Rogue Trader Conquest Companies?

[GriffonI92]

Was reading over Book IV Conquest and on pg. 146, at the very bottom, it references Rogue Trader Conquest Companies. Anyone know any more info on these and/or what they were?

 

Also, any info on Rogue Traders in general? I understand they were basically explorers but what kind of armies, if any, did they have? How would they be conveyed?

 

Thanks!

[Calas Typhon]

I would presume they were rogue trader fleets sent off to the borders of the Imperium to have some premium bloody bantz and claim booty with/from the lost parts of humanity.

 

Pretty sure they were comprised of Legionaries from the Legions without Primarchs and Auxillia/private mercs. That is if I am correct in my assumption.

[Inquisitor Kravin]

I was at a Weekender when Conquest and the Solar Auxilia were unveiled and chatted with one of the designers. I'm also ancient enough to have a couple of novels about them. (Eye of Terra and Legacy).

 

Basically a Rogue Trader can be anything you want and have any forces you want ruleswise though model wise you might have to have some "counts as".

 

In the early days of the Crusade the Imperium was a franchise. Even with the Legiones Astartes the Emperor couldn't directly conquer everything so he issued Rogue Trader Charters. Each one was different but generally individuals were assigned a region of space to explore/conquer and as long as they carried the message of the Imperial Truth and paid a tithe of whatever they found/looted/earned to the Imperium that was fine.

 

All you really needed to be one was money and ambition. They could be rich adventurer types, merchant cartels, soldiers turned mercenary.

 

Many died and were forgotten, some scraped by, others became fabulously rich and powerful, starting dynasties of planetary and system governors.

 

For army purposes I'd say think Inquisition warbands boosted to full army size. They'd probably establish contacts with the Mechanicum so could be represented by any combination of Adeptus Mechanicus, Solar Auxilia and Imperial Cults/Militias. Whilst I think it would be rarer for them to have true Astartes you could use the rules and do some kit bashing to make them techno-barbarian mercs, cyber-augmented geno troopers, abhuman allies, etc.

 

They'd be less picky about who they'd work with and the Rogue Trader themselves would probably have exotic archeotech.

 

The novel Legacy was a 40k story of an Adeptus Arbites officer investigating a conspiracy that turned out to be a plot to get hold of a Rogue Trader Charter. Basically the charter grants rights to the bearer and because this one at least bore the personal seal of The Emperor the rights it granted were effectively Imperial Law and nobody else had the power to revoke it so even the Arbites and Inquisition technically had to uphold it.

[Kol Saresk]

Going by the entry of the Crimson Sons Night Lords in Massacre, we can at least assume that Rogue Trader fleets 30K could have Astartes, but they would have to be comfortable being separated from the Legion and would likely develop their own traditions and culture. More than likely this is where a few of the Blackshields companies popped up as Rogue Traders became aware of the Heresy and everyone began to choose sides.

[Calas Typhon]

For army purposes I'd say think Inquisition warbands boosted to full army size. They'd probably establish contacts with the Mechanicum so could be represented by any combination of Adeptus Mechanicus, Solar Auxilia and Imperial Cults/Militias. Whilst I think it would be rarer for them to have true Astartes you could use the rules and do some kit bashing to make them techno-barbarian mercs, cyber-augmented geno troopers, abhuman allies, etc.

 

 

If I remember correctly, the Salamanders before the coming of Vulkan were not assigned tasks as a whole legion and they filled out a lot of Rogue Trader expeditions and battle groups. I don't see why it would not be the case with most other Legions. You are spot on with the Inquisition warband reference, that is exactly how I always imagined them.

[Brother Pheidias]

During the Great Crusade, there'd be plenty of scope for Astartes to assist Rogue Traders, as semi-permanent attachments, especially amongst the less centralized Legions, something I'm exploring with my own Scars ( /shameless plug).

[Laughingman]

In the background for the Blackshield wrought by war Outlander, they discussed that some blackshields started out as units attached to rouge trader fleets. Makes sense, the units could have been used by legion high command as dumping groups for misfits, victims of internal legion politics, etc.

[b1soul]

I love how FW has explored the fringe elements of Imperial forces...outside the main power structure.

[Machine God]

IIRC - the Rogue Traders in the Crusade were composed of some of the Terran Warlords that the Emperor defeated in the Unification Wars. These ex-warlord then got given the choice of staying in prison or becoming Rogue Traders to go out in to the depths of space and bring the forgotten worlds back into the Imperium, but the Letters of Marque that made them Rogue Traders stipulated that they were never allowed to return to Terra.

[Gorgoff]

The fan made Kill Team rules named Heralds of Ruin have lists for almost every force you can imagine.

One of them for Rouge Trader teams. Although it isn't a whole army it gives you a good guess how they are equipped and what an army would look like.

 

Edit:

Before some Milleniel is forced to actually do soething:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Heralds+of+Ruin

[Machine God]

The fan made Kill Team rules named Heralds of Ruin have lists for almost every force you can imagine.

One of them for Rouge Trader teams. Although it isn't a whole army it gives you a good guess how they are equipped and what an army would look like.

Edit:

Before some Milleniel is forced to actually do soething:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Heralds+of+Ruin

@Gorgoff - Touche! A German that understands Sarcasm

[FuriousFerret]

In the background for the Blackshield wrought by war Outlander, they discussed that some blackshields started out as units attached to rouge trader fleets. Makes sense, the units could have been used by legion high command as dumping groups for misfits, victims of internal legion politics, etc.

 

Here's the text Laughingman is referring to:

 

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Blackshield 

 

• Outlanders - These Space Marines have seen the depths to which both sides in Mankind's civil war will sink in order to destroy the other, and they have washed their hands of either side and are now pursuing their own goals, having turned towards the path of the marauder and void corsair to determine their fate. For some who have previously served in the nomad-predation fleets and the flotillas of Rogue Traders at the forefront of the Great Crusade's darkest frontiers, this may be merely a reversion to a path well-travelled in the past, although with themselves as master, while others will have been forced into exile by the wrath of enemy and one-time ally alike.