I'll be the first to admit that all I've learned about the 40k universe has been primarily through only Epic and secondarily from a small handful of Black Library books. I finished reading Mechanicus and I'm almost done with Titanicus and it occurred to that there are things mentioned that I'm not sure exactly what they are. If you kind souls could enlighten me, I would appreciate it. Art work and pictures of relevant 40k minis would be most helpful (what can I say, I'm a visual person   ), but descriptions would help also. Pardon the elementary questions, but I want to make sure I know precisely what these things are.  

What exactly are Skitarii, mechanically augmented humans? Is there any difference between them and Tech Guard?

What are Praetorians? How do they differ from Skitarii?

What does a Centaur look like?

Are Servitors purely mechanical or are they at least partially human?

Thanks for the help!

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Well according to Gav Thorpe in Firepower #1 ... the Skitarii are the Regiments of the Cult Mechanicus. To quote Thorpe - " Known to the uncouth and uninitiated as the Tech-Guard," ("Stuff it Gav !" - L4). They are raised from the populations of the Forge Worlds. Armed and trained similar to the IG. They are the PDF of the Forge Worlds. Provide Infantry and Armor support for the TLs in battle. Praetorians are members of the Skitarii but biologically and bionically enhanced. These rules are for E40K so basically the standard Skitarii Grunt known as a Hypaspist(taken from the Latin/Romans) can be upgraded to a Praetorian.  (I'll copy these pages and send them to you.)  Now AFAIK a Servitor is basically a Cyborg. And the only Centaur I know of is the light 5 man APC used by the DKoK. You can see pics of that on Otterman's thread or online at Forge World ...        

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Each book that mentions them have a very different description of Skitarii.

In Mechanicum and Titanicus they were augmented barbarian like warriors of massive killing power.

In Dark Apostle they were augmented brain dead humans with little to no free will which were controlled by a Magos.

In Dark Adepticus they were augmented professional soldiers will enhanced reaction times and training.

So, take your pick. From all that it seems to me that each Forge World and Magos for that matter makes them different. So long as they're augmented humans you won't be too far off.

I would consider Tech Guard and Skitarii to be interchangeable as well.

As to Praetorians, think bigger and more augmentation. Again, the descriptions vary, but they essentially take and dish out more punishement.

A Centaur is a small Leman Russ like support vehicle:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/grencent.htm

Servitors have human components. Usually the torso is permanently attached to a machine.

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Dave

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I am only new to epic however I have found the Lexicanum to be my friend in all such cases.

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Yep that's the Centaur I was talk'n about ! O-man is making "something that looks like" a Centaur ...  

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

After also having read Titanicus recently (good book eh?) and cross-referring it with my memory of servitors in BFG I must wonder. Are servitors self-aware?

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http://diceatdawn.blogspot.se

nope; servitors are brain dead mind-wiped cyborgs; i'm sure they could be programmed to be self aware though...

As for praetorians; again, descriptions vary; some are massive robot like things for example and i once used the Inquisitor rules to make a 54mm scale praetorian based on a Sister of Battles Penitent engine body...i'll throw up some pics if i can.

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And originally (SM1) praetorians were titan-sized vehicles like Capitol Imperialis and Leviathan.  

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I don't know and I let who care. -J.S.

Ah so I thought. Thanks MoK.

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http://diceatdawn.blogspot.se

and so consequently the old plastic robot's based 3-5 to a stand make excellent praetorians!
R>

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That's precisely the source of my confusion, inconsistencies among books. I had always assumed that Tech Guard were IG for Forge Worlds, but had no mechanical augmentation. When the term "skitarii" was introduced, I figured it was simply a renaming of Tech Guard.

If servitors are cyborgs who have had their minds erased, then why even bother going through the process of creating one? Why not just build a machine to perform the same function.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Ahhh, that idea has been tried before in 40k world. It lead to the whole age of strife battles against the Men of Iron (robots), I believe.

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More of a current misconception which seems to be that every army in Rogue Trader consisted of 2 squats with toughness 15 force fields and homing autodestructive 50" blast vortex missiles on jetboards...

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Because purely electronic/non-biological AI, or even "thinking machines", are something fairly abhorant to the Imperium... and I think they tend to go a little "Chaotic" at times as well.

So, the biological portion of the servitor allows for punishment of trangressors, let's the AM say that "man and machine work well together", etc etc... it's an insane, techno-religious cult, man!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Yeah, I remember that. That's the other thing that annoys me: GW re-using names for different things in different editions. Some of the Mk I robot names have been recycled as well. I understand that GW has always rewritten fluff to match the rules, but a little consistency would be nice.

Edit: BTW, the CI was originally named "Behemoth."

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Good point. I know the Collegia Cybernetica that's mentioned in Adeptus Titanicus no longer exists.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart