Do you use techno-barbarians on the table in some way? or only through the pages of a narrative? If on the tabletop over what field? and in what form? Which span of strife from Old Night grips you most? Early / Mid or Late Night? (M23-M30) In what troubled terran territories would you most prefer to live within? What are the raiders, war-clans, enclaves, states, nations, empires, or polities that appeal to us most?

As far as I am aware, the material on Terra during Age of Strife is rather scattered in small amounts over a whole lot of sources published over a number of decades. The oldest material I have is from an article written by Rick Priestley and published in WD 129 (1990), discussing the development of space marine armour. There are several paragraphs of material on the pre-unification Terra, especially as regards to what became later on known as Mark 1 power armour or Thunder Armour. A few snippets: "The planet had become a battleground fought over by techno-barbarian warlords and their warrior hordes. This was a brutal time for the people of Earth: a time dominated by brutal rulers like Kalagann of Ursh, Cardinal Tang, and the most infamous of all, the half-mad half-genius Narthan Dume Tyrant of the Panpacific Empire." "This [Mk 1 power armour] is the sort of armour worn by the techno-barbarian warriors that dominated the Earth. When the Emperor bagan his conquest of the planet his retinue was equipped and armed in the same way as the troops of other warlords. The first Space Marines formed part of that retinue and were equipped with the same sort of armour as other warriors of the time. The thunder-bolt and lightning emblem on the breastplate of this suit was the personal badge of the Emperor in those days." "The main part of the [Mk 1] armour is the massive powered torso which encloses the chest and arms. Beneath the armoured chest plate coiled energy cables transmit power into the arms, effectively multiplying the wearer's fighting abilities three of four times over. During this period most fighting consisted of close combat, warriors preferring to grapple with each other rather than use long range weapons - the power of warrior's chest and arms was therefore of paramount importance." So in summary, proper warriors of the techno-barbarian retinues could be moderately well-armoured and close combat was a preferred form of fighting. Gaming-wise, I would assume the typical armour of the period to be closer to carapace armour than the later power armour of the space marines proper.