So, our cabal is in the Reach. We've visited Manuxet, Xyan and now Aurum. The Orpheus Salient has been a little hairy...Tyranids are a very mixed blessing. The Shadow suppresses Astropaths, which is good for us, but fighting Tyranids is a PITA and rarely has a loot factor. Both Manuxet and Xyan had thin pickings aside from the Imperial ships sent to chase us. We were able to recruit untrained serfs from Xyan, but our surface base there was destroyed. Manuxet's food processing structure was destroyed before we got there (I swear ) Aurum seemed to be more promising, but is apparently in the middle of a Genestealer infestation. We destroyed the locals little capital "city" with orbital fire after we encountered a horde of Genestealers there during a raid.

Anyhoo, we need food, water, basically a full supply chain. We're well-armed, but light on ammo and bullet catchers. The PCs are a renegade Astartes command squad, we have 10 (eleven if you count the nutty Dreadnought) Astartes followers and a nice complement of vehicles. We have an almost full crew on our battle frigate, we are drilling the hell out of them, but they are mostly semi feral savages from Xyan. We have another battle frigate hidden in the Manuxet system, but it has no crew and is low on fuel and supplies.

Any thoughts ? We're going to try dinosaur hunting and slave taking on Aurum, and we've heard there's promethium to be had, but the stealers are a problem!

If you're after ammo and supplies, you might want to consider Samech. Your visit doesn't necessarily have to turn into a gunfight; the Dark Mechanicus adepts always need someone murdered and you have a non-trivial legion force at your disposal.

The Stigmartus might be a good source of bullet-catchers, but Elak Sarda is likely to want you to sign on with the Stigmartus command if you're going to get access to troops and supplies, and since he doesn't have a huge amount of legion forces, supplies are likely to be slim pickings for outsiders. The Magi of Samech are more likely to hire outsiders for interesting jobs.

On the other hand, if you're feeling cocky (and you know they're there!) there are Deathwatch watch-stations scattered throughout the reach. Many of them are small and essentially combination observation outposts and armouries. Hitting one would be a short-term solution, but given the sort of hardware it might yield it's one hell of a fun short term.

If you're after ammo and supplies, you might want to consider Samech. Your visit doesn't necessarily have to turn into a gunfight; the Dark Mechanicus adepts always need someone murdered and you have a non-trivial legion force at your disposal.

The Stigmartus might be a good source of bullet-catchers, but Elak Sarda is likely to want you to sign on with the Stigmartus command if you're going to get access to troops and supplies, and since he doesn't have a huge amount of legion forces, supplies are likely to be slim pickings for outsiders. The Magi of Samech are more likely to hire outsiders for interesting jobs.

On the other hand, if you're feeling cocky (and you know they're there!) there are Deathwatch watch-stations scattered throughout the reach. Many of them are small and essentially combination observation outposts and armouries. Hitting one would be a short-term solution, but given the sort of hardware it might yield it's one hell of a fun short term.

Of course, the two primary downsides of raiding Deathwatch watch-stations are A) The Deathwatch forces currently stationed there and B) If there is any evidence linking the raid to your warband that the Deathwatch discovers you're going to be kicked up a few places on the Deathwatch's 'To Do List'. Sure they are more dedicated to xeno extermination but I'm sure they will make an exception to deal with the bastards stealing their ****. However, if you were to somehow plant enough evidence to point the finger of blame somewhere else you could not only get a solid payday but possibly get the Deathwatch gunning for one of your groups problems; Nothing like Deathwatch to deal with Genestealer issues on an otherwise good planet after all.

Well some watch stations are only manned by one or two marines and some serfs, you could hit on of those fairly easily ( for astartes of course, these are still deathwatch fortress) as for covering it up...target one near the tyranid salient and bring some of the ones you already bagged to leave behind. no one will look too closely at the wounds that killed them, since they are of the same type anyway, and just make sure to slice up the marine left behind so no-one notices what really killed him ( after harvesting his gene-seed to cook up some sweat meats of course)

If your feeling really heretical, you could always target one of the human worlds that the tau have taken over and steal some of there goodies as well, you might even play it off as a mutual defense thing if there is a tyranid problem ( just pretend to be loyalists for a bit) and when the sudden, but inevitable betrayal happens, they will blame the imperium and heat up that front some more...bonus points if you can make sure Ebonheart there hears about "loyal marines" helping the tau, hehe.

Good stuff folks, thanks!

We're a little hesitant about dealing with Samech. We figure that we'd have to be strong enough to make trading with us more profitable than killing us. What do you guys think is the right way to approach the Dark Mech? We do have two Techmarines among our PCs (plus an Apothecary, a Librarian and a Company Champion), as well as some minor NPC Techpriests, so should we have them lead the diplomacy? Should we try an astropathic or daemonic contact with Samech before we show up or should we just show up, smack a few folks around and then look to deal?

I mos def like the true villainry stuff, like manipulating the Deathwatch. We'd love to raid them too, maybe The Rite of Many Eyes to find a Watch Station?

Thought about trying to run the blockades on the Tau front. Plenty of disaffected humans there!!!

BTW, we are Fallen (Dark Angel renegades), so we've already tangled with the Deathwatch, the Inquisition and a Dark Angels Battle Company who are kinda chasing us. We've mauled them badly, but they're keeping us on the move.