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...

The Rest of the Rogue Trader Crew

Thought I'd post the stats of the other members of the team, including the fearless leader...

That makes my Rogue Trader faction 585 points...

More Mercenaries

Here are the rank and file for Beltane Tarsha's combat team...

The squad has two models with Las Guns and two models with Bolt Guns. As with the robots, the point values were figured from scratch rather than from any list. They are elite troops and all are based on the Human Champion profile...

Finally, here they are with Beltane Tarsha...

Beltane Tarsha

Here is the leader of Marko Steelknife's mercenary security force. Although the Rogue Trader has access to two squads of Ultramarines and a company of Imperial Army troopers, he uses mercenaries for operations that might be better kept off the Imperial books...

He actually replaced my model of Worldburner for the leader of the mercs, because I couldn't get over that dinky pistol. I think Worldburner will work better as a scout or spy for Marko Steelknife.

Salvage Robot Team

For the Rogue Trader scenario I'm working on, I needed four non-combat robots.

These models are very old Gamma World miniatures by Grenadier. They appealed to me because they are from the same era as my other models and fit in very well stylistically. They were essentially identical with separate left arms. I set about converting a few to add variety and create a narrative. The tracked robot has a servo-claw from a tech-priest model... no idea what the track bit was from! The command robot has a comm pack from the Imperial Guard Cadian sprue.

In my scenario, these robots are tasked with the recovery of valuable (?) cargo that may have survived the crash of an Aquila Lander fleeing from an Imperial patrol in orbit. Conditions on the planet play hell with comms so I'm going to limit the ability of the robot tech to change their orders - he must be within 12". However, he may relay orders an additional 12" from the command robot (the spiffy yellow guy), increasing the possible range up to 24". If anything happens to Hart, Marko Steelknife may broadcast a recall command that will order the robots to return to Natasha's Luck, but that is the only command he can issue.

Point Values were calculated using the rules on page 58 of the Rogue Trader rule book. As non-combat robots, they are not armed with range weapons but may be ordered to charge (if Tech Hart is in range) and they will automatically defend themselves in close combat if attacked. The Fusion Torches equipped on the red robots are treated (and priced) as Power Swords.

I'm full steam ahead on this project and the next few weeks will be mostly dedicated to the models I need to complete this scenario!

Reading Rogue Trader, Part Six

Still in the Combat chapter...

Rout and Pursuit

A unit must make a rout test in the following situations.

1. The unit just lost a round of hand to hand combat.

2. The unit suffers casualties of 1/3 or more of its current numerical strength to shooting and/or psychic attack during a single turn.

3. As indicated elsewhere in the rules. For example, while breaking away from hand to hand combat.

4. Anytime at the GM's discretion.

That last bit is why I went through them all. Again, Rogue Trader assumes that having a Game Master adjudicating the game is the default. Of course Leadership is the characteristic used for Rout Tests, but there is an interesting note. The test is made on leader of the unit's characteristic - even if it is lower than the unit! It's hard to see when this would apply, but I could see designing a scenario where a unit is burdened by a less than heroic officer.

A unit failing its Leadership Test is immediately moved 4" (apparently regardless of the movement characteristic of the unit) away from the fight. In subsequent turns, routers are moved at double their normal rate during the movement phase. The victors will pursue to remain in contact unless the pass a Leadership Test not to do so. If their movement is sufficient to keep up with the routers, they will attack again in the hand to hand phase, and the routers are treated as WS1! If pursuers follow routers off the table, they may return on the roll of a 4+ in the same spot on subsequent turns.

Reserves

As mentioned in an earlier post, models which have not fired and are not with 4" of an enemy model may make a reserve move. Again, I think it is probably better to simply allow a double move in the Movement phase under these same conditions. However, it is interesting to note that Routing troops within 4" of allies also prevent them making reserve moves.

Psychology

Rogue Trader has four psychological conditions that affect troops - Confusion, Frenzy, Fear, and Hatred. All tests against these conditions are made using the Cool characteristic. These effects may be built into profiles of races or creatures and some weapons and equipment may trigger these as well. The results of a failed test can create quite a list of effects. For instance, units suffering from confusion have a -1 to hit with shooting and hand to hand, may not use psychic powers, move at half rate, may not be split, AND ignores further psychology tests.

Chaos Dwarf Berserker Regiment

Rawr!

Once again, I am extremely pleased with the unified appearance of the unit despite the wildly different models. I will add a regiment standard when I get around to expanding them, but I don't have any suitable models at the moment (the other Chaos Dwarves I have are all in heavy armour).

I need to make time to set up some terrain and take a few army shots!