I am planing a campaign in which the kill team is send to support the liberation of a hive world attacked by chaos forces.

At the beginnig chaos made progress but could fought back by the imperial guard which pushed them back until one last hive world was hold by chaos forces. Problems beginn at the point on which the commanding imperial officer pushed the pursuit of the chaos forces too hard and too fast without guarding suply lines and establish a major front line. The imperial forces advance too fast, furious to crush the heretics and reach the outskirts of the last chaos bastion.

What they didn`t know was that chaos was tactical retreating to regroup, rearm and await further reinforces. So when the Imperials advanced in the hive chaos ambushed the weak guarded flanks and encicled half of the imperial regiments and tank battalions. Cut of from supply and reinforcements the Imperials fight against the time. Support by aircraft was established, but with growing chaos air superiority the resupply flights went more and more suicidal.

This is where the kill team is sent to. The first mission is to rescue as many imperial forces as possible.

Some Imperial Tank elements with armoured infantry fought their way out of the trap but runnig low of fuel and ammo and their escape could be stopped by Chaos tanks with infantry support. The players join a rescue mission ( a leman russ tank company with infantry support ) to break chaos lines so that the imperial forces can fall back for regrouping.

Succeding this the shattered Imperial forces retreat slowly under the shelter of the Imperial Navy which is providing air support but also struggeling against a growing number of chaos fighters. One of these chaos pilots is an fighter ace which counts almost 200 kills of imperial planes. Moral is low in the navy and the Kill team is sent to infiltrate the chaos lines, locate the air base ( which is a huge mobile land based aircraft carrier) an sabotage this fighter squadron and or kill the chaos ace.

Equipment for this mission would be only scout armor, bolt pistols with silencers, boltguns with stalker rounds, sniper rifles etc. as well as an landspeeder for transportation. The insertion would be via valkyrie.

So what do you think so far? Any improvements or suggestions?

I'm not sure why you're restricting the players to scout armour, I'm pretty sure the Black Carapace means that marines can stealth fairly well in Power Armour (apart from being seven foot tall, but that would be true in scout armour as well).

I'd also be inclined to give them the briefing, highlight that it's stealth-based and let them requisition their own gear. Let them know that they *can* get stalker rounds if they want them, but don't insist on it.

still have the -30 to stealth rolls... and scout armor gives +10... so yeah...

Ciphias said:

So I want to start by saying it's not a bad plan, but from my own personal Deathwatch perspective I have some concerns and ideas.

First, the DW is primarily concerned with the fight against the Xenos- your players may wonder when they get to fight the alien rather than a bunch of heritics. You of course have full reign over your enemies and your version of the reach mind you, and Chaos is a big deal there. My personal interpretation of Chaos being an enemy of the DW in the reach is because their presence is threatening the Reach (which the DW are sworn to watch over) and they are Space Marines after all so they're not going to sit idle while Chaos runs amok (though I can see the DW ignoring some Chaos forces if it would endanger one of their own missions). This ties in with the next point.

Second, make sure you come up with some compelling reasons as to why a Deathwatch Kill Team is the rescue force of choice- why didn't the Crusade ask for the DW's help on this matter, why not send in some storm troopers or a standard group of Chapter Marines? Also, why did the DW agree to assist- what is motivating them to help the Crusade/Guard in this way, seeing that it was their commanders that made the mistake of over extending themselves? This is not to say a compelling reason can't be generated, I'm just saying at face value, the 'DW as special forces and go in to save the day' is a bit on the shallow side. It works if you're going for action movie, IMO, but ifyou're going for more subtle or complex overtones I'd flesh this out some more. Maybe the Inquisition knows at the heart of the hive is some sort of xenos relic hidden in plain sight they want to keep chaos away from. Maybe one of the Imperial commanders that's cut off has earned the respect of the DW and they feel obligated/honor bound to help him regardless of the enemies or the odds. Perhaps the DW knows of a greater threat to the sector, and as part of the strategy to contain that threat is using local Guard and Navy resources, but they have to break the deadlock in order to free the troops up.

Third, again depending on how you run your campaing, I'd consider letting your own players, the kill team, decide what equipment to outfit themselves with. Feel free to offer up 'free' items or the like, but I would consider not forcing them into a course of action (as Chastity mentions). And yes, unless you're in scout armor or have refractor fields or the like, you're at a big stealth penalty. Along this line, one of the cool things about playing space marines is that you get to tote around a boltgun, wear power armor with oversized shoulder pads, and blow the crap out of the Emperor's enemies- just make sure if you're pulling these themes out of the game it's completely intentional and players are prepared for it (no one built a Devestator who focuses on loud and explosive weapons, for example).