Fixed! It's a small, but noteworthy difference. I think Titanicus delved into this relationship more, but I haven't finished reading it, does anyone else have more input?

Yar, the exact nature of the Mechanicus' alliance with the rest of the Imperium is a subtle and multi-faceted thing.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

That's empires for you!

Here's another one.

Emperor<-->Space Marine Chapter of your choice.

I must be forgetting something. What is the Emperor obligated to provide to the Mechanicus?

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

The Emperors perovides the Mechanicum the right to adhere to their own religion (or a religion at all because the early Empire was sekular/atheistic).

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Not only that but the emperor will provide defence, if needed. As pointed out and developed so well in Titanicus, the Imperium needs the Mechanicus and the Mechanicus needs the Imperium.

The Emperor provides to the rulers of each world either a certain amount of freedom (in some cases a great deal and only to the nobles mind, the defence of freedoms are not directly extended to the masses) and/or the support of his army. In return he expects military support, either direct support and/or by the giving of soldiers and equipment to his army. Or other provisions that are required for any war effort.

Also he expects to be held as the god/overlord of all humanity.

This pretty much sums up how Empires and Knigdoms usually work. It's not totalitarianism since the ruler does not have, or even try to have, 'total' control of every aspect of live, though he certainly does in religious terms with some exceptions.

Anyway I'll admit that when you add money into the picture (where you have a money economy) than the way the feudal system works changes and eventually in some cases it evaporates. But, in keeping with the image and the theme it would seem, perhaps irrationally that presence of any money in the Imperium hasn't changed anything.

GW already seemed to be moving away from the 'Feudal World' aspect of the Knights by the time of Titan Legions - the background here regarding Knightworlds actually avoided calling them Feudal, describing them as worlds that provided resources for Forgeworlds, both from agriculture (including the dinosaurs) as well as 'Servitor-run strip mines'. The Mechanicus would ship out Knightsuits and return with crops, dino-meat and the products of the mining operations. So already the focus of low-tech worlds with high-tech knightsuits has been partially abandoned - judging by the Titan Legions era background, the Knightworlds have access to a fairly good level of technology, as the Mechanicus vessels are noted as bringing tools, mining machinery and the like, suggesting the worlds must have had some level of industrial development.

The background on Knights in 'Mechanicum' has the featured Knight Household/Order based on a Forgeworld (Mars), which again differs from earlier background. Still, perhaps some Knightsuits are kept on Forgeworlds to help act as garrisons when the local Titan Legion is away.

So I think the compromise option is probably the best way to go - not only is it similar enough to the older stuff to please the old-timers, but it also seems to be the way GW themself have been moving with the background since the original Knight background was introduced. So Knightworlds as fairly sparsely populated but not technically backward worlds, that provide resources to their affiliated Forgeworld in return for the most advanced Tech (knightsuits) that they cannot construct themself.

Hey Red I see you're in London. You ever visit the Cock Tavern gaming club n Euston?

Not yet - I plan to swing by once I've finished painting my first army though...

Cool, there's plenty of epic players who go there, you might already know some of them.