Okay I am running a very military heavy Imperial guard centred campaign, though there is a lot of investigation in it. What i am wondering is I would love to send the group to fight some Orks but I don't know what would be to many in a fight. They are all rank 4 moving into Penal Legionnaire, they just have guard flak armor and lasgun as the moment though one has a heavy stubber as the heavy weapons trooper.

Now before they get there they will be allowed to get some other support weapons like grenades, auxilary grenade launcher, flamer and maybe some more powerful las weapons (though I have added the power setting rules someone put up on Dark Reign as well as just increasing the base damage and penetration of las weapons by 1 anyway) or solid projectile stuff. You get the idea, I am just wondering how many orks from the Rogue Trader books would be to many as honestly I want to give them a challenge not murderise them in a TPK moment......that comes later

Ouhh ... Orks can be very tough opponents, but it also depends on what kind of Orks you want to use? There are some with Unnatural Strenghs, some without it, etc ...

I'd also suggest giving your players a bunch of NPC Guardsmen that serve as backup and can serve as meat shields when it gets tough. Fights against Orks get ugly fast. If you can catch Braddoc, he GM'ed one in a DH campaign some year ago, but I cannot remember any specifics.

You could also use the Horde rules, but I'd only use them for Gretchins, or perhaps for some "background fighting" between the aforementioned NPC Guardsmen and another group of Orks - that may soon turn on the players once they finished dem other humies...

Nuada_Obliage said:

Gregorius21778 said:

Yeah, the Ork player I GM-ed for was during my first DH campaign; he was part of an Inquisitor forced to become a Rogue Trader's retinue. He was amde using some Dark Reign's fan made chargen for Orks; it worked moderately (since the player wasn't always around for the games). As enemies, I have never used them until now; mostly a horde of Grotz with a few Ork 'erderz.

I DO play an Ork Freeboota in a RT game; but I didn't ahd the chance to really get into it yet

Braddoc said:

Wait, wait, wait ... what about those greenskins on that peaceful island planet where a cadre of officers had conspired to allow them to breed because they longed for a conflict? I could swear this was one of your campaigns, and I distinctly remember the Acolytes fighting some Orks from a pirate boat. And having a hard time at that - those beasts sure were tough ...

Fun times. My Assassin really enjoyed posing as a PDF Major.

Lynata said:

OOohhh...yeah when the PDF officers conspired to let the ork pirates (on sail ship that is) attack the world of Cyprian's Gate, only for them to come rolling, kill,em all and save the day. They were enemies true, but short of 3-4 Orks trying to charge you (since you sorta kill one in 1-2 rounds, which made the others panic and flee IIRC) they were mostly used as a static adversary; the crews on those sail ships, dead bodies lying about etc etc.. There was the boarding action as well, where you guys and the human pirates boarded an Ork ship, while the guardsman PC went all autocannon on the Warboss as he tried to climb back on a ship.

And- You were passing as a noble woman and her husband, not a PDF Major; you followed the PDF Major to the secret meeting in some old Imperial Guard Vehicle depot before you were 'rescued' by the former Planetary Guv'ner who faked his death to better fight the Orks and reveal the conspirasists.

Ahh, those were the days.

Braddoc said:

*coughs* Sorry for OT. Nostalgia attack.

Lynata said:

Nah: only Kalta was with the Troops; you guys were joining in with the pirates at the Observation spot on the Mountains to face the Ork Pirate fleet.

We DID talk about Raven would be hot looking in some short skirt Commissar uniform, but it never happened

Oh, ehr, don't use more than 1 ork per character.
Have them close in later after the first or second waves of Gretchin

If you own Deathwatch then you can do some pretty exciting large-scale fights with the horde rules. Keep in mind though, the horde rules were written to make large mobs of trash dangerous to Space Marines (seriously hard customers!) so when the horde DOES hit someone it will be HARD! It makes a GM's life much easier to manage though and fights go much faster than stopping and rolling for each of 900 gretchin to roll attacks. The flamer and heavy stubber troopers will each feel more important to the team, and a single good lasgun shot will still likely produce some results "I got one, Sarge!"

Rather than swamping them under with one or two huge hordes (with corresponding huge damage from hits!) try fielding several smaller magnitude hordes. If you give the players a few hordes of mook PDF or IG troops to command then they can soak up alot of the incoming greenskin punishment, which lets you throw more nasty orks and gretchin at them. If you also own Rites of Battle or Into the Storm then you can include a few Killa Kans, Truks, Bikes, Deff Dreds or some other wacky contraption. If you inflict this on them then maybe have a conveniently placed dead heavy weapons team (missile launcher with 2 Krak and 1 Frag missiles remaining or whatever makes you happy.) or a few spare Krak grenades/Melta Bombs so someone can do some stupidly brave deed and save their mates.

If you end up making it way too overkill then tack on a scene where they get a shot at a Boss and his Nob retinue, then give them a Fate Point if they manage to take the Boss down, since it is going to be a dramatic turning point in any fight with orks. This way they can earn back a fate point in a heroic way after you bleed them of too many without just flat out saying "yeah, I goofed that up, sorry."