Large Scale Space Combat Stats??

By E=MC², in Deathwatch Gamemasters

I currently have my players on a Necron tomb world, where years ago an organization attempted reverse the process that created the Necrons. Obviously they failed horribly and the planet was over run by organic Necron zombie monsters and was soon after sucked into the warp. The planet is fused with the tomb world so i figured why not turn it to a giant planet sized creature that comes to life as my players extract from the surface. I want to try and include a battle between the planet and the battle barge but dont have a real good idea of the stats on either. In the end my players would most likely have to return to the surface and place tactical explosives at its core. To sum it up

1) What are the stats on the giant monster

2) What are the stats on the battle barge and how would the players interact

3) Any other ideas on how to kill this thing

4) Overall does this sound like a good idea

This doesn't sound like something I'd give to the PCs to do. Rather let the crew of the Battle Barge do their thing, and use the Deathwatch to target things on the planet, assuming it's not just going to absorb them when they land. Considering the roughness of the system in Rogue Trader, and trying to scale that up to a BB vs a planet, and it's better left to the GM to describe what he feels is suitable for how successful the Kill Team is in it's objectives.

I agree with Data here, let the GM (you) describe what you think is neccesary and let the PCs do the up close and personal work. If I were to run a story like that I'd have the kill team, supported by other kill teams, naval ships, other marine squads/companies lay siege to the planet from all angles. Describe in brief what the other helpers ar doing, and send the kill team on the crazy dangerous missions into critical locations

Overall I do find the battle barge (10-15km?) versus a planet sized object (Earth is what, 12,500km?) is a bit of a stretch. The only think I know if in 40k's history that can take out planets is the "Planet Killer" Abaddon made. There is talk of exterminatus devices that burrow into the core, but it seems like that would just work or not and not involve a lot of kill team action.

Also, I'm not sure precisely what you mean by the tomb world being fused with the planets- my understanding (which is somewhat limited) is that the tomb world is in fact a planet, it's just one that the Necron inhabited for a long time where they remained in stasis. And as for being sucked into the warp, why is the DW still fighting on it if the planet is gone? I'm a little confused there, so some of my assumptions may be inacurate.

I would run this like the one in Oblivion's edge. Let the Killteam enter the tombworld and try to get to the core to disable it. Meanwhile fighting of the zombies and necrons. Keep the space battle in the narrative. Your players do not have any role on the ship and it might get boring for them.

I concur, battle barge vs. Zombie Unicron is a narrative fight, let the players do their thing on the surface. Feel free to ramp up the tension with fragmented battle reports from orbit about how badly things are going.

You guys bring up a good point., Ill probly just run it narrative. The mission started as a standard recon, my team was sent to the surface to investigate a distress signal. There was no real intell about the surface, DW command didn't want a planet that just emerged from the warp floating around the galaxy unchecked. Everything that happend on the surface and everything that is going to happen is as new to the high command as it is to the kill team.

The planet is more the size of a moon (3.5km), should have included that, so the possibility of actually killing the thing is their. But their really is nothign for the players to do on board. So that brings up the question, of what do they fight on the surface. The standard meat shied zombie guys would get boring after a while. Any ideas for a boss, or special troops of some kind.

Have the planet's automated defence systems target the ship, forcing it to move off to a safe distance. The team then cannot be extracted until they deal with those defence facilities.

If they are actually biological zombie type enemies then just go left 4 dead style special infected for bosses, make a biological "tank" comprised of dozens of corpses frankenstein style and make it extremely tough, like the planet itself but on a smaller scale. other options are limited necron defense systems that are still intact. possibly a tomb spyder or two to make things interesting.

I assume you mean 3500 km not 3.5 km. otherwise gravity will be negligible and the zombies will just fly off into space.I second the idea of shutting down the planets automated defense systems. another option might have final mission to set the necron power core to self destruct (I have no idea how the pc's would do that but a necrons power source has got to pack a serious boom behind it)

Sorry, double post

thanks for the feedback. I like the L4D style i think ill use that and modify the demon price stats to fit. Also yes i did mean 3500km but based on what you said your wrong. gravity is directly proportional to mass not size, so a dense enough planet would have a very large gravitational pull. happy.gif (sorry had to point that out im an engineer)

E=MC² said:

thanks for the feedback. I like the L4D style i think ill use that and modify the demon price stats to fit. Also yes i did mean 3500km but based on what you said your wrong. gravity is directly proportional to mass not size, so a dense enough planet would have a very large gravitational pull. happy.gif (sorry had to point that out im an engineer)

Theoretically yes I'll give you necron constructed super tomb metal perhaps. But I still feel compelled to point out that outside of bose-einstein condensates/muonium/neutronium etc the densest known material is pure Osmium and an Osmium planet at standard temperature and pressure (admitedly a silly assumption but I've already said necron super metal) would have a gravitational pull of 1/500th of a g. so yeah if this hypothetical moon exists definitely made out of funky necron super metal :D (also sorry... physicist :P )

also... make them sneak past a witch in power armour, -30 to move silent... "YOU'VE STARTLED THE MUTANT NECRONTYR FEMALE" the techmarine is hit... and instantly downed

Narkasis Broon said:

E=MC² said:

thanks for the feedback. I like the L4D style i think ill use that and modify the demon price stats to fit. Also yes i did mean 3500km but based on what you said your wrong. gravity is directly proportional to mass not size, so a dense enough planet would have a very large gravitational pull. happy.gif (sorry had to point that out im an engineer)

Theoretically yes I'll give you necron constructed super tomb metal perhaps. But I still feel compelled to point out that outside of bose-einstein condensates/muonium/neutronium etc the densest known material is pure Osmium and an Osmium planet at standard temperature and pressure (admitedly a silly assumption but I've already said necron super metal) would have a gravitational pull of 1/500th of a g. so yeah if this hypothetical moon exists definitely made out of funky necron super metal :D (also sorry... physicist :P )

also... make them sneak past a witch in power armour, -30 to move silent... "YOU'VE STARTLED THE MUTANT NECRONTYR FEMALE" the techmarine is hit... and instantly downed

Your physics and engineering have no place in 40k gui%C3%B1o.gif <dons fireproof suit and sneaks out of room>

But seriously, you could throw in 'low' gravity as an interesting environmental factor. Mag boots don't work on non-magnetic material, so the marines have an actual complication on their hands.

Overall though I think Siranui's got a good plan here- a slight variant would be to have the KT sent in to take out the AAA (Anti-Spacecraft Artillery?) in order to open up an avenue for the Barge to get within range to even attack the thing. Once the artillery is gone, the barge moves in, the marines have to move quick to get extracted, and then the Barge does the rest. Maybe even some scenes where the orbiting ships provide some cover fire on major enemy formations or the like.

Narkasis Broon said:

Theoretically yes I'll give you necron constructed super tomb metal perhaps. But I still feel compelled to point out that outside of bose-einstein condensates/muonium/neutronium etc the densest known material is pure Osmium and an Osmium planet at standard temperature and pressure (admitedly a silly assumption but I've already said necron super metal) would have a gravitational pull of 1/500th of a g. so yeah if this hypothetical moon exists definitely made out of funky necron super metal :D (also sorry... physicist :P )

How about it's core is made of ubergravonium? Seriously; this is not a problem: 3.5 or 3.5k km: The planet can have 1g, because this is science fantasy. Imperial Frigates are pretty small and still have artificial gravity, and heck: you can mine something called adamantium straight from the ground, too!

Throw in some other various warp creatures if you want a warp rather than necron theme, too. Just make stuff up and add tentacles. Heck: Have a thumb through a Monster Manual, too. It's warp-stuff, so anything goes.