just playing with the idea here but thought about tactics and its lack of use a lot, especially in my group as we do our own tactics or not at all, it is seen by our GM and perhaps the rules as well as a aid for players who need a bit of help. I understand other players and groups might use it more than our group, but also believe that a lot of others do not use it much or at all.

I play an Ultramarine Tactical marine so I have a lot of options and fluff that suggest getting Tactics, but no use in game and while I probably won't get any use of this idea myself, I figured I'd put it out here and see if anyone else likes it.

The idea is that a tactical person, with appropriate knowledge, would know how his enemy would act and how he should react to this, so would get a initiative bonus.

If you're fighting some odd alien race no one heard of you probably wouldn't know how they fight and thus no bonuses, also if you fight orcs or eldar and don't have the lore for that, you might not get a bonus either. If you never fought Tyranids you wouldn't be prepared for the massive overwhelming horde and how they charge without care (as an example) and wouldn't get a bonus.

If you know these things however you would know where to strike, where they would come and so on.

In melee with an orc you would know he's gonna go all out attacking most likely, so you know you don't have to wait to see what he's gonna do, you can just attack him first.

So basically some kind of initiative bonus, possibly to hit bonuses and such as well, for a high tactics skill. Nothing game breaking, but perhaps a +1 initiative and/or a +5 to hit. Or, use degrees of success so that for every 2 DoS you get another +1? This would be too powerful though but perhaps the idea could be polished a bit and put into use, up to you guys

I'm generally disinclined to attach specific bonuses to things like Tactics, I'd rather have the Tactics skill be used to put the player characters in advantageous positions.

Deathwatch is quite a position-sensitive game - there's a massive difference between fighting an Ork Horde that's 500m away over open terrain, and fighting an Ork Horde that's 10m away in thick fog.

I think the best use of Tactics is to get the GM to give the players straight-up honest information about how their enemies will react to stuff.

I agree, Tactics is commonly used in our games as a "hint". They receive the intel about the enemy and if they're stumped they make a Tactics check to get a hint from the GM about what the most advantageous move would be, like Chastity said. Players also commonly come up with their own plan, then make a Tactics check to basically get an approving nod or disapproving cough from the GM to show if their idea is good or if it's flat-out stupid (obviously the GM tells them why but sometimes it really is just a simple facial reaction that helps players decide what to do).

well i was just thinking along the lines of a few other skills like intimidate with warcry and how you can use tactics recon or something to hide your squad. And another one to find weak spots or harder cover.

But, to be honest, I guess using it like I mentioned would require a roll each time you made an initiative and would just slow down the game.

How I use Tactics is that I will give certain information automatically for simply having the skill, as it represents knowledge above and beyond a normal understanding of that area of warfare. For more detailed or obscure information, I make the player roll with a suitable modifier.

I've used it as a source of hints and a way to represent how a master tactician can *quickly* evaluate a situation and realise an optimal course of action. If you know a good ambush spot, you don't need any additional mechanical bonuses from that tactics roll.

Tactics has many and varied uses, and totally doesn't need any mechanical bonuses on top of its existing uses. You don't constantly need such bonuses for Common/Scholastic/Forbidden Lore skills, and Tactics is essentially a subset knowledge skill but with direct, practical military application.

Tactics should be used to suggest to characters how best to approach certain missions. Tau entrenched in a fortified position? Well your Assault Marine with Assault will be able to suggest how best to smash through their defences. At the same time your Tactical marine with Stealth might suggest a way to bypass their defenses and sneak in. By allowing your players to invest in these skills it can help to complement their playstyle (brash assault marines, cunning techmarines, wise librarians) and allow you to drip-feed your players clues about how best to tackle certain challenges.