Playing Rogue Trader: Battle for the Spaceport

Here we have the end of our particular RT Rynn's World Campaign. The battle for New Rynn City Spaceport. I'll try to make this report lighter than the last one :P but you can expect almost anything here, as usual, given that our resident genius Rodrigo designed some evil concepts for us...

The City is falling under the weight of the Orks numbers. Evacuation is required but, given the circumstances, the survival of the Chapter might become even more important than civilian casualties. Any Space Marine lost is a defeat for the Imperium, the Chapter of the Crimson Fists must survive to endure. At any cost.

Space Marines deploy in the center of the board, on the Spaceport. Some desperate civilians will arrive from the back side of the table, and Orks will arrive from the other three sides of the board; but beware! The Crimson Fists Space Marines had set some mines...

Ork Warboss Snagrod, the Arch Arsonist of Charadon, will lead from the rearguard until the moment arrives, teleporting into battle thanks to the 'teleporta field' invented by his Mekboy Waaagh'tek Bigshokk. The gigantic Gargant will supply artillery fire from the distance...

The board and the GM

The Spaceport. Oldschool card. Not RT, but old enough

The Orks begun the assault, firing everything they had. They did outstandingly well for Orks, as they managed to immobilize the Space Marine Dreadnought, totally destroy the Predator tank and kill two Marines. All in turn 1! Inconceivable!

Vehicle Manual. Infinite dice rolls...

We didn't even get to use the poor tank

Ouch!

Time for crazy geniality. At the end of each Ork turn, the Gargant opens fire. Buuuut... Ork comm systems don't work as well as Greenskins would like, so heavy interferences make it possible that the shot doesn't aim at the designed target...

The Game Master would set the artillery template blindly, following indications from both players. Yup, both Ork and Imperial players begun to shout 'Right, right -left, left! Not so much!' and so for 5 secs. The GM did whatever he heard -or more likely whatever he wanted, as it was absolutely impossible to follow any instructions amongst that cacophony.

Advice: this activity is not reccomended for shy players, freshly newcomers to a gaming group, people aware of what the neighbours will think or in general any grown-up people. Thanks Gork and Mork that wasn't our case :D 



Blind artillery. Disappointingly ineffective, didn't hit anyone

The Crimson Fists managed to inflict some casualties and cause damage to a Dreadnought, but the green tide was but unstoppable.

Oi, boyz! 'ey're shootin' us!

That die on the shoulder means damage

The Dread's base is just for psychological effect

Second turn was not so good for Orks, as they just caused a couple of casualties. A Squad stepped on a mine field and the Gargant artillery was uneffective again (hey, it's an Ork device, did you expect otherwise?).

Revenge, my brothers! The Ork engine has fallen!

The Space Marine Land Speeder destroyed one Ork Dreadnought, a greenskin squad was demoralized and forced to fall back and two civilians reached the main pad of the Spaceport, that meaning that they had reached salvation. The more humans saved, the more points for the Imperial player. But casualties deprive of points, so everything is at stake here...

Orks advanced aggresively, joyful as only Orks could be in battle.

Yummm... Fresh civilians!

The ciber-boar charged and killed two Marines

Commander Pedro Cantor killed the boar and three more civilians escaped, but things were quite tense.

Civilians fleeing and Orks surrounding the building

It was time to make spectacular things. The Warboss teleported near to the Space Marine Commander:

Teleportation!

But you know, Ork technology is never fully reliable (neither are my dice rolls)... During the travel through Warp some demon entity attacked the Orks and... one of them was consumed, a demon appearing instead!

Excuse me, sir, is this not the DemonCon? Oh, my mistake

As things were going wild, I asked the GM permission to act Orky. I asked if he would let me run and smash my Buggy against the Land Speeder. He had to have a look at the rules, but not a damn thing was written about that; no designer ever thought anyone would be so absurdly stupid to act this way. Well, technically it should be impossible for a ground vehicle to ram a floating one, but the idea of an Ork Buggy speeding up through a slope and crashing the Speeder was cinematic and irresistible -Oh, you know it is!


You've seen things like this on the movies, why not here?

The resulting mess was spectacular, as the occasion demanded. Both vehicles burst in flames and exploded, killing everyone involved. Couldn't be otherwise.

The Ork festival was not yet complete, the Battlewagon still had a role to play. The armoured monster ran over the poor civilians, killing eight of them.

That's a true Ork attitude. Ork for a living

The artillery was as fun as always and as ineffective as always. The Space Marine Commander then decided it was time to activate the Ceres Protocol. That's an addition not from RT times, but from 'Rynn's World' novel, which Miguel, the Marine player, had suggested our GM. Given that the Chapter was almost on the brink of extinction at the moment, each Space Marine was an invaluable asset, their lives becoming even more important than the civilian ones or any other consideration. Crimson Fists survival was to be taken as a priority, allowing the Chapter to endure and maybe strike back in the future. So the Marines had to disciplinedly begin to fall back to the retrieval point.

Commander Cantor himself charged Warboss Snagrod and his bodyguards in a heroic movement. The epic battle was sudden and fatal, as the Space Marine leader just smashed the Ork with his power glove in a sec, giving the greenskin no chance of anything!


Yes, you did all the conversion and painting work on the leader just for him being killed as soon as he apperared!

Snagrod's death had a devastating effect on Orks morale, and some of them immediately fell back, including the Battlewagon. The demon (controlled by GM) attacked the Space Marine Dreadnought, inevitably dying under the armoured bulk.

What a strange Ork I have just killed. Back in my times these things didn't happen...

  

Cantor killed two bodyguards more

Captain Cortez managed to reach the evacuation point with a Battle Brother and six civilians, while Commander Cantor annihilated the remains of the bodyguards squad.


You are forcing me to fall back! Falling back is for sissies!

The Ork Dreadnought tried to harm its Space Marine counterpart, not being able to do so. Cantor and other Marine managed to reach the landing pad, but the Dreadnought, immobilised as it was, just had to resist and cover the escape of the remaining survivors, destroying the Ork Dreadnought as a final act of defiance.

Hurry up! The ship's leaving without uuuuus!

You're leaving me here? Ya frakkin' basterds! I'll destroy everyone before I dieeee

With everyone else safe, the Dreadnought was the last Crimson Fist standing, but the Battlewagon spent its last action crushing him down in a suicide just Ork way of understanding problems.

You baaastaar... CRUNCH!

With that finished, it was time to have a look at the score. Each safe Space Marine and civilian gave one point, but each one killed supposed one point less. The score finally ended with a -1 for the Space Marines, so... final Ork victory! Waaagh!


So that's it, you have seen this crazy experiment of gaming back RT. I must say it's been fun, really fun, recovering this game, playing invented scenarios and having the opportunity of bringing this experience back to life. A big thanks to my opponent, Miguel, and our Game Master, Rodrigo, two gametlemen who have made this a pleasure.

Have you enjoyed the RT experience? Do you see yourselves playing something like this? I hope you do!
This will not be the last Oldhammer games you see over here, that's for sure! So stay tuned for more surprises!