Has anyone got any stories of their players using Baneblades and if so, how well did it go

I'm GMing a band of Death Korps in a Russ at the moment if that's of any use?

I got some questions I can ask.

First of all, I have been thinking about running a campaign on an irradiated planet with the players in an Armored Regiment. The tanks would be air tight and they would have protective gear, but could only go outside the tank for so long before getting very sick and dying. My problem is how to run that. Technically, I assume that the squad would only get one russ, but I dont think my players would enjoy that. So, I want to have them in their own tank, but not sure on how well this would go. Would I give them an extra comrade each (Only have three players, so that would be 9 in the squad) to help fill out all the rolls or would something else be better?

Thinking on it, I cant imagine a baneblade being to interesting to play in. It doesnt seem like much would stand in its way, so I would have to get rules for titans monstrous creatures for them to fight and to me, that would be fun, but only for a few mission. A horde of enemy tanks might pose a threat.

Yeah, problem is a baneblade is only deployed against SERIOUS threats, it would make for a very wierd campaign.

Armoured regiments have a few options:

the player's squad has a tank that maybe 1 players drives and 1 shoots and the others protect it from enemy infantry that sneak up on them

or a group that likes to get up close and personal and uses a chimera to do it

perhaps have 2 PCs in a russ and the rest in sentinels? not strictly in the rules but as you pointed out, having 3-4 players in a single tank would soon become boring and repetitive if they never got out. you could have encounters where they're all in the tank and enemies like orks or 'nids swarm it and try to cut their way in, then you got fun for everyone (this sounds like a good skill challenge/combat encounter to me)

the irradiated planet is a tricky one, it makes for a fantastic setting (ahem fallout ahem) but if the surface is too irradiated to ever leave the tank it cna become very restrictive. perhaps have areas that are too toxic, but other areas that are less deadly? that could make for interesting missions where players know they need to go outside to repair the tanks hull or treat wounded or w/e but first they need to get to clearer skies, i could see that being quite dramatic !

3 players with 3 comrades is optimum for a single Russ as there are 6 seats. I wouldn't give them their own tanks, as it's literally too many roles for them to fulfil unless each of them has 5 comrades, and each comrade can fire a gun as per the Gunner comrade advance for the operator class. However, I've found that my players have immense difficulty in co-ordinating their tanks (they have 1 Russ and 2 Centaur APCs) so far. They tend to lose track of who is sitting where and which gun is manned with how many shots etc. My group has 7 regular players, 6 of which have comrades, and I run my own GMPC with comrade to make up the numbers (and because it provides me with a convenient avenue to provide hints or redirect fire from PCs when it suits me to).

That said, it is early days, and I am confident that, given time, they'll learn to adjust. Assuming they don't die before then.

If you want to threaten a Baneblade it is actually remarkably easy to kill. Any weapon with the Concussive property will rather swiftly ruin the day of a Baneblade crew, and open them up to the far more serious threat of Melta weaponry or Lascannons being able to reposition themselves for a better shot. I'm planning on using Tyranids and I'm actually worried that the Russ is going to become a moving coffin the second a Carnifex closes to charge distance with it.

So far I've been having the players (Death Korps of Krieg) pursue a jackbooted approach to a mystery investigation, in the style of Dark Heresy, but with more gunpoint interrogation and intimidation than finesse, which had led to them disembarking frequently from the tank to interact with people and pursue leads.

As for a radioactive planet;

As someone who has worked in radiophysics, I find it really hard to maintain the suspension of disbelief whenever radioactivity comes up as a thing in RPGs. Having an airtight tank isn't all that beneficial, and no worse off than a not-airtight tank with the players able to wear Respirators, as Alpha particles have a travel distance of 2-3cm from the source material, and are stopped by skin, or the gelatinous layer of your eye - leaving you essentially fine so long as you don't breathe it in.

Beta particles have a 5m travel time in air, are stopped by low density materials, or produce the Compton scattering effect on impacting heavy density materials (like a tank's hull), which in turn propagates more beta radiation and some X-Rays. Not exactly dangerous as they only cause mild skin burns unless exposed to in large doses. Wrap up in covering clothing and this ceases to be a significant threat.

Electromagnetic Radiation such as UV, X-Ray and Gamma is notably more dangerous to the human body, but stopped by high density materials (such as a tank), so they might warrant a background radiation (0) quality as per the Tome of Decay, that periodically prompts Toughness tests or suffer from radiation poisoning.

Neutron Radiation is vastly more dangerous as it transfers the vast majority of it's energy when it contacts with water, or Boron, and thus is highly destructive to carbon based lifeforms. Problem with that is it has a quite short travel distance also (I don't remember out of hand), but such sites would perhaps warrant the use of higher radiation qualities.

I used to work with radioactive areas and materials on a regular basis. All I ever had to do was make sure I wore the standard issue clothing rather than my personal gear to ensure that any contamination (read; radiation sources) was controlled and could be easily washed off.

I could go into more detail concerning radiological protection protocols, given it was my field, but this seems like enough for now.

Well, I learnt something today. Quite interesting though.

T he idea of them sharing a tank together is more appealing, especially in a survival situation. Low on supplies and with enemies constantly preying on them.

Just finished watching The Chronicles of Riddick again and the planet Crematoria ( http://riddick.wikia.com/wiki/Crematoria ) has me thinking about using this, but REALLY toned down of course. Another idea is having some forces of nurgle spreading a plauge (anyone read Blood of Asaheim?).

But, much like radiation, I know little about plauges and diseases or planets. Though, my players wouldn't know these things either so I can get away with stuff as long as it sounds like it makes sense.

I'm using the Fydae Strain Zombie Plague from Dark Heresy in one of my games atm. Good fun, that.

I have some knowledge of diseases as well, if I can be of assistance with that. My astrophysics isn't quite so good but I'm sure I can provide some degree of aid.

Did a bit of research on the warhammer wiki about the zombie plague. It briefly mentioned the Fydae Strain, but also mentioned the Vile Savants which I am really liking the sound of.

As for a campaign, I am struggling to think of something that isn't cliché.

Yeah, I would recommend going with a plague (mm- Nurgly goodness!) over radiation as the environmental hazard- much simpler to deal with in game dynamics.

-And I had some questions about running a tank-based campaign a while back, which sparked an interesting discussion on the topic. You can find it here .

Thanks, that was a good read and gave me some ideas.

Campaign will be against the Severan Dominate with some surprise nurgle goodness.

While this topic is open I might as well ask here instead of making a new topic.

All of this talk about commanding vehicles made me wonder if there are any rules, official or fan made, for operating a Titan. I know stats for them exist, but how one pilot one rule wise is what i am curious about.

All of this talk about commanding vehicles made me wonder if there are any rules, official or fan made, for operating a Titan. I know stats for them exist, but how one pilot one rule wise is what i am curious about.

Stats for Warhound Titan given in the DW "Rites of Battle", and by RAW you are piloting Titan in the same way as other vehicles. MIU cybernetic give you +10 bonus.

Well, that works.