The new thread for the new you!


On a side note, I'm mildly surprised that no one in this group recognized who Richard the Deep Breather was, and *greatly* surprised that no one Googled it to have a conversation about its source! For shame....

So, Biggs and I have 11 Degrees of Failure between us. Can we just call it and say we fail the stealth check?

Jansen got 4 DoS and Two-bit will have 1 if he does nothing, or more if he does something in the next 24 hours. What did Jack get? I don't see a roll.

Have yet to make a post or roll, been crazy at work and outside it too, will get a post up tonight.

Oi oi, it's still the 15th here on the west coast.  Great thing about flying across the IDL is you can land earlier than you leave ;)

Also, Korean food hath left my tongue numb.

Edit: Both Two-bit and Sleepy need some TLC.  Sleepy's Heavily Wounded, too.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:31, Sun 16 Sept 2018.

@ AC, would Jill and Zilch be able to do a quick field patch on the two troopers before the driver's take off? I went unanswered on my first call for first aid.

Yep, if they haven't already gotten it this mission.

Cool, if Zilch wants to roll, Jill will assist as another trained medicae.

You can only make rolls with your primary character...Jill can give her comrade bonus to certain things for Jack, but not to someone else. :/

How far out is the enemy? Like, do we just make an attack at Short Range? My thought was to throw a grenade, but I'll be taking penalties to-hit once I'm outside 18m. There are a lot of crucial details missing.

Oh you will know you’ve been noticed at 230m but I didn’t want to force you to shoot and give away your position, or waste turns on just movement. Use those free rounds to your advantage if you like.

Assume “d6” visible through the trees the first round, adding d4 per round until you breach or they overrun you. Their ranks will close as you near the objective so grenades are more effective as time ticks by.

In reply to Adeptus Custodes (msg # 9):

Was more trying to give assistance as a trained assistant than a comrade, so he'd get a +10 or +5 for having one assistant but if that's a no go, no problem.

Was reading Combat Formation, apparently everyone get's Zilch's Int Bonus and an additional +1. So if you're a Zakurian you have a possible +9 to Initiative if you take Zilch's bonus.

Also what's the skill roll needed to find the correct spot? Jack wants to assist if possible, with his implants he should be able to pinpoint the area within a few meters.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:28, Tue 18 Sept 2018.

Just a tech use roll. I think an auspex gives a good bonus and Zilch’s internal one should work similarly.

I'm still confused as to where everything is. We are in the woods and the breach point is in an unspecified direction (though likely in front of us). There are 'nids in some location, but no specified distance away in relation to our position (60m away from the breach point).

I cannot act because there is not enough information for me to know what the hell is actually going on. If I just Run towards the breach point, am I going to be charging right into Tyranids?

Let me describe this visually again and see if that helps.

There is a mountain side that holds beneath its rocky south-facing slope a buried Imperial ship. It is facing nose-down. It is between 1.2 and 1.5 kilometers in length when fully operational, but you don't know how much survived, or even what specific type of craft it is.

The terrain is completely covered in stunted fir-type trees - scores, even hundreds of years old, but none growing bigger than 1/3 the normal size of these trees. The tyranids are *mostly* located to the west/right of the buried ship when you arrive.

You approach from the east/left. You are 'halfway' up the side of the mountain, so as you approach the spur of the mountain that contains the ship, you are near what should be the tail section of the ship. Zilch has seen the schematics and pinpointed the location of where to breach, but as it is covered with scree, dirt, and stone, it will require some searching for the perfect spot to plant the charges.

Tyranids are aware of your presence and are climbing up the slope on your left, from the open plains where the Salamander and Tauros just did their distraction run. They are also swarming over the buried ship and so coming from your front [the west]. Those are much closer than the ones coming up from the plains. The ones down-slope from your position are mostly wounded survivors from the strafing run; the ones climbing over the spur are fewer in number but unwounded.

The tyranids can be any range from you that you want when you start shooting. They don't notice you, though, until you get to within about 200m of the target location. You cannot be closer than 60m when you roll for initiative; you have free shots before then, but if you start shooting early it may bring reinforcements faster.

Is it possible for me to destroy their cover with my Autocannon? Or do you prefer I mop up the stragglers?

I'd say don't waste your time clearing forest cause that will only mean that when the gargoyles show up they will know exactly where to find you and thus us.  Besides with that AC you're at maximum only at medium range and if you come up just a fraction you're in short the entire time.  Take out enemies not foliage.   ;)

Okay, so the best (IMO) time to start shooting is 60m out. It just seems easiest to imagine tyranids swarming around the site and that needs to be cleared. All this extra "200m" of free shooting is complicating things unnecessarily.

No, it is giving you an opportunity to fire if you want to. They spot you when you are 200m (ish) away from your objective. We've already had an issue with people wasting entire turns on just movement, so I am omitting that...but you can still fire on the enemy if you want.

I honestly don't know what you're bitching about. Most people would be happy to get free rounds of firing on an approaching enemy with no retaliation.

Running some mathhammer...

I can start shooting at 180m without taking penalties, and with Sprint+Hip Shooting I can move an average of 10m/round (alternating 12m and 8m to avoid fatigue) and fire every round (18 shots total), or move an average of 28m/round (alternating 48m run and 8m full move) and fire every other round (~6 shots).  I'm kinda leaning towards the latter on account of these so-called "early reinforcements".

This doesn't sound like no retaliation.

Anytime you can clear out enemy troops early is good in my book.  I'd advocate for opening up earlier rather than later on the assumption that enemy reinforcements will be arriving anyway, and it's better to have a smaller number of the original wave around when that happens.

The concern I have is that Biggs is slow. I don't him to get caught in the flank and get separated from the squad. So he'll be waiting to shoot until his as forward as he can be.

I feel that.  I don’t have Sprint either to make my life nice...yet.  After I swap my heart out or loose both legs and get a pair of reverse legs like a Battletech Marauder mech then I’ll be good ;-)

I think that latter bit can be easily arranged :D

How long will it take you guys to run the 200m?

If I do nothing but run I cover 18m a round.  So I’ll take about 8 rounds to cover 140 meters till we get to right about the 60 meter mark where AC said we could get to and where Zilch is for that first post.

Long as I’m understanding everything right.

I suppose I could run ahead of y'all (at an average of 36m/round) and start semi-autoing 4 rounds ahead of you, in that case.  Or 5-ish rounds of run-shoot plus another 3 of semi-auto once I hit 60m.

Admittedly, since I think I'm the only person with the Hip Shooting talent (built for exactly this scenario), I guess the question is whether we think I can eliminate enough of the enemy shooting on the run to have a net benefit when the earlier reinforcements arrive.

I have hip shooting as well, and my Run action is 24. My Full move (what you use when you use Hip Shooting) is the Full move.

EDIT: To make things easier, someone just tell me when to start shooting.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Wed 19 Sept 2018.

Two hip-shooting fools ain't bad...if we sync our run-and-shoot cycles, we'd have better odds of hitting *something* over the span and making it slightly easier once everyone else starts shooting.

Edit: so it'd be something like:
Round 1: Run
Round 2: Full move+single shot
Round 3: Run
Round 4: Full move+single shot

at this point we'd diverge as I'd almost have reached the target distance so I'd spend three more rounds Full Move+single shot or Run+2 rounds of aimed semi-auto

If Ghost does the run-and-shoot cycle with me, he'd be running only slightly behind Zilch (32m over 2 rounds vs 36m) so that's a fair amount of dakka he can get in before we hit 60m.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:44, Wed 19 Sept 2018.

Keep in mind, all I have is a normie Lasgun. And, you can only make a Standard Attack with Hip Shooting, as well. Melta is saved for big game.

Heh, maximal blasts count as standard attacks (which was my original intent when I took the talent).  The semi-auto wouldn't kick in until I hit 60m and have to wait for the rest of y'allz to catch up :D

I probably won't be using that setting here, however, unless Zilch spots something big.  Now, if only we'd managed to acquire a plasma cannon earlier, *that* would be fun.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:56, Wed 19 Sept 2018.

When I get home I’ll roll the Medicae for Two-Bit and Sleepy and toss it here.

Also, Jansen told us not to fire a weapon. Just saying.

18:11, Today: GSN 1610311843 rolled 87 -- 2 degrees of success using the Only War system with a target number of 100 with rolls of 87.  Medicae Sleepy.
18:11, Today: GSN 1610311843 rolled 83 -- 2 degrees of success using the Only War system with a target number of 100 with rolls of 83.  Medicae Two-Bit.

Sleepy was heavily wounded so there would be an extra -10.  So she is healed 6+1 for 7 wounds.  Two-Bit is healed for 6+2 for 8 wounds.

Okay, so what am I doing here? Also, Zilch, what's your Intelligence bonus? I don't get the Paranoia bonus that you Zakurians have.

Yeah Jack moves at the same pace as Zilch, so he'll close to the target area.

Zilch gives a +6 int bonus instead of your agility bonus, so it's your other initiative bonuses +6

Jack's got it almost right.



So it's his Int bonus of 6 plus one more for a total of +7.  You forget the extra one from the talent itself.  So worst case scenario you're rolling 1d10+7 or if you're like most Zakurians 2d10+9 drop the lowest 1.  It's like Tearing for Initiative having Lightning Reflexes :-D

22:34, Today: GSN 1805141731 rolled 8 using 1d10+7 with rolls of 1.  Initiative.

ahahahahahaahahahahahahahah

Does anyone have strong opinions about not shooting until we hit 60m?  Jansen said to hold fire until after the airstrike, so my intent is to start shooting immediately after that.

I have reservations from an OOC perspective, but I don't think Biggs has the time to share his opinions IC.

Do what you think is right and wwe'll deal with the consequences.

You'll have time, my first round is spent running rather than shooting (to get inside 180m).  The IC post I made was composed before I knew we could start shooting at 200m instead of 60m, so you could have Biggs yelling, "Wait, don't!" or somesuch.

Jack'd rather get close to the area we need to hold and set up some basic firelines, before alerting the horde of our precise location. But each person will do as they do.

Yes, and I was half-hoping for a brief moment where Jansen has to struggle between cursing you for disobeying or silently praising you all for ensuring that the mission goes forward. Ultimately his orders fly out the door once you’re discovered so there’s no harm in shooting at any time.

Also, “may bring reinforcements” isn’t definite. If your kill count is big enough in the first few rounds to convince the hive mind that a battle of attrition within the bowels of the ship is preferred to open slaughter in the pines, then that is what will happen.

And really...

8 rounds of Zilch running to get to that roughly 60m range takes him all of about 40-45 seconds.  How much ‘extra’ time they have to adjust and send more troops is going to be limited by time itself.

Alrighty then, shooting like a maniac it is.

Should I be rolling these "free" shots as group for those 8 rounds it will take Zilch to get to 60m?

Nah, I'll just extrapolate your chance to hit vs the number of rounds of free-firing you're doing. Just remember to tick off the appropriate ammo reserves!

I'll try to post a complete firing pattern for the 8 rounds sometime tonight.

And here's the winning pattern:
48
8+fire (TN 71)
48
8+fire (TN71)
28
aim+semi-auto (TN 66)
aim+semi-auto (TN 66)
aim+semi-auto (TN 66)

8 shots total.  Revised ammo count in post.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:41, Fri 21 Sept 2018.

I will definitely be on the long drive home Sunday night, but have Monday off from work, so if you guys have enough posts for me to write it up Monday morning, I can - otherwise we can wait til after dinner Monday night.

It seems like we've gotten to the breach point and thinned out the herd enough that we can start shit up. I think our best bet is to establish Overwatch right now and fry some xenos as they try to fuck with Zilch.

Not that it matters much, but Ghost has Tech-Use in case literally everyone else gets fragged.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:22, Sat 22 Sept 2018.

In reply to GSN 1805141731 (msg # 50):

As do all of the Zakurians, though Jill has a moderate-high Intelligence of 46 and is better at it than Jack.

which is why i said literally everyone else ahaha

Please make sure your Wounds totals are accurate before we enter the ship itself later this week. Jack/Zilch were doing one last round of First Aid on anyone that needed it [and was still eligible] but I'm not sure it was actually done beyond verbal mentioning.

Got mine updated.  Two-bit is at full and Sleepy's still down a couple.

Jack/Jill said they’d assist Zilch in tending to peeps.  I rolled for Two-Bit and Sleepy already.  I figured the NPC’s in the vehicles either would be narrative choices by you or something you’d ask about later if it became important in a PM as we’d tend to them too before leaving them.

That said...

Whatcha think guys and gals?  I know explosives are always useful so it’s a question of if we want to shove ourselves down the throat of the tyranids and make them choke or cut their throats from the side?

We've still got krak if need to blow something else up later.

Or a meltagun to just slag it.

Oh I thought about both of those things already.  Really it’s more a question of...

Kraks and Meltaguns and the like all have numbers.  The breaching charge is a plot device.

Do we want to save the plot device to use later to modify the plot?

You mean when we find a rail car leading directly to the still-volatile core of the crashed ship that's incubating a norn queen? ;)

I mean, sure, if you want to make it boring :D

Yes.

Hence my ask.  Zilch being the worst combatant among the crew means you would have to carry him figuratively speaking and be better death dealers if we went that route...and assuming the hole leads to the ship and not a vast underground tunnel system they used to get to the ship but hadn’t entered yet, lol.

There are no wrong choices, only those that make things more or less interesting. Like the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times.". ;)

That's actually a life module in the Infinity system (since it seems like every frickin' system has it these days...)

Of course, that's also the easiest way to have a prison sentence, an Ebil Nemesis (TM), AND previous character death all show up simultaneously in your background :D

I'd prefer to make the entrance through the breaching point.  Less up front attrition that way.

Only two downsides I can see of using our current breaching point, one we no longer have breaching charges. Two, the tyranids have a larger entry point as well.

Just wanted to make sure there were no vehement objections one way or the other before continuing to blow-shit-up.

This is an imperium voidship so there will always be plenty of explosives on board to juryrig to use.  Just takes some creative ideas to make it work.  Long as you guys keep the tyranids off my back I should be done in one or two rounds give or take.

so needy there Zilch.... ;)

The winky face is to show the xeno giblets I got in my eyes.

Damn straight I’m needy.  After this mission I’m on half rations and last man for upgrades cause I did exactly what Jansen told me ;-)

I really need that augment Space Marines have that lets them eat anything and gain nourishment from it.  Then I can sneak random plant life, dirt, a few pieces of chitin and for dessert suck the marrow out of that lictor limb.  Don’t mind my mutation that pops up where I go all preadator without a cloak moving forward...

You do that Zilch and you can go dig your *own* latrine ;)

I take it we're breaching at our current spot, then?  No "vehement" objections I can see.

I'm all for using the new breaching point.

Yes it looks to me like you proceeding with the original plan. Once we get some shooting done I can write it up.

Since none of you are the primary targets you can’t wait and fire at Pb range but you can position yourselves for short on all shots. Or spend a move to cluster around Zilch’s location so they DO have to come right at you, and suffer the momentary boom of his shaped charges if they go off this round.

I currently like my vantage point, long as I don't get swarmed by a bunch of gaunts I can pick off targets as they approach, and I may start using my called shot talents to hit their legs. No penalty for shooting at a leg at 90m or closer without a scope? Let's go!

Waitin in Biggs and Ghost then.

No worries Two-bit.  I may talk like a Dark Heresy radical from time to time but I’m all Only War here ;-)

Everything by the book...

Jansen Inspired so anyone after him (Ghost) gain +10. Go ahead and roll for your hit.

Oh. Okay then.

Well, a 10 on damage and then another 10 (but actually 5 because 1d5) means for a rather nice hit. End of the round, too, so hopefully it isn't dodged.

Sorry I couldn’t do it in one round guys.  Couldn’t get 10 successes in one round after all.  Hopefully that’ll make up for the not as good medicae rolls for healing...

I think two rounds is fine, after all you did it in what 10 or so seconds?

Also AC, Can I gauge how fast the xenos are approaching and leave a grenade cooking at my location as I leave? Or try a tech-use roll and set a quick booby trap using some stitching wire from Jill's Med-kit and a frag?

I'll cover your ass since I have Sprint.

Yes, it's going to be as bad as you imagine, hold yer horses.

Anything other than full movement will result in a melee fight for you.

Book says officers and Commissars; Ghost is neither. It's also at a -10 penalty. Ghost's Fel of 30, -20 for not being trained, and then another -10 puts the Command TN at 0.

Well, you could always roll a nat 1....

Book still says Officers and Commissars, neither of which Ghost is.

Well...

If the book says officers and commissars then you really are out of luck unless you specifically had enough XP at start to go Commander or maybe Master of Ordinance since we can’t be Commissars yet.  Going to have to try and fail and then try to convince Jansen to while also asking for punishment for failing.  Not a good position to be in for sure.

Ah...all day at work I'm thinking I've seen a way around that, and now I'm home and found it, I think!

Pg 119 of Shield of Humanity: "Ogryn Comrades have 'But it Dark in Dere' Trait, detailed on pg 91 of the core rulebook. Player Characters who have already entered an enclosed location receive a +20 bonus to the Command Test to order their Comrades in after them, instead of the normal penalty, as the comrade is more likely to trust the judgement of his own kind on whether he fits inside."

I am sure the last part of that meant, by 'own kind', that you'd have an Ogryn primary and an Ogryn comrade, but that doesn't make sense in a place where it's either a single Ogryn assigned to a unit or an entire unit of Ogryn attached to a larger force. In this context, though, 'own kind' means grunt guardsmen, the rank-and-file soldiers, as opposed to officers or specialists.

So, my opinion is that ghost has built a rapport with Tug/Honey and can affect his own Command Test for purposes of getting past the BiDiT Trait.

But when I go in and break Cohesion, Honey falls into Frenzy. In any case, I still rolled a 98 on the Command test. Honey's not going in there.

Can he be given commands by an officer when he's in Frenzy? I could make a plan that works with this situation if the answer is yes.

I am sure the answer is no.

Well...

The Frenzy is akin to a normal Frenzy ala Talent.  There is nothing in that state that says Command wouldn't work on them.  Chances are it would give him a penalty to his Command as the Ogryn's morale is totally shot because of loss of cohesion so it would be at a -30 or worse and only partially mitigated due to the fact that others are already in there.

So nothing RAW says Jansen couldn't snap him out of it, and if they were a normal character every round they'd get a chance to snap out of it too ala WP tests of which they get a +10 to do so because of the Frenzy.  On the plus side the Frenzy would mean that they would tear the ever living bejesus out of the Tyranids with ease and cover our entry into the voidship and then when lacking visible ones possible snap out and finally follow the orders of Jansen to come inside...

As far as I've been able to determine, breaking down an AC isn't so much of a problem as setting it up. I can just run with the thing. If I spend my entire movement running am I still two turns away? If I'm destined to end up engaged in Melee it'll make the difference between whether I draw my combat knife or not.

Don't have my book on me but I thought they were the same amount of time. I'll check when I get home many hours from now, unless someone else gets to it.

Bracing a heavy weapon takes a half action, but I've seen nothing about setting one up or breaking it down, for that matter.

Also, re-read Fierce Loyalty and Honey only Frenzies if I'm not within 10m of him or another PC AND engaged in melee. Then he's frenzied until I'm safe or dead.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:02, Sat 29 Sept 2018.

Alright then: in the absence of a concrete rule of time for breakdown - and I’ve lugged the 249, the 60, and the tripod/T&E for the  50, so I know what’s involved - we will apparently say it’s a free action to uproot and move, with normal rules for encumbrance or heavy weapons still in place.

Hmm so...

We’re all heading for the opening.  Ghost starts going in and Honey is ‘urrr no’ and Ghost says ‘Honey time to go’ and runs into the opening.

Two branching options:

One.  Honey doesn’t want to go in.  He frenzies.  We write him off and go inside since once in Frenzy you can’t try to get out till there are no more enemies alive.  Since the Tyranids have a relative unlimited supply Honey fights till something big comes along and kills him.  Scratch one Ogryn companion.

Two.  Honey pauses and before he goes into frenzy he’s engaged by a Tyranid by the opening and a PC is still within 10 meters of him meaning he doesn’t go into frenzy.  There is a nasty multi-round melee where a PC might get wounded heavily or die giving enough time for Jansen to command the lugnut into the hole when he’s not engaged and enough enemies are dead to redeploy into the ship and he does and we move along.

There is an option C available if Jansen fails his initial Command Test on the Ogryn. If it doesn’t happen I may tell you what it was. ;)

Honey doesn't frenzy unless GHOST is engaged and he comes out of it when Ghost is safe (in cohesion and unengaged)

Option D, Ghost tries again next round. I'm still only at a 30 but that's still a 3/10 chance
This message was last edited by the player at 16:49, Sat 29 Sept 2018.

Mmm...

If you're out of cohesion, 5 meters, he frenzies.  If you're within 10 meters of another PC and in melee he frenzies.  Really spelling it out like that in the end it comes down to if you're not in cohesion he frenzies.

As for coming out of it Fierce Loyalty doesn't say he comes out of his Frenzy, just that he gets an additional +10 to Str and Tou on the regular bonuses Frenzy gives until you're 'safe' or dead' from his POV.  Frenzy is a simple state that you're in or not and if you are in you're in it till the end of combat and even then he has to make a WP roll (with increasing bonuses each round) otherwise he switches from killing NPC enemies to attacking NPC allies and eventually PC allies.

Frenzy is fine when you outnumber your enemies and have a decent WP to snap out of it after the fact (or have some sort of Psyker to help with the issue post combat).  Frenzy is very, very bad when you are fighting superior numbers unless your goal is to die.

...or have an 80+ toughness!

Well yes massive Toughness works well versus an average human if that's all you're fighting against.  Unfortunately we know the Tyranids have creature far stronger than that and while it might be a slow death it will be inevitable if nothing else is leveraged to help.

If nothing else, the chip damage from RFs will eventually whittle him down.  Like taking down orks with fire damage.

the Ogryn becomes Frenzied (see page 144) and gains an additional +10 Strength and +10 Toughness until his Comrade is either safe or dead.

Basic English reading comprehension dictates the Frenzy ends when the Comrade is safe or dead.



Honey's T is 71, so the Fierce Loyalty will bump it to 91.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:18, Sat 29 Sept 2018.

I am following basic English reading comprehension.  Bolding mine but it's pretty explicit as to how a Frenzy ends.

Hmm...that really *is* an awkward sentence, isn't it? There's no real indication if they meant for the 'until his Comrade is either safe or dead' portion to be attached to the entire status of being Frenzied, or if they meant that only the additional bonuses of +10 would disappear, but the Frenzy condition remained. I am of the opinion that the AND connects the whole thing, and that the Ogryn does indeed come out of Frenzy once the comrade is safe or dead...which could make for an interesting scene if the comrade dies and you have an Ogryn still fighting the enemy, but blubbering like a baby while crushing things with its bare hands. Heh.

Writing the [relatively] short post now.

Welp good thing neither Jack nor Jill require filtration plugs. Jack has a respirator (and a good quality photo-visor to boot), Jill has a respirator filter implant.

The Ogryn is Frenzied. They do not gain the Frenzy talent and the condition ends as described in Fierce Loyalty. There is no break between "Frenzied" and the additional bonuses, thus the whole state ends when the Comrade is safe or dead. It's pretty clear to me.

*shrugs*

It's clear to you one way.  It's clear to me another.  We disagree and nothing I'm going to say at this point in time will change your mind so whatever my man.

Only one who matters is what AC says when it actually comes up.

I know there's a specific melee attachment for guns, but have we covered adding the lamp pack to it?

Nope. You could also improvise a sort of ‘miner helmet’ and strap one onto Honey’s helmet.

Just to be clear...we've skipped to the end of the entry sequence, and now we're into waiting for an overly nosey sentry to show up?  We don't need to worry about the "1-2 rounds of shooting...and then silence"?

Nope...you guys are entering the ship this round after running last round and a move action (+ whatever) this round. Then 2ish rounds of blissful silence indoors to prep for a small wave of reaction forces while Jansen (+ whomever) holds off or kills the five chasing Jack et al from the vantage point he was using.

Then business as usual. Save the cheerleader. Save the world of Endrite.

You forgot the part about where winners go home and make friends with the homecoming queen.

...we are going home, right? ;)

Will post later tonight with or without the other two.

AC, I swapped over to my shotgun and Sleepy is reloading the plasma.  Kill count is fine, just don't want you to get the wrong impression when I start not frying myself with misfires.

Edited! I read the swap line you wrote and for some reason thought it said you were swapping your plasma gun for his...d'oh!

Did we have decide which scatter rules we were using? CRB or DM screen?

Whichever one matches the Errata

Since all the shooters have gone I’ll post when I get home.

Doesn't the Hard target talent only give them that bonus when they charge or run?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the case. Could be wrong. Could be house ruled.

They ARE running at you. Outside they usually had the drop on you and were already in melee or I applied it after the fact. It’s not an effect of the terrain it’s just a reminder. Once they are in melee the talent is no longer effective, as always. *eye roll*

I’ll let you know when something differs from RAW, like bio mutations and such. Trust me! :)

Just checking! Last time I read anything about genestealers they were using firearms and tactics, but that might have been their brood people

Yeah that’s the implanted initial creature and the majority of the brood that pops out from there that is mutated and on its way to a Matriarch/Patriarch, Magus and Broodlord as the cycle perpetuates itself over and over.

You find a Genestealer that is using weapons and you, son, are either one dead soul or very well paid when that corpse is turned in to the Mechanicus.

Road trip but should have time to post the emergence of the critters tonight.

Er...since you're all aiming and readying, you may as well also roll your first salvo of shots, right? The enemy are all melee troops.

If not, I'll do it all Monday when I get home. Have a good [rest of the] weekend.

Helping my brother move into a new place, so may not be able to post until Monday.  I'll try to squeeze it in tonight if everything goes according to plan.

No rush. This is one of three ‘kinda downtime’ moments you’ll have inside the ship. Second is the armory. Third is the bridge.

If we stick close to the 48 hour rule for combats (or faster) I think you can be in the bridge before Christmas. :)

Edited my post for the firing of plasma for ya AC.

I was off camping for the weekend and told Ghost/Honey as much. I was hoping they'd inform you as much and you'd notice my roll and roll with it, but I guess that didn't work out. Catching up and posting in a minute.

So, since we haven't moved on to th enext round yet [I haven't posted it yet], declare an overwatch for the previous turn, shoot something when they move in on their turn, then take this turn's actions. Problem solved.

In reply to Adeptus Custodes (msg # 127):

Funny enough, that's exactly what I did. Posting now.

I’m going to do what I can to post today but I’ve got Hurricane Michael bearing down on me so if I don’t you know it’s cause Poseidon decided to kick me in da ballz.  I’ll be back ASAP...long as a tree doesn’t fall on my head.  :-)

Haha...I read "Sleepy having feinted broadly" as him being so scared of the genestealers that he FAINTED. Lol...reading comprehension is a little behind for me today.

Hey, for all you know he feinted fainting :P

Heading out for tabletop. Home in about 4 hours. If there are 2 or 3 more action posts, I'll do the turn, otherwise it'll be tomorrow during the day sometime.

I’ve got power again post Michael but phone and internet are spotty.  I’ll see what I can do about catching up as soon as possible.  AC if you’ve got the present turn ready to wrap I can wait to jump in after your update...whatever it is since I haven’t read how the fights been going yet.

Also unrelated...looking forward to the new Battletech Flashpoints stuff.  Looks to be fun even if I started over and need to run through the campaign again to play it.

I should take offense at having my totally boss inbuilt blade called a "knife," but can't really argue with the results.

I'd have put 'body knife' but that's copyright infringement, I think. Anyway you can always Crocodile Dundee your way out of a situation with it so there's no real harm in calling it that, right? :)

Honey takes a whopping 1 damage from that attack.

Dodge soak ftw?

Correction: Honey soaks entirely lel

Hate to break this to ya...genestealers have Step Aside, so they can make two separate Dodge rolls if they face two separate threats in the same round. It's one of the reasons they are so deadly. You know, other than WS:65 + Swift Attack.

Now, if you have [and use] Feint, then they can't dodge your attack, and can't use their 'other' Dodge against you either [as it must be used against a different source of damage].

Or if you Move, Ready Action to attack the one Two-bit is shooting at *and* he targets one that has already used its first Dodge against....THEN your hit cannot be dodged, after his shot soaks the second one it has available.

A lot of position & situation wrangling so you're better off just going with what you've got and we see who gets the kills in the press of combat.

Ah wasn't sure about that so figured I'd toss it out there and see how it stuck. Good to know.

Missed last night - sorry. Not so much a Bills fan as a Gloomhaven fan. Doing pretty well despite hating some of the dynamics. Will look at house rule changes later.

Hmm...if Biggs can post a successful attack before I get home then you will finish the last GS and can move on. I'd hate to make him go Full Defense and force another round of combat where you gang up on a poor helpless alien who just wants to give free hugs.

Those free hugs will cost you your barbaric pantaloons!

Just wanna say, I'm enjoying this game very much so and look forward to reading a new post everytime I see one.

Glad to hear it! I know play-by-post can be a drag sometimes with real life, power outages, schedules delaying things. This is one of those games I prefer to write, though, rather than Skype/RollD20/etc just so I can sharpen my writing skills and appreciate the same in others.

Always glad to have enthusiastic folks on board. Zilch has a list of all the peeps who've come and gone from the game...most without a word, though a few have been kind enough to give warning [I've saved their chars as NPCs in case they return], and three said we sucked [including the guy who helped me co-create this game, and a MEGA powergamer]. Haha.

AC's got the right of it.  Most of my IRL group doesn't understand why I PBP, but it's the writing that I enjoy the most.  Describing the various and sundry ways in which xenos can be rent unto the Emperor's glory takes time, after all, and if we've already spent two hours kibitzing about [insert superhero show of choice] then time is usually in short supply.

Only War as a system seems particularly well suited for PBP since most players have two characters they can play off each other.  Plus, the supercrunchiness of it isn't as daunting when you have hours or days to consider your actions.

It also helps that as a game the premise of Only War makes the coming and going of players lost to attrition that is normal in PBP more than in flavor for death or reassignment.  Yes even the regular characters are supposed to be challenged and die due to bad planning or bollocked rolls in a sometimes unforgiving rolller but that’s where going the extra mile and fully fleshing out a comrade is useful to speed transition without loosing the player.  Well as long as both don’t die at the same time of course.

I have to update the list AC is talking about but at a rough guess we’ve had 25 different players come through or are currently playing.

Well I can say that I won't be leaving here unless I lose all interest in WH40k (not likely gonna happen, it's been over a decade since I first got into it) or the game fizzles.

Does Zilch still have his shotgun?

Yup.

Excellent.  I might need to borrow it if we run into more fodder, as I don't want to burn my inferno shells (oh yes, I went there) on mooks.

When the time comes to hand out XP, there will be massive penalties for out-of-combat pun tossing. I can understand using them in the heat of battle...but downtime is supposed to be relaxing for both body AND mind. >:)

Lol.

Yeah I’ll just shunt you spare mags and you give me low/empty ones.

Bah!  In prosecuting the Emperor's wars, there is no time for rest!  Or lack of punnage.

I have Sprint, so I could probably double back and catch up more easily than others.

Edited the post. going to bed now.

We could almost get everyone down quickly.

Two-bit and Sleepy via Sprint
Zilch and Everest via Maglev Coils to simply drop down

Then two sets via quick rappelling from:
Ghost and Honey
Jack and Jill
Wedge and Biggs

Soooo Close... ;-)

Couldn't Honey take the, er, express route down?  Just sayin' ;)

I’m sure Honey could.  Ghost is more squishy though...

I’ll toss up my IC post right after I get some info from AC on my rolls.  Knowledge is his best weapon...and most likely weapon to get himself killed by being called a traitor for knowing too much that Command or others don’t want people to know, lol.

Commissar said to continue on. Quickest was seems to cross over and continue on the walkways. Jansen'll be fine. He's a Commissar and Commissars have their shit on lock; if they didn't they'd be dead.

I'd like to take Ghost and Honey on the walkways via crossing over.

Of course they do otherwise Jansen would have been dead multiple times.

Still letting him run alone is a bad idea when Tyranids are involved.

In a vacuum I’d say Two-bit and Jack drop down and go with Jansen and then Ghost, Wedge and Zilch stay topside and keep parallel to provide cover fire from above if needed.

Sounds fine to me.  That puts our meleers all lumped up in a group though.

The Inquisition has been made aware of your concerns and self-doubt. ;)

Well either we can swap Zilch and Everest for Jack and Jill (keeping a medic in each group) or swap Two-bit and Sleepy for Wedge and Biggs.

As for the Inquisition...

I’d say all sorts of things but they’ve already read my mind so I got nothing worse to work with, you know?  Dead man walking is liberating ;-)

Bleh, barely missed my SL test. Though Jill's Infused Knowledge talent is coming in handy, I had the chance to roll 3 times there :D

You have FL:Astartes?

Infused Knowledge gives you trained in all Common and Scholastic Knowledges but doesn’t give any Forbidden Lore ones...

Or was that errata’d when I wasn’t looking?

Nope you’re right. Awareness is no doubt the third mentioned.

Well, made my Awareness check.  Please tell me I find a pretty throne gelt on the floor.

Yes Awareness was the third, which Jill failed spectacularly.

Biggs is pretty slow. If he doesn't take the grapple down, any other path he takes should be for the sole purpose of providing covering fire.

That is why I suggested for him to stay up top.  Good fields of fire and can avoid the issue to climbing back up later.

I'm pretty low on AC ammo though. I have 5 or 6 shots left.

Correction, I have no AC ammo left, which means it's shotgun or flashlight. If I'm providing cover fire it'll be solely to support - I don't see much in the way of damage happening. So it depends - do we need me blowing dudes up with shotguns or covering the squad?

You went through all three loads?

I've used 3 clips.

If it started with a full clip, then I've got another.

Ammo has always been the AC's weakness.  Not quite enough to compensate for its overpowering damage, but those rounds do go hella fast when you're semi-autoing.

Hey, I'm not weak!

Oh...you meant AC the weapon. Heh. Carry on!

Bait caught!See, if I was referring to AC the ref, it'd be The AC :D

To be fair though, you *do* put us through a lot of attrition.  It's almost like the cannon fodder is meant to chew through our ammo supplies.

Edit: couldn't Biggs have reloaded using our vehicle's ammo stores?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:37, Fri 26 Oct 2018.

Possibly, though with all the excitement of letting the vehicles bait the mountainside tyranids and you folks running off to the other slope it seems likely that we won't be retconning this event.

Good thinking, though! And Biggs seemed eager to draw his knife and get into it with the genestealer anyway. You may want to have him examined, or at least fitted for that stud implant that makes you slightly more passive.

Hey, that Genestealer charged me. Let's have Biggs take point with Jansen on the lower level - without target selection, he's better off tanking for a bit anyway and he's barely injured currently.

Go ahead and jump down, the water's fine!

I can have Everest pass along a mag of AC ammo for this ‘encounter’ you know.  :-P

That works too!

Added a line to my post having him do just that then.

Looks like I waited just long enough for Jill to post before dropping my own. Whew!

I hope it was ok for me to auto-force Ghost to move last in the side group; I didn't want Honey's large size to break through the walkway and auto-fail everyone else. At least this way it is more realistic that there could be additional separation of forces as the fight wears on.

A broken walkway can be jumped across with a similar Athletics roll after the combat ends [or simply rappelled down past as time permits - since this is another delay to Jansen's plans]; it won't bring down entire sections.

Hi! If I fall, do me lichtors fall with me? Need to know if I'll be firing with POINT BLANK rules or not. Also, did I need to roll stun for Wedge too, or is she clear because Biggs is?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:38, Sat 27 Oct 2018.

If one is engaged with you, then yes it falls. Just being beside you, no. I wanted this to be a challenge but not a Three Stooges of falling down and getting up.

No, no need to roll for the comrade - either YOU make it or you don't. If you are stunned then I don't believe your comrade can take any actions other than to get back in cohesion, which they do when they fall beside you. ;)

It is up to you if you want to roll separately for the d3 wounds to each, or if you want to take the first result and apply it to both.

I am so excited to see Iron Jaw finally be worth its weight that I am going to write this up during lunch in about an hour. And you rolled a 1! More like Ceramite Jaw. lol

Damn the dice roller has a sense of humor today.

Don't forget to roll your toxic damage Two-bit

Just wanted to make sure I had my Toxic quality right.  Which I didn't :/

An FYI to you guys - my Wednesday night tabletop has a new DM and he’s moving our games to Tuesday night for his own schedule starting this week. Won’t change much for us because I usually post late at night anyway. Just information in case I miss a post this winter due to the long drive or whatever.

I don't suppose I can swap in my attack DoS for the Toxic damage?

If only...

Still if it fails that roll that damage is unsoakable so at least you do something.

I'm pretty sure 12 would get past the soak anyway, but another 3 isn't terrible.  Just bad :)

Better than I’ve been doing lately.

Sure the hellgun Pen is 7 so it chews through their armour but when I consistently roll 1 and 2 and my succes at hitting are only 1 or 2 it may be doing no damage or no more than your toxic there :-p

Jill, you must be charging the one Honey is holding, right? Biggs has killed the one you were in melee with. There are only two left: Ghost and Zilch.

Biggs if you get the urge to swing around and shoot across the room at the other one, you’ll be ‘firing into melee’ and have a slight (-10) penalty for minor concealment of intervening darkness. The headlamps and flashlights on weapons aren’t the same as true indoor lighting.

I suppose at some point I'll have to come up with a backstory for Two-bit's name.  Or perhaps I should just keep it shrouded in mystery to be revealed for comedic effect.

Maybe you’ve been to every two-bit flea hole in a certain sector of the galaxy? Or you won a game of cards and made a comment about  chopping some guy into two equal parts when he refused to pay up? :)

Maybe his mommadrill sergeant told him he ain't never gonna be worth two bits.

Or maybe it's [redacted] because [redacted] [redacted] and that one time with the goat.  I mean, it's not like cybernetic blades come cheap.

No, you got those either when you were forcibly reassigned to this unit, or when the AM rescued your 'corpse' from some nameless battlefield and rebuilt you stronger, faster, and better. There are no transfers or reassignments out of this unit.

In reply to Adeptus Custodes (msg # 197):

Gah! Must've posted way too late, will change my post later today.

Keep the rolls, just alter the text and positioning.

Happy Halloween to all that enjoy it :)

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Also fixed my post, with the charge and the now 4v1 the rolls didn't change at all.

Appropriately we played Gloomhaven and fought spirits of darkness and cultists! And I went up to level five so I get to choose a new blasty spell for my wizard. Still not loving the game but some of the options available at higher levels make me like it more.

Er...Biggs...the reason I gave you the stats for shooting across the room is because unless you or Ghost kill the one on Twobit this round your team will have to deal with more enemies as you progress. It looks like you guys have this one in the bag so Ghost can (probably) safely shoot there himself now that you folks have good hits on his, as he goes last.

If I manage to set it on fire, does that count as a kill? !!;)!!

Wanted to give Ghost a chance to post since this is an important ‘results oriented’ round of combat. I’m going out to test drive a new board game with some kickstarters tonight called Deep Madness but idk if that means it’s a Cthulhu game or some sort of Pandemic in a psych ward game. Knowing the guy hosting it’s some sort of rpg with minis like Gloomhaven or Massive Darkness or Folklore: The Afflicted.

Oof, forgot my Lictor is probably dead. As long as Two-Bit's Lictor is within 50m, the results dont change except for 11E Pen 2 on the second hit.

I feel like an idiot. Was going through the character creation stuff because I figured it wouldn't hurt to have another character or two ready in case the worst happened, noticed that the type of regiment the Zakurian's are, is close assault, which gives training in either Dodge or Parry. In my haste to build Jill I must've skipped over that because she has neither, so I've been making Parry rolls at a -20 for no freakin reason this entire time! Other than my own incompetence! Hahaha, oh well I fixed it now. Figured I'd share and let everyone else have a laugh too.

Yeah Zakurians are quirky...

One is that have more doctrines than is normally allowed.  The other is they are essentially a wannabe Skitarii regiment without taking the Skitarii Homeworld.

It's like our Patron Mechanicus Overlords had permission to make a Forge World and the respective Skitarii Regiments to support it and instead turned themselves into a Fleet Based 'Chapter' much like an Astartes one and since they lacked the full resources of a Forge World they made do with what they could produce in the Fleet.  It'll take another three hundred years before Mars even finds out and then another seven hundred to dispatch out a query to get to the fleet asking WTF is up and another millennia before we're all declared Tech Heretics.  So long as none of us live another 2,000 years we should be fine...

Unless we do something really stupid and the Inquisition decides to purge us quicker.  They don't have to worry about the timing as much as simply decided to declare us Hereticus and worry about the details later.

Hmmm and I wonder why I haven't wanted to play one yet... ;P

EDIT: Could you imagine if Honey was a Zakurian, though?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:24, Sun 04 Nov 2018.

Until AC decides that the Zakurian storyline ends it’ll be the ‘base’ regiment for us all.  Maybe sometime in the future he may decide (or with all of us asking or agreeing) the regiment will either take such a pounding it gets folded into another more standard unit or perhaps the Inquisition itself meddles with the Departmento and has the regiment broken up because the Departmento thinks it was decimated.  Off we’re sent to pastures otherwise.

There are always ways to move us around or make something a new base...just needs to be on both our side pushing it and AC agreeing and weaving that plot.

And yeah...

He’d be a Bone’Ead without the advanced career...or a freak of nature and another reason why the Inquisition is watching our regiment, lol.

I have absolutely made plans for your group choosing one of two things: either you will want to continue with the Zakurian Regiment into the next 'chapter' of the campaign, or you will want to scrap/retire these guys and build a new Regiment from which to draw new troops [with commensurate starting XP]. Remember the scaling of enemies is 1-2-3-4, then 2-3-4-5 next chapter, then 3-4-5-6, and so forth.

Or...and this is also a real possibility...the planet is slated for Exterminatus, and those of you who survive the end scene will be whisked away to assimilate [quietly] into a new Regiment of your choice/creation, from which new characters and comrades can be pulled to replace those lost in the Final Boss Battle.

Unexpected [sort of] road trip this weekend. Just walked in at 1 am but should be able to knock out something before I fall asleep in this comfy chair.

Hmm...I'm going to have to think on the proposal for a bit, I've had quite a bit of fun with Two-bit and would love to continue with him, but building a new regiment is always enticing.  Terrible ideas are already aflutter in me noggin.

He did mention this one Two-bit.  So surviving Zakurians could continue on while we build a new and less likely Tech-heretic/Inquisition questioned unit while examining new combat techniques...and our old guys totally not versed in their style at the start.

That is part of the calculation, it'd just be kind of a shame to build a new regiment and not build a boss char to go along with it.

Also, not sure how you'd fit an infantryman in a CQC heavy recon regiment, just sayin' :D

True the desire would be there...

In the same way the powers that be make strange decisions grouping depleted regiments together could easily allow you to toss the character buildup of Sleepy into the wind and make a new comrade.  New RP and character building dealing with a new unknown individual and if Two-bit bites it and the new guy becomes primary you then ask AC to bring back Sleepy as the comrade.

Yes, now that we're actually allowed operators I may need to build a proper one instead of shoehorning it in.

Mmm sweet options on the horizon...

Lessee, ratling regiment using flamers as favored weapons....

We can add Excellent Cook as a talent to the regiment build, right?  Completely unrelated to the above.  Wondering for a friend here.

Two of you five already got success on the check to find the panel so the rest is just fluff. I should be able to make a post tonight before bed.

When you say someone needs to go into the crawlspace, I assume it means an active PC and not the comrade?

Yes, because comrades can’t make skill checks. :)

Well...

I'm arguably the worst combat character here so if there is no hope of fighting inside the tight confines of the place it might as well be Zilch.  Not to mention realistically the one who would have the best chance at finding and fixing the power issues.

That's a fair argument.  Just remember that live wires should only be touched with bare hands.

Loan me your shotgun, I promise to return it empty :)

Hell no!

I’m already in a shit bucket for the armour...relinquish my issued shotgun too?   I’ll pass you the four drums of spare ammo though if you want more regular rounds long as you give me back the empty drums afterwards...

;-P

It's not about the ammo, I just need a secondary so I can switch between regular and inferno without having to switch mags.  Sleepy doesn't come with one, unfortunately.

Ahhh I see now.

I’ll work something out by the time I post hopefully during my lunch.

With my dice, Plasma Expertise is so worth it...

Welp we know which of the twins will (attempt to) get a grenade launcher, sorry folks no badass women with explosives here, just a dominatrix that knows how to fix all the injuries she inflicts.

For those that aren't already aware, Stan Lee died today.

Yes - I hope it wasn't hastened by his recent problems in his personal life, and that he went well. Wonder if they will CGI him into the next few Avenger movies.

I heard that they'd already filmed his cameo for the next one, although I imagine they will now add some larger tribute.

Unrelated question to AC: we can cover the other sectors without moving from our current positions, correct?

No, it is a series of interconnected rooms and doorways, if you recall. sort of like...a welding shop, or call center? Some are 'cubicles' and some are actual office space, but with no doors, just access arches. Some you can walk through and out the other side but most are stations for one to three servitors and techpriests.

However, you all benefit from two things: cover against ranged attacks, and the enemy can't charge because there are no straight lines. So it helps and hurts.

Where you at GM?

Hopefully surviving the winter weather in the east....

Arguably better than choking to death on California smoke, but only just.

Haha we have three out of five posted so far on the holiday week/end. No one has said anything about needing an extra day, or time off, or move on without me. I’ve already said these combat scenes are very important toward getting you to the final objective without giving the enemy reinforcements. If I have to Full Defense two of your shooters you’re screwed.

I guess I will have to post tonight since a week delay is too long. A shame, when everyone in the game has expressed how happy, enthusiastic, or (something close) they are about this game.

Sorry saw you hadn't come online in a few days so I was gettin' worried.

Biggs post something!

Better yet hit and kill several somethings (of the Tyranid type, not frag your fellow squad) with a post.  :-)

The GS are TB 6?  Freeoh.

Beyond that, I have no issue with AC graciously reordering hits to maximize damage.  It's the little things that let us know he cares :)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:25, Mon 19 Nov 2018.

Yes, some of the variants they’re cooking up are reducing speed and agility for armor and toughness because of the success your squad has shown with plasma and the hellgun. So...less than 72 hours reaction time in their vat-pools to make things that adapt to you specifically. Pretty intense, but keeps them from being good at everything. ;)

Alrighty, fire and flame it is then :D

Yeah that’s why I switched to this hellgun and spent xp to use it.  At least it cracks through the armour and I’ve got an outside chance to do some damage.  With the shotgun it would only do something at PB and rolling a bit above average.  Outside that it would only do damage on a RF.  Sadly the talent tree for SP mastery isn’t as useful as the others.

Hey guys, just got back from a weekend away from civilization and a pretty shitty week at home before that. Things are better now so once I make sense of my relative position to everyone and what I can shoot at I'll post.

Can you give me some help there AC? I'm having a hard time following.

Geh, I misread AC's post and thought I had a GS attacking me.  Will reconfigure my attack this evening.

Your team is in a set of cubicle-like rooms, but the walls are complete from floor to ceiling [so you can't just look over the wall and into the next room]. There are perhaps 12-15 of these rooms, each about 20 x 30ish or 30 x 50ish. Most have access between each other and to the main corridor you came into, but you can't see very far because of the design and corners.

My earlier comment:

"it is a series of interconnected rooms and doorways, if you recall. Sort of like...a welding shop, or call center? Some are 'cubicles' and some are actual office space, but with no doors, just access arches. Some you can walk through and out the other side but most are stations for one to three servitors and techpriests.

However, you all benefit from two things: cover against ranged attacks, and the enemy can't charge because there are no straight lines. So it helps and hurts.

Everyone will be in viewing range of at least one other team, but if you don't put something in your post to specifically say you are interacting with someone else in particular, then it will be random how you are arrayed around the room(s) if the enemy finds you.

Available directions for the enemy to get to you are Forward, Behind, or a platform to the next lower level. You're in a group of rooms that interconnect, but there's only one major egress in those three directions."

You can be next to anyone you want at this point. It seems most likely that you would have been near the front, to bolster Ghost and Honey while they pulled double duty covering the front access and the hole Zilch crawled into, but if you wanted the clearer lane of fire that the down-platform gave for your weapon, you can be there while Two-bit moves away to engage Jill's enemies. From there you will have a shot at the GS that broke away and is scuttling across the wall to get in position, but you'll have the standard -20 to hit for Hard Target and a further -20 for cover in these broken viewing lines of the engineering section.

I’ll have my Zilch post up later tonight but...

I hope everyone is having a good turkey day.

I'd like to but no one is getting back to me with addresses so i can come visit and not spend another holiday alone, bleh being depressed and actually aware of it sucks.

Been there done that man, I feel for yah.

Well yah got us to keep you company.  Small consolation I know but raising a cup of coffee to you while I’m home with the wife.

I am easy to find if you make it to Niagara Falls. Being the most popular mailman in town has its perks. ;)

Also, being a mailman at this time of year has its share of headaches. And backaches. And everything else. Lol

Holy shit I feel like I just woke up. It's been a week since a post and it feels like three days? That's what working at the postal service does to you in the holiday season. :'(

Had to take today off to recharge, so I'll write up the post right now, before lunch. Just need some coffee in me...

Dingdingding!  We have a winner!

two jams in a row. i feel lucky

As an unrelated aside...

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Oh DLC for Battletech.  It may have taken seven years in game putzing around the starting four planets but...I ran across three pieces of a 60 ton Dragon that I spent all my hard earned c-bills on.  Yes a heavy mech in a ‘starting’ area where the most common mechs are half it’s weight.  Hells yeah.

That thing is gonna trounce the Quickdraw when I do that mission finally to move on.  *grins*

---

Back on track...man I go to work on tech elsewhere and you guys break everything ;-P

In reply to GSN 1805141731 (msg # 255):

Hah, try four of 'em!

Will post tonight. Was sick the last two days and started to get the feeling you guys might be choosing to slow down or break for the holidays like last year, so I’ve let myself be busy with other things while you guys decide amongst yourselves how you want to proceed with the next 5-6 weeks, as far as a posting schedule. Because clearly no one is interested in maintaining a strict 48 hour rule like we do most of the rest of the year.

Hope you feel better.  Winter dolrums have definitely started to set it and we still have three weeks left of fall!

I don't have any specific holiday plans, but with work being work and the holidays coming up I think a slowdown is warranted.

I am happy with whatever the group decides. It is your game and I, like Dr. Frankenstein, just want to see it live.

Long as we keep momentum and not stop completely then we should be good.  Hopefully no slower than once a week.  Twice would be getting close to the 48 hour strict turnaround.  I certainly want to see the regiments history grow and develop or get snipped and spartan survivors tossed into a new living hell.

The possibilities...

1+ a week I'd be fine with.  Most of my other games have either slowed down to a (pub) crawl or imploded, so this one is the only real reason to come to RPOL right now.

It seems two out of five is a consensus when they both answer twice. Haha!

Ok I'll get right on this and we will attempt to not screw up this Xmas season by falling asleep on either side of the table.

As a reward, I'll give everyone an additional Half-action in their next post. This is not the end-of-year gift I give for longevity; that will be issued in about four weeks. :)

Zilch, as you are not part of the immediate action, it will simply negate the need for any rolls from you for the remainder of the combat - but any rolls you do choose to make [still on every even-numbered round], sink or swim, will add to the success of the mission when the current combat ends.

I’ll make the same sets of rolls that I made for the earlier post and toss them together for you.

At that speed we’ll get longevity rewards at the same time we get our cool presents from the ship.  Just have to survive long enough to get them...yay!

Will be out of town for a couple days, try to keep up with things :D

Here I thought my post was in and I see the new one only to see mine never took.

Replacement up in a few hours when I’m eating lunch.

Uh how did the Genestealer ignore both the Stunned and Blood Loss Condition Jill Inflicted on her last turn? The RF was from her main damage not the Toxic trait and they last for an entire round.

Huh. My eyes skipped right over the stunned and read the blood loss part. It does not have adrenal glands [not this one anyway] or some other biomorph that allows it to ignore stun effects...so it is/was stunned, and doesn't hit you, but still made the save vs poison. I don't think it will live long enough for the bleeding to matter.

Since it was stunned it technically can't dodge Biggs' shots, but I also transferred his shots to it because he said 'GS attacking Jansen', and that target didn't exist. So his shot is a miss, still.

Also, since you go so early in the round, and no one else targeted your GS, the stun will only keep it from attacking you [retro], and will wear off before you attack again.

Good catch, though! I don't think I slip up very often, thankfully.

No problem boss, still a big thumbs up from me.

Always a tough call at midrange TN: do I go standard and boost +10 or swift and hope for low roll with multiple hits?

At least I was rolling right in the middle so I actually hit.  Would suck to miss it by a single DoF :P

bruh, lowkey livid with this luck. third jam in 4 rounds. wtf

I swear the RPOL dice roller has a special high-low setting

Maybe it is secretly assuming this is tabletop and so you are rolling a 1 on d6 for 16% jam rather than the standard chance? Or it just is a remorseless PC killing machine.

It’s on PC killer mode.

Oi, no spoilers! :D

I've yet to lose a character yet in 15+ years of playing tabletop games, I joined this game with the knowledge that streak would be broken at some point. But I will fight to the very end to prevent such a thing.

That’s not a spoiler.  Only War starting dice roller setting is PC killer and only through cleverness or dumb fucking luck can you stay alive.

Worried about spoilers and Jack just cursed your team to die with his statement! Lmao

Well we either die for the Emperor or die trying!

Gone toe to toe with Lamashtu on her home turf! Bring the pain! HAHAHAHA! FOR THE IMPERIUM!

That's a funny way of spelling "and" you gorram Kriegsman.

I’ll post tonight with or without the last man. Three day weekend doesn’t make me edgy in December for missing a post like the rest of the year, but it’s good to keep things moving.

Curse the squad? No, just myself.

A reminder, Jill that you were given the one-shot Deflector Shield emblem last mission that absorbs 10 points before burnout. It takes a reaction to use it so normally you can’t do that plus dodge/parry but it’s a new item you may have forgotten so I’d let you give up next round’s reaction to activate it now. This time only. Then you’re not stunned, either.

Oh yeah, completely forgot about that. I will do that then, and adjust my post later tonight.

Biggs - you’re logging in and not posting. Normally I’d boot without warning but you’ve been a good player so I’ll give you a chance to speak up or bow out.

I should have time to update tonight. If not it’ll be tomorrow after work.

Hey everyone. I don't want to stop playing but right now I'm down my own computer (the power supply died) and I just had a (minor) surgery that I'm recovering from as well as some sort of seasonal bug that's keeping me down. I'll do my best to try and post tomorrow but I can't promise any sort of consistency in posting until I'm feeling better.

Sorry to hear that man, hopefully the holidays treat you well!

Yeah what Two-Bit said man, just let us know next time so we're not wondering where one of our old guard players went.

Get better!

I'm glad to hear you'll keep fighting for the Emprah as long as possible. Hopefully this battle will be over within a week and we can move on to the next scene...a rather happy one for you guys, if the season has anything to do with it.

Just FYI, I'm going to be going on vacation from the 27th through NY.  Going to try to post something soon so we can get this wrapped up before then.

Edit: well, shucks.  Probably just should have pulled the ol' Indy and shot it.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:37, Mon 24 Dec 2018.

Looking forward to whatever the Holiday gift is alongside hopefully the bonus kit (non-armour last I remember).

Ghost...

You need both more weapons and Honey carrying some for you.  Then when they jam you can pass them to Honey to unjam them and spend less time constantly working your weapon over.  ;-)

Do that too much and you'll go blind!

Or put your eye out, I always forget which one it is ;)

I think switching to melee would've been much more effective than trying to clear the jams, but that's coming from the one person who was in melee and doesn't know Ghost's capability in melee.

Merry Christmas and so on and so forth etc. ;)

This year’s gift for non-heretics comes straight from the Emperor himself! You have a couple of choices:


Choice #1: add +5 to Fellowship, or +3 to any other stat...but the stat can’t be brought above 50 by doing this.

Choice #2: ignore the next critical effect (but not the damage inflicted) that your character suffers.

Choice #3: ignore the next effect of a psychic attack you fail to save against (if it is mental) or halve the damage taken (if it is physical)

Choice #4: recharge your Fate points immediately

Choice #5: ignore the rule that says you can only receive first aid ‘once in 24 hours’ one time on this mission.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Just kidding. Pick two. ;)

---

Awesomesauce!

As before these apply to both primary and comrade yes?

Yep!

The first one is just on the off chance someone wants to dual into the role of Sergeant...despite their life expectancy in the game. Lol

I'd love to but Jill already has enough going on with trying to be a medicae and a melee combatant already, and Jack has a dismal Fellowship as it is.

Everest is totally one step away from being able to do that now that he's gotten two Christmas characteristic bumps to Fel.  He started with a 27 and now he's a 37 after surviving three Christmas bonuses.  He just may do that shift to Sergeant or Commander...

I suppose I could always spec Sleepy into it.  Since he's a Guardsman he's halfway there anyway...except for the 27 Fel, of course.

Note that #2 and #3 will extend beyond this tyranid campaign if it is not used up.

Hey guys. I won't be able to post again until next year.

*hic*

Happy New Year's all.

May we all have another bountiful year of laying waste to the enemies of the God-Emperor, lol.

Alright, as with last year's gift, this one has to be listed/used on your character sheet by Jan 11th to be effective in this part of the campaign. Hop to it if you haven't.

I'll assume since I don't have private messages telling me someone got thrown in jail that you guys managed to keep it clean this holiday season, or at least your significant other is logging in for you. ;)

We'll close out the combat in my post tonight, I'll follow up with a narrative time post in a day or two, and we will setup for the second-to-last fight on this ship [probably] Monday night.

AC we've seen a whole lot of hormagaunts and not a lot of termagaunts lately. Perhaps some ranged threat shooting into these melees will make things a bit more spicy.

As a note, will probably take +3 to perception to round it out on Ghost and make nicy, spicy intervals of 5. Also, the failed Psychic save bonus.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:06, Fri 04 Jan 2019.

Clearly you have no idea what you're up against in this ship...! >:)

well we killed raveners, carnifex, a trygon... apart from big game, there are some other, less iconic options

unless this is the last mission of the campaign. Which makes it the hive tyrant.

So I get halfway through writing the post and realize there's some things that are going to be discovered that only Zilch [and maybe pieces by Jill or Two-bit] will understand completely, and he may or may not want to divulge the new information to the group, or to Jansen, or to anyone. I intended for this first phase of the Big Reveal to be a shocker but I don't want the rest of the group left in the dark if it goes in the direction of suppressing the information.

So...eh...should Zilch and I post in the open? I want the players to know, but it's going to be like passing notes at a gaming table - you know, but you don't *know*, what's going on.

Let's keep it as clear as we can on what your characters know and what you are reading, with regard to responses and reactions. I don't want to have to delete any posts. I hate that myself and consider dropping games when a GM does that to me.

A certain degree of metagaming is to be expected, unfortunately, even with a group of players that try to stay true to what the PCs know.  That being said, I usually prefer posting in the open, so me-as-observer knows how the story is unfolding while me-as-player tries to keep his perspective appropriately narrow.

Well if you think that there would be a few things Zilch would hold back perhaps if you toss what you would give for info in a PM to me and then if I do hide something I can tell you to hold it back from what you cut and paste into the main one?  Then most of it gets through, or all of it if I read it and don’t care.

Normally I’m all for the reveal everything to everyone...but our unit motto is, “It’s not Paranoia if you can see the Inquisition getting ready to light the torches used to burn you alive...”

For what it's worth, Ghost (and Honey) have Tech-Use should the need to Assist crop up.

Alright then, in order to save a little time, let's have some rolls from you folks and I'll post something when we get a few successes under our belts, so I don't have to post bits and pieces all week.

CL: Imperium
CL: War

SL: Legend
SL: Tactica Imperialis

FL: Adeptus Astartes
FL: Heresy
FL: Inquisition


Just cut-n-paste the above and plug in your results, or N/A for those you don't roll. Thanks!

results plugged into my last post

Just a reminder: Lores are Specialist Skills that can't be attempted untrained.

That is true Ghost for most.  Those of us with Infused Knowledge are considered to be trained in all Common and Scholastic Lores with a bonus degree of success on any success in the roll.  Does nothing for those FL's though...saw no logical reason to know the inner workings of the Astartes, Heresy or Inquisition so far so I didn't spend the absurdly low, low cost of 100xp to snag each of them.  ;-)

AC...rolls below.

Since I don't have any skills that haven't already been covered...N/A for me.

maybe you'll get a 1 tho

I'll give Biggs until tonight then go ahead with what we've got, I guess. I've put the recruiting light on in case we need to bring in fresh players this year.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:23, Mon 07 Jan 2019.

See, now you had to go and make me make a fool of myself by thinking "gosh, I *could* actually hit 5 DoS with this..." ;)

09:18, Today: GSN 1701041631 rolled 45 -- 1 degree of failure using the Only War system with a target number of 42 with rolls of 45.  CL: War.

Turns out I'm smarter than the average bearwilling servant of the God-Emperor...just not by that much.

Edit: added my gift choices to my char sheet.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Mon 07 Jan 2019.

In reply to GSN 1610311843 (msg # 317):

Oh yeah I forgot Infused Knowledge gives 1 extra DoS, will modify results then.

Working on a reply but question AC...

So since Jill got that much info on CL: Imperium with 2 degrees of success does that mean it was supposed to be Jill and Zilch or cause Zilch got 5 degrees of success what you wrote was for 5 not 2 or does Zilch know more than what you put down?

Oops!  Yes add in for yourself that it is not a topic for conversation (this particular crusade) because it is whispered some of the chapters sent in were considered ‘dangerous’. It would be speculation if that meant borderline heretical or too powerful to not use properly, but the general consensus among scholars is that they were honored martyrs; the general scuttlebutt among the rank and file trooper is that we used to have tons of loyalist chapters and lost half to the chaos gods. Thank goodness the rest remained champions of the Throne.

http://regimentalstandard.file...cookingboots1uve.jpg

For those curious.

Update tonight after another long day of working in the snow. It’s one of those times I’d take my overtime pay and hand it to someone else to help me catch up in my games! :/

Sorry for the silence there, couple of crazy days. We'll say Jill just felt like not sharing possible heretical knowledge in front of the others and her brother. Jack is one for making sure heresy is put down with plasma or explosives.

Updating tonight!

Got an auto-text from my phone company on the third day of the new billing cycle 'informing me' that I'd used 75% of my monthly data usage available and only had 25% left between now and Feb 12th. I lol'd, then tried to figure out what the problem was. Until I do, I won't be accessing RPoL at work via phone for a while. :/

As Jill is melee centric, I'll take position 1 if no one else minds.

I'll be Zilch's escort in slot 3, in that case.

Sorry all. Car accident last Thursday that wrecked the car. Been walking to work and working more OT to make up for repair costs. I didn’t get a scratch on my body and neither did driver and of car #2. Car #1 took off so I don’t know how they fared. D’oh!

So sorry to hear that man, but glad that you didn't get hurt!  Take whatever extra time you need.

Definitely take care of yourself Boss.

Glad to hear you’re okay even if the car isn’t as much.

No worries from me, been a shitty week at work. Glad you're safe though.

So I’ve worked every day and scooped up OT where I could. Last night my mechanic said the repair costs would be about 2/3 the value of the car, with used parts. Did I mention the warranty expired two months ago? Oh well. At least I have Monday and Tuesday off to go shopping for a replacement!

Will post tonight and get the ball rolling again. Thanks for your patience.

Yeah that's usually how life hits ya, right when everything that could've helped no longer can.

Right so...

How close are they when we round the corner Bossman?  I don't want to soundlessly aim and hurl a grenade only to have it envelop all our comrades as they charge forward nor do I want to try and hurl a grenade when it's 30 meters to the group.  Sure I can get it in the vicinity...roughly but hit them all not a chance.  Cause our Frags have a 4 meter radius meaning a well placed grenade will envelop all of the enemies...both hybrids using cutting torches, the four clustered around those two and the genestealer in one fell boom!



For later consumption:
22:35, Today: GSN 1610311843 rolled 19 using 2d10+9, dropping the lowest dice only with rolls of 9,10.  Initiative.

I'm guessing since I forgot to take my -3 either I'm charging with a yell or charging quietly.

...close enough to charge into melee. It's technically not important so long as the action flows, which is why in a hallway made wide enough for two Astartes to walk side-by-side and pass a servitor on its way to the oil station you can imagine that there is plenty of room to dash, stop and shoot, or toss a grenade that catches the front or rear of the assembled group and not hit your own pals.

Of course, initiative will play a key role in whether you have to time the pin/toss/duck fast or slow. ;)

Did anyone else read "everyone throw your damn grenades"?

EDIT: Because I'm especially forgetful (I blame new meds?), would the Combat Formation bonus be greater than Ghost's innate Ag bonus of 4?
This message was last edited by the player at 09:42, Tue 29 Jan 2019.

Zilch’s Int Bonus is a 6 so yes.

I'm not telling you anything your Primer isn't already saying. Go with your strengths in the first round and mop up survivors in the second and beyond. If that means shoot a plasma gun or toss a grenade or hurl insults, then that's what you should do. ;)

You can be sure that hybrids with weapons will use them to the best of their abilities.

Jill votes charge with a yell :P

GSN 1804112721 rolled 16 using 2d10+9, dropping the lowest dice only with rolls of 5,7.  Initiative.

Sorry about the delay all, been too busy with work the last couple of weeks.  I really really hate monthly sales cycles.  I'll try to post something tonight or tomorrow.

Oh we have had that typical horrible February weather here in NY. Sub zero temps and snow piling up. So my days are long and my nights are spent wrapped in a blanket with hot cocoa. Should warm up a bit this weekend. Maybe in time for something to happen here. :P

You know an amusing thought came to mind when I was looking at Everest and based on what I'd starting to buy for him using his reduced XP as a secondary.  His best move short term would be to hop him from Heavy over to Field Chirurgeon.  Correspondingly Zilch's best direction in the short term is to shift to Sentry and swapping both of their roles from each other and giving the big man the medkit and the small one, relatively speaking, a heavy weapon.

I just figured tossing up a IC Zilch is doing this initially might help things get going again for you AC instead of a nebulous thing here in OOC.

Happy weekend everyone :)

Dammit fate has a funny sense of humor

Edit: probably should have just gone maxi-plasma.  Would have been !!fun!!
This message was last edited by the player at 08:17, Mon 04 Feb 2019.

Hey...we're getting closer to a real group again! Two posts up, a couple to go! :)

I realized today I had either misread or misinterpreted the whole thing... I am an idiot sometimes. Post up today.

I realized today that Combat Formation is so much cooler than I thought.

It stacks.

No wonder Cadian's always have Initiative!  They can get it for default.  10 man squad?  No problem everyone gets a +10 to Initiative if they all take it instead of Double Team.

As a Tier 1 Talent that's a pretty cheap Initiative bonus...for everyone.

Pretty quiet around here...everyone OK?

Yep...

Still have my in-laws here after two months so okay is relative but... :)

Welp I almost died twice. First time I was hit by a greyhound bus, the next time my docs tried to kill me because I was prescribed 3 different types of pain medication, and no one double checked what else I was prescribed.

Emperor! Am I not a faithful servant!? Spare me from the fickleness of the Warp and the foul Xeno!

Wedge/Biggs?  Ghost/Honey?  Whaddup peeps?  Do we need to write yah two off and tell AC to move the three of us forward?  Do the best we can till we can wrap this mission up and look for new guys?

Off game topic...holy shiznit Jack that sounds exactly what would happen in 40k.

It looks like AC hasn't signed on either in almost a month, since...that giant storm, I guess.  Hope everything's OK on all ends.

Yeah, I haven't tried bothering him in other ways yet but I probably will.  I agree with the hope cause will loss of car and crazy storms that can lead to some bad stuff.

Yeah my luck is pretty bad sometimes. But I'm also luckiest during the bad luck? It's weird. Like I survived getting hit by the bus, with little injury, when I should've been dead.

I’d take astounding good luck while I’m having bad luck any day.  It may suck to deal with the bad but at least you’ve got a lot of good on your side rather than none or just even more bad.

It’s good to hear that at least you seem to be doing okay post all that crazy.