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Hey, so my Imperial Guard have a mercenary company theme to them, I really like the Primaris marines and would like to be able to field them along side my boys at some point, but obviously I think it's rather unlikely for actual space marines to be fighting with them.

So I'm wondering what exactly does it take to utilize power armor? If certain people were to "acquire" Astartes suits through legally questionable methods, would there be anything preventing them from wearing the armor (aside from experience of course).

Sister of Battle use power armor.

Inquisitors use power armor.

Both are unaugmented humans. But it is a rare and extremely expensive thing to get, hence why it is in the hands of those rich, powerful organizations.

It's not unheard of though, especially if your mercenaries did some type of work for the Inquisition. You could always say an Inquisitor keeps them on retainer, thus outfitting them with it or it was given as payment for a particularly crazy job they did in the past.

course you could just have em working along side primaris marines under an inqusitor. which might work a bit better as there is no wsy Primaris could be seen as humans in PA

Alright, in that case, what are your thoughts on Primaris Deathwatch?

MrPyro wrote:
Alright, in that case, what are your thoughts on Primaris Deathwatch?

I belive my thoughts can be summed up with ".. do they exist?"

Well they technically wouldn't exist now, since the Primaris marines are so new. what I meant to say was: "Is there any reason this could not happen?"

MrPyro wrote:
Well they technically wouldn't exist now, since the Primaris marines are so new. what I meant to say was: "Is there any reason this could not happen?"

ion the loing term no, although in the short term I imagine chapters are going to want to take awhile to fully absorb and intergrate these new guys before sending them off on watches. that said if you just want an inqusitors space marines, many inqusitors have close alliances with individual space Marine chapters. you could invent an entire new space marine chapter and claim they owe a debt of honor to the inqusitor and thus send him a honor guard.

BrianDavion wrote:

MrPyro wrote:
Well they technically wouldn't exist now, since the Primaris marines are so new. what I meant to say was: "Is there any reason this could not happen?"

ion the loing term no, although in the short term I imagine chapters are going to want to take awhile to fully absorb and intergrate these new guys before sending them off on watches. that said if you just want an inqusitors space marines, many inqusitors have close alliances with individual space Marine chapters. you could invent an entire new space marine chapter and claim they owe a debt of honor to the inqusitor and thus send him a honor guard.

Primus marines are yet to be fully indocrinated if newer into chapter culture and such. Also yet to fully gain trust of there officers, and as such there more likely to wait a few decades before sending one put as a matter that each marine you sends represents you, there honour is yours, other chapters see.

So they can be careful who gets sent to the long watch and to operate outside the chapters command.

Wouldn't the fact they're gulliman's special little boys give them some leeway in terms of earning respect of other chapters and so forth?

MrPyro wrote:
Hey, so my Imperial Guard have a mercenary company theme to them, I really like the Primaris marines and would like to be able to field them along side my boys at some point, but obviously I think it's rather unlikely for actual space marines to be fighting with them.

So I'm wondering what exactly does it take to utilize power armor? If certain people were to "acquire" Astartes suits through legally questionable methods, would there be anything preventing them from wearing the armor (aside from experience of course).

From my understanding normal humans can have power armour; Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, High ranking military commanders, private citizens who are extremely wealthy and/or extremely well-connected, etc. This is different from Astartes armour, which is crafted specifically for them. I don't think humans/Guard could simply pilfer/borrow and use Marine armour.

I always thought The Solar Auxilia have a power armoured look to them:


You could role play them as an extremely well-funded and well-equipped merc company under a Rogue Trader, Privateer or Inquisitorial agent (who may or may not be undercover)?

MrPyro wrote:
Hey, so my Imperial Guard have a mercenary company theme to them, I really like the Primaris marines and would like to be able to field them along side my boys at some point, but obviously I think it's rather unlikely for actual space marines to be fighting with them.

So I'm wondering what exactly does it take to utilize power armor? If certain people were to "acquire" Astartes suits through legally questionable methods, would there be anything preventing them from wearing the armor (aside from experience of course).

Well Space Marine armour will be too big for starters, Primaris Space Marine armour will be far too big.
Then to interface with the Marine armour you need a special implant called the black carapace.

So while humans can wear power armour, Space Marine power armour would be pretty impossible.

MrPyro wrote:
Hey, so my Imperial Guard have a mercenary company theme to them, I really like the Primaris marines and would like to be able to field them along side my boys at some point, but obviously I think it's rather unlikely for actual space marines to be fighting with them.

So I'm wondering what exactly does it take to utilize power armor? If certain people were to "acquire" Astartes suits through legally questionable methods, would there be anything preventing them from wearing the armor (aside from experience of course).

No normal human is 8ft tall. Nor do any normal humans weigh 650lbs without being grotesquely fat. No normal human is going to be able to wear an astartes suit any more than a 5 year old can wear a diving welder's pressure suit.

There is human sized power armor. It is fantastically expensive(so is C:SM armor). In an older IG codex, I believe there were commanders who could wear it, but it wasnt a very popular choice.

MrPyro wrote:
Wouldn't the fact they're gulliman's special little boys give them some leeway in terms of earning respect of other chapters and so forth?

Not until there proven in combat.
Until that point there nice poster boys.

MrPyro wrote:
Wouldn't the fact they're gulliman's special little boys give them some leeway in terms of earning respect of other chapters and so forth?

No it likely wouldn't. they'd still need to intergrate them, indcut them into the chapter cult. teach them all the little pecularities of their own chapter. etc

Who says the guys need to fit into them? Its power armour. Its not like you need an actual person inside to move it about. In fact dropping several hundred kilos of posthuman meatbag might actually speed them up a bit

Retrofit some "liberated" suits of Primaris armour with a remote interface and then have your guys pilot them from a shed round the back (or some kind of proper command vehicle if you like). You could gussy up the models with additional comms kit or robotlike heads or something if you fancy a modelling challenge as well.

Space Marines fight alongside IG all the time. In fact, they'll primarily be providing backup to the IG for most of their engagements. Space Marines represent such an inconsequentially small force of the Imperial war machine that they pretty much rely on the IG to do pretty much all of their heavy lifting. Space Marines generally serve as linebreakers for the IG.

 Fafnir wrote:
Space Marines fight alongside IG all the time. In fact, they'll primarily be providing backup to the IG for most of their engagements. Space Marines represent such an inconsequentially small force of the Imperial war machine that they pretty much rely on the IG to do pretty much all of their heavy lifting. Space Marines generally serve as linebreakers for the IG.

Marines often have a single key target, enemy AA command and control so valks can land the assult wave, take enemy gate house and hold till guard can swarm thr city, take out enemy generals comand post,

These are jobs that are mission critical, thr guard do the heavy general lifting, Marines are a extremely powerful force multiplier.

I'm pretty sure the Rogue Trader RPG let you kit out your mercenaries with power armour. It was absurdly expensive of course, but by that point you were probably in control of (and profiting from) multiple planets worth of wealth.

 jhe90 wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

MrPyro wrote:
Well they technically wouldn't exist now, since the Primaris marines are so new. what I meant to say was: "Is there any reason this could not happen?"

ion the loing term no, although in the short term I imagine chapters are going to want to take awhile to fully absorb and intergrate these new guys before sending them off on watches. that said if you just want an inqusitors space marines, many inqusitors have close alliances with individual space Marine chapters. you could invent an entire new space marine chapter and claim they owe a debt of honor to the inqusitor and thus send him a honor guard.

Primus marines are yet to be fully indocrinated if newer into chapter culture and such. Also yet to fully gain trust of there officers, and as such there more likely to wait a few decades before sending one put as a matter that each marine you sends represents you, there honour is yours, other chapters see.

So they can be careful who gets sent to the long watch and to operate outside the chapters command.

Wasn't it mentioned that some new chapters made entirely of primaris were formed as well? That would allow a window for this sort of thing to happen easily.

 n0t_u wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

MrPyro wrote:
Well they technically wouldn't exist now, since the Primaris marines are so new. what I meant to say was: "Is there any reason this could not happen?"

ion the loing term no, although in the short term I imagine chapters are going to want to take awhile to fully absorb and intergrate these new guys before sending them off on watches. that said if you just want an inqusitors space marines, many inqusitors have close alliances with individual space Marine chapters. you could invent an entire new space marine chapter and claim they owe a debt of honor to the inqusitor and thus send him a honor guard.

Primus marines are yet to be fully indocrinated if newer into chapter culture and such. Also yet to fully gain trust of there officers, and as such there more likely to wait a few decades before sending one put as a matter that each marine you sends represents you, there honour is yours, other chapters see.

So they can be careful who gets sent to the long watch and to operate outside the chapters command.

Wasn't it mentioned that some new chapters made entirely of primaris were formed as well? That would allow a window for this sort of thing to happen easily.

possiably, and come to think of it, given that Primaris Marines can use standard shoulder pads, the death watch upgrade kit would, for the most part, work for them so all it'd take is GW to write rules for em...

 Flinty wrote:
Who says the guys need to fit into them? Its power armour. Its not like you need an actual person inside to move it about. In fact dropping several hundred kilos of posthuman meatbag might actually speed them up a bit

Retrofit some "liberated" suits of Primaris armour with a remote interface and then have your guys pilot them from a shed round the back (or some kind of proper command vehicle if you like). You could gussy up the models with additional comms kit or robotlike heads or something if you fancy a modelling challenge as well.

Power armour is not capable of moving on its own. For that you want terminator suits.
So, yeah, the dude inside is important and an ill-fitting hardsuit is a death trap more than it is protection; first slight knock and you'll bash your own brains out on the inside of the helmet. Not to mention the pain of a suit of hard plates trying to make a stride longer than you've got room for.
Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

 Mr_Rose wrote:

Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

It worked for the Legio Cybernetica....

...of course they almost all turned traitor.

 Exergy wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

It worked for the Legio Cybernetica....

...of course they almost all turned traitor.

They also had a grasp of the technology and systems far in excess of any of the 40k era, there version would far more problematic.
Remote control armour in 40k be downright half baked.

 jhe90 wrote:

 Exergy wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

It worked for the Legio Cybernetica....

...of course they almost all turned traitor.

They also had a grasp of the technology and systems far in excess of any of the 40k era, there version would far more problematic.
Remote control armour in 40k be downright half baked.

Ehh just put a daemon inside. Fixes everything.

 Exergy wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:

 Exergy wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

It worked for the Legio Cybernetica....

...of course they almost all turned traitor.

They also had a grasp of the technology and systems far in excess of any of the 40k era, there version would far more problematic.
Remote control armour in 40k be downright half baked.

Ehh just put a daemon inside. Fixes everything.

Until it kills you, goes renegade or the daemon inside decides it wants freedom and attempts to slaughter anything in sight.

 Mr_Rose wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Who says the guys need to fit into them? Its power armour. Its not like you need an actual person inside to move it about. In fact dropping several hundred kilos of posthuman meatbag might actually speed them up a bit

Retrofit some "liberated" suits of Primaris armour with a remote interface and then have your guys pilot them from a shed round the back (or some kind of proper command vehicle if you like). You could gussy up the models with additional comms kit or robotlike heads or something if you fancy a modelling challenge as well.

Power armour is not capable of moving on its own. For that you want terminator suits.
...
Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

Power armour is described in the various editions as replicating the wearers movements and enhancing their strength. The 2nd Ed Angels of Death codex even goes as far as saying the things have "gravity energy dampers" reducing weight and inertia. Nothing there would seem to dictate that you couldn't remote pilot an empty suit. Regarding combat links, if they can process nervous system signal's for black carapaces and titan neural links, sending the signals wireless rather than through a cable would seem to be a trivial problem to solve.

 Flinty wrote:
Nothing there would seem to dictate that you couldn't remote pilot an empty suit.

Also nothing there to say you could.
It might be that while some parts of the suit are powered to augment the strength other parts are not. Doubtful the neck, wrist or fingers are powered. The arms might be powered to lift but not to lower.

Descriptions of terminator armor specifically state that they are fully powered, unlike regular power armor.

 Flinty wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Who says the guys need to fit into them? Its power armour. Its not like you need an actual person inside to move it about. In fact dropping several hundred kilos of posthuman meatbag might actually speed them up a bit

Retrofit some "liberated" suits of Primaris armour with a remote interface and then have your guys pilot them from a shed round the back (or some kind of proper command vehicle if you like). You could gussy up the models with additional comms kit or robotlike heads or something if you fancy a modelling challenge as well.

Power armour is not capable of moving on its own. For that you want terminator suits.
...
Never mind the problems of using high fidelity low latency remote links in ground combat situations….

Power armour is described in the various editions as replicating the wearers movements and enhancing their strength. The 2nd Ed Angels of Death codex even goes as far as saying the things have "gravity energy dampers" reducing weight and inertia. Nothing there would seem to dictate that you couldn't remote pilot an empty suit. Regarding combat links, if they can process nervous system signal's for black carapaces and titan neural links, sending the signals wireless rather than through a cable would seem to be a trivial problem to solve.

Flinty, it's armour, not a mech suit or a drone. It's built and designed to be worn and interfaced with, physically. Leave the remote/AI sort of stuff for the Tau and Necron factions, where it belongs.

MrPyro wrote:
So I'm wondering what exactly does it take to utilize power armor?

*points at Sisters of Battle, who have been ordinary humans using powered armor for over twenty years of lore, well before the Primaris marines were even a tingle in the mind of any of the devs, in fact, before most of the Marine chapters outside the major ones (And even some of those) even existed*