I've tried to find an answer to this by searching the forum but I could not find a good answer to this, my google-fu is not so strong

It's not clear to me if the cost for taking an advanced speciality class count toward the rank advancment.

Also are they mandatory ? I mean, can one be promoted to Captain without taking the AS for it ?

Lucius Valerius said:

Yes. Everything counts unless explicitly exempted.

Lucius Valerius said:

You cannot. Consider it an investment in learning how to run things, adminstrative tasks, etc.

Alex

ak-73 said:

Which leads me to believe there are no Sergeants in the Deathwatch. There are, though, First Company Veterans (from their own chapters).

Now really, the advanced specialties system is a bit weird, and there are some specialties lacking while others are... uh... hard to profit from, to be polite...

A Veteran isn't the same as a sergeant, and vice-versa.

You can have tons of experience from all over the galaxy but still not have proven yourself responsible enough to be placed in a position of authority. You can also be deservedly promoted to a command rank with very little experience (comparative, no one gets promoted unless they have some experience).

The type of military organization we see a kill-team in the deathwatch game use doesn't lend itself to a formal military rank structure though. Essentially, kill-teams are represented as a group of peers working together with one person nominally in charge to prevent backlogs.

While I'm sure some sergeant ranks exist in some deathwatch units. Even then, the transitory nature of service in the deathwatch doesn't make such ranks that efficient. Many astartes in the deathwatch usually fight in one mission. Be it an assault onto an enemy fortress or part of a larger campaign. Those in command (watch captains in the usual case) are usually those who've sworn to serve the remainder of their life in the deathwatch. This makes it effective to assign them command ranks as the deathwatch knows its leadership and organization won't be thrown for a loop if the commander returns to his chapter. These commanders would likely assign or allow the smaller organizations or squads to pick their own leader.

Lucius Valerius said:

Think of the XP cost of the advanced specialty as payment for the starting skills, talents, and war gear you may receive for taking that specialty.

ItsUncertainWho said:

Oh I wasn't complaining about it, just wondering.

What concerns me tho, is Alex reply about been a mandatory to have the AS to be promoted to captain. That way you have no choice but to buy the book to play.

Lucius Valerius said:

There's nothing to stop you ruling that Character X is a Captain if you wish and granting elite advances for any of the skills. If you want to use the speciality of Deathwatch Captain as it in within RoB though you should ensure that you have a copy of the rules.

Remember, this is an optional advancement which isn't necessary to play the game but brings many additional options for players and GMs alike. Also, the purchase of this and the other books means a greater demand which results in FFG deciding to produce more goodies for us all.

zethliss said:

I do have the books (my bank accaunt isn't as happy as I am tho heh =D ), it's just the "you need this and that or you can't.." approach that bothers me. I love options, hell I'm all for options, but when something's mandatory I wonder how much is design and how much is trying to fix a mistake with the excuse of selling more books.

Don't get me wrong, FFG is a business and as such they objective is to sell as much as they can, I'm not naive heh

Lucius Valerius said:

All rules are optional. If the question is "If I was to go strictly by the rules does a PC need to take the AS to become captain?" the answer would have to be Yes. If you don't like the rule why even consider strictly adhering to it? It's one of the rules that are easy to toss out of the window.

Alex

If you want to have a sergeant, you can always award the player the iron skull honour, that officially gives him the rank of sergeant.