#wargear

There are two main problems with Space Marine equipment, that pervades ALL of 40k:

GW makes models first, rules second, and lore maybe.

GW loves to make things super, ultra, mega rare. Which explains why IG only get one Power Sword per platoon, but doesn't explain why your genetically engineered, powered armoured super soldiers can't have them.

They literally never once bothered to explain how the archeorevolvers work.

Firearms

40k is one of the hardest sci-fi franchises, not despite space magic, but because of it. This is because 40k admits that FTL travel is impossible following the laws of physics. So, Warpships / Warp Voidships literally travel through hell. This is... undesireable. Because of this most space travel in 40k, (anything not involving the main armies), travels in realspace. Every ship is a generation ship. Even food transports. Which is one of the reason food sucks to much in 40k.

For firearms, they decided to go real but boring. Almost all of the Firearms used by Astartes are very realistic.

Boltgun

The boltgun is the most realistic firearm in all of science fiction, as we could literally built this if we wanted to. It might actually outperform the 20-30mm range of autocannons.

The boltgun has two main components:

Gyrojet: The case is attached to the bullet as a single unit. There are holes inside the base of the case, projected in a spiral, that let the explosion out, causing it to move like a tiny rocket, and spin. This allows you to almost eliminate the barrel, which is the heaviest part of the firearm, by a long shot for cannons.

High Explosive Dual Purpose: Other armies call it different things, but you have an explosive shell, hardened tip, and delayed trigger. This allows the shell to partially penetrate the object, dramatically increase the force of the blast applied to the object.

The main reason gyrojets did not take off is that the rounds take a lot of hand machining. With an army of serfs you can solve this problem pretty easily. With modern minifacturing, we could probably solve it even faster.

They also work like Assault Rifles, which are the most balanced firearm.

Melta

The second most realistic firearm in science fiction. Melta uses magnetic fields to basically contain an explosive charge, (or heated air), into what is effective a HEAT shell.

The problem is that they always try to turn it into a shotgun. A spread shot would completely undo the entire point of the melta. And the downside of the melta is range and firerate, allowing you to get swarmed if you have too many Space Marines carrying it.

9th does not have a default Shoot type for firearms, they are either Pistol, Grenade, Rapid Fire, Assault, or Heavy, and so GW decided they were Assault. Because GW forced a choice to be made.

Plasmagun

Plasma is the fourth state of matter, (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma). Molecules ionize, (ionic bonds separate). We can create plasma, with a big enough of a power source. We use magnetic fields to contain it, and a tiny problem with containment would cause problems.

Imperial Plasma weapons have a 1/6 chance to overload when you try a charged shot. This is hilariously grim for the Imperial Guard, but why the ever loving fuck do Space Marines not have better wargear?

Oh, and Dark Angels use a lot of plasma weapons, which is not supported in the OTT rules. They honestly have no benefit for using Plasma weapons, and do not gain any more than other groups, other than one underpointed bike unit.

For Space Marines, the Overcharge increases the Strength by 1 point, and the damage by 1 wounds. For an Imperial Guard fighting (traitor) Marines, this would make sense, but not for Space Marines themselves.

10 Space Marines are enough to stop most planetary invasions, and they have a 1/6 chance of dying when you use this one weapon.

Flamethrower

The main reason we don't use Flamethrowers:

They were considered inhumane BY THEIR USERS.

There was illegal killing of captured flamethrower soldiers on both sides of WWII, and the Western Powers decided to agree to not use it to avoid escalating warcrimes.

Not only does the Imperium not care about your feelings, but there are plenty of hostile Xenos that really need a flamethrower. It's a literal necessity when fighting Orks, (at least after the fact), because Orks release spores upon their death, which will go on Orkiform a world. Tyranids are also known for their infestations.

Dark Eldar don't agree with the idea of War Crimes, and will literally torture to (and after) death to keep themselves alive.

Craftworld Eldar have never even bothered to explain that there is a difference between them and the Dark Eldar.

Tau evolved in the wrong galaxy.

Chaos will corrupt your flesh and eat your soul.

The Imperium's flamethrowers are designed to be contained units. This would dramatically lower their utility, but dramatically improve their usability.

And when you have a genetically engineered super soldier in power armour you can have the best of both worlds.

Grav

Grav weapons are lost technology from the lost Dark Age of Technology/Golden Age of Mankind.

As I mentioned earlier, GW absolutely LOVES technology far too rare to be used. So, Grav weapons are rare, right?

Nope. They have the exact same swap out rules as every other firearm. This is because they have one Imperial Firearms List, and everything with the same name has to have the same usability and rarity.

Grav used to reduce a unit's initiative, but GW eliminated initiative with 9th, and never really came up with a replacement. It is also consistently more effective than the equivalent Plasma weapon, and makes you wonder why anyone would risk their precious Space Marine with a plasmagun.

I made it rarer and had it invert Armour Saves.

Shotgun

We use shotguns right now. We can make bigger shotguns right now. The biggest reason we don't is that ordinary men are not strong enough.

GW decided that Sisters of Battle in powered armour, and Space Marine scouts, use boltguns that deal the same damage as Space Marines in Powered Armour. Because they literally never thought it through. GW lost all of the people that cared about 40K, and replaced them with people that actively hate the setting.

Because of this, Shotguns have the exact same stats as Angelus Boltguns. Which are used by the greatest warriors of one of the three most storied chapters. GW then decided that Astartes Scouts and Deathwatch Veteran Bikers can use shotguns, and no one else.

Deathwatch often doesn't invent their own weapons, and simply borrows them from chapters, so it would make sense for at least one chapter to use. I decided to keep it as a rare weapon for certain special chapters. Malum Caedo implies they are reasonably common among other chapters, (because ULTRAMARINE), but the rules have never - once - shown this.

An Astartes out of powered armour could probably use an 8-gauge, which is 21.2mm. In powered armour, they could probably use a 4-gauge, which is 26.7mm. A lot of common grenades are 20mm, and the reason militaries still use pump-action shotguns is so that it does not automatically chambre a round, either to let you use alternate ammunition, or to keep the weapon safe. So, Shotgun Marines would automatically be bombers, and grenades are an important part of the OTT.

Stalker-Pattern Boltgun

A Space Marine marksman rifle. Which GW keeps forgetting about, and in 9th, the only Astartes that can use them are Deathwatch Veteran Bikers.

*head desk*

The only reason I know about them is Captain Titus. They also had the exact stats I wanted for the Green Word.

Stormbolter

The Imperium's main philosophy is that if something works, do it twice. The OTT just doubled the number of wounds, but that raises the question that if every Marine could double their firepower, why didn't every single one replace their mundane boltgun with it? Other than listening to Guilliman, which a number of chapters are not exactly fans of.

My conclusion that using it to it's full potential takes a lot of skill, so it's for veterans and Sergeants, (which almost have the same stats).

Grenade Launcher

GW has a bad problem of One Steve Limit. Space Marines have Tactics, and so no one else is allows to call their things Tactics. Sororitas have to call them "Minoris Convictions."

So, GW decided that grenade launchers are a good idea for Bike Scouts, and so NO ONE ELSE IS ALLOWED TO USE THEM. They use the location and vector information about the bike to adjust the auspexes. Great idea, but why would not Space Marine carry a grenade launcher? I mean, they already use a fully automatic grenade launcher in the Boltgun. Naturally, when rewriting the Codex, I forget to let people actually use it.

Volkite

Lost technology that is basically martian death rays. Which are cool in concept. They were too hard to make en masse, and so later Astartes started using Boltguns.

30K created rules for it, but they were boring. I've never been so excited for something new, and so bored by the rules for it.

When the Lion came back, I hated the Dark Angels, (I was young and naïve), but the Lion on the desktop is incredibly interesting.

Volkite was breath of fresh air into the franchise, until I saw the rules for them. And even from a technical level, they are not point efficient.

Rocket Launcher

One of the most mundane and interesting weapons. It turns out in the far future, 30,000 years from now, we'll still be using gasoline and rocket launchers, because they are just that effective.

Statistically, they are just Heavy grenade launchers with longer range, but the OTT makes Grenades to be incredibly useful.

Lascannon

The fact that Space Marines cannot use Lasguns of any type is annoying, but they do have bolter and meltas to make up for it. The Lascannon, when twinned, is the primary weapon of the main battle tanks used by the Imperial Guard. Astartes can use them as sniper/anti-material weapons.

Points wise, they are less effective than Rocket Launchers, but the extra range allows unique stratagems.

Or, do what I do, and have small scout squads that can use them to attack from vantage points.

Melta Bomb

I once again drew my Necron Overlord, this time with more my style, and a base after the Blazbaros picture. Gilatek the Warper with his wargear.

On his left hand is the Gauss Gauntlet, a Necron Gauss weapon that allows him to project flaying blasts to rip his foes apart atom.

On the right hand is my favorite, the Phase Gauntlet. A teleportation weapon designed to allow Gilatek to teleport anything up to his mass, tight cone of vision means he can only use it on what he is directly staring at but it works wonders. Teleportation includes him, or his foes lungs if he so desires.

Type 23 Assault Wargear: “AJAX”

Physique

Standing above average, Kallig’s overall form is unremarkable outside of his preserved youth keeping him in his physical prime. He mainly dons a blend of alloy plate armour and crimson robes as a signifier of his position, with a full mask covering his face. The mask itself appears metallic with blackened pits for the eye slots. 

Underneath the mask lies a heavily scared face, which have unnaturally healed leaving calloused tissue around it. Resting within this battlefield of blemishes are a pair of fiery eyes. Atop this visage rests a mop of oak brown hair, contrasted by his pale skin.

Personality

Kallig was never born into wealth, or had anyone raise him up above anyone, all he has achieve has been because he had fought for it. This has cultivated a very individualistic character, encouraging all to reach their individual and collective potential. This personal drive has also encouraged him to explore the scientific and magical fields of study and how they can blend together

Unfortunately over the years, the intricacies of standard human interaction have been partially lost on Kallig, which comes forth as being direct and blunt, causing some offence in the past. Despite this, he is still a brilliant statesman, mostly because he works to decentralize power decreasing his work load, and military leader. In line with the loss of talent with human interaction, Kallig has also become disconnected with some emotional strains. 

Wargear

The Blade of Enlightenment

This sword superficially resembles those of traditional arming swords, with the notable departures from traditional designs being the bladed cross guard, which seems to cause no harm to the wielder, and a minor curvature towards the pommel. The sword itself doesn't appear to be either a daemonic weapon or a power weapon, making its ability to cut through power armour baffling to observers.

The third installment! Covering the ornate and little-understood details of Jaghatai’s personal power-armor, now enhanced and bastardized by 10,000 years of scavenging.

Built for quick reaction, speed, power, and - since his exile - survival and stealth as well! It is a dark relic, as scarred and deranged as the one who wears it. As always, prepare for reading.