Inquisitor Athena: Mission 1

[legiocustodes]

So I finally decided to start my Inquisition campaign off this week and my opponent for this venture will be my highly dedicated girlfriend who will be taking command of the Inquisitorial forces in the sector whilst I will be fielding....everyone else!

We will be using a variety of rule sets from a number of epochs throughout the campaign depending on each scenario's size and objectives but for our inaugural skirmish I returned to my roots and used pure Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader rules (c. 1987) as these are great for skirmishes... and I love them.

To make the game more narrative driven (like the good old RPGs RT was based on) I spent time and effort preparing a detailed handout/mission brief for my partner that explained the situation, her forces and her mission in detail, it is quite a long document which can be read in full here: [url]http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/rogue-trader-inquisitor-athena-rides.html[/url] however the gist of it is that Inquisitor Athena (our main protagonist) has been called to the world of Logan's Bluff to investigate the rise of powerful cult which recently seems to arming its brethren. At her command is a small force of Storm Troopers and her own innate abilities, additionally on the planet there is an Inquisitorial Agent that requires rescuing.

The full battle report can be read here: [url]http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/rogue-trader-inquisitor-athena-rides_14.html[/url] but the following is a quick precis.

Initially the Inquisitor doesn't know the nature of her opposition, however on deployment it becomes clear that her adversary is none other than a Genestealer cult, commanded by a Magus and a number of later generation hybrids.



The bulk of the enemy force is made up of lightly armed and poorly trained brood-brothers who have holed themselves up in the ruins of an old monastery.



The Inquisitor and her retinue make planet fall and immediately move on the enemy site, the Inquisitor uses her prodigious psychic powers to cast a forcefield (represented by the brush-bristle protector on her base). This is the first time I have really used RT psychic rules and I have to say they are really good, the psi-points system is very intuitive and easy to manage, far superior to the systems found in newer versions of the rules, additionally while these powers can give you the edge they are never too potent!



With no armour the brood brothers start to take casualties across the length and breadth of the battlefield as highly focused bursts of Imperial las-fire slaughter them.



With the genestealer brood suppressed the Inquisitor wastes no time in advancing across the table towards her foe where she can bring her powerful close combat skills to bear against them.

Throughout the engagement there are a lot of tense moments that change the tides of victory, these range from a lucky burst of autogun fire slaughtering an entire squad of Storm Troopers, or my personal favourite... the Inquisitor successfully casting the 'Change Allegiance' psychic power which caused my heavy stubber gunner to change sides midway through the battle. However he was swiftly butchered by his former comrades in a horrific display of fratricide.



The good news is that the Inquisitor was able to save her operative fairly early on (shown above in the ornate armour with boltguns) and he was able to augment her forces with his impressive abilities.



Additionally the battlefield was littered with supply drops which the Inquisitor could access if her troops got close enough, usually these contained weapons upgrades for her squad (i.e. a flamer), though on occasion other more useful items could be uncovered...such as this combat robot that joined her force!



In the end the Inquisitor was able to defeat her foes in a final show-down in their base, though the Magus escaped off the table and her agent was severely wounded. Despite this she was able to access the enemy computer held at the base and after a successful Intelligence Test acquire enough information to allow her mission to continue.....

[Lurker]

Awesomeness. I've long liked the old RT rules for this sort of thing. Keep it up!

[legiocustodes]

Cheers Lurker,

I have to say I have fallen back in love with RT recently after a period focused on playing mainly WH40k second edition. It is a great rule-set for small scale skirmishes, especially if you like the narrative driven side of things. I spoke to Rick Priestly recently and he was chuffed people were still playing Rogue Trader after all these years.

[Captain Bubonicus]

Great stuff - love those old rules and models!

[legiocustodes]

Cheers Captain! I have to say I do think the old stuff was the best stuff.... But it could be rose tinted glasses of course! Either way the game was great fun to play!