Hi

I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on what weapons a Marine would have on him whilst on board a ship (e.g. Strike Crusier). Just for every day wear, so to speak.

I guess at least his knife but would he have a Bolter? Bolt pistol?

Any help/speculation greatly received!

Thanks

Alex

I would lean toward them carrying everything except for their Basic or Heavy ranged weapons. I would also doubt that any would walk around a ship with power fists,, lightning claws, thunder hammers, storm shields, or other big melee weapons. The sacris claymore, relic blades, and one handed melee power and force weapons and a librarians force staff would probably be exceptions that would be carried as status symbols.

alexe74 said:

Personally, I don't see a Marine carrying anything while aboard ship, a significant portion of the time. His armour and weapons will, in my opinion, be stored in an arming chamber directly accessible from the Marines' quarters (which may vary from barracks-like chambers for squads, with a single collective arming chamber, to individual quarters and personal arming chambers for officers and specialists), awaiting use, alongside all the tools a Marine needs to perform proper maintenance rites on his wargear. Similarly, armour won't be worn, replaced instead by robes, tunics, bodygloves... whatever the particular inclinations of the Marine and his Chapter dictate (for example, the Space Wolves in Prospero Burns routinely wear custom-made leather bodysuits, decorated with knotwork and animal imagery, each made by the wearer himself). The arming chambers would contain only the standard issue/personal wargear of those who use it... specialist equipment would be stored separately and issued as and when needed.

Should the vessel be in an area where there is significant potential for combat, then it's different - as the likelihood of battle increases, so does the proportion of Marines who will clad themselves in their plate and take up arms, if only to be ready to defend against boarders or be ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I agree. I assume you are asking in preparation for a "boarding action" scenario- in which case, beware of hull breaches! As a simplified house rule, I say that any missed shot onboard a ship has a 1% chance per point of AP of penetrating the hull. This could be a good way to shake up Space Marines who have gotten too used to taking out whole hordes with just a few bolter bursts- point out that any missed shots could end up depreasurizing the compartment they are in and blowing them out into the void and suddenly those shotguns the Naval crew are using against the pirates look a lot more appealing...

Adeptus-B said:

Personally, I wouldn't expect any man-portable weapon to be capable of putting a hole in a starship's hull. When considering starships in 40k, it seems appropriate that the hulls be many metres thick, the better to withstand starship weaponry.

Of course, that doesn't remove the risk of damaging something important inside the ship...

in my campaign when on ship or fortress everyone is dressed in civilian clothes themed by chapter history, as for weapons only combat knives and ceremonial ones like corozius arcanum or force swords are used. With exception of 2 brothers guarding entrance to armoury and apothecarium and chaplin (because his vow).

But if ship is moving in slightly dangerous space all brothers are armed and armoured.

also when moving on smaller ship they are always armed.

Boruta sums up how we do things as well. It's the same way I play the watch fortress as well, though watch stations all depend on activity levels and staff numbers.

Thanks for the many replies so far! Seems to be as many ideas as there are replies! All good stuff...

The situation for my campaign is a Deathwatch team returning to their Watch station (at Piety, Endymion Cluster) from a successful mission defending a planet from Orks (using RT's Frozen Reaches!). However, my campaign is set in the Maelstrom Zone in 904.41M so the team return to find that the station is not responding and that not every one on the team may be happy with the guy standing next to them (the team+ship crew of 2 is a mix of NPC Astral Claws (medic!), Mantis, Lamentor, Fire Hawk, Marine Errant, Novamarines etc.).

So, what I was wondering was, if the team were all standing on the bridge and got word of Iblis (Mantis protected) being firebombed by the Fire Hawks, what would they be carrying if an angry NPC decended to hit someone else. Note: the PCs are neutral (so far) chapters in this lovely mess!

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know why I asked!

Alex

PS love have got to love the Forgeworld Badab War books! Enough background in there for a really interesting campaign!