Hi all,

I was wondering if people with experience of the enemies presented in the core book would give me some advice. I'm planning a one-off session to introduce two friends to the game next weekend. The game will mostly centre around the recovery of an Imperial artefact caught in the middle of a Tau/Tyranid conflict and defending it against assaults from both enemies.

So my question is this: Of all the enemies in the book (not including hordes, which I can adjust as we go), which do you think are suitable adversaries for two Marines (most likely a Librarian and Techmarine, but potentially supported by gun emplacements to compensate for the lack of heavy weapons)? For example a lone Crisis Suit as a "boss fight"... How would it work out; too tough for newbies, too easy or about right?

I haven't seen the book but I don't think a lone Crisis suit would be that challenging...

The reason I ask is that the Crisis Suit commander is presented as the "master-level" opponent of the Tau, in the same way that a Hive Tyrant and Daemon Prince are for their respective races - and those are presumably pretty **** scary. Admittedly not all race "masters" need be created equal. That's why I'm asking for people's experiences rather than trying to gauge the stats for myself

The crisis suit as written in the corebook has 90 wounds, AP9, Unnatural Toughness (x2) and is armed with a plasma rifle and missile pod. Its one tough SOB. Especially when supported by a firewarrior or kroot horde. It really depends on your party makeup and how much damage they've taken beofre the boss fight. A firepower heavy team will probably struggle because of the weight of return fire and the about of armour the battlesuit has. A close combat heavy group will have an easier time if they can close the distance.

Either way I recommend you find at least one more player before running the game at all, preferably two. A two player party is really to small for this game as its all about teamwork and combining different strengths and weaknesses and I don't think that throwing in a couple of NPCs would work like it does in DH or RT.

Wargamer said:

Thanks. Unfortunately finding extra players is not something that is at all possible in this case (nor would I particularly want to, but that's another debate). In any game system you'll find people who refuse to run a game with less than a certain number of players, and the opposite (i.e. people who won't run a game with more). Depends on your GM style and what you want from the game, I guess (in this case, we want to roleplay in the setting, not just kill things in the most efficient way possible by having a well-rounded team). Difficulty is something we may just have to deal with via system tweaks or something else - if we decide that more players are required after this "test session" than I'll recruit them to run a proper campaign.

Cheers for your advice re: the Crisis Suit. That's helped put it into perspective.

Yea the "Crisis Suit" is a Tau commander in suit, not just a normal one. You could pretty easily make less-tough crisis suits if you wanted though by mixing the Stealth Suit and Tau Commander profiles I'd think.

As far as the 2 person group, I'd highly suggest having some NPC battle-brothers, as per the fluff a kill-team is anywhere between 3 and roughly 12 marines. Since the players have picked 2 of the most unique classes I'd add something like an assault marine and a devastator or something. There is no reason you can't play with 2 people, though IMHO to get the right "feel" they need a few extra dudes to make the team feel more like a team. Just my $.02.

There was a thread not too long ago on 2 man kill teams that you may find helpful overall for your campaign:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=179&efcid=3&efidt=378407