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Do Space Marines ever have titans as part of their chapter weaponry?

If so, is the princeps a Space Marine or just a random guy that was assigned to the titan?



(a bit off topic but Do Space Marines have access to valkyries and vulture gunships?)

No, the Space Marines don't have Titans - the Titan Legions are part of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The post-Heresy reformation of the Imperium's military indeed prohibits the Astartes from having long-term command of Titans, the Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard.

And no, though there's no particular reason why they couldn't use them, Valkyries are not part of the standard Space Marine armoury - Thunderhawks and Stormravens fill their tactical niche.

The ad-mech has the titans not the Marines.

And no, They have thunderhawks for that role...

I think if any chapter might have titans, it would be the Ultramarines. But only because they almost seem to fill the role of the planetary government on Ultramar.

Space Marines never had Titans.
A expeditionary fleet had them, a crusade has them, but in both cases the Titans are detachments of mechanicum forces.

At best, a Titan could share badges and honors with a force he served alongside. Additional iconography of space marines on a Titan is possible, ownership of said machine not.

Why would they need Titans when they alone can bring down entire planet to dust?
As for Titans themselves, they destroyed enough already from inside.

Even then they wouldn't be the same colour and have only iconography of the chapter they're working with as they would be in their legion's colours, repainting to the space marine one would be disrespectful to their own.

It's like an Ultramarine helping out some cadians, then repainting his armour and removing his iconography to replace it with that of the cadian regiment he joined.

I seem to remember that the thousand sons had a Titan. It was callled Canis Vertex and was piloted by a space marine and was augmented by his psychic abilities.

Titan Legions are apart organisations.
SM use Thunderhawks for transport, GK and BA (and succesors) also use stormravens.

PresidentOfAsia wrote:(a bit off topic but Do Space Marines have access to valkyries and vulture gunships?)

Access to? Probably, as they'd be able to request any nearby Imperial Guard forces to assist them, which might include aerial support from Vultures and Valkyries/Vendettas. Valkyries/Vendettas would be quite a poor choice as a transport for Marines as, with their height & bulk, they'd find the interiors a little cramped. Whilst a Valkyrie/Vendetta can fit 12 Guardsmen & their kit inside, along with 2 door gunners, it'd be a lot harder to fit even a half-dozen Marines into that space,

d-usa wrote:I think if any chapter might have titans, it would be the Ultramarines. But only because they almost seem to fill the role of the planetary government on Ultramar.

Even less likely. It's the Codex Astartes - to which the Ultramarines adhere slavishly - which forbids such things.

Also, Titans don't belong to 'planetary governments', they belong to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Sparks_Havelock wrote:

PresidentOfAsia wrote:(a bit off topic but Do Space Marines have access to valkyries and vulture gunships?)

Access to? Probably, as they'd be able to request any nearby Imperial Guard forces to assist them, which might include aerial support from Vultures and Valkyries/Vendettas. Valkyries/Vendettas would be quite a poor choice as a transport for Marines as, with their height & bulk, they'd find the interiors a little cramped. Whilst a Valkyrie/Vendetta can fit 12 Guardsmen & their kit inside, along with 2 door gunners, it'd be a lot harder to fit even a half-dozen Marines into that space,

In the video game 'Space Marine,' the Space Marines catch a lift in some IG Valkyries. They go one per Valkyrie. There's probably enough room back there for four, maybe six Space Marines if you really cram them in, but the weight of more than two space marines would likely exceed the weight of a squad of guardsmen and would adversely affect the carrier's ability to maneuver. Also, judging by the model, the cockpit is a tight squeeze for a normal human, you could never fit Space Marines into the pilots' seats. Thus, no Space Marine Valkyries: they're just not cut out for what a Space Marine chapter needs.

Indeed. Besides, in Space Marine, they ask for a ride because they have no thunderhawks in the area, so they use what they have.

obsidianaura wrote:I seem to remember that the thousand sons had a Titan. It was callled Canis Vertex and was piloted by a space marine and was augmented by his psychic abilities.

Yeah, but that was a Warlord that they'd dug up some place and one of the cults decided to use as decoration for their HQ. Never mind any questions about how they managed to recover it and move it back to Prospero without needing Mechanicus help, and the demand that it be turned over to them that would result from that. And it wasn't piloted so much as it was possessed by the space marine.

Brother Coa wrote:Why would they need Titans when they alone can bring down entire planet to dust?
As for Titans themselves, they destroyed enough already from inside.

It's not a question of ability but rather of tactics...
Titan tactics are different from Marine tactics and neither are particularly suited to each others tactics.

daveNYC wrote:

obsidianaura wrote:I seem to remember that the thousand sons had a Titan. It was callled Canis Vertex and was piloted by a space marine and was augmented by his psychic abilities.

Yeah, but that was a Warlord that they'd dug up some place and one of the cults decided to use as decoration for their HQ. Never mind any questions about how they managed to recover it and move it back to Prospero without needing Mechanicus help, and the demand that it be turned over to them that would result from that. And it wasn't piloted so much as it was possessed by the space marine.

The Canis Vertex fought along side the Thousand Sons during the Kamenka Troika campaign and was the last Titan to fall there. Honouring the Legio Astorum they took the Vertex back to Prospero repairing it and using it as the guardian to the temple of the Pyrae Cult. They didn't just dig it up from somewhere.

purplefood wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:Why would they need Titans when they alone can bring down entire planet to dust?
As for Titans themselves, they destroyed enough already from inside.

It's not a question of ability but rather of tactics...
Titan tactics are different from Marine tactics and neither are particularly suited to each others tactics.

And they make things poop in their pants

daveNYC wrote:

obsidianaura wrote:I seem to remember that the thousand sons had a Titan. It was callled Canis Vertex and was piloted by a space marine and was augmented by his psychic abilities.

Yeah, but that was a Warlord that they'd dug up some place and one of the cults decided to use as decoration for their HQ. Never mind any questions about how they managed to recover it and move it back to Prospero without needing Mechanicus help, and the demand that it be turned over to them that would result from that. And it wasn't piloted so much as it was possessed by the space marine.

Actually, the Canis Vertex (which is a pretty funny name, if you think about it) was a powered-down Warlord Titan that had been given to Captain Khalophis (of the Pyrae) after his victory in some campaign during the great Crusade.

The reason it was able to begin working again is because the Pyrae, in addition to being Pyrokinetics, can also control automata to a certain degree.

Ninja'd by Pilau! Curse you!

Stormfather wrote:In the video game 'Space Marine,' the Space Marines catch a lift in some IG Valkyries. They go one per Valkyrie. There's probably enough room back there for four, maybe six Space Marines if you really cram them in, but the weight of more than two space marines would likely exceed the weight of a squad of guardsmen and would adversely affect the carrier's ability to maneuver. Also, judging by the model, the cockpit is a tight squeeze for a normal human, you could never fit Space Marines into the pilots' seats. Thus, no Space Marine Valkyries: they're just not cut out for what a Space Marine chapter needs.

I was assuming that you would assume that I was assuming there would be human pilots. I have a Valkyrie sitting on my shelf and there is no way an Astartes could sit in one of the seats in their armour, or even out of it. When you call in aerial support it doesn't necessarily mean you go in and pilot the craft yourself - Astartes might be able to pilot/drive their own vehicles but I can see them having great difficulty with machinery/controls designed for smaller human hands. So they'd ring up the local Guard for a jolly chat on the voxchannels, request a bit of a flyby performance and the Guard'll turn up with a few Hellstrike missiles and perhaps a strafing run or two.

I was going to comment about how the accumulated weight of Marines might affect the flight of Valkyries but ran out of time as I was rushing off to college. But lets say 600kg at least per Marines (180kg for Mk VII armour + 400kg+(?) for the Marine themselves?), for 5 Marines that comes to 3,000kg - 3 metric tons will most likely have a -bit- of an effect on the valkyries flight.

There is nothing that would prevent a marine chapter from being able to operate a Titan, a Techmarine could easiliy fix up the MIU and drive it, its just that a Titan wouldn't fit in with Space Marine tactics.

The closest stretch would be a Warhound as it would be agile and fast enough to operate within Marine tactical protocol.


But marines would never be able to obtain ownership through official channels, they might be able to recover an abandoned titan and fix it up, but if the Ad Mech found out they would ask for it back.

My bad, though the idea of a Titan being given (what, as a gift? friendshp bracelet? blood debt?) is still pretty loco IMO.

Makes for excellent scenes in Prospero Burns though, so Rule of Cool wins.

Grey Templar wrote:There is nothing that would prevent a marine chapter from being able to operate a Titan, a Techmarine could easiliy fix up the MIU and drive it, its just that a Titan wouldn't fit in with Space Marine tactics.

The closest stretch would be a Warhound as it would be agile and fast enough to operate within Marine tactical protocol.

No. Techmarines are trained by the Adeptus Mechanicus as technicians and artificers, not as Titan pilots. All the published background on the Titan Legions (Horus Heresy: Mechanicus and the Titanicus comic books) suggests that Titan Princeps are the products of long and specialised training unavailable to outsiders.

No again. A Warhound really doesn't 'operate within Marine tactical protocol'; the Codex Astartes specifically forbids the Space Marines from commanding Titans!

Grey Templar wrote:There is nothing that would prevent a marine chapter from being able to operate a Titan, a Techmarine could easiliy fix up the MIU and drive it, its just that a Titan wouldn't fit in with Space Marine tactics.

The closest stretch would be a Warhound as it would be agile and fast enough to operate within Marine tactical protocol.


But marines would never be able to obtain ownership through official channels, they might be able to recover an abandoned titan and fix it up, but if the Ad Mech found out they would ask for it back.

Other than the AM likely "disappearing" the relevant chapter's planet whilst the Inquisition and everyone else looks the other way, you're completely correct.
1. Titan are the bailiwick of the AM. They are highly possessive and will not suffer fools to have them.

2. Titans go against the codex for marines. The last time that happened was in the form of legions, and thats kind of frowned on...

English Assassin wrote:No again. A Warhound really doesn't 'operate within Marine tactical protocol'; the Codex Astartes specifically forbids the Space Marines from commanding Titans!

So the Codex Astartes specifically says "No giant robots."? That right there is good enough reason to dump the Codex in the trash and cement Guilliman as the worst Primarch ever.

I remember hearing something about the Space Wolves having a Titan hidden away somewhere, but I heard it secondhand. Am I right about this, or have Internet rumors misled me again?

daveNYC wrote:

English Assassin wrote:No again. A Warhound really doesn't 'operate within Marine tactical protocol'; the Codex Astartes specifically forbids the Space Marines from commanding Titans!

So the Codex Astartes specifically says "No giant robots."? That right there is good enough reason to dump the Codex in the trash and cement Guilliman as the worst Primarch ever.

The intention, supposedly was to prevent a single person from again controlling as much military power as Horus, thus eliminating the risk of another large scale military rebellion; hence the Legions being divided into chapters, etc.

But it's much easier just to follow the herd and bash the Ultramarines than it is to look things up, isn't it?

Actually, I don't think marines ever had titans. Again, its an AM thing.

I wasn't attempting to imply they did, merely to point out that the Codex Astartes imposed a strict separation of command between the Astartes, Legio Titanicus, Navy and Guard.

English Assassin wrote:I wasn't attempting to imply they did, merely to point out that the Codex Astartes imposed a strict separation of command between the Astartes, Legio Titanicus, Navy and Guard.

Ok we're in agreement on that.

Here's another! (not mine, sadly!)

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=237524