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The backpack houses a fusion power plant and its intercooler, various electronic systems not contained in the helmet, stabilizing jets which would be infinitely useful in zero-g and low-g enviroments as well as the obvious gravitic counters (bull rush, anyone?! lol).

I'm talking about enviornmental systems and the stablizers and all the other stuff.

Deadshot wrote:What about scouts?They don't have a backpack.Terminators have all of this inbuilt so they are fine.

There's still a vent of some sort on the back part of the armor. Presumably they don't have anything like the power requirements of a suit of actual power armor.

Scouts wear Carapace. It's heavy infantry armor, but it's not powered. Might be a bit uncomfortable for long-duration wearing, but not exceptionally so.

Scouts, then, don't require a fusion reactor for their armor, and their backpacks are more likely just for carrying stuff.

What backpacks?

Phantom wrote:Found it.

Looks more like Elysians drop troops to me !

Lynata wrote:The graphic novel Daemonifuge has some Sisters walking around without the backpack, though that was only for a meeting where the armour just serves ceremonial purpose.

I dont think SoB armour is as heavy as a manly Space marine

RogalDorn69 wrote:I dont think SoB armour is as heavy as a manly Space marine

Good point - but I would think it is still too heavy* for them, and a Marine has way more muscles to move his heavier suit, so it kinda balances out. If an Astartes has problems moving in an unpowered suit of servo armour (as is noted in the 2E Marine Codex), then that would apply to a normal human as well... unless they have backup-batteries. Just my personal interpretation, mind you; I just think it could fit.

(*: comparing such armour to medieval full plate, which was much thinner and, missing all the machinery, presumably much lighter)

Mrines don't have to worry about their suits being heavy with the black carapace.

The Black Carapace is just for improved interaction with the armour, though. No power, no interaction.

"On its own a suit of power armour weighs over 250 lbs, and even a Space Marine would find it difficult to move while wearing it were it not for the electrically motivated fibre bundles implanted in the armour."

I was referring to the comparison between SoB armor and Marines. Both being powered the SoB would still have problems with the weight while the Marine would not even if his was heavier.

In addition, the backpacks can be extremely volatile if overcharged, due to their atomic core. I've read on a couple of occasions BL books where marines who were facing death intentionally detonated their packs to maximize enemy casualties.

Nicholas wrote:I was referring to the comparison between SoB armor and Marines. Both being powered the SoB would still have problems with the weight while the Marine would not even if his was heavier.

Well, if both suits of armour have power, neither will have a problem moving in them - the armour would move itself. That is the purpose of it being powered in the first place, after all.

The armour could as well weigh 500 tons and it still would be a non-issue, as long as the mechanisms have the necessary energy to move that beast. Look at Ripley's power loader in Aliens for comparison. Or Inquisitors in Terminator armour if you want a 40k example.

However, of course anyone other than a Marine will still "feel" that he/she is wearing armour and will generally move slightly more "clumsy" (depending on training/experience), as the lack of a Black Carapace means that the wearer has to rely on more traditional input methods such as pressure sensors. For a Marine, his armour is pretty much second skin. It's less of a problem with weight but more with the reaction time of the interface and thus the servo mechanisms/fibre bundles, and here the Astartes have a clear advantage.

Algorithm wrote:I've read on a couple of occasions BL books where marines who were facing death intentionally detonated their packs to maximize enemy casualties.

That's a pretty badass idea. I could see GW adopting that.

Algorithm wrote:In addition, the backpacks can be extremely volatile if overcharged, due to their atomic core. I've read on a couple of occasions BL books where marines who were facing death intentionally detonated their packs to maximize enemy casualties.

One of the Halo novels they did that too

The backpack was primarily designed to fill the embarrasing round hole on the back of space marine armour.
After subsequent models of astartes armour, it's primary role has now been reversed to cover the embarrasing protruding pole.