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The production value of the book, like with all FFG books, is some of the best in the industry, with a huge amount of new art showing the ships of the Imperium and its enemies, as well as the layout maintaining their good standard.
The book itself is split into four major sections:
1) Rules for new ship hulls, new components, how to install new components on ships, craftsmanship levels for components, torpedoes, nova cannons and attack craft and landing bays;
2) Setting and background info on the Imperial Navy, Imperial starships, and Battlefleets Calixis and Koronus, sample ships that represent the notable ships of the Imperial battlefleets of the region, and info on all the ranks that cover Imperial Navy and Rogue Trader ship crews;
3) A long list of the ships of the enemies of the Imperium, going from Orks to Rak’Gol to Chaos; and finally
4) A full section on how to conduct ground wars in Rogue Trader, from raising up military units to fighting a planetary war.
Section 1
The first section is the one many people will have been waiting for, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. If you have any experience of Battlefleet Gothic, you will be able to get used to the rules with no problem at all, as the links between the two games, highlighted by the involvement of Andy Chambers in the writing of Battlefleet Koronus, are obvious.
The rules for torpedoes come first, and whilst they all but require you to use models and maps for starship combat in order to use them (which, for those like me who prefer narrative combat rather than map-based, is irritating), they’re quick, simple, and are in fitting with the setting. Like in Gothic, torpedoes move under their own steam over several turns, making them not only effective at taking out enemies (they ignore void shields, and are capable of causing a lot of damage if a number of them hit), but also great area denial weapons, which will help against certain enemies, such as fast rival Rogue Trader frigates and Eldar vessels. Rules for plasma, melta, virus, vortex and boarding torpedoes are included, as are mechanics for a variety of guidance systems, from basic guidance that means the torpedoes just travel forwards, to guided torpedoes that can be turned towards their targets by the ship that fired them (or their enemies, if they hack into the data feed).
Attack craft and launch bays are next, and once again the rules are entirely in fitting with what we have seen previously in the 40k setting. You have fighters (that protect your own ship from torpedoes/bombers/assault boats, and also protect your own bombers and assault boats if part of a wing with them), bombers (which can cause fairly heavy damage against enemy ships if they get a good hit in) and assault boats (that allow for mass hit-and-runs against your opponents). All of these craft squadrons can be led by PCs flying with them, which increase their chances of completing their objectives. The rules for each of these craft cover all of their roles, and make the idea of having a carrier covered in launch bays a fairly attractive one. Also included are clarifications on the number of shuttles and other craft carried by ships that don’t have launch bays, which helps to settle the many arguments that this has caused between many players of the game, as well as various craft for the enemies of the Imperium, with Eldar, Chaos, Orks and Rak’Gol all getting rules (along with proper vehicle rules, like those seen in “Into the Storm”, for all these craft being contained in an appendix in the back of the book).
Nova Cannons are also very much in following with the rules in Gothic, with you selecting a point further than 6 VU in the prow zone of the ship, and then roll to see if the shell hits that point or strays, possibly missing the enemy in the process. With Nova Cannons also ignoring armour, usually causing d5 hits on their targets, and any dice for the damage roll that come out as 10s cause a d5 roll on the Critical Hits table, they are absolutely deadly. Following the background though, they are rare, cost a lot to maintain, and are slow in firing, only being able to fire every other turn.
There are then rules for craftsmanship for components and starship weapons, along with rules on how to get hold of new components, how to install them, and the sorts of facilities required to carry out different types of work. The rules are fairly straightforward, with normal components needing less power and space (but more SP) the better they get, but needing more power and space (but at a reduced SP cost) the worse they get. Weapons, however, get a chart that you can chose options from, meaning that best-quality macrocannons could have +1 to range and damage, or +1 strength and -1 to space. That sort of customisation helps to make your ship your own, carrying out the role you want it to.
We then move onto the new hulls, and there are a lot of them. They also expand the size of ships available into grand cruisers, the ancient and technologically advanced ships that have slowly been phased out over centuries, and battle cruisers, their spiritual replacement, and a ship that fills the niche between cruiser and battleship.
Included in this section are:
3 Grand Cruisers (Avenger, Repulsive and Exorcist classes) 4 Battle Cruisers (Overlord, Mars, Chalice and Armageddon class ships) 3 Cruisers (Conquest-class star galleon, Ambition-class and Dictator-class) 2 Light Cruisers (Endeavour-class and Defiant-class) 3 Frigates (Falchion-class frigate, Claymore-class corvette and Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate) 3 Raiders (the Meritech “Shrike”-class, Iconoclast-class and Viper-class sloop) 3 Transports (Carrack-class, Goliath-class factory ship and the Universe-class mass conveyor (which is 12km long and has 4 cargo bays, and more than enough space for pretty much anything you could need)).
Many of those will be remembered from Battlefleet Gothic, whilst others are new and fit niches left in the variety of hulls that have come before. Combining the hulls from Battlefleet Koronus, Into the Storm and the core book, there is now enough variation, in my opinion, for even the most ardent sceptic of the game.
The Additional Components section, that give the actual stats of the various new weapons and components mentioned above, as well as a variety of extra macrocannon, lances, essential components and supplemental components. This section covers about 12 pages or so, and adds dozens of new parts you can place on your ship, which will allow for a lot more customisation and characterisation of the group’s ship.
Section 2
The first part of this section covers the differing natures of interplanetary and interstellar flight, and how the Imperial Navy are the only organisation to officially be given the powers to have a fully fledged interstellar navy, with planetary governors only having access to interplanetary starships, so that any civil wars can’t spread beyond the system they originated in. It then covers how ships are built, the anatomy of a ship (covering all the basic areas on an Imperial vessel), the various roles and duties of the Imperial Navy, and what it is like to see a starship be destroyed; the mass explosions essentially causing a city in space to come apart. This is all interesting stuff, filling out the fluff we’ve previously seen about starships.
The next sections are the origins and histories of the two battlefleets of the region: Battlefleet Calixis and Battlefleet Koronus. This includes the notable battles and events that these Battlefleets have been involved in, from the beginnings of Battlefleet Calixis in 384.M39, to the Meritech Wars of 211-226.M41, to the origins of Battlefleet Koronus from the original patrols through the Maw by Passage Watch 27-Est, a unit of Battlefleet Calixis.
Also included in that part are the names and histories of famous ships of the Calixis Battlefleet, and then names, histories and stats for the notable ships of Battlefleet Koronus, which is great for when you want your players to run into official Imperial units in the Expanse (especially when each ship or squadron is given a little brief as to their general tactics and how to use the ship at its best).
The last few pages of this section covers the various ranks used in the Imperial Navy and by Rogue Traders, which, as would be expected, are very similar to the ranks used by the Royal Navy in current times, but with a few tweaks to fit the setting-based ranks, like Commissars and Confessors, into the hierarchy. This part also includes guidelines for the proportions of different ranks in the number of the crew, with about 80+% being shipsmen, 5-10% being armsmen, 5-9% being warrant officers, and 1% being officers.
This section helps to fill out the fluff of the Imperial Navy as a whole, but also the Calixis Sector and Koronus Expanse as well, which is always a good thing, as all of this helps the GM to describe the setting a lot better to their players.
Section 3
This part is entirely based on the ships of the enemies of the Imperium, which includes, in this case:
Orks Eldar (both Craftworld and Corsair) Stryxis Rak’Gol Kroot Warspheres Chaos Reavers
Each part covers the special rules that apply to each race’s ships, the components and weapons they use, and a variety of hulls and ships that they use. Notable ships of these types are commented on, as well as what differences these notable ships have compared to the “standard” ships of that type. Also included for each type of ship are the standard tactics they use, and what role they play, so that GMs can play them as they should be played, which is a great help in my opinion.
In the case of the Orks, many of the rules seen previously (such as “Da Big Red Button”) are included, but also include rules for “upgrades” to Ork ships, with a random table to roll on for these upgrades, given the random nature of most Ork ships. The ships covered for the Orks are Kroozers (cruiser), Attack Ships (frigates), Brute Ram Ships (raider), Hammer Battlekroozer (battle cruiser), and Ork Roks.
With the Eldar, their agility and overwhelming firepower is highlighted, with Pulsar Lance weapons being deadly (when you hit with one, you roll again to see if you hit again, up to a maximum of 3 total hits), torpedoes and bombers being hard to shoot out of the air and doing plenty of damage, and the limited crew, but experience of them, being covered through various rules. The hull types covered here are:
Corsairs: Hellebore (frigate), Hemlock (frigate), Nightshade (frigate), Aurora (light cruiser), Eclipse (cruiser) and Shadow (cruiser); and Craftworld: Shadowhunter (raider), Wraithship (cruiser), Void Dragon (cruiser), Night Dragon (cruiser), Nova Dragon (cruiser) and Star Dragon (cruiser).
The Stryxis section is smaller, only covering the one other type of ship they are known to use (other than the Caravan Ship in “Edge of the Abyss”), the Xebec, which is a light-cruiser, but, like the Caravan Ship, is usually a collection of several vessels, from light-cruiser size down to frigates, connected together to make a larger amalgamated ship.
The Rak’Gol ships covered are absolutely deadly if they get into close range, with their Howler Cannon macrocannons being able to rip through defences, whilst their boarding torpedo tubes and assault boats from landing bays are carrying out mass hit-and-run attacks. The ships covered here are Butcher (planetary assault transport), Mauler (frigate), and Mangler (light cruiser).
The Kroot Warsphere is essentially a space station that can move, measuring 9km in diameter. It carries 2 Prow weapons, 2 Aft, and 8 Keel weapons, making it a deadly opponent to anyone who tries to take it on, especially given it’s armour of 20 and hull integrity of 140! With them also able to land on planets, they also make great planetary assault vessels.
The Chaos Reavers section is probably the largest of the lot, covering all the iconic Chaos vessels from Battlefleet Gothic, as well as some extra ones. It includes:
1 Transport (Soulcage Slaveship) 2 Raiders (Infidel and Iconoclast) 2 Light Cruisers (Hellbringer planetary assault ship and Pestilaan) 3 Cruisers (Carnage, Slaughter and Devestation) 1 Heavy Cruiser (Hades) 1 Grand Cruiser (Retaliator)
There are also several different notable ships, from the Retaliator-class “Monarch of Whispers”, one of the ships of the Saynay Clan, to Optimus Nemesis, the Hades-class flagship of the warlord Karrad Vall.
Section 4
This final section is dedicated to the “rules of war”, mechanics on how to cover larger scale combats both in space and on the ground. The first part covers starship combat, where rules for squadrons are provided, which finally allow for squadrons of ships to mass their fire against a target, making them more deadly than they previously would be all firing their weapons against a ship separately. It also helps to speed up space combat, which is a good thing. This speeding up of space combat continues with supplemental rules for NPC ships, giving new orders that NPC ships can use instead of the ones used by PC ships, which reduces the number of dice rolls needed, and a new table for critical hits on NPC vessels to reduce the need for noting down details of damage and the like for NPC ships. Also covered here are suggested tactics for the use of different ship types, from transports to grand cruisers, as well as tactics for the use of different weapon systems on ships. This is useful both for the GM, as it helps to show how different vessels will act in combat, and useful for players so they know how to play to their ship’s strengths.
The major part of this section is the ground combat rules, which covers the creation of military units, how to use them in large scale ground combat, and how to construct Warfare-based Endeavours, where the endeavour is based around a planetary, system-wide, or sector scale war. This all helps players who have more militant characters to do what they want to be doing, bringing war to the galaxy.
The rules for creating units are fairly simple and easy to follow, allowing you to generate the stats for these units quickly, and allow you to make anything from crowds of feral natives to full armoured divisions of Leman Russ tanks. The general rules for carrying out ground wars are well thought out and laid out too, allowing you to do any number of actions, which includes carrying out feints to get the enemy off guard and cause more damage on their actual target, headlong charges into the enemy lines, and strategic withdrawals from the battlefield. The only problem I have with this system currently is the relatively static amount of damage a unit does, as being a company (of 50-100 men) does the same damage as a division (of several thousand men). Other than that obvious bug, which I’m sure will be fixed with errata soon; the system is pretty flexible for whatever use you need it for.
Also included in the above section are rules for orbital bombardment by starships, which gives actual mechanics to what many of us have been doing since the game was released, so that should help to make our ships bombarding planetary targets easier to carry out.
There are then the rules for Warefare Endeavours, which is created by the players:
1) Declaring any strategic goals of the endeavour;
2) Determine the scope of the war (the size of the war dictates the cost of the war to start off in PF (yep, wars are THAT expensive), and the rewards it’s possible to get if you succeed);
3) Declare Logistics/Tactical Objectives, as well as Victory Conditions;
4) As you proceed through the endeavour, tally the achievement points you get via completing objectives;
5) ???
6) Victory and Profit!
Warefare Endeavours are pretty easy to make, arguably easier than normal endeavours, since wars have obvious objectives rather than artificially created ones, and will hopefully make carrying out wars a lot easier now.
There is finally the Vehicle Appendix, which gives vehicle rules (using the vehicle rules from “Into The Storm”) for:
Imperial – Shark Assault Boats and Starhawk Bombers Chaos – Swiftdeath Fighters, Doomfire Bombers and Dreadclaw Drop Pods Rak’Gol – Bloodfury Assault Craft Eldar – Darkstar Fighters and Eagle Bombers Orks – Fighta-Bommas and Ork Assault Craft
Those should prove useful for anyone who wants to carry out dogfights as a Void Master, or anyone else who likes to fly smaller craft.
Conclusion
Overall, I think this book is really what the players and GMs of Rogue Trader have been waiting for since the game was originally released. It expands the scope of the starship component of the game massively, whilst also adding a fairly big dollop of setting information and fluff at the same time as adding a tonne of new rules and mechanics. Other than a few typos in the rules, this is a damn well written book, and I’m glad to finally see it released, and hope that it’s just the beginning for an expansion of the core aspects of the Rogue Trader game.
