This is the first Rogue Trader session that I've run and I just have a quick question about the first combat in Enter the Maw adventure in the main book. The explorers in my book took out all the ambushers with only taking about 5 points of damage between all of them so just wondered if this was right or if I need to start ramping up the difficulty level? The party consisted of:

1 x rogue trader

2 x Arch Militants

1 x Navigator

1 x Seneschal

1x Astropath

Standard questions:

• Did you look up all of the baddies abilities (combat servitors especially are pretty tough)?
• Did they use cover?
• Did they surround the party or just like up in front of them to get mowed down?
• Did they take advantage of their surprise round?
• Did they prioritize their targets (i.e. mess up the arch militants or pick off the weak)
• Did they use suppression?
• Did they focus fire?
• Did they use their combat actions like aim and full out attack?
• Did you wisely utilize Lady Ash's psyker abilities?
• Did you give them all of their bonuses for firing at close range, flanking, and attacking from above?
• Did you read up on all of their weapons abilities and give them their full benefits (again, battle servitors heavy bolter is pretty nasty)
• Did they make good use of tactics?

In other words, did they fight as intelligently as the PCs would in their place? I suspect not, but if you can answer yes to most or all of these I can come up with some suggestions for upping the difficulty without just throwing bigger baddies at them.

- It's not combat servitors it's oathsworn bodyguards for this encounter (they have autopistols)

- They used as much as the PC characters as there is a fair bit around on the map

- Tried to surrond them (3 either side)

- Aimed and fired in surprise round but it didn't achieve much

- Focussed on the arch militants and the RT (who had the plasma pistol)

- Didn't use surpressing fire

- Usually aimed then fired (a BS of 35 needs a fair bit of help to hit)

- In the story it says lady ash is just meant to escape in this encounter so she didn't stick around to use her powers

- They weren't in close range without breaking cover (15m for the pistols). They were unfortunately well within close range of the parties hellguns

- Did forget that the autopistols have manstopper rounds and didn't use their smoke grenade either

- Tried to but I think this was more hampered by my inability to make any hit rolls (out of 6 guys firing a round I was lucky to hit once a round)

Tried to fit as intelligently as the Explorers though in retrospect could have done other actions like smoke grenades to cover advance so they were within close range etc

Sounds like you did fairly well then, if it is only the first combat ambush you are talking about. The first combat was supposed to be a push-over, btw. Subsequent combats should be much more difficult.

Also, don't forget they get a bonus for firing full auto.

Enemies with small arms should be aiming for 'soft' targets. Those auto pistols aren't going to scratch heavy armor.

Remember to use suppression. In real combat MOST shots are suppression shots (though i don't expect that to be the case in an RPG). They attempt to keep a target pinned while other troops go in from the flanks for the kill (often with grenades).

If you really want to give your players a hard time put a heavy weapons emplacement in front of them (heavy stubber, or heavy bolter if you want to be really mean) to suppress them. Heavy weapons are devestating when fired from a secure position.

Remember, when real combat starts, don't give troops the same loadouts they have in the creatures section of the book. Real militaries always mix things up. Your players are POWERFUL individuals, most standard small arms aren't going to hurt them to badly without modification (alternate ammo, red dots, etc) For instance, if I was trying to run a competant military style squad I would load them up like this:

1 x heavy weapon (stubbers for an easier encounter, heavy bolters for a medium encounter)

1 x marksman (long las (with hotshot if necessary) or some other form of ranged weaponry. Give this person a higher marksmanship skill. If you want to be really mean put them far out and make it so the PCs can't easily tell where they are)

6 x mooks with assault weaponry (full auto rifles with red dots. Stubbers for now, assault las guns if you get Into the Storm. flash, smoke, possibly grenades)

Finally: don't worry too much about TPK. Players are fairly adept at avoiding death when they get low on wounds. And remember, running out of wounds doesn't kill them, it just makes it so they can actually get HURT.

My goal is typically to have at least 1 or 2 players start taking critical damage in major combat encounter, especially in climax encounters at the end of the night. I've yet to lose a player (they suddenly get very competant when their life is on the line), and usually they don't end up with anything more than lost rounds and perhaps a broken limb. But they will occasionally lose more, and honestly that is half the fun. Our arch militant has a robo eye patch that shoots lasers, the senchal a gilded arm with a datapad, and the captain a peg leg with a hidden weapon compartment. The occasional wound adds to the flavor, and makes your players feel like they are in a dangerous universe without having to off the occasional character.

Thanks for the advice got the next planetside section coming up next week so will give them a go

I wouldn't expect the 1st fight of Enter the Maw to challenge the PCs. (Unless the PCs weren't wearing armor.) Autopistols aren't very good against armor, but consider. Fullauto is +20 to hit, point blank is +20, and short is +10. So I'd expect the other side to be +30/40 to hit. That is a lot of hits. Also at least 1/2 of the enemy should have been doing suppression fire. The ork fight will be very tough for most starting groups. Also note that Fel wasn't trying to kill the PCs. Killing another Rogue Trader is a good away to start a feud between RT families.

PS- You haven't mentioned what gear the PCs have. If the PCs have gotten a hold of power armor, and melta/plasma/storm weapons you need to really beef up the other side as into the Maw pretty much assumes the PCs lack high end gear.