Well, last month, after having some problems with my own scenarios in enemies balance topic (too powerful/too much enemies or too easy/too few enemies) I decided to run TEP. I first ran A Stony Sleep and then The Price of Hubris.

My Kill-Team was compound by 3 Assault Marines and 1 Librarian

All Rank 2 (17.000 XP or something like that). I ran the scenario as written. EXACTLY as written.

When they get to the city, we decided to end the game. They had burnt 1 fate point in two diferent marines and the other assault marine was heavily wounded. They had only killed 11 Genestealers (no bombing run, so 39 left)

Those Genestealers were able to torn apart a Space Marine in one round (4 attacks with WS 75[Charging]) and then dodge all counterattack (2 dodges with Ag 75)

I ran the scenario as written and it was a suicide for my players. I didn't even think about throwing them the Broodlord.

Did I anything wrong?

Having a very imbalanced Kill-Team (no ranged guys at all, which is deadly against Genestealers, and Tyranids in general) is pretty much the problem. You really need someone with powerful ranged weapons when going up against Tyranids, otherwise you are just gonna get ripped apart.

CruelGM said:

Don't feel too bad. As written, the Auran Genestealer fights are some of the hardest encounters I've seen. They'd be a challenge even to a larger, more experienced team. Given your party, I would have made sure not to throw more than 2 or (maybe) 3 of them at the party at once, and if the group was struggling to bring them down I wouldn't add any more until the fight was over.

As you have seen firsthand, enemies in Deathwatch are deadly with a capital 'D.' Death is always close at hand for a Kill-team. This is great because it keeps players from getting overconfident or bored, but on the other hand it means a miscalculation or two by the GM will leave a team horribly outmatched.

The adventures of TEP, IIRC, are built for 5 Space Marines up to Rank 4. Since you were running for a group of 4, and all of them barely Rank 2, that alone should have warned you to ease back on the numbers a bit.

The other possible problem I can see is that your team was pretty one-dimensional (especially if no one was carrying a Heavy Weapon). The key to beating Genestealers is to spot them early and fire before they start moving. A Battle-Brother opening up with a Lascannon or Heavy Bolter before the Genestealer acts has a solid chance of taking out the Genestealer before it gets in melee range (especially the multiple hits of the HB; it's harder to dodge all of the shots). The Librarian probably needed to be throwing out Push-level area of effect attacks, too, so that the Genestealers couldn't dodge them. If he didn't have access to such abilities, that's another hint to ease up. Also, since you didn't have an Apothecary along, you probably should have expected the team to be unable to withstand the damage output of so many Genestealers (I always run an Apothecary with my team, even if it's just an NPC that sits in the back and heals).

MILLANDSON said:

Having something like an auspex or Space Wolf is important, too. Even Assault Marines with Bolters + Hellfire Rounds can wipe out Genestealers at range if they sense them before the Genestealers charge into melee or start running to close the distance. Once that starts, even a Devastator will be hard-pressed to wipe them out with that -40 penalty to hit.

I had to up the number of genestealers to even scare my party, I wish our group had ur problem.

1. I had made similar experience with the 6 Genestealers in Final Sanction appearing in the Gov's palace. I had to half damage in order to avert TPK.

2. You need to check the stat blocks of all major enemies before the mission and gage their relative strength against the KT before-hand. Also do not forget that your PCs are supposed to be pros: they probably know more about the xenos they are facing than your players (or even you). Some basic advice might be in order. In case of GS, the players must be aware that a GS in melee can even take out a Terminator. The players must be aware that they need to avoid melee with GS at all costs. At all costs. Unless they are rank 8 and equipped with the right gear. Perhaps.

3. With that understanding your players can begin to plan. 3 Assault Marines you say? At least 2 jump packs perhaps? They can stay in the air for 60 seconds, more than enough to kill all GS in the scenario. Lure them in, go up in the air, flamer or bolter them to death.

One must detect such pitfalls before-hand, communicate the situation to the players and have them develop a plan. They are not supposed to give the GS a fair fight, D&D-style. They will die. With the right tactic, the boss fight might be over quickly though.

On other encounters (non-GS), your kill-team might be too good for the NPCs according to your projection. In that case, ramp up the difficulty. Marines can handle a lot even if your recent experience indicates otherwise.

Genestealers are one of the premier melee fighters in the galaxy. If your players understand that before the mission and they still walk into a melee, they deserve the burning of fate.

Alex

Thing is, the Price of Hubris gives you very few clues that there will be Stealers.

But definitely, 3 AMs and a Librarian is completely unbalanced...

Doesn't the Librarian have Smite? That totally kills Stealers in the distance.

Is he an Ultramarine? (so that there could be some healing in your party)

Did they use Squad Modes?

But yeah, throwing 50 Auran Genestealers at a rank 2 4-man heavily melee-oriented party is really channeling TPK.

Regarding the Auran Genies (or Turbo 'Stealers as me and my mob call them) I decided to use them instead of the given Genies for the Final Sanction mission.

Big Mistake . Goddamn these things are brutal. Probably about as close to the fluffy Genestealers as you'll ever get but even so. Yeah, shoot the buggers to death, melee = dead marine. Solution, use the Genestealers from MotX! I found using all the monsters from MoX/Corebook if possible makes things more interesting, particlarly as my team is 5 + Inquisitor. However , when I run TEP, it'll be using the Turbo 'Stealers, but has more to do with how my campaign is developing more than anything else.

Your players KT is..interesting.. Get them to change, I emphasised team balance in my game which is how I ended up with all but a Tactical and one of them even wanted to play an Inquisitor, which has made things very interesting for me.

CruelGM said:

SPOILERS!!! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU'RE A PLAYER IN "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS"-SCENARIOS!!!

Nope. Nothing wrong there. But why did you run "A Stony Sleep" before "The Price of Hubris"?

When I ran this, I incorporated a bunch of genestealer hybrids first, in the Promethium mines, before introducing a lone genestealer as a before-taste of the things to come. I first sprang the hybrids on them, ganging up on the marines after they were lured in to one of the caves (by a cave-in trapped worker - also a hybrid - called out for help). They had only small troubles with the hybrids, but the single genestealer managed to bash one of the marines to the ground, wounding him greaviously, and that really managed to scare all the players. After that, bolter fire blasted the stealer to Kingdom Come.

From that moment the player characters all took a solemn vow of not ever letting the stealers getting into close combat, if they could prevent it in ANY way.

They where playing it smarter when they arrived at Grensvayl, as the player characters ordered the accompanying Imperial Guard to scout the riuns ahead of the marines. This gave the PCs the possibility of mowing the most of the stealers down when the monsters massacred the guardsmen. But the remaining stealers still gave the PCs a hard time in the end of the Grensvayl, so they decided to use Orbital Bombardment after moving out of the immediate area.

The final encounter in the Hall of Victory I gave the PCs some important time when the stealers was forced to move through the guests towards the Caele and the other important guests. The end criterium was STILL managed by the stealers, and I am pleased it succeeded. I have now to runTEP part two.