Powered Armor - a brief bibliography and analysis

Powered Armor is an integral part of the Terran Military, as well as some of the other military organizations within the Fourteen Suns setting. A platoon of TSC Army soldiers, wearing powered armor, is considered sufficient for many minor clashes with hostile forces. Equally, any capital ship will have one or more TSC Marine watches assigned for the purposes of defending the ship, boarding actions, landing actions, and a whole host of other duties. Powered armor, of a more mobile and lighter style than used in landing and planetside operations by the Army, is part of the combat dress of TSC Marines.

The following brief analysis was done on an internet mailing list in a discussion about powered armor in general, and ideas about its use and interpretation in gaming. I think it is useful to repost it here.

I think that the best power armor novels I have read boil down to four -

1. Starship Troopers by Heinlein(discussed some). The treatment in the old Avalon Hill Wargame (1976) was decent, and really showed the operational use of the different types of armor (scouts, warriors, etc).

2. Armor by John Steakley. Especially the first part of the story, before the nuke goes off on the main character. I am not too crazy about the book, not as much as some people, but there is certainly some very interesting stuff in the first portion about armor. Especially, I thought, in how it can keep the wearer alive, with autodoc functionality, in spite of massive damage.

3. Forever War by Joe Haldemann. Very nice study of (1) warfare with divergent technology levels, and (2) why extremely hardened infantry are a nice combat arm of choice on distant worlds. The game of Forever War, by Mayfair (1983) was interesting. The interstellar situation was just as interesting, and handled well in the Metagaming title Warpwar (1977), which had a very similar feel to the Forever
War universe. Great image, showing four different stages of armor development, on Deviant Art.

4. A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo. First of the Posleen War series, very much a "modern" taste combat sci-fi novel. I still don't know if I like Ringo, but I have read a lot of his work. The cool thing in this one was the details about how the combat suits were part of an integrated C2 structure, and also the modeling and simulation (hooray for M&S) used for training in the suits.

All four of these are good books, all with different aspects of powered armor and its use, both tactically and operationally. I think that the interesting takeaway, when you view all of these together is that (1) powered armor is not invincible even versus low tech foes, (2) different types of suits for different types of missions, (3) integrated command and control helps with morale, (4) suits help with augmented strength, integrated weapon systems, defensive measures and protection, and finally (5) mobility. At least in Heinlein and Ringo the suits give an increase to the mobility of the soldier, in terms of new dimensions (extended jumps, near to short distance flying) and ability (fast running, leaping). The ability to do combat drops from orbit is also an idea in some of these sources.

The treatment given in the first version of Warhammer 40,000, of powered armor, included protection, augmented strength, defensive measures (vs. gas, etc), and enhanced sensing. Since the WH40K universe is not really concerned with the nuances and niceties of command and control, that wasn't stressed, but the integrated communication channels within a unit were mentioned. Most of this interesting detail was lost in later editions, I understand (I only ever played the first edition), but it was there.

The Living Steel game systems had really good info about powered armor. Also the BattleTech universe in its treatment of "elementals".

The old Kevin Siembieda game from Paladium, "Mechanoid Invasion" had some really interesting stuff about powered armor. Not sure what happened there when it got retro'd into the Rifts universe.

Combat Environment Suits and Battledress from the Traveller literature (and also the wargames Striker and Fire,Fusion & Steel) are very interesting, and dealt with in some detail.

One of the best modern treatments, in computer gaming, is from the StarCraft series of games.  Very nice, Terran Space Marines are not unlike a heavier version of the warrior suit from Starship Troopers, or the basic Space Marine powered armor suit from Warhammer 40,000.

One of the things that has come up in both fiction and gaming over the years is the loss of humanity by the person who is wearing the armor.  In a similar way that some cyberpunk stories that feature cyber enhancements becoming part of the body, power armor is viewed (at least by authors) as being something that can alter, or change the personality or psychology of the wearer.  While this is certainly an interesting idea, I wonder how to translate it into gaming terms.  After all, it would be something that takes place over a long period of time (say, when a soldier has to be part of his suit for a period of months or years), and games at that scale have such personal information frequently abstracted out of the game details.

Charnax Battlefleet disappears during invasion of Kobe Chu 7

Recently, a Charnax battle fleet, built around two "Six-Eye" class mother ships was being tracked by Terran Intelligence Corps operatives has disappeared, seemingly dropping out of normal space altogether. Psi-Operatives could not determine if the fleet entered Tau space.

Diplomatic contacts with the Avian trade faction that control Kobe Chu system have not revealed, conclusively, whether the secretive Avians are aware of what became of the Charnax. This has cast a deep fog of insecurity over the recent trade talks with the trade faction. The Avians have asked, however, if the Terran space-control ship "Bangladesh" would remain in the system.

Anonymous free traders operating in the system report tales of a curious energy cloud that causes temporal disturbance, however readers are warned that such far ranging independent captains are prone to make up tall tales about high space.

Triton

Triton hails from the aquatic moon of Neptune. His folk are resilient, and live in the crushing cold depths of that alien world. Triton augments his race's natural telepathy and camoflage with full-blown shape-changing and metamorphic powers, as well as psionic combat.

the Blue Bat

Threat or Menace?

each month Blue Bat tries to answer that age old question as he patrols near space.

he's hard-boiled, hard-wired, and hard-headed. That's what makes him such a great detective.

Monolith

Monolith

Brick what patrols the Asteroid Belt.

He's a grower!

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the smaller image on the  lower right

is monolith at 2 meters tall.

White Knite in the Hero System

Here's White Knite at the start of his career,

fresh out of the Police Academy.

 

WHITE KNITE Character Sheet

Here's a pic of White Knite

after the Battle with King Mall-Tell

when the Investigators group was well established.

White Knite Schedule

The Fourteen Suns

This is a spot for me to post information concerning my Science Fiction universe, referred to as the Fourteen Suns, which I use as a setting for both gaming and fiction writing.

I hope you enjoy what you find.

-Chuck