The Great Rogue Trader Swindle

Antikos Karios and the rest of his corsair crew waited patiently. The crew of the Folkvangr were approaching and if they could be swiftly overwhelmed, it would be a simply matter to ransack their ship and take whatever he saw fit. As a pirate crew clandestinely working for the Cliatha Atar craftworld, they were semi autonomous. This attack on a Rogue Trader and her crew was merely some freelance mayhem that, Khaine willing, would net a tidy profit and improve his standing in the League Of Cutthroats - a loose confederation of pirate bands around the Yellowsoul Nebula. Padaxes, his voidmaster was as always quickest to react and set off at a sprint to close with the enemy. A series of Eldar war cries, both Craftworld and Commoragh in origin were heard and battle was joined.... 

More Miniature Action!

Another battle report! This time it's my Eldar Void Pirates (The Moonkillers) against Stuart's Rogue Trader crew, know as the Crew Of The Folkvangr. Our last game was a marginal victory for my Genestealer Coven. Both gangs had fought one game each so it was going to be as fair a game as it is possible in the somewhat skewed world of Inquisimunda.  As is customary, the whole dice rolling rigmarole began, the upshot being Stuart chose the northern table edge  for the imminent Gang Fight. I got the choice of the southern table edge or the southern table edge. I chose the southern table edge. More dice were rolled and first turn went to the Moonkillers.

Setup and Whatnot

In the picture below you can see my set up. My Voidmaster (with the skill Quick Thinking) is on the left with intention of flanking and using his Wyrd power to cause mayhem. My three long range troops (I say long range, but Shuriken Catapults are only 20") are in the middle hoping to pin the enemy down, and my close combat armed Eldar - including the bosun with a flamer take the right to hopefully sweep round and win me fight. Stuart's set up has the heavy stubber up high in the centre, a juve and the Ad Mech on my left, with his Wyrd and a ganger on my right. The remaining gang members are set up centrally I think to maximise his options. Before we roll for who start's my Voidmaster has it off on his toes to get into cover and well out of stubber visibility.

Set up from my side.

Stuart's set up.

The Voidmaster advances and I consider finishing the paintjob on my Moonkillers.

The less quick thinking pirates make slower progress towards the enemy.

My assault force are inside the building but aesthetics and practicality puts them on the roof.

This side view shows the Voidmaster halfway across the table.

My only shooting attack in the first turn was a 24 and a half inch shot that rolled a six on the juve that is barely visible in the picture below. No biggie, I thought, even though in my previous Moonkiller game (an ambush on an IG kill team) he rolled a 6 to hit then ran out of ammo with his lasgun first turn. the chances of the same thing happening again were minimal......

The 'jam' counter behind the model is not a mistake!

Well I'm not a maths hammerer but I think the chances of an Eldar only getting to fire 2 shots in two games with the most reliable weapon in the game is pretty weird. I suspect sabotage. even more annoying than that due to the half inch range cock up he didn't even get a wounding hit!

Padaxes, my Voidmaster has cleverly out manoeuvered the enemy, all he has to do is not get blown away over the next couple of turns and I'm destined for greatness!

My brave Eldar discuss who is going to draw the fire of the heavy stubber.

Some of the crew of the Folkvangr skulk about unheroically.

One of the Rogue Trader crew gets pinged by my shuriken pistol armed pirate. Another ammo roll, another failure.

Here we see Padaxes shuffle out just enough to shoot at and miss the human juve.

In the foreground my ammoless lasgunner relaxes whilst some of the harder working Eldar go on the offensive.

In a bizarre twist the Ad Mech shoots his plasma gun full power on Padaxes taking him down, unfortunately the overheating weapon takes her down as well.

After poking his head round a corner  Dace, the shuriken catapult armed pirate gets taken down. Meanwhile, a pinned Eldar gets encouragement from the Bosun.

A human crew member gets torched, and another failed ammo test. I say torched, what I mean is he gets pinned by a puff of warm air but is otherwise unharmed.

The juve spends a couple of turns shooting at the Voidmaster as he pathetically crawls to safety.

The Bosun dispatched the girl with the singed hair and sets his sights on a crewperson with a shotgun.

The Navigator attempts to mind damage the pirate.

Meanwhile on the other side of the table, the Ad Mech bleeds all over the place whilst the spiteful juve keeps shooting at the slowly crawling away Voidmaster. Also in this shot the Captain of the Folkvangr receives a warning shot from her opposite number in the pirate warband. Not exactly epic duelling, more panicked bursts of small arms fire.

The Eldar fan out, the Bosun is amazed to find that a shotgun blast from within 4" isn't always fatal. 

I was confident my Bosun after dispatching one human would do the same again. my confidence was sadly misplaced. Had I played it safe another space elf would have gone up the stairs 'just to make sure'.

An early bath for this Eldar. He rolled around for a turn or two then just gave up. He ended up in the clutches of the Rogue Traders.

Gilgamesh gets a beat down. Luckily for me the first bottle test failure belonged to Stuart. 

RIP Inga Danzigg, for those interested Dakeyras got the confirmed kill. I am hoping he gets a few more.

By the end of the game, both gangs were taking bottle rolls, my luck held and Stuart failed his. Injury wise Padaxes now has horrible scars, and Dakeyras was captured. Stuart lost Inga Danzigg and two full recoveries. The game went pretty well for me, one of the main strokes of luck was the self destructive Ad Mech who obligingly stayed down for most of the game. 

The End Game Swindle

After experience was totted up I had three rolls; Antikos Karios, my pirate captain got an I increase (up to 6), Dakeyras got +1 T and Dace, the Shuriken catapult operative gained the skill evade. coupled with a horribly scarred Voidmaster everything looked rosy. Income was not so much fun. I have the territory an old friend  who instead of giving me income, he lost me 120 TG! The rest of the territories didn't even cover the loss. Coupled with a captured pirate things weren't looking great. Stuart's old friend  territory netted him 110 TG. After some trading and wheeler dealering, my captured pirate was ransomed back along with a cheap sword to give to my newly acquired squat slave. I have a Black Tree Design model that I'm eager to get on the table. So the end game sequence wasn't hellabad but my warband now has no money in the kitty. I can't help thinking that the crew of the Folkvangr bribed my pirates old friend to con my poor simple Eldar captain, whilst at the same time turning some unwanted equipment into Geld. They truly are pragmatic as after the Eldar kill one of their crew members they sell an unwanted sword to them for a little profit.

My next game with Stuart will feature some Necrons and a Monolith which should be different. Different as it will be a home brew scenario that will actually feature the use of Investigation and Subversion!

Karios was fuming. After the red mist of battle had receded and the mon-kei were routed it transpired that Dakeyras had been captured. An experienced fighter would be hard to replace. Then word came from Drachmann the Rogue Trader captain. For a considerable sum of Throne Geld she would ransom back Dakeyras as long as Karios parole was given that no hostile act would be perpetrated against the Folkvangr, her crew or any consignment, for the next stellar orbit of the nearest planet in the local system. As these negotiations were taking place on the outer rim of Kolchar IX this proved to be problematic as the closest planet was a barely noticably lump of rock that circumnavigated Kolchar IX every 37 Terran years. He agreed, knowing that it would be a short time in the life of one such as he, but a long time of nervous waiting for the mon-kei.  Dakeyras was transferred over by auto-pod to the pirate vessel - Daughter Of Anguish . All scans showed no explosives or pathogens and Dakeyras' vital signs were as they should be. Also inside the pod was a package wrapped in Snartfur. Upon closer inspection it was the sword that had injured Gilgamesh, bemused Antikos Karios read a hastily lasburned engraving on the hilt. It simply said "Luck Penny". Surely the ways of the mon-kei were beyond him....

Thanks for reading.