At what point would KT members leave another marine?

If he is definitely dead, would they evac then return?

leave him for dead?

What if a brother is totally overwhelmed?

I can't imagine a scenario where KT members would just leave another squad member, instead they would all charge in, all or nothing.

Has this come up for anyone? Is there precedent? other than perhaps our own military forces.

Its situational.

Pretty pointless to send marines after a chaos cruiser which has fled into the eye of terror just to collect the body of a single Astartes killed boarding it in its last fight.

The above is just one of too many to list examples of differing situations. Each of the possible situations would be weighed individually before commiting forces to retreive a fallen Astartes.

Sometimes you can't. Sometimes it may be impractical. Its all up to the specific situational. Space Marines may be the best a human could ever achieve, capable of doing many fantastic things and beholden to a very important sense of honor and glory, but they aren't stupid or suicidal and won't throw away half of a battle company just to collect the fallen body of one marine.

Okidus said:

It depends. Space Wolves might have pack instincts. For other chapters, the bigger picture might be important. Apothecaries and members of the same chapter might be especially (as in: even more than the others) keen to retrieve the progenoids. In-game it would probably come down to the decision of the leader. For the players, I guess it might come down to a vote which the team leader then adopts in-game as his decision?

I am sure this has come up before. Certainly many Astartes have sacrificed themselves willingly to secure an escape route for the others. Certainly many commanders had to send some of their Astartes into certain death for a higher cause. Astartes are might to kill and ultimately fall in combat one die.

If he goes down for good and you can reach him, you retrieve the progenoids with a Full Action. You do that even if he's still alive but can't be saved in any other way (which must be an extreme condition due to resilient Astartes physis).

Under other circumstances the other kill-tram might fight to the last drop of blood. But will they risk failing their mission and bringing dishonour on them this way? Personal decision.

Alex

And what he said. As I seem to have focused on the "going back into hell to get the dead guy" angle, which isn't exactly what you were asking about. Though it still holds true.

Space Marines are duty bound not to throw their lives away. There certainly isn't a precident for 'No one left behind'. I'd imagine that Codex is pretty specific on the matter.

Within a Chapter however there are a number of factors;

1. Firstly is the value of those Progenoids, in fact there's numerous mentions of taking a fallen marines progenoids and leaving the marines body.
2. The Marines actual armour is of great value to the Chapter usually outliving several generations of Marine wearers.
3. Brotherhood, within a chapter the Battle Brothers develope a strong bond and even the most tacturn Codex following Space Marine might delve into danger to rescue his brother.

Within a Kill team, the first two points may not even be an issue if no one gives a crap about the Marines chapter, there Progenoid supplies and wargear plus as a Kill team they are expected do things that even Chapter based Marines would not, regularly going into missions with no back up and no hope of rescue where if some one falls they expect to be left behind.

Of course over the course of roleplaying marines may build up personal bonds that's all down the roleplaying...

...or a complicated willpower test to leave a marine behind (with bonuses for chapter relationship, the depth of the danger, deamonor etc).

Face Eater said:

I think it depends in a Kill Team- you're all part of the Deathwatch and while the Progenoids of another chapter doesn't mean much to your or your home chapter personally, it means a hell of a lot to the Deathwatch. If they fail to return progenoids to the donating chapter, they're going to eventually stop sending recruits. Which means if you support the DW, you know that recovering these would be a big deal if it's possible.

Charmander said:

Otoh if it's likely that you lose more progenoids and power armours to retrieve one marine...

Alex

In the Kill team my players operate in, the rule is that whoever has been chosen as the Leader of the team has the ultimate say in whether anyone goes back to rescue/retrieve a fallen comrade. He then has to weigh up the odds against them and the risks involved not only to the other members of the Kill team but also to the ultimate success of the mission.

This has cropped up in the past twice in my games so far - and it's 1-1. In the first instance the Leader opted to Go And Get Him and this was successfully done. In the second instance the Leader (different leader) determined that the risk was too great and so he was abandoned to whatever Fate had instore for him (although I have plans for a follow-up mission which may see an opportunity for his ultimate salvation . . . .)