Aparantly there is this move in swordfighting with a two-handed sword, called a "Mordslag" where you grip the blade and bash your oponents head in with the handle/crossguard. (why this exists i don't know, unless it's to troll your oponent. "Oh you see this big sword here, you think i was gonna slash you with it, huh? NOPE! Blunt damage to the faaaace biatch!" ) Also something best not done with a chainsword.

I know it as a Murderstroke, but i suppose that's the translation in German. As was mentioned, it's for a makeshift mace, a more common move however is holding the sword by the hilt as normal but placing your second hand midway up the blade, using it to lever into a soft spot like a joint.

The two-handed sword is used very much like a Quarterstaff in close combat. The great swings with the blade many people envision in it's use are really only opening and finishing moves. The "Mordslag" and a number of other techniques are used to stun and or trip your opponent and thus set you up for a finishing slash or stab.

The murder stroke and hand half are similarly used on longswords and bastard swords too. I know these from training to a 15th century codex using the bastard sword.

Indeed! We're probably talking about the same source! I don't have the book anymore so I don't remember the title but the date was the same.

Talhoffer Fechtbook, 1437, if I remember correctly.

Talhoffer Fechtbook, 1437, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, that's the one!

Aparantly there is this move in swordfighting with a two-handed sword, called a "Mordslag" where you grip the blade and bash your oponents head in with the handle/crossguard. (why this exists i don't know, unless it's to troll your oponent. "Oh you see this big sword here, you think i was gonna slash you with it, huh? NOPE! Blunt damage to the faaaace biatch!" ) Also something best not done with a chainsword.

Sometimes, when you have a slashing and piercing weapon, you need a blunt weapon to do something useful through their **** armor. Besides, a two handed cruciform longsword is a complete, cohesive integrated weapons system. The blade can cut, slice, strike blows, and thrust. The quillons can punch, hook, and trap. The pommel can pummel. The whole thing is made to be used together. That's part of why I don't like some of these super weird fantasy swords that much -- the moves are wayyy less versatile... Now, give me a super weird cool fantasy sword that you can use all the cool moves with, and I'm suddenly paying attention... actually, is there a sword design in 40k that does that?

The Dark Eldar Klaive

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/File:DE_Klaive.jpg

The weapon is a two-handed, single edged powered blade blade with two grips built into the back of the blade, allowing you to switch back and forth mid-fight from a two-handed sword-esque stance to a pole-axe-esque stance, to a quarterstaff-esque stance, and with a nice end-hook to either impale or hook, pull and trap.

it's a very elegant looking weapon that's a nice mix of sword and halberd. Incubi are rather cool in my mind anyway and the weapon looks badass.

I wish it tapered toward a point at the top so you could thrust with it aswell.

Still looks way better than a Bathleh...

Aparantly there is this move in swordfighting with a two-handed sword, called a "Mordslag" where you grip the blade and bash your oponents head in with the handle/crossguard. (why this exists i don't know, unless it's to troll your oponent. "Oh you see this big sword here, you think i was gonna slash you with it, huh? NOPE! Blunt damage to the faaaace biatch!" ) Also something best not done with a chainsword.

Sometimes, when you have a slashing and piercing weapon, you need a blunt weapon to do something useful through their **** armor. Besides, a two handed cruciform longsword is a complete, cohesive integrated weapons system. The blade can cut, slice, strike blows, and thrust. The quillons can punch, hook, and trap. The pommel can pummel. The whole thing is made to be used together. That's part of why I don't like some of these super weird fantasy swords that much -- the moves are wayyy less versatile... Now, give me a super weird cool fantasy sword that you can use all the cool moves with, and I'm suddenly paying attention... actually, is there a sword design in 40k that does that?

The Dark Eldar Klaive

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/File:DE_Klaive.jpg

The weapon is a two-handed, single edged powered blade blade with two grips built into the back of the blade, allowing you to switch back and forth mid-fight from a two-handed sword-esque stance to a pole-axe-esque stance, to a quarterstaff-esque stance, and with a nice end-hook to either impale or hook, pull and trap.

it's a very elegant looking weapon that's a nice mix of sword and halberd. Incubi are rather cool in my mind anyway and the weapon looks badass.

Eeeehhhh.... you can't really stab with it? Part of the whole gripping the blade is to get your stabbity stabbity on....

You know you've played TOO MUCH Only War when your Space Marines are more cowardly than your Guardsmen.

When you can actually explain WHY a volcano cannon cannot be fitted on a Chimera.

When platton encouters a chaos space marine in forgotten imperial cathedra.One squad die in first round, half of the player squad flee (with 2 players) and only one player pass fear test and after a brief run he decides that he will take squad tauros to ram CSM so he rush trough whole cathedra at max speed and ram CSM and you as GM wonder if it will kil him. Aftermath. CSM died, player lost an arm and a leg and get regimental award for great marksmanship

When you somehow are facing down a Carnifex on your Sergeant's orders with nothing but common quality lascarbines, one multilas, one hunting lance, one sniper rifle and a depth charge.

When you give yourself even odds in turning up victorious in the above scenario, even though the squad's only backup is a one legged PDF soldier.

So a tech priest walks into a kitchen to fix some ovens. He rolled a 100 on a tech use test. And fails to dodge the explosion. He rolled a 10 and a 9 on damage. He died. First 5 min. Welcome to only war.

When you kill and Ork Warboss by bashing his head in with a glow globe and stale ration pack even though you have melta charges.

When you run under a Defiler with a lock shield and lascutter, attach the lock shield to the bottom of the defiler and continually drill holes in the bottom of it until its dead.

You know you are playing Only War when

-Your commanding officer gives you orders to link up an charge a tank line with chimeras and no AT weapons.

-You succeed at the above without loses.

-Your Sgt. reminds the squad that becoming pregnant is a "derelict of duty" and hands out contraceptives (NO seriously my one player thinks up little quotes from command for each session and this was one of them, the PCs are all female) and all you as the GM can think is. Yeah they probably would see it that way

-You escape a planet being thrown into the warp. (that is the start of the game)

-This all happens within the first 4 sessions

You know you're playing Only War when your 40K enthusiast only wants to play so that he can tie in some cannon fodder to the Deathwatch campaign he wants to run later, no one else understands your enthusiasm for the setting, and your other players all hate the idea of high-casualty games in the first place.

So I guess I should say... I wish I were playing Only War.

I run an Operator who specializes in explosives and demolitions in a game I joined recently.

Completely worthless at shooting and fragile as hell (8 wounds and BS 28), and spends most combat engagements trying to keep from dying.

Really got a chance to shine when we had an Ork Nob on our asses and managed to get a door between us and him. Knowing it wouldn't hold long, I rigged up 15 kilograms worth of detpacks around the door, tied it to a tripwire set to go off when the door opened and legged it like hell.

Granted, it used up all the explosives I'd had, but the alternative was being caught by an Ork Nob that had been slaughtering its way through a ship's worth of naval armsmen and Guardsmen.

This was our very first session.

When your regiment is on the front line against chaos space marines and some grunt starts saying things like they are walking tanks, and from the back of the room you hear the sound of laughter as a rattling starts gently stroking his sniper rifle and says " good thing i brought some anti-tank rounds, huh? "

• When you finally start to master all the tactics like suppressive fire, tactical advance and so on that you never gave a crud about in Deathwatch , because you were wearing a main battle tank and couldn't dodge attacks from hordes anyway.
• When you realise just how terrifying a not-especially high level guardsman with a lasgun can become when you start stacking lasgun barrage, lasgun mastery, etc, etc*.
• When the heavy gunner and assault weapon specialists start to wish they'd taken lasguns as well.

* Lasgun: D10+3. Lasgun on max power, Mighty Shot, Get Them!: D10+11, Pen 2

"Flashlights".

• When you realise just how terrifying a not-especially high level guardsman with a lasgun can become when you start stacking lasgun barrage, lasgun mastery, etc, etc*.

Yup. This is why the guard is the imperium's formost fighting force. Marines and titans are cool but they are just to few to really hammer the enemy.

Tough the weapons of the xenos are many, a bolter lasgun kills just as surely.

When your ex-Deathwatch player makes fun of the "flashlights", that is, until he gets his Guardsman's arm carbonized to a black stump by one of said "flashlights".

A few things from last sessions.

You know it's only war when:

-Every player want to kill the commisar but since nobody can they just wish that he will get hit by stray bullet

-You charge against riptide only with chainsword because your commisar decides it's better to die honorably than run like coward

-After you get stranded in jungle, suffer from tropical illness, have few levels of fatigue and only a primitive weapon and you still are better at fighting than common citizen and can kill entire squad of untrained people

-In said jungle you find a creature that resembles furby, hunt it ,and from it's spiky teeth you decide to craft furby sword

-After a few days of trying to survive in the jungle suffering from illness, halucination, dehydration you start to wish that it would be better to die charging tau with a spoon

-You wake up on beach and see a few boxes from crashed ship hoping you find weapons, food or equipment only to discover they all are full of uplifting primer copies

When you eat most of the copies of the primer, and tape the rest to your body and throw the remains at enemies.

from a recent game I've been a part of:

-your adventure starts with a frantic escape from your transport ship as orks board it

-you make it down to the surface in an packed escape pod with around 40 people

-hide in a cave to consolidate your position and plan for what to do next

-realize that there's enemy forces coming down all the three entrances to the cave (but you blocked one and the other's a tiny crevice, so you only need to worry about one), you have less than 25 survivors because you had to give the emperor's mercy to the wounded (being as the only other option was leaving them behind for the mercies of a traitor prison camp), and you have no weapons beyond lasguns and a few frag grenades

-battle begins

-in less than a minute of combat, 12 of your surviving 23 are either dead or dying, and you're preparing for a last stand

-throw grenades before charge, in hopes of killing and disorienting the enemy soldiers

-no luck, enemy answers with grenade volley in mid-charge, cuts down practically everyone except the PC's

and we ended there

it certainly feels like the imperial guard, I must say

When your commisar is doing a drive by...
... on orks ...
... with his chainsword ...
... riding an ork trukk ...
... that they looted from different orks...
... because their Valkyrie exploded due to equipment faliure.

You know you're playing Only War when...

...Your Death Korps Armoured Regiment encounters zombies, and the Operator fails his Fear check, and shoots the Stormtrooper in the back from the driver's seat of the Leman Russ. The Stormtrooper then power axes the Operator, setting him on fire, then tries to pick up the body, catching fire. Another Stormtrooper then catches fire trying to assist, before the flames eventually spread to the tank, resulting in a catastrophic explosion, destroying the ancient, Mars-Pattern Leman Russ with Artificier Hull & Armour.

Meanwhile, the Centaur drives around the courtyard with a flamer, toasting zombies and wondering what the hell is going on inside the Leman Russ.