"Is Power Armor Still Popular?" Topic

Just a general question, today.

Is power armor still a popular science fiction element (or was it ever)?

-Eli

I have just gotten back into sci-fi and have a set of power armoured troops.
I like it.

Not 28mm or 15mm though if that makes any difference.

Powered Combat Armor is a key element in the rules for "Tomorrow's War" and is used in many of the scenarios in the book. It is an amazing "force multiplier" in that game.

Prior to the B-rate cull of the early 90s, it wasn't all that "popular". A few authors had used the idea, notably "Doc" Smith, Heinlein, and Harrison, as window dressing in their SF, but as they weren't telling the tale of the armor, window dressing is all it was.

Then the "original" SF being published shifted toward the military side, while many of the older writers were consigned to franchise hell. Space Armor is not uncommon in military SF, but I haven't read enough of it to gauge if it is popular, or still just occasional window dressing. The franchise writers ended up concentrated in two properties that don't use "power" armor much, as Star Trek and Star Wars are both character-driven for the most part.

Is it popular in the gaming side of things. I know that it features in Stargrunt and of course Starship Troopers as well as Warhammer 40,000. But even though rules provide for it, are there a lot of miniatures lines that include it?

-Eli

Sure it is.

Most story lines that have technology rather than magic and are involved in conflict, there is a fair chance that there will be mobile infantry.

Maybe not as lithe and sleek as Iron Man but certainly one man tanks of some sort.

I remember that in the RPGs of the 80s it became massively popular in just about every incarnation from the armored grunt to the one-man army.

-Eli

Sure, I'd love a suit. Something in black, please.

It is for me :)

Never been more popular!

Its a key feature of several of John Ringo's stories – specifically his Posleen books as well as the "Vorpal Blade" series.

No black for me. I was kinda looking for something in stripes.

I remember my first power armor troopers . Ral Partha Glactic Grenadiers with Sun guns . They are still my favorite this day though there were only two poses . I would buy new ones of these in a minute . ( nudge nudge wink wink ).
Power armor is still popular and top of the heap, with non power more "realistic " troopers making inroads

Still popular with me too!

Top of my miniatures wishlist is a set of plastic PA troops in 28mm …

ming31 wrote:

Ral Partha Glactic Grenadiers with Sun guns .

Same here, Ming. Why have these never been re-released? Or even redone from scratch in 28mm? As you note, there were only two poses of Power Armor infantry, and one of those was prone! link

Someone please re-release or re-sculpt these!

How can you have SciFi without Power Armor???? That's like naval battles on land? Makes no sense to me.

I loves me some power armor! :)

Jeff

I miss old school weapon names like Sun Guns, Black Ray, Implosion Dart, etc..

-Eli

I'm a fan. Just finished up some Orion Republic troops from Blue Moon and I think I'm hooked!

Warhammer 40,000, Infinity, MERCS, Heavy Gear, Battletech, Stargrunt, AT-43. I'm sure others can add more. Seems reasonably popular. :-)

Written SF tends to have more unusual names – Iain M. Banks' "Serious FYT Suit" being a favourite.

Most of 40k's factions use "powered armor" in one form or other, and the most obvious of them is the game's best selling faction.

Google "power armor"

I'd say so.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of the "one-man army" style PAs done in 15mm. I think it'd be cool to field a force that was made up of really powerful PA suits in place of larger formations of infantry.

-Eli

See the following link for an After-Action Report from a "Tomorrow's War" game doing precisely that.

link

Power Armor and Hovertanks, two staples of SF ground wars as far as I'm concerned. In SF3D(MaK) they have both, and more. The best combo would be Powerarmor Hovertank Riders!!

SF3D has hovertank-riding PAs!

I have wanted a PA transport like this for 15mm for some time.

Why do you ask? That is, why did the question come to mind in the first place? :)

Well, yeah I've seen a few scenes where a few PAs are riding Nutrockers and some other vehicles. But I'm talking about the big bad maternal copulators of the hovertank family…Hammer's panzers would be a good start.

It sounds like an art project for me… :)

Grav's have riders too, and the photo looks superb, but is a bit over the top in my opinion:

link

Still, a super looking image nonetheless!

I like them, but think they should be used in small groups, as elite units. Not sure why, since they could just as well be fielded in larger groups, instead of other forces. Just my personal bias, I guess.

Would love to see/purchase some of those Ral Partha SF troops, if someone still produces them. Despite their age, they still look great.

Why? Because I do not see much of them in actual posted battles. Also other than the couple of new ones from Khurasan and GZG 15mm hasn't released many, despite the "big push" in 15mm. Even the afformentioned Orion Republic troops from Blue Moon are not sold specifically as power armor. They could just as easily be troops in regular body armor or an armored spacesuit.

-Eli

I would love a nice alien power armor for an all power armor force. A nice, imposing invasion force using power armor armed to the teeth.

-Eli

For a different tactical use of power Armour + its limitations in a lengthy campaign try tracking down the E-Book "Rot Hafen" set in the GZG Tuffleyverse of the Xeno war.
For my money it turns the 'traditional use' on its head and opens up more interesting ideas and additional scope for small scenarios.

There's power armour in Sucker Punch, so yeah its still popular.

I agree with Eli that alien power armour would be cool. I posted years ago about Alien Space Marines, I mean non humanoid, not even bipeadal. Naturally I missed what was staring me in the face- Daleks! But yeah maybe something with three legs and tentacles in armour…

I think it will always be popular,its the macho thing of being able to stroll around a battlefield in a walking tank, killing and crushing anything in your path! Ooooh time for Nick's meds.

I once had this vision of how to field power armor in a patrol role.

I had each squad of PA would have it's own APC. When patrolling in close proximity to the vehicle as we see infantry doin these days, the suits would conserve battery power and onboard cooling/heating etc by having themselves umbilicaled to the APC.

When they needed to manuever they could unhook and bolt, but this would allow them to hold onto onboard reserves for actual combat use.

-Eli

Power armor is lacking.
Thats why you aren't seeing it in battle reports :>

At least thats how I explain it :>

Power armor is very good element that gives sci-fi extra level in heaviness of infantry.
I personally prefer to play heavy vehicles light games.
I think that tank should fight in smaller scales than 15 mm, and tank ranges are inadequate for 15 mm battlefield.

Power armors solve that niche nicely.
And give next dimension to battlefield.
I have light infantry/ guerillas
standard infantry
heavy infantry in armors

And PA
light or heavy.
With greater mobility, protection and firepower.

And than tanks if I fancy them, But probably on single side only unless in city fight.
Tanks have such range that they would just blast themselves apart from much greater distance that my table shows.

Of course if somebody want tank companies in 15 mm Flames of War style, PAs are of less use for them probably.

This and I just love power armors :>

@Awuuuu

Not sure I get how you are saying that PA is "lacking" or are you agreeing with me that there are few offerings?

-Eli

Exactly

We got something like 30 new infantry lines
and only 2 Power armors (few more if you count much larger humanoid one manned vehicles) ..

So they are rarely seen.

I am really happy only from poseable Khurasan PAs.
They are great but on the bulky side.
We need few opponents in bulky class (new GZG are very promising)

And we need sexy sleek classes in style of Infinity.

Old style GZg are serviceable but not to current standards.
But can give interesting results with small modernization
link
There is my WIPs of Khurasan armed old GZG armors.

I do not count full scale walkers as PA. There is a middle ground that I call battlesuits that work like a sorto f heavy power armor.

I wouldn't mind seeing some battlesuit style armor too. Stuff that is substantially bigger than a person, but not the size of an AFV on legs.

I find it amusing that most of the PA out there still only carry a single weapon.

-Eli

Ah thats the reason i upgunned Khurasan PAs.

Great part of the models is ton of spare guns you got !
And. both arms and backpack/jumppack that can support extra gun

i like my PA to be maximum 50% higher than normal trooper.
Anything bigger i consider battlesuit.

I consider battlesuits as really light mech styled vehicles and not personal armor any more.

Yeah I am still trying to figure out how to re-arm my At-43 TacArms so they don't look silly (no giant guns).

-Eli

I am always fan of shoulder mounts, but You will probably have to cut them somehow.

they don't have much in the way of a shoulder at all.

-Eli

Watch enough anime and some kind of powered armor seems all the rage. Even if it's in the form of a giant robot, there was an episode in Zeta Gundam where the AEUG was using what they called junior mobile suits.

The question was intended moreso in the gaming realm. Sorry, should have made that more clear.

I am a mecha fan so I am well aware of the history of mecha, battlesuits, power armor and stuff in anime.

-Eli

Obviously, otherwise we wouldn't be discussing it… ;)

LOL, true enough. There are some great battlesuits and power armors in the old Bubblegum Crisis series and I'm not talking about the girly armors either.

Or there is MADOX-01 -

GZG offers a variety of different ranges of PA.

Blue Moon's Orion troopers can either be PA, or heavily battle armored troops/astronauts.

Others offer them too, so I don't see how you can see they are lacking, especially if you add in other, larger units too, like light or heavy mechs.

You can probably use Battle Tech, Heavy Gear, and other mechs as well, to supplement the other ranges offered, if these larger units meet your definition of PA also.

Mako11,

There is plenty of fudging that can be done and yes there are some lines out there. Without going into matters of personal taste, there is no doubt that power armor has not been as well-represented as most subjects in the current "New Age" of 15mm acifi.

Using Heavy Gears and B-Tech minis works as a stop gap, but I wouldn't mind seeing some stuff actually made to fill the niche.

-Eli

15mm has a pretty good assortment, I'd say. Some are older lines, but many are worth picking up.

-RAFM has the old Citadel Traveller ones (which are, unlike most of the RAFM line, pretty hideous)

-15mm.Co.Uk has Laserburn Imperial Troopers and Red Redemptionists (I love my Redemptionist Dreadnought minis), Asgard troopers (never cared for these), and one could probably call the Retained Knights PA.

-Kremlin has the Red Banner MANITOU (one of my personal favorites)

-Khurasan's amazing Assault Brigade (I have some, just haven't thought of the right paint scheme), along with the Felid Baron (would still like to see a unit pack of these suits)

-Blue Moon Orions

-Critical Mass ARC Fleet Augments (even the Drop Troopers could pass as sci-fi versions of GW Space Marines), Mercenary Blockheads, and Kaamados Draco Aganath suits.

-GZG has NAC, NSL, FSE, ESU, Japanese, and Kra'Vak packs.

-Micropanzer's Russian PA range should be out very soon

And all of these are just of the "man-sized" power armor variety. I count 14 ranges of human PA, along with a small variety of aliens. Then, if you step up to "battlesuit" size, you have GZG Cyclops, Art Crime Valkyries, Kremlin Rising Sun MANITOU…

It seems from these numbers that PA troops sell pretty well. Eli raises an interesting point… I wonder why we see so very few of these in battle reports?

Chris K.

Looking at the responses, I have one question; Define what you mean by Powered Armor.

In days gone past certain groups classified the different views of PA in to separate classes. At the lowest differentiation there is Powered armor and Dreadnought suits.

What I am trying to say is I think there needs to be some more vocabulary to describe Powered Armor in all it's incarnations.

Chris, that's a nice list, though it is filled with oldies and not necesarily goodies.

Maybe I'm too picky. Even though a lot of that stuff is really cool. It's also really pretty much more of the same. with all the power armor designs out there in art and RPGs, very little of that variety reflects in the miniatures that are out there.

Infojunky, I would say that "true" power armor is a suit of protective gear worn to one degree or another by a trooper to enhance his combat abilities. This suit provides enhanced physical capabilities as well as boost individual weapon and armor capacity.

This is a very technical definition and does invite some diversion on the point. Asthetically speaking, what I am looking for is something that visually conveys a sense of added power. I say this because technically you could have a very hi-tech, very form-fitting suit of power armor that could be easily respresented by a soldier in hard armor.

-Eli