OOC-Questions

I vote not me. Doesn't fit my guy. A Stalker Boltgun does... need to get one ASAP.

I'd like to. My character has Command and a good Fellowship score and I feel he's well-suited to it.

i probably wont give my vote till i read the mission statement (next on my todo list). Probably not me since i dont have the command skill trained (kinda needed to maintain cohesion) and i only have average fellowship. Probably give Brother-Sergeant Androcles (ChronicLunacy) the vote in the end, but i'll have to go through the mission briefing first.

i do have a question, which is related to the topic in hand, about oath-taking and squad mode abilities. First i want to raise the following points (from the core rulebook and errata).

1) When you take an oath the squad benefits from the bonus of the particular oath, the selection of codex squad mode abilities for that oath and also the leader's chapter squad mode abilities (this is all in the second paragraph under oath-taking section on page 228).

So if we have a blood angel for the leader, the whole chapter has access to the leader's blood angel chapter patterns including the set of sqaud mode patterns that are allowed from the oath that was taken.

2) If a tactical marine took the tactile expertise special ability instead of bolter mastery (both our tac marines took bolter mastery, from the applications), they can confer the benefits of their chapter abilities to their squad mates who are not in the same chapter, if they pass a successful hard (-20) command test.(pg 85)

3)under the errata it says
Using Chapter Specific Abilities (page 219): Add the
following sentence to this section: “Battle-Brothers may activate the
Chapter abilities of their own Chapter even if the squad leader is not of the
same Chapter, but these abilities will still only affect the Battle-Brother and
any members of his Kill-Team that belong to the same Chapter.”

so any member of the squad in squad mode can activate their chapter based squad ability (even when they are not the leader), and only they and their squad mates of the same chapter can benefit from their effects (if they are the only one in the chapter, provided they are in squad mode, they can at least get the bonus for themselves by sacrificing the squad's cohesion).

4) Ultramarine Defensive pattern: rally cry is a free action that costs 0 points and is not sustained. once per game session, he may restore the party's cohesion up to his fellowship bonus. (pg 225)

ok i posted the above facts to ask a question on the following scenario.
lets say ChronicLunacy's ultramarine tac marine (Brother-Sergeant Androcles) is not the leader of our chummy group . doesn't make sense since he has the command skill trained and has a decent fellowship, but for the scenario's sake he isn't chosen as the leader for whatever reason.

Will he be able to pull off the ultramarine rally cry, because he can at least benefit from his chapter squad abilities in squad mode and the only effect is restoring cohesion (nothing fancy like giving people bonuses or extra attacks), or is he not allowed to use it since he doesn't have the tacticle expertise special ability, and he is not the leader, and there isn't any other Ultramarine in the group?

That's a question for the GM, I think, but I would rule that he can't use the ultramarine squad ability to restore Cohesion unless he is the leader. Otherwise the efficiency of a team comprised entirely of ultramarines has no competition.

Camael has a high fellowship, so he'd make a decent leader, but if somebody has Command trained then it should default to them.

He's also perhaps too direct in his methods for a mission like this.

Tac marines get the command skill trained as a starting skill

I'd say no, you'd need the tactical expertise specialty ability in order to do that. Given that a non-leader can invoke his chapter's special abilities but only affect members of the same chapter, it would imply that using Rallying Cry would restore cohesion only for other Ultramarines, which isn't possible since there's only one cohesion pool to draw from.

Yeah, though I interpret "access" to mean that the whole Kill-team can benefit from the leader's chapter patterns, not that they can initiate them on their own like they can the standard Codex patterns.

i can live with that. i mainly wanted to know, what would happen in that scenario, although skill wise (and since he volenteered himself) ChronicLunacy's character probably would be an ideal team leader.

Consensus appears to be leaning towards ChronicLunacy/Androcles. If anyone has any objections, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Might be spotty over the weekend. I got pulled for work ALL WEEKEND, plus Thanksgiving, so... yeah. Guessing things may be a bit slow on my end.

i have no objections with Androcles being our leader, especailly since he we would be able to benifit from his rally call sqaud ability.

Im assuming the whole mission briefing, including our talks with Lans is in a Watch Fortress. Is it Fortress Erioch? Our current location was never really mentioned, or at least i didnt notice it.