Load out Limits on Terminator Armor

By Inquisitor Stabby, in Deathwatch Gamemasters

Recently my kill team has come to a situation where the standard rules of requisition have kinda gone out the window and i am expecting the groups devastator marine to dawn a suit of Terminator Armor and jam pack it full of as many guns of as many different types as i will allow him. Now i have no problem with this, and am encouraging him to go hog wild with it, but before i go letting him grab 10 of each type of heavy/mounted weapon and hooking them all up to the suit I have been trying to come up with some kind of base line of just how many weapons a suit of Terminator Armor can actually hold before it starts to become so bulky that it cant move.

Here is what i have come up with so far. And before you go any further, lets assume that the battle brother has a master crafted Mind Impulse Unit so that he can have access to all his weapons.

The arms have 3 locations where guns can be mounted. To help understand what i am talking about, imagine reaching out and holding onto a pole sticking out of the ground. Guns can be mounted on the under-side, upper-side, and in the hand. The under and upper arm can both be fitted with a basic class weapon and the hand can hold a pistol class weapon. The under arm can however, be fitted with a heavy class weapon, but that also takes up the hands ability to hold a pistol.

The body has 2 locations where guns can be mounted, the shoulders and the back. Each shoulder can mount a basic class weapon. The back has the option of holding 1 or 2 mounted weapons. If it holds 1 mounted weapon, the shoulders can only hold a pistol class weapon per shoulder. If it holds 2 mounted weapons then the shoulders are unable to mount any weapons as the bracing on the mounted weapons takes up to much space.

The legs also contain 2 locations where guns can be mounted, the knees and the outer thigh. The knees can each hold a pistol class weapon. The outer thighs can mount either a basic class or a heavy class weapon. If a heavy class weapon is mounted on either leg then the armor gives another -10 to the wearers agility for determining the battle brothers movement value.

If anybody took the time to read this thinks this is to much/not enough i would appreciate any feed back, as this is still a work in progress.

Inquisitor Stabby said:

Recently my kill team has come to a situation where the standard rules of requisition have kinda gone out the window and i am expecting the groups devastator marine to dawn a suit of Terminator Armor and jam pack it full of as many guns of as many different types as i will allow him. Now i have no problem with this, and am encouraging him to go hog wild with it, but before i go letting him grab 10 of each type of heavy/mounted weapon and hooking them all up to the suit I have been trying to come up with some kind of base line of just how many weapons a suit of Terminator Armor can actually hold before it starts to become so bulky that it cant move.

Here is what i have come up with so far. And before you go any further, lets assume that the battle brother has a master crafted Mind Impulse Unit so that he can have access to all his weapons.

The arms have 3 locations where guns can be mounted. To help understand what i am talking about, imagine reaching out and holding onto a pole sticking out of the ground. Guns can be mounted on the under-side, upper-side, and in the hand. The under and upper arm can both be fitted with a basic class weapon and the hand can hold a pistol class weapon. The under arm can however, be fitted with a heavy class weapon, but that also takes up the hands ability to hold a pistol.

The body has 2 locations where guns can be mounted, the shoulders and the back. Each shoulder can mount a basic class weapon. The back has the option of holding 1 or 2 mounted weapons. If it holds 1 mounted weapon, the shoulders can only hold a pistol class weapon per shoulder. If it holds 2 mounted weapons then the shoulders are unable to mount any weapons as the bracing on the mounted weapons takes up to much space.

The legs also contain 2 locations where guns can be mounted, the knees and the outer thigh. The knees can each hold a pistol class weapon. The outer thighs can mount either a basic class or a heavy class weapon. If a heavy class weapon is mounted on either leg then the armor gives another -10 to the wearers agility for determining the battle brothers movement value.

If anybody took the time to read this thinks this is to much/not enough i would appreciate any feed back, as this is still a work in progress.

My personal thought is that, short of getting a team of thoroughly unorthodox Tech-Priests to modify the armour and weapons extensively, affixing any more weapons than the standard two (with a couple of exceptions) onto a suit of Terminator Armour is both pointless and impossible.

The weapons carried by a Terminator are ritually mounted and connected (and only certain weapons are suitable for this), essentially meaning that the character's hands are full with his normal weapons - one in each hand, typically one ranged weapon and one melee weapon, or two melee weapons. In theory, two additional weapons can be mounted - Cyclone Missile Launchers are back-mounted by design, and auxiliary grenade launchers can be fitted to the armour (common choices are the underside of a stormbolter, the back of a power fist or similar gauntlet-style weapon, or on the armour's raised back).

N0-1_H3r3, when you say, "My personal thought is that, short of getting a team of thoroughly unorthodox Tech-Priests to modify the armour and weapons extensively, affixing any more weapons than the standard two (with a couple of exceptions) onto a suit of Terminator Armour is both pointless and impossible", It brings up a few points i forgot to mention in my original post.

When you say having so many guns is pointless, i can only assume its because you are saying this because he wouldnt be able to use all of them without constantly switching out weapons mid combat. When I imagined how it would work, i was thinking about the fire selector on judge dreads side arm. For those of you who dont know what that was, it was a vocally programed system in the gun that automatically swapped out the ammo his gun fired. Instead of just switching out ammo, giving the vocal command would activate whichever gun he told it to use. It should be said, standard action rules would apply for the battle brother, it just gives him a larger variety of ways to blow any heretic/xeno to hell where they belong.

Due to a series of Highly uncannon events, most, if not all Tech-Priests would be "unorthodox" with regards to 40k lore. I do realize now that you pointed out that only a few types of weapons can be fitted on a suit of Terminator Armor that this post would be more suited for the hose rule section of the forums. My bad.

But none the less, If we assume that the standard 40k lore has all been slightly modified, which it has because of my gaming groups combined lax of caring about accurate history, and that the battle brother has access to all the time and resources required to mod a suite of terminator armor into the walking armory that i have envisioned, would my original post seem like something at least remotely feasible?

I disagree that you can fit so many weapons onto the chest and legs without obviating Terminator armor's original purpose: dominate close-range fights in tight quarters like space hulks, or charge the enemy and plant a chainfist in its face.

Also when he says pointless it's that at a certain point it turns into overkill. You can only use so many weapons per round. You will only have so many combat rounds per mission. There is only so much variety that you need with fighting. And if the dev has that much firepower, are the other players going to feel useless?

There's also the chance that the armor's machine spirit will not be too pleased about its 10,000-year-old perfected physical shell being modded by some kid (by its standards). Possible unintended consequences if the spirit rejects the changes made to the armor or it can't process all the new linkages and it goes a little crazy or has the machine spirit equivalent of a stroke from sensory overload.

i say go for it!

it's clear you're not playin' by the canon rules (what canon!? ;) ; so, honestly, just do it! If you keep askin' folks here for our opinions, yer just gonna get a whole load of canon-violation hate in yer face....

canonically, termies have two weapons; they aren't bristling with guns 'n gewgaws out the yin-yang....('cept maybe Iron Hands....ooh, or Salamanders...)

canonically, the termies' machine spirit will flippin' freak out under such gaudy modifications...

but, really, who cares about canon? if yer game works without it, huzzah!

(now, if you 'n yer players DO care about canon, that's a whole other kettle o' fish....but that don't seem to be the case)

Now, if you wanna know feasability 'n such, i'd recommend buying a terminator model or six, then modifying one with all the guns it'll hold until it tips over...heck, somebody's probly already done it and posted pix somewhere!

You know Zappiel, thats not a half bad idea with the figures. I think i might try that next time i get around to going down to the local gaming store.

And honestly, we all love to powergame, and the devastator would still pale in comparison to the group librarian. Now that i think about it, i think the group assault marine still would have a higher damage output then the devastator due to his ungodly strength and number of attacks per round.

But all in all, i think Zappiel has put it the best way. My group is having fun, and thats really all that matters. So im fairly sure that this horse doesnt need to be beaten any more. Thanks for the quick input.

Zappiel said:

canonically, termies have two weapons

You forget the Cyclone missile launcher!

P1000536.jpg

Or the back of powerfist Grenade Launcher!

elt05.jpg

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I believe these are 'counts as' obliterators, but they show how you can go:-

m330289a_2_Terminators_873x627.jpg

m330288a_2_Terminators_370x278.jpg

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In closing, this is 40k, home of Marneus Calgar and the Land Raider Terminus Ultra. I suggest anyone who thinks this is badwrongfun reexamines what game they are playing.

I was thinking about this and something occurred to me: Techmarines in Terminator armor. 2 handheld weapons, CML, 4 mechadendrites.

I see a maximum loadout for a Terminator marine as follows:

Two basic/heavy/melee weapons, one in each hand and taken from the list of Terminator-compatible weapons.

Two arm-mounted pistols/grenade launchers, one on each arm. Any more and the arm is losing articulation.

A single back mounted weapon system (e.g. cyclone missle launcher OR tech-marine only servo-harness). There isn't room for more than one.

Digital weapons on the fingers that aren't covered by a weapon such as an autocannon.

Servoskulls and battle servitors given orders via MIU.

Any other front line minions (as per First Founding).

EDIT: Now I spot the rest of the comments and the end of the conversation. Still, my opinions remain unchanged.

Decessor said:

Two basic/heavy/melee weapons, one in each hand and taken from the list of Terminator-compatible weapons.

Not to mention Reductor/ Narthecium (I reference to GW Grey Knight model apothecary).

Deepstriker said:

Not to mention Reductor/ Narthecium (I reference to GW Grey Knight model apothecary).

I'm inclined to say a narthecium replaces an arm mounting slot. Your mileage may vary though.