Some form of bayonet has been standard issue to soldiers for a long time. So it should be in the 40th millennium.

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The knife bayonet

Replaces 'knife' in standard guardsman kit

A normal sized knife.

Weight 250 grams.

By itself

Does 1d5 damage

When attached to a basic weapon:

1d10 primitive (8) damage

When attached, a shot taken with that weapon over basic range suffer a -10 penalty to hit.

Taking the 'melee attachment' upgrade to your basic weapon eliminates this penalty.

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The Sword Bayonet

Replace knife bayonet for 3 gear points.

As infantry rifles became shorter, they lost some of their utility as spears. The longer 'sword bayonet' was an attempt to keep the overall length of the rifle-spear the same. In addition, you could execute some cutting attacks with a sword bayonet equipped rifle that you couldn't with an older style spike bayonet.

A small sword, with roughly 45 to 60 centimeters of blade.

Weight 750 grams

By itself

1d5+2 damage

Balanced

When attached to a basic weapon:

1d10 +1 damage

Unbalanced

When attached, a shot taken with that weapon over basic range suffer a -10 penalty to hit.

Taking the 'melee attachment' upgrade to your basic weapon eliminates this penalty, in addition, it removes the unbalanced quality.

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The Chain Knife bayonet

Replace knife bayonet for 8 gear points

If a knife attached to the end of your rifle is awesome, an small chainsaw is even better.

A small chainsaw, roughly the same dimensions of a knife.

Weight ?? 1 kilogram ??

By itself:

1d10 +1 damage

Penetration 2

Tearing

When attached to a basic weapon:

1d10 +3 damage

Penetration 2

Tearing, Unbalanced

When attached, a shot taken with that weapon over basic range suffer a -10 penalty to hit.

Taking the 'melee attachment' upgrade to your basic weapon eliminates this penalty, in addition, itremoves the unbalanced quality.

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The Chain Sword Bayonet (replace knife bayonet for 10 gear points)

If attaching a little chainsaw to the end of your rifle is awesome, attaching a bigger chainsaw to the end of your rifle is over 9000.

weight ?? 3.5 kilograms ??

By itself:

1d10 +2 damage

Penetration 2

Tearing, Balanced

When attached to a basic weapon:

1d10 +4 damage

Penetration 2

Tearing, Unwieldy

When attached, a shot taken with that weapon over basic range suffer a -10 penalty to hit.

Taking the 'melee attachment' upgrade to your basic weapon eliminates this penalty, in addition, it changes the 'unwieldy' trait to 'unbalanced'

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Attaching or removing a basic weapon is a half action. Remember that you may also need another half action to ready (or put away) the bayonet.

I was looking for something like this for my games. Don't like the melee attachment solution that the game offers, I also think that bayonets should be more common in-game.

Wouldn't let to get a chain bayonet for some points, though, I think they should be treated like a "Very rare" item or something like that, specially the chainsword bayonet...

The Chain Sword Bayonet (replace knife bayonet for 10 gear points)

If attaching a little chainsaw to the end of your rifle is awesome, attaching a bigger chainsaw to the end of your rifle is over 9000.

weight ?? 3.5 kilograms ??

Lancer for the win!

You can get a regular chainsword for just 8 points. So the chain knife bayonet is balanced around that. Also, if you are gettinga chain knife bayonet, then you probably care about he fact that your weapon would be unbalanced, and may pay the 3 extra points to remove the penalty.

The chain sword bayonet had the same drawbacks. IF you pay for the bayonet and the melee attachement upgrade to remove penalties, you've paid 13 points (compared to whatever rare melee weapon you could get at 15 points).

Looking in hammer of the emperor, that's a chain axe 1d10+3 pen 2 tearing, unbalanced. So I guess the final form of the chainsword bayonet should probably only be 1d10+3 pen 2 instead of 1d10 +4 pen 2...

Hum, didn't OW already have bayonets, or was that DH? I thought the idea of "add knife to lasgun -> can now be used as spear" pretty ingenious, as it was so straightforward and simple by combining things the game already offered.

Yes, that's the basis point for the knife bayonet -> spear starting point. It's just that I think that your bayonet should be free, rather than something you pay three gear points for. In addition,, the melee attachment weapon upgrade also adds 2kg to your weapon, which would most likely make it useless as a melee weapon, not more useful.

It's just that I think that your bayonet should be free, rather than something you pay three gear points for.

Well, if you're just using the standard combat knife, isn't it actually part of the standard regimental kit by default?

If not, you can simply edit it in. The default kit is pretty ridiculous, anyways. No way in hell do I believe that every single Feral Worlder etc is issued that much stuff. There's a reason the Guard codex specifically pointed out that the only thing everyone gets is the lasgun.

So, for some regiments the bayonet doesn't fit, but for others it should be part of their kit. If the points don't suffice (assuming you're using the Melee Attachment upgrade rather than just ruling that the knife is enough), you can also always houserule what makes more sense to you. For example, it could be included as additional equipment for certain regimental types or training doctrines.

One fail of bayonets might be the typical "Guard hate Assault" that might not carry over as much into the RPG, but I feel is still there. A lot of real militaries don't use them, and I can see why, with such long-range engagements as are typical. If you said "charge the Orks!" I'd look for the Commissar, and either beseech them to shoot me now, or wait for the other guy to run first, and then bolt, hoping to get away, while DE are agile enough to make trying to stab them a silly game. This is more my own feelings, of course, but of the OW Big 3 Enemies, the only ones I'd see assaulting worth it are SD, and they've got the same ranged weapons you do, and often walls to hide behind.

You don't have melee weapons so you can charge the enemy, you have melee weapons so when you get charged, it's not a complete massacre.

Also, I'd wager that a large part of enemies fought by Imperial Guard regiments are actually other humans - meaning traitors and rebels - which makes the enemy just as, if not more vulnerable than the Guardsman.

Supposedly, a single regiment of Cadian Shock Troops was sufficient to eradicate all the human tribes from the Sons of Malice' feral homeworld.

... and then of course there's always the possibility that the troops in question (or their officers ) just don't know any better and/or are caught up in a moment of suicidal glory. A bayonet charge across empty killing grounds filled with barbed wire and machine gun bullets sounds a bit silly as well, but it happened. A lot.

When in doubt, move forward.

When in doubt of survival, bayonet sharge a warhound titan.

When in doubt of survival, bayonet sharge a warhound titan.

You laugh, but that actually worked for me once in Final Liberation.

Only cost me five companies of Tallarn Desert Warriors, two of which ran away.

Yup. Get close in against the titans, then all they have is their stomp attacks (and in some cases anti personel bolters and electro hull) Hardly ideal, but much safer than right in front of its Vulcan mega-bolter and Turbo-laser destructor.

And with imperator titans you can just walk in trough the front doors and waltz up to the command centre!

Happens all the time in the novels. (If i was princeps i'd have the legs bricked up.) luckily in EPIC you could have ogrynn bouncers to keep the big bad infantry out.

ogrynn bouncers

Now that just made me think of this .