The distaste of Ultramarines is like a microcosm of the distaste towards Space Marines in general by the other parts of 40k - they are the poster boys, they are the heroes, they are the default and the focus, and sometimes it is such a shame.
I just hate how they did nothing in the horus heresy then came back after everyone was on the brink of death and the Emperor dying and then took over the imperium because they didn't help in the horus heresy meaning they have a full legion of strength and they tried to kill Rogal Dorn because he found book the stupid and went against the Emperor and they blackmailed him to accepting it or he would die and his chapter labelled heretics and the imperium fall into another war which they couldn't win because the smurfs were not crippled from fighting for the imperium and then are still treated as messiahs of the imperium when in reality that failed the imperium when needed most leading to the Emperors death. Man I have much hate for the boys in blue.
The Ultramarines were unable to assist in the Horus Heresy because Horus sent Guilliman and his Legion far down south of the galaxy and didn't even get news about the Warmaster's betrayal UNTIL Holy Terra was already under siege. By the time they did arrive, the battle was already over. (The Space Wolves we're also unable to get to Holy Terra in time as well) Dorn wasn't blackmailed. He among others of the remaining loyalist Primarch disagreed with the Codex Astartes for various reasons. Dorn believed that the Imperium blamed him for the fall of fellow marines but he also realized that the Imperium could not handle another internal conflict and relented. In all cases after the Codex, Dorn and his men fought all the harder to redeem themselves.
My problem is they didn't take part in the heresy not that they couldn't, they then took control and split the imperium more with their full strength, they are then treated as the best marines and the imperium finest while they didn't take part in the biggest event in the imperium hence why I hate them. For Dorn he, Kharn I believe and Russ disagreed Robert said no and sent an imperial fleet to the Pahlanx and opened fire upon the chapters base, Dorn after leaving the pain glove came to the conclusion that if he didn't accept the codex asartes then another war would break out splitting the imperium and they would lose since the ultramarines had an undamaged legion, he tried to kill Dorn as he gave him 3 choices stick to your beliefs or you die and if you retaliate then another war breaks out and the imepriums doom is even faster, if this isn't blackmail for the primarch whos purpose in the imperium is to stablise his fathers empire then I don't know what is.
So a thought just occurred to me about the Codex Astartes, since the Codex compliment Chapters look to the Codex for battle strategies and how to counter battle strategies used against them. If an enemy force, let's say the Tau, managed to get hold of the Codex Astartes, wouldn't this give them a big advantage when fighting Chapters that relies much on the Codex for guidance in battle? Since by studying it they would gain a big insight of Space Marine battle tactics, and would be able to accurately predict how a Space Marine force would act in battle.
IMO The title of best legion has to go to the blood angels. They've got the speed of white scars, the savagery of space wolves, the self restraint of dark angels, and not to mention they live longer than any other chapter. Dante being the oldest space marine to date. The older SM's are the more skilled they become. Even over that, their primarch: Sanguinious is undoubtedly the most selfless and honorable of ALL his brothers.....Seeing his future death, but STILL going to it if it meant saving even a sliver of his father against Horus. "but da ultramarine's have diciplwen!!!! WAAAAA" Omg nobody cares about your "discipline" I learned a long time ago that practicality and imagination work so much better than "doing things by the book" At the end of the day people look at what strategy worked, not how pretty your armor was while doing it. Now all that said BA are not my favorite chapter (That title goes to the white scars. I can relate to them more.) but they are by far the most deserving of being "best chapter"
You can't really blame the Ultramarines (and the Dark Angels and Space Wolves) for not participating if they couldn't. It's kind of a mute point. The way the GW Codex wrote them to be I will admit, it was very poorly written like some person's fanfiction. I have no idea where you got the tale that Guilliman sent an army to siege the Phalanx. Guilliman never threatened Dorn or ANY of his remaining brothers. It makes no sense as that pretty much MEANS there already is another internal war. Your pretty much saying that Guilliman forced them all with his own Legion which there is no mention of even happening and if he did, he'd easily lose ALL support from even the Primarchs that supported the Codex and be cast as another traitor. Especially since Leman Russ of the Space Wolves opposed the Codex along side Dorn and ALSO had a Legion that did not get maimed as badly in the Horus Heresy. Heck Russ didn't even follow the damn Codex at ALL Funny enough the Tau ACTUALLY do that. Well somewhat. Commander Farsight during his encounters with the Imperium of Man and the Space Marines was able to patch together and partially decode the Codex itself from his experiences (Particularly from the Sons of Dorn Chapter who followed the Codex to the literal letter). Farsight used this knowledge to not only counter the Imperium but also find weakpoints in regular Tau strategies.
Well Well, I had a feeling it had happened by now. I'm just surprised we don't see it happening more often.
Blame it on Tau actually are very small in comparison to just about every other army. They're pretty much stuck in a single system without Warp Travel and oddly enough they actually have never faced Chaos before, which caused Farsight to go WTF when he ended up battling Khorne Daemons.
