JNAProductions wrote:
It slows them down. Probably less sneaky too, for Raven Guard and similar peeps.

Also, given how the Imperium functions, it's not just "Spend money, get product." It's a giant mess of traditions and religious ceremony. So sure, a Chapter COULD Void Harden all their Marines' armor. But, according to their traditions, that honor must be earned by defeating at least a dozen enemies alone in space combat. Is it sensible? Absolutely not. But the Imperium isn't sensible.

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
It slows them down. Probably less sneaky too, for Raven Guard and similar peeps.

Also, given how the Imperium functions, it's not just "Spend money, get product." It's a giant mess of traditions and religious ceremony. So sure, a Chapter COULD Void Harden all their Marines' armor. But, according to their traditions, that honor must be earned by defeating at least a dozen enemies alone in space combat. Is it sensible? Absolutely not. But the Imperium isn't sensible.

But then by that logic a Chapter might also demand that everybody wears heavy clanky VHA and damn the stealth because great grand daddy beat the crap out of rando enemy #234321424134 most impressively by throwing discretion out the window and everybody must now follow that ideal most religiously regardless or not if stealth was actually called for.

 JNAProductions wrote:

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
It slows them down. Probably less sneaky too, for Raven Guard and similar peeps.

Also, given how the Imperium functions, it's not just "Spend money, get product." It's a giant mess of traditions and religious ceremony. So sure, a Chapter COULD Void Harden all their Marines' armor. But, according to their traditions, that honor must be earned by defeating at least a dozen enemies alone in space combat. Is it sensible? Absolutely not. But the Imperium isn't sensible.

But then by that logic a Chapter might also demand that everybody wears heavy clanky VHA and damn the stealth because great grand daddy beat the crap out of rando enemy #234321424134 most impressively by throwing discretion out the window and everybody must now follow that ideal most religiously regardless or not if stealth was actually called for.

Yes. That is also a possibility.

The Imperium wins because it has massive pools of resources to draw on (and a healthy does of being the protagonist faction), not because they spend their resources well.

Edit: May I ask why this came up? Is it something you're looking to do for a custom chapter or similar?

Because if so, go nuts. Void Harden everyone, and just make a cool reason for why.

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:
I have been flicking through Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pg. 32 and The Horus Heresy Book One - Betrayal, pg. 204 and it distinctly mentions that Chapters can, if they have the resources (and presumably, money) 'harden' suits of Power Armour and stick better/additional life support systems and protective plats onto them.


Hardened Armour

Breacher squads employ specially customised and augmented
suits of power armour (usually variants on the Iron pattern)
modified by the Legion's Techmarines to better withstand the
rigours of siege warfare, lethal environments and close-quarter
boarding actions in space. The servos and power systems of such
armour are overstrained as a result of these modifications, and
require constant extensive maintenance between battles. This
deficiency was one of the factors that ultimately led to the Tactical
Dreadnought Armour project.

Hardened armour automatically counts as being Void Hardened
(see page 173) in missions where this is appropriate, and failed
armour saves against template and blast weapons may be re-rolled.
Units with Hardened Armour reduce the distance rolled for
charges, sweeping advances and run moves by 1".


and


All suits and models of Space Marine power armour in
general service are proofed against adverse atmospheric
conditions and designed to function as void suits in their
own right, as well as augmenting their wearer and shielding
their bodies from harm in battle. However, where protracted
void-fighting is expected, or local void conditions are
particularly hazardous (such as in high-rad drift zones,
solar corona shadows and micro-meteoric storms) it has
been the practice since the Great Crusade to increase the
capacity of Astartes armour to withstand these hazards.
This is known as void hardening, and often incorporates
such features as extended air supply canisters rigged to
the armour, enhanced coolant systems, ablative fracture
plates and attitudinal correction units. Dependant on
tradition and available resources, such modifications
can either be obvious and somewhat bulky, or as in the
case of Veteran Brother Hal'sar’s power armour, nearly
seamlessly integrated into his mark VII ‘Aquila’ armour
as befits the artisanship for which the Salamanders
Chapter is famed. In this case in particular, the extensive
additional heat dispersal system the armour has been
enhanced with has been stylised into the form of the
armorial draconic and serpent forms adorning his armour,
which glows a livid red when operating at high capacity.


So my question is, is there anything stopping a particularly wealthy Chapter from paying out their nose and upgrading as many Marines as they could with Hardened Armour equivalent? Even if the Marines in particular were not deployed to fight in a zero-g or hazardous environment?

Charax wrote:
I agree with Haighus

"Money" is irrelevant on the scale of the Imperium, it's all about material and manufacturing resources and logistics

So if a chapter had access to the materials required to void harden all their suits, COULD they do it? Absolutely.
Will there be tradeoffs? Also absolutely. decreased movement, increased strain on logistics, etc

WOULD a chapter do this? sure, if they had a reason to. It's more likely that they'd do it for specialised squads or even a company rather than the entire chapter, but at that point it's just a question of scale.

Is it really relevant to your RPG whether 10, 100 or 1000 marines have void hardened armour?