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From another thread, so as not to derail the original topic:

 MajorStoffer wrote:
Mk III onwards isn't exactly unheard of in the 41st millenium, particularly amongst the first/second founding chapters. And the Minotaurs, but they're a somewhat unusual case.

Generally speaking, if you want to do a "fluffy" loyalist force, choose one of the first/second founding chapters; any of them are valid candidates to make use of older armour, but older armour marks tend to fill specialist niches based on their characteristics. Mk. III is generally used by Devastators or assault marines; heavy frontal armour being valued in those scenarios, Mk. IV would generally be used by 1st Company Veterans or other senior staff, being generally superior to everything short of Mk. 8, with Mk. V generally only fielded by line troops or fresh forces; Mk V is an inferior armour type, a slapdash mix of components rather than a fixed set of specifications.

Given what you listed, maybe one box of tacticals to mix in for regular line troops and you'd have a decent footslogging list.

 Deadshot wrote:
Mk V is particularly venerated as the armour that kept the Imperium fighting during the Heresy.

I also thought Mk VI Corvus was supposed to surpass Mk IV Maximus? It has superior autosenses and lighter plates for mo loss in protection? And that Mk VII Aquila was superior still being an upgrade to Mk6?

wargey wrote:
Maximus mk 4 is the pinnacle of power amour design the tech to make it has been lost mk 6, 7 and 8 are the easiest to make..

Is there actually a consensus on "how good" different marks of power armor are? I know older tends to be better in the imperium, but for some reason I was under the impression that the mark VI+ armors were better than the older models, what with the exposed cables, ridiculous weight and other nonsense.

Well, as I mentioned there as you have quoted, the way I interpret thing is that Mk 6+ beats Mk 5-.

Obviously Mk I is the worst off, having an exposed face and no powered legs, or life support.

Mk II comes next with Mk 3 having better frontal armour mods.

Then Mk V, as they were a stopgap but had weight and heat issues.

However, here's where the problem arises. Mk IV and VI.

Mk IV WAS devised as the pinnicle of PA tech at the time. However, Corvus armour has several superior functions. Lexicanium says it had advanced Autosenses, much lighter plates but just as protective, redundancy systems, backup systems and all the cabling were enclosed, and could be easily repaired using older suits. And it was stealthier.


The Mk VII, the one in use now, is a further upgrade of Mk VI with the cables on the chest enclosed and a new helmet.

The Mk VIII is clearly the best with the protective collar and all Mk 7 gear.

It can be situational though. Mk3 is still touted as being superior for tunnel fighting because of its better frontal armour, even compared to later marques.

In my opinion, it's a case of reliability versus "raw" improvements. Newer marks of power armour usually feature additional armour plating, as there's not much that can actually go wrong there. It's just slapping another inch of ceramite onto an already existing system. No need to rewire anything. If the AdMech wouldn't have a monopoly on this sort of stuff, you'd have the Marines do this in their free time by themselves.

However, what about the internal systems themselves? There's this little story blurb in the 3E Marine Codex where a Marine complains about the performance of his suit having dropped considerably ever since damaged parts were replaced with newly manufactured ones, thinking something along the lines of "they just don't make things like they used to do".

I think this is the real problem, or at least this is how I choose to interpret the available fluff. The Imperium will always retain the ability to tinker with existing systems, even experiment a bit with merging various parts to create something new (like taking a Chimaera chassis and the Immolator turret to create the Hellhound flamer tank). But whatever they do, the constant loss of knowledge means that newly built stuff will always be a bit less reliable than the things they're pulling out of some STC as-is. It may break down more often or just require more maintenance, or maybe it's prone to glitches somewhere, or maybe it'll burn more fuel/energy, or maybe it won't be quite as powerful. Something along those lines.