The books are a poor portreyal of how the SM work, they overhype them to ridiculous levels. Don't relay on them. Double that. Space Marines ARE elite infantry with good armor and weapons; that doesn't make them invulnerable or anything like that. Plus, that you LOST 20 of them doesn't mean they are...

In a single turn to 3 ork squads. Let me first say I've never played table top so maybe this is a good representation of the table top combat. I have read just a ton of the 40k Books and I must say I was pretty disappointed by Space Marines when I finally got them. AFter reading the books I expected...