I played a few games of Renegade Scout earlier this year and found them very enjoyable, and I even went as far as to post a small tutorial, which garnered the interest of the rules author Ivan Sorensen, see here

However, as I alluded to during my review wrap-up, I find the original GW format of stat-line and roll-over mechanics to be much more natural and easy to follow for me, and as a result I’m looking at revisiting Rogue Trader as-written.

The title of this blog post comes from the original stats of Marines: Toughness 3 with a 4+ save.

Which Version of Rogue Trader?

Rogue Trader evolved significantly during its lifetime and is one of the biggest criticisms of the system is that there are so many variants: are you playing the original rulebook? The amended combat rules from the Battle Manual? The various Compilations/Compendiums and WD Errata, or something else entirely?

I have decided to try to stick to the Battle Manual era, which upgrades the close-combat system from one which has very strong roots in the fantasy game, to one which is slightly less obviously influenced (for example, the need to pursue for fleeing enemies)

As a result there is a need to put together some RT-legal armies, and while my 15mm Marines and Orcs are in no bad shape, I thought I would take advantage of the handful of 28mm figures which have languished on my shelf for the better part of 25 years.

Re-Retro’ing Marines

Like most, I collected Space Marines as a child. I would love to say I preserved all of them, but the wiles of a teenage boy meant they were sold off or binned.

As a young adult in the mid 00’s I bought quite a few of the original kits and figures on eBay and these were painted into an orange and blue-grey scheme I thought was rather fetching, and I augmented the originals with modern figures and weapons.

Changes required

In order to beat my Space Marines into an RT-legal army there were a number of changes to implement.

The first major change was to split the Rogue Trader-era and 2nd Edition figures into two separate squads and bring both groups up to full squads of 10.

The 2nd Edition squad gained enough missile launchers to form a Devastator Squad, and the RT group was filled out with more RTB01 marines to become a Tactical Squad with a Flamer and Multi-Melta.

There were a number of figures which had 3rd/4th edition weapons from my initial attempts at getting back into the hobby, and so these were needed reverting to the traditional weapons – available as STLs.

I replaced any missing or modern backpacks, and added banner poles to sergeants and luckily all of these items were available as 3D print files on Thingiverse/etc.

The Assault Squad were only ever a combat squad of 5 using the plastic 3rd Edition figures. In order for it to be legal in RT-era lists they needed their numbers bumping up to 10 too – and I bolstered their number with more RTB01’s with jump packs.

I custom modelled and printed the vicious looking brass knuckle/knife that a number of metal RT marines are sculpted with, and have a few of my marines equipped with it.

I also picked up a Medic figure, which I felt would be a good characterful addition – my first time reading the RT rulebook had me painting up some of the figures shown above as an Imperial Agent and Imperial Commissar – not known for their presence in later editions!

Army List

This marine list works out very roughly as follows:

• Marine Lt. Commander with standard kit, power glove and melta bombs (97pts)
• Techmarine w/ Boltgun (18pts)
• 10x Marines in a Tactical Squad w/ Sgt. with Powerglove, Flamer + Multimelta (270pts)
• 10x Marines in an Assault Squad w/ Sgt. with Powerglove, 2x Plasma Pistol, Jump Packs, Chainswords, (273pts)
• 10x Marines in a Devastator Squad w/ 4x Missile Launcher + Smoke + Rad Missiles (344pts)*
• Furibundus Dreadnought (277pts)

(* Strictly speaking the Devastator squad should have have two ML and two Heavy Bolters/Beamers/Heavy Plasma Guns… )

Next steps

I’m trying to galvanise myself to finish the painting and basing for these figures, but with so little enthusiasm for 28mm, they’re currently sitting in my display cabinet!