In the main rulebook, on page 228, the rules state that the squad leader may use his fellowship or command skill to rally his squad and repair Cohesion damage. It refers to page 96 for details on the uses of the command skill but I can find nowhere how the rally action works.

Now my own ruling is that a command skill roll is made and if succesful 1 point of cohesion is repaired, for each two degrees of success a further point of cohesion is repaired to a maximum of the leaders fellowship bonus and the original cohesion score.

So, if Ranulf has a fellowship bonus of 4, he can repair up to 4 points of cohesion but he must roll 7 degrees of success on his command skill and the teams cohesion must be 4+ points down. Whilst I realize that the RAW state that cohesion may be increased above the starting total, the rally use of the Command skill states that it is repairing cohesion damage and this suggests to me that it would only work on bringing the total back up.

Does anyone have any thoughts with regards to this?

E

It's a typo, I think. Cohesion damage is only 'repaired' by completing objectives or spending fate points. The Command skill's main use is instead *preventing* cohesion damage.

Giving players the ability to just pick up the dice and regenerate cohesion is probably going to throw things out of line, as it will give them more cohesion that they're 'supposed' to have. It also makes the squad leader's starting Cohesion, the back banner, and deeds/distinctions and other things that aid it a waste of XP. That's because you could start on a low Cohesion amount and then simply 'repair' it after every fight, and never run out. I know that if given such a rule, I'd not really bother investing much in anything that increased Cohesion any more.

Also bear in mind the Ultramarine defensive pattern. Giving the squad leader a 'rally' for free is kind of rendering it a bit moot.

Cohesion is a game-changing and precious resource. Allowing it to be topped up freely may drastically alter game balance, as it increases the number of times things like Furious Assault can be used drastically, and Furious Assault -at higher levels- pretty much gives the players an extra turn, whenever triggered.

Siranui said:

I am not sure how the team could have more Cohesion than they're 'supposed to have', the RAI mean that Cohesion can exceed the starting amount so technically there is no maximum, although I would as previously stated only allow the Rally to repair cohesion used and only cohesion gained through achieved objectives fate points and the Ultrasmurf squad ability can increase the total above the starting amount.

Having a higher starting cohesion would, using my rules, give the team an increased maximum that can be repaired to. I would not allow cohesion to be repaired above the starting amount.

Siranui said:

Given that there are other ways for them to lose Cohesion than just using abilities, things like fear, I don't believe that allowing them to repair or increase their Cohesion would be a problem, and as stated, the RAI specifically say that Cohesion points recovered during the game can exceed the starting amount so given that I think we can safely say that there is no limitation.

Thanks for your thoughts though

E

eldath said:

A team is 'supposed' to have their starting Cohesion, plus a finite number of additional cohesion picked up from completing objectives, the one-shot use of Rally by the Ultramarines, and any extra paid for with Fate. Which makes it a finite and all-too-small number.

Lets see: Start at 7... complete four objectives... that's a total of about 12 Cohesion to spend throughout the mission, which is enough for a Sustained ability, a couple of uses of a non-sustained ability in crucial combats when it all starts to go wrong, and a little padding left in order to soak cohesion damage.

If we start them instead with their -say- 7 cohesion and allow them to rally using a command check to get 4 points back every combat and throw them at ten combats while completing those four objectives, then they've essentially got as much as 7+4+(4x10)= 51 Cohesion. to play with. That is going to very seriously effect the way that combats go, with the party using Cohesion in every minor combat, because there's no down-side to doing so. It turns a precious resource into something routine. It also completely belittles things like having an additional point or two from special abilities, which is a bit of a shame.

I'm not saying that it's not going to work, but it will drastically affect play and play-style, and will discourage them from taking things like back banners and the 'great legacy' or whatever its called distinction from RoB.

I would think the OP's skill use should be used when the squad actually takes cohesion damage.

If for instance they are assaulted by a deamon prince (its aura) or gets hit by a devestating weapon. The leader may attempt to use the skill to refocus the squad. Essentially 'saving' some of the squad's cohesion from being lost.

So a squad is hit with a devestating 3 weapon. They should lose 3 cohesion but the leader uses this skill and (however it actually works) repairs 2 points of damage, for a net loss of only 1 cohesion.

Obviously you can't repair damage that doesn't exist, so you couldn't use this skill to just bump up your team's cohesion past its normal amount. Nor can you use it to replace cohesion you've used for abilities. Just to repair any cohesion damage your pool has taken. I'd say it only works when you actually take the damage. So your leader has to use this ability immediately or the chance is lost. Like an army sergeant yelling at his men to keep position and focused while an enemy machine gun peppers their position. It doesn't help much if the sgt. waits until 2 of his guys run for it, or after the machine gun nest is taken out (when it doesn't matter anymore). If you don't use it immediately the damage is done (mental/cohesion etc.) and your team has been affected.

I don't know if the leader should get to use this if he failed a fear check though... That type of cohesion loss seems more akin to the leader failing to keep the squad together in a tough situation versus the squad suffering from an assault of some type.

Lets see this errata'd.

As far as I'm concerned, the 'rally' use of Command is the 'save versus Cohesion loss', which is simply a Command check whenever a PC takes 10+ wounds (or whatever it is) from anything with Devestating or Accurate or whatever traits. And the other time it comes up is when the leader makes a WP check to 'save versus Cohesion loss' in the face of stuff that causes Fear. In any case, not more than 1 point may be lost in any round.