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Surely, the squad's most important member should have the biggest helmet if anything!

If this question already has been raised, I apologise. It just struck my mind and I figured someone here had some decent explanations.

It's 40k, if it doesn't make sense, it doesn't need to...
In the 41st millenium, men in heavy armor go to war with swords...

40K is based far more on heroic fantasy than on real-world military thinking. Characters run around with their helmets off to stand out.

It's an aesthetic thing, rather than a logic thing.

Ah, that makes sense...

I put helmets on all of them, myself. Mostly because I think it looks better and also because I don't like painting faces. Usually give the sergeant the nicest helmet, though.

Take your pick.
Dude, it's fracken cool!
Because painting one out of 10 faces is easier!
If someone is going to carry your helmet for you, it looks stupid if their hands are empty.
Hair is an important sensory organ. Just ask the SW.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Doh! Ninja'd

In the case of the Space Wolves, when they reach the rank of Sergeant, they are equipped with a Power-Beard, which no mere helmet can hope to stand against.

Yeah, I can see how Space Wolves go without helmets. You don't see any badass bikers wearing helmets on the highway, after all.

I still find it illogical, though. Maybe it's because there are so few sniper units in 40k?

ChaoticBob wrote:Yeah, I can see how Space Wolves go without helmets. You don't see any badass bikers wearing helmets on the highway, after all.

Unless they're old German army helmets (with or without spike) in which case you're allowed without sacrificing badass points.

A Town Called Malus wrote:

ChaoticBob wrote:Yeah, I can see how Space Wolves go without helmets. You don't see any badass bikers wearing helmets on the highway, after all.

Unless they're old German army helmets (with or without spike) in which case you're allowed without sacrificing badass points.

Which is why the officers in the Death Korps and Steel Legion keep their helmets on.

They don't really leave their helmets off, we just model them that way so they stand out.

An overly literal explanation.

Sergents have expensive helmets made out of Invisnatium

Nameless faceless side characters are cannon fodder basically. They trade the helmet for plot armour.

They sort of explained this in the FFG Deathwatch 'Rites of Battle' supplement for the PnP RPG;

Page 152 wrote:It is fairly common to see a Space Marine fighting in battle without his helmet, especially among those of higher rank, and many Battle-Brothers prefer to remove their headgear when there is no immediate threat. Despite the added risk to their safety, or perhaps because of it, many see this practice as an act of courage and defiance of their enemies. The absence of a helmet does mean the loss of the Auto-senses that are housed inside, so as a result, many who favour this practice utilize earpieces and ocular devices, either temporarily or grafted on as permanent bionics.

In short; not wearing a helmet = pat on the back from fellow Astartes who admire your courage.

Haven't you read TSOALR?

Captains don't wear helmets because it saves lives. They can smell the enemy before they are near.

So you can paint their faces or replace their heads and make them female Marines.

It's all leaders. IG eggs and offi ers don't have helmets either. I of course model them with helmets.

If you're still looking for a practical reason, I'd say situational awareness. Wearing a full face helm drastically reduces your ability to know what's going on around you.

It's the same reason why tank commanders stick their head out of the top of the turret. You'd think that they'd want to be as deep in the tank as possible for protection, but it's the tank commander's job to know what's going on around the tank so that they can effectively command it. Likewise, space marine sergeants need to be able to command their squads and captains their armies. If extra protection gets in the way of that job, you ditch the extra protection.

Ailaros wrote:If you're still looking for a practical reason, I'd say situational awareness. Wearing a full face helm drastically reduces your ability to know what's going on around you.

It's the same reason why tank commanders stick their head out of the top of the turret. You'd think that they'd want to be as deep in the tank as possible for protection, but it's the tank commander's job to know what's going on around the tank so that they can effectively command it. Likewise, space marine sergeants need to be able to command their squads and captains their armies. If extra protection gets in the way of that job, you ditch the extra protection.

If trying to apply logic to it, their helmets give them far more situational awareness. It's jsut a gaming concept, so it's easy to ID the sgt in a SM squad. You could paint the helmet a different color or something along those lines but somehow that became a typical way for 40k players to note sgts in a squad.

Because bareheadedness easily stands out on the tabletop, and you can can get a lot more expressiveness and character out of a face than you can a helmet..

pk1 wrote:If trying to apply logic to it, their helmets give them far more situational awareness.

...because?

You can still have an earpiece to receive orders without a helmet on. Even if you can get a little video through the helmet, that's actually only FURTHER reducing your vision, as not only is your vision limited to two tiny holes in the helmet, but now there's an HUD on top of everything. I could see perhaps getting into position, but once things start going down, you need to have at least one person in the squad who is able to actually look and listen to his environment to know what's going on.

They get extra renown at the end of the mission. (Deathwatch)

Space Marines don't really need helmets. They can use bionics to replace the helmet's interface, they can take more advantage of their argumented senses and enduring the vaccum of space isn't really an issue for them.

Because someone in the design team thought it would be cool.

I on the other hand I don't, all my marines have helmets, even my scouts (converted IG helmets) as they prefer to not get shot in the face. As GW kits include helmets you can model them how you like.

Because they are hard men who are not afraid of copping a head shot

BluntmanDC wrote:Because someone in the design team thought it would be cool.

I on the other hand I don't, all my marines have helmets, even my scouts (converted IG helmets) as they prefer to not get shot in the face. As GW kits include helmets you can model them how you like.

Mind showing a picture of these conversions? Ive wanted to put helmets on my Scouts for a while.

Its just a rule of cool thing. That's really about it. In my opinion its stupid. That's why all of my Blood Angel sergeants have helmets on. The way I distinguish them is with their black shoulder pads.

All my guys are always to wear their helmets planetside.

Fluff reasons its stupid machoisum. They ones who fight without helmets are "brave" or to Fearless to need the skimpy protection.

So ya know, stupidity.

They are genre savy. Being recognised as an individual makes them less likely to get killed randomly in battle ( individuals are usualy allowed to die in a somewhat meaningful way, unlike their poor redshirt brothers ). The smarter marines realise this simple fact of life and stop wearing their face concealing helmets. This in turn allows them to survive long enough to be promoted to sergeant.

They do not, not in my army
I do not have a single helmetless marine..