SWA rules query: Leader captured, rescue failed

[=Angel=]

I'm playing a Guard KillTeam against Sisters and have a few rules queries.

Rewards of Battle pg100:

If your leader has been slain, choose one fighter from your kill team, other than a new recruit. They become the kill team leader, losing their previous role but keeping their characteristics, skills and equipment. ... If your leader was not slain, you can choose one of the following actions: (Recruit /Rearm)

Since my leader was killed by the sisters following the failed rescue, I can't recruit or rearm after the rescue mission right? That seems clear to me, but I just want to confirm that I understand it correctly.

Conversely, the sisters player gets 100 extra points to spend on rearm/ recruitment- that seems to be per captive (Page 97 Rescue mission)

I had a grenade launcher weapon specialist captured and killed with the leader. I also had a plasmagun weapon specialist who I am promoting to Leader, so if I understand that correctly, I now have 3 free specialist slots to fill once I can recruit again.

My last campaign didn't have so many casualties so we didn't run into this!

 

[Chaos Moomin]

Yeah, you don't get to recruit or re-arm. Seems fairly unambiguous.

As to the other question... That would be my reading of that rule as well, but I have looked for clarification on this before and found some folk grumbling that it may not be how it's intended to work, since acquiring the ability to have an additional heavy weapon is potentially very powerful, and may even outweigh the loss of the leader for some kill teams. It seems fair enough to me, though, since you permanently lose access to any equipment choices only the Veteran Sergeant can take (note they specifically refer to "Veteran Sergeant" and not "Leader" in the wargear section).

But we never had any leaders die in the campaign I played, so we never had to decide if it was correct. I'm surprised it wasn't covered in the FAQ GW put out.

 

[=Angel=]

Thanks for the confirmation.
That's getting houseruled next campaign, it's a double kick in the trousers to lose a leader AND lose a turn of recruitment. These are being run as intro games, and I'm going to continue as is, but it would be rough if it happened to a new player.

SWAs team lists are far more 'whats in the box' than Necro, and I think your interpretation is right- it's not a sergeant miniature, so it can't have sarge only options.
Yes, 4x specials will be powerful if I can get there before the campaign ends- or survive another three games.