Reading Rogue Trader, Part Seven

Still in the Combat chapter (told you it was long)!

Buildings
This section is pretty basic and includes lots of 'the GM shall decide' type of language. There are rules for destroying buildings, hacking through walls, and breaking down doors.

Vehicles
"There are no specific model vehicles available for the Warhammer 40,000 game at the time of writing."

Yep. That monster below was scratch built! The next paragraph is about taking other kits available on the market and converting them for use in your games. Man is that different from the game today!

This section covers moving, boarding and leaving vehicles, and combat. Vehicles are basically treated as any other model when targeted by shooting with Toughness, Wounds (called Damage for vehicles), and Armour Saves. In addition, when a vehicle suffers damage, roll a d6 - on the result of a '6' you roll a d10 on the special damage chart that may result in reduced speed, loss of weapons, loss of control, or outright destruction. Each point of damage adds +1 to the roll, increasing the likelihood of more serious results.

The section also includes Dreadnought Suits and Robots which are treated in a similar manner. Dreads and Robots have all of the characteristics of a normal model, including WS, BS, Attacks, etc. Dreads have the personal characteristics of their pilot and are subject to all normal leadership and cool tests. Robots have additional rules to govern their behavior. Depending on the tech level and intelligence of the robot, players may need to write down their orders for several turns in advance. There is also the chance that a robot might shoot a friendly if they are in their fire arc and nearer than an enemy target (robot must pass a 2d6 Intelligence check or shoot the friend) so you need to be very careful deploying them!

There is another interesting optional rule (the GM may decide) that paints robots (and 40k technology in general) as quirky and unreliable and that is the Robotic Malfunction rule. This is a chance (1 in whatever-sided die the GM decides - seriously) that the robot suffers special damage just as if it had taken damage in combat. It might loose functionality, go berserk, or simply explode! I KNOW many players would hate this, this I just love as much chaos in my game as possible.

Finally there is some of the humor that I love from this book tucked away in the Dreadnought special damage chart...

10. Control Loss - The suit goes berserk, moving out of control, firing and moving in an amusing manner randomly determined by the GM.

Profiles for general types of vehicles, dreadnoughts, and robots are included in the equipment chapter, as well as rules to randomly generate profiles for each!

Aerial Movement and Combat
Finally there are fairly extensive rules for aerial movement and combat. I've never used these (or really the modern rules for flyers in 40k) so I don't really have an opinion on them beyond loving the fact that there are rules for dropping things which may include 'stones, bricks, and other improvised items as well as grenades'. I keep picturing the movie Road Warrior and dropping a sack with a rattlesnake in it...