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Hey Dakka-D's!
So I was thinking about ways I could show off some heavy battle-damage and the thought occured:

What would happed if a Space Marine's powerpack was damaged or destroyed mid-battle?
Obviously, being a powerpack, the marine's armour would lose power but would there be some sort of temporary back-up system?

I'd imagine that if there were no contingancy systems in place that the powerpack would present a rather obvious and enticing target to any enemies.
GIve me your thoughts or throw me some facts.

Cheers

Well, a SM's powerpack is actually a nuclear reactor, so I'd imagine something nasty would happen if it was breached.

 Xendarc wrote:
Hey Dakka-D's!
So I was thinking about ways I could show off some heavy battle-damage and the thought occured:

What would happed if a Space Marine's powerpack was damaged or destroyed mid-battle?
Obviously, being a powerpack, the marine's armour would lose power but would there be some sort of temporary back-up system?

I'd imagine that if there were no contingancy systems in place that the powerpack would present a rather obvious and enticing target to any enemies.
GIve me your thoughts or throw me some facts.

Cheers

it's actually a preferred method of incapacitating other enemy marines Chapter on chapter albeit this is normally through the powers of chaos thus rending the tactic null in void but in Deathwatch many marines will strike a marine from behind with a power sword or the like and aim for the power core. the main problem with this is that most the time it's the most reinforced part of their armor and almost always durable to even heavy damage but a well placed hit or gnashing strikes can render it to a weak pulls making it all but impossible to move. For this reason marines always fight try to fight back to back to reduce the possibility to nearly 0.

However from my understanding it is almost smaller than a frag grenade and normally requires an auspex to properly locate in more armor systems and a tech marine can generally repair these damages quickly. Otherwise I concur that it would look badass to have a severly damaged cell exposed representing the true grit that marine must have to keep fighting


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Coolyo294 wrote:
Well, a SM's powerpack is actually a nuclear reactor, so I'd imagine something nasty would happen if it was breached.

According to most the fluff I've read it's much safer than nuclear and produced no explosions iirc

My understanding was they can detatch the powerpack and the suit will function for at least several hours on it's own reserves, though fighting a intense battle will reduce that time considerably. a suit with no power is dead wieght and you can not use the muscle fibre bundles that help the marine move about like it was their second skin and boosting their strength, a damaged power supply will result in ruduced movement speed and reaction time. I like your idea about showing a damaged powerpack, I can just imagine it leaking coolant and some of it's inner workings exposed very grimdark.

In one of the Night Lords novles (I think) a marine fights a duel with another marine, has his power pack damaged, and keeps on trucking...albeit a little more sluggish etc

 Lightcavalier wrote:
In one of the Night Lords novles (I think) a marine fights a duel with another marine, has his power pack damaged, and keeps on trucking...albeit a little more sluggish etc

Not during a duel, but this happens, and basically it just becomes really heavy plate armor: SMs are still strong enough to move around, but they're not going to be that useful other than advancing and shooting.

"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."
- 2E C:AoD

This is just GW's opinion on the subject, though - due to lack of consistency throughout the franchise various novels or other licensed products may well deviate from this line.

However, this does of course not exclude the existence of any theoretical backup systems, and for my personal interpretation I am indeed assuming that Marine armour (and its Sororitas counterpart) does feature some sort of internal battery. This also allows me to better accept instances where characters fight without a reactor backpack such as in some 40k comics.

I hope that helped you out Xendarc? People feel free to correct me if I am wrong I'm always open to new fluff, maybe some one has something in a old dex?

Outside of what GW says, here's a quick reality check:

A set of tempered steel full plate knight's armor from the middle ages would weigh in around 45 to 50 lbs. That sounds like a lot. However, the weight was so well distributed that the wearer's agility was not seriously affected, and knights could still run, jump, fight, etc. So that's 50 lbs of armor on a probably 150 lb guy (people were small, plus this makes the math easier) for a ratio of 1/3 the wearer's body weight.

Now let's assume a marine weighs around 400lb, a number I've seen thrown about, and one that makes sense from a scaling perspective (weight will scale with the change in height cubed, assuming equal scaling in all directions from an average weight 6' male to a 7'6 male, plus around 40 extra pounds of additional muscle mass for good measure). A 250lb suit of armor would be 5/8 of a marine's body weight, nearly twice the ratio of a knight's armor.

So from this reality check, even assuming the marine is much more heavily muscled for his height than the numbers I used, I think the marine would be significantly encumbered by his armor if it was unpowered, but given how well the weight is distributed, I'm sure he could still move and fight at greatly reduced speed and strength.

@CalgarsPimpHand: Your logic on this is sound. Being a Veteran overseas, our body armor came in around 45lbs -65lbs. depending on the size of the armor, and extra flak parts you added to it.

As somebody who's worn both historically accurate armor (Medival Swordfighting, great hobby), and a former military serviceman, I found the swordfighting armor more comfortable and easier to wear. My experiences back up CalgarsPimpHand. It should be possible for the Space Marine to fight, but it wouldn't be a fun ride.

RagnarGangleri wrote:
As somebody who's worn both historically accurate armor (Medival Swordfighting, great hobby), and a former military serviceman, I found the swordfighting armor more comfortable and easier to wear. My experiences back up CalgarsPimpHand. It should be possible for the Space Marine to fight, but it wouldn't be a fun ride.

agreed on both fronts traditional combat armor kicks my ass i am much more at home in swordplay gear but any armor works it just comes down to is it effective at that time. Ultimately i love the idea of the damaged powerpack though it comes off to me as "the last leg" before a space marine meets his grim end by the hands of the Imperium's enemies.

Themanwiththeplan wrote:
I hope that helped you out Xendarc? People feel free to correct me if I am wrong I'm always open to new fluff, maybe some one has something in a old dex?

Yes, thank you planman
And thank you to everyone else who has responded.