Rogue Trader Tournament, 11/17/01: Introduction
Ever been in a Rogue Trader Tournament? No? I hadn't either, until this one. I've been in a few local tournaments, even managed to win one, but I've never been in one of those RTTs you see advertised in White Dwarf. 

What's an RTT? It's a competition among many players, held at an independent gaming store (that is, one NOT owned by Games Workshop). These events are held with Games Workshop's help, usually in the form of a GW judge running the event. Players compete over several games, hoping to win games (and points) and claim various awards at the end of the day. 

Dream Wizards, an independent gaming store in Rockville, Maryland, hosted an RTT on November 17, 2001. I went and I'll share my experience so those of you who have never been will have an idea what it's like.

I confess I didn't know a lot of details about the upcoming event. I knew there would be a maximum of 30 participants, playing three games each. Armies would consist of one detachment, 1500 points. There would be awards for Best Army (whatever that meant), Best Sportsmanship, Best Painting, as well as for the overall tournament champion. 

First off, let me share with you my army list for the big day.

Bring on the bikes!
For tournaments, I prefer a well-rounded army that can shoot, fight in hand-to-hand, take out tanks, take some casualties, and--most importantly--move. However, I'm not wedded to the mentality of "Efficiency Uber Alles": I like to experiment and use units I don't normally get to field (for more on that, check out Building a "Balanced" Army).

At Fall From Grace II, an informal gathering of 40K gamers from around the United States, I had created "poseur armies": lists based on the fighting styles of other Space Marine Chapters. I still used the "vanilla" Marine rules from Codex: Space Marines, of course, but changed how I played. Thus, I had a list patterned after the Space Wolves, a list patterned after the Blood Angels, etc. One list I didn't get the chance to play was patterned after the White Scars.

The "poseur army" lists had 50% Troops, with the balance made up of units typical for the army being represented. In the case of the list inspired by the White Scars, these extra units included bikes and Land Speeders. 

While I wanted to play this list, I needed to give my tournament army a little more balance to make it viable against a variety of opponents. I also wanted to adhere as much as possible to the tourney's army composition guidelines. So out went the old HQ unit, Raja Shamshir and his bike; out went a Land Speeder; out went a 5-man Tactical Squad. In came some new stuff and a new name.

Strikeforce Sita
The White Scars are characterized by moving rapidly across the field to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Accordingly, I picked units for mobility (first) and close-combat prowess (second). I wanted Troops that could keep up with Bikes and Land Speeders and could back up the "heavy hitters" when the fighting got "up close and personal." I also included a Predator Annihilator to supply some much-needed heavy firepower and anti-tank capability.

This detachment is led by Jirbu Ghosh (below), the heir-apparent to Raja Khandar Madu, one of the two Chapter Masters who rule the Fighting Tigers. Accordingly, it is named after Sita, the wise, patient, and virtuous wife of Rama, the greatest hero of Hindu mythology.

Assessing the army
Reading through the list, you may wonder why I picked certain items. In some cases that, I took an item “just in case”; does a Predator Annihilator really need an H-K? Probably not, but's it's nice to have for insurance. In other cases, the model had a certain item on it and I was going along with the WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) rule.

Why so many Veteran Sergeants? For "fluff," or background, reasons. Fighting Tigers revere wisdom and experience, so squads are usually led by a Veteran Sergeant. Perhaps a tad inefficient, but I like the snazzy wargear they can have (especially those bolter-flamers!) and I REALLY like the Leadership 9.

So, what is my initial reaction to this list?

To begin, I'm not terribly happy about trading 5 Tactical Marines for 5 Veterans, but I felt I had to. The original army had a hand-to-hand monster in Raja Shamshir, but with him gone, I had to beef up the army's assault capability. I also wanted to include an Elite unit for composition balance. Even with one less Troop unit, I'm still spending a third of my points on Troops--but I would prefer more.

The Tactical Squads, the Rhinos, and the Bikes have more than enough firepower to deal with infantry. The Predator, the Land Speeders, and the Razorback should be able to deal with enemy tanks. The original list was built to zoom into hand-to-hand combat, but I had to remove a lot of power weapons for this version. My plan now is to close with the enemy and blast them with bolters, heavy bolters, and special weapons (flamers and meltaguns) at point-blank range. Jirbu Ghosh and the Veterans will (hopefully) run interference and keep assault troops off my Bikes and Tac Marines.

So how did it do?

Related Pages
Other Rogue Trader Tournaments
 

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© Copyright Kenton Kilgore, November 2001
 

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