As the thread-title says: This is the preliminary, but likely, make-up for the Kill Team for my coming Deathwatch campaign.

I . Player-Nt , a female player, has chosen to play an Ultramarine Apothecary. While I would have allowed her to play a female character-type from another FFG WH40K RPG (Inquisitor, Sister of Battle, etc.), and did make the offer, she has cooperatively (and thankfully) decided to be a cohesive player in playing an Astartes after group discussion.

Likewise, despite my informing her that I would be fairly liberal with Fate Points for healing-use, so the group would not "require" a healer, she has been resolute on her choice of Basic Speciality (Apothecary). Speculation (between Player and GM) is that she may work towards becoming a Deathwatch Chaplin down the road and Ranks, but it is not set in stone.

II . Player-Js , the "rules lawyer" of the group, has chosen to play a melee-oriented Imperial Fists Librarian. Originally taking my offer to use other FFG WH40K RPG classes, he had previously thought to play a Vindicare Assassin from Dark Heresy (1st Edition): Ascension with 16 Dodge-Reactions and dual-wielding Fire Selector Storm Bolters to mow down Hordes with while remaining untouched. However, he also has reasonably (and thankfully) decided to be a cohesive player as well in playing a Librarian.

Player-Js has expressed his consternation over the distinctive lack of Force Weapons; he wanted a Force Axe, but an Astartes-version does not exist in the Deathwatch books despite many Librarian miniatures featuring Force Axes. To reward his being a cohesive Player, I simply copy-&-pasted the Force Axe from Rogue Trader: Into the Storm and re-labeling it as Astartes Force Axe (they are literally the same stats).

Player-Js may be likely to change out his character after the first mission or two, in keeping with the nature of the Deathwatch's rotating membership. As mentioned in a previous forum-thread, Player-Js has more free time (despite being a full-time father of a young child) than I to pore over the books and rules. Ideally he will remain a Space Marine (just of a different sort), but I cannot rule out his returning to his 16-Dodges, dual-wielding Storm Bolters, Vindicare Assassin.

Player-Js has already selected & rolled for a mk-6 "Corvus" power armor, which also has a mk-8 chest replacement without gorget so his mk-6 helmet will fit.

III. Player-Br , the active fan of WarHammer 40,000, is playing an Ultramarines Assault Marine. He believes that Ultramarines make for the most superior Assault Marines due to their versatile +5 stat spread option and Chapter benefits. Likewise, he has chosen to use a mk-6 "Corvus" power armor in the belief it will make him a superior melee combatant rather than wearing a mk-7 "Aquila" power armor.

IV. Player-Kr , one who is not experienced to the game or the WH40K-verse, will be playing a Space Wolf Assault Marine. His character will likely be made by Player-Js.

Sadly, Player-Kr tends to lack commitment to RPG play (our group also does other gamings). While he is not a Toxic Player, or even a "bad" player, he lacks active effort &/or investment.

Even though I purchased and gifted him the DW Core Rulebook, printed out Character Sheets & Errata, and even packaged it all into an expandable file-jacket ( http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1397422/Office-Depot-Brand-Two-Tone-Poly/ ) which could even hold the Core Rulebook (the file-jacket has a large hard-plastic pocket that fits the Core Rulebook perfectly), I (sadly) hold little hope in him even bringing this basic materiel to our RPG gaming sessions.

Nonetheless, I am willing to reward him accordingly should surprise me and play well, &/or show Player-investment. How so, for rewards, that remains a nebulous question.

V. Player-Rh , also little-to-no experience with Deathwatch & WH40K, will be playing an Ultramarine Tactical Marine. It is likely he will be the regular Squad Leader, barring exceptioned circumstance(s). Player-Rh's character will also likely be made (or heavily assisted in creation) by Player-Js.

I also gifted him with the same Player-package as Player-Kr, but I do expect him to make more effort towards playing Deathwatch and being Squad Leader, and do also plan to reward him accordingly and generously, possibly even more so than the others since they have shouldered him with the burden of being Squad Leader.

VI . While I do not have any overly alarming emotions over the Kill Team make-up, I do have some moderate concerns.

- a. First, that being the 3/5 melee Kill Team, and lack of a Devastator.
~ 1. Will this make things rough on the Kill Team when they engage multiple Hordes without sufficent ranged fire to whittle down their numbers before engaging in melee?

~ 2. Or will the bolter fire from the Tactical Marine and Apothecary be enough?

- b. Second, lack of a Techmarine. While Player-Js' Librarian should account for a good set of skills, will the lack of the Techmarine's technical skills be a problem? It seems like many Missions/Adventures from the Deathwatch series do assume a Techmarine as part of the Kill Team.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

As stated, this is the preliminary-work on Kill Team creation; so while some character creation has been done, nothing is hard-locked yet.

I welcome any observations, suggestions, or warning signs that I may have missed.

Actually, I find that in most cases (barring Librarians), thing tend to even out in the long run, with Ranks 1-3 most unbalanced. If I were you, I would not make players switch Chapters too often, or things will be always unbalanced. Even if you give them XP and they will be getting higher Rank with each such Change, it's hard to make balanced charatcers without even knowing what are your strong and weak points, so be warned.
Also, non-DW Characters do not seem to work correctly in DW teams in the long run - they are usually very squishy but have absurd damage output, are unkillable (Vindicare), or are just too strong (Primaris), or useless (Crusader, Stomrtrooper). Also, Sister of Battle either has the Cloak of Unnatural Toughness x2 (changing her into Marine, basically), or is just squishy. Also, Marines can have things like Barrage Plasma Guns; are you going to give them to the other players? Since they are technically too heavy to be used by humans... and so on.

Sorry for these words, I do not want to sound rude of something . I'm just warning you what can cause a problem, based on my experience.

As the thread-title says: This is the preliminary, but likely, make-up for the Kill Team for my coming Deathwatch campaign.

I . Player-Nt , a female player, has chosen to play an Ultramarine Apothecary. While I would have allowed her to play a female character-type from another FFG WH40K RPG (Inquisitor, Sister of Battle, etc.), and did make the offer, she has cooperatively (and thankfully) decided to be a cohesive player in playing an Astartes after group discussion.

Likewise, despite my informing her that I would be fairly liberal with Fate Points for healing-use, so the group would not "require" a healer, she has been resolute on her choice of Basic Speciality (Apothecary). Speculation (between Player and GM) is that she may work towards becoming a Deathwatch Chaplin down the road and Ranks, but it is not set in stone.

Apothecaries are weaker than other Specialisations overall. Of proposed fixes, the most popular are: apply Errata, which boosts them a little (Hardy is a nice Talent, since it removes penalties for healing Critical Damage, therefore she will never be in a situation where she can't heal and stands on some Criticals); give Apothecaries all three abilities instead of "choose one". She should definitely use her Ultramarines advance table instead; she will be a natural leader (with Command), and you should make sure that Tactics are used as often as possible. Apothecary has to focus on other tables first, since his class table is weak with only few good moments. Also, Ultramarine Relics are good, and if you have access to other rulebooks, not all of them require Hero Renown.

Also, out of curiosity, what do you mean by "Liberal use of Fate Points to heal"? Fate Points per rules heal 1d10 Damage; did you boost it? I actually find this aspect of Deathwatch important, and removing it will firstly hamper Apothecary and second remove some of the tension from mission, especially longer missions (or Ark of Lost Souls, for example). With Apothecary, players do not spend FP to heal and are better prepared, making Apothecary more useful; and if they are hit and lack FP to heal, they do not need to progress with Criticals.

II . Player-Js , the "rules lawyer" of the group, has chosen to play a melee-oriented Imperial Fists Librarian. Originally taking my offer to use other FFG WH40K RPG classes, he had previously thought to play a Vindicare Assassin from Dark Heresy (1st Edition): Ascension with 16 Dodge-Reactions and dual-wielding Fire Selector Storm Bolters to mow down Hordes with while remaining untouched. However, he also has reasonably (and thankfully) decided to be a cohesive player as well in playing a Librarian.

Player-Js has expressed his consternation over the distinctive lack of Force Weapons; he wanted a Force Axe, but an Astartes-version does not exist in the Deathwatch books despite many Librarian miniatures featuring Force Axes. To reward his being a cohesive Player, I simply copy-&-pasted the Force Axe from Rogue Trader: Into the Storm and re-labeling it as Astartes Force Axe (they are literally the same stats).

Player-Js may be likely to change out his character after the first mission or two, in keeping with the nature of the Deathwatch's rotating membership. As mentioned in a previous forum-thread, Player-Js has more free time (despite being a full-time father of a young child) than I to pore over the books and rules. Ideally he will remain a Space Marine (just of a different sort), but I cannot rule out his returning to his 16-Dodges, dual-wielding Storm Bolters, Vindicare Assassin.

Player-Js has already selected & rolled for a mk-6 "Corvus" power armor, which also has a mk-8 chest replacement without gorget so his mk-6 helmet will fit.

You should talk to him immediately. Powergaming players WILL ruin every 40k system, and nearly every other system. Vindicare Assasin with two Storm Bolters will outshine very single Marine save for Devastator but because of Dodges he's going to be basically invincible. Imperial Fist Librarian with +10 WP is a monster; with high Willpower (and he probably put his highest roll into it anyway), he's going to Compel this Tau Commander with epic Bodyguards, of this Ork Warboss and 2 Orks in Mega-Armors, or this 60 00 XP Champion of Nurgle and his elite bodyguards of Nurgle Marines into killing everyone else and then killing themselves. And other power get even more ridiculous. I'll link you to the discussion about it, but Librarians are but even WITHOUT powergaming.

https://community.fa...k/#entry1297307

I'll also link some outside-forum discussion about it, if you want:

http://librarians-an...ty-balance.html

Also - why stick with such player? He will read all additional books and break the system. 40k RPG's are not inherently balanced against this. He IS going to be as strong as the rest of the team combined. Just talk to him and either explain that RPG is about fun and role-playing and not mathematics and that he's putting a lot of wight on you (for needing to make harder encounters) and the rest of the players (for they will not keep up). Really, just discuss this beforehand or he will ruin it. If he can't accept it, just drop him. I had 2 campaigns in 40k Universe that fell apart because of that, after like a year of these players ruining my fun and some other players' too.

III. Player-Br , the active fan of WarHammer 40,000, is playing an Ultramarines Assault Marine. He believes that Ultramarines make for the most superior Assault Marines due to their versatile +5 stat spread option and Chapter benefits. Likewise, he has chosen to use a mk-6 "Corvus" power armor in the belief it will make him a superior melee combatant rather than wearing a mk-7 "Aquila" power armor.

If you let your players choose their PA, they will choose the best one. They should roll their Armor and Histories, otherwise you will end uop with party with minimal roleplaying possibilities and full munchkining that will ruin your fun. Also, having different type of armor than you want may lead to interesting roleplaying, too.
Also, two Ultramarines... I would make at least one of them a Successor or a different Chapter, for more roleplaying possibilities. And some fun Successor, not some "We just follow Ultramarines with different colors" type.

IV. Player-Kr , one who is not experienced to the game or the WH40K-verse, will be playing a Space Wolf Assault Marine. His character will likely be made by Player-Js.

Sadly, Player-Kr tends to lack commitment to RPG play (our group also does other gamings). While he is not a Toxic Player, or even a "bad" player, he lacks active effort &/or investment.

Even though I purchased and gifted him the DW Core Rulebook, printed out Character Sheets & Errata, and even packaged it all into an expandable file-jacket ( http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1397422/Office-Depot-Brand-Two-Tone-Poly/ ) which could even hold the Core Rulebook (the file-jacket has a large hard-plastic pocket that fits the Core Rulebook perfectly), I (sadly) hold little hope in him even bringing this basic materiel to our RPG gaming sessions.

Nonetheless, I am willing to reward him accordingly should surprise me and play well, &/or show Player-investment. How so, for rewards, that remains a nebulous question.

"His character will likely be made by Player-Js"

If the player has no commitment, refuses to read rules, leaves his charakter to be done by someone else, he will not roleplay. Therefore, he will only slow the game by the fact of not knowing rules, and he will probably limit role-playing possibilities. If he will not follow after a session or two at most, drop him. I would discuss it with him right now, actually - no one forces him to play, and forcing someone to play RPG won't end good for them and you, and the other players, trust me .

V. Player-Rh , also little-to-no experience with Deathwatch & WH40K, will be playing an Ultramarine Tactical Marine. It is likely he will be the regular Squad Leader, barring exceptioned circumstance(s). Player-Rh's character will also likely be made (or heavily assisted in creation) by Player-Js.

I also gifted him with the same Player-package as Player-Kr, but I do expect him to make more effort towards playing Deathwatch and being Squad Leader, and do also plan to reward him accordingly and generously, possibly even more so than the others since they have shouldered him with the burden of being Squad Leader.

Another Ultramarine. The main strength of DW is flexibility. With so many UM's they will be lacking other skills, Squad Modes and Talents. And also limits roleplaying. Besides, this has few other results:

- UM's can use their Squad Modes freely. Other cannot. Therefore, they will feel different than the rest.
- You will have abundance of Command and lack of other skills.

Also, if your player does not make his own character, than how can he actually feel connected to him? In RPG, role-playing is important, if not the most basic and necessary thing. Players should make their own characters so they a) Choose the Chapter that suits them, Class that suits them, b) Create their own history and feel connected to it (I recommend additional Deeds from Rites of Battle for that), and c) Learn what their characters can or cannot do, feel their strengths and special abilities.
Also, he wants to be a Squad Leader. Is there going to be tension from others? are any other PC's interested in this role? This could provide a LOt of RP possibilities if they are invested in their characters.

VI . While I do not have any overly alarming emotions over the Kill Team make-up, I do have some moderate concerns.

- a. First, that being the 3/5 melee Kill Team, and lack of a Devastator.
~ 1. Will this make things rough on the Kill Team when they engage multiple Hordes without sufficent ranged fire to whittle down their numbers before engaging in melee?

~ 2. Or will the bolter fire from the Tactical Marine and Apothecary be enough?

- b. Second, lack of a Techmarine. While Player-Js' Librarian should account for a good set of skills, will the lack of the Techmarine's technical skills be a problem? It seems like many Missions/Adventures from the Deathwatch series do assume a Techmarine as part of the Kill Team.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

As stated, this is the preliminary-work on Kill Team creation; so while some character creation has been done, nothing is hard-locked yet.

I welcome any observations, suggestions, or warning signs that I may have missed.

About melee and ranged. Every player can requisition Heavy Bolter, so those 2/5 players can wreck everything nearly as good as Devastator. The best otpion is to see - if players will start feeling underdeveloped on shooting front, Assaults can always take, for example, tw Bolt Pistols and rain death from above, or just requisition Bolters.

Storm Bolters with Metal Storm Rounds will kill any Horde immediately even in hands of Assault Marines.

Also, one more piece of advice. Use Errata for weapon statistics. It solves 90% of problems with weapons and difficulty. And ban using two two-handed weapons, because two Storm Bolters with Metal Storm kill every Horde, and with Vengeance or Kraken they kill nearly every other enemy.

Also, if I were you, I would say that Ammo Selector does NOT hold 3x the magazine size, just different types of ammo in 1 magazine, or your players will never reload and never have to count ammo or think about using it, but that's just a personal preference.


Sorry if I'm sounding harsh, I'm just trying to tell you may experiences (few years of playing DW), so you will avoid some mistakes . Feel free to apply some or all or ignore some of all, tis' just an advice .

Also, by the way, it seems that around 60% of problems come from players not being fully immersed/being indifferent/munchkining. Every system falls apart with bad players, but nearly every system can be enjoyable with good players. I found out that the most important tools of GM are words - talk to your players. They can't read your mind. You can make everyone's enjoyment better just by taking to them.

If you have any other question, or comment, or critique, feel free to say so! I hope you'll enjoy Deathwatch, it can be a real blast, even if it seems otherwise on the first glance.

Unfortunately, the Player Group is linked closely amongst each other, so I cannot drop anyone.

IV. Player-Kr did actually make his own character during a "lull" weekly session (light board-gaming that week), alongside myself as we went through Character Creation together. I did compliment him upon his efforts on this.

- a. Player-Kr has, thus far, instead chosen to be a Blood Angels Assault Marine. His rolled stats are fairly average, with his high-stat in Weapon Skill (50), and his two low-stats in Fellowship (32) and Ballistic Skill (35).

- b. Player-Kr took his chances with the Power Armor roll-table from DW-04: Rites of Battle ; he wound up with a standard mk-7 "Aquila" armor.

- c. His Personal Demeanor is Ambitious . How well he RolePlays this Personal Demeanor and Chapter Demeanor: The Red Thirst , time will tell. It will certainly be a hurdle for him since Player-Js ( Imperial Fists Librarian) insists that Player-Rh ( Ultramarines Tactical Marine) should be the Squad Leader all the time.

- d. Player-Kr has spent his 1000 (starter) XP on:

- 1. Two-weapon Wielder (Melee) = 500 XP

- 2. Signature WarGear (weapon) = 500 XP; a second (common craftsmanship) chainsword

Now, I tried to advise Player-Kr about spending for SgWg at Rank-1, informing him that he could not upgrade the second chainsword without any Renown, but he was insistent upon it and his vision of a dual-wielding melee character.

I may ("maybe") allow him to RetCon his purchase to upgrade if/when he reached the Renown to upgrade his second chainsword. We will see.

It is an important factor to keep in mind that Player-Kr, Player-Rh, & Player-Nt, are inexperienced and un-knowledgeable with WH40K as myself, Player-Js and Player-Br.

Characters are not yet "locked in", so changes/edits are still possible.

Unfortunately, the Player Group is linked closely amongst each other, so I cannot drop anyone.

IV. Player-Kr did actually make his own character during a "lull" weekly session (light board-gaming that week), alongside myself as we went through Character Creation together. I did compliment him upon his efforts on this.

That's good to hear! Perhaps I was too harsh, sorry, bad experience with some players made me a little too skeptical lately. If he actually made his character, than it's a very good thing.

- a. Player-Kr has, thus far, instead chosen to be a Blood Angels Assault Marine. His rolled stats are fairly average, with his high-stat in Weapon Skill (50), and his two low-stats in Fellowship (32) and Ballistic Skill (35).

- b. Player-Kr took his chances with the Power Armor roll-table from DW-04: Rites of Battle ; he wound up with a standard mk-7 "Aquila" armor.

- c. His Personal Demeanor is Ambitious . How well he RolePlays this Personal Demeanor and Chapter Demeanor: The Red Thirst , time will tell. It will certainly be a hurdle for him since Player-Js ( Imperial Fists Librarian) insists that Player-Rh ( Ultramarines Tactical Marine) should be the Squad Leader all the time.

- d. Player-Kr has spent his 1000 (starter) XP on:

- 1. Two-weapon Wielder (Melee) = 500 XP

- 2. Signature WarGear (weapon) = 500 XP; a second (common craftsmanship) chainsword

Now, I tried to advise Player-Kr about spending for SgWg at Rank-1, informing him that he could not upgrade the second chainsword without any Renown, but he was insistent upon it and his vision of a dual-wielding melee character.

I may ("maybe") allow him to RetCon his purchase to upgrade if/when he reached the Renown to upgrade his second chainsword. We will see.

It is an important factor to keep in mind that Player-Kr, Player-Rh, & Player-Nt, are inexperienced and un-knowledgeable with WH40K as myself, Player-Js and Player-Br.

Characters are not yet "locked in", so changes/edits are still possible.

About the Signature Wargear, I would point out that he can Requsition the chainsword cheap, and by taking it as a SigWar he wastes most of it's potential. Although, if this choice seems to come from RP perspective as well, and he stands by it, I would accept it and use it; one of my players also chose a CC weapon as a Signature Wargear and as it was his favorite, personal weapon, I actually started making small boosts to it. Kind of like Distinctions in Rites of Battle, but only applied t one weapon, weaker, and for less XP.

For example, after defeating an especially tough opponent, I would give his weapon Proven (3) to represent that he slowly becomes as one with his weapons and learns to understand and feel it (kind of like First company Veteran's ability). I think 300xp for this is fine, depending on balance in team, you can make the price lower or higher as a balancing factor.

After it shatters for the first time, I would make the player reforge it with help of Forge-Master, make it Reinforced (there doesn''t seem to be this Quality in DW, I took it from other lines; it makes weapon break only on 75+ roll on 1d100).

After some time, let's say after beating a large, acid-breathing Tyranid monstrosity, I would say that this chainsword absorbed some of it and became much stronger, making it much more resistant to Power weaponry - let's say, for 400xp (nearly the same as SigWar for Power Sword), and it would only break after long use, so fights lasting only 3-4 hits and parries won't damage it too much. Since most fights will finish in this time, this should suffice. And, some time later, for around 200xp I would allow him to upgrade it to Master-Crafted.

My players are now Rank 6 with most of them Famed, one being close to Hero Renown, and he still uses his favorite weapon, which is now close to becoming a Relic for future Kill-Teams; it has Felling, adds additional Damage on Charge (he's personal playstyle, since he's a White Scar), is immune to Power Fields and serves him well. When he dies, it will be honorably put in the Deathwatch Reclusiam with other Relics to be taken along with story of countless enemies who fell to it.

BA Assault Marines are quick, deadly and have good advances on Chapter table, so that was a good choice. I personally favor non-obvious choices (BA AM, Ultramarine Tactical, BT AM, DA Devastator, IH Techmarine and so on are the most obviois choices), since it limits character a little bit (BA Devastator and DA Assault can both fight in melee and shoot quite well), but having specialized characters is also fine.

Conflict about who is a Squad Leader is good, especially if Demeanors are part of it. I can totally see him using this Demeanor to show that he is a great leader and regaining Cohesion, for example. Just make sure that it will not be resolved either totally out of character or by munchkining (Ultramarines generates more Cohesion, if you are a Squad Leader we are all weaker etc.), since this may ruin a great RP experience. From my experience, most Kill-Teams tend to have a chosen leader after 2-4 missions, so use this RP opportunity to the max while it lasts.

There are some balance issues with Assault Marines in a more shooty-oriented Kill-Team and with Librarians. While Librarians are another thing (and I would rather not discuss it here, since my strong views about them being unbalanced monstrosity would not help here ), I wrote a little bit about Assault Marines here:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/229528-assault-marines-builds-and-encounters/

Aquilla is fine. Everyone wants to have MKVI as their PA, but there's nothing wrong with Aquilla. What's his Power Armor History?

And one more general advice. Deeds and Distinctions from Rites of Battle can be a great balancing tool, and you should forbid your players from reading them, ever. Especially munchkins, since they will then try to make you give some of them to their character for whatever reason. Actually, I would ban players from reading anything except Core Rulebook. This way, you can tweak them and use for balance, offering them cheaper for weaker characters and a little bit more expensive (or weaker, or more situational),to stronger characters. You need to be careful, since some players may notice that they're getting shorter end of the stick, so try to give it to them as more of an RP reward, for example:

- Giving the strongest players a Distinction which grants +10 to relations with Imperial Guard (Charm, Command, ect.), for 200-400xp. This Distinction is granted by the higher command of Imperial Guards as thanks for helping in achieving major victory; since he's the strongest player, he will obviously be the one who helped the most, therefore he will feel proud, but at the same time this will not grant him more power in combat, grants more RP possibilities (Guardsman recognizing this symbol and showing respect to character ect.), and sinks some XP.

- Since the strongest character (unless a Librarian) is going to switch weapons a lot, some characters who RP their bond with their favorite weapon may receive some weaker and much cheaper variants of Deeds, like Proven or Tearing for 100/200xp, or, in some cases, more expensive like Felling (just do not go overboard; this is supposed to be a reward, and Felling usually adds 4-5 Damage to a hit). If the strongest player is the only one with bond with his weapon, you can give him Felling and Proves (3) for, let;s say, 1000xp? This is a nice xp sink that still makes them feel better.

- Giving Markman distinction cost 100xp and making it possible to exchange DoS for additional 1 Damage or 2 Penetration is a nice boost for sniper-type people, and a nice reward for making this impossible shot, crippling escaping shuttle with important Targets. With possibility of upgrading it for 400xp so that each Half Acton of Aiming can also be exchanged and instead of +10 to hit gives +2 Penetration. From my experience, it;s hard to make overpowered snipers in DW, I've only seen it happen once in an specific situation.

- Generating additional Cohesion is great, since it boosts entire team; actually, every kind of "aura of leadership" or something is great, since it sinks xp of most powerful characters and boosts everyone equally.

- While we're speaking Deeds; do not give your player Brothers of the Blood, since this Distinction allows everyone to use their Chapter Squad Modes at will; this severely limits, if not actually negates, Tactical Marine's special ability, unless he chooses Bolter Mastery.

Also, small house rule: I decided that Squad Leader can use both Codex Squad Modes from Oath AND his Chapter Squad Modes on entire team. This way being a Leader is not only a matter of "who gets more Cohesion" and becomes also a matter of "Who has the best Chapter Squad Modes for this type of mission". And while UM Squad Modes are really good, as a Tactical, he can also give it to everyone even if NOT a Squad Leader; therefore, having, for example, BA AM as Squad Leader, while giving less Cohesion, gives access to UM Tactical's Squad Modes AND BA Assault Marine's Squad Modes, which gives greater flexibility.

...Aaand another Wall of Text, sorry for that. I hope everything's clear, if you have any more questions, ask .

P.S. Did you try to show your more un-knowledgeable characters some 40k-related materials? "Lord Inquisitor" Fan-Film (or at least those first minutes released right now) is nice; I also use Damantus: The Enemy Within as an introduction to 40k universe. Ultramarines: The Movie is... well, not too many people like it, but it's not the worst thing to watch, even if you should be their with your players watching it (or after they watch it) and make small corrections like "bolters are not that good against Power Armor unless you use Krakens and are not as good against Marines unless Vengence ammo is used" .

Just 1 ultramarine is enough to make cohesion limits laughable. Multiple means they're going to be able to pop abilities as if they were candy. I remember we had one game with just 3 players and we were literally re-calling the prime target @2 cohesion a pop just so our shot would be better for multiple rounds in a row.