So, there still seems to be flak vests and IG flak armor. Now I'm aware that IG flak armour comes in as many types as there are regimental homeworlds really but still I was expecting some of them to be statistically different.

The standard Cadian flak seems to have a noticably heavier chest armour that other regiments. I was expecting the Cadian pattern armour to have a higher armour on the chest or even be a good quality. sam with Elysians

Vostroyans only seem to get the carapace breastplate, I assume the rest of their uniforms were flak armor.

Also can't the Catachans aford some flak pants? How much for a flak bandana?

Face Eater said:

Cadian flak armor is the same as any other, flak armor is mass produced via across the imperium to a standard (woefully ineffective). you have to realize in the  imperium the equipment a soldier carries is more valuble than the soldier themselves.

Voystroyans only get carapace breastplates, they dont get any other armor. what they get is what they are given, the rest is their uniform.

Catachans dont need flak armor, they rarely use it and see it as a hinderance to their movement in the dangerous terrain they fight in. Also flak Bandanna? it seems very ineffective to have something that will cover only such a small area.

On  a standard human [TB3] Flak turns average every day weapons into much less of a threat. Its another case of "wouldn't be bad at all were it not dealing with insane weaponry".

Guard Flak, for example; is a full-body AP4. Even without cover, standing in the open, a guardsman goes from taking 1d10 straight to his wounds from every lasgun, autogun or other similar weapons hits [1d10-1 min 0 from pistols] to 1d10-4 [-5 for most pistols]. Not only is there a 40% chance of doing nothing more than light burns or scratches you shrug off, if even that, but a slightly-above-average damage roll of 6 goes from three-shotting you to dealing a measly 2 wounds to that location.

Flak makes you virtually immune to knives as well. It will also keep the average frag grenade from sending you into the criticals, though its unlikely you'll escape being fairly wounded from the blast.

Its equal to mesh armor, which many demagogues or rogue traders not walking into a combat zone will gladly wear beneath their massive elaborate outfits. Just make sure to use those sandbags.

I thought the flak bandana line was gold.

Kiton said:

Its probably a matter of the damage vs wound count levels found on characters.

As things are, each point of armour or toughness [unless of course bypassed/penetrated/reduced obviously] has a significant impact because we have very few wounds and weapons deal damage relative to this.

If, for example, wound bases pre-diceroll were increased by 50% but all weapon outputs increased by ~30% [calculated from max-roll+bonus] we'd get very similar kill ratios from most weapons against 'appropriate' targets [those gaining the most are already deep in one-shot-kill territory anyways] and we'd likely want to marginally increase the relative boost of Variable Settings to compensate for their loss in % gain over normal shots, but we would significantly reduce the inability of the weakest weapons to deal with harder targets, given Toughness would have a bit less value to your survival [still plenty though].

For example, against a chaos marine's, say, 18 [now 25] a lasgun[now 1d10+5] with the +1/+0 [now +2/+0] of overcharge can now cause one point of damage and thus righteous fury effects, while Overload [now +3/+2;pens would not be changed just damage and variable's boosts] can cause 4, while it used to be where overcharge is now.

Robomummy said:

This isn't what my copy of Only War says. According to page 57, they get flak armour and a Good Craftsmanship carapace breastplate.

Face Eater said:

I personally take the standard flak armour to look like the older Cadian armour, without the weird upper torso breast plate of the new one (but even the older stuff looks like they have a carrier for some sort of plate on the front of their jacket). I would personally say if you were going full "simulationist" on it that Cadians could possible benefit from an additional 1 armour to their torso.

However, as said, Flak armour is actually not to be sneezed at in 40k RPG (unlike the table top where anything better than a 4+ is really not worth talking about).