Hello fellow Heretics!

My group will in near future fight with Imperialist for non active Emperor Titan. They will have might of Alpha Legion and Samech Forge World (and maybe other factions) but against them there will stand the might of Imperial War Machine: Imperial Navy, Imperial Guard, Space Marine Chapters… So there will be huge battle in space and on the ground. But I thinking what rules can I use to present those battles. I know that in RT we have rules for mass battles but they sucks. I like rules from DW about turning points.

Any more ideas?

If the Imperium knows the location of the Titan then so does the Mechanicum. Make sure to include Skitarii, Protectors, Praetorian Guards. Also supporting the fleet should include an Ark Mechanica. Instead of Imperial Guard use the Tech-Guard (same thing really just the exclusive guardians of Forge Worlds) they have better equipment and bionics. For fluff purposes include Space Marine Chapters with strong ties to the Mechanicum like the Iron Hands and Salamanders. Of course you could make up your own Chapter(s) to fill in what you need.

In some cases it is best to have such massive combats to be setting elements with smaller elements the PCs can handle. Like have them pilot a boarding torpedo across the void to sabotage one of the corner stones of the Imperial Fleet with the larger battle happening around them. Unless of course they want to be in command of a ship(s) then Rogue Trader would be needed for the void warfare.

The fun ground combat could have them supported by Baneblades, Stormblades and other Titan killing weapons. Again such weapon systems should be set pieces only. But over a fully functional Warlord? Your looking at something the Mechanicum would start a Crusade over. Give it something important like STC pattern never before seen, regenerating armor, anything from the Golden or Dark Ages of Technology. But sometimes characters can be eclipsed by the sheer extent of everything that is happening around them.

Thanks for answer great ideas

Becouse my group is advanced I want them to start acting as big fishes so little less bording action but more strategy. So I'm looking for rules for battles in space and on the ground.

Do they want to be rolling the combat dice or do they want to be in command making the decisions? Then have them make tests for Command, Pilot and any skills that can be applied to combat. Make the rolls opposed by Imperial commanders. Make a series of objectives with a total number of successes for one side to succeed over the other. Again this is applying combat in broad story strokes but still giving the PCs that element of failure. Chart out the effects of each phase both passing and failing. Make the positives more than just the Warlord, but also make losing not just about the loss of the Warlord but of manpower and equipment as well. It is a fine line between story and a flowing narrative to bogging down the game with hours long dice rolls.

I recently ran a big (although no where near as big as what you are describing!) combat that involved opposing units; I just used the straight Horde Rules, and it worked pretty well- big units laying waste to stuff, vehicles occasionally exploding, and the PCs still able to participate. I drew out the battlefield on a big piece of brown wrapping paper, and cut out and painted cardboard makers for the troops- coin sized for Units, hole-punch bits for heroes, rectangles for vehicles- and a little blob of Blu-Tac on the bottoms to keep them from scattering when the table gets bumped. I used 1cm = 1m scale, but for your mega-battle it might be better to go with 1mm = 1m.

I've found in the RT forum rules for mass combat made by RobOut

Here is link for that topic:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=160&efcid=3&efidt=587098

They are easy and epic, so I will go with it

As for your idea Adeptus-B it would be great to make map for the whole battle but I think that it's too much work. I will draw map so they could look where are major locations on the planet but nothing more.

As always thanks for reply!