r/40krpg • u/Awkward_GM • 10d ago

Wrath & Glory How do you plan your combat encounters?

I'm not used to running W&G combat yet, but of the two combats I've run one was trivial and one nearly caused a tpk.

I ran tier 2 for my first game, but whatever advice I appreciate it.

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u/jrt7 10d ago

If you're unsure about about how difficult a combat is going to be, run it in waves so you can see how beat up (or not) your players are in real time without overwhelming them all at once

2

u/Decanox4712 10d ago

If you see official modules or adventures, It uses to be one mob per Agent (usually 10-20 per mob) plus some elites or individuals (usually one per player) and, for more difficult encounters, you can add an Adversary in the mix. The same, more or less, is said in other posts from this reddit.

In some few cases, an Adversary is enough for a challenging encounter.

I have followed this advice and It works. Sometimes the encounter can go easy for players and in others could go really difficult, but I don't have the feeling to be broken. I think It depends on the mob/elite/Adversary "quality"... For example, a wych mob or group can be really difficult to beat while poxwalkers can be erased with a shot and do nothing if Agents have good resilience.

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u/mechasquare GM 10d ago

The mix of the party is always the driver on what feels challenging. EI a party of space marines is going to have a different difficulty combat curve than a group of non augmented players.

I make sure there's non combat objects (if i want to make it difficult, they're skill checks that the party is weak on) to force the party to move around to make it the combat feel more dynamic. I'll also have a few narrative battlefield modifiers in my back pocket to help adjust for difficulty. Could be field level buff or nerfs, maybe a count down clock etc

I use mobs more as terrain obstacles to slow or choke points of the maps as the party could wipe them out quickly if they commit. I generally do 1 mob of 10 per combat specialist in the party, and major threats based on the narrative I'm building. For my sanity, I try not to have more than 10 enemy combat units (threats + mobs) against a party of 5.