Editing Dark Heresy Second Edition (section)

===How To Survive A Firefight===
Dark Heresy has something of a reputation for being highly lethal - your average starting character has somewhere between 9 and 14 wounds at most, and most rifle-class weapons do 1d10+3 damage on a hit - but assuming your GM isn't a complete dick and your characters fight intelligently, you can generally come off very well against most varieties of human opponent, and careful planning and equipment selection can even the odds even when fighting against xenos or demons.

Crucially, nobody takes as much damage as you might assume at first glance. Although the listed damage of weapons seems high compared to a character's total wounds, your toughness bonus and armour points both considerably reduce incoming damage. A starting Warrior ignores between 6-8 points of damage from every attack, and that's assuming he's standing in the open like a gormless idiot. On top of this, one of the most commonly forgotten aspects of the Dark Heresy combat system is that everyone gets one Reaction per round, which can (among other things) be spent at any time to attempt to dodge or parry an attack, completely negating it. Although the odds of success aren't always fantastic, it's better to try and dodge that shot or parry that axe than sit there and take it!

Equipment selection is also very important. Although badass characters can indeed be very dangerous even with poor gear, even a low-rank inexperienced character can dramatically improve their combat effectiveness by making prudent choices when it comes to their loadout. If an acolyte cell plans together and chooses their equipment to complement each other, they can make themselves very deadly as a team. For a start, a set of Flak Armour is inexpensive, commonly available, comfortably wearable by all but the most unusually weedy characters, and dramatically improves your resilience to incoming fire. Any cell of acolytes that expects serious combat should be able to at least equip all its members with a set of Guard Flak, if it can't afford anything better.

When it comes to weapons, anyone can and should carry a few grenades if at all possible. Even for a character with low ballistic skill, all you need to do is land them reasonably close to whoever you're trying to hit. Depending on the precise situation, you might even be able to get away with dropping them on unsuspecting opponents from above or letting them roll down slopes to your foes, and they have the potential to injure multiple enemies at a time. Used properly, then can help turn the tide in a battle where you find yourself outnumbered.

The cell's primary firearms should be chosen to work well together. Weapons that can fire fully-automatic and weapons that have the Accurate quality are generally your best choices. A good hit with a full-auto burst can do serious damage to enemies, but by far their most important aspect is the ability to lay down Suppressive Fire. Crucially, even if you have terrible ballistic skill and no training with the weapon you're using, your ability to suppress enemies is completely unhindered. Your burst of fire almost certainly won't hit anything, but the difficulty of the test your foes must make to resist being pinned is unchanged regardless of how well you can aim. This can give less combat-oriented careers, such as the Sage, an important role to play when it comes to a fight, where they might otherwise have been reduced to hiding behind something heavy and occasionally plinking away with some crappy pistol.

High BS characters can be quite dangerous with fully automatic weapons, but should give serious consideration to using Accurate single-shot weapons, especially if they've picked up the Talents for making Called Shots at reduced penalty. Not only does an Accurate weapon grant an additional bonus to your chances to hit if you take the time to aim it, it can do extra dice of damage on a good shot - unlike a full-auto attack, this is a single hit that does more damage rather than multiple hits that are each individually subject to reduction by the target's toughness and armour. This makes Accurate weapons great at punching through the damage reduction of particularly tough enemies, particularly if combined with the Called Shot to aim for a part of the target that is less well armoured or isn't in cover properly. With appropriate weapon modifications and a Half Action to aim, the acolyte is looking at at least a +30 bonus to hit. Most firefights will take place well within an Accurate weapon's effective short range, raising that bonus to +40. Get to higher ground (grapnel and line can help you go up on structures Batman-style), and you're looking at +50.

Combine these two classes of weapon within your group, and you'll have some acolytes that lay down suppressive fire and force enemies into cover and some who can take accurate potshots at the suppressed enemies to take them down with little fear of receiving effective return fire. Any foe who manages to find cover sufficient to shield him from all shots can probably be reached with a well-placed grenade.

Another good investment is Flame weapons: although they are generally pretty obvious and won't help your Subtlety score, anything will die when on fire. Your average flame weapon can hit multiple enemies automatically and deal enough armour-ignoring (if only someone could invent ceramite armor.....) damage to instantly kill even some Elite enemies (and certainly most mooks!). Another often-forgotten aspect of Flame weapons is the fact that when set on fire, enemies must take WP tests to act (even before getting a chance to turn the flames off). As most enemies (and even daemons!) have a pretty weak base WP score, they will be locked there taking damage more than 50% of the time! Flamers are often almost impossible to dodge (the reaction, not the AG roll that replaces a Flamer's to-hit roll) if in the right conditions, as the target must have enough AG bonus to move out of the entire flamed area in a single move action: short of Eldar or Slaaneshi daemons, everything under Master status will take damage and probably spend several turns standing there getting burned and shot by your team.
There's a reason why the Ordo Hereticus favours a fiery death for Heretics...

A good rule of thumb for any firefight is that if you're not in cover, all you should be doing is trying to change this state of affairs. Even if you're a tough guy in decent armour, the small amounts of damage that come through will add up if you're under fire by a lot of enemies. Take cover as quickly as you can whenever you can, and you drastically increase your odds of survival. Just as importantly, you must not be afraid of running away! The feeling that the group has to defeat every encounter that comes their way leads to many deaths. Sometimes, retreating in order to fight again some other day, hopefully better prepared, is the best option. If the fight isn't going your way - you're getting surrounded, taking too many injuries, or running out of munitions - make a break for it.

A cell of acolytes is at its most dangerous if it can prepare the area of the fight beforehand. Your role doesn't always have to be offensive, kicking in the cultists' door and firing wildly, hoping for the best; if you can figure out some way to lure your enemies to a carefully prepared killing zone (for example, your cell might pose as black market merchants with whom your enemies try to trade for supplies in order to bring them out of hiding), you hold a significant advantage. Heavy cover can be prepared in advance, with machine-gunners ready in hiding to cut down unsuspecting foes; scenery where enemies are likely to try and take cover once the fight begins can be rigged with booby traps or remote-detonator explosives. You can also position your group to surround the enemy and possibly attack from above, making it very difficult for them to find effective cover in the first place. Note that this kind of thing is easier to achieve with proper information-gathering and a high Subtlety rating, so make an effort! Unless your GM is a complete dick, it'll always pay off.

For psykers, you have ridiculously high chances of your brain exploding. Only cast if you need to, and think carefully what sort of mind bullets you'll throw. Remember that the Inquisition kills every civilian who witnesses psychic phenomena! Don't waste the lives of the Emperor's faithful - they belong to the Emperor, so that's HERESY.

In conclusion, equipment and cohesive tactics are what make or break an acolyte cell in a serious firefight. Although having experience, high skills and plenty of talents helps, a lack of these is more than made up for by pimped out gear and a good plan. If you have both, your cell can become a force to fear even for very well trained and equipped enemies.