After several months of pitting gribbly beasts against a Deathwatch Team of 5, I've determined that the ability to call Squad Mode Abilities at each initiative step creates an unbalanced combat dynamic. If I have a Group of Tyranid Warriors (AgB of 4) roll a total initiative value of 9 I'm going well behind the Black Templar Assault Marine and the paranoid Dark Angel, and possibly one to two other Marines, as well. If each of them call a Bolter Assault, that leads to the Team getting 8-10 rounds of charge moves/Half Actions in one game Round (approx. 5 seconds) and this is quite literally widgy. To compensate I either have to free-form the volume of enemies (or specifically overload the numbers), but then there is the off-chance that I squeak out with the highest initiative and then the Team is boned. I have adopted the following convention: only one Squad Mode Ability may be called each round.

Can I get some feedback (not harping) on this adopted HR? And if we have been playing the Squad Mode Abilities incorrectly please point that out at the beginning of the responses and leave it at that, rather than going on and on with inane derisiveness?

Thank you.

How much Cohesion does the team have? Each ability costs cohesionwhile I'm new to the whole squad mode thing (Im playing the tactical leader for our group), I dont know what the limits are. If too many are trying to use these abilities they can run out quick. You can only regain it through a few methods. If the blow through most/all of it in the first fight...they will bone themselves later.

And only allowing one per turn sounds like a good idea anyway.

if your players use up that much cohesion in 1 fight, then they won't have much for the rest of the mission, unless they use fate points to regen cohesion,then they won't have many fate points....*evil laughter*

you do have a point though, a limit of 1 squad ability per round sounds quite reasonable

I think the game already kinda does this since a player can only benefit from one Squad action a round. So then couldn't take part incall for another bolter assault if they took part in the first one. Look up Squad actions on page 219.

So to recap if 3 of the kill-team use bolter assault they cannot join in on another till the start of their next turn, while the other 2 can ether do a bolter assaultuse another ability.

Indeed. Fabian is both wise and powerful. and apparently all others, including me, need to read our rulebooks better

It's definately in there somewhere that you can only get one squad mode bonus per round. I can't remember the exact wording off the top of my head, but you certainly can't just use 5 bolter assaults in a combat round.

PG 219 specifcially says that "If a battle brother takes a Squad Mode actionbenefits from one taken by another member of his Kill Team, he cannot benefittake another squad Mode action until at least the start of his next turn."

PG 220 side bar says, "Within a single kill team there might also be sevearl Squad Mode abilities being sustained at any one time,players may wish to jump from one to the next as the tactical situation dictates."

So looking at what the original question/statement was: Yes, multiple Squad Modes can be running, but each Team Member has to choose which he is going to be a part of on any given turn. Either way, it will burn through the teams' cohesion quick. Maybe for the final fight if they are going all it, then it might be worth it. But certainly a smart team will know how to budget their resources effectively for the duration of the mission.

Good discussion, especially since it gave alot of us some clarity on this topic.

Bare in mind Seianus that cohesion is spent only once for sustained abilities. If you have RoB it added a rule that non-sustained is only paid once for that combatsustained payed once per mission.

Anyone else noticing that o r is being filtered.

Yup. You can pay for 3 Sustained up-front and just switch, so long as you use one per turn.

But if you have a sustained ability on, say Lead by Example. If the squad is benefiting from Lead by Example could your squad utilize a bolter assault?

Yes. You pay for the non-sustained ability, and then people can elect to either use it, or to keep using Lead by Example. You couldn't participate in a Bolter Assault and gain the +Fel bonus and re-roll from Lead by Example in the same round.