So we had our first play session yesterday.

The background of our dynasty is, that we are basically a new one, we feature a former Colonel Commissar who was granted a Warrant of Trade, his former 2nd in Command (Seneshal), an Explorator who is basically Inventory of the ship we got gifted with the warrant and an Ork Mek who... lets just say we are IC forced to have him aboard and be done with that.

There were some flunkies, fun was had.

But.

We had our first ground combat and the Seneshal noticed, that ranged attacks went wide, since our Bodyguard (soldiers from our former regiment) couldn't hit stuff and that she has basically the same chance to hit things and the general tendency for characters to not reach 40 easily.

From experience with d100 systems, i know that you gotta use modifiers with extreme prejudice when it comes to rolling dice, so we are looking at the combat rules in a bit more detail. Still, i'd like to hear what the community has to say about combat options.

Also... something i'd like to inquire seperatly, what is the exact role of a Seneshal in ground/space combat? Or to be more exact, what can he do good, especially with a Background like this?

Seneschal is a spy master, purse holder and general social and knowledge officionado. They excel at knowing the right thing and the right people at the right time. They are NOT excellent in combat, but then they are on a par with pretty much any other 'non-combatant' career. That is to say, it's more down to how you equip your character and how you RP them in combat. For example give your seneschal a hand flamer or two and a bunch of grenades et voila - he becomes an excellent support character in combat.

With regards to combat modifiers - yeah you really do want to be stacking them. If your troops aren't hitting well enough, then move them closer to the enemy and give them weapons with full-auto firing mode, you'll then be getting well over a 50% hit chance PER SHOT!

Also... something i'd like to inquire seperatly, what is the exact role of a Seneshal in ground/space combat? Or to be more exact, what can he do good, especially with a Background like this?

Preferbly by buying the opposition before guns come out.

But assuming that's not possible, let's see:

Ground combat:

Here the senechal seems to be the poor man's ninja. Some stealth skills, BS isn't cheap, but not too expensive either.

Someone suggested flamers and grenades above, and that works I guess. Or a long las with a red dot sight and a sharpshooter's role.

But mainly I see the Senechal's role in ground combat as "staying alive".

He's the one that negotiated the deal where you got those armsmen with the plasguns, remember?

Space combat:

The Senechal has rather more to do here.

I've seen a senechal man the guns, because he had the best BS, but his best uses are elsewhere, really. In space combat, he becomes an absolutely awesome support/buff character, with access to (IIRC) almost every skill used in Extended Actions (table 8-11, RT core, p. 217).

Focused Augeries that allow you to pick what components to target are awesome and almost mandatory around here. The Senechal is among the best for managing crew morale. And that even without things like Aid the Machine Spirits (Senechals get Tech Use at rank 2 and cheap Intelligence, remember?) and Put Your Backs Into It! for buffing others. Very useful!