Play Report: Only War
(WARNING EXTREMELY LONG READ SINCE IT WILL COVER ALL MY PREVIOUS SESSIONS)
A quick background first.
As you may or may not know, I've been running an Only War campaign for my old buddies who some of which moved to Canada. This group and I originally began playing RP's with D&D 4E and several other games after that. Eventually due to the ever present real life that tends to be detrimental for gaming we found it hard to continuously play sessions at my place due to location(again 3 of my players have moved to Canada) and scheduling problems and so we moved the session online via Roll.20 and Skype; so for my first Play report I'm going to tell you about the accolades of :
The Second South Hill Raiders
The team created the regiment using the Regiment Cration rules of Only War and these are the stats they picked out
Homeworld - Fortress World
Commander - Phlegmatic
Regiment Type - Reconnaissance Infantry
Training Doctrine - Sharpshooters
For a total of 11 Regiment points which gives the regiment these bonuses
Characteristic Modifiers:
+3 to any two of the following characteristics: Ballistic Skill, Willpower and Toughness,
+3 to Perception
-3 to Willpower
Skills:
Common Lore (War) - 2 Ranks
Common Lore (Imperium) - 2 Ranks
Common Lore (Imperial Guard) - 2 Ranks
Linguistics (Low Gothic) - 1 Rank
Talents:
Nerves of Steel OR Sprint
Combat Sense
Aptitudes:
Ballistic Skill
Specials:
Bred for War: Players must take a Challenging(+0) Willpower test to go against the regulations of the Imperial Guard.
Hated Enemy Renegades - Players may be required an Ordinary(+10) Willpower test to restrain from attacking the target of their Hatred.
Standard Regimental Kit Additions:
1 Chimera Armored Transport and 1 Magnoculars per player character.
The regiment was just a bundle of statistics untill I asked the players to give a short description about their regiment and squad.
They came up with the story of connecting all their regiment and future regiments to the Planet of South Hill; a world based off our home town. They became the 2nd South Hill Raiders drawn from the planet since the prior game had a simillar regiment composition named the 1st South Hill Sharpshooters(Who lost their lives attempting to evacuate the populace of Avalon from Tyranid menace assaulting the Calixis Sector). The valiant efforts of their predecessors made South Hill a prime world to gather new Imperial regiments to be sent to various battlefields across the galaxy, the 2nd South Hill raiders being one of the chosen to be sent to the spinward front. They didn't bother adding much flavor to their commander and war history saying - Their squad particularly is a bunch of misfits who take no shit from no man; being true to their reconnaissance roots; people who are used to be out on the field with little to no interaction with other guardsmen.
Dramatis Personae:
Ptesticles -(yep you read and pronounced that right) the Operator, played by Sam. Ptesticlese is the dedicated tank driver of the team, piloting their Chimera APC equipped with autocannons and a heavy bolter to serve as both the squads transport and the closest thing they have as an anti-vehicle. Outside the tank Ptesticlese depends not on his lasgun but his ever trusty GRENADE!. His comrade who serves as his co-pilot and gunner is an addict named Vorgen; so far hes been sober enough to help the team.
Marcus - the team's Medic played by John. Marcus is basically your generic "healbot" in terms of other games but with the lethality and difficulty of Only War he hasn't proven his skills yet but that probably wont stop him as he serves recaf to the wounded while tending to their injuries no matter how bad he does it. Accompanied by Harmon, the field medics have been working more as doctors of death rather than life.
Lapua - the teams oddity; the Ratling Sniper, played by AJ. Lapua is the team's dedicated hit-man, proving the ancient addage of 1 shot 1 kill most of the time. He prefers to hide WAY behind cover and provide pot shots so that the rest of the team can advance. Every sniper needs a spotter Lapua's is Odette a fellow ratling whose eyes can tell where the enemy is taking the hobbits, i mean VIP.
The Mission
We began the campaign using the GM kit's adventure - Old Soldiers. The team starts of being unceremoniously dropped off in the camp by their regiments chimera where they meet and greet the 37th Maccabian Janissaries, the guardsmen responsible for defending this area of the planet Virbius from the rebel guardsmen the Severan Dominate. The squad received the cold shoulder from the Janissaries, obviously noticing their low morale probably from the recent successive losses from enemy Guerilla tactics.
Once settled down the team was called to the command bunker where they meet their C/O, Colonel Raxe Garn of the 37th Maccabian Janissaries. Being the first squads from the South Hill Raiders to arrive Garn quickly tells them of their situation and mission. The Raiders are assigned to locate and assassinate the enemy general as the Janissaries no longer have teams to spare for the mission as they've lost several squads already and need the rest of their men to reinforce the front lines.
Piotr the squads acting leader arrogantly takes the mission with a, been there done that attitude and readies his companions for the mission the next day. As dawn begain the team ready themselves as they retrieve their mission assignment gear from the quartermaster and head out alongside the larger force of the 37th. Virbius' harsh nature was quickly shown to the team as they wandered for hours in forests, plains and mountains where enemy patrols lurked nearby. The team avoided numerous patrols and found themselves at the center of the planets most dangerous weather, the Virbian Lightning storm, Their dataslate had warned them to avoid this as much as possible for it was known to destroy nearly everything in its path. Ptesticlese narrowly escaped this threat losing only one of their jury rigged pintlemounted missile launchers in the process.
It was nightfall when they found the enemy base. Like all manly men the only option they could think of short of assaulting the front gate was assaulting the side wall. the made up the plan of leaving Lapua behind to provide covering fire by taking out the guards posted on the enemy base's tower while the rest of the squad ride the chimera downhill straight at the wall. Piotr though untrained in using missile launchers grabbed one of their spares thinking I don't need precision i just need to bust a hole in that wall. He fires one shot straight at a section of the wall damaging it but not nearly enough to punch through; this attack alerted the base; the four guards posted at the gate quickly went inside the base to warn the others. Lapua kills one of the watchmen posted in the tower to distract them from the charging tank. As he prepares his third shot Lapua sees an enemy Leman Russ vanquisher roar to life and head outside the gates. He shouts at the chimera warning them of the enemy armor pointing at it. Pioter barely understands what Lapua was saying over the rumbling chimera and simply continues firing at the wall with his missile launcher this time enough to blast it to bits.
Ptesticles catches a glimpse of the Leman Russ's rear armor through the smoke as it exits the base. He tells Piotr and Marcus to get off by the hole and he'll deal with the tank. He forces the tank to spin and puts it in reverse right directly at the makeshift entrance while he orders vorgen to man the autocannons to prepare for a tank war. Piotr gets off first and takes cover behind the rubble to brace his autogun while Marcus takes the opposite wall.
The Slow Leman Russ peeks through from the corner of the tower and fires a shot from it's battlecannon at Ptesticles' chimera, thankfully the enemy's main cannon jams; the emperor's will has protected them. Lapua takes another shot at the watchmen from the tower to protect Piotr and Marcus from their attacks forcing the last watchman to duck behind the fences. The four guardsmen from the gate quickly head towards the broken wall but are quickly met with full automatic fire from Piotr's autogun, losing one of their men instantly. Piotr tells Marcus to advance as he provides cover.
As soon as Marcus and Harmon get past the walls they quickly duck and jump from cover to cover while taking pot shots at the three guardsmen from the gate, killing one of them. This is when he sees their target, General Scarus; leader of the renegades. Meanwhile behind them Ptesticles Engages the enemy Leman Russ using the Chimera's higher speed to his advantage trying to keep away from the enemy's hull mounted heavy bolter while their main cannon is out of commission. Repeated attacks from their autocannon slowly peel the heavier tank's armor.
Lapua continues providing covering fire killing the last of the guardsmen posted at the wall. Piotr fires one last full auto burst at the guardsmen cowering behind the walls of nearby buildings and kills them. Piotr quickly hefts his autogun and advances to provide support for Marcus as he advances and attacks the enemy general. The The general quickly dodges the first shot and orders his two bodyguards to counterattack and they fire at the Medic and his assistant wounding them both. Ptesticles continues to circle around the lumbering Leman Russ with his chimera continuing to blast it with their autocannon. Their luck nearly runs out as the enemy tanks main cannon fires in retaliation once more hitting them at their weaker side armor, only narrowly avoiding certain death.
The teams heavy gunner now sees General Scarus and his two bodyguards and fires at them but without bracing his heavy weapon his shots fly wildly. The wounded Marcus and his companion move back attempting to use the nearby wall as cover and retaliate. Forging accuracy for volume of fire Marcus switches his Lasgun to Semi-auto burst and fires directly at the enemy general. It seems that the Emperor has smiled on him today all his shots strike the enemy general's head searing it clean off he breathes as sigh of relief as the remaining soldiers' morale quickly breaks. But before they could enjoy their victory a figure clad in black armor casts an intimidating shadow over their medic they see Lord Kalkus Veth, leader of a Dark Eldar Kabal accompanied by four of his men on Jetbikes.
All of the guardsmen loyal or otherwise quickly fire at the alien's sudden appearance and the alien's henchmen fire at the hapless rebels reducing them to mincemeat. Lapua sees the threats and fires at what seems to be their Leader; his shot hits but the alien's armor protects him from the sniper.
Before the rest of the 2nd could react Kalkus Veth sets his sights on the medic and fires his weapon at him. With nowhere to run Marcus was prepared to die however Harmon quickly jumps in front of him protecting his mentor at the cost of his life.
As the Leman Russ's crew seems to become lifeless Ptesticles takes the opportunity to return to his comrades inside the base and immediately sees the Xenos group with Marcus clutching their dead comrade's lifeless body and quickly orders vorgen to attack the enemy vehicles. The enemy jetbikes superior speed proves to be a challenge however as they deftly dodge the chimera's autocannons and position themselves to flank the weakened tank. Piotr Rushes to Marcus' side firing pot shots at the black clad figure attempting to drag Marcus away from the threat.
Lapua calms himself down and listens to Odette's coordinates, and aims at the head of their quarry as it menacingly saunters toward his allies, and he simultaneously exhales as he pulls the trigger of his sniper rifle followed by a loud resounding bag from the weapon his sight is momentarily blinded. He hits the leader and his shot breaks through his armor and wounds the alien however it doesn't do enough damage to kill him but it does throw off the Eldar's aim causing him to miss both Marcus and Piotr.
The two Jetbikes begin to pelt the tank with their alien weaponry, silvery flashes of light and particles slam into the tanks hull ripping through its armor slowly but surely. Ptesticles makes a quick decision to ram the bunker behind him and use it as a sort of cover to prevent the jetbikes attack from penetrating his weaker side armor and create an avenue for escape for his companions outside. Seconds later dust fills the air as the tank rams the wall breaking it but also damaging their vehicle. The Jetbikes' riders weren't prepared for this and were taken aback. This momentary laspe of concentration was all Vorgen needed to fire a barrage at one of the bikes instantly destroying one of them in a blaze of fire; as the wreckage flips the two riders atop it rag-doll into the air and drop with a sickening thud among the rubble.
Piotr sees his chance for a short respite from the enemy onslaught and orders odette to drag Marcus away from combat and provides cover for both of them as he shoots at the Xenos leader. Lapua learning from his previous attacks corrects his aim once more and pulls the trigger for the final time. Before the alien could deal the finishing blow to Piotr's group his helmet bursts in crimson mist as Lapua's shot hits Kalkus Veth right in the head. As the life leaves the alien leaders body his remaining men promptly elevate their jetbike and throttle it in a hasty retreat.
By the time the entire ordeal ends and the squads regroup they realize that its well past midnight and the dark night lit only by the flames of war. Now with a clear layout of the base they see it is composed of a large barracks complex a small supply depot and an underground bunker. The few rebels that did surrender to them as soon as the general died proved to be useless most of them being low ranking soldiers they knew nothing about the interaction between the General and the Eldar. After performing executions the team takes a few minutes to catch their breaths and rearm themselves using the supplies from the depot the squad proceeds to initiate a sweep of the enemy compound starting first with the barracks thinking it might contain more of the rebels.
Piotr is first to enter the complex followed by Marcus and Lapua while Ptesticles waits outside in their chimera in case of emergencies. Inside the complex they find one large hallway populated by several doors on each side, each one of them locked or empty. Lapua however with his heightened senses notices that there are still people inside probably barricading themselves in one of the rooms. Using Lapua's senses they find one of the locked doors and hear the whispers and hasty preparations of its residents. Piotr primes a krak grenade to serve as a make-shift breaching device and ready his team mates for what they thought would be a simple encounter against a couple of enemy soldiers. Once the blast cleared and the door opened the team opened fire however they were unprepared for the 15 guardsmen barricaded inside; it seemed that the barracks walls were composed of wooden paritions easily removed to expand rooms, The cowardly soldiers used this to their advantage to create a defensible position after barricading several of the doors using their beds and lockers.
The sheer number of opponents made it hard for the three man team to eliminate them all, especially with only having 1 narrow opening to attack from; grenades couldn't manage to kill more than one as the guardsmen inside scattered themselves and hid behind makeshift cover to protect themselves from the blasts. The team radioed in Ptesticles to ram the shoddy barracks from the side to provide support, and in a few seconds he floors it hitting the south wall, the chimera carried too much inertia to be stopped with the brakes causing it to ram straight past the north wall, dazing its passengers, everything went much better than expected however 11 of the guardsmen couldn't avoid the oncoming vehicle due to the dust and smoke wafting through the air delaying their reactions inevitably causing their deaths.
Piotr takes this opportunity to exit the hallway and run towards the south wall to gain a better firing position; while Marcus and Lapua distract the enemies. As the remaining four rebels reposition themselves from the onslaught their allies hiding in the northern section of the bunker come to reinforce them through the broken wall increasing their number to 10 as they continue to suppress the two members of the 2nd Raiders by the hall.
Once Piotr manages to find a good piece of wall to act as both cover and his brace he primes his autogun for a full-auto burst killing one of the guardsmen with several direct hits; his armor stood no chance. The desperate rebels see the heavy gunner slay their ally and attack in retribution; two of them fire at Piotr; the weakened wall offered minimal protection against the lasgun barrage wounding him gravely and finally hitting him square in the head; the energy coursing through Piotrs body was too much for him to bear; burning most of his face and hair, leaving him unconscious.
Marcus and Lapua see their ally go down and are gripped with righteous fury; Marcus in desperation throws a Krak grenade at one of the rebels and with either sheer luck or skill hits the Severan soldier in the head, the impact causing the bomb to explode prematurely leaving a grisly headless corpse in its aftermath. Lapua continues to fire with his sniper rifle however the disadvantagous angles he fires at reduces his effectivness causing minor wounds on their enemies. The rebels retaliate once more their morale raised by both losing their own allies and knocking out one of their enemies; they fire at the two remaining members of the 2nd by the doorway. One barrage shot hits Lapua square in the chest; his armor and cover offering minimal protection and his weak frail body is burnt with the white hot energy rippling through him causing a nasty scar and leaves him in a near death state.
All hope is not lost however as Ptesticles recovers his bearing and manuevers the tank to face the remaining four Dominate troopers with a burst from Vorgens autocannon two of the guardsmen disintegrate from the blast and personally manning the heavy bolter the Operator squeezes the trigger and leaves nothing but red mist for the remaining two enemies.
It took a long while for the team to rest this time seeing as they had two members critically wounded; after Marcus attempts to patch them up as much as he can they team readies once more to continue their sweep. They enter the enemy bunker this time only aware that there should only be a few people manning the bunker; mainly a vox room, a command center and likely officers quarters. They first locate the officers quarter and catch three Severan storm troopers hastily burning officers journals and valuable tactical data. A few grenades and a couple of shots here and there made short work of the unprepared officers leaving the badly wounded team nearly unscathed. They recover what they could from the tactical data and journals and find more incriminating evidence of the Severan Dominate high command's treasonous dealings with the Eldar menace and an enemy supply schedule.
They continue searching the bunker accidentally finding General Scarus' personal quarters. Here they see a room of a man bred in battle its meager furnishings proving that the man spent most of his time in either a command center and front lines; the team however recovers valuable data on recent attack orders given to the Eldar menace; proving that it wasn't their predecessors teams incompetence against the rebels but their unpreparedness for facing the Xenos. The team finds the enemy command center unmanned and recover more valuable tactical data; one revealing the exact coordinates of previous eldar attack sites and the various supply routes the Severan Dominate uses.
They bust through the enemy vox room next finding two storm troopers attempting to warn the rest of the rebels about the bases status. The 2nd however quickly dispatch the rebels before they could finish their task. Using the tactical data they recovered they use the enemy command center to relay the information to Colonel Garn and place an ambush for the enemy supply lines. With their mission complete and knowing reinforcements are on their way the team takes the time to relax and explore the rest of the base.
Ptesticles locates a large cave behind the base and explores it; he discovers that this cave seemed to be the hideout for the Eldar finding what seems to be a sort of arena and torture chambers inside. As he delves deeper he sees a larger room that seems to be both some sort of laboratory and torture chamber; several dead bodies litter the various alien machinery and holding pens inside. It is here he finds 5 survivors hooked to a giant machine all cables, needles and other indescribable devices for inhuman experimentation and torture. As Ptesticles sees the horrors unleashed upon his fellow man he feels his sanity chip slowly. He quickly calls for Marcus to help him remove the survivors off the machines.
Within moments Marcus arrives and examines the patients, he notices three of them as members of the 37th Janissaries and two who appear to be natives. He successfully extracts the guardsmen off the machines but fails to do so with the natives. They waken briefly from their coma like state as the machines attempt to pull them back; the various blades and needles stuck in them plunge once more putting the patient's already strained body into shock killing them instantly. Marcus attempts to revive the three unconscious Janissaries and successfully wakens two of them, one however was too far gone to be revived.
Once Ptesticles recovers from the sight he continues on exploring the caverns and finds an ancient Hive Gate. After examining it closely he finds a control panel and attempts to use his meager knowledge to manipulate it. However its ancient machine spirits do not recognize him and barred him or everyone else; from what he could see ,entry.
The rest of the night passes by uneventfully with the team recovering most of their wounds. The following morning they leave the enemy base as their replacements arrive. After a few short hours of travel back to their own base they are greeted with a ceremony honoring their deeds and medals are awarded for everyone with an obvious rise in their reputation.
They are given orders to rest and refit till the Emperor needs them once more
Piotr takes this opportunity to exit the hallway and run towards the south wall to gain a better firing position; while Marcus and Lapua distract the enemies. As the remaining four rebels reposition themselves from the onslaught their allies hiding in the northern section of the bunker come to reinforce them through the broken wall increasing their number to 10 as they continue to suppress the two members of the 2nd Raiders by the hall.
Once Piotr manages to find a good piece of wall to act as both cover and his brace he primes his autogun for a full-auto burst killing one of the guardsmen with several direct hits; his armor stood no chance. The desperate rebels see the heavy gunner slay their ally and attack in retribution; two of them fire at Piotr; the weakened wall offered minimal protection against the lasgun barrage wounding him gravely and finally hitting him square in the head; the energy coursing through Piotrs body was too much for him to bear; burning most of his face and hair, leaving him unconscious.
Marcus and Lapua see their ally go down and are gripped with righteous fury; Marcus in desperation throws a Krak grenade at one of the rebels and with either sheer luck or skill hits the Severan soldier in the head, the impact causing the bomb to explode prematurely leaving a grisly headless corpse in its aftermath. Lapua continues to fire with his sniper rifle however the disadvantagous angles he fires at reduces his effectivness causing minor wounds on their enemies. The rebels retaliate once more their morale raised by both losing their own allies and knocking out one of their enemies; they fire at the two remaining members of the 2nd by the doorway. One barrage shot hits Lapua square in the chest; his armor and cover offering minimal protection and his weak frail body is burnt with the white hot energy rippling through him causing a nasty scar and leaves him in a near death state.
All hope is not lost however as Ptesticles recovers his bearing and manuevers the tank to face the remaining four Dominate troopers with a burst from Vorgens autocannon two of the guardsmen disintegrate from the blast and personally manning the heavy bolter the Operator squeezes the trigger and leaves nothing but red mist for the remaining two enemies.
It took a long while for the team to rest this time seeing as they had two members critically wounded; after Marcus attempts to patch them up as much as he can they team readies once more to continue their sweep. They enter the enemy bunker this time only aware that there should only be a few people manning the bunker; mainly a vox room, a command center and likely officers quarters. They first locate the officers quarter and catch three Severan storm troopers hastily burning officers journals and valuable tactical data. A few grenades and a couple of shots here and there made short work of the unprepared officers leaving the badly wounded team nearly unscathed. They recover what they could from the tactical data and journals and find more incriminating evidence of the Severan Dominate high command's treasonous dealings with the Eldar menace and an enemy supply schedule.
They continue searching the bunker accidentally finding General Scarus' personal quarters. Here they see a room of a man bred in battle its meager furnishings proving that the man spent most of his time in either a command center and front lines; the team however recovers valuable data on recent attack orders given to the Eldar menace; proving that it wasn't their predecessors teams incompetence against the rebels but their unpreparedness for facing the Xenos. The team finds the enemy command center unmanned and recover more valuable tactical data; one revealing the exact coordinates of previous eldar attack sites and the various supply routes the Severan Dominate uses.
They bust through the enemy vox room next finding two storm troopers attempting to warn the rest of the rebels about the bases status. The 2nd however quickly dispatch the rebels before they could finish their task. Using the tactical data they recovered they use the enemy command center to relay the information to Colonel Garn and place an ambush for the enemy supply lines. With their mission complete and knowing reinforcements are on their way the team takes the time to relax and explore the rest of the base.
Ptesticles locates a large cave behind the base and explores it; he discovers that this cave seemed to be the hideout for the Eldar finding what seems to be a sort of arena and torture chambers inside. As he delves deeper he sees a larger room that seems to be both some sort of laboratory and torture chamber; several dead bodies litter the various alien machinery and holding pens inside. It is here he finds 5 survivors hooked to a giant machine all cables, needles and other indescribable devices for inhuman experimentation and torture. As Ptesticles sees the horrors unleashed upon his fellow man he feels his sanity chip slowly. He quickly calls for Marcus to help him remove the survivors off the machines.
Within moments Marcus arrives and examines the patients, he notices three of them as members of the 37th Janissaries and two who appear to be natives. He successfully extracts the guardsmen off the machines but fails to do so with the natives. They waken briefly from their coma like state as the machines attempt to pull them back; the various blades and needles stuck in them plunge once more putting the patient's already strained body into shock killing them instantly. Marcus attempts to revive the three unconscious Janissaries and successfully wakens two of them, one however was too far gone to be revived.
Once Ptesticles recovers from the sight he continues on exploring the caverns and finds an ancient Hive Gate. After examining it closely he finds a control panel and attempts to use his meager knowledge to manipulate it. However its ancient machine spirits do not recognize him and barred him or everyone else; from what he could see ,entry.
The rest of the night passes by uneventfully with the team recovering most of their wounds. The following morning they leave the enemy base as their replacements arrive. After a few short hours of travel back to their own base they are greeted with a ceremony honoring their deeds and medals are awarded for everyone with an obvious rise in their reputation.
They are given orders to rest and refit till the Emperor needs them once more
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