Hey all,

Let's say a Space Marine had to take on a prolonged (talking months) penitence mission without their Armor. All they had with them was a suit of scout armor. How long can these super-humans go without food/water/etc? They no longer have their suits to recycle nutrients and keep them hydrated, after all. Even assuming they took provisions with them and didn't have to use their survival skills to locate food - how often would they need to eat to stay optimal?

On that same vein, let's say a tech marine was thrown into this scenario. Am I safe in assuming that a servo arm cannot work independently without Power Armor? I can't seem to justify a servo arm somehow coinciding with Scout Armor. I am thinking that would have to be left at home.

Space marines are like snakes in the way that they only need to eat and drink very rarely apparently.

Even then they can eat and drink anything with even a minimal amount of biological material to remain optimal.

Regardless of their armor helping them their body simply doesn't need it. The suit's nice and all, but a marine is a marine with or without their gear.

Yeah, I assumed it was something like that. Do you have any "sources" to back that up? Is that in the books or on the wiki somewhere?

Obviously they need nutrients or their armor would not have a feature to recycle nutrients; that would be like putting an air conditioner in an igloo.

I am trying to get a vague determination on how often they should be ingesting what little nutrients they need and how long it would be before they started feeling any effects from not having anything. Even if it meant eating one cricket to go three days on.

There is ofcourse an upper limit to this. In one of the HH novels the first wordbearers who traveled into the eye of terror emeredged almost starved to death as they had spent many months inside while only a few hours elapsed in realspace.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Creation_of_a_Space_Marine

The preomnor plays agreat part in marine survivability by letting them eat basically poison and stuff.

It probaly has some convert-body waste-to-food device.

9 minutes ago, pearldrum1 said:

I am trying to get a vague determination on how often they should be ingesting what little nutrients they need and how long it would be before they started feeling any effects from not having anything. Even if it meant eating one cricket to go three days on.

Honestly, I don't think i've seen any stats for it. Might even be different for diferent chapters. What with their implants not all being of the same quality. You could have chapters being able to survive on deathworld mud for months and others turning into berzerk canibals after a few weeks of hunger.

Just make it up, I doub't there's hard and fast info about how long an Imperial Fist can remain active in optimal condition on a diet of 1 ounce of organic matter.

Also: Spacewolves drink Mjod. This gets them drunk . They have enough gen-enhanced special organs in their bodies to protect them from a multitude of venoms, polutants and poisons. And Mjod is so strong it overpowers astartes biology. I don't know what's in Mjod, but it should be lethal to normal humans.

35 minutes ago, pearldrum1 said:

Yeah, I assumed it was something like that. Do you have any "sources" to back that up? Is that in the books or on the wiki somewhere?

Soul Drinkers omnibus has a naval blockade try and starve out the chapter.

About 6 months later an Inquisitor tells them that was a stupid idea.

18 minutes ago, Robin Graves said:

Also: Spacewolves drink Mjod. This gets them drunk . They have enough gen-enhanced special organs in their bodies to protect them from a multitude of venoms, polutants and poisons. And Mjod is so strong it overpowers astartes biology. I don't know what's in Mjod, but it should be lethal to normal humans.

It probably has a lot in common with tyranid biochemical markers that shut certain organs down that let them metabolize so quickly.

Yeah, that was what I already intended on doing. I was hoping that someone had found something hiding in some old white dwarf that could give me a place to start.

Mjod not only gets the Wolves drunk in my games, it absolutely WRECKS the other Chapters should they indulge lol.

30 minutes ago, pearldrum1 said:

Yeah, that was what I already intended on doing. I was hoping that someone had found something hiding in some old white dwarf that could give me a place to start.

Mjod not only gets the Wolves drunk in my games, it absolutely WRECKS the other Chapters should they indulge lol.

Iron hands should be able to handle it...barely.

Death watch mjod night:

Space wolf: "Alright lads! This'll put hair on yer chest! Drink up!"

5 minutes later

SW: "Hah! It's gettin' to ya, ya weak livered babes! You should see your face!"

Iron hand: "It's not from the effect of the drink, nor the taste, it's from analysing it's contents. Who came up with th-"

SW: "Shhhh don't go spoilin da secret recepy, lad!"

Ultramarine: "Huzzah! robbo gwuyma- rowboat giwlyman, dammit! Rowoute guibleman will kick all your arses wiv de codex! Ultramr fodewin!"

Blood Angel: " Oooh Sanguinius prserve us. I'd rather have some blood. THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE!"

SW: "Owwwkay settle down now lad? Oi! Sanguinius settle doon!"

Imperial Fist: " Oooh the pain! My spleen! Ack. The pain is good. The pain is my shepard. I welcome the pain and the clarity it brings."

SW: " The hell is wrong with you? Hey, salamander, yer starting to look a bit pale and flushed!"

Salamander: " Really? Come an look into my red eyes!"

White scar: "Ahahhahahahhaa! you tell him! Aahhhahaha! Wahoo! Zooom! I'm flying across the stars on my bike! vroom! vroom vroom!"

Dark angel: (muttering to himself) "Don't let them see you cry. Don't let the wolf see you cry."

raven Guard: "Hey I'm starting to see legion of the damned! is that normal?"

SW: "Ok no more Mjod fer y'all.."

3 hours ago, ThenDoctor said:

Space marines are like snakes in the way that they only need to eat and drink very rarely apparently.

Even then they can eat and drink anything with even a minimal amount of biological material to remain optimal.

Regardless of their armor helping them their body simply doesn't need it. The suit's nice and all, but a marine is a marine with or without their gear.

This comparison is asinine. A snake is cold blooded so does not burn a lot of it's nutritional intake maintaining a stable body temperature. While i suspect marines may be abvle to consciously regtulate their metabolisms to an extent they are still at the base human and therefore warm blooded so they generally use some of their metabolic energy to main a stable temperature, thos perhaps less than a normal human might.

Also a snake spends most of it's time fairly dormant, digesting it's last meal and only expending energy hunting for more food or breeding. Marines may be able to hibernate for huge periods but are usually expected to be actively fighting humanities enemies. Fighting involves expending effort, expending effort requires energy and energy come from food, so a marine must eat to function. Despite biomods a marine can no more function without food than a car can run without fuel.

Sure, some creatures don't need to eat, like daemons, because they are unnatural entities sustained by the power of the warp. Marines generally do not draw power from the warp.

Also, if marines didn't need to eat why do they have so many implants to allow them to eat what would be poisonous to normal humans?

Thru optimized metabolisms and their armor's nutrient recycling you can reduce the amount of food a marine needs but he still needs something to run on. I imagine they have special field rations for marines that are ultra concentrated and specialized for their augmented metabolisms but they still need food to function and are engineered to eat damn near anything, end of discussion.

Robin wins.

BTW did you bring the popcorn?

2 hours ago, Professor Tanhauser said:

Thru optimized metabolisms and their armor's nutrient recycling you can reduce the amount of food a marine needs but he still needs something to run on. I imagine they have special field rations for marines that are ultra concentrated and specialized for their augmented metabolisms but they still need food to function and are engineered to eat damn near anything, end of discussion.

I am going to create special Astartes field rations for the game. Not sure how it will work yet, but one bar will give them enough calories for a few days. They will thus need to supplement this with a heavy use of the survival skill. Talk about Kill Team bonding.

6 hours ago, pearldrum1 said:

On that same vein, let's say a tech marine was thrown into this scenario. Am I safe in assuming that a servo arm cannot work independently without Power Armor? I can't seem to justify a servo arm somehow coinciding with Scout Armor. I am thinking that would have to be left at home.

Yes, it must be even especially upgraded power armor:

"Techmarine servo-arms are powerful manipulators tipped with crushing pincers, useful for field repairs and punishing enemies. Ports for these detachable appendages are installed at the shoulder, and the Battle-Brother’s armour must also be upgraded with more powerful gyro-stabilisers to use one effectively" - Corebook, p.177

Thanks, Jargal. I figured that was the case but I am happy to seal the deal on that one.

2 hours ago, pearldrum1 said:

I am going to create special Astartes field rations for the game. Not sure how it will work yet, but one bar will give them enough calories for a few days. They will thus need to supplement this with a heavy use of the survival skill. Talk about Kill Team bonding.

Ok, it might involve things concentrated to such a degree they might be tocix to humans but a marine can deal with them. It occurred to me just now that a marine might be able to store some concentrated nutrients in his second stomach implant. A marine can't get fat, needs to fit in power armor so he can't store calories that way, but maybe his second stomach implant could concentrate a dense nutrient solution in it and release it over time in some cases.

As to this affecting various chapterss as someone asked, hmm, maybe a chapter who's gene seed has lost the second or pre stomach implant couldn;t go as long without fresh nutrients as a normal one.

10 hours ago, pearldrum1 said:

Hey all,

Let's say a Space Marine had to take on a prolonged (talking months) penitence mission without their Armor. All they had with them was a suit of scout armor. How long can these super-humans go without food/water/etc? They no longer have their suits to recycle nutrients and keep them hydrated, after all. Even assuming they took provisions with them and didn't have to use their survival skills to locate food - how often would they need to eat to stay optimal?

On that same vein, let's say a tech marine was thrown into this scenario. Am I safe in assuming that a servo arm cannot work independently without Power Armor? I can't seem to justify a servo arm somehow coinciding with Scout Armor. I am thinking that would have to be left at home.

Servo Arm needs Power Armor. Mechadendrites don't. Both mechadendrites and servo arms need the mechanicus implants, but a servo arm can lift and move a couple tons, it has to be braced to power armor. While a servo arm is classed as a mechadendrite it's a special, heavy, large one, much heavier than other mechadendrites which are more like dr. octopus' tentacles.

7 hours ago, Professor Tanhauser said:

Also, if marines didn't need to eat why do they have so many implants to allow them to eat what would be poisonous to normal humans?

I didn't say they do not need to eat. I said they need to eat very rarely. Even sighting a source stating as such. Snakes were the first thing to come to mind about the not needing to eat that often.

I also add that they can even eat just about anything. To back up the idea of them eating on occasion.

It's pretty obvious why you would want your super soldier legions to be able to eat anything and not have to eat all the time.

14 minutes ago, ThenDoctor said:

I didn't say they do not need to eat. I said they need to eat very rarely.

By Codex they eat twice a day in peacetime. On the one hand, you can say that in wartime they suppress they need for food, on the other - that the burden of war activity requires more nutrition...

24 minutes ago, Jargal said:

By Codex they eat twice a day in peacetime. On the one hand, you can say that in wartime they suppress they need for food, on the other - that the burden of war activity requires more nutrition...

Fair enough, it's not like sources haven't contradicted one another before.

6 hours ago, pearldrum1 said:

I am going to create special Astartes field rations for the game. Not sure how it will work yet, but one bar will give them enough calories for a few days. They will thus need to supplement this with a heavy use of the survival skill. Talk about Kill Team bonding.

Something like that was described in Steve Parker "Deathwatch" novel.

1 hour ago, Jargal said:

Something like that was described in Steve Parker "Deathwatch" novel.

Come to think of it, would they eat dead (sentient) xenos? I mean I would if i was a space marine (or a Catachan). I imagine Eldar taste a bit like chicken and your hungery again five minutes later, but... could you roast and eat an ork?

7 hours ago, pearldrum1 said:

Robin wins.

BTW did you bring the popcorn?

Extra salty!

9 hours ago, Robin Graves said:

me to think oiead (sentient) xenoare s? specializes I mean I would if i was a space marine (or a Catachan). I imagine Eldar taste a bit like chifor your hungery again five mineven utes later, but... could you roast and eat an ork?

I remember something about a unit of catachanss that specialized in ork figting and it was implied they ate greenskins. It was also implied they were beginning to act like orks. Possibly eating orks means you might be infected with their mentality. Eating tyranids is definitepy bad evrn for kroot.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Fenrisian_Ale

On 2/4/2017 at 2:33 AM, Professor Tanhauser said:

Servo Arm needs Power Armor. Mechadendrites don't. Both mechadendrites and servo arms need the mechanicus implants, but a servo arm can lift and move a couple tons, it has to be braced to power armor. While a servo arm is classed as a mechadendrite it's a special, heavy, large one, much heavier than other mechadendrites which are more like dr. octopus' tentacles.

Yeah, I am not worried about mechadendrites. I just needed confirmation on the servo arm. Thanks.