Rules, first part.
Character
To create a character, roll once on the Career table. Depending on the campaign, other methods of determining career may be used – e.g., for a Rogue Trader campaign, one player might be given a Rogue Trader without rolling, while the others randomly determine theirs, for a Space Marine campaign, all players might be given Space Marines without rolling at all, or you might come up with your own table to pre-select certain careers (an Imperial Guard campaign might have the Militant at 1-90, Commissar at 91-95, and Ratling, Ogryn, Beastman, Techpriest, and Sanctioned Psyker at 96, 97, 98, 99, and 100 respectively).
After determining the character’s career, record starting Fractional CAF, Morale Value, skills, talents, and wargear. The latter three might involve making one or more choices and/ or rolls on the career’s tables.
Talents might affect Fractional CAF, skills, and wargear. Adjust accordingly (e.g., the Skilled Fighter talent increases Fractional CAF by +0.1, while the Lavishly Equipped talent allows to choose additional wargear).
Add descriptions, including a character name, origin, alternative monikers for their skills or talents, details of their wargear, as fitting.
Advances
Over time and with experience, characters gain points and go up in rank.
Depending on the campaign, characters may also be created with a certain number of points from the beginning.
Points may be spent to buy rolls on the skill, talent, and wargear tables of the character’s career at the indicated cost and gain the rolled skill, talent, or wargear.
If a roll on the skill table indicates a skill that the character already possesses, the result may be re-rolled once. If the second result is also for a skill, that the character already possesses, no skill is gained.
Some talents may be gained multiple times, as noted for the character’s career, but for other talents, follow the same procedure as for skills.
A character may possess multiple copies of any wargear item, though on a mission only a limited selection may be carried and equipped at the same time.
Equipping Wargear
A character may only wear one suit of armour (Power Armour or Terminator Armour) and may carry only one protective Energy Field.
A character may only use one personal transportation (a Jumppack, a Bike, or a Mount).
A character has two arms/ hands to carry and use items. Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, and Shields each require one hand to use, as do Bikes for steering. Basic Weapons and Heavy Weapons require two hands to use.
Sharing Wargear
A character may give another character some of their wargear to use. This includes Rank 0 characters.
Abandoning Wargear
Wargear may be abandonded. If this is done, then the retinue statistics may have to be recalculated. It will depend on circumstances whether or not abandoned wargear can later be recovered.
Career Changes
Points may also be spent to try and change careers. After attaining a new rank but before spending any points for advances in that rank, 10 points may be spent for a career change attempt. Roll 1d6, if the result is equal to or higher than character’s Morale Value, select one of the permissible Career Exits from the character’s current career for which the character already possesses the listed starting skills. Then roll 1d6 again, if this second roll is below the target career’s Morale Value, the attempt was successful. Otherwise, the points spent on the attempt are lost. Multiple attempts may be made, as long as there are enough points and points are not spent on other advances.
When a career change is made, the character immediately gains the starting talents (if any) of the new career. If the new career has a higher Fractional CAF than the previous career, adjust Fractional CAF according to the new career. If the new career has a lower Morale Value than the old career, replace Morale Value with the value of the new career. Any further advances are now made based on the new career.
Retinue
Together, characters form the retinue.
Up to five characters are combined in one troop stand, whose unit statistics are derived based on the abilities of the individual characters.
Household Troops and Hangers-On
If there are less than five characters for a stand, the troop stand may be filled up to five by adding Rank 0 characters. These normally have a Fractional CAF of 0, Morale Value 4, and are armed with either one Basic Weapon or one Close Combat Weapons. They do not possess skills (other than an appropriate Language) or talents. Depending on the campaign, other abilities for the additional Rank 0 characters may be used instead, e.g., in a Space Marine campaign, these might be Rank 0 marines, sporting +0.2 Fractional CAF, Morale Value 2, and equipped with Power Armour and a Basic Weapon, but still without talents and no skills other than Language. The added Rank 0 characters do not gain points or advance.
The statistics of a retinue stand are determined as follows:
Move
The stand’s move is 10cm base. Some talents or wargear may increase or decrease move. If mixed movement rates are present in the retinue, the stand’s move is equal to the rate that at least half the members can match (e.g., for a stand with one slow character [move 5cm], one character riding a bike [move 30cm], two lither characters [move 15cm], and one character on foot without movement affecting talents or wargear [move 10cm], the stand’s move is 15cm, because three out of the five characters can match or exceed this rate). Terrain restricitions are determined based on the most restricted member.
Saving Throw
Per three counts of Saving Throws from any sources (e.g., Terminator Armour, or the Very Tough talent), the retinue as a whole first gains a fixed (i.e., non-modifyable) Saving Throw of 6+, then improves that Saving Throw by 1 (e.g., a retinue with two Terminator Armoured characters, but no other sources of Saving Throws has no Saving Throw, whereas a retinue with five Energy Fields and one Superior Terminator Armour [i.e., six counts of Saving Throw being gained] has a Saving Throw of 5+). The best possible save is a fixed 2+.
If a Psychic Save is gained, it also starts at 6+ but already for the first count of Psychic Save, and it also improves by 1 for every additional count. The best possible Psychic Save is 3+ (unless a character with the Null talent is part of the retinue in which case it is 2+).
Shields, but no other sources of Saving Throws, can give a retinue a special saving throw for use after losing close combat. This Saving Throw starts at 6+ for two shields in the retinue and improves by 1 for every additional two shields.
CAF
Add together all characters’ Fractional CAF scores to determine the retinue’s CAF. Round as appropriate.
Range
The retinue’s weapon range is determined based on range bands: 0cm, 15cm, 25cm, 35cm, 50cm, 75cm, 100cm.
It starts at 0cm and is increased from there by one band for every two members armed with one or more Pistols as their main ranged weapon up to a maximum of 25cm, by one band for every one member armed with a Basic Weapon as their main ranged weapon up to a maximum of 50cm, and by two bands for every member armed with a Heavy Weapon as their main ranged weapon up to a maximum of 75cm.
Weapon qualities can add or substract further range bands.
Attack Dice
The retinue has 1 attack dice per 4 ranged weapons, minimum 1 attack die.
Roll to Hit
The retinue’s Roll to Hit is – if it has one or fewer members armed with ranged weapons, 6+ if it has two or three members armed with ranged weapons, and 5+ if it has four or more members armed with ranged weapons.
Target’s Save Modifier
The retinue has a Target’s Save Modifier of 0, unless modified by some other effect, such as from Wargear.
Morale Value
The retinue’s Morale Value is the average of its members individual Morale Value’s. Round in the direction of the Morale Value of the designated leader if there is one, otherwise round down.
The retinue is a Command Unit (Command and HQ under NetEpic). If the retinue consists of multiple troop stands, they form one detachment and have to maintain cohesion.
Retinue stands may have additional special rules depending on the talents and wargear of their member characters. For some special rules, it is sufficient if one member of the retinue has the appropriate talent of piece of gear, for others, a number of characters (e.g., half or more of all members) must possess them. This is noted in the talent and wargear descriptions.
Warband
The retinue acts as Company Card. The standard of up to five Support Cards and one Special Card may be attached to the Retinue. This is the warband, troops personnally recruited or requisitioned and led by the characters.
Only cards from factions for which one or more characters have an Ambassador talent may be added to the warband, but from these factions, cards may be freely mixed and matched.
Troops which are normally subject to special command rules, such as the Imperial Guards Chain of Command, treat the retinue as their commanders.
The points budget for the warband is typically 50 points per Rank for each of the character plus an additional 50 points for every count of Ultimate Authority or Lavishly Equipped amongst the characters. Characters may choose to invest their own points into recruiting additional troops instead of advances on a 1:1 basis, representing them brokering influence and garnering political favours. The available points and troops may be further modified by circumstances and the events of play.
Army
The warband might operate in the same area, or even in conjunction with or part of a larger army which might or might not also be under the command of the characters.
If an army is present, it functions according to the normal rules.
Force
One step above the army, being the units in the field for a particular engagement, the force is the collection of available troops and assets from which armies are drawn and replenished. Depending on the campaign and characters’ roles and ranks (and Ranks), they may be directly involved with or responsible for the force’s management.