Kill Team Rogue Trader
Kill Team Rogue Trader
Kill Team Rogue Trader is on it\’s way! Those two words: ‘Rogue Trader’ have been in my head for almost as long as I can remember. The initial release was in 1987, written by Rick Priestly. I didn’t personally come across it until I started playing Space Hulk a few years later. Unfortunately, I never played it myself, but I remember reading about it and the artwork is unforgettable. It certainly set a precedent for me.
Kill Team was released quite recently and Kill Team Rogue Trader is an expansion for it. It will be available on the 15th of September, with pre-orders available from today! You can pre-order from Element Games here, if you are in Europe, at a cheaper price than from Games Workshop. It brings with it two new Kill Team factions: Rogue Traders in the form of the Elucidian Starstriders and the Gellerpox Infected. The former contains a mix of dodgy characters and bodyguards for the Rogue Traders, the latter are various mutants of Nurgle. Along with the two new factions, we are getting eleven new missions, two new terrains, and two codices! This is a lot of new stuff incoming and a chance for me to play around with some Rogue Traders finally!
Fluff
The original Warhammer 40000 : Rogue Trader book is well worth hunting down as it contains a lot of lore, or ’fluff’.
The Imperium only fills a fraction of the galaxy and even some parts of the known galaxy remain unexplored, for example the Eastern Fringe. This led to Imperial Agents, known as Rogue Traders, to develop and have free range of exploration. Quite often, they act out of Astropath communication and must make decisions on how to interact on the spot. If a new alien culture is found, they can attempt to purge them if deemed too dangerous, or bring them into the Imperium. The Traders also plundered planets for ancient artifacts and materials. While licensed by the Priesthood, once out of Astropath range they were essentially independent.
Rogue Traders came from either wealthy and influential families, the army or navy, the Inquisition or other such bodies of the Imperium. Well kitted out with various spacecraft and with the finest of armour and weaponry, be it Imperial or alien!
New Factions
When the Great Rift in the Warp opened, parts of the Imperium were shrouded, however this also meant that paths to new space opened up. This meant the possibility of new worlds to explore and old worlds to reacquaint with the Imperium. To this end, Gulliman brought together a mass of Rogue Traders and charged them with the mission to explore new worlds and routes them. Elucia Vhane is one such Rogue Trader.
The Elucidian Starstriders are a great looking bunch of characters. They are definitely of the Imperium, but far more jazzy and unique than regular Imperial Guard etc. The Rogue Traders are rich and can afford the finest of clothes and weaponry and the best bodyguards and officers.
To break the set down, we a have the leader, her loyal officers and the small cadre of bodyguards. The bodyguards are Voidsmen-at-arms, led by their officer and accompanied by a dog – which is very important. The officers are all individual characters in their own right, including a Death Cult Executioner and medic. They are led by the Rogue Trader Elucia Vhane.
These all look like fantastic miniatures, and I look forward to the line being expanded further on in time. Without more miniatures being put out later, it would be possible to convert other Imperium miniatures. However, I imagine to get them to fit in, you would need to do a fair amount of conversion work!
Gellerpox Infected
The Gellerpox Infected are the unfortunate mutations that are form when a spacecraft’s Geller Field starts to fail. The Geller Field is something that protects the ship when in the Warp from all of the various Bad Things in the Warp. Somehow, the forces of Nurgle have managed to crack this ancient technology and created the Gellerpox. This infects the Geller generator and causes the human operators to slowly weaken it’s defences against the warp. Once the pox reaches critical levels, flesh and machine fuse together to create the Gellerpox Infected. This means they tend to start down in the depths of the ship, in places like the engine room.
The Nurgle aligned Gellerpox Infected contain some fantastic looking miniatures. This Kill Team is all about the close combat melee damage. They do not have long range weaponry of any sort, instead relying on their resilience to close the gap and do damage up close. It can consist of just a few of the the larger Nightmare Hulks or you can flesh it out (so to speak) with more of the smaller mutants and bugs. They will be a good chance to flex any sculpting and converting muscles!
The leader,Vulgrar Thrice-curse, can be kitted out in different forms, depending on your playstyle!
Killzones
The killzones in the Rogue Trader expansion are set in great starships. The first thought that bubbled into my head was of Space Hulk and Space Crusade. This will be a lot of fun, with room to up come with your own space craft terrains to fight through! The Gellerpox Kill Team beings life aboard spacecraft however seeing them on other killzones wouldn\’t be out of the question. The general theme for them is \’ultra-close confines\’ – the two zones included are aboard spacecraft and in a shrine. These are very much like how I remember Space Hulk. You can\’t see through walls and closed doors, meaning much narrower sight lines. Long distance specialists will likely find themselves useless and will be a time for close combat troops to shine! This has made me really happy with the potential possibilities!
Codices and tactics
You will find codices for both the Elucidian Starstriders and the Gellerpox Infected in the expansion. Tactics for the Elucidian Starstriders are: Killing Strikes, Combat Medicine and Executioner Shell. Knosso Prond, the Executioner, uses the first tactic and it increases the Damage of the power blade to D3. Combat medicine allows the medic the chance to heal up to two wounds on a character! Use the final one on the Voidmaster officer and adds 3 to the result of a single hit roll – if there is success, the enemy suffers a mortal wound and the phase ends. There are some new tactics for the Gellerpox: Gellershift, Verminoid Infestation and Twisted Blessings. Gellershift allows you to essentially telelport a model to four inches from an enemy. Verminoid infestation allows you to summon a vermin model to with six inches of a Gellerpox, but it has to be more than six inches away from your enemy. Use the last tactic on a Nightmare hulk that has wounds. On a D6 roll of 4+, it loses one flesh wound!
You will be able to pre-order Kill Team Rogue Trader on the 8th of September and the release is the following Saturday, the 15th of September.
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