Back From The Warp

Holy Hell, it has been a long time. A very long time, indeed. During the interregnum, I've managed to get married, have a kid, paint some minis, play some games, and attend three Oldhammer USA weekends. I've certainly got a backlog of blogging to do. May as well work our way backwards with Oldhammer USA 2016 and "Hotelhammer."

My most recent game of Rogue Trader was an after-hours affair between myself, AirborneGrove26, and Blue in VT. Rather than retire after a full day's gaming, we thought it best to roll some dice and push some lead into the wee hours.

It's always important to have a rules reference sheet and a cup of coffee handy when discussing the finer points of the Oldhammer Contract.

Luckily, I had brought my Citadel grass mat (why oh why did they ever stop selling these?) and a small selection of scenery. We each had roughly 200 points of troops with which to battle over the planet of Marriott V. A quick roll on the Rogue Trader scenario generator determined that we would be battling over a shipyard. That seemed pretty implausible given our available scenery, so we instead played a scenario adjacent on the chart, a raid to sabotage an enemy secret weapons facility. So it was that Captain Banebridge would lead his Imperial Guardsmen against Drekker Dundee and his Safari for control of the chemical weapons stockpile, guarded by Blue's Multicolored Marauding Marines.

Oldhammer After Dark.

Just before dawn, the Imperials and the safari company converged on the renegade compound. It was lightly defended, with the traitor marines deployed in a dispersed defensive formation--the carryall scheduled to move the weapons stockpile was late. Had it been intercepted by the enemy?

Dogface hears something, out in the bush.

Banebridge and Dundee's forces slowly advanced on the renegade compound; the Imperials wearing down the renegades through volleys of las-fire and the occasional mental blow from their sanctioned psyker, while the safari company moved into close combat and meltagun range.

Dundee's beastmen seize the initiative.

In the melee between Dundee's beastmen and a renegade, it was discovered that some of the barrels contained hallucinogenic gas! One of the beastmen caught a whiff and fled toward the table edge.

Dundee's Orks move on the Imperials.

Dundee's Orks attempted several flash grenade attacks on the valiant guardsmen, but their photo-visors allowed them to keep their eyes on the prize (literally). Eventually, the Orks were whittled down by Imperial weight of fire. The sanctioned psyker dispatched Dundee's bull-headed right-hand man and his greenskinned grenadier. With the emergence of the full-strength Imperial tactical squad from the bush, the profit-minded safari guide decided to cut his losses and flee back into the hinterlands. Banebridge and his platoon had seized the weapons depot!

An excellent skirmish, the kind Rogue Trader is perfect for. Despite the age of the ruleset, it really works well at smaller scales, and the game went fairly quickly. Indeed, we probably spent more time just shooting the shit in conversation than actually playing (it's always nice to be able to geek out about vintage GW stuff in real life). Kudos to Airborne and Blue for a great and memorable game!