So, me and my D&D group decided to try out Deathwatch, since the majority of us are 40k fans. While the majority of my sessions will take place in a crusade, liberating a system of worlds I created, I've decided for my first session (after character creation) to be set in a Deathwatch ship, with the new Kill team undergoing training exercises to get them (and me) used to the overall feel of the game.

One of the main questions that is bugging me, and that i can't seem to find an answer to in the rulebook, is how many enemies should I be fielding? My first sessions will be against Tau, and as they don't seem to fit into the "horde" ideal, I'm not sure exactly how many I should be putting down in any given scenario, so any help there would be appreciated.

Secondly, how do those of you who do DM record info on enemies etc? Such as wounds and other things like that.

Any other DM tips that you use to make your games go smoother would be appreciated.

Cheers in advance!

Al

JayCat said:

The DM screen for the 40k games are pretty nice, I use them. For recording I usually just use scratch paper(not very sophisticated I know). You could make Tau Firewarriors into a horde, Truthfully though I use a lot more elite type of encounters, so instead of a horde of eldar, a death jester leading a small group of harlequins(2-3). Avoiding a horde is sometimes better then engaging it depending on the mission, though the team will certainly take note of where they saw the horde so they can commence a seek and destroy mission at a later time.

For rank 1 DW a horde of 30 is probably as high as you want to go initially. My first horde encounter I put the players on top of a mayan type temple so they had a nice retreat and a bottle neck to work with, just to learn the rules for the encounter. I am on my 20th session now and my encounters are alot more dynamic using terran against the players. This last one I had a scene simular to terran I experianced in Iraq with multi tiered passages, and the enemy (orkz) has jet packs too.

Some folks have used the base Tau troops in hordes, but simply made each individual in the horde count for multiple magnitude. So for example, 10 fire warriors would be a mag 30 horde, or the like, rather than closer to the way some of us do guardsmen which would be more on a one for one basis. This kicks their weaponry up a notch, and allows you to run combat with large numbers of enemies fast and furious. Remember that a horde is an arbitrary number of troops, it's up to the GM to decide how many there are.

I agree with Nimon here on the size of hordes- 2-3 Mag 20 to 30 hordes should be good as you're starting to learn the ropes. As always, I highly encourage new GMs to try out Final Sanction- it's free, and it's not a bad adventure (you do have to put in some extra work to get the RP aspects to come to life though).

I also recomend being honest with your players as you guys figure out the rules- mistakes will definitely be made as there are a lot of rules to cover, when first starting out don't be fearful of resurecting players or reducing damage inflicted. It can be easy to kill players off if you're not careful.

As for using individual enemies, the only issue with that is it becomes harder to create the 'epicness' of blowing away tons of troops. You're probably going to get each player to kill .5-1 enemies each turn, maybe 2-3 if they have a heavy bolter and walk their fire between victims. There is nothing wrong with that style of encounter mind you, but it's distinctly different from horde play. Pick a flavor of battle you're hoping to achieve and plot things out that way.

As for enemy stats? I tend to have their base stats written on paper, and I try to keep all my enemies in one 'section' (kind of like they do in published adventures, even if they're in a kind of odd spot IMHO) so I can find it quickly, then I just use a pencil to scratch down wounds, etc.

I use an old math composition notebook for my Deathwatch game. When I call for initiative I write each Battle-Brother's name (Or an abbreviation), all the monsters for the encounter, and quickly record the numbers they get for initiative. At the end of a mission I make a note at the bottom of the page +WXYZ Exp, +X Reknown, so I have an XP total if my players forget. I like the math comp book just because it gives you easily lined up columns so that you never lose track of a Wound count on your enemies. I can usually keep an entire combat in under half a page, noting initiative and Wounds for all the Xenos in the columns. This is just my way of keeping track of things, anything will do.

As for fielding enemies, there are exceptions, but one of the rules I saw in Final Sanction that I still use (although it was only intended for Genestealers), was field a number of Elites equal to 1 less than the party. Genestealers were comparably Elites in Final Sanction. At rank 2-3, I have hit them with as many as 4 or 5 Genestealers for a challenging combat.

For my Kill-Team of 4 Marines, I will field any combination of Hordes or Elites equal to the number of marines, plus or minus one. I honestly don't bother using Termagaunts or Hormagaunts, because if they are not in a horde, they cannot hurt Space Marines with Toughness 10 and Armor 8(10 on the chest), doing 1d10+4 Pen 3. All of my Deathwatch GMing experience comes from running Extraction, Final Sanction, and Oblivion's Edge however. With other Xenos types, the + or - 1 rule might not be optimal, but with Tyrannids, it seems to be money. At the end of Rank 2 which is where the Kill Team is now, 3 Magnitude 40 hordes are ideal. If I were making them 30s, I might do 4 or 5. Careful with Hormagaunts though, their Overwhelming (Horde) trait gives them that extra d10 which makes them surprisingly deadly when you're rolling 4d10+4 Pen 4.

Oh, when you roll that 4d10+4 Pen 4(or something similar, as playing with Hordes will often give you those ridiculous damage dice) and roll a ridiculous number like 36 (with Pen 4), I make it a rule to call it "10 damage". Knocking half a player's HP off is more satisfying than rolling critical damage on one of your players in the first round of combat. The insane damage variance of Deathwatch is one aspect of the game I am not satisfied withalthough I will say that is probably the ONLY complaint I have with Deathwatch as it exists.

Just my two cents, hope it helps.

Watch Captain Shaw said:

Just remember that hordes cap their damage out at +2d10 to whatever the base damage is (which is typically 1d10). The number of ranged attacks is what doesn't cap, so a mag 60 horde would have 6 ranged attacks, with any autofire rules applying as normal (so a mag 60 horde with autoguns would have 6 attacks, each on full auto, meaning they could do up to 60 hits.

Aside from that this is spot on in my book- one of the reasons I roll behind a GM screen. I don't, and my players don't, tend to like to be obliterated by dumb luck. They do like a challenge and the risk of death, so it's a tough line to cross. If you find youself pulling more than an occasional punch, your encouters are probably too difficult.

Something I forgot to bring up is the inclusion of an Apothecary will have a dramatic impact on the game. If you have one, and he's good at his job, he'll probably heal the party to near full wounds at the end of each fight. If he's not there or crap at his job, then each and every wound the players take will be big news, and last likely until the end of the mission (and potentially beyond depending how much down time you give), so you'll need to be more thoughtful.

Absolutely. I do all my rolls behind my GM screen. I've gotten pretty good at casually calling "ten damage" on obscene rolls. My players have also become very apt at spending their Fate Points as reactions to heal a d10 wounds. Go fate points!

I use the following rule for the number of enemies.

Per marine either 1 horde (of about magnitude 40) or 1 elite or 1/2 master level.

Sometimes I adjust it a bit to either increase the danger. Especially master level enemies mostly need adjustment. Some masters are not able to kill a marine by themselves and only increase the threat level of a horde or elite. then he needs a horde for support. Sometimes a master level enemy needs a hiorde to bring them into close combat (for instance power weapon armed officers).

What about horde sizes? I usually use horde of magnitude 40. Lower maginitudes like 20 or 15 are mostly used as a heavy weapon team. When I need larger numbers I do not increase the size of a horde, but add another horde of 40. (Btw I use size 40 and not 30 because it is easier to calculate the 25% range).

As said by JayCat the use of terrain is important to make the encouter more dynamic, but it takes some practice to get that right.

Against ranged hordes - like Tau or renegade Guard - I recommend the players make use of cover. Any Imperial Fists doing so are going to be **** near immune to most shots so long as they either spend 1 Cohesion or just opt to stay in Solo Mode.