I ran a one-shot Guardsman game last weekend. The premise was they were playing a squad in the Imperial Guard. I premade the characters and fudged the rules a little to allow more variety. Everyone was built with 850 xp, but I took advances from anywhere in the guardsman tree to fit their speciality. I also varied the squad up a little more than a regular tabletop unit would see:
Sergeant: Las pistol, Chainsword
Communications: Lasgun, Vox Box
Scout: Lasgun, Auspex
Sniper: Longlas
Medic: Lasgun, Medkit
Specialist: Flamer
Specialist: Grenade Launcher
Heavy: Heavy Stubber
Loader: Lasgun, Extra Stubber Ammo, Rapid Reload
Demolitions: Lasgun, Demolitions pack
I had 5 players, so each had a primary and a secondary character. The idea was that if someone died, they'd still have someone to play. Only the primary characters could righteous fury.
The setting was a planet whose governor had recently rebelled against the Imperium. The Space Marines quelled the rebellion, but now a platoon of guard are stationed to keep an eye on things and root out any remaining insurgents. A chimera dropped them off in the slums of the capital city to do a ground sweep of the nearby buildings.
First encounter I had a small gang fight (kind of necromunda style, using old necromunda minis, what they showed is what they had) break out in a nearby street. It led to a nice little fight to give them the feel of the game. I used scum stats + whatever weapon they happened to have. The scout ended up in a nobody can hit each other battle with one of the gangers in a small building. The sniper had a hard time hitting anyone. The sergeant kept advancing on guys only to have someone else shoot them. The grenadier only fired a couple shots, but to good effect. The sniper, who had been stationed on the roof of a nearby building couldn't seem to hit much. Eventually he took out the guy he'd been working on, and then finally killed the guy the scout had been trading shots with. After the mop up they spread around the extra gear to have some alternate weapons. About the only one that was used was the scout picked up a shotgun for close quarters work.
When they radioed in to report they were ordered to fall back. When they asked why, they were told there was incoming. No details forthcoming. They started to head toward the chimera's position when they noticed stuff was falling into the city. Most of it fell far away, but a few landed nearby. They investigated the nearest and found a group of gretchin pouring out of a building. This fight was fast and short, with no damage to the guardsman. It was just a taste of things to come.
When they reached the chimera, it had been destroyed by a group of orks. Once again, using an old 2nd edition era boxed set of ork minis I laid out 3 orks with a what they have is what they have gear. A guy with a plasma cannon was standing on top of the ruined chimera peering in. Some others with pistols were standing nearby in some cover. There was the body of a guardsman with missile launcher off to the side.
Our heroic guard snuck into position in some nearby buildings and the sniper took a good shot at the unsuspecting ork with plasma cannon. Really good roll dropped him to a critical wound right, stunning him. The orks win initiative and charge toward the group. There were three more I hadn't put on the map before than came out of some nearby buildings. One charged into combat with the sniper (who was at the nearest window) but didn't manage to hit. Another headed around to the cover near the missile launcher. The guys at the window disengaged and fell back so the flamer could hit the 3 orks outside the window. 2 were set on fire. I must admit the rules for fire seemed a little rough on orks, as they had a 00% chance of putting the fire out themselves. It was ok though, because that was probably the only thing that kept them from having some serious casualties.
The ork that wasn't on fire charged in through the window and hit the flamer guy for serious damage. Another ork had moved around to a different window and tried to throw a grenade inside. He fumbled and it landed at his feet, but the blast still injured the medic fairly seriously. The ork was scratched but mostly unharmed. The other ork who had moved around near the launcher continued to advance and reached the other building the guards were holed up in. This time the sergeant managed to engage and they had a fairly good fight for the rest of the encounter. He kept hitting the ork and managed to cut off an arm and a leg, but the tough bugger wouldn't die. The ork finally just pulled the pin on his grenade, which splattered gore on everyone and did a light critical on the sergeant.
Meanwhile the grenadier ran over to the missile launcher. He lobbed a frag grenade at one of the orks on fire, injuring him some more. He then switched to the launcher and fired one krak that missed, but by then the fight was about over. Some of the other squad traded fire with the ork with the plasma cannon. Plasma cannon was stunned just about every round, but got one shot off before he was finished. It totally missed, but still scared the life out of the players. The fight in the building was fairly rough, the ork who had original thrown the grenade traded fire for several rounds and managed to dodge three flame bursts in a row. Eventually he was lit on fire and that quickly spelled his end.
So they manage to make it through without casualty, although about 4 were reduced to less than 2 wounds with a few light criticals. Everyone had fun, although the flamer was definitely what evened the odds. I know I made mistakes along the way. I've got plenty of experience with WFRP, but it was my first time running a DH game. Still, everyone had fun and it was a great evening of play.
