The Evolution of TERMINATOR ARMOUR | Warhammer 40,000 Lore

LEFT! The Crux Teminatus is on the LEFT shoulder pad. Or, I guess, the audience right.

Fun Fact, the Iron Hands spearheaded the field-testing and drafting of tactical doctrines concerning Terminator armor, so much so that other legions were taking notes on how Iron Hands terminators went to war. Iron Hands also, even in the modern day, maintain enough terminator suits to outfit nearly EVERY squad sergeant as well as the first company. They were so damn good at using terminator armor among other stuff like armored vehicles and heavy weapons, that Ferrus Manus, before his death, received several of the earliest entries of the Indomitus pattern suits before the end of the crusade, and through much experimentation, developed the Gorgon Pattern Terminator suit, which possesses a conversion field that transforms incoming directed energy, as well as kinetic shots, into flashes of blinding light, essentially making it so that taking a shot at a Gorgon terminator is just as good as flashbanging yourself. It was Horus that verbally and publicly endorsed the production of terminator armor, but it was Ferrus and his Iron Hands that really put it into practice. If there’s one thing Horus knew, it’s that Ferrus knew his tech, and if the legions were issued a new piece of wargear, give Ferrus a bit to study it and mess around with it a little bit, then he’ll tell the others how to make the best possible uses for it.

Terminator armour is the perfect summary of the decay of the Imperium. At the height of their power the space marines could field whole companies worth of terminators. The Justaerin of the Sons of Horus being one such formation. Fast forward ten thousand years and now the forge worlds have all but lost the means to make such suits and that that can take an eternity to do so. The supply has dwindles so much that the marines have from companies worth to only a few squads. Really drives home just how far the Imperium has fallen.

I've been playing 40k for ages now and always been a Xenos player but... Terminators have always had a soft spot in my heart.

Love the little quips, and you’ve done a great job lately keeping your presentations succinct and approachable yet still so informative. A+ video, fantastic work.

It's been wonderful to see your channel grow the last few years. I especially love your videos where you explain the history of the lore and the development of the setting. Also, I bought every HH book you gave a 4 or 5 stars for and was not disappointed.

It's crazy that the emperor's original plan was to arm every Marine with Volkites and now you add standard issue Terminator and Marines are starting to feel different.

Yes! Space Hulk was my gateway into the WH40k universe back in the early 90’s, and needless to say, I have always had a soft spot for terminators ever since!

There's a great very short story from the old Rogue Trader days where the Blood Angels are going into battle. One of the pauldrons is in Ultramarine colours as whenever it's been painted over the wearer has died.

Have you done a video on the quasi-Astartes of the Great Crusade? Those humans too old to go through the Space marine process but were uplifted anyway at great expense - Luther and Kor Phearon were two of these IIRC

It's neat to think that humanity was so powerful before the collapse that modern space marine armor was just like, civilian work attire basically.

Stellar stuff as ever Ian! Personally I'd love to see the definitely-not-Saturnine suits named Vulcan Pattern - as the art featuring in one of the Salamanders HH novels is as close to an official source/origin as it seems we'll ever get for such an old piece of archaeotech

My introduction to GW was playing Space Hulk round a mates house when I was about 6 years old. Terminators just looked so cool. My wallet had no idea what was about to happen, lol

Really great summary, you really deserve the growing fan base mate, keep it up!

And genestealer crakcking it open like nothing only shows how dangerous genestealers are! ;)

Could you make a comprehensive video on the grey knights? It'd be awesome!

Good breakdown as always. Covering all the important bits and straight to the point. Learnt a lot of new stuff watching it. Great work! It would be cool to see you break down the Black Templars/ Helsreach with your skeptical, realistic take on the meta universe and the satire of it all. It would be cool to see the Black Templars broken down from that angle.

I was waiting for this one since your last video on the space marines armors, and you didn't disappoint ! 🙂 With the Mark VII Aquila, the terminator armour is one of the most iconic set of equipement of the space marines... and Warhammer 40K. Well done.

Maybe its just me, but what with Horus making sure the Traitors got the beat equipment early on, its always made more sense to me that the remaining legions would be mostly using Cataphractii and Saturnine armour rather than the Indomidus pattern.

One of the rarest suits is the 1 of 1 special Indomitus armour built for Tyberos the Red Wake of the carcharadons, the armour has dreadnought plates to accommodate for his gargantuan size, along with that it’s fitted with his custom power claws Hunger and Slake