psychosplodge]

you should know :D, but haven't spacemarines survived being run over buy APCs/Tanks?

[Tyrendian]

later than Rexys teeth I'd imagine...

also, while we're at it... why not build Rexy some Power Armour and let that loose on the battlefields...

[Deadlift]

Salamanders have to single handedly slay a dragon before becoming a full blown marine.


Their training includes many of the same trials the Emperor and Vulkan competed in according to Nocturnan legend, finally culminating in the hunting and slaying of a massive salamander on Mount Deathfire.

I'm thinking T-Rex isn't going to be much more than a threat than one of those. I'm thinking a single marine could do it easily. Especially when you account for their healing abilities and the spitting of acid etc.

[Wolfshade]

Of course if teh 'rex is a mount then it has no stat line so can't be killed...

[ReveredChaplainDrake]

If you port the WHFB Carnosaur into 40k, you'll get a pretty good idea of what a T-Rex can do. And if you do... Oh. Oh dear. That critter goes down faster than the 3rd edition Avatar. Possibly worse, seeing as WHFB presumes that mere humans can achieve Str4 just by being burly and awesome, likely suggesting that 40k stats are more inflated than their Fantasy counterparts. To think how strong a Bolter would be in a setting where a mundane musket bullet weighs in at Str4...

That said, if you were to apply real-world logic, the T-Rex has a better shot than you'd think. Sure, a Bolter would tear the T-Rex apart in the real world, but the Marine would basically be immobilized by his own stupid armor in the real world. The Marine would literally have a better shot beating the T-Rex to death with his bare hands without his armor than trying to fight it in full Astartes war plate.

[Arkhan Land]

you should know :D, but haven't spacemarines survived being run over buy APCs/Tanks?

I think in the fluff it goes both ways, in the game if they get tank shocked thats that, I was thinking they might be able to generate some sort of stomp attack, but at around 20 feet tall they fall more into the monstrous and not gargantuan creature. So perhaps a marine would not survive some sort of informed T-Rex "Smash" Attack.
Informed T-rex's being as real as space marines.

[Andrew Thomas]

My money is on the Rex, because even with a full clip, it's going to be take a lot of mass-reactive shots to cause enough blood and tissue loss for the thing to lose consciousness. Now, if he were to pull a Hellboy, i.e.: chuck a bunch of kraks down the beast's gullet, he'd have a chance. But statistically speaking, that has very little chance of working. He'd need to kneecap the Rex first. This would be a very messy fight.

- - - Updated - - -


I think in the fluff it goes both ways, in the game if they get tank shocked thats that, I was thinking they might be able to generate some sort of stomp attack, but at around 20 feet tall they fall more into the monstrous and not gargantuan creature. So perhaps a marine would not survive some sort of informed T-Rex "Smash" Attack.
Informed T-rex's being as real as space marines.
Dropped to 0 wounds doesn't necessarily mean dead.

[AffetheKing]

A naked space marine with one of their standard battle blades would probably win against a T-Rex.

[Arkhan Land]

with the banner of the sacred turok he gets to re-roll eyeball poking hits

[This Dave]

A naked space marine with one of their standard battle blades would probably win against a T-Rex.

In one of the published adventures for the Deathwatch RPG some Marines get tasked to basically do just this to win the trust of some primitive humans. Many Marine Chapters seem to require their aspirants to do something similar during recruitment.