Recently in my campaign my marines finally hit respected tier and like any good players tried to do the one thing that would most unbalance the game. They began taking Storm Bolters. Obviously Storm bolters are amazing pieces of weaponry and I am a huge fan. But it got me thinking...
Just how many storm bolters do they have on the ship to use? This question immediately led to other questions...how many powerfists, thunderhammers, suits of Terminator armor, ect...
So it Dawned on me...what if there was an actual armory with a set amount of weapons in it. And if during their arming they actually had to decide who got what. An actual inventory!
Obviously ammo and consumables would never be tracked because that's dumb, but the idea that if a weapon is lost on the battlefield, they players don't have it anymore seems really cool to me. I get that the Ordo Xenos is super well equipped. But I think it would be neat for the kill team to really feel that desperation to reclaim lost weapons and such. We always hear about them fighting whole campaigns to reclaim a broken land raider or relic. But it would be awesome if that was coming from the players and not the GM.
Here would be a simple setup
All the bolters and chainswords you want
Specialist Weapons
3 Storm Bolters
3 Flamers
2 Meltaguns
1 Plasma Gun
3 Plasma Pistols
Heavy Weapons
1 Lascannon
2 Heavy Bolters
2 Missile Launchers
1 Multi Melta
1 Plasma Cannon
Melee Weapons
3 Power weapons (Axe, Mace, Sword)
1 Power Fist
1 Thunderhammer
Armor
1-2 Sets of Terminator Armor (GM Choice)
1-2 Sets of Terminator Themed Wargar such as Storm Shield Thunderhammer or Power fist+ Stormbolter
1 each (Cyclone Launcher, Assault cannon, Heavy Flamer)
A suit of Centurian Armor perhaps?!?
Vehicles
Rhino - 4x
Razorback - 1x
Bikes - 10x
Land Speeders - 5x
Then perhaps 0 - 1 each of the other types of vehicles
Another approach to this would be that you give them less of the rare types weapons and make them something that they actually have to go out and do a mission for. Want another set of Terminator armor? There are rumors that during the retreat of imperial forces on x world, a battle brother was lost that was wearing his suit of blessed armor. Can you find it and get out alive?
This whole idea might feel a bit too much like a videogame...But I like videogames...