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Hey guys, a couple days ago I picked up a SM command squad. I noticed they came with like, I believe 6 shoulder pads displaying the Crux Terminatus, granting the wearer the right to don terminator armour. Fluff wise, if you were putting together a 1st company command squad than you'd think nothing of it but can battle company command squads be granted that privilege?

Codex marines who attain veteran status are either transferred to the first company OR to their companies command squad, and only the first company is trained in the use of Terminator armour. So generally the answer would be no, but it's always possible a particular Captain might for some reason have a cadre of first company marines assigned to him - which is (or at used to be) the standard practice for the Blood Angels.

I'm not sure what 'dawn power armour' means. If you mean they're qualified on Terminator Armour I suppose the answer is that they can, but they usually don't.

Terminator Honours in the 4th edition Codex (as signified by the Crux Terminatus) meant you had the Veteran Sergeant statline and were allowed to purchase upgrade wargear at all, and back then some Chapters (most notably the Iron Hands) could field Sergeants in Terminator armour in normal squads.

I think he meant "don" as in "to wear" (as in "don we now our gay apparel" ).

Yes, having earned the right to do so (wear the armour) means they can do so (but may be restricted by the number of suits the chapter has, to start with, or by mission requirement).

 chromedog wrote:
I think he meant "don" as in "to wear" (as in "don we now our gay apparel" ).

Yes, having earned the right to do so (wear the armour) means they can do so (but may be restricted by the number of suits the chapter has, to start with, or by mission requirement).

Yes, I meant don, I apologize.

But that's what I was thinking as well. Maybe such veterans have earned the right to wear the armour but due to availability, they don't see very many opportunities to wear the suits.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
I'm not sure what 'dawn power armour' means. If you mean they're qualified on Terminator Armour I suppose the answer is that they can, but they usually don't.

Terminator Honours in the 4th edition Codex (as signified by the Crux Terminatus) meant you had the Veteran Sergeant statline and were allowed to purchase upgrade wargear at all, and back then some Chapters (most notably the Iron Hands) could field Sergeants in Terminator armour in normal squads.

My fault, I edited it. You can be more polite next time.

 Lord Tarkin wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
I'm not sure what 'dawn power armour' means. If you mean they're qualified on Terminator Armour I suppose the answer is that they can, but they usually don't.

Terminator Honours in the 4th edition Codex (as signified by the Crux Terminatus) meant you had the Veteran Sergeant statline and were allowed to purchase upgrade wargear at all, and back then some Chapters (most notably the Iron Hands) could field Sergeants in Terminator armour in normal squads.

My fault, I edited it. You can be more polite next time.

Sorry, not trying to be rude, just confused. On further reading I've revised my answer to 'almost never'; Terminator armour is almost always restricted to the First Company (the only exception I've found is the Space Wolves, who have Wolf Guard detachments per Company instead of a separate veteran Company).

The Marines in a command squad have presumably been through a rotation in the First Company and are trained to use Terminator armour, but they aren't going to get to use it if they're assigned elsewhere.

It depends on chapter.

Blood Angels captains get to pick their honour guard (read command squad), and it won't always be marines from their own company. Often a command squad will contain marines earmarked for future command positions (captain, sergeant, etc) or ones that have experience the commander values.

I suppose it is feasible a non-first company marine might be trained in terminator armour; perhaps he served under death watch or some other inquisitorial role and was trained under this remit before being returned to his chapter. Would make a nice bit of back story to a nameless command squad trooper.

In times past vanilla marines could field a terminator command squad. These days I think only DA can still do so.

From a fluff POV, if they are wearing the crux they have earned the right to wear the armor, and could theoretically do so. In practice, that privilege is reserved for active members of the 1st co.

Just be a dark angel, we hand terminator armor out like candy at an old folks home.

Indeed. The Terminator Command Squad used to be a thing, but now is purely a Dark Angels thing (and Grey Knights, I guess, as that's basically what paladins are).

locarno24 wrote:
Indeed. The Terminator Command Squad used to be a thing, but now is purely a Dark Angels thing (and Grey Knights, I guess, as that's basically what paladins are).

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Space-Marine-Terminator-Command-2016

they are selling one. painted as Ultras.
so it seems no longer so niche.

Rules don't always reflect fluff accurately. Any codex chapter should be able to deploy a First Company command squad in terminator armor, just like they should be able to deploy an 8th company command squad with jump packs.

These are the kinds of things that (depending on edition) get withheld from the vanilla codex to make the Dark Angels and Blood Angels feel more special than they really are.

Anyway the crux terminatus signifies veteran status and the rank to wear terminator armor. It doesn't mean you've trained on it yet, and you can only wear it in the first company (bar certain exceptions like Space Wolves and Iron Hands). So your battle company command squad wouldn't be wearing terminator armor, nor would their captain.

But the captain or command squad members could easily have been former members of the first company rotated out for leadership roles in battle companies (in fact I would say that's likely). So I would expect them to have experience in terminator armor for what that's worth.

 jhe90 wrote:

locarno24 wrote:
Indeed. The Terminator Command Squad used to be a thing, but now is purely a Dark Angels thing (and Grey Knights, I guess, as that's basically what paladins are).

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Space-Marine-Terminator-Command-2016

they are selling one. painted as Ultras.
so it seems no longer so niche.

Thats not a command squad, the only thing that makes it a "Command squad" is that its 5 terminators and a space marine captain in the same box.

Rules its just a terminator squad and captain, no banner, no apoth, no champion.

 jhe90 wrote:

locarno24 wrote:
Indeed. The Terminator Command Squad used to be a thing, but now is purely a Dark Angels thing (and Grey Knights, I guess, as that's basically what paladins are).

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Space-Marine-Terminator-Command-2016

they are selling one. painted as Ultras.
so it seems no longer so niche.

I think that’s just the marketing guys putting a name on a box. A command squad should include things like a champion, apothecary, and standard bearer. Or at least the option to have them.