"40K Question, Who are the Rogue Trader Era SM Field Police?" Topic

In Rogue Trader there were there two visual references to space marine Field Police. Field Police obviously are not a chapter and in the full color spread with the Chaplain and the Medic (now Apothacary). The second reference is a few pages earlier on a black and white illustration breaking down space marine rank insignia.

The Field Police are seen in black armor and red helmet with an alternating yellow and black stripe. The Field Police also have a red and yellow symbol I don't recognize.

Did Mr Priestly or GW ever expand on who exactly the field polic were or what they did for their units?

I've been unable to find another Field Police reference even in any of the other RT era books.

I think the Field Police were a role within a Chapter, not a separate organization. I always assumed they were equivalent to Military Police.

Of course, as the Space Marines evolved from "crazy punk rock super warriors" to "religious crusader super warriors", the notion of (and presumed need for) Field Police was swiftly forgotten.

Always thought that guy looked cool, though.

I agree.

I also think that the field police probably evolved into chaplains in later versions of 40k.

Perhaps they are what evolved into the Adeptus Arbites, or the 40K police forces?

No, since the Arbites are still mortals, not Astartes.

Best guess is they evolved into Chaplains (although I always picture a Chaplain out of armor with a Drill Instructor's 'smokey bear' cover, the ultimate career NCO)

Good question – I assumed that they were Chapter-specific and that the later Codexes included the Chaplains for these functions

Field police were a role within a chapter. Marines were not above "wild behavior" so the role was required to patrol them. This was before the religious/pious connections became heavier as with modern 40k, even though Chaplains were present already. As mentioned, Chaplains eventually took on this role as field police were largely unrequired given the tiny formation size of a typical Chapter (1000 troops). So this position was eliminated.

The Field Police may still be required under certain circumstances if Marines are still associated with the Rogue Traders and the mixed forces those explorers often employ.

Darth and others nailed it.

There was nothing in any of the original Rogue Trader material about the role or nature of Field Police (they were certainly distinct from Chaplains, as they appeared alongside Chaplains from the start – RT p168-169).

As well as the references in the RT rulebook mentioned above, there were two other places they turned up:

One was in the "Battle Colours" painting guide at the back of Chapter Approved: the Book of the Astronomican, where there was a single marine painted as Field Police and labelled accordingly. As with the RT rulebook, however, there was no note on what exactly the Field Police were, and they were entirely absent from the first marine army list presented in that book.

The second appearance was in the form of a miniature component – one of the metal left arms produced for the Vincent Blackshadow bike bore the badge of the Field Police, but since it was possible for any marine character to ride a bike this isn't particularly notable.

We can guess that their role was comparable to modern military police, since at the time of RT marines were, as darthfozzywig said, more "crazy punk rock super warriors" than "religious crusader super warriors". However, there was nothing in print to either confirm or deny this.

My personal take is that Field Police did have a disciplinary function, but given how well the marines behaved generally they were free to spend most of their time screeching around the battlefield on their bikes and shooting stray Orks in the head.

No, since the Arbites are still mortals, not Astartes.

Space Marines are also mortals. They are modified humans with a longer lifespan, but they are mortal.

The arbites are listed in the RT book and have pretty specific roles in the setting.

The original space marines were more Sardaukar than the Captain Imperium guys we got later. Presumably field police would shoot the guys that went too nuts. Bear in mind, their preferred recruiting was psycho hive gangers :)

Did you ever read the novel "Space Marine" Weasel? I liked the fact that one of the tests they put the potential recruits through was a "psychosis rating". Naturally, they assumed that any potential space marine would be at least a bit psychotic…

You know, it is possible that Marine Field Police could have other roles, like the Wehrmacht Feldjaeger – the Feldjaeger were part of the Feldgendarme, but their role on the field was mostly to operate in 4-man groups organizing stragglers, re-grouping broken troops, etc – so their role may have actually been more to do with non-Marine troops

Just a thought

Thanks for the answers, some of the cannabalistic chapters could probably use some Field Police. I particularily like the ideas of Field Police keeping the marines in line on Rogue Trader missions. 100 guys might be alot for one Chaplain to watch. Frederick's idea them watching non-marines, is interesting as well.

Ultimately, I guess they're as much a mystery as the unnamed legion/primarchs.

Frederick, that's a really interesting idea – I never thought of them policing troops other than marines, but I could totally see a marine officer rounding up some routing or stranded Imperial Guard, for example, and forming them up into a makeshift squad. Thanks for the suggestion!

@Mechanical Horizon: There is a serious question if Space Marines *can* die of old age. In the Heresy books, many of the Astartes are several hundred years old (200 to over 500), and showing no signs of old age.

Since being an Astartes involves regularly being on the wrong end of a bolter, eventually the odds will catch up with any individual. If every Marine dies of combat injuries, then how long could a Marine live *if he retired*? That answer has never been given. I mean, in the Angels of Death codex, Dante has been the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels for 1100 years. Not an Astartes, the head honcho.

It's possible (in fact, *probable*) that Dante was already an Astartes for a thousand years before he became Chapter Master! After all, you have to prove your worth to be able to wear power armor, then you spend time in the Reserve companies, then one of the Battle companies, then you become a Veteran and spend time in the First company, then you'd become a Company Captain (and have to prove yourself for many deployments before you'd be considered for replacing the Chapter Master.

Similarly, Logan Grimnar has been the Chapter Master of the Space Wolves for some 750 years.

@Lion in the Starts

True, they are all very old, but not IMMORTAL. They are still MORTAL since they would eventually die, and Dante is an Adeptus Astartes since the Chapter Masters of SM Chapters are Space Marines.

Space Marines are very long lived, even then it's not a guarantee ALL Space Marines would live that long if they survived combat since all of the older Marines mentioned are characters, we can assume they are exceptional and most likely not the "norm" as well.

Still, being that long lived does not make you immortal, just very old.