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Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

  • Space Marine Mk 7 "Aquila" Power Armour

    Votes: 10 45.5%
  • Spartan Mk 6 MJOLNIR Power Assault Armour

    Votes: 12 54.5%

  • Total voters
    22

Nunu

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To keep this one strait we are looking at the armour only here, not the soldiers that wear them (it is assumed that a normal person is wearing them, despite such impossibilities) or their other equipment or their respective enemies. So without further addo:

Mk VII "Aquila" Power Armour:


Astartes power armour is the high standard against which other forms of Imperial protection are measured. The commanding sight of the God-Emperor’s warriors in their iconic battle gear has routed more than one enemy force without firing a shot. Heavy ceramite plates form the basis for most suits, actuated by electrically motivated fibre bundles that replicate the
movements of the wearer and enhance his strength. Not only are Adeptus Astartes patterns the pinnacle of power armour technology, but a Space Marine’s unique interface implants ensure that his armour responds with the speed and precision of his own body. Each Battle-Brother is responsible for the care of his own suit of power armour, the components of which may have served his Chapter for millennia before him. Astartes power armour contains many complex sub-systems, and it is the synergy of advanced technology with Space Marine physiology that makes a Battle-Brother in power armour so deadly.
Few things are quite as rediculous as the sight of space marine power armour in its proper proportions. Despite its massive size it has suprising agility and does not hamper its user, unless you want to raise your arm above you're head I assume. Its got sundaries up the ying yang: Enhanced strength (roughly double), visual and audio filters and enhancements, virtualy limitless life support (including waste recycling), medical enhancements, magnetised boots and recoil supression systems for weapons. On the downside its bulky fingers have comparitively poor manual dexterity, unless using specialy designed tools.

As for actual armour it is practicaly invulnerable to many forms of civilian weaponry even within the similarly rediculous 40k universe, although military grade small arms (the stuff that the weakest of easily severs a limb) is capable of penetrating its weak spots. By todays comparison this probably ranks the armour as a form of light tank.



Mk 6 MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armour:


The armor's outer shell is composed of a multilayer alloy of remarkable strength and has been augmented with a refractive coating capable of dispersing a limited amount of Covenant energy weapon strikes. The suit contains a gel-filled layer underneath a thick black armored bodysuit. The gel layer regulates temperature and can reactively change its density. The inner skinsuit is made of a moisture-absorbing synthetic material linked to an environment control computer and the occupant's UNSC-issue neural interface.

Between the external armor and the internal padding is the most devastating weapon the suit carries: a layer of reactive metal liquid crystal. Woven by molecular tools into a superdense optical computer memory, this revolutionary crystalline layer forms a network, capable of supporting the kinds of Artificial intelligence usually reserved for starships, as a type of piggyback system. An A.I.'s personality and processing matrices can be carried by the armor and delivered to the suit via onboard storage in a crystal data chip no larger than a personal credit card. At the same time it is amorphous, yet amplifies force, doubling lifting capability and increasing reaction time by a factor of five.
The much more sensible Mjolnir armour has considerable improvements in strength, agility and reaction time. The largest strengths of the armour though is the shielding system which is capable of absorbing multiple shots from small arms fire before needing a few seconds to recharge. Other suit systems include audio visual enhancements, motion sensors and life support.

The suits protective benefits dreive from its mutliple layers of titanium and padding which provide excellent protection from small arms fire although the more powerfull covenant energy weapons are capable of punching through with several impacts.





Comparison:

While the differences between various universes not to mention real life can be hard to manage, I'll do my best.

Protection: The difference here tend to be in favour of the space marine power armour, which offers superiour coverage of its plating and that its massive ceramite plates are virtualy invulnerable to infantry weapons. By comparison the Mjolnir armour, even with its shields, cannot withstand sustained assault rifle fire (because... you know all armour should be able to do that) although concievably its regenerating shielding could reduce attrition damage to the armour over long periods (once again though, by comparison to the sheer strength and thickness of the space marine armour, it would be a very long period). Further more the Mjolnir armour relies on its shield to protect many parts of the body where its titanium plates do not cover and once that shield has gone those areas become vulnerable (by comparison to where it has armour, the titanium nanocomposite bodysuit alone is probably better protection than a kevlar vest). While space marine power armour has its own weaknesess, the insides of its joints, these are significantly smaller than those of the Mjolnir armour.

Maneuverability: Obviously it would be stupid to rank armour based solely on how thick plates are and while such heavy armours would typicaly be very limiting to the wearers agility, both actualy perform very well here. Over all the Mjolnir armour performs better here as it has features that increase reaction speed and the space marine power armour relies entierly on the user's speed, even if it does not hamper them. Similarly the seperation of plates allows for a greater range of movement in Mjolnir armour where as the space marine armour has areas of restricted movement (thanks stupidly oversized pauldrons).

Medical Facilities: Both the space marine power armour and the Mjolnir armour have onboard medical facitlites. The space marine version being more centered around a limited supply of drug administration (as the marines body is perfectly capable of doing the staunching and healing on its own, but those aren't relivent here). The Mjolnir armour on the other hand relies on a medical foam to administer biofoam that is apparently quite painfull but with my limited knowledge of medicine tells me is probably better than just pain killers and stimulants and anti-toxins. However while the biofoam will allow a person to survive bleeding out, medical attention is still required to actualy heal the wound, and will not help in case of poisons or toxins (although its likely that the only actual toxins catered for in the limited supply of drugs are things that are dangerous to space marines, which is the sort of thing that would probably liquify a normal person and hence be useless).

Comunication and Sensors: While both have all the same basic functions as each other, the Mjolnir armour has vastly superiour computing power to use that information. In adition to this the motion sensor is a massivly usefull feature.

Sundary Abilities: Most of the other systems are life support, where the only difference is that space marine power armour will run for as long as the reactor runs (basicaly forever) and the Mjolnir armour has limited durations. Both are capable of filtering air and removing toxins from the atmosphere however the features of the Mjolnir seem more failsafe and have greater redundancies (once again, the greater protection of the space marine power armour would make it harder to damage the systems in the first place but rely on the marines natural advantages to survive faults). Similarly both also feature magnetic holsters for weapons and equipment. The only other difference in systems is that the Mjolnir armour is capable of locking down to prevent high impact injuries and a system of hydrostatic gel to help the wearer survive high G situations and impacts. the Space Marine Armour has magnetic boots.




So thats my run down of the two different power armours. I'm sure there are some things i've got wrong and you've all got opinions on what you would rather go into battle in. Have your opinion and cast your vote.
 

cross_grave

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

Aquila for me, please. I like to feel like a tank.
 

Twisted

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

I gotta go with Mjolnir. If for not much more than reading your comparisons, they're fairly similar outside of the armor and mobility; the fact that Mjolnir is more compact from what I've seen picture-wise of the two. This means that where-as Aquila doesn't hinder the movement speed of the user, its size prevents the user from accessing areas and such that Mjolnir would otherwise be able to.
 

DemonKammy

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

I would go with the Mjolnir too.

My reason is, the Mjolnir stays useful even if multiple systems lose power, or are rendered non-functional. For example, suffering combat damage, or an extended lack of proper maintenance, it can still provide protection, and be usable.

The Aguila armor, at some point without being maintained, or if enough systems take damage, you'd be trapped in a metal statue!
 

Shrike7

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

quick read through, and i remember mjolnir does indeed have magnetic soles, just to point that out.

I'd go for Mjolnir myself. I'm a twitchy person, i'd rather get out of the way of something that stand still and take the hit, regardless of how little if may do. That said, im also a bigger halo fan than 40k, so there is that as well XD
 
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Nunu

Nunu

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

Ah i didn't stumble across that in my research. but it does seem to be a theme that the spartan armour's enhancements can be better used by a normal person and would suit asymetrical warfare better. Despite that there is still plenty to be said for brute force (where the spartan armour will help you take a hit and survive an impace with its g reduction, the space marine armour probably wouldn't move in the first place).
 

cross_grave

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

Personally I like the brute force approach. The main reason is that at a certain point, nothing you throw at the enemy will matter simply because he's too damn tough to feel it. Nothing short of a grenade or rocket launcher (by today's standards) would actually manage to deal any significant damage to the Aquila.
 

lurker

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

Personally I like the brute force approach. The main reason is that at a certain point, nothing you throw at the enemy will matter simply because he's too damn tough to feel it. Nothing short of a grenade or rocket launcher (by today's standards) would actually manage to deal any significant damage to the Aquila.
True, going off today's standards.

Going into the standards of the two universe's weapons, a Needler will probably smack through the thinnest parts of the Aquilla, not to mention the laser, and pretty much most the weapons in 40k are so overinsane to the point they'd probably horribly gib the Halo soldiers. In short, 40k may has TOO much dakka if the best armor makes ya tanky.

Good thing we weren't comparing the Terminator armor :p
 

cross_grave

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

Hmm... Perhaps some of the heavier Halo weapons would be quite effective, yes. Altough I'd love to see what a bolter does to Mjolnir.

And yeah, I don't think that anything could hold a candle to Terminator armor. Overkill in pure, distilled form.
 

Unknown Squid

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

I voted for the MJOLNIR.

A few extra pros I see in it.

+Far greater ability to make use of cover and reduce the wearers profile. The wearer can go prone, crouch behind objects substantially smaller, and dive out of harms way. Good use of your surroundings and the terrain itself can often be better armour than any high tech super suit.

+Speed and recon. Faster and lighter, a team in MJOLNIR would be able to choose to engage on their own terms, outflank enemies, use skirmish tactics, and pursue fleeing targets. Aquila using space marines on the other had almost entirely rely on shock tactics or the enemy coming to them, since their ability to effectively pursue or retreat is severely limited. An enemy that does not want to fight an Aquila suit, doesn't have to unless it's cornered, or the Aquilas have full support for rapid insertion and redeployment.

+Vehicle use and insertion. A team of four MJOLNIR users can be inserted via any conventional transport options. A team of four Aquila wearers require larger or specialised craft.

+Ability to fit through doors.
+Ability to climb


Personally I would see the Aquila armour as being idealy suited for the assault or defence of specific locations, which makes sense considering how 99% of Warhammer battles are actually laid out. But feel that the MJOLNIR armour has greater overall utility and is better suited to a wider range of actual battlefield conditions and scenarios.
 

the_taken

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

I'm siding with Squid's argument for the exact same reasons

However, I would like to point out that the top 1% of 40k Space Marines can get a force-field to complement their righteous armour. They call it an Iron Halo for some reason, but it is a force-field that can take their already bullet stopping armour to the level of high-impact missile stopping (invulnerable save).
 
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Nunu

Nunu

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

i'm not sure about some of the things squid said as for land speed of the two suits they would be roughly similar so in non combat roles the differences would be minimal (with the exception of the Mjolnir's better computers). in fact for long term gurilla warfare the waste recycling systems of the Aquila would probably help somewhat, reduces the supplies you need (apparently a space marine can go several weeks on just recycled material, although there are side effects).

Similarly the auqila armour is capable of going prone, crawling and some of the other things you claimed it couldn't do. Although climbing is probably out of reach for a normal man in it. and as for weight differences, this is most likely due to random differences in estimation but the in use weight of Mjolnir is 1000 pounds and the weight of the aquila on its own is 180 kgs, this works out after subtracting the weight of the spartan (twice normal human weight, i'm assuming around 90kg) makes the Mjolnir 270 kg. This weight discrepancy could also be due to anti gravity devices the Aquila is fited with to make it more usable. Regardless this means there are places the Aquila can go that the Mjolnir can't due to weight. This doesn't necessarily fix orbital insertion as the G's would kill the wearer where the Mjolnir can compensate, however for insertion by helicopter the physicaly larger but lighter Aquila may be preferable.

And yes there is also that fitting through doors thing.

But yeah if we started rating things on other equipment like iron halo's then Mjolnir would get their invisibility pack and things would very quickly get very rediculous, which is similar to why i didn't want the strength of spartans vs space marines to come into this either.
 
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Sinfulwolf

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Re: Power Armours - Space Marine Vs Spartan

I voted for the Mjolnir for one simple reason really, and that's mobility. Sure you can take a hit with the Aquila from some big guns, but the lack of mobility and its cumbersome nature means many tactics that would help a real soldier achieve victory can not be achieved.

A Space Marine Chapter employs scouts with lighter armour to do their scouting and recon, whilst Spartans can simply run out and do it themselves. It is more advantageous to have veterans performing a recce rather than the new recruits led by a guy that refuses promotion.

The more nimble nature of the Mjolnir also means the Spartans can potentially move with more speed, with matched aggression. Speed is pretty important, especially in close ranged urban combat, and room to room fighting. This is not to say a Space Marine can not move fast, but the quick turns and maneuvering that are needed upon contact are not it's strong point.

Versatility is also important. The Aquila is pretty set on standing firm for dealing and taking damage. The Mjolnir can not only take a decent amount of damage but is small enough that a soldier can react to ever changing battlefield conditions. Suddenly need to get into a sewer or underground tunnel? Possible with Mjolnir, not so much with Aquila.

The life support systems are more in my favour as well. Nice to have drugs pumped into you to cut off pain and such, but the biofoam while hurting like fucking hell is not dissimilar to modern day QuickClot which I've seen save many many more lives than any advanced Advil.

Shields for protection also help. While the heavy plates can take a lot of damage, one needs to repair or replace them as they take damage or they're use will be written off. A regenerating shield can allow a soldier to take a hit and keep fighting.

Basically, I voted for the Halo suit on the sole fact that the open field warfare the Auila would dominate in does not occur enough in the modern era, and I doubt very much that trend will come back in conflicts to come. The ability to react to any given situation is a huge advantage, and being able to use any tool due to more dextrous fingers help in this regard, even coming down to using enemy weapons because your fingers can slip inside the trigger guard.

Mjolnir for me.
 
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