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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Also, whatever happened to Suspensors?

These were fairly widespread in 2nd Ed 40K. Essentially dots or strips of anti-grav tech which helped negate the weight of heavy weapons.

They wouldn’t necessarily allow one to wield say, a Heavy Bolter the way one might wield say, a Colt Python*, but it does offset its weight to the point where it becomes reasonably man portable - but you’d still need to brace to fire it, unless you were a Space Marine, where your power armour sorts of most that automatically.

*assuming I’ve not just invented that by confusing two real world pewpews.

Suspensor systems still exist in KillTeam, but I'm guessing they are quite rare since they are only available to Spec Ops forces.. or they might be somewhat common, but break easily / require maintenance to the point where you need Astartes-tier resources to routinely use them

As for grav tech, I like to think it totally depends on the objects mass. Servo skulls might be composed of hollow aluminum or comparable lightweight alloy, so Basically just require something comparable to a couple suspensors to make it fly. We dont know how robust these servoskulls are, do we?

Primaris tanks OTOH might even use entirely different grav tech? Something like the current LK-99 hype envisions.. And as such, they can just barely hover over the ground..

Land Speeders are basically just big grav engines with pilots (yes, I'm referring to the Proteus pattern here, the only Land Speeder in my personal headcanon)

Admittedly, it doesn't all make complete sense, but hey, that's 40K for you

Suspensors are also routinely used by Deathwatch Killteams, so used by spec ops indeed.

Something else to keep in mind for the Imperium is that everything seems to be built with the intention of lasting essentially forever.

I mean, we're dealing with a faction that has ships that are millennia old, tanks and weapons that routinely operate for centuries, and even candles that can burn for five hundred years.

Servo-skulls and other items may seem to be ubiquitous to the Imperials because even if you're making something in boutique batches, if they never wear out and you make them for tens of thousands of years, you might have more than a few flying around.

Of course, the Imperium apparently has the industrial capacity to poop out all the gear to arm the primaris. So who knows.

Primaris are of course a special case.

Cawl isn’t exactly Just One Man, but a man with various copies of himself, all beavering away over 10,000 years of R&D and stockpiling.

Even if it took six months it produce a Repulsor chassis? With none being issued over that period, that’s 20,000 ready for distribution.

Just as pre-Heresy Ultramar was a tantalising glimpse of The Imperium as originally planned? Cawl’s efforts are a tantalising glimpse at what The Imperium could still achieve, if it wasn’t forced to constantly re supply and rearm, and the restriction on sophistication that entails.

Could that be replicated in some way? I mean…I guess. Arrange/persuade each Forgeworld to have a conclave for just that. But where Cawl was (sort-of) singular and dedicated to his purpose, having such an enclave within the wider Ad-Mech may not work. I mean, who chooses those assigned to it? How do you keep it stable and free from politicking?

I think something we should keep in mind that whilst The Imperium isn’t terribly efficient at building new stuff? It’s pretty good at maintenance, including sanctioned retrofitting damaged, more exotic stuff, into more manageable “it’ll still wreck the enemy, just not as hard” versions.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Also, whatever happened to Suspensors?

IIRC, the weapon platforms that are an inherent part of Eldar Guardian Defender squads use suspensors.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Also, whatever happened to Suspensors?

These were fairly widespread in 2nd Ed 40K. Essentially dots or strips of anti-grav tech which helped negate the weight of heavy weapons.

They wouldn’t necessarily allow one to wield say, a Heavy Bolter the way one might wield say, a Colt Python*, but it does offset its weight to the point where it becomes reasonably man portable - but you’d still need to brace to fire it, unless you were a Space Marine, where your power armour sorts of most that automatically.

*assuming I’ve not just invented that by confusing two real world pewpews.

They are definitely still around in the fluff, especially in the RPGs. The Psycannons of the GK were, at least int h 5th edition codex, said to have suspensors. I believe heavy bolters were also said to sometimes use them.

They didnt have any rules effect, just saying that they aided the marine in using a weapon which would otherwise be tougher.