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fluff question armour Iron Hands?


Silk

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Most of the Loyalist had Mk 2 and 3, since the Warmaster deliberately slated the more advanced Mk4 armors to what would become the Traitor legions.  This changed in during the Heresy as more Mk4 became available to the Loyalists, along with Mk5 suits.  Eventually by the time of the Siege of Terra Mk7 started to appear, much in the same way Mk8 does in 40k.

I've always been a bit perplexed by the IH upgrade set coming with mkiii and mkiv elements. But who needs upgrade kits when you've got some of the best legion specific unit sculpts ever!

 

They didn't always you may remember back before B@C they kit had MKIII shoulder pads not MKIV and the only reason they have the MKIV shoulders is to be compatible with B@C, hope that clears things up.

I'm old school, Saint Rick of Priestley wrote that no Space Marine force was ever solely equipped with MkIII as it's drawbacks outweighed its advantages in any situation outside it's specialised niche. I find it most baffling therefor that almost everyone besides me (in general, not just this thread) feels that Iron Hands and Iron Warriors - two of the most cold and calculating legions - should choose to clad their warriors in detrimental armour.. #GrumpOldFart

I'm old school, Saint Rick of Priestley wrote that no Space Marine force was ever solely equipped with MkIII as it's drawbacks outweighed its advantages in any situation outside it's specialised niche. I find it most baffling therefor that almost everyone besides me (in general, not just this thread) feels that Iron Hands and Iron Warriors - two of the most cold and calculating legions - should choose to clad their warriors in detrimental armour.. #GrumpOldFart

 

As best I can tell, MkIII was a modified version of MkII designed for the kinds of missions that Terminator armor is often used for (MkIII pre-dates Tactical Dreadnought Armor). In most legions it would never be standard issue, it was given to boarding marines, siege units and the like for high intensity battles where its relative lack of speed and higher maintenance requirements wouldn't be as much of a concern. So in that respect it's "detrimental" in the sense that it has drawbacks that MkII and the later MkIV don't have.

 

The Iron Hands as a legion specialize in the types of battles that MkIII is ideal for; direct, brutal conflicts where staying power is more important than maneuverability. They also have the technical expertise to overcome any maintenance issues. It makes sense for them to issue MkIII to standard squads in a way most other legions wouldn't consider. This goes for the Iron Warriors as well with their focus on siege warfare, and it's likely much more common in legions like the Death Guard and Imperial Fists.

In Rick Priestley's writing MkIII was stated to be a *heavily* modified variant of MkII, having *reduced* rear armour to (somewhat) compensate for the weight of the frontal plates. Great if you're fighting in narrow corridors or tunnels where (with your brothers at your back) you know the enemy can only come from the front. Not so great in open battle where you could be outflanked by an enemy thrust at any time or surprised by fire from an enemy company hidden in one of a half dozen buildings half a mile behind you. Also a really bad idea in any environment where the enemy is firing artillery at you, ie: siege. 

In Rick Priestley's writing MkIII was stated to be a *heavily* modified variant of MkII, having *reduced* rear armour to (somewhat) compensate for the weight of the frontal plates. Great if you're fighting in narrow corridors or tunnels where (with your brothers at your back) you know the enemy can only come from the front. Not so great in open battle where you could be outflanked by an enemy thrust at any time or surprised by fire from an enemy company hidden in one of a half dozen buildings half a mile behind you. Also a really bad idea in any environment where the enemy is firing artillery at you, ie: siege.

What does forge worlds latest write up say? Because that will be the version of mark 3 in their canon.

 

Also, I totally agree with you. Mark 3 is for shock infantry. High intensity kinetic strikes.

You could also argue that they would have definitely had a decent amount of MkIV as Ferrus turning traitor was all part of Horus' plan. The MkIV supplies would have been issued over months/years, so the Tenth would have definitely got their hands on some of this new tech armour that the Warmaster is throwing around.

 

Although, I'm not denying that they do look great in MkIII because they definitely do.

You could also argue that they would have definitely had a decent amount of MkIV as Ferrus turning traitor was all part of Horus' plan. The MkIV supplies would have been issued over months/years, so the Tenth would have definitely got their hands on some of this new tech armour that the Warmaster is throwing around.

 

Although, I'm not denying that they do look great in MkIII because they definitely do.

This is pretty much how I justify the bac marines in my IH army when someone mention it

And I'm pretty sure the the IH are one of the few chapters that can still produce mk4 not what fw book mentions it

Forge World seem to be censored.gif-footing about on the armour fluff, you'd have expected them to put a basic primer in the first book, even if it covered just MkI-IV.


Imperial Armour 10 mentions Iron Hands alongside the Red Scorpions as being notable for their ability to produce and maintain it in the 41st millennium.


Iron Hands did have MkIV, this pic is buried away somewhere obscure in one of the books (Conquest I think):



The old fluff stated rather specifically that MkIV's adoption was 'half' complete, assuming that was literal then even with the traitors getting the lion's share (explains the DA chapter upgrade being MkII.. *cough*) there would have still been a lot floating around the loyalists ranks ~ the issue with MkIV was not having enough spare parts stockpiled to keep it functioning in the face of intense Astartes vs Astartes conflict, rather than actually having it to begin with.


Addendum: The censored word was a common name for cat.. huh.png

Forge World have stated that MkIII exchanges increased armour with overstrained servos, which reduce mobility & require increasing repairs.

 

For the Xth Legion neither of these factors are an issue - they're so heavily mechanized that pretty much all their infantry would have transports, and their mastery of technology would mean frequent maintenance wouldn't be problematic.

 

That said, they did still have decent stocks of MkIV for the reasons mentioned above - I'd imagine these would have prioritized distribution among specialists - those formations which would require better maneuverability and sensors (e.g recon squads, assault squads, seekers etc.)  

If anyone is open to a little M2C-verse:

 

Basically, upon becoming a space marine prior to the advent of Maximus Armor every legionary is issued a suit of Mark 2 Crusade Armor. Mark 3 Is essentially 'up-armored' Crusade Armor, in the same way the US up-armors it's vehicles.

 

This has multiple fluff and fanon trade off. FW mentioned the wearing on the servos, but that is simply fixed with replacement servos after every battle. Personally, it appears like the IoM has functionally unlimited resources and replacement parts for power armor, so I don't see it becoming an issue to have large numbers of mark 3 legionaries prior to the heresy. The supply train is just a little larger for mark 3 heavy units, but even then legions like the IH circumvent that small limitation through bionics.

 

When Maximus armor rolls out, crusade armor would have a wear out date. This could be years or decades later where forge world simply stop reducing replacement parts as mark 4 saturates the requirements. Because the heresy hit right in the middle of a force transition this all went out the window.

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