I really like all of these, especially the drugged up IG from the infirmary. Yes this is a terrible, short post but I'm tired. I'll reply individually from tomorrow onwards.

In one of the games I've been playing in, we field a team from the Elysian 13th Helldivers - which I keep meaning to novelise - who include myself, the Stormtrooper and Squad Leader, a fellow Stormtrooper, a Heavy and a Medic. We also gained a Commisar who died, and was replaced by a Techpriest.

In this game, the Stormtroopers have, by working in tandem on the most insane plans, managed to get away with using an Ork Battlewagon to obliterate their artillery positions (via high speed ramming action), crippled an Ork Gargant by something resembling accident, and brought down an Orky Superheavy Flyer reminiscent of a SHIELD Helicarrier from the Marvel Universe armed only with a Valkyrie and a Lascannon.

As well as the scene where I had to break off and sprint through an Ork infested city in order to link up with my squad after popping red smoke to get their attention, and unfortunately drawing every Ork down on me for miles.

Good times lol

Happy to go into more depth if you'd like.

Wait wait wait, back up there. How did they take down the helicarrier esque Ork vessel with only 1 valkyrie and a lascannon?

The GM had the NPC pilots reveal to us that there was a Lascannon stored aboard the Valkyrie in a footlocker, so, the squad unboxes it and loads it while the Heavy and I hold off the Fightas chasing our craft as we're trying to outrun this thing using a Heavy Bolter and a Hellgun.

So the Lascannon is primed and the pilots take us around for a shot at the engines. Naturally, the Stormtrooper has Sharpshooter, Deadeye Shot and Marksman, allowing him to be lethally accurate with that Lascannon at ridiculous ranges.

I hit the engine, and it's engulfed in flames. Cheers go up as the Helicarrier slows down. Everyone cheers - we can escape now, right?

Wrong. It bleeds. We can kill it.

So in my probable lunacy, I order the other Stormtrooper to take the Valkyrie controls because he's a better pilot than the actual Navy jockeys, and get into position on the landing ramp with the Lascannon as we fly around to the left hand side of the Helicarrier. Things get quite tense as the Orks try to blow us out of the sky, the Techpriest flailing around repairing the Valkyrie to the best of his abilities in mid-flight, tamping down damaged fuel lines et cetera.

Precision shot after precision shot against the propellers comes in from the Lascannon, utterly obliterating the motive systems holding it up in the air on the left hand side. Evidently not RAW, but Rule of Cool kicks in here, as it begins to fall out of the sky, unable to support it's own weight with no propulsion on one side.

Suffice to say by the time we actually landed back at base, there wasn't an awful lot left of the Valkyrie.

What about the other scenarios?

Well, the Ork Battlewagon was in our first deployment, which was literally the whole group's first time playing the WH40K RPG.

I actually have that battle written up in Narrative form thus far if you'd like me to go post that over in War Stories or whatever it's called. The rest I'll go over here

Prior to the Gargant incident, we were scouting out a Vox Tower that the Techpriest had been sent to "cleanse". I went all out using a stolen Ork choppa to assassinate the Gretchen sentries before we stormed the place, eviscerating the Orks within using Heavy Bolter fire (We are behind enemy lines, but hey, the more damage we do the better).

Once the place is cleared out, I have the Techpriest do his investigation before planting the demolitions charge at a structural weakpoint within the building, then order the squad to take the map and fall back to the forward operating base while I lured some Orks in and brought the building down on them.

So I stay behind, wait for the Orks to come investigate, and when a throng of them are in the tower and Deffkoptas are flying nearby, I blow the charge. Down it comes, killing every Ork inside the Vox Tower, and taking out a Deffkopta on it's way down. Magnificent.

Using the distraction, I move to the other end of the building I'm hiding in, jump out the second floor window, roll out of it and run off into the night.

On escaping, I realise that there's no chance in hell that I can find my way back to the squad - I'm not trained in navigation, and they have the map.

I go to ground and wait until dawn, thinking we can work something out then - the other stormtrooper has the Magnoculars and I can microbead them. They can find me and direct me back to the FOB.

Doesn't seem to work out quite that way. Dawn comes and we go to our respective rooftops, but it turns out the guy's Awareness score is abysmal, as are the dice rolls.

So after a laughable rinse-repeat failure to spot me, I ask the DM if he will allow me to pop red smoke to give him an automatic success. He agrees, but points out that the Orks will also get an automatic success to find me. I agree to that, and pop the smoke.

Then the guy starts repeatedly failing Navigate checks to guide me back as the Orks close in on my position, and I'm forced to go hide in the basement. He finally gets the route as they corner me, so I do the insane thing, and draw the chainsword I looted from the Commisar, and charge.

Takedown soon discourages the Orks from their stance and they get out of my way, allowing me to dive through the window and into the street, sprinting as the other Stormtrooper feeds me directions over the Microbead, leading me into Ork ambush after Ork ambush that I'm forced to weave through as bullets spray by all around me.

After a long and tense chase to the Metal Gear Solid 2 Alert theme, I come barrelling out into the open. A straight 100m run across open ground to reach the squad. Orks all around me and closing in, so I scream out "COVERING FIRE" to the Heavy lying in wait with the Bolter. Two Orks go down in the first salvo, and the others scatter, as I run into the building shouting at everyone to pack up and go.

Has to be one of my crowning moments that. Got a Fate Point even lol.

Edit - I'll save the Gargant incident for another post, though it's much smaller.

I would certainly be interested in seeing the narrative version of the adventure, should you find the time to post it, and be willing to.

Also, first hot topic.

Fighting a battle against chaos heretecs. We manage to get a Leman russ and charge the line of infantry. Then we realise the enemy units are being lead by 3 Chaos Marines. After a few glancing hits the Marines are getting wayy too close for comfort but they look pretty wounded. GM is putting the pressure on, "whataya guys do? you're closing in, whats happening?"

me: "GET OUTTA THE TANK!"
other players: "What? why?"
I pull out a melta charge we found ealier. The party runs off and i drive the tank into the Marines, and detonate the Melta. The blast killed the marines and sent the heretecs into a panic.

Also that time our psyker who hardly knows anything about 40k Pushed his powers, made it rain blood and then summoned a bloodletter in our camp because a POW tried to run away. Needless to say we all died.

Ah, yes. The old, "Well, we have three experienced 40kers and an absolute new-booty. Yep, THEY are the group's psyker."

It's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them!

That's why support characters should be played only by experienced players. Two reasons.

First: from fluff perspective so no space mages and atheist tech priests. Players who don't know w40k should learn the world from guardsman point of view.

Second: Game mechanics can be quite complicated at first especially with support characters

• In my group I was Gming, the priest found his best weapon was a holy book... and proceeded to beat to death his comrade with it after he started flirting with a female guardsmen , while the priest was giving out holy blessings.