So, I've been considering running a vehicle-centric campaign, and one of the awkward factors of undertaking the writing of such a campaign is to find a suitable antagonist.


So first, let's consider our prospective regiment. I present to you Battlegroup Gorgon of Krieg;

Homeworld - Penitent (3 Points), Replace Untempered Zeal with Faceless, Nameless, Selfless.

Commanding Officer - Phlegmatic (1 Point)

Regiment Type - Mixed Regiment. Armoured Regiment (4 Points) / Mechanised Regiment (3 Points)

Training Doctrines - Diehards (3 Points), Iron Discipline (3 Points)

Drawbacks - Dishonoured (3 Point Drawback)

Mechanised Infantry = 13 / 15 Points used, Armoured Regiment = 14 / 15 Points used

Using Mechanised Infantry for personal equipment.

Unit is issued the following as a Squad; 1 Leman Russ Batte Tank with Heavy Bolter Sponsons (6 Seats), 1 Centaur Transport (5 seats) with additional Centaurs provided if necessary to accommodate for squad size.

Favoured Weapon: Meltagun
Favoured Heavy Weapon: Heavy Bolter

Equipment Points Spent = 32

Standard Field Kit
2 Frag Grenades
2 Krak Grenades
Krieg Greatcoat
Rebreather
Entrenching Tool
Good Quality L98 Lucius Pattern Lasgun
Chrono
4 Weeks Rations.

Prior to play, players will agree on their roles as either Armoured Regiment personnel or Mechanised Infantry, and thus their role within the team.

So for a Regiment with this kind of kick and mobility, I'm thinking that the most appropriate opponents for taking these guys on are Necrons, Tyranids or Tau. However, we recently fought Necrons and as such I'm not in any huge rush to bring them back in.

At the moment, as much as Tyranids would be awesome, I think that the Tau can probably afford a greater degree of flexibility to me as the GMs, and actually have tactics beyond OMNOMNOMNOMNOM.

Battlesuits should make a perfectly good tool for opposing tanks, I would have thought, in addition to the Tau's own armoury of vehicles, and I can always bring in Tyranids later if I want a Carnifex to roll the Russ.

Any thoughts on what the Tau could and would do on a tactical level?

I'm figuring for the PCs on an offensive level, they'll probably end up being encouraged to use the Russ as a Linebreaker with the Centaur scooting around to offer mobile light support.

Defensively I have absolutely no idea.

I'd also welcome suggestions for environments, but my first thought is to avoid a Hive or Forgeworld, given the nature of my previous campaign on a densely populated Forgeworld.

A desert or plainsworld would be ideal for the Tau - giving them a stark advantage (I recall their vision is very well suited for those environs, since they were prevelant on their homeworld). Sparse vegetation to hide in, but cavernous ravines and winding hills, coupled with heat distortion and sand storms would make for an interesting theatre of operations for the players to overcome.

So the PCs get a tank and an APC? I know it is a mixed regiment, but I feel like it should be one or the other. Otherwise you're going to need a lot of players to fill those empty seats...

I have a lot of players. Usually six PCs if not more. One vehicle regularly isn't enough to carry them.

I do have some concern regarding plains/deserts in that while wide open terrain is a good fit for the Tau and their obscenely long-range equipment, it does also present a lack of variety in terms of battlefield design. Our past experience in deserts has kind of discouraged me on that front somewhat.

I was tempted to explore some other kind of setting that's perhaps a little unorthodox, such as a battlefield which largely takes place in underground caverns and formations and the like.

it does also present a lack of variety in terms of battlefield design.

Hope I don't sound too mean, but I think that may have had to do with a lack of imagination & research. Deserts are some of the most brutal, variable battlefields available.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/019/5/3/desert_city_by_mrainbowwj-d72stni.jpg

http://www.bluezones.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/namib_desert_pictures.jpg

https://www.islamtoday.net/media_bank/image/2010/12/8/1_2010128_16159.jpg

http://www.goodenoughmother.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/desert-pathway.jpg

https://lh3.ggpht.com/ReAtQ-bNRuMJrLpLQ4qICmqHlW4vQpJsri5Glm2r48wrzOhgRHXqCmucopqJgMAEjA=h900

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/317/d/7/desert_stock_4_by_humblebeez-d32rc53.jpg

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/171220/file-361202394-png/images/desert-1.png

http://www.freewallshd.info/img/mountains-desert.jpg

I can see the harsh part, but from those pictures I'm not really seeing variable. More endless seas of open sand/dirt/stone with occasional features, but maybe I'm just missing their potential.

Those endless seas of sand/dirt/stone aren't flat. You can use the very terrain to build hidden fortifications. Rocky terrain (mountains, hills, ravines, dried river beds) are perfect for ambushers, long-range manuevering to utilize cover and engage the enemy. Difficulties of the terrain pose a problem - heat or cold resistance will be needed, operating in night or day to compensate for the temperatures, sand and dirt being notorious for wrecking havoc on vehicles and weapons. Water and rations are keys to sustaining operations. Sand-storms can blanket everything, turning all but the most advanced of auspex technologies useless.

Real world environments like this have been notoriously difficult to route opponents from as they afford much greater concealability and impose harsh restrictions on troop movement. In comparison, a city-fight is a walk in the park.

Edit:

Not to mention, there can be cities -and- underground caverns in the same area of operations. All the more fun I say!

You might make them hate you, and some WWII videos they have, or might watch, if you pull some forests or swamps, and bog their vehicles down. Tight quarters can suck for tanks, and Tau have hover tanks, flying battlesuits, and such, so they won't care. It might also be a good excuse to have Kroot, and hiding Pathfinders, skulking around the perimeter of the party's senses, keeping tabs on them, and deploying anti-tank assets accordingly.

Tactically, Tau will often hide from a distance, and hit you unaware with their punishing firepower. Devilfish are very stealthy, or Pathfinders wouldn't use them, and Kroot are just stealthy because, so the Fire Caste will have an easy time being unobserved; Stealth Teams also come to mind. What you might actually have to be careful of, regarding Tau, is that they are very good at wrecking tanks, and as the group's primary feature, this can suck for them. If the Tau do their job too well, and it's a job they are good at, they'll crater the tank(s) very quickly, and the party might have a difficult time countering them, especially if your group builds as primarily a tank crew, and forgoes HW Specialists, and some of the non-Guardsman options. Drones, markerlights, cover, and more can make the Tau the same "I don't want to fight this! " they can be in TT. I'm not saying don't do it, but I will say be careful with it; the Tau are good at a few things, and buggering tanks is one of those.

Hence why I picked them. So that they would have to act carefully in preserving their tank. They know which race they'll be going up against.

I think I settled on a world though. A small, homemade planet on the border of Tau space called "Nilfheim", which is, surprise surprise, covered in ice and snow. A misty planet wherein snowbound forests, small frosted towns and the beating heart of it's mining economy works in the myriad tunnels of the planet below the surface. Kind of Alaska-ish.

Yeah, I didn't think I was telling you stuff you didn't know, but with their long range and high damage, played right, the players might have little they CAN do to preserve their tank. Still, if they can get lucky, and get the stuff they need for the environment, and play the part well, it should be fun. Best of luck to them, and hope they fare better in the Russian cold than the Tau do.

If they have any sense I figure they'll capitalise on using the terrain to their advantage. We'll see how it goes, but the Tau using subterfuge and flanking tactics, as well as skirmishing, is probably going to be a common feature I guess.

I know in the fluff, the Tau hate sitting in one place. Very big on staying mobile and hitting from all sides, then retreating to attack again from another angle.

Yep, hard to assault a line that isn't there, once your CQC asset gets there, and then gets blasted by the again-far away units.

What I'll need to be careful of is throwing too much at them. I imagine Crisis Suits and Broadsides will be bad enough without the need for a Riptide.

Planning on forgoing the Deathwatch Statblocks in favour of generating Tau using my Only War conversion, so that Battlesuits have armour instead of Unnatural Toughness.

Arctic world with Kriegsmen, eh?

I can imagine the carpet of frozen Guardsmen they leave behind on the march from tunnel complex to tunnel complex just from exposure alone.

But in all seriousness (and semi-related) don't forget the importance of things like geothermal vents and hot springs to keep the men alive. They could be just as tactically important on this world as an oasis on a sand trap planet.

Besides, the Tau would hardly need stealthsuits if the visibility is bad enough from the snowstorms.

Attack during summer, they said.

We'll be home before winter, they said.

Brass ******* buttons. What a great idea.

Ah, is good you came this time of year! Is VERY depressing in the winter!

And don't forget that that ICE engines hate it when it gets really cold, but if u shutdown you might be able to hid in snow drift or bank and not show a heat signature. Also you need to make sure your machine has the right fluid to make sure your tank doesn't lock up completely.

And with the Tau high tech gear, remember cold could have worse effects that until they can adaptfully.

And outside of their tanks, if they set up an ambush with proper hiding, they should be able to do it at least once or twice with great success. like so http://youtu.be/qa42Xm2yuMI

At the moment, I need some sort of "Evil Overlord" list for the Tau. Currently reading through fluff to try and guess their primary steps in conquering an Imperial world.

Edit - Alright. Plot skeleton crafted to make two campaigns out of this. One for playing as the Imperium and another for playing as Tau PCs. Got the gist of it, so I guess all that's left will be to stat up the opposition and draw maps on a mission by mission basis to account for variables.

Anyone know what XP rating the prefabricated NPCs at so I know where to ballpark these guys for talents and advances?

One thing that could be interesting is letting the Tau wreck their tank - letting them really understand what they are up against. Not only is that traumatic, but they would be forced to fight on foot behind enemy lines with whatever they have at hand. Quite grimdark, quite interesting!

I made a "cheesy" Tau Commander for Deathwatch that would love this world, and scenario. Commander Coldsteel (Shas'O T'au Aloh Tak Kir'Aun Montyr) would actually enjoy the cold weather, as much as anyone hiding in an environmentally-maintained crisis suit can say that, and he HATES Guard, so he'd send Tau out to freeze, if need be, to kill the Humans. He's a bit more built to fight Space Marines, of course, being a Commander, but I often look at Tau, and say most other races won't have a harder time fighting them than Space Marines, just a hard time, all around. His TT version even has a prototype incinerator ("Brightflare Projector"), but not in the RPG block. Most Tau are somewhat gregarious, so you might make someone more like this; a cold, unforgiving a-hole, with a chip on their shoulder about IG.

I kind of already have it established that the Tau are open to diplomacy with humans, so much as he sounds interesting, I'll have to give that one a miss.

I haven't decided what the score will be regarding the Tau commander yet, but I think the campaign's been readily structured for the most part. I just need to consider whether to keep it loose and purely verbal, or make it more linear and actually generate maps for prescribed encounters.

My last one followed the former format, but I have 6/7ths of someone else's campaign before this one is run.

On the whole though, I think I'm about done. Any suggestions are still welcome, of course.

Hope it all goes well. I think one reason I made O'Aloh such a hardass is because, in my experience with friends playing games, a setting like 40k is too harsh for them to immerse, and absorb the fluff they haven't spent 12 years cobbling together, like I have (and even I don't know plenty on certain things; gaps that resemble those in numerous organizations in canon ), but if a gregarious Tau offered them a deal, they'd more than likely take the easy option, or say that they are "just trying to get a better position, and then turn on the xenos scum from within", where many Imperial assets wouldn't, and consequences equals death. A harsh, uncompromising Commander, who hates the Humans for injuring him, and trying to kill his Ethereal superior (actually a fun story, in my opinion), means that they HAVE to stand and fight him, which is what I'd HOPE they would do, anyway, being loyal servants of Him on Terra. Not fair to them, making that decision for them, I suppose, but I wrote up two other Commanders, so they'd eventually meet others, if death didn't become a thing.