Why are techmarines not in the AdMech Codex

[Xisor]

We don't have great expertise on the interior arrangement of chapters. We don't know where the Space Marines who crew vehicles are counted on Chapter lists. See 8th Edition Codex: Space Marines. It says 70-odd Techmarines at the time of indomitus.

 

Are they *all* of the Codex-entry techmarines? Land Raider drivers? Gunship pilots?

 

Or was that just X Marines on-hand who'd been signed-off by Mars?

 

Can other Forge worlds stand in if Mars is unreachable?

 

Does untrusted *in religious particulars* mean untrusted agentd on the battlefield in a specific combat situation?

 

I think there's huge scope to allow it. Either by odd situations, or by stipulating (hell: wishing) it to be true.

 

Whether it's strictly *useful* on the tabletop, is a secondary question in my esteem.

 

(But access to Thunderfires & Marine vehicles seems a fine motivation.)

[Vash113]

We don't have great expertise on the interior arrangement of chapters. We don't know where the Space Marines who crew vehicles are counted on Chapter lists. See 8th Edition Codex: Space Marines. It says 70-odd Techmarines at the time of indomitus.

Well actually I think we do know a decent amount about the organization of the chapter where vehicles are concerned, it just isn't 100% consistent across different chapters. Typically however vehicles dedicated to each company are usually crewed by marines from that company. Land Speeder crews are assigned from Assault Squads as are Bikers, with an entire reserve company dedicated to training in the use of bikes and speeders. However heavy armor like Predators, Whirlwinds, Hunters, Stalkers and the like are crewed by marines permanently assigned to the Armory. These are not Techmarines, not trained by Mars but they are not part of the general company structure either but serve the chapter armory directly, these are individuals like Sergeant Chronus of the Ultramarines.

 

Gunship pilots are sometimes described as Servitors, mortal chapter serfs or reserve company battle-brothers, for instance one of the Salamanders companies is largely dedicated to piloting, however the norm seems to be for chapter craft to be piloted by trained Techmarines who wear the cog mechanicus and the red of Mars on their armor.

 

As for training I have not seen anywhere that other Forge Worlds may stand in for Mars when training Techmarines, if Mars is unreachable then the training of Techmarines just... doesn't happen, and chapters are forced to rely on what local training they can muster. After all not all marines who perform maintenance and forge duties are fully-fledged Techmarines. The Salamanders trust every battle-brother to care for his own arms and armor, the Blood Angels craft many of their own blades, and even the Space Wolves allow non-Iron Priests like Arjac Rockfist to forge whatever he wants. Only the most sophisticated and ancient artifacts and technologies of a chapter, such as Land Raiders and Terminator Armor require the skills of a fully trained Techmarine and some of the initial training of an aspirant to the Armory will certainly happen before dispatch to Mars. If careful a chapter could go several centuries without training any new Techmarines, waiting out whatever disorder or problem is preventing the journey to Mars such as the Age of Apostasy, the War of the Beast or now the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Though this policy could change now that such a large disruption has occurred to allow chapters stuck in Imperium Nihilus to more easily train new recruits, it is possible, but we have yet to see it.

 

So to get back to the initial post I really don't see much room fluff wise for Techmarines to be running around commanding Mechanicus forces. However not much is not nothing.

 

Even some of the strangest things in 40k are not unheard of and I do know of one occasion where Techmarines fought alongside and against elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus, in the novella Cybernetica a number of Techmarine recruits training on Mars get caught up in the treachery of Kelbor Hal and wind up fighting on the red planet against the traitors. So it has happened at least once, and if once why not another time?

 

So here is one suggestion for justifying such an army in the fluff:

 

You could describe an army based around the Mechanicus forces crewing an Explorator vessel that had been tasked to return a handful of fully trained Techmarines to their homeworlds that gets blown off course by a warp storm and stumbles upon an undiscovered system rich in archaeotech and the ship and crew decide to delay the return of the Techmarines to reclaim the artifacts and the Techmarines join them in doing so. That's just one way you could do it.

[Beren]

 

Space Marines are supposed to be rather rare. Tech Marines are rarer still. I doubt that Space Marine Chapters are going to be happy about the Mechanicus getting their Techmarines killed in combat before they can be sent back, especially when Tech Marines are the only high grade tech experts for the Chapters and the Mechanicus has more than enough. Tech marines are made for the Astarte's, they won't be fighting on their own with the Mechanicus unless they're attacked directly.

Okay, what if you've not got an Enginseer or a Dominum to hand? They all been assassinated. Or they ate bad f15h. But you *do* have a Techmarine.

You still won't field them?

You'll send your troops out without an HQ?

Then the Mechanicus in question are screwed, because if by some unholy miracle of improbability every Tech Priest has been assassinated then one Tech marine cannot replace them all at the same time, especially given the nature of the Mechanicus command network.

 

I'm not saying a Tech marine will never fight alongside the Mechanicus, but it will be circumstantial and not because they are part of the Mechanicus line of battle. As I said, they're not nearly as important for the Mechanicus as they are for their Chapters. It's not a matter of "They wouldn't use the Techmarine." It's a matter of "Why the heck *do* you have a Tech marine? Why isn't he with his chapter? How on earth did they manage to kill everyone capable of mending a vehicle except him?"

 

The Topic is ' Why are Tech marines not in the Codex?' I gave my answer to that question, not 'Why do Tech Marines never fight alongside ad-mech ever?' It can happen, just not because they're a commonplace Ad-Mech unit.