I'm planning a mission where the Kill Team has a strong chance to run into Adeptus Arbites/Local Enforcers in less-than-cordial circumstances. So I need to make up the stats for Enforcer Kill Team. You know, the sort of 'death patrol' squad thats sent to off mutants in Underhive. The statline is easy enough to copy from DH and I've decided to have them as small 5-men teams. All have carapace armor and shock mauls. Three have shotguns and suppressor shields, one has boltgun, one has heavy weapon (heavy stubber, grenade launcher or plasmagun) and the squad is supported by one or two cyberhounds.

Now the question is how to run such a complex unit? I could run them as individual characters but somehow I feel it will lead them being killed a bit too fast and that doesn't feel right. These guys a professionals not mindless fanatics so instead of being mowed down they should have the sense to retreat in good order when faced with overwhelming odds. On the other hand a single 5-man team should be much of a trouble to fully armed Marine (unless they get hit by plasmagun, ofc). So I'm thinking of running them as Horde and describing it so that when the Horde loses all Magnitude points the Enforcers have suffered a few casualties and feel so much outgunned that they retreat.

However, how do I represent such a complex unit as Horde?

I would ditch the bolt gun and use combat shotguns with executioner rounds(Radicals Handbook). This way you only have the one specialist weapon to deal with.

Polaria said:

Have a look at the Stormtrooper horde in Oblivion's Edge. I'd give the horde mag 25 (5 per man) and describe each loss of 5 points as an Enforcer killed or incapacitated (messily) and fraction as wounds of differing severity. Don't forget to use cover heavily.

Such fights tend to be short, nasty and brutal. The KT is capable of killing any such foe quickly, even when in cover, even when well-equipped (unless protected by force fields, humans tend to die fast).

The problem with such small hordes is that the Marines will inevitably target the guy with the plasmagun first and then the bolter guy next.

Such a squad is the right challenge for one or two Marines. A whole kill-team against this squad? Flawless victory, unless they all botch init.

Alex

ak-73 said:

That's actually a really good way of running hordes of better than normal critters

With regard to the OP if you are giving them a fair amount of special weapons then you could run them as an elite group and give them a heavy advantage in terms of cover, knowledge of the area and possibly even additional support.

Hordes are for mindless fanatics. Even if you are running something else and describe the fight differently that won't really change. Shooting one big mass of "enemies" will never feel like fighting a small group of trained indivuals. Plus hordes are pretty boring to fight, as they can't dodge, and damage rolls are mostly useless against them.

Run them individually, they will probably around one man per Astarte per round. But these are hardcore space cops vs superhuman killing machines, so it makes sense.

If the players don't destroy them easily it would be weird. If you want them to be a harder fight, look to the terrain and situation to make it hard.

Fighting Arbites from a mexican standoff is much easier than a running gun battle through an abandoned low-hive sump. How you play out the fight will change the result more than stats will.

Play them right, and fudge the dice a little to make them seem "heroic" than they really are. As the players will bloody them quickly, have them run, hide and one or two sell their lives dearly so their squad-mates might escape.

Effluent pipes would be a good way to make hiding and an escape possible, as even in carapace Arbites are smaller than marines.

And if the Kill-team is big, add a few more Arbites to mow through, multiple plasma weapons will actually make them sort of scary. Cover is of course a big one here, especially is you can rig it so only the Arbites have it.

Make it clear that the players overpower the Arbites, but that the Arbites are competant and still somewhat dangerous, even to Astartes.

That would be the way I'd run it anyway.

More information would be cool though.

I'm planning to use cover a lot since these guys are not stupid. The idea is that a single squad of Enforcers should be a piece of cake for the Kill Team, but once the reinforcements of multiple squads start to come in then they will have a real fight in their hands. I would assume that even dropping the whole precinct of 50 Enforcers isn't enough to destroy the Kill Team, but thats not the point of the mission either.

The Kill Team have their own mission and Enforcers are basically just people who get into their way and delay them so its in their interests to either deal with them quickly or, failing that, get the hell out of the fight and continue the mission. They also know that they have some **** hard core enemy (Genestealer Cult) waiting on the actual mission so they should pretty much want to avoid casualties and unnecessary waste of resources dealing with the Enforcers.

The Enforcers, on the other hand, have never seen a Space Marine and basically think the Kill Team members are some sort of mutants or other nasty creatures of chaos and must be destroyed. However, if the casualties start to pile up they will retreat and call for reinforcements. Also worth noting is that exactly because the Enforcers DON'T know what they are dealing with they will, at first, think they have the upper hand... After all, they've burned nasty cyborg mutants in strange-looking armour before.

Polaria said:

I really don't buy the idea that the Arbites Enforcers would mistake the Kill Team for mutants or creatures of chaos.

They certainly may not have seen Space Marines before, and certainly wont be able to decifer their Chapter, but most of the Enforcers will likely have seen picts, and/or heard stories of the Astartes. Even without that, the Imperial and Inquisition heraldry all over their armour would be an indication of the nature of Kill Team.

harlokin said:

When you are hunting mutants and traitors in underhive and you see a huge black, figure in the tunnels the last thing you assume is that its just your Local Friendly Space Marine. And the whole point of the Kill Teams mission is to NOT look like a Space Marine or anyone even remotely connected to Inquisition so I'm pretty sure they'll make their best to make the identification as hard as possible...

Yeah, and if they don't, you won't need to use the Enforcer squad, they'll have enough trouble already

A 5-man Arbites team is just a speedbump to a Space Marine Killteam, unless they use their most important power: a call for back-up! On a prosperous world, this could include such things as10-man squads mounted in Rhinos, or Landspeeders equipped with crowd-control weaponry.

Adeptus-B said:

I actually expect them to be quite a problem for the Kill Team. Not because the small squads could destroy or seriously damage the Kill Team (which they can't), but because the mission parameters call for speed and stealth. So the Kill Team must destroy the small enforcer squads quickly, completely and before the backup arrives. If they get stuck in firefight with the backup they will still probably win the fight, but end up failing the mission and losing the war...

Polaria said:

Okay, but do not underestimate the offensive power of Deathwatch Marines. In this game, the GM usually better errs on the side of the opposition because of the Marines enormous attacking power (as well as durability).

Alex

I give 'em three rounds!

Siranui said:

Can you say Frag Grenades/Missiles? I knew you could. Does any of the Marines have a Flamer? If the team happens to be kitted properly and the dice gods ain't against them, it could become a first round tabling.

Alex

I was being kind.

TBH, if they last longer than that it would kinda start to scream 'fix' to me.

So we've got AK going for one round, Siranui saying three at the most! I agree.

Man O Man, what did those poor fraken Arbiters ever do to piss you off aye? What, did they give you a parking ticket or something? I mean they're just doing their jobs and I bet some have got families to feed and all and you put them in the way of the Deathwatch for a giggle?

There's no justice, no justice at all... poor buggers, I feel sorry for them already.

Even Judge Dredd is no Space Marine.

Apart from the fact, that it sucks to attack another Adeptus, then you could consider giving the Arbitrators a few powers akin to Cohesion. After all, an Arbitrator Enforcer unit is also pretty bad-ass, extremely well trained and drilled together as a tight unit. You could show this by giving them some of the powers the Astartes have... Won't kill the kill-team, but the ability to do several actions might come as a surprise to the marines, and give the Arbitrators a chance to fight properly and maybe even retreat while fighting back.

Zakalwe said:

Well, to be fair, if they get the initiative first round and have adequate weaponry themselves, they have a chance to be real pain.

Alex

ak-73 said:

Serve them right for indiscriminate massacring of mutants I suppose.

AluminiumWolf said:

Sure, but remember Judge Dread has taken down much tougher opponents many times, because as well as being double hard, he's a cunning bugger too.

I would rate him against a rank and file marine.

“Beyond honour, there is duty… Beyond duty, obsession… And beyond obsession, insanity. Beyond that, there is only JUDGE DREDD.”

AluminiumWolf said:

......and even a Space Marine is no Dredd.....

that said I would imagine this little scene being played out....

Dredd: "Drokk these guys are genetically enhanced, hypno indoctrinated, are utterly dedicated to destroying the enemies of mankind, they hate psykers mutants and aliens and they absolutley will not stop"

Anderson: "I guess we better get the Iso Cubes ready and the Meat Wagons on stand by..."

Dredd: "Are you kidding Anderson? I'm going to petition Justice Department to set up a special division for em..."

Okay, I ran the Mission yesterday. I finally decided to run the Enforcers as a group of five individuals. I had a "hard time limit", meaning that whatever else happens the Enforcers WILL call for backup on the third turn, so the Kill Team had 2 to 3 turns (depending on Initiative) from the first shot or sighting to finish the job before they get the word out. To make the matters a bit harder the Enforcers were hiding behind Aegis blast-shields in a tight air-duct and there was a huge 70 meter wide vertical air-duct separating the Kill Team from the entrance where the Enforcers where.

The Enforcers died on round one.

The Kill Team didn't have Power Armor on, but had opted for Scout Armor and Camo-cloacks, so they were quite well concealed, silent and mobile. They set up two snipers and the rest of the team unsheathed combat knives and sneaked around the giant air-duct walls to hide behind the Aegis shields. On common "Go" the snipers shot two Enforcers (called shots to head) and the rest jumped over the Aegis shields to grapple and stab the Enforcers. To really rub it in they used Squad Mode which allowed them an automatic surprise turn.

Well played. I had to applaud it.