Does anyone have any ideas for interesting and cinematic battles?

I think one of the best examples of a battle that my party enjoyed was the combat in Purge the Unclean where the players fought in a multi layer mine that is open in the center.

I seem to run cinematic combats like no tomorrow XD
My players have just reached third tier careers but, even at level 1 they were drugged by their inquisitor and left in a cell. They escaped with the aid of their psyker and ran into a psychic, escaped Inquisitorial prisoner who tried to kill them, hurled our guardsman through a concrete wall and tore our tech priests head circuits out ^^

Just now they've landed on Hesh amid a major heresy that the Arch magos is in on, a mechanicus exterminator team of about 70 tech guards vs a few dozen loyalists and the PC's. All in a deep crevice in the radioactive wastelands between forges. The PC's managed to escape that situation by collapsing the shelf they were on in the crevice. It's great fun

I ran a rather scary one (for my players) near the end of Rejoice For You Are True!. Earlier in the campaign, they had been ID'ed by the 17th Ascent (a politico-temporal cult I'd written to replace the Serrated Query), as they had managed to kill Theo, but hadn't realised that his bionics were recording the fight. They also missed the clues I threw them (the arbitrator's contacts mentioned Theo's body went missing from the morgue, several things one of the captured ShatterPoint mercenaries said after the attack on House Strophes) that the Bad Guys had not only cottoned on to them, but was severely worried by them.
Given the power and influence of the Bad Guys, and the probable frequent remodelling and rebuilding needed on Ambulon, I figured that the most vulnerable point of their operation on Scintilla would be well protected- so I had one of the gothic columns fronting the temple/lab be little more than a thin plaster shell covering a cavity holding a military-grade heavy weapon. The greeters/guards had been briefed to look out for the party, and authorised to use the serious weaponry.

The party, blissfully unaware, despite an entire ossuary of hints thrown at them, that they had been ID'ed, and that the enemy operatives would be on the lookout for them, decided to go weapon-shopping, and picked up the equivalent of a BAR, and a bunch of grenades. They then decided to 'covertly reconnoitre' the Joyous Choir temple, still carrying enough hardware for a squad and a half of Imperial Guard. Not content with that stupidity (they were quickly spotted, but the guards didn't want to call too much attention to themselves), they decided to talk their way in. The two PCs with the largest weapons go over to the guards, who are understandably getting edgy, having seen the footage from Theo's bionics. The guards snap- one of them throws/launches his serious terror weapon (a vore-weapon) at the assassin's head (it missed, but the sheer horror of some alien thing eating the face off an innocent bystander stunned them briefly), while the largest punches the wall next to him, and pulls out a compact assault cannon, plaster dust and chunks falling away in clouds as he takes a firing stance.

What followed was best described as a thousand-round ballistic buffet, with much property damage and collateral loss of life...

I had my group "shortcut" through a mission so to speak as the Heretek they were chasing made an apperance. In her dropship(40k version of a Leopard...mechwarriors anyone?) , loading off halftracks and Bronze malefic-equivalents.

My intentions as GM was to have the players withdraw as they only had a civilian insurrection vehicle (Sounds better than "battered pickup truck") and try to follow her to her base of operations.

But noooo... they decide to charge the two light tanks and the heretical contructs, racing over the flat terrain, braving the 88mm cannons on the tanks. The heaviest weapon available: 1 one-shot krak missile launcher.

They manage to evade the cannon fire, blasting away with a heavy stubber, to no greater effect and then the driver suddenly goes: Hey?! Is the drop ship still on the ground? I go: aye, but it is just about to lift off.

So the driver swings the car around, skids onto the rear loading ramp and into the cargo hold of the dropship as it lifts of and sails out over the ocean. Smashing the car into the interior wall, killing an enemy load-worker, they sweep the cargo hold clear with the mounted stubber before going hunting for their target. Inside an airborn enemy dropship crawling with troops.

So in the cramped quarters of the ships interior they start a masive firefight, with bursting pipes spraying oil and vapour, deckplating wizzing through the air, tearing up the place good. They manage to fight their way to the bridge (more like cockpitt) and actually kill the heretek they were after. Unfortunately the kill one pilot and wound the other in the process and send the ship crashing into water.

All-in-all, in went well. they lost a few allied NPCs and one player burned a fate point, but they got what they came for. That was one hell of a fight =)

One thing that I've experienced as making a lot of difference is to roll less dice and tell more. Just have a player tell what they are doing, and roll an appropriate d100 roll, and then let them wing the description of events from there. Give them plenty of opportunity to include actions like swinging in chains/tapestry/chandeliers, cocking shotguns with a mighty "CA-*****", rolling from cover to cover while shooting autofire. Giving plenty of sweet oneliners. (I think Errol Flynn has one of the best at the very end of the final battle, after much fencing with the badguy and finally disarming him, he says "The sword is too good for a traitor. You die by the dagger!" And promptly drops his sword, draws his dagger and stabs him to death.) Also make sure that the place you are fighting on have plenty of breakable things, high drops and many explosive items. So less dicerolling, more storytelling gives a good pace to the combats.

I recently GMed the Gateway 17 scenario from DarkReign as a (half-year later) follow-up on Edge of Darkness, partially because my players haven’t seen half of the horrors in the Alms House of the Coscarla district and thus planned to put more or less the Alms House interior within one of the normally unused warehouses of the Gateway 17 district. At the Out-of-gas bar the groups Psyker saw Chord Luntz, followed him and struck a deal with him: Luntz wanted his Avenger pattern quad-wheeler (a little like the Interceptor in Mad Max) back from the Cobra Gang (a wheeler gang preying on the aorta’s land trains) who had stolen it, as he wanted to leave the district. The Cobra Gang was also located in a disused warehouse. The groups Arbitrator and the groups Tech-Priest tried to haggle with the gangers, but these wanted 1000 Gelt for the quad-wheeler. Anyway, they agreed to bring the money (they do not have) later. About 12 hours later they came back to the warehouse with all their paper money (pretending to have enough of it) and wanted to take a closer look on the car now.

The Tech-Priest sat himself at the driver’s seat, while the groups Guardsman and the Assassin approached through the darkness to the large warehouse entrance. Then the Guardsman sprayed the area were most gangers stood around a burning barrel within the warehouse with suppressing fire from his autopistol and the Assassin killed one of them with a head-shot from his hunting-rifle. The Tech-Priests started the engine of the quad wheeler, while the Arbitrator shot and killed the ganger next to the car with his Carnodon and jumped onto the front passenger seat. Most gangers are surprised and/or pinned by the sudden onslaught. The Assassin killed another ganger, while the Tech-Priests turned the quad-wheeler in an impressive one-eighty on the spot and sped out of the warehouse gate. The Arbitrator dropped a smoke-grenade on the way out. The remaining gangers that were not pinned scrambled onto their other vehicles (a Mad Max 2-like buggy and pick-up) and started the pursuit. Before the Avenger pattern quad-wheeler could leave the warehouse, it was hit by the gas torch flamer installed onto the pick-up for no serious damage.

So, the partially burning Avenger dashed out of the warehouse for a tight right turn and sped away at full throttle and the two other vehicles in a tight pursuit. The pick-ups on board crank cannon pattered the area around the Avenger with lethal projectiles, while the buggy’s impaler was still unused due to the gunner being shot from the buggy by the assassin. Suddenly the two biker that were not around yet, came back to the gangers warehouse from where the Avenger was about to go. A tight left turn behind the opposing warehouse by the Tech-Priest helped to evade them for the moment. The Buggy followed and finally fired its Impaler at the Avenger, thereby impaling the rear window and seat and damaging part of the electronical parts of the quad-wheeler. The Avenger lost some speed and skid two metres to the right in the process, while the Tech-Priest at the wheel desperately tried to calm the enraged machine spirit of the vehicle. Behind, the pick-up fired its still inaccurately crank cannon. Then the buggy drove next to the decelerating Avenger and the ganger on the passenger threw a nail bomb without success at the PC’s and their new car. The Tech-Priest simply turned the wheel to the right while praying to the Omnissiah for forgiveness, thereby crashing into the buggy’s left side and crushing the driver and causing the buggy to flip. Hardly regaining control of the Avenger the Tech-Priest turned left behind the next warehouse with the pick-up and two bikes still in hot pursuit. The Arbitrator on the passenger seat opened the door on his side and tried to fire his Carnodon and the pursuers but the front armour proves to be too thick its projectiles. The Crank cannon still did not find its mark due to the evasive maneuvers of the Tech-Priest. Another shoot form the Carnodon aimed at the driver then pierced the front window and hit the driver’s hand at the wheel, cutting of three fingers in the process and causing the driver to lose control over his vehicle. The pick-up skids 5 metres to the left crashing the into the nearby warehouse wall and the biker inbetween, taking both out of the chase. After a further left turn by the Avenger (back to the direction of the original warehouse) only the single biker and his back seat passenger remained, but a further shot from the vile Carnodon head-shot the biker driver dead and causing the bike to flip. Keep in mind: Always wear helmet on a bike! The cheering rest of the group (that killed the last two meat-hammer and hack shotgun armed ganger coming out of the smoke by the warehouse) awaited their two colleagues and left the scene in vitory…

We all had a lot of fun. Absolutely cineastic..

Feel free to make it up as you go along. Wing it. Roll dice in secret so that you can fluff if necessary.

Be cinematic. Unless you bring the combat to life with little details, you might as well be playing a min-max D&D game.

The first truly climactic battle my cell faced was against an individual who'd died and been resurrected by their halo device. They stormed the church he was hiding in, running up hundreds of stone steps in the rain, blazing away at the bodyguards stationed outside (who of course tumbled spectacularly down the stairs when killed). The group's cleric, at the very top of the staircase, caught a full auto burst to the chest and was sent flying backwards into the night, his blood washing the staircase red. Shell casings clink on the floor. The air smells of cordite. Gunshots roar and shock mauls discharge with an *spak* of electrical discharge.

When they got into the church and battled their nemesis, dice rolling went out the window. The tech priest took a hit that should've killed him- frankly I didn't want to lose any more players, so I instead told the player his character had been lifted up and thrown backwards like a rag doll into the approaching guardsman (who managed to dodge, but lost the benefit of his aim action from the previous round). This caused damage that was conveneintly enough soaked by the priest's prodigious toughness bonus and armour, though he was dazed amid a pile of shattered pews. The psyker lit a tapestry on fire and swung the burning cloth over their nemesis, using his mind to ignite more and more of it (this constant psi use backfired and ended up with the corpse of their cleric being possessed by a daemon). I had no idea what to make of such a plan, but I loathe telling players they can't do something, especially something that seems plausable IRL. Decided it counts as a flamethrower(with an agility test to hit), though once their nemesis had recovered from his shock-maul induced paralysis, he tore his way out of the blazing cloth with ease. (of course, for the sake of storytelling, he exploded from it dramatically).

Gunfights (or swordfights for that matter) are exciting events. You don't have to jazz it up all that much to make it cinematic if you just bring it to life. Describe the sounds, sighs, and smells. Use adjectives, similes, and metaphors. The flowerly language always goes down well I find. Add sound effects if you lack the words. Mime the actions, go into slow motion whenever you feel john Woo would.

Always let your players experiment. It doesn't mean you have to let them get away with murder, but if it sounds remotely plausable, at least let them try. Acrobatics, quick draw, hammerhand etc and a thousand other little traits, talents and skills can help you no end in making a scene much more dramatic. Make sure you exploit this when players and NPCs use them.

Lastly, forget the critical injury tables. They're suggestions, nothing more. The less tables involved, the better gameplay is.