Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader: A Retrospective. PART ONE: Prelude...

 

In 1983, an advert appeared in the First Citadel Compendium ('An Irregular Journal') for a forthcoming game from Games Workshop, called 'Rogue Trader'.

Written by Rick Priestly, the text on the advert promised:

• Spacecraft Combat in Deep Space
• Space Sectors
• Space Lane Encounters
• Planetary Encounters
• Journeying to Planets
• Roleplaying the Ship's Crew
• Advancing your Ship's Crew
• Bounty, Commerce, Piracy
• Systems and Repairs
• Alien Trade
• Encounters and Technology
• ...Can you survive an encounter with Dr Gostalo's Amazing Inter-Galactic Psycho-Circus?, Can you handle Fear and Loathing in Los Asteros? can you uncover the fate of Herst Crabble's Fabulous Skystar? 

Find out with Rogue Trader - adventure, mayhem and destruction on a cosmic scale.

The Citadel Compendium, 1983

The first advert for Rogue Trader!

Following this advert, the trail would go cold on Rogue Trader for nearly 4 years.  

Games Workshop would follow this with the subsequent releases of 1st and 2nd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which, as the title suggests, concentrated on what they felt was the more popular Fantasy genre for massed battles.

The writer, Rick Priestly, had been working on licensed games for Games Workshop such as the Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game, when he returned to the idea of Rogue Trader.

Work on Warhammer 40,000; Rogue Trader (referred to as RT throughout this article) began in earnest alongside the 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB), with which it shares many similarities in style and rules (more on this later).

The public got the first, proper view at what RT would be in White Dwarf 93 (September 1987). 

A four page, full colour insert set the premise and setting of what RT was, starting with the now famous introductory text that has graced the beginning of every 40k rule book since:

This single paragraph, for me,  created the entire game's setting; it was a world of horror, of hopelessness and a constant state of warfare. 

In 1987, we were still in the grips of the Cold War, Gorbachev was yet to come to power and the world was constantly on the precipice of Nuclear War.  Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government was 8 years into its rule, the recession years of the early 80's still loomed large, with the fallout of the Coal Miner's Strike being felt by those in the East Midlands (where the writers lived). 

Talking to the blog, Tales From The Maelstrom, Rick recalled how he was influenced by the themes of 2000ad, Larry Niven, Harry Harrison and others, to come up with a form of open-play skirmish game with a role-playing element, moderated by a Games Master.  This, combined with the politics of the time made for a dark satirical universe, the likes of which hadn't really been seen in the war-games community before.

The artwork in the preview supports this - mostly black and white drawings, it evokes a strange, gothic style, dark, cable filled rooms, with shadowy figures with skull faces hunched over arcane machinery. One piece shows an emaciated man at the heart of a machine, plugged into what looks like a arterial tubes, unable to support his own weight, yet powering the machine... the piece is titled 'The Emperor' and is our first view of him:

To me, as a 13 year old, obsessed with books on Durher and Bosch, this artwork immediately attracted me to the setting. Combined with the colour artwork, which had, to me, more than nod to 2000ad (with which I'd realise was down to the fact that the artists such as Carl Critchlow worked on both titles) which showed gritty Space Marines at rest in what looked like a bar and hunting a villain, I was sold.

'Smash The Empire'!

This juxtaposition of the arcane with the irreverent is for me, the heart of what 40k was, and still is - the phrase 'Grim Dark' had yet to be taken seriously, this was the age of the anti-authority, punk ethos in the game (as can be seen through the depiction of the Space Marines sat in a bar with almost- Vietnam style scrawling on their armour), offsetting the sheer horror of constant war and the cheapness of life.

The preview ended with adverts for the first two boxed sets of miniatures for RT: Imperial Space Marines, and Space Orks.

The Imperial Space Marine box (referred to by it's stock code, RTB01) was Games Workshop's first box of multipart, plastic miniatures (they'd produced plastic miniatures previously under the 'psychostyrene' brand for Fighting Fantasy amongst others previously, but these were monopose miniatures). 

Imperial Space Marines Boxed Set Advert

With enough parts to make three complete ten man squads, this box was a MUST HAVE for those who wanted to play as Space Marines (which were already available as metal miniatures at this point prior to the rulebook coming out).  The early releases of this box were in green styrene, which, with later releases, changed to a beige styrene.  

The second box set, RTB02, Space Ork Raiders, contained 17 metal miniatures (lead at this point) - nicely sculpted and full of character, as with the Space Marine box, these Orks would set the tone for the faction for the next 30 years.

So that's the preview. In the next article, I'll be going through first impressions of the RT rulebook!

I'd love to know your first experiences of RT - where you there at the start? What did you think? Let me know by leaving a comment!

RIP White Dwarf - you will be missed!

As so it comes to pass, that the venerable old dwarf is being put out to pasture....

White Dwarf, the in-house magazine of Games Workshop has been part of my hobby since I started.

My first issue, which I paid for myself, out of my meagre pocket money was issue 98:

Since then I've bought every issue without fail. Even through the last 10 years or so, when it declined in quality, culminating in the infamous 'Giant' issue of issue 320, and the recent resurgence in quality, I have never stopped.

Since last January I moved over to the digital version, but carried on.  Even in the dark days, I would find inspiration in the photos of the miniatures, from conversion ideas to wanting a new army, WD inspired, cajoled and edited me into purchasing new shiny toys - my Eldar, Blood Angels, Imperial Guard, Empire, Chaos Warriors and Bretonnians armies were all as a result of drooling over studio armies that I wanted to match.

Who can forget, it was through WD that we got Ghazkull Thraka, Iyanden as a ghost ship, the battle for Ichar V, Medusa, and Storm of Chaos? 

It's true that it's nothing like it once was, but what magazine is now? With the increase in rumour sites, sneak peeks such as the first ever pictures of Aspect Warriors are now pored over in minute detail as soon as the rumour mills can grab them.

I would in fact argue that these rumour mills are detrimental to our hobby - each release is almost now greeted with cries of 'well, we know all about this release, what's next? I demand to know!' Rather than getting excited over the kits in front of us.

With rumour control getting silly, it was only a matter of time before GW cracked down, reducing the previews to a trickle only scant week before their release.

Of course with the retirement of White Dwarf, we'll be getting WARHAMMER VISIONS in its place -what will the future hold? Will the quality return, making it a must purchase magazine?

Only time wil tell.

Good bye old friend, you will be missed.

EDIT:

It's now Saturday Morning, and no sign of any change to either The White Dwarf page or the subscription page....  I've also now had it confirmed that whilst the monthly magazine will be called 'Warhammer Visions', there will be a WEEKLY magazine called 'White Dwarf'!  the plot thickens....

EDIT TO THE EDIT:

My sources have confirmed the following:

The Truth... From February, there will be two publications:
1) White Dwarf Weekly. This will be concentrating on new releases, which will now be spread across the month rather than in big 'splashes' once a month (this also means more can be released quickly). The price is to be £2.40, and will be around the 100 page mark, and will concentrate each week on a different faction / game, which will mean if you don't like the content one week, you may like the next... 
2) The new monthly version is called 'Warhammer Visions' and will be ADVERT FREE, but full of hobby content in terms of the return of 'Eavy Metal masterclasses, army tactica, lots of reader's collections and more painting stuff. this will be 240 pages and £7.20.

NOW - the prices.... £2.40 for a weekly is around the same as a copy of 2000ad, or a couple of Sunday newspapers. £7.20 for 240 pages is equivalent to most of the higher-end magazines out there, and is certainly on par with some of the magazine I buy such as Comic Heroes, Empire and most console gaming magazines... 

I have high hopes for these both - if they can pull it off, this could well be the start of something good. I'll give them both a try, and only then, decide whether to bother or not.

Building the 2nd Company...

For the last 6 months, I've been busy building a new(ish) Warhammer 40k army.

Last year, I made myself a promise that I wouldn't spend any 'new' money on anything related to my hobbies, be it Airsoft, Comic collecting or Wargaming. Any money I wanted to spend would need to be funded by the sale of other hobby items. 

Problem was, I wanted a new Space Marine army, something that would challenge my painting skills, but also be fun to build over time.

The first couple of months of 2013 provided a 'fighting fund' of nearly £200 into my Paypal account (a sale of an airsoft rifle, quite a few comic books and a couple of games added up the sum). 

So I started to hunt eBay for the right starting deal.... 

Which came along almost straight away! - 
£54 (including shipping) got me: 
20 tactical marines 
10 assault marines 
10 old style terminators 
A squad of devastators 
The 'bionic leg' captain 
The old style Terminator Librarian 
Mk1 Vindicator 
Mk1 Predator Anhilliator 
4 bikes 
And a land raider crusader! 

Then the big deal landed - £60 for 120 marines, 4 Dreadnoughts (inlduing a venerable dreadnought) and quite a few character models, alongside £40 for 3 Storm Talons and a Storm Raven!

Along with a purchase of £30 which garnered me a Damocles Rhino, a command squad and a classic veteran sgt, it had the start of a new army.... 

But what Chapter to do?  Do I create one as I always have in the past, or choose  a Chapter already established?

I went blue...

I've always fancied doing an Ultramarines army, but never got round to it.  Well, now I was.... a whole bloody company no less!

I've gone for the 2nd Company, which is this one:

I've kept to the Insignium Astartes for the markings and icons, so that it's got a nice 'codex' feel to it.

In terms of collecting the parts, I now have enough to allow me to field the whole 2nd Company.  All I need to do now is build and paint it all!  

So without further ado, here's where I'm up to so far:

WiP Contemptor Dreadnought

Dreadnought

My Masters of the Chapter - the one in the middle is my custom Marneus Calgar (based on the Legion Praetor model

My Tyrannic War Veterans - looking forward to the Dataslate for these boys!

Sternguard Squad (using the Anniversary Captain as a Veteran Sgt)

More HQ Choices (Two Games Day Captains, the DV Librarian and a Master of the Chapter)

Assault Terminators (the Sgt is from the Space Hulk set)

Classic Terminators

Tactical Squads

Tactical & Devastator Squads

Scouts with Sgt Telion.

I've got a long way to go yet, but I've really enjoyed painting these so far - of course, other projects get in the way but these are now a labour of love!

Would love to hear your thoughts on these - constructive criticism is always welcome!