Reality Based Army

When dealing with Warhammer 40K, using the word "reality" or "realistic" is travelling out onto unstable ground.

Dalton recently has mentioned a few times that he finds it distasteful (my word, not his) when players create marine armies with components that would come from multiple companies because in "reality" this would not happen.

Being a stickler for following realism as closely as possible, this accusation struck a nerve for me as I often create lists that include many units from different companies of the Black Storm. I certain degree of uncomfortableness sets in as I considered his position and it required from mental acrobatics to recover my footing.

My arguments that making Black Storm marine lists composing of units from multiple companies are as follows:

1) The Black Storm is organized such that the 4 battle companies are typically intended to be supported by detachments from the other four dedicated companies.

2) Space Marine lists often field mixed detachments as veterans and scouts are seconded to the battle companies.

3) Marine companies of 100 men (assuming 100% capacity) are too small for any but the most trivial battle operations.

4) Old faithful: reality is a nebulous concept in this universe setting. Military operations in M41may operate in a way our M3 minds cannot comprehend.

This appeased my internal daemons sufficiently so that I could sleep again, but I will have to re-write my index astartes article to update it with recent changes in my playing style (10 man tact squads) and collections in Epic (Deathwheels and decimators, titans).