Rules and Changes

"Change is but Chaos finding Order in itself. Perfect Chaos would, in the end, become but Madness frozen within itself. A delicious irony if it were not for the fact that countless have died in the name of some vast cosmic joke."

Mechanic Changes
It should be noted that many changes will be later added, especially in the equipment Tables. As time goes on I will add variants and new weapons including Legion Specific Items. For now, all I have listed is that which has appeared in the game so far.

Mechanic
The Critical Chart System was initially implemented in my earlier 40K games in order to simulate reality more effectively. It worked in that Wounds were no longer a Mechanic and that whenever damage was applied, it would be taken straight to the Critical Damage Chart. Once the effect had been applied, the Critical Damage would be reset back to 0 and so on.

However, in this Great Crusade Game we are using normal Wounds rules, though they start with half. This is to try and preserver some realism within the Game Mechanics while also allowing for acts of heroism and general awesomeness. The rules above are mentioned as an alternate system for those of you who wish a harder and/or more brutal setting.

''Example: Lysha ducks underneath a hail of fire, avoiding the majority of the shells but wincing in pain as the last autogun round tore through armour and flesh. Rolling the damage dice, after deducting Armour and Toughness, Lysha suffers 4 Wounds. The Player then consults the Chart and looks up the 4 Result on the Impact (Arm) Chart. After applying the effects, Lysha once more returns to a 0 on the Critical Damage.''

Mechanic
The Medicae Skill in our game undergoes a number of changes, in order to bring some semblance of Balance and Realism to our game (sorry Tim but seriously... this skill was f*****). As such, the Medicae has been changed to the Second Wave Version (Only War, Black Crusade and Dark Heresy 2nd Edition). This, more than anything else, has been done to provide some uniformity amongst the rules as there have been many changes taken from those editions.

Secondly, Medicae now relies upon Narthecium Reloads, with each use of Medicae using up a one of the supply. Each Narthecium Reload has a clip of 8 and only 3 additional Reloads may be acquired and fitted onto the Gauntlet. This makes the Apothecary and other Medic Characters less trigger happy when it comes to healing and means that Super-High Intelligence Characters cannot keep healing everyone back up to full, as if they had been completely unscathed (looking at you here, Igorek).

Lastly, the Medicae Skill can only be used in combat as an Extended Action that takes up to 5 turns to complete (1/3rd Total Damage taken in turns). This is in order to stop a Medic from keeping the Squad in tip-top condition throughout lengthy fights. Overall these rules allow Combat to feel far more brutal without entirely negating the use of the Medic.

Alternate Note: For those who still want to use the Medicae Rules from First Wave (Deathwatch, Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy 1st Edition) then another rule you can implement is that ability to use up one Reload for each Point of Critical Damage healed (2 with the Narthecium and then 4 with Master Chirugeon). This does mean that the Apothercary/Medic can heal Critical Damage which usually they can't but it uses up a lot of their supplies and may prove dangerous in the long run.

Mechanic
1: We are using the Combat rules from Second Wave, so all Combat Modifiers have been changed to fit these rulesets.

2: We are using the Medicae rules from Second Wave.

3: Swift Attack and Lightning Attack have been changed to Second Wave to make them more in line with Ranged Combatents

4: Not technically Second Wave but we are using Errata Damage Tables for Astartes Weaponry.

5: Legacy Weapon Rules will be utilized as the game progresses to represent equipment that may be regarded as Relic Equipment in the near future.

Requisition Changes
Since the Legiones Astartes is, quite obviously, drastically different from the Deathwatch, there have, and certainly will be, large changes made to many rules. One of the biggest is the introduction of Outfit Requisition.

Outfit Requisition is provided to Astartes upon Promotion and upon Renown Bracket Changes. This represents the acquiring of personal equipment from the Legion stockpiles and from requesting items crafted to their own tailored tastes. Items bought with such Requisition are permanently acquired and are not lost at the end of the mission. This should be treated with caution however, and all purchases should be vetted by the GM as some items are obviously impossible to acquire as personnel equipment.

Lastly, weaponry recovered from the dead and items personally crafted by the Player Characters should be free to keep and GM's should remember that Legion Equipment does not operate in the same way as Deathwatch Gear, Characters are going to end up with their own personal armories and if anything, this should be encouraged.

Cohesion and Squad-Mode Tactics
Again, Cohesion changes though only slightly. First of all, all Members of the same LEGION provide a bonus of +1 Cohesion. Secondly, with the removal of general Oaths (since Oaths of the Moment were highly specific), all Squad Mode Tactics have been made available (not Chapter-Specific ones though).

Fighting in the presence of the Squad Leader's Primarch provides a +5 bonus to Cohesion and negates the need to make a Willpower Check in order to activate a Squad Mode Ability as a Free Action. Traitor Legions also have their own Unique Table seen in the links above.

Narthecium Reloads
Narthecium Reloads contain the various tinctures, drugs and other items that allow the Apothecary to heal with such ease. Each reload contains 8 Charges, one of which is expended upon each use of the Medicae Skill used to Restore Wounds.

Bolter
The iconic weapon of the Space Marines actually underwent many changes throughout the Great Crusade. In all, there were three Marks of Bolter used and their statistics are listed in the Table below.

Volkite Weaponry
Volkite Weapons were widely used by the mortal and immortal warriors of the Imperium during the early days of the Great Crusade. As time went on, their complexity saw them replaced with other weapons but since this is taking place from the beginning, their statistics are listed in the Table Below.

Power Armour
All Variants of Power Armour are listed in the Rites of Battle Sourcebook. For the purposes of the Campaign, we will be using Marks II through VI as the timeline progresses.

Jump Pack
Older Marks of Jump Packs operated differently from their modern equivalents, including how frequently they were supplied and how effective they were. Crusade Era Variants can double the Movement of the Wearer each turn or provide them with the Flyer (15) for one turn. Using the second ability forces the Jump Pack to recharge for 5 Minutes, negating either of the effects from occurring during this time.

Plasma Weapons
Plasma Weapons in the Great Crusade were fairly new and as such, the initial versions of these will all Overheat. Later, this will be removed though, like Bolters, various Marks of these Weapons exist.

Lascannons
As of the current timeline, Lascannon's are too bulky to be used by infantry and as such they have to be mounted,

Assault Cannons
These weapons are still in Prototype and as such, beta equivalents have been handed out. These are referred to as Rotary Cannons, and still operate to the same effect. Statistics are listed in the Table below.