Hell Comes to Frog Town - A 'purist' Rogue Trader battle report.

Hell Comes to Frog Town – A Tales From the Maelstrom battle report.

First off, apologies, this ones  been too long in the making but unfortunately ‘real life’ issues got in the way of gaming but I am sorry that you’re reading this about two months after we played.

The scenario was simple,  Inquisitor Garamond Black had acquired information that the semi-mythical xenos ‘Slann’ had captured a heretical  ‘Sensai Knight’, and more importantly a Sensai Knight  in possession of  scrolls purporting to the origins of the universe…  scrolls that he believed rightly should belong to the Imperium and not some damn wetskins or heretics!

I played the Inquisitor with an entourage of 15 ‘Fire Angels’ Space Marines (split into five man squads) while Andy took a force or around 12 or so Slann including some powerful psykers.

For a laugh we also decided to play the game using nothing but the original Rogue Trader rulebook in all its unwieldy  glory, while we usually prefer a GM for RT games were both ‘narrative motivated’ enough that should an ‘ambiguity’ occur (RT, full of ambiguities, surely some mistake?) we’d both elect for the most entertaining result.

In essence this battle was to be a straight up ‘meeting engagement’ , while Andy and I both feel this is exactly the sort of thing Rogue Trader falls over on we thought that we’d see if we could make a ‘stand up battle’ work with the ruleset as is.

The game began with the marines heavy weapon squad taking up position on a roof top while the two bolter squads marched down either flank.  Having learned from previous mistakes Andy wisely kept his Slann hidden, those exposed were quickly dispatched by las cannon and missile launcher fire so a ‘shooting match’ was a bad idea.

The marines advanced.  On the left flank the squad received some devastating needle gun fire which caused them to break and panic (remember RT marines were only toughness 3 with a  4+ save and none of that ‘know no fear’ mularky) , even had they held they had nothing to shoot at as the Slann remained hidden.

On the right flank the marine commander and his squad navigated the rooftop catwalks and advanced towards the Slann lines only to suffer a similar fate.   The slippery Slann were just giving the Imperium nothing to shoot at.    The inquisitor quickly rallied them and used his psychic powers to lead a charge forwards, heavy casualties were taken but in the end contact was made with the amphibian aliens.

A brutal melee ensued, one that looked like the marines might win with their superior armour and close combat weapons but alas as the Fire Angels ‘purged’ the unclean with bolter and flame the Inquisitor fell to a blow from the Slann warchief.

With their leader routed and lacking the resolve that 2^nd edition would give them the marines fell back leaving the secrets of the Slann ‘cities of gold’ firmly in webbed hands.