Well, not cooks, but Operators.

Here's my dilemma… I'm just starting a forum based OW game with a recon Squad and I have a Storm Trooper, Ratling and 2 Operators. Yes, 2 Operators for one Sentinel Walker…. What do I do to keep the Operators happy?

One of them has the Hot Shot Pilot talent so it would make sense for him to operate the walker, but how do i keep the other one feeling involved?

Daveyspawn said:

Ask him what he wants. If he has an Operator because he is interested in driving things, I would give him another Sentinel Walker (maybe equip 1 with heavy flamer and the other one with a lascannon to have a good variety of weapons).

If he, on the other hand, is not only interested in driving but also in the other aptitudes of Operators (he's got quite interesting starting equipment like lascutter, tools or auspex), he doesn't need to be always in a vehicle and he could collaborate with other tasks. Think about demolitions, traps, sabotage or mere coordination of the squad.

Daveyspawn said:

make them walk or put them in a vehicle that uses multiple people like a chimera.

I'd honestly give them both Sentinels.

Planning on writing up a regiment that gives the squad a Chimera plus a Sentinel or two. Good little group that forms.

Don’t forget this the Imperial Guard and the methods that each Regiment organizes itself is based on their own preferences.

One simple way is to say that your Regiment has a policy of always having 2 Walkers active on the field, which is done by moving one squads Walker to another (and with that squads Operators, if any, performing a different function). In this case half the Regiments squads will have 2Walkers in them while the other half does not, this can even give some role-playing ideas for certain scenarios and adds a small bit of uniqueness to the Regiments style.

Another way is to say that the other Operator’s squad was wiped-out and he has now been instated with the remaining PC’s squad. It’s a common practice in the Guard to merge both squads and Regiments when they fall below half-strength, and there’s nothing in the rules saying that all the PCs have to be from the same squad (and when Hammer of the Emperor comes out maybe not even the same Regiment!). In fact the entire idea of “Kill Team” is to yank individuals of great/promising skill and put them in a single squad to do suici~ I mean “heroic missions of strategic value” .

I believe part of the reason for the whole one-per squad deal wasn’t so much to prevent PC shenanigans, which will occur regardless, but to prevent the PC’s from simply relying on the NPCs to do all the work. If every Guardsman in Hunter-Killer Regiment had a Hellhound or Walker it might mean that there are ten of thousands (if not more) of `em running around just from one Guard Regiment…and that is a lot of firepower for a single group (and any situation that would warrant it would be spell out as TPK or FUBAR).

…Plus this is the Guard, the group that has a hard time making sure that there is a lasguns for every Guardsman! Like fraking hell they would be able to make sure EVERYONE got a vehicle for every single engagement, it would be a logistic nightmare for the Munitorum anyways.

Though if the Regiment had the “Well Provisioned” Doctrine I might see it as possible…but I digress.

I would talk with your players about it. In world of darkness I played a character that was primarily a driver, but I didnt own a car. It was alot of fun in those tense moments as I break into a car, hot wire it and get everyone out at the last moment, sometimes scraping an enemy ir two off on a wall. If one of them wants they could be an operator in name, but his true specialty could be boarding and taking enemy vehicles, making him a crazy anti tank guy. Give him a grapple/magboots, a few krak grenades to blow open hatches, some firebomb grenades to clear out the interior. He could have a lot of fun.

Baring someone crazy enough to go for that, I would put on in a sentinel and the other in a chimera.

Definitely talk to your players. I'd vote give em more sentinels. Heck, why not 5 sentinels? Sounds pretty rad to me. They can each customize theirs, more armor, enclosed, better movement, jump jets, vehicle grav-chutes, open-top and the op has a missile launcher too.

Heck, I'm all excited already. Just roll with it!

I'm personally inclined to give squads with Sentinels a Sentinel for each character - tanks and other multi-crew vehicles are per-squad, but single-pilot vehicles (I'd include combat bikes in this, for non-standard Recon or Rough Rider squads) are per-character.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Yeah, didn't you say when you were writing it that per-character was the intent?