Rogue Trader Fleet

[Pembo]

Well I finally had a game with the Rogue Trader Fleet.

My list was as follows:

- RT Cruiser
  Vet Rogue Trader
  Advanced Shielding

- Murder Class Cruiser
  Advanced Shielding

- Endeavor Light Cruiser
  Advanced Shielding

- Endeavor Light Cruiser
  Advanced Shielding

- 3 Armed Transports

TOTAL: 780pts
I only had 3 armed transports on stands or I would have used more.


Opponents fleet consisted of

- Hades Class Heavy Cruiser
  Chaos Lord
  Mark of Nurgle

- Devastation Class Cruiser

- Carnage Class Cruiser

- Carnage Class Cruiser

TOTAL: 835pts

Turn 1: The RT fleet advanced, with the endeavors firing torpedoes to force the chaos ships into maneuvering. The Chaos fleet advanced and launched bombers from the devastation.

Turn 2: Bombers flew towards the Rogue Trader cruiser, but were shot down by some lucky shots from the armed freighters. The torpedoes forced my opponent to split his fleet, leaving the heavy cruiser isolated. The Hades traded lance fire with my murder, but luckily the 3 shields of my cruiser absorbed all the hits.

Turn 3: The murder again opened fire on the hades, but only succeeded in taking down its shields. The Hades decided it had had enough from my murder, and unleashed all of its firepower on my murder, succeeding in crippling it, despite my brace for impact rolls. With only a few hits remaining there was little the murder could do. on the other flank the RT cruiser, transports and an endeavor were engaging the 3 chaos cruisers, this didnt look oood...

Turn 4: Since the RT Murder class was so heavily damaged it decided to disengage. The endeavor that had been escorting the murder decided to ram the hades. It succeeded on both its all ahead full and ramming leadership tests, causing 3 points of damage and destroying the shield generators on the hades. However in return the little endeavor took 2 points of damage, which combined with earlier damage crippled it.

Needless to say it didn't go well on the other side. I did significant damage to one of his cruisers but with 3 cruisers against a cruiser and a light cruiser I never expected it to go well.


* I think in the future I need to bulk out my fleet a bit more with armed freighters and see how that goes. May have to use some heavy freighters too, but I really don't like the fact that they only have 15cm batteries. 

[Sigoroth]

OK, first up, really weird choice for points cost. Your opponent could've dropped the MoN to make it a closer battle. You could've also used some other escort to stand in for an armed escort giving you both 800 pt flat fleets (which are just 750 pt fleets with a fleet commander added to each). Having not done either of these things you could've run the Murder as a Carnage and given the Endeavours 6+ front armour. This would give you maximum survivability (which you seem to be fond of since you take the extra shield). I would also have given the Carnage the targeting system in this case, since it would be hanging back and not likely to be targeted.

Apart from that, I'm really curious as to how the Hades managed to cripple the 3 shield Murder unaided. You mentioned that it "unleashed all its firepower". That's, what, 10 WB + 2 lances? He managed to score 7 hits from that? What did you do, let him get into your fore arc at close range on LO?

Also, why did he feel it necessary to move away from your torpedo salvoes? They were tiny, not worth moving for. Lastly, what were his Carnages doing throughout all this? I would've thought they'd have done considerable damage on the way in. Those two alone would've been able to do 2 damage past the shields of the Murder per turn.

[Pembo]

Hey, it was only a quick game with one of my mates, we hadn't played in a while, so we wanted to get used to the rules.

I don't really know why he was so desperate to avoid the torpedoes, the odds of causing damage with a strength 2 salvo are really low. All of my light cruisers did have the 6+ prow. My murder only managed to strip the shields of his heavy cruiser, I think. He then broadsided the murder with his heavy cruiser and crippled the murder.

My endeavor damaged his heavy cruiser by ramming it, but crippled itself in the process.

His other 3 cruisers were in the opposite flank, engaging my other endeavor and my rogue trader cruiser, I managed to cripple one of his cruisers and heavily damage another, but both of my cruisers were crippled in the process.

The next game we play will definitely be equal points, most likely 1500. In that I'm hoping to take a pair of endeavors, a pair of dauntless' , my murder, my rt cruiser. I'm thinking of taking a squadron of 6 armed transports since that's all I have models wise. then I'm thinking of using some emissaries that I recently ordered.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Try keeping the 6+ prow off as that lowers their turning. The light cruisers strength lays in their ability to out maneuver enemy cruisers. Get in his rear and let him feel the pain.

[Pembo]

Okay thanks, I'll give it a go. I normally try and make my ships as survivable as possible. Maybe I should give my light cruisers the speed related xeno system to let them get behind the enemy quicker.

[Sigoroth]

First of all I'd play the Endeavours as having both the 90° turn and 6+ prow. The rules are stupid, they should have both. If you were playing the either/or rule then I'd just not use them at all, as they really aren't worth it. However, assuming you will play them and will use the either/or rule then I'd recommend the 6+ prow, at least in this instance. In this list the Endeavours are not being used to support the line, they're used in the line (particularly noticeable as you've given them the extra shield). In which case it is far more important for a line cruiser to have the armoured prow than the extra agility.

[AndrewChristlieb]

The extra shield is nice too tho? Play around with it and see what works best.

[Sigoroth]

The extra shield is nice too tho? Play around with it and see what works best.

The extra shield is nice, particularly on the Endeavour which is really a light ship of the line. Of course, the Endeavour is really under gunned for this role, and even with the prow armour and extra shield is still not as durable as a full line cruiser. At 140 pts this ship is too expensive compared to a regular 180 pt line cruiser. The only saving grace would be the 90° turn rate, which it should have on top of the prow armour, but even that really isn't that fantastic (20 pts for a shield is expensive). If this ship were taken solely to support the line and not to make up the line then I would recommend the targeting system over the shield. The Endeavour is a line-breaker and as such it's quite feasible that you'll be shooting at 2 abeam targets. Getting a double left column shift is a sizeable increase in firepower under these circumstances. In fact, you'll get as much firepower as a Dominator in the same circumstances.

[Pembo]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I think i'll try using the endeavours with 90 degree turns and 6+ prow and see how they do. I think I need to keep my fleet together more. I'll try my endeavors with advanced shielding again and also with the targeting matrix. Like you said Sig, it should be useful when firing at abeam ships.

I might try using the Murder as a Carnage and see how that goes.

I think it would also be good for the RT fleet list to have access to Defiants and Endurances. It would make sense to have light cruisers providing AC support seeing as no other capital ships in the fleet have access to them.

I think i'm going to have to make Armed Freighters a much higher proportion of my fleet, for 20pts they're not too bad with FP 3 @ 30cm range. Its a shame the heavy freighters don't have longer range guns or i'd definitely use those more.

[AndrewChristlieb]

it is but the armed freighters loose most of their transport capacity. I doubt that they would want to lose that on a heavy transport when light cruisers are available.

[Sigoroth]

Well the current superheavy freighters are worth at most 60 pts with their current profile. Rather than just reducing their price to 60 pts another fix could be to up their firepower and range to suit their high expense. That would maintain their status as a transport and make them viable in a RT fleet.

[lastspartacus]

I don't know if its entirely viable in a RT fleet, but I'm rather fond of the idea of a mass of desperate and poorly armed freighter captains, fighting a hopeless battle

Some merchant coalition or just a bunch of system ships in a trade world trying to defend themselves from chaos invasion or some such, strikes a poignant image.  Or a Battle of the Line style battle.

[Pembo]

Yeah I wish the super heavy freighters had a bit more firepower/range, because I would love a fleet centred around 3 or 4 huge freighters.

I guess you could do a swarm style fleet made up of lots and lots of various merchant ships.

Such as 400pts on cruisers then 600pts spent on 10 squadrons of 6 transport ships. Would probably get utterly annihilated but could be fun 

[lastspartacus]

Dunno how competative it would be, but it would make one of the best batreps ever.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Ya im not too sure about that...
 Player one moves his rag tag fleet of freighters foward.
Player two plows into them with his warships guns blasting out of all sides while bomber and assault boat waves rain destruction amongst the survivors.

Just a quick synopsis