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Because in fluff 1000 marines is not a small number. It is, but its a legit case of the Marines being equal to 100 of any enemy they fight. Orks are the most obvious case. Individually a Marine can tackle a few, a squad working in perfect sync can take a horde. A company under an experienced captain who understands warfare better than any mortal man can due to centuries of experience, the effects will multiply tenfold. A whole chapter, under command of a Chapter Master, who like, usually writes books on warfare on par with The Art of War level of awesome, can beat practically anything. Some of it is plot armour but a lot of it is also due to just being masters of their trade. Plus, humans in power armour can't do half the things Marines can do. Marines can breathe underwater, suffer wounds that would kill a mortal 6 times over, lift things dozens of times their own 800lb weight without additional armour, mind-meld with their armour and are 100% focused on their role. A human in PA is deadly but Space Marines are just on another level entirely.

If you want elite super-soldier in power armor that aren't Space Marine, why would don't you look at Sisters of Battle? They are exactly what you are searching for. Why would there need to be another group just like them?

As for why is the Imperium incapable to give power armor to more soldiers, the reason is pretty simple. They can't. If they could they would much like if they could all guardsmen would be Scions.

Would a group of human elite soldier in power armor capable of fighting side by side with Space Marines awesome? I believe so and they already exist.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
,,, You know, you really didn't need to include that bracketed comment...

No it is important. Just bein an elite force in the Imperium of Man doesn't get you power armour. The groups with access to power armour (Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Inquisitors etc.) all have significant political influence. Other elite forces like the Tempestus Scions don't get power armour.

I always forget that Marines have political power now rather than being nothing more than the sharp end of a stick.

Nations, worlds and even entities such as the IoM all have to weigh cost vs benefit when it comes to spending. The larger you get the more corruption in the systems, making things more expensive than they have to be. And no army wants to just throw away perfectly good equipment. At some point in the upgrade process it will become too expensive to give every soldier the latest toys - the frontline/elite will get the best stuff while others get what's left.

Around a million marines (many Chapters self-sufficient since millennia) and a few tens of thousands of SoB is as much power armor as can be produced, at least without crippling production of something else.

IG needs to invest into making Sentinels cheaper, common, replaceable, rugged. Put more men into more sentinels. Make the parts easy to make and replace. Make it allowable for substitute parts. On the table top, the sentinel is very bad, but from a realistic point of view, an all terrain vehicle that can be used inside large buildings, ships, city scape, forests is invaluable to draw light arms fire and breach a bunker or line is priceless. Sure a marine can do it. But they need to be deployed from orbit from a barge from another sector lifht years away thru the warp... If there were more Sentinels readily available, easy to maintain, and overall cheaper to build than a sophisticated power armor then a guardsmen can hop into a Sentinel when the sirens are blaring for immediate xeno attack.

https://youtu.be/Mw6CpFQ3Ctk

 Wyzilla wrote:

Dark Angels are mentally programmed with hidden commands to ensure they never draw their guns on a brother again. One of the high ranking Chaplains merely has to utter the correct sequence of words to put a Dark Angel into a dazed hypnotized state, in which their memory can be wiped and reprogrammed.

And this words are: "I'm starting to think i've overdone with purity seals".