Historian & Armor Expert Reacts to Warhammer Arms & Armor

Thank you fellow Warhammer fans for watching this video. Honestly it was a blast getting all the clips together and sitting down with Toby to break them down. It was a nice excuse to go back to some of those games, as well as giving me a reason to brush up on some of my lore and share that with Toby for a bit of Grimdark context. As GameSpot's Warhammer nerd, I'm keen to do more like this, so please do leave your suggestions for factions, games, armour, details etc down below, or if you have any requests for episodes outside of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, 40k or Fantasy! Emperor be with you!

"the Romans never had chainsaw swords but I bet they would have liked them" - now that's a good approach to history and fantasy combined

"It's pretty cool, but I never want to go there." Something that literally every 40k fan agrees with.

The fact that he said: "they're sorta celebrating degradation." As opposed to they look like they are all about sickness. Was insane on how spot on it was.

I love how he just instantly "gets" the plague marines at a glance. It shows how good he is as a scholar, but also how good the art team at GW is at expressing who the plague marines are.

I love that Dr. Capwell isn't just going "wrong, wrong, wrong, kinda realistic, wrong" but actually takes it seriously. A true scholar.

10:56 "Putting the big winged skulls on their breastplates ...and the gold decoration, it doesn't make them safer." It absolutely does. The emperor protects.

"The modern mind has a problem with the idea that something can be a utilitarian object, and a work of art at the same time." For a whole bunch of reasons, this is what gets my like.

Tobias: "The mobility of the arms in space marine armor looks like it would be limiting." Every WH40K power armor cosplayer: *nods emphatically*

As much as I like listening to 40k lore experts, it's really great to hear from someone who isn't completely invested in Warhammer and has the real world historical and cultural knowledge to point out and contextualize the lore's influences and meaning. Fictional universes are crafted by real world folks, so having these folks' thought process and influences explained through Capwell's analysis is a real treat.

It would be awesome for Tobias to see the animation sequence of a Space Marine being armoured. The full ritual

Man when he was explaining knight culture and how the armor sort of elevated them and how knights were seen as chosen by god to rule is also a spot on description on how space marines are seen (minus the marines being seen as angels)

Fun fact: when Relic Entertainment first began developing Dawn of War and had to animate Space Marines in combat, they sat down and had a very serious discussion on how the pauldrons work and move. The epiphany was that the armour is POWERED, so the pauldron doesn't have to follow the arm at a 1:1 ratio and can be more independent to maintain protection of that joint. From a rigging standpoint it more closely follows the wearer's collarbone. Everyone has basically been cribbing their notes ever since.

I love how he described the plague marines before knowing their purpose. Like spot on! Lol

23:38 "I think everybody would be horribly injured very quickly here" while talking about Blood Bowl had me cackling

13:07 About the spikes. I watched a video about the filming Lord of The Rings. The lady talking was from makeup, discussing the problems they had with the spikey orc armour. Invariably whenever they filmed a charge by the orcs or even just orcs running someone would fall over. Then they would get the cries of "Help, my spikes have dug in I can't get up!"

The giant pauldrons on space marines were done originally to give miniature painters something to add heraldry to easily, but GW did eventually try to explain why they exist. Basically (you can sort of see it in the death guard clip) from a basic firing position when behind a barricade or trench you would only be showing your upper torso, and that large pauldron serves as a sort of ballistic shield to deflect gun fire away from the face and torso. And of course since marine armor is powered and connected to their nervous system GW can sort of get away with explaining that there are servos in that shoulder joint to lift the pauldron when a space marine raises their arm. Still a bit silly though.

2:00 "Why are they on the ground?" I ask the same thing every time I use flying units...

As for the Astartes in the space marine 2 trailer, regular guardsmen rarely if ever see a space marine. You could think of them as angels. Just imagine if during the christian crusades the literal heavens opened up and angels descended, fighting along side the crusaders. That is the kind of impact the Astartes have on the common guardsman of the Imperium

I love how he took one look at the Plague Marines, and was able to accurately figure out who they were, and what they specialized in - and all due to the spike on the top of their head and a couple other minor visual cues. That tells you just how good a job they did with the designs.