Rogue Trader Support Squad

Rogue Trader 40k Imperial Guard Support Squad

This entry features some models from the distant mists of Rogue Trader 40k - an Imperial Guard "Support Squad", armed to the teeth and ready to provide covering fire to the tactical squads and assault squad of "F" Company, 122nd Cadian PDF Regiment.

Half the 10-man squad is armed with heavy weapons - serious firepower!

It has been quite some time - a year and a half or so - since I last added a unit to my Rogue Trader guardsmen.  My supply of plastic troops is a little low, so this lot is a real mixed bag - some metal figs from the early "Imperial Army" days, some metal figs from the Rogue Trader period, and a couple of plastics from the 90s.

Four lascannons and a missile launcher - a pretty serious set of weapons

The metals are a random assortment of EBay acquisitions from the past few years, kitted with some scrapings of spare bits from more recent vintage plastic Cadian boxes.  The missile launcher is a spare from the Space Marine RT plastic box.

Wounded trooper still gamely holding his weapon

I particularly like the seriously wounded guy...still clinging to his lasgun, bayonet attached, but ordered to hang back with the heavy weapons by the main officers who think he might be a liability in the assault...

"Shark" style missile launcher and RT-era lascannon (let's call it Ryza pattern or something) - I like how the fellow is checking his watch...

I had painted a few of these models like two years ago on the assumption I would do one of these squads...then I got distracted, etc. etc. I finally finished them off last night while waiting for another WW2 project to dry (more on that later).

More "Imperial Army" era metal heavy weapon troopers - I like the loose look of the flak armour

By the standards of any edition of 40k, the Support Squad is armed to the teeth - four lascannons and a missile launcher.  To make it even better, the missile launcher is equipped with frag, crack AND plasma missiles standard! Plasma missiles are like frag missiles, but they actually are pretty effective.

Some regular troopers - the one on the left is metal with plastic arms, the others are all plastic

I love these old officer with the breastplates...but some variety with the sword arm might have been nice...

And remember this was in an era where individual models could target other individual models on the 40k tabletop, so this squad can pour out quite a bit of firepower to cover the table. Watch out Orks!

Ready for action on the gaming table

This brings my Rogue Trader Imperial Guard force to about 70 models.  Not many models for a game in the current version of 40k, but a pretty large force for a Rogue Trader game.  Dallas has some new terrain he acquired recently that will make for a perfect Rogue Trader game, so I hope to get these guys on to the table before the snow arrives.

Rogue Trader in the Modern Age - 40K battle report

Last night Conscripts Greg, Mike F. and Brian came over for a game of 40K sixth edition with a retro flavour - my Orks vs. Greg's Imperial Guard. The retro-ness comes from the models we use - Greg's Guard are the original RT Perry twins plastics with updated weapons, and my Orks are all RT metal models, with a couple of exceptions. We teed up a game at 1500 points... 

Here's what 1500 points of RT Orks looks like in sixth edition...

Dakkajet, Deff Dread, Wartrakk squadron, Trukk (captured Rhino) and at right, a battlewagon from Puppets War. I call this a "conversion" since the gun jutting out over the ram plate is from the Ork boyz boxed plastic sprue ;-)

Ork infantry. Clockwise from centre left: Warboss Thrugg in mega-armour, 5 Meganobs, maob of 20 boyz, mob of 20 boyz, 5 Flash Gitz, 10 Stormboyz with Nob.

We rolled up a random scenario - Crusade - and a deployment mode. Unfortunately for me this meant deploying on the short sides of the table. Five objectives were placed and the game began - here's my initial deployment - the battlewagon is carrying 20 boyz and the Boss and Meganobz are in the Trukk.

Here's what we were facing - ouch. Lots of Chimeras plus a Leman Russ and Basilisk. Valkyries are off-table...

Looking OK so far... this would change shortly...

Stormboyz popped over to take cover behind the Imperial bastion. So far so good.

Chimeras advance...

Wartrakks scream out from the Ork lines and race towards the enemy...

I love this model. So... Orky :-)

Fighta Ace appears on Turn Two to spread Dakka love. Note the distinct lack of Stormboyz behind the bastion. They got lit up by Guard autocannons and lasguns, thought better of their enterprise, and fled the table without firing a shot. The first turn also saw the Meganobs' Trukk immobilized and its weapon destroyed, and the Basilisk landing large templates with unerring accuracy on the mob of boyz in the woods near the Ork lines. First Blood to the Imperium.
 

Now the Guard Valks appear while the battlewagon careens towards the Imperial lines. The Meganobs and Boss are on foot making their way forwards. More large templates land on the boyz in the woods (Hood?). They lose heart and also run away. One wartrakk has been destroyed at lower right (flames just visible in shot).

Battlewagon before the calamity.

It's destroyed by Imperial fire and goes up in a flaming explosion. Several boyz are killed and the rest bail, only to all be killed in a single shooting phase - again without firing a single shot. This was becoming an all-too-familiar pattern...

In the Ork turn, Flash Gits and Wartrakk with twin-linked rokkit launcha makes scrap out of a Chimera. Passengers disembark.

Another Chimera is wrecked by the Meganobs in close combat. Once these guys got stuck in they were unstoppable!

"Woot!"

After more Imperial shooting cleaned off the Flash Gits and Trakks, the only Ork units left were the Meganobs, Warboss, Dakkajet and Deff Dread. So we called a "Waaagh!" and rushed them all forward into close combat. The Dakkajet flensed the Guard command squad (but failed to kill the commander, drat!) and the Meganobs and Boss comprehensively annihilated the Guard heavy weapons squad.

Even the Deff Dread got into the act and wrecked a Chimera.

"Humies all dead. We win, right?"

Well... wrong. Although the Victory Points ended up only 4 to 1 for Greg, the game wasn't that close at all. Greg scored 3 VPs for holding one objective and 1 for "First Blood". The Orks scored 1 for having a unit in Greg's deployment zone ("Linebreaker"). However, the Orks had no Troops left after about turn four, and only three viable units remained in total - one of which was a flyer. Yes, the Orks are hard as f@ck when they get stuck in, but slogging across four feet of table to do it was not ideal. We'll try it again (the spectacle is too cool not to) but I think that next time I'll take more boyz, and maybe try to eliminate pesky Basilisks before they destroy my entire army ;-)  Oh, and the short bus from Puppets War looked totally cool, I think I will create a blog post dedicated to that project with some more photos this weekend.

***BEGIN TRANSMISSION***

***TO__ DATABASE 45324-A CHARADON SECTOR CENTRAL***

***FROM__ IMAGIST SECOND CLASS NYRAN KRUMP***

 

 

 

Thanks to Greg for the fantastic propaganda images!

Rogue Trader Tarantula Gun and Servitor

"Welcome to our checkpoint!"

A couple of small Rogue Trader projects finished.  Up first is a Tarantula weapon system, with crewman.  The Tarantula mounted pairs of heavy weapons - usually lascannons, but could be all sorts of different weapon systems.  This was before you got screwed by things like "twin-linked", so it actually counted as two lascannon shots.

Back in the Rogue Trader time, you could mount a large variety of weapons - from grenade launchers and heavy bolters to multi-meltas.  You could even mount pairs of conversion beamers on to the system.  Can you imagine how long it would take to resolve the volleys of beamer shots as they ate up terrain as well as troops, and figuring out where each beam finally petered out?

This will come in handy for the Imperial Guard garrison in New Rynn City as they await the next move of Trhugg Bullneck and the Orks in our mini-campaign.

Surely a Black and Decker wrench?

The Servitor is quite a bit larger than a regular RT-era human trooper.

I also added a servitor model (or at least what I believe to be a servitor model).  Servitors accompany the Imperial Guard vehicles and heavy equipment on the table, and can fix vehicles and damaged weapons.  My impression of the Servitor models from the Rogue Trader era was of a small figure, but as you can see the model is pretty hefty - larger than the Imperial Army gun crewman.  I guess they toughened them up before converting them to walking mechanical garages...at least he looks strong enough to fix a Predator with that wrench.

Penance for the Emperor...

So what's next? How about a squad of Penal Battalion troopers?  Remember the, er, "motivational collars"?

Sadly the castings have a mono-pose look (after all, I think they only ever did one real variant of this type of figure) but they will make for an interesting addition to my Imperial Guard collection.  These are up next on the painting line.

WTF is this??? Not sure what to do next...

Finally, I was excited to acquire an old Imperial Army Land Speeder from E-bay. Only problem is....how the ###k does this thing go together?????  Will be a while before I figure this one out...I may try and convert one of the current plastic ones to a Guard crew instead...

So that's all for now - watch for some more finished work pictures soon.

Rogue Trader Imperial Guard Assault Squad

Imperial Guard Assault Squad ready for duty.

A new addition to participate in our 25th Anniversary Mini-Campaign - an Imperial Guard Assault Squad.  These troops will take part in the next part of our mini-campaign this week.

Each trooper carries a pair of laspistols...not scary, but somewhat useful.

Equipped with jump packs, the Assault Squads are intended to close quickly with the enemy and engage in close fighting.  I don't think pairs of laspistols will scare anyone, but the squad is equipped with a pair of plasma guns, weapons that were actually pretty effective before they were neutered by stupid rules like "gets hot". Plasma guns are "following fire", had high strength and hard-hitting save modifiers - pretty good covering fire for the other troops.

Each squad has two plasma guns for support - and in RT, plasma guns are actually useful.

RT-era sergeant, ready to lead the troops.  A chain sword is actually useful in RT 40k...

The jump packs are actually Space Marine backpacks, but the jump packs of the RT era were huge metal turbofan deals (close in look and size to the assault packs worn by the Space Marine assault troops of the contemporary lineup).

Snapshot from the 40k Compendium, showing the jump packs - pretty close to the Space Marine packs...

Back when I collected my first Imperial Guard "army" in the early 90s, I opted for Space Marine jump packs in place of the enormous metal jump packs.  I think GW even realized the metal jump packs were out of kilter - when you look at the graphics in the 40k Compendium, you see jump packs on the Imperial Guardsmen that look very much like the back packs of the Space Marines.

More jump troopers.

Our campaign kicked off last week with a re-fight of the "Battle At The Farm".  Our next game will feature the Marine survivors trying to connect with Imperial Guard troopers from the garrison holding out in the capital of New Rynn City.  I'm sure these newly-painted troops will dominate the table top...