Adjusting Horde magnitude

By souldrinker38, in Deathwatch Gamemasters

Hello everybody !!!

New owner of the deathwatch core rules book i have a question for you, the veterans GM...

One of the "new" rules introduced by Deathwatch is the horde rules wich is used to depict the epicness of the Astartès fights which are most of the time resolved on a 1 against 5/10/ whatever big number basis.

I'm about to start a campaign with a group of relatively experienced players (roleplaying game wise) and i was wondering : how do you quantify / adjust the magnitude of your horde ?

I know it's dependant on the individual power of the xenos / heretics forming the horde but is there's a rule of thumb to follow to insure that the kill team is sweating is way out of the mission and not taking a calm stroll trought the Jericho reach ? To put it bluntly, is there's an ideal ratio to follow?

Thank you in advance,

For the emperor !!!

souldrinker38 said:

I'm about to start a campaign with a group of relatively experienced players (roleplaying game wise) and i was wondering : how do you quantify / adjust the magnitude of your horde ?

I know it's dependant on the individual power of the xenos / heretics forming the horde but is there's a rule of thumb to follow to insure that the kill team is sweating is way out of the mission and not taking a calm stroll trought the Jericho reach ? To put it bluntly, is there's an ideal ratio to follow?

Using multiple lower magnitude hordes allows for more flexability on your part, and allows you to distract and spread the fire from the players.

If the party mows through your encounters bring in reinforcements and/or up the magnitude of the hordes.

There is no real magic or easy way to figure out what to throw at your group. Be flexable and adaptable and you should be able to figure out what your group can handle in a game or two.