Rogue Trader: The Trial of Brother Aphesius for Arson in the Emperor’s Dockyards

In their most recent operations in the Acheron Sector, Rogue Trader House Frunze has had the exceptional misfortune of employing two missionaries from the Ecclesiarchy, and seeing both of them put on trial for various high crimes against both the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Terra – one of them twice. This is a selection of transcripts and accounts from those trials, starting with the trial of Brother Aphesius for Arson in the Emperor's Dockyards.

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Entry from the Periplus Ultra Pars Akherontis:

Vestigium Hanini (O.Ac.U.5) Imperial navy outpost. Some small scale mining operations.

The station at Vestigium Hanini stands at the head of the Holy Gates as the first stop in Ultra Pars for voidfarers from the coreward sector, and serves as a transit hub and naval outpost. Two routes run from Vestigium Hanini to Babylonia Typhonis: the circuitus meridionalis to the galactic south, a longer route passing through the dead system of Fortunae Bellum; and the circuitus septentrionalis to the galactic north: a shorter route, but passing through the hazardous dentae typhonis, an unstable area before Auster Clementiae.

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Excerpt from Synopticon quarterly monitoring report from Vestigium Hanini, 1/944M41:

On Emperor's Day, the station was shockingly attacked by the foul xenos known as the Eldar. Station security, assisted by His Excellency the Rogue Trader Frunze and his retinue, drove the alien enemy from the station; in co-ordination with the Imperial Navy, His Excellency pursued the xenos to the Fortunae Bellum system and destroyed a suspected enemy facility there.

Even though the xenos were quickly vanquished, their treacherous attack had targeted the voidfarers' quarters on the station. Several plasma grenades were detonated in the dormitories, causing heavy casualties. In the aftermath, the remains of the dead xenos were collected and stored in the security compound. Inexplicably, several xenos artifacts went missing, and the matter is being investigated by the Ordo Xenos.

The mood on the station in the aftermath of the attacks was febrile. The system had been peaceful for so long that the sudden eruption of violence was shocking, and rumours and unrest were rampant.

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Report of Arbiter Nicola Haussmann, Vestigium Hanini, to Arbiter Primus Nurul Masud, Babylonia Typhonis:

Long live the Emperor!

On 5118944M41, late night station time, station security received a report of a disturbance in the residential section, followed shortly by a fire alarm. Security officers responding to the alarm found that forcible entry had been effected to the residence of [REDACTED], an actuary employed on the station, and a fire was observed inside the residence. Initial observations suggested that an incendiary weapon had been discharged inside the residence. [REDACTED] was not present at the residence and his wherebouts are currently unknown.

Concurrently with these events, station security was monitoring a disturbance in the station mezzanine, where an individual was addressing a large group of voidfarers and station residents. This individual was subsequently identified as Ecclesiarchical Missionary Brother Aphesius, in service to Rogue Trader House Frunze. Station security officers observed that Brother Aphesius was armed with an incendiary weapon typical to a clergyman of his station.

According to station security officers and multiple witnesses (statements appended), Brother Aphesius proceeded to incite the crowd with a series of false statements regarding station security. Brother Aphesius falsely accused station security of collaborating with and abetting the recent xenos assault on the station. Brother Aphesius further claimed that station security were responsible for the alleged disappearance of xenos artifacts taken into custody after said attack, and falsely alleged that station security continued to collaborate with the xenos. Brother Aphesius publicly accused station security of treason and apostasy, and incited the group of people he was addressing to join him in assaulting the security compound.

In view of the size of the crowd and the apparent success of Brother Aphesius's incitement, I ordered all station security personnel to withdraw to the security compound. I contacted the cruiser Aut Imperator Aut Nihil and requested assistance in the form of a shore party equipped for crowd control duties. The Master-at-Arms of the Aut Imperator Aut Nihil promptly dispatched a large party of armsmen to secure the compound.

Once the compound was secure, we received technical intelligence that Brother Aphesius was leading an assembly through the dock area toward the security compound. Having ensured the integrity of the compound, I led station security forces and the naval armsmen to the docks, where Brother Aphesius and the crowd he had incited were ordered to surrender. Brother Aphesius incited the crowd into resisting station security. He was arrested and the crowd was succesfully dispersed.

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From: Office of Director Elizabeth Draken, Imperial penitentiary, Babylonia Typhonis 3

To: Arbiter Primus Nurul Masud, Babylonia Typhonis

Re: Prisoner Aphesius

The prisoner Aphesius, processing number 22817/944 (clergy), is being transferred to Babylonia Typhonis station per your directive. Be advised that the prisoner was involved in a violent affray while confined, and has received administrative discipline; documentation appended. The prisoner is considered dangerous (security class 2BeV) and is being transported under restraint.

Long live the Emperor!

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List of Charges

In the Name of the Emperor of Mankind, we the Office of the Imperial Prosecutor, Ultra Pars Akherontis Sectio, indict Brother Aphesius, late of Dementia Praeger, late of Erasinos, in service with House Frunze, of the following crimes against the Emperor's Justice:

 Resisting the Adeptus Terra

 Incitement to treason against the Emperor of Mankind

 Treason against the Emperor of Mankind

We further indict the same Brother Aphesius of the following crimes against local law:

 Disturbing the Imperial Peace

 Willful destruction of Imperial property

 Willful and reckless endangerment of life support systems on an Imperial facility

 Arson in the Emperor’s dockyards

We further append a report from the Imperial Penitentiary where said Brother Aphesius was confined, indicting him of the following crime:

 Violent affray in an Imperial penitentiary

We further note that proceedings are underway in the Doom-Capitol of Saint Isabella the Just of Acheron to determine whether the said Brother Aphesius should be indicted of the ecclesiastical crime of heresy.

We respectfully submit these charges to Her Excellency, Procurator Natasha Maya, for further action. May the Emperor's justice be done! He is the Law.

Compiled by assistant prosecutor Ayana Rufius.

Long live the Emperor!

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Office of the Procurator Ultra Pars, 4232944M41

Her Excellency Procurator Natasha Maya,

 in the case of the prisoner Brother Aphesius, in service of Rogue Trader House Frunze,

 having received the list of charges prepared by the Office of the Prosecutor in this matter,

 having noted the decision of the Doom-Capitol of St. Isabella the Just of Acheron to defer judgement until the conclusion of this investigation,

 having consulted with His Excellency, the Rogue Trader Laurenz Frunze,

 rules that the said Brother Aphesius be sentenced in the following counts:

for Resisting the Adeptus Terra - to death

for Incitement to treason against the Emperor of Mankind - to death

for Treason against the Emperor of Mankind - to death

for Disturbing the Imperial Peace, willful destruction of Imperial property, willful and reckless endangerment of life support systems on an Imperial facility, and violent affray in an Imperial penitentiary  - to death

for Arson in the Emperor’s dockyards - to death

 this penalty being suspended, and said Brother Aphesius being sentenced to exile in perpetuity, under pain of this penalty being executed on his return to Imperial space.

For the execution of this penalty of exile, said Brother Aphesius is hereby released into the custody of His Excellency the Rogue Trader Laurenz Frunze.

The Emperor is the Law. Long live the Emperor!

Rogue Trader: The Blasphemy of Kanesh

Sister Andromache was born in the depths of a hive city on Augereau, in the Acheron sector. As a child, she began laboring in the hive's massive factories, and had fate not intervened, that would have been where she spent the rest of her life. But when the call went out for volunteers to fight in one of the Imperium's endless wars, she lied about her age and was accepted into an Imperial Guard regiment, and hurriedly shipped to combat.

As a young soldier, she distinguished herself in combat, but it was what she did out of combat that proved more enduring. On the long warp voyage to the front, a preacher had taught her and several other soldiers to read, and she spent countless hours poring over the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer. Impressed by her honest piety, her fellow soldiers asked her to lead them in prayer, and by the time the regiment left the frontline, she had been inducted into the missionary order of St. Electra the Light-bringer as Sister Andromache.

When the war was over, Sister Andromache stayed with the Order of St. Electra as a missionary, spreading the word of the Emperor in the Aradec Confederation and beyond. After a long career, she retired to one of the Order's convents on the shrine world of Termina Anastasiae. She spent many tranquil years at the convent, teaching young missionaries and immersing herself in the monastic life. She developed a strong interest in early Imperial theology, and became a recognized authority on some of the more obscure writings of Malcador the Sigilite.

This is where Sister Andromache's official biography ends. It was subsequently purged from all Imperial records, but can still be read in the Apocrypha of Krast. No-one knows what happened at the convent, but judging from what Andromache wrote, her studies in systematic theology drove her mad. She wrote a tome titled Metaphysica Divina, which was so blasphemously heretical that the first censor who read it went mad and committed suicide, hurling herself over a cliff next to the monastery. Sister Andromache was found in her cell, patiently awaiting her inevitable judgement. In recognition of her long service, she was granted the mercy of being executed before being burned with her book.

The book, however, would not die. Although no copies could possibly have been made before its destruction, on the day after Sister Andromache's pyre, eleven volumes of Metaphysica Divina were inexplicably discovered in the convent's library. Sisters at the convent testified to haunting dreams of Andromache and the dead censor; novices who could not have had access to the book mumbled passages from it in their sleep. Eventually the entire convent was purged, but the abbess in charge had delayed making a full report to her superiors, and some sisters had been able to leave the convent. Although they were subsequently tracked down and executed by the Ordo Hereticus, Sister Andromache's heresy had been allowed to spread. Persistent rumours on Termina Anastasia insist that some sisters of the convent escaped the Inquisition's attentions altogether.

Since then, the Metaphysica Divina has made inexplicable appearances in Imperial libraries. All knowledge of it was once thought to have been suppressed, until an Imperial expedition encountered a volume on the faraway world of Kanesh, leading to the work now being more commonly known as the Blasphemy of Kanesh. Possession of a copy is punishable by death.

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Fragments from

Metaphysica Divina

or

The Blasphemy of Kanesh

by Sister Andromache the Doomed

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By setting this quill to parchment, I commit suicide. I forsake my faith, my life and my soul. Yet the clamor in my head will not still, and I fear - I know - that even in death I will not find rest until I unburden my mind. I must write though it is my death.

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It is not commonly known that the Emperor did not want humanity to worship him as a god. Even though this is an unthinkable blasphemy in our time, and many of the early documents have been redacted, a careful reading of the Theban Debates makes it clear this is what was discussed. Malcador opposed the Cult, but later changed his mind.

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Why does he not strike me down? Where is the knock at the door? The Emperor must know I am writing this! Why does he permit it?

**

Though we must teach all humanity to abhor the Daemon, we know that we cannot think too deeply on the nature of the Enemy. To collect our thoughts is to invite damnation. Bitterly do I know this now.

Euphrosyne of Galatea teaches us that a Chaos God is a primal emotion, a being of the Immaterium brought to life by our mental energies. This is why we must teach the novices the Balance, but we cannot even hint at the Galatean Euphemisms for the reason why. Because the Enemy comes from us. It is our energies, and our souls, that power them.

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In one of the tablets of the Euphratian Apocalypse, it is told that Malcador the Sigilite decided to support the Imperial Cult once he realized it would nourish the Emperor. Look at the exact words of the tablet, set it beside certain passages in the Liber Achelieus, and you will never again know a night of restful sleep.

No, I cannot write it.

I am tormented by a dream where the Emperor dances in a deep cave on Terra, building a tower of gold and brass that will make him a god.

My soul is forfeit.

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In the Tome of St. Patricia, we learn of the death of St. Celestine, and her resurrection. She dies on Forrax - yet she does not die, and walks again. And she is only one of the Living Saints, revered immortal champions of the Emperor.

What does the Book of Proscriptions tell us the ultimate temptation, the greatest boon offered by the Ruinous Powers is? Immortality.

For most of those who turn to Chaos, this prize remains forever out of reach. They die in the service of the daemons, and their deaths are more power to their foul gods.

What of us, who are trained to diligently look for the least spark of the curse of the witch in our charges, and to deliver the cursed to the Black Ships? Do we not likewise feed our god with our faith, and with their deaths? Their sacrifice?

Do we not nourish him?

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The Immaterium - the Warp - is a hell to us, full of daemons that would rip us to pieces and consume our very souls if they could.

What are we to them?

**

What is the Emperor?

WHAT IS THE EMPEROR?

What do we serve?

[fragments end]

Rogue Trader: Meet House Frunze

One of the best-known and longest-established Rogue Trader houses of the Acheron sector, and quite crucial to our tabletop Rogue Trader campaign, is House Frunze.

The House Frunze symbol: a diving peregrine falcon.
During the 9th Black Crusade led by Abaddon the Despoiler, Imperial General Lucretia Frunze so distinguished herself in the ferocious battles on Antecanis IV that the High Lords of Terra granted her a Warrant of Trade, and she established her own Rogue Trader house.

Although Lucretia Frunze came from a long line of Imperial nobles, her family wasn't particularly wealthy. However, with their contacts and Lucretia's reputation, they secured an ancient star galleon called the Nomine Imperatoris to be her flagship. With a staff mostly recruited from her subordinates in the Imperial Guard, Lucretia Frunze headed to the newly opened Acheron sector to seek her fortune. She was quite succesful, plundering the ruins and remnants of the xenos and blazing new warp routes into the sector. The seat of House Frunze was eventually established on the frontier world of Curzon, which has since grown to a burgeoning hive world at the center of a great web of commercial links.

The Warrant was inherited by Lucretia's daughter Electra Frunze, who succesfully continued her mother's work in consolidating Imperial rule over the new sector. Electra established the family tradition of sending younger children to be educated in the Schola Progenium, as a memorial to her mother's service in the Imperial Guard and a token of the family's unquestioning loyalty to the Imperium. Several Frunze scions have ended up in the Imperial Guard as both officers and Commissars, as well as in the Ecclesiarchy, through this path.

Another legacy of Electra's time is House Frunze's feud with noble house Rufius. House Rufius, originally a naval family, was one of the first Imperial noble houses to gain a foothold in the new sector, and have remained a powerful influence ever since. No-one remembers what the disagreement between House Rufius and House Frunze was, but it seems to have started in Electra Frunze's day, and the ill will between the two houses has gone on ever since. As House Rufius were a major investor in the Sancrist colony and traditionally provide its lieutenant governor, this has made visits to Sancrist slightly tense for House Frunze, and encouraged them to develop their own contacts in the Aradec Confederacy.

Electra was in turn succeeded by her son, Arminius Frunze. Arminius was a highly devout man, who spent a great deal of his youth in the Ecclesiarchy before inheriting the Warrant. As a Rogue Trader, he focused on converting newly rediscovered human worlds to the Imperial creed. He was joined in this endeavour by his closest friend from his days in the Ecclesiarchy, a firebrand missionary who was later canonized as Saint Mettius of Acheron. Their missionary efforts were so succesful that a race of foul xenos set out to thwart them. Arminius Frunze and Saint Mettius were captured by treachery and brought to the xenos homeworld, where they were put to death.

The Warrant of Trade now passed to Arminius's daughter, Octavia Frunze. She was furious at her father's murder and set out to make the xenos pay. Using her family's connections, she was able to buy a Lunar-class cruiser that the Imperial Navy was decommissioning. She gave the ship the name Nemesis, and set out for the xenos homeworld. The Nemesis and her consorts destroyed the xenos navy, and Octavia led a strike team to the planet to recover her father's body. The Nemesis then conducted an orbital bombardment that laid waste to the whole planet, wiping out the xenos. The name of their species and everything about them except their treachery has since been forgotten, even the name of their homeworld: it is now known as Corpus Sancti, in memory of Saint Mettius's martyrdom in the name of the Emperor.

By the time Mordecai Frunze inherited the Warrant of Trade, the star of House Frunze was on the wane. The Nemesis was still the most famous ship in the entire sector, but the other Rogue Trader houses were overtaking Frunze in influence and, increasingly, wealth. Mordecai was a secretive man who was determined to reverse this decline, but he took no-one into his confidence and led the Nemesis on increasingly mysterious missions into unknown systems. His solitude and dedication only deepened with the death of his wife and only child in a tragic accident, and the Nemesis was gone for longer and longer, with the family's finances falling further into disarray.

Mordecai died in unclear circumstances in 943M41, somewhere in the Desolatio Thanos. His body was brought back to Vestigium Hanini by a prize crew on a raider the Nemesis had captured; the whereabouts of the Nemesis itself remain unknown. Because Mordecai Frunze's direct heir was dead, the Warrant was inherited by his young nephew Laurenz Frunze, at the time a student at the Schola Progenium. Young Laurenz now faces the formidable task of restoring the fortunes of House Frunze.

Rogue Trader: Thinking about the Imperial economy

To lend some kind of coherence to our Rogue Trader tabletop campaign, I've tried to think semi-seriously about how the Imperial economy works. Rogue Trader abstracts money and business with the profit factor mechanic, which I think is excellent, but in the interests of verisimilitude, I also wanted to form some notion of what actually goes on. So here I'm going to talk about what I think are the two principal drivers of the Imperial economy.

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The Imperial economy is overseen by the Adeptus Administratum: the administrative arm of the Priesthood of Earth. The Administratum assigns each world in the Imperium a tithe grade and collects the tithe.

If you want a historical analogy, think about the annona system in the Roman Empire, where vast fleets of ships delivered grain to Rome from all around the Empire. Because of the unimaginably vast size of the Imperium of Man, obviously the tithes can't be gathered on Terra, or even in the segmentum capitals. Because the planets the tithes are collected from can be completely different and have very different tithe grades, the actual tithe can be anything from a fully equipped regiment of mechanized infantry to bulk freighters full of grain or ore, or in less typical cases, probably almost anything you can think of. The only constant is that the tithe is that planet's contribution to the business of the Imperium: war.

Because the Imperium is constantly engaged in a multitude of wars all over the galaxy, I would imagine there has to be some kind of sector- and/or subsector-level system for directing the tithes where they are needed. We can think of this as a series of supply chains that culminates in the production of Imperial Guard regiments. The focus of this production is the hive worlds. Vast urban centers housing billions of people, the hive worlds supply the soldiers and manufacture their equipment. To do this, they need gigantic quantites of ore from mining worlds and constant imports of food from agri-worlds; the recruits can be supplemented by tithes of people from feudal or feral worlds. The regiments then need to be shipped out to whatever warzone they are needed in, and provided with supplies and reinforcements.

This massive process, where the tithes from each planet are turned into fighting forces and delivered to the Imperium's field commanders and garrisons, is what I refer to as the Imperial war economy. It's a massive, galaxy-spanning planned economy run by the bureaucrats of the Administratum, so we can only imagine the gigantic inefficiencies this entails. Many of the supply chains would probably not be in any way economically feasible, but like in the Soviet Union, if no-one is counting, who cares? In addition to the regiments, the war economy also has to support the Imperial fleet, and some tithes no doubt go to the Ministorum, the Adeptus Astartes, and other Imperial agencies - not to mention the Administratum itself! But the majority of the traffic will be from planets engaged in primary production to manufacturing and recruiting centers, and from there to war zones.

I assume that the volume of the war economy is so large that it dwarfs all other shipping, and effectively defines trade routes in the Imperium. Since the tithes have to be delivered, there's an opportunity to use any excess cargo space for other exports. As tithes will usually be one-way, they provide huge opportunities for trade in the other direction: transport costs will be almost zero since the ships have to go back anyway! So the tithes are absolutely crucial in shaping the whole Imperial economy.

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Tithes are only a part of any Imperial planet's economy, of course. It's long been established that as long as a planetary governor delivers their assigned tithes and suppresses witchcraft and heresy, they can pretty much do what they like. So governors and everyone else high enough in the planetary administration are left to enjoy the spoils, and can become very wealthy indeed. On smaller or poorer worlds, this can just mean the governor and his family; a teeming hive world will support entire noble houses.

So all these people have plenty of disposable income. What are they going to spend it on? The luxury economy. Luxury products marketed to a super-rich clientele can easily be valuable enough to ship over interstellar distances, especially if they're in fashion. You could probably do some interesting stuff with how waves of trends propagate across a gigantic interstellar empire, but it probably suffices to imagine that if some obscure luxury product becomes popular in the right circles, they'll have orders pouring in from across the segmentum, if not further.

This is also where mercantile-minded rogue traders operate, in my opinion. Recall that rogue traders are so named because they have an extraordinary license to trade beyond the Imperium, even with the xenos. For what, though? What can a rogue trader trade for that wilĺ be worth the considerable trouble of warp travel outside the Imperium? Possibly some strategic resources, but in most cases, if they're trying to make a profit out of it, surely it must be luxury goods for the Imperial elite. With their warrant, rogue traders can effectively launder xenos luxuries into the Imperial economy. Given how unequal the distribution of wealth in the Imperium is, that's going to be worth quite some money and influence.

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There will also be other shipping routes, especially ones connected to rogue trader operations. We also know from the tabletop books that there are entire dedicated pilgrim vessels: it'll also be worthwhile to map any pilgrimage routes! In addition, there may be some substances valuable enough to transport over interstellar distances that aren't strictly part of either the war or luxury economy: building or industrial materials of exceptional quality, maybe, or some kind of consumer products that aren't exclusive enough to be restricted to the nobility, but still very valuable; I don't know! It's a big galaxy.

Anyway these were some thoughts I had bouncing around in my head on how the Imperial economy works, and how rogue traders fit into that, which I wanted to set down on virtual paper.

Rogue Trader: Now in 28mm

Back in 2014, I started a role-playing campaign using the since-discontinued Fantasy Flight Games Rogue Trader system. Seeing as how I've already spun the campaign into a justification for a series of Warhammer 40,000 games starring many of our characters in their previous lives, I figure it's about time I made 28mm models of their campaign iterations as well. Here's some of them now!


Cardinal-Commodore Brother Malachi of the Missionary Diocese of the Wounds of St. Cyrillos

I've been a little bit improper and started modelling our player characters with Brother Malachi, but this was where the whole project started: we were discussing the character's uniform with the player while I was browsing 28mm models online, and one thing led to another. The Cardinal-Commodore's model is built from Anvil Industry bits: officer coats, dress uniform legs, specialist weapon arms (to hold his flamer), epaulettes and, delightfully and by the player's personal choice, a tricorne hat.

I started by painting and varnishing the front of the torso and the part of the flamer that was going to be up against it. The shirt is Deep Sky Blue, with Old Gold braids, and the trousers are London Grey; the flamer is Gunmetal Blue. The fur lining on the jacket is Orange Red, and the flamer pipe (?) connecting to the fuel tank is Copper.

Then it was time to put everything together: arms, head, fuel tank and epaulettes.

I should say that the Anvil Industry parts were an absolute delight to work with, and I highly recommend them. Next, after a white undercoat for the unpainted bits, I painted on the main colors.

I then gave the flamer and fuel tank a Black Glaze wash, highlighted the epaulettes a bit with Gold and gave the fur and feather a dash of Fluorescent Orange.

Finally, I applied some facial scarring with Red and a Medium Fleshtone wash.

All that remains is to paint the base Neutral Grey, and we are done!

I'm very pleased with how characterful the model looks! In his youth, the Cardinal-Commodore was a preacher attached to the 165th Ophir Highlanders during the Ignatian rebellion, where he looked like this:

The model is a GW Warrior Acolyte from the old Inquisition range.


Arch-Militant Crimson Chirikov

An original member of our first group, Crim is an Imperial Guard veteran who follows a simple credo: her boss points, she shoots. Presumed lost in the Charriere incident, she made her way back to Imperial space with the Cardinal-Commodore, and was last seen signing up for the Aquilian Crusade at Babylonia Typhonis.

The model is a plastic Sister of Battle with a Postapoc Female Head from Brother Vinni, and a plasma cannon from an old Space Marine Devastator Squad box. I'm quite happy with how this all came together!

Painting her, I decided to use Black Grey as the Frunze armor color. The lumen-heraldry on her armor is in Pink.

This is Crim in her army days, as a soldier in the 76th Chirikov Rad-Guards:

Astropath Luna Faenius of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica

An Astropath assigned to House Frunze, Luna helped Brother Aphesius root out a sect of heretics on Sancrist and now serves as part of the astropathic choir on the Frunze flagship.

The model is Victoria Miniatures' splendid Astro Witch, who I painted according to a color scheme drawn by the player. That's Royal Purple and Medium Blue on the robes, and a German Camo Black Brown staff.


Rogue Trader Laurenz Frunze

I enjoyed working with Anvil bits so much that I wanted to make more models! It was therefore about time I respect the chain of command, and model our Rogue Trader, Laurenz Frunze himself. Laurenz is young for a Rogue Trader, having been plucked out of Commissar training when he unexpectedly inherited the Warrant. A valiant and inspiring leader, Rogue Trader Frunze was last seen leading his flagship into battle against an unholy alliance of pirates and xenos raiders in the Pinus system.

I was originally just going to straight up use a Commissar model, but the player expressed a desire for something simpler. So I started out with the other officer coat and dress uniform legs, added fatigue command arms, a dress uniform head chosen by the player, and the power sword from the plastic Sisters box, as well as some epaulettes.

I gave him a Black Grey Frunze uniform under the commissar jacket, and a sash in the house color, with his ancestral seal in gold.

Astropath Cynthia of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica

After a long stint at (as) an astropathic relay station, Cynthia was assigned to House Frunze, where she served as part of Cardinal-Commodore Malachy's retinue and is currently the Rogue Trader's personal Astropath.

Her model is a female robed cultist from Anvil Industries, with a staff I built from a GW banner pole and an autopistol from a plastic Chaos Cultist.

Brother Aphesius

A priest and skilled chemist, Brother Aphesius was recently charged with the local crimes of disturbing the Emperor's peace, destruction of property, endangerment of critical life support systems and arson in the Vestigium Hanini system, and the Imperial crimes of resisting the Adeptus Terra, incitement to treason and treason. He was released into exile under Rogue Trader Laurenz Frunze's supervision, and now spreads the word and wrath of the Emperor in parts unknown.

The model is another Anvil robed cultist, with a long hair head from the same company and a flamethrower from a Cadian squad box.

Adept Cornelius Gorgo, formerly of the Administratum

Finishing off our trio of commanders was easy, because the fleet officer model in GW's Regimental Advisors pack was perfect for Cornelius. Formerly a high-ranking member of the Administratum, Adept Gorgo was hired by House Frunze to manage their finances; what he ended up doing was something rather different.

Adept Gorgo is wearing a Light Grey outfit with Dark Sea Grey cuffs, and a Medium Sea Grey tunic.

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I've also made our characters a Land Speeder. I can't remember the exact circumstances of its purchase, but the Rogue Trader wanted one, we made an acquisition roll for it, and it succeeded; so now he has a Land Speeder. Here it is!

A Land Speeder Storm seemed the most appropriate kind for a Rogue Trader, so that he can transport his retinue. They also acquired a plasma cannon, so I stuck the other one from the Devastator kit on.

Frankly, I'm delighted with this. Vehicles are fun, so I'm also on the lookout for a Tauros, since there's at least one in the Frunze motor pool, but have had no luck finding a model!

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So that's the first batch of Rogue Trader miniatures; I'll have more later!

Rogue Trader: Holidays of the Acheron sector

I wanted to add a little bit of verisimilitude to our Rogue Trader tabletop role-playing game campaign by figuring out what holidays people celebrate in the Acheron sector. We actually don't seem to know a whole lot about the Imperial year. There's a pretty good summary of what we do know at Bell of Lost Souls, and I've taken it as my point of departure. All dates are, of course, in the Imperial Dating System.

So what we learn from BoLS is that the main holidays of the Imperial calendar are Emperor's Day, which marks the new year, the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, whose date is not given, and Candlemas at the end of the year. In general, holidays attached to religious figures don't necessarily have anything to do with their actual lives, if they even lived at all; for example, the date of Christmas was fairly obviously selected to coincide with the winter solstice, not least because it was already a popular Roman holiday. The fact that the first "Christmas" was celebrated centuries after Jesus's alleged birth quite conclusively demonstrates that it has no relation to any actual events. Using the same logic, I've decided to assign the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension to Midsummer, or year fraction 500.

This leaves the spring and autumn equinoxes, and since the Imperial calendar is based on ours, I thought it would be appropriate for them to also be important holidays that somehow carry on the spirit of ours. For autumn, it feels very Imperial to celebrate martyrs, so I've named the autumn equinox holiday the Martyrion. Spring is more difficult, since something celebrating new life and fertility verges on Slaanesh (although I still maintain that the Imperium is probably much more sex-positive than our 21st century society!), but I came up with a holiday called Vigilia, or Vigil in English: a coming-of-age feast day themed around the changing of the guard. A new generation takes up the watch and so on.

Apart from these major holidays, I've come up with a bunch of minor ones, with some assistance from my players, for which I'm grateful. As a final note, all the official year fraction dates are just that; in practice, I'd expect worlds would have to decide whether to celebrate a solstice holiday on the actual solstice, or on the exact official Imperial date. With ships each having their own time, some fairly bizarre feast-day coincidences will undoubtedly happen (if they get too bizarre, get in touch with the Ordo Chronos. Be vigilant!)

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Major imperial holidays

Emperor's Day

Official date: year fraction 1

The most sacred holiday in the Imperial calendar celebrates, well, the Emperor. Not commemorating this holiday is surely a heresy. Unfortunately, we know very little about how it's celebrated! As it opens the new year, I'd like to think it's a time to celebrate new beginnings and undertakings.

Vigilia

Official date: year fraction 250

The Festival of the Watch celebrates coming of age, and the changing of the guard as new generations take up the cause of the Imperium of Man. Vigilia is celebrated in many different ways across the Imperium, from solemn religious ceremonies to blood sports. Space Marine chapters often choose recruits on Vigilia, and it is a traditional time for promotions and retirements.

Ascension

Official date: year fraction 500

Lexicanum tells us that the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension is a week-long festival that's considered an especially auspicious time for marriages and other undertakings, and is generally the most important festivity of the year.

Martyrion

Official date: year fraction 750

As the autumn darkens, Imperial citizens come together to remember the dead at Martyrion. The form of the festivities varies from planet to planet, from somber processions to raucous parties, but all are focused on the honored dead, especially those who gave their lives in the service of the Emperor.

Candlemas

Official date: year fraction 997

A solemn holiday that marks the end of the year, and usually the darkest time of winter. Candlemas is a celebration of the light of the Emperor shining throughout the galaxy. On some worlds, Candlemas is celebrated as Sanguinala, in memory of the sacrifice of the Primarch Sanguinius.

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Minor Imperial holidays

Day of Light

Official date: year fraction 200

An important ecclesiastical holiday, the Day of Light commemorates the overthrow of the tyrant Vandire by Sebastian Thor, and the founding of the Adepta Sororitas.

Knights' Day

Official date: year fraction 225

The main festival of the year on knight worlds, on other planets of the Imperium Knights' Day is celebrated as a martial holiday and the start of Vigilia festivities.

Feast-day of the Imperial Guard

Official date: year fraction 300

Soon after the great feast of Vigilia comes the feast-day of the Imperial Guard. On worlds with extensive Vigilia celebrations, this can be a solemn holiday of remembrance and return to duty; regiments often ship out after the feast-day. Years of service in the Guard are traditionally calculated by this date.

Day of Mercy

Official date: year fraction 400

A holy day of many saints across the Imperium, the Day of Mercy is the feast-day of the Imperial courts and Judges, and an important day for the Ecclesiarchy. If prisoners are to be pardoned or other indulgences announced, they are traditionally done on this day. The Day of Mercy is also considered an auspicious day to appeal to authorities or sponsors.

The Olympiad

Official date: year fraction 600

The Olympiad celebrates the Treaty of Olympus between the Imperium and the Machine Cult. For reasons that have been long since forgotten, the Olympiad is a time of athletic contests between teams and individuals.

Orphans' Day

Official date: year fraction 650

The feast-day of the Schola Progenum, Orphans' Day is a festival dedicated to children.

Tank Day

Official date: year fraction 700

The mailed fist of the Imperial Guard is celebrated on a day of motor-races and noisy festivities. On some worlds famous for their armored regiments, Tank Day is a highlight of the year and can involve an entire week of feasting, and even contests of skill involving actual tanks.

Masquerade

Official date: year fraction 775

A festival of masks and and revelry, rumored to be the feast-day of the Officio Assassinorum.

Artillery Day

Official date: year fraction 885

A feast-day that celebrates the Imperial Guard's massive indirect fire support, and also the factories and Forge Worlds that produce it. This is a festival of both firepower and labor.

Fleet Day

Official date: year fraction 900

Reckoning

Official date: year fraction 925

The first of the end-of-the year festivals, Reckoning heralds the coming of the Emperor's day and the last labors of the year. It is the feast-day of the Adeptus Arbites and of Imperial justice in general.

Feast-day of the Administratum

Official date: year fraction 950

In the Segmentum Obscurus, Candlemas season traditionally starts in 950 with the Feast-day of the Administratum, signifying another year in the record-books. There is great pressure on the scribes and adepts of the Administratum to conclude their work by the feast-day, though this rarely succeeds. By tradition, Administratum business stops on the feast-day and recommences after Emperor's Day. Filling and submitting forms on the feast-day is considered to bring good luck to the endeavour.

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Acheron sector holidays

Martyrion of St. Valeria

Official date: year fraction 400

Consort of Saint Anastasia and scourge of the xenos, the Martyrion of St. Valeria the Light-bringer closes out the spring festivities in the Acheron sector, and is celebrated as the feast-day of Navigators.

Martyrion of St. Isabella

Official date: year fraction 700

Revered Saint Isabella the Just purged the Charon fringe of heretics and founded the Acheron sector, where her saint's day opens the Martyrion festivities.

Martyrion of St. Anastasia

Official date: year fraction 800

The last day of Martyrion in Acheron is in memory of revered Saint Anastasia, who opened the way to the rimward reaches of the sector and is especially commemorated in Ultra Pars.

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Other local holidays

Confederation Day

Official date: year fraction 150

This day commemorates the founding of the Confederation, and is celebrated there as a joyous festival.

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Anyway there's a bit of fluff that was fun to write. Next up, I think I'm going to talk a little more about the Confederation.

Rogue Trader: the Ignatian Rebellion

One thing I quite liked in Rogue Trader was its origin path system for character generation. Each character selected background options from a series of choices, which then formed a path from their planet of birth to their character class. Where different characters' paths intersected, you were encouraged to come up with an event that they had all participated in. We didn't exactly do this, but since several of our characters did have some war experience, it seemed like a good idea - and one very much in keeping with the Warhammer 40,000 universe - to have a fairly recent conflict in the campaign background. That conflict is the Ignatian Rebellion.

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The rebellion was started by and therefore named after Ignatius Virius, governor of the agri-world of Derbe in Tertia Pars of the Acheron sector. A scion of one of the most powerful noble houses in the sector, House Virius, Ignatius had ruled Derbe effectively for years without any untoward incident. Derbe is just off the main trade route between Ultra and Tertia Pars, and House Virius did lucrative business feeding the hive worlds and mining colonies producing materiel for the Imperium's endless wars - until Ignatius Virius declared independence from the Imperium.

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The Children's Crusade

Several regiments of the Imperial Guard were raised to suppress the Ignatian Rebellion. The 76th Rad-Guards were raised on the death world of Chirikov, blasted by atomic warfare in the distant past and now home to tenacious tribes of survivalists. The garden world of Boye contributed the mechanised 41st Dragoon Guards, and the 113th Acheron Repentants were recruited from the penal world of Ministerium Veri. These new regiments were bolstered by the veterans of the long-serving 328th Kurchatov Jaegers, who would settle in the Anastasian Traverse after the rebellion was put down. But the regiment that features in the most stories about the rebellion was the 165th Ophir Highlanders.

Ophir is a hive world not far from Derbe, which was accustomed to providing its tithe of war materiel and regiments for the Imperial Guard. When the rebellion broke out, however, the 164th Highlanders had only recently been sent south to join the garrisons around the Eye of Terror, and recruitment for the next regiment was barely getting underway. Because more troops were urgently needed, the recruitment process was accelerated and the newly inducted troopers sent to the war zone after only a bare minimum of training. To compensate for this, a call went out to nearby monastic orders of the Adeptus Ministorum to send preachers to motivate the green troops, and many orders responded.

While the rest of the regiment was being mobilized and the Ministorum priests were arriving, the first battalion of the Highlanders was thrown into battle on the desert world of Athir. An insurrection against governor Flaccus Rufius had broken out, and had to be suppressed before the fire of rebellion spread any further.

The first troops on the ground were the green conscripts from Ophir, who were dropped onto a spaceport near the capital of Athir. Not only had most of the population joined the rebellion, but also the local planetary defence force, so the Highlanders had a stiff fight on their hands. Their initial casualties were terrible, but reinforcements were dropped in, and once the first of the preachers arrived, the first battalion developed the fighting style that would become iconic to the campaign: the bayonet charge inspired by the preaching of the Ministorum priests. With fanatical determination and huge losses, the Highlander battalion cleared the rebels from the spaceport.

Their first forays into desert warfare beyond the spaceport's perimeter were a complete disaster. The rebels knew how to survive in the death world's hostile deserts, and how to fight in them. They lured columns of Ophir troops into the desert with skillful raids, and destroyed them in ambushes. The tide only began to turn when the 76th Chirikov Rad-Guards were deployed; they had grown up on a desert death world even less forgiving than Athir, and could fight the rebels at their own game. The mechanised Boye Dragoon Guards defeated the minimal armored corps of the planetary defence force, but the rebels fought on as guerrillas. Eventually the Punishers Space Marines, held in reserve for the assault on Derbe, had to be deployed to Athir. Punishers kill teams took out the rebel leaders, and eventully the uprising was put down. Governor Rufius, who had fled the planet at the outbreak of the insurrection and was considered by many to have brought it on by his misrule, was quietly deposed.

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The siege of Derbe

While Athir was being pacified, the Imperial Navy turned their attention to the rebel fleet. Acting on good intelligence, a naval squadron surprised the rebels at Anceli Aurieli and defeated them thoroughly. Some pirate ships escaped, most prominent among them the frigate Flammis Acribus Addictis, which would trouble the trade routes of the Acheron sector for years to come.

With the fleet beaten, the Imperial Navy was free to invest Derbe. With complete control of the space around the planet, there was no way for the rebellion to spread any further. However, the Imperium is not content to contain those who challenge the authority of the Emperor. Governor Virius would be made an example, and so the order came to invade Derbe, subjugate the planet and capture the renegade governor.

The resistance was centered around the Governor's massive palace and the capital city surrounding it, so that was where the Imperial assault would be concentrated. After a massive bombardment by the orbiting naval squadron, the first wave of penal legion dropships was deployed right in the teeth of rebel defenses. Casualties were considerable, but for a penal legionnaire, dying in the service of the Emperor is a blessing. After the penal legion neutralized the air defences around the capital, the 113th Acheron Repentants were dropped in to secure a landing site for the regular troops, and the bulk of the Imperial army began to deploy.

Yana Vash, dropship pilot and survivor of the Derbe drop
Governor Virius sent his planetary defence troops to attack the Imperial forces, and ferocious battles raged in the city. Virius had openly declared his allegiance to Khorne, the Chaos god of battle, and his rebel forces were joined by warbands of Chaos Space Marines, eager to slaughter in the name of the Blood God.

It was here that the bulk of the 165th Ophir Highlanders received their baptism of fire, and made their name as a regiment. By their standards, the troopers of the first battalion who had survived Athir were practically veterans; on Derbe they formed a core for the regiment that could almost be regarded Imperial Guard regulars. The rest of the regiment, fresh from what little training they had had time for, was thrown directly into combat against the rebels. Hordes of Ophirian conscripts, bayonets fixed and urged on by their preachers, charged rebel positions with a fanaticism that outdid the heretical followers of Khorne. Bloody battles raged throughout the city, and little by little, the bayonets of the Highlanders cleared the rebels from an ever larger part of the city, allowing the regular regiments to deploy. More and more artillery was sent in, and the guns of the Imperial Guard and the orbital bombardments of the Navy reduced the capital of Derbe to a dust-choked ruin. Rebel casualties were massive, and superior Imperial firepower gradually forced them back to the heavily fortified gubernatorial palace.

The Imperial army methodically laid siege to the palace, completing an elaborate network of fortifications and entrenchments to cut it off from the rest of the planet. While Guardsmen manned trenches in the ruins of the planetary capital, penal troops and Space Marines of the Punishers chapter fought crack rebel troops in desperate close-quarters battles in the sewers and tunnels below. Recon teams of the Kurchatov Jaegers probed the palace's defences, capturing prisoners and scouting out its weaknesses. Their snipers took a steady toll on the rebel garrison.

Once the palace was fully invested, the remaining rebels could have been starved into submission, but again the order came: the palace must be taken and every single rebel exterminated. The assault was preceded by a gigantic bombardment, and led by the Acheron Repentants, who breached the first line of fortifications. The main assault on the very doors of Ignatius Virius's palace was carried out by the Sisters of Battle, their battle-hymns echoing as loudly as the roar of their flamers and melta-weapons in the close confines of the palace. Simultaneously, the Punishers Space Marines attacked through the tunnels below the palace and even mounted an aerial assault on its highest levels. Behind the power-armored vanguard, the Imperial Guardsmen poured in, scouring every nook and cranny of the palace and executing every heretic inside.

Only one man could not be found: Governor Ignatius Virius. How he could have escaped is unknown. Some say that Khorne appreciated his massive blood sacrifice so much that the Blood God himself somehow spirited Virius away, but such talk is heresy and invites swift and terminal punishment. Nonetheless, the Ignatian Rebellion was over. The governor's palace was thoroughly dismantled, and the planet placed under military rule, the horrible casualties a grim reminder of the price the Imperium will extract of anyone who defies it.

Rogue Trader: Welcome to the Acheron sector

Our Rogue Trader campaign, which started back in 2014, is still going on; we've spun it off into Warhammer 40,000 and are looking to recruit some new people, so I thought it would be high time to expand on the fairly meager bit of fluff I gave to our players so long ago. First, I'd like to introduce our setting: the Acheron sector.

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The Acheron sector lies far to the galactic north, in Segmentum Obscurus. In the 37th millenium, what is now the Acheron sector was the northernmost fringe of the Charon sector, one of the most remote reaches of Segmentum Obscurus. During the Age of Apostasy, the Charon fringe was barely under Imperial control. Its rulers were an immensely rich and corrupt noble family, who nominally accepted the authority of Holy Terra. Xenos pirates raided the Charon sector, while the lords of the fringes claimed to be powerless to stop them.

After the death of the tyrant Vandire brought the Age of Apostasy to a close in M37, Saint Isabella the Just turned her attention to the Charon fringe. One of the leaders of the newly founded Adepta Sororitas, Saint Isabella had been a junior leader in some of the first wars of the Age of Redemption, and now set out on a crusade of her own to rid the Charon sector of the alien menace.

When Saint Isabella arrived in the Charon fringe, it quickly became obvious that the local nobility was in league with the xenos and had in fact repudiated the authority of the Emperor. Saint Isabella's crusade exterminated both the xenos and the corrupt nobles utterly. The name of the ruling family of the Charon fringe was expunged from Imperial records, and a new sector was founded: the Acheron sector. Saint Isabella appointed one of her most loyal generals, Lady Devanshi Indriani, the first proconsul of the new sector. House Indriani has ruled the sector ever since.


The Acheron sector is officially defined as extending from the border of the Charon sector all the way into the halo stars and to the northern edge of the galaxy. In the first millenium of its settlement, expansion northward was practically restricted to the area south of the Acheron Typhoon: present-day Prima, Secunda and Tertia Pars of the sector. The Typhoon is a permanent warp storm, and navigating around it is very hazardous. On both its eastern and western sides lie large gulfs of what navigators call null-space: areas of space where warp travel is almost impossible. The phenomenon that causes this is unknown, but in null-space astropathic communication is cripplingly difficult and the Astronomican is imperceptible. These two gulfs, Lacuna Phlegethon to the west and Lacuna Cocytus to the east, cut off the outer parts of the sector almost completely.

This changed in M38, when the revered Saint Anastasia came to the Acheron sector. Driven by a vision from the Emperor, Saint Anastasia and navigator house Radha forged a path around the Acheron Typhoon and mounted a crusade against the xenos empire beyond. Saint Anastasia led her troops through battles so terrible that most chronicles simply refuse to speak of them, merely stating that Saint Anastasia vanquished the xenos. She led the crusade as far as the Anastasian Depths, named in her honor. Her consort, Saint Valeria, crossed the Depths to the west to eliminate a last xenos stronghold on the dead world Silentium. In a horrible battle beneath the planet's surface, the missionary Saint Electra was martyred, and the xenos were eradicated.

Saint Anastasia's conquests were consolidated as Ultra Pars of the Acheron sector. Vestigium Hanini is officially the southernmost system of Ultra Pars, and the start of the twin routes past the Acheron Typhoon known as the Holy Gates. The Holy Gates converge at Babylonia Typhonis, seat of the procurator of Ultra Pars and gateway to the northernmost reaches of the sector.

North of Babylonia Typhonis, a stable warp route leads to the Quattor Proci Benitahi, a group of four solar systems close to each other that includes the hive world Augereau and the forge world Oecus Centrifugo. In M41, Rogue Trader Laurenz Frunze blazed a new route to the east, where the House Frunze colony Sacrificatio Imperatori now stands. North of the Quattor Proci is an area of dense null-space known as the Desolatio Thanos, which is considered completely unnavigable.

From Quattor Proci Benitahi, ships bound west for the Phlegethon sector travel to the garden world of Lilium, famed for its brandy. From Lilium they must attempt the Valerian Gates via Sermones Saryoni, Nekromanteion and dread Silentium. The northern route passes by the mining world of Lapis Nova to Ignis and Fides, where the Weyland Transit leads to Clavis Coronae and beyond. It's possible to take either of these routes and make a circuit around the Anastasian Depths to Sancrist, a colony of Rogue Trader house Karanja and chief Imperial world beyond the Depths. There is also a direct route over the Depths, the Pons Separatoris from the shrine world Termina Anastasiae to Dos Umbrae, but only House Radha hold the secret to navigating it safely. Occasionally, a bold Navigator makes the attempt; it invariably ends badly for them.


Beyond the Anastasian Depths lies the uncharted expanse of Ultra Pars. West of Sancrist are the Acheron Badlands, a seemingly limitless area punctuated by patches of null-space. To the north is a human civilization that calls itself the Confederation; they maintain a lively trade as middle-men between Imperial merchants at Sancrist and unknown operators on the other side of the Cortina Noctis. To the east of the Confederation lie the Morbid Reaches, where few Imperial ships dare pass. Somewhere to the northwest are the homeworlds of the Ishi xenos, a fierce, predatory race whose raids sometimes extend into Tertia Pars.

It's rumored that there are stable routes across the Cortina Noctis in the Morbid Reaches, and somehow the Confederation traffic across it. What lies beyond the Cortina Noctis? Who knows! All the ancient stellar catalogues can reveal is names for regions and occasional individual stars; nothing else. Most star systems in Ultra Pars are known only by their stellar catalogue numbers: for example, O.Ac.U.2887; the O designates Segmentum Obscurus, Ac is short for the Acheron sector and U for Ultra Pars. The brightest stars are generally numbered first; Babylonia Typhonis, a blue giant, is O.Ac.U.1. Beyond that, to the Imperial explorer most systems in Ultra Pars are a meaningless number on a chart. The only way to find out what secrets they hold is to go and look...

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It's out here, in the unexplored depths of Ultra Pars, that Rogue Traders go to seek their fortunes, and it's here that our campaign is set. Later, I'll write a bit about some recent events, and introduce our Rogue Trader house.

Warhammer 40,000: The Emperor is with the Battalion Detachments

By Method and discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
- Sun Tzu: The Art of War, I:10, Lionel Giles translation (1910)

Our first Warhammer 40,000 - Rogue Trader experiment was a success, so we're going to repeat it: this time with bigger armies and more players.

A post shared by Michael Halila (@michaelhalila) on Aug 12, 2018 at 2:45am PDT

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Because it turns out I have more Imperial Guard models than I thought, my first step will be to expand my patrol detachment into a battalion detachment. The minimum required is two HQ units and three Troops, meaning that my mini-army needs one more of each to make the grade.

165th Ophir Highlanders

Our new HQ unit will be Captain de Cleyre, an Ophir Highlanders Company Commander with a power sword and plasma pistol. The model is Ursula, fleet officer from Brother Vinni. As a senior officer, she can give orders to two units from her regiment per turn.

Therefore, it's time to bolster our army with an Ophir Highlanders Infantry Squad. The models are GW Cadians, with the Sergeant's and weapon team's heads from Statuesque Miniatures. Incidentally, since my opponent vocally complained about not being allowed to shoot into melee last time, we've decided that the Ophir Highlanders count as Valhallan Ice Warriors.

I also found some nearly untouched Imperial Guard heavy weapon team sprues, so the Highlanders also get a Heavy Weapons Squad. I didn't have enough Cadians to make the three heavy bolter teams I had intended, so for the time being two of them are deploying with a mortar team from the 113th Acheron Repentants.

41st Boye Dragoon Guards

During the same great miniature-sorting operation that netted me Commissar Zhukov, I was delighted to also find a whole squad of Mordian Iron Guard. I re-painted them in a color scheme based on the Swedish Life Guards regiment, following a visit to Stockholm last summer. For rules purposes, we're counting them as Mordians.

I also found a Mordian officer with a power fist, who was pressed into service as a Platoon Commander. Since the Mordian models are out of production and I don't see myself hitting up eBay for more, my Dragoon Guards will be fine with just a single officer. Incidentally, this also makes them a prime candidate for mechanisation, should I get my hands on a Chimera.

Officio Prefectus

Since I got my hands on an excellent Wargame Exclusive female Commissar model, how could I not include the beautiful and deadly Commissar Mironova?

Scholastica Psykana

Finally, I decided that we should expand our understanding of the game by incorporating psykers in our armies, so we can have a proper Psychic phase. To that end, the Imperial Gyard detachment got its third HQ unit, a Primaris Psyker. For the model, I bought a Fantasy Flight Imperial psyker.

The Imperial army contains the following units:

Lord Commissar Zhukov
Ophir Highlanders Company Commander de Cleyre
Primaris Psyker
Ministorum Priest Brother Malachi
Commissar Mironova
Boye Dragoon Guards Platoon Leader
Ophir Highlanders Conscripts
Ophir Highlanders Infantry Squad
Boye Dragoon Guards Infantry Squad
Chirikov Rad-Guards Infantry Squad
Ophir Highlanders Heavy Weapons Squad

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What about my Chaos army, then?

Iconoclast Chaos Space Marines

Before I ruin it with my painting, I want to start off by pointing out that this Wargame Exclusive Chaos Dark Prophet model that I got to be my Dark Apostle is simply amazing.

I didn't have time to get her painted for our first game, but here she is now!

Now that the other side has a psyker, I'm also bringing a Sorcerer and giving them a combi-plasma. I'm still working on getting a suitable model, so for now, my Sorcerer will be proxied by Ezekiel.

Having done that, I could add another Troops choice to upgrade my Chaos army to a battalion detachment as well. Or, since I bought a box of them to make my Fallout World Eater, I could have some Berzerkers instead.

Frankly, a horde of chain-weapon-wielding lunatics sounds so much more fun that this was pretty much a no-brainer.

Derbe rebels

Finally, my Cultists. Last time, I had ten cultists with autoguns, and they were very unceremoniously wiped out by the Rad-Guards. For this instalment, I'm leaving them home and bringing my old Escher gang from Necromunda as Slaanesh cultists. They're equipped half and half with autoguns and autopistol-assault weapon combos, and two flamers.

Therefore, my Chaos army is simply my Dark Apostle, Sorcerer, Berzerkers, Chaos Marines and Cultists.

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Our forces are ready! In the rustic surroundings of our summer cabin, we set up a 4' × 4' table with my old Necromunda terrain and a couple of new additions.

I got to divide the table into deployment zones, and decided on a split down the line of the river. I got the side to the right in the photo, and below is my deployment: the Marines would hold my right flank and shoot up anyone who made a grab for the objective on the bridge, while on my left, the Cultists would screen my Berzerkers' advance and then redeploy via Tide of Traitors.

Unfortunately, the Imperial deployment meant that my assault force would be advancing straight into the teeth of their heavy bolters.

The Imperial side got the first turn, and surged forward. On the right, the Rad-Guards secured the objective in the graveyard, and in the center, the Ophir conscripts and Dragoon Guards stormed toward the bridge.

The Imperial shooting damn near wiped out my Cultists completely, and I had to hit Tide of Traitors on my first turn. Luckily, there was just enough space to deploy them on the Imperial right, where they quickly overran the Heavy Weapon Squad and forced the conscripts to abandon the Dragoon Guards on the bridge and swing right to face the Cultists.

Meanwhile, my Sorcerer Warptimed the Berzerkers into charge range of the Rad-Guards, and killed several Imperials with his combi-plasma and Smite.

On my right, the Chaos Marines were getting the worst of a firefight with the two Imperial infantry squads, so with the conscripts drawn off, we charged the Dragoon Guards on the bridge.

The Highlander squad on the Imperial left used their Valhallan order to fire into melee, and managed to hit their own company commander with their lascannon! Miraculously, they failed to wound her.

The Marines wiped out the Dragoon Guards on the bridge and gunned down their officer as he tried to charge them. Meanwhile, the Berzerkers crashed through the Rad-Guards and butchered almost all of the conscripts. Their Champion duelled Commissar Zhukov and won, only to be cut down by the Ophir company commander. The Primaris Psyker blasted three Berzerkers dead with Smite, only to be killed himself by my Sorcerer. All the Berzerkers were dead, but they nearly destroyed the entire Imperial center. Khorne cares not whence the blood flows!

What the Berzerkers left standing was gunned down by my Marines and Sorcerer, or overrun by the Cultists. Above is Brother Malachi's heroic but short last stand.

Finally, all that was left was the Highlanders infantry squad on the Imperial left. If they could hold out for one last turn, the Imperials would have enough victory points to win. They survived my Cultists' shooting and my Sorcerer's Smite, but a charge from the Chaos Marines finished them off. Slaanesh prefers the blood to flow from the other guys.

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So, Chaos was victorious, bringing our lifetime record to 1-1. What did we learn?

As the Chaos player, I've again been reminded that Imperial firepower is horrible. My Cultists were, once again, practically wiped out. Even my Marines do worse than I'd like in a stand-up firefight, so clearly our army needs to get stuck in as fast as possible, and outflank the enemy line. Tide of Traitors was absolutely brilliant for this; next time, my opponents will be expecting it, but it's still amazing. The Berzerkers were also great, destroying the conscript horde and generally smashing right through the Imperial center. Of course they all died in the process, but what more can a Berzerker ask for? More Statuesque female heads arrived in the mail, so I'll be making them a proper Champion for next time.

Incidentally, the once per battle FAQ limitation of Tide of Traitors seems to strengthen the case for a massive unit of Cultists. So while I'll be bringing back my shooty ten-model Cultist unit to camp on an objective and bring the army up to battalion detachment strength, I need more hive gangers!

My proxied Sorcerer was a delight, Warptiming the Berzerkers into charge range, Smiting the Imperial psyker dead and inflicting several casualties with his combi-plasma. The only problem with Warptime was that it also made sure that the Berzerkers charged way out of my Dark Apostle's buff range, even with Voice of Lorgar. Still, I think she was worth having around just for the extra Leadership that stopped all the Cultists from running away in the first turn!

All in all, I'm very happy with my little Chaos army. Imperial firepower and numbers are still scary, though, and I'm going to keep on looking for ways to outflank them.

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Next time: the off-season.