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Hey guys got a quicky question here that came up during a discussion over heavy weapons in a Deathwatch RPG group that I play with. The question was raised if it was possible to have a marine have a standard marine missile launcher mag locked to his back while he carries a primary weapon like a bolter. We know that they require a specific power pack unit link that allows the marines to carry decent stores of missiles and load them rapidly, but is there a way to stow away their heavy weapons if the need for mobility arises or are they stuck having to physically carry them everywhere? I can see the size of a heavy weapon being a massive issue as far as just locking it to your back, but on the other hand it does strike me as odd if the weapons were so unwieldy that to carry them from point A to B would be a massive endeavor if any form of climbing or rough terrain was present. I've not seen any models with a heavy weapon on their back, but the size of the missile launcher model does not make it look like it would be unreasonable to maglock it to the power pack.

Good question. I imagine marines don't usually footslog from battle to battle, with a variety of transports available. Also if a guy is issued a heavy weapon hecs usually not seen as having to use a bolter, that's what his brothers do.

I would say yes.

I remember that in the Salamanders books the marines with the heavy weapons can maglock their heavy weapons to their backpacks. It is described that the weight is not that bit of a problem but the balance is a bit of. So I guess there is that. But that would be a whole other story with, for example lascannons.

Back in earlier editions (RT, maybe 2nd) heavy weapons had a move penally associated with them. Most marines came with enough suspensors to negate the weight of their weapons. So while still big and bulky, they didn’t weigh anything.

Old fluff is old, but I think suspensors also show up in 30k, which is more recent.

 Nevelon wrote:
Back in earlier editions (RT, maybe 2nd) heavy weapons had a move penally associated with them. Most marines came with enough suspensors to negate the weight of their weapons. So while still big and bulky, they didn’t weigh anything.

Old fluff is old, but I think suspensors also show up in 30k, which is more recent.

Deathwatch (specifically) are also big on them - the Infernus Heavy Bolter (essentially a combi-heavy-bolter-heavy-flamer) is "man portable" for this reason.