Chain of Command 40k House Rules

Warhammer 40k combat rules mixed with Chain of Command command mechanism
- Meant for c.500 point forces as per Combat Patrol.
- All forces use 6 command dice for now and have Regular force morale.
- CoC rules are used for the patrol phase, jump-off points, the command mechanism including
COC dice results etc.
- 40k rules are used for movement, firing and morale, assault etc when activated, units carry
out each phase on their own when activated.
- Assaults are fought after the orders phase.
- A single 6 on the Chain of Command dice can be converted to a 5, it is no longer a wasted die.
This is only possible when there is only one 6 rolled you cannot choose to not end a turn f.ex.
- Units do not rally automatically as normal. Instead, units falling back are removed when a turn
changes as per CoC. Gone to Ground units rally at the end of your phase.
- In addition to normal 40k hit allocation, 4th edition Torrent of Fire applies: for every multiple
of hits equal to the number of men in the target unit, one can be allocated to a chosen model.
However, the hit must be of the majority weapon type of the shooting unit. This enables hits on
leaders.

Leaders can perform the following Command Initiative actions in 40k CoC:

- Activate one Team or Squad. If they are firing he may add his own fire himself at no cost in
Command Initiative.
- Activate a single Team and place it on Overwatch. Note that units may not go to ground against
overwatch fire.
- Rally one Falling Back Team.
- Activate one Team or Squad to put down Covering Fire into an enemy non-vehicle unit. This
works as follows in 40k:
o Covering Fire requires at least as many shots as there are wounds in the target units
profile.
o The Covering unit fires at the target with Snap Shots with the Pinning Special Rule.
o If the Target unit does not Go to Ground, it will still be Suppressed and receives a -1
penalty to shooting, which is rallied just like Gone to Ground.

COMMANDS WHICH ARE NOT ACTIVATIONS

- Rally one Team from Gone to Ground or Suppressed.
- Get a Unit which is not Gone to Ground or on Overwatch to throw a single grenade or fire a
single special or heavy weapon at any target in range. Note that a special or heavy weapon
model may only fire once per round, and that firing a Heavy or Rapid Fire weapon still prevents
assaulting as normal.
- Once per Phase he may use one Command Initiative to move on his own if he has not already
moved with a Unit. This also precludes movement with the unit in the same phase. When doing
this he may also use Psychic Powers if he is a psyker.


Platoon Organisation in CoC 40k:

You must have 2+ Troop choices and a minimum of 2 non-HQ unit selections.
You may only have 0-1 HQ selection, even if allowed more than one such selection per HQ.
You may only have 0-1 each of Elite, Fast Assault and Heavy Support units.
You may only have 0-1 non-HQ unit with more than 2 wounds / hull points. Max. 4 wounds.
No unit may exceed 225 pts in cost.
All units will be wounded or glanced on a roll of 6 to wound / AP. In the case of vehicles, they
will have an invulnerable saving throw of 4+ against weapons that couldnt normally do that.
Vehicle squadrons may only take their minimum number of models.
No Fliers or Flying Monstrous Creatures.
No dedicated transports.
No armor 14 vehicles (would break immersion with the glancing rule too badly and are ill
fitting to the theme).

- Each platoon must include 2-3 Squads the same of at least twice the minimum size. Any
allowed ranged Special or Heavy weapon options must be taken, though a unit need not swap
weapons as a whole (eg. a Tyranid Warrior Brood must contain at least 6 Warriors, and must
take a Barbed Strangler or Venom cannon, but does not need to take any entire brood
exchanges). Exception: A unit without any non-pistol ranged weapons need not take a ranged
weapon option, but must instead take any presented close combat weapon options.
- Each Squad has a Junior Leader even if no Sergeant or similar is presented, but if there is then
he is the Junior Leader.
- The Squads must be split into two Teams which must be of at least minimum size. Any Special
or Heavy weapons should be divided evenly, with the odd weapon going to the smaller team.
- Each platoon also requires at least 2 other Teams. These can only up to 5 models strong each.
- Each platoon requires at least one Commander and can include a Hero as Senior Leaders.
- A Commander is a model with the Veteran Sergeant statline take a normal trooper from
your platoons Squads, add +1A and +1LD. He costs the same as the baseline model and has the
same options as a Veteran Sergeant or similar in that squad. He does not cost a HQ slot and is
an independent character.
o Eldar may take any Exarch or Warlock as their Commander.
o In Imperial Guard platoons he is the lieutenant in the platoon command team (and
does not cost anything extra as he is the archetype), but still gains Independent
Character.
o Necrons may take any Lord or Cryptek as their commander.
o Orks obviously can take a Nob to lead them. This nob has LD8.
-
- A Hero is a HQ choice. He may be chosen from the following list:
o Chaos Daemons: Herald
o CSM: Sorcerer, Dark Apostle, Warpsmith
o Dark Eldar: Haemonculus
o Eldar: Autarch, Spiritseer
o Grey Knights: Librarian, Inquisitor, Brotherhood Champion
o Imperial Guard: Primaris Psyker
o Orks: Big Mek, Weirdboy
o Space Marines: Librarian, Chaplain, Master of the Forge (or chapter equivalent)
o Space Wolves: WG Battle Leader, Rune Priest, Wolf Priest
o Tau: Ethereal, XV8 Crisis Bodyguard (1), Cadre Fireblade
o Tyranids: Tyranid Prime

- In addition, you may make your own Hero by the following formula: Take any available
Commander as your baseline, and add: +1 to WS, BS, W, I, A, LD. Orks dont receive the +1 to
LD as their commander already has it. The cost for this model is 4 times the basic cost of a
member of your squads, to which 10 is added. For example, a Space Marine Hero would cost
14x4+10=66 points. He has the same options as a lord level fighting character eg. a captain or
similar.
Sweeping Advance
This is OPTIONAL - you may simply allow the other unit to escape if you want (though units with the Rage
USR must first pass a Ld test). If you do this you may reroll your Consolidation distance.

This is specifically to stop people from being punished for "successful" sweeping advances when playing
against Space Marines. The Consolidation reroll is there so that the rule actually does something against
non-Space Marine armies as well - a "forget them, just go for the objective" option.

Tactical Withdrawal
Any unit can choose to fail a morale test in close combat.
Models with Fearless and / or Grim Resolve (i.e. Dark Angels) may still do this. Instead of being completely
unable to withdraw, they must reroll their sweeping advance test if they successfully 'escape' having
chosen to fall back, representing their reluctance to give ground if they still feel a fight is winnable. (they
don't have to reroll if they cannot use And They Shall Know No Fear for any reason). Fearless troops that
are fall back are otherwise treated as having And they shall know no fear.

Similarly, this is to stop people from being punished for bravery, and be left having to cross their fingers
that their troops decide to be cowards so that they can fire at an attacker. It also gets rid of the
demotivation to kill off the enemy on your own turn.
Ignoring challengers:
Issuing and then accepting or declining (hiding from) the challenge works as normal, however there is a
third challenge response: ignore. This means that the challenger may place the challenging model in base
contact with any one enemy character model in the assault as if the challenge took place. He gains
Preferred Enemy against that chosen enemy character model, and if he already has it, re-rolls 1s and 2s.
Otherwise, the combat is fought as normal.
This stops gamey challenges with sergeants as well as monstrous characters from being the norm.