Hi!

The title says it all... Had anyone did the math about how many minutes (or turns or wathever) are neccesary to don Astartes Power and/or terminator Armor?

(I think i've read about it anywhere, but can't find it)

first:

why you don't wear your Armor?

in mission you always wear your armor!

also when you are in the Fang, you usually wear your armor......

but, i think it depend of your campaign style...you prefer to be servo assisted like in the ironman movie? (i suggest 3 to 5 minutes)

you done by yourself? mmmm....i think about 10 to 15 minutes....

if you done in a some sort of a ritual manner, i suppose more time.....

just imagine in wich way you like to wear your armor....

Raw conjecture warning:

I would guess that donning your armor alone takes a long time half hour minimum to an hour or more of really pious space marines. Additional assistants such as chapter serfs or other battle brothers including someone to recite prayers could shave a third or perhaps more off the process as they'd help with the raw mechanical disadvantage of the process.

I tend to subscribe to the opinion that not on mission Astartes don't wear armor, just because you can go extended periods of time peeing through a tube and being caked in your own filth doesn't necissarily mean you might want to.

no you dont spend every waking moment in armor. most marines train out of armor to provide more challenge since, lets face it when you already beat servitors designed to try to keep up with your advance physiology like a cheap hooker having your armor on would be over kill to the point of devaluing the efforts. Not only that but if you dont use the armor when you spar with other marines you have less likely hood of doing harm with punches and kicks as you dont have survos adding to your already extreme force.

that said consider the RP element of being on guard constantly, even a marine would lose his mind, somewhere must be safe enough that a marine can consider the tools of war unneeded.

do not arm yourself unless you intend to die to day.

on=off mission astartes, boo to the lack of editing.

Half an hour ... Or 20 minutes with serfs or the like helping you.. Yep, more or less in the same lines i was thinking.

And Gantz, i've asking this question not because my group of players wanted to go hopping in-hopping out-hopping in-hopping out of their armors. In the last session they were facing a Chaos assault in an ancient Horus Heresy Astartes equipment caché, and one of the Battle Brother, heavily injured from a prior battle against a demon who ripped his armor off, wanted to use one of the suit of armor they have find (All Mark III and IV).... but his Battle Brother were at the moment a bit busy repelling the Chaos hordes, so he wanted to 'suit up' alone by himself. I said to him that he can't don the armor all alone & wounded (and also don an armor who was locked and without maintenance for almost 10.000 years... It was rusty as a Titanic's penny) in time to help the other players, but he began to argument my decission and... Well, you can guess what came after that...

And... about the 'servo-assistance'... No rituals? No incense? No fuss? ... Something says to me that it can't be 'proper'... Also, it comes to my mind the image of an entire Company donning their armors like that and, brrr... That, with the proper acoustics, can sound like a Titan powering up... Dunno, but I think the enemies, after hearing that, will turn around and run for their lives XD

+++++servo assisted like in the ironman movie+++++

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8WRZcYVbVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSPWhzrjPg8

I like to think the Astartes use similar arming chambers. Although naturally there are long pauses where the wargear is blessed and the correct rituals are intoned.

Course, they won't always be available, so, I agree. Longer by yourself. Although if you wanted you could say it works like Iron Man 2:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4sundwVogg

Based on experience with actual armour, diving equipment and other safety kit... an hour. At least. With somneone helping. I'd perhaps add more if it was being done with the ceremony with which Astartes don wargear. I'd probably look at it being about a two and a half hour job if at their Chapter's base of operations with full cerremony... In the field: maybe an hour in a pinch.

Let's look at what you're doing and what the armour does for the Astartes

Armour. Obviously the suit's main job. Donning armour has often been surrounded by ceremony in our own history. Warriors need their kit to keep them alive so tend to respect it. Even discarding that part of it, there are a lot of complex pieces, all of which need to fit and move perfectly, or they'll hamper the wearer. Each undergarment and piece goes on in the correct order and needs to be fully adjusted and fitted each time. After each piece goes on and is adjusted, you need to perform the full range of movement to ensure that it's right. That alone is time-consuming. With help, I wouldn't want to fight in armour that I'd spent less than 20 minutes putting on - at bare minimum. And after it's on, you again need to check full range of movement. You literally want nothing to hinder you or distract you. Let's call it 20 minutes, minimum.

G-suit. Astartes regularly hit double-digit G figures: In drop pods, on jump-packs, and riding Thunderhawks. G-suits need to be carefully put on: A crease in an undergarment, or a bit of debris will cause heavy bruising under G-load, and needs to be avoided at all costs. Sure; your Marine can tough it out, but a heavy 8 inch bruise is still going to be something he wants to avoid, in case it affects performance.

Air supply. You're going to want to check that! Twice! And have a buddy check it for you! When you are reliant on a life-support system, you need to make sure it works! And then you check that the back-ups work, too. There's no short-cuts possible.

Vacuum and environmental seals. How long do you think it takes to put a space suit on? Are you going to use it before it's been checked? Every joint and seal needs to be carefully put together and checked. You examine every seal visually with care, and apply any lubricants that it might need. Once the suit is on, you'd want to do a full environmental integrity check. Because if it's not right: You're dead. Very optimistically, I'd say that was at least 20 minutes of work.

Your clothes for the next month. Astartes wear their power armour for a long while in the field. If there's a stone in your boot, it's going to suck if you can't get it out for a month! Astartes are likely to want to get clean first, to remove all dirt (perhaps this is ritualised as 'cleansing'), and then they're going to want it all to fit perfectly. You don't want to rush it, because something that blisters you is going to effect performance.

Medical stuff. Catheters need attaching, heart-rate monitors and that kind of thing need putting in place. This is at least a ten minute job, to my mind. Then all the medical computers need to be checked, and baselines taken.

Wearable computer and communications. This stuff needs to be booted up! Cryptographic protocols for your comms gear need loading up and syncing. Autosenses and other gadgets need to boot up and run diagnostics.

I think you can justify any speed you like from the seconds of the Iron Man suit to most of a day as servomechanisms are intricately connected and blessed by hand.

There could easily be a quick release funtion though - pull a tag and the armour falls or explodes off:-

Although probably not an easy to reach tag, given 40ks propensity for close combat.

Siranui said:

Modern space suits take a couple of hours to put on, and while I'd expect things to work a little better there in 41M, I agree the ceremony and blessings would easily put it back at two hours.

I can't completely recall, how long did it say it took to get into Terminator armor? I thought it mentoned it in the main book, but I don't have it handy. I'd expect standard PA to take less time, but still a while.

AluminiumWolf said:

I don't think Stark would want it put on like that if there was a catheter involved....

Actually the canon answer is a lot different from what we've all been positing, per page 161 of the core book:

Assuming power armour is a sacred ritual, honouring the
machine spirit’s history of valiant deeds and praying for its
boons in the battles to come. It takes 20 minutes to remove
or don power armour un-aided, but never less than 5 minutes
no matter the amount of assistance as the proper rites must
be observed.

So it sounds like putting it on is at the very least servo assisted and designed to be done in a hurry by the book.

lurkeroutthere said:

Ah! Someone with the book handy has shown us up. Thanks for the pointer!

I knew it! I knew i'd read it somewhere on the book! Tnxs-a-lot! :-D

In the Imperium it would serivitor instead of servo assisted. There is fluff that states consecrated servitors help the Marine don his holy wargear, although I cannot recall specifically where I saw it but the Ultramarines movie bears this out. It would allow the Marine to do the proper rituals while the servitor makes sure the holy codpiece is correctly positioned.

kuroifremen said:

hoooo.....sorry

for your player:

"when you receive your armor first time, many techmarine work to adjustfitenableetc etc etc... the armor to you.

this practice take, i suppose, one day or more... and yes with prayer, incense, etc...

then ask:

Are you able to do the work of a techmarine?

are you able to di this process by yourself and wounded?

if the armor was configured for me, and i was more tall(or short) then you?"

and after all...if him wanna do this, let him try....

but this take time....more time....and after he fail....assign him some peenalty (corruprion?) for flee from battle...

"I stand and fight!!!"

a marine ih honour, courage....

hope this help

and sorry for my english

Honestly Ganz that sounds like a **** move, a wounded space marine going out to fight chaos forces unarmored isn't being brave he's being fairly stupid.

As always I would look for compromises with the player, can choose to mutter a hurried prayer to the machine spirits and grab a chest protector and helm giving him some armor. He can pull on a full suit but get some wierd penalities or quirks. Saying that "Oh hey that demon ripped your armor off, and now even though there's some here you absolutely can't put any of it on" just seems arbitrary.

Just my two thrones.

lurkeroutthere said:

one of multiple solutions......