Rogue Trader IG army

[Inquisitor Gray]

I am trying to make a Rogue Trader styled army constant with any available fluff. I figure the look of the army should be more infantry heavy, since that would represent the ships crew being asked to fight on land. However currently I am unsure what options would give the army a Rogue Trader feel. I would like to keep this army somewhat playable. Does anyone have any ideas?

[SombreBrotherhood]

I think you should consider using IG with Witch-Hunter allies. The improved armor of the sisters suggests that the key units of the RT's force are better trained and using better equipment (the RT himself and his closest compadres) while the majority are using off the shelf stuff.

[PurplePeopleEater]

Easy enough.... Pure IG army?
HQ
CCS could easily represent the "Bridge Command Crew" Jim Scotty Bones etc.....
Commisar Lord could be the RT himself
Enginseers...... ummm the engineer and some servitor buddies

Troops
Vets could be the Shipboard Security Team
Troops could be part time "Armsmen"
Penal troopers could represent Ratings Drafted from below deck....Engineering, gun crews, the dang Galley!!!

Elites
Ogryn well could be deck loaders for cargo
Stormies? elite body guard for the RT
Ratlings? xenos sniper drones


Fast Attack
Vendettas / Valks could be obviously Shuttles from the RT's vessel
Sentinals could be the scout team for surveying planets away from the initial landing point.
Rough Riders more scouts..... you could even mount them on bikes or jet bikes or something else besides a horsde or lizard

Heavies
Do up a big walker Knight Errant off to see the universe before settling down back home on his agri world (count as a Russ)
Death strike could be some sorta vehicle with a laser designator marking targets for the big guns in orbit?
Manticore same as above.....
Basi, Medusa or any arty really could be represented as designator vehicles marking targets for the ship in orbit

Biggest thing ............ read some of the black library fiction like the Eisenhorn / Ravenor series they will give you los of ideas

[sicarius2424]

nice job purplepeopleeater thats matches up nicely even though i really have no i dea of any rouge trader background

[The.Justinian]

The premise of using WH stated above is excellent. I leverage my own RT Gaurd (atually my primary army) by emphasizing the 'rogue' element. I've got tau mercs from the Farsight enclaves with las/shotguns, XV8s with lascannons (sentinels) from farsight as well. Still working out how to convert my devilfishes into believable Valks/Vends. Occasionally I field an Inquisitor lord as an exiled Farseer. And the Navigator occasionally takes the field as a Primaris.

Filling out my troops are necromunda (press)gangers. Thought of doing a PsykSquad as a bunch of warlocks.

Of course, I latch onto the idea of an RT as a near-piratical operation bending most, nay, all of the rules of the Imperium. I imagine their ship like a dilapidated, half-empty version of craftworld, except with gothic architecture. Thematically, the army comes together with a good use of Black to make them seem piratical, and the abundant use of the Jolly Roger.

What models? Any, really. If you want to leverage them as more of a StarTrekWars ship's crew force, I would recommend elysians, or perhaps Guardians with lasguns if you like to take my angle of RTs as trafficking in Xenos goods.

[Herald of Nurgle]

Erm... Hasn't anyone spotted Penal Legion as Redshirts?

[The.Justinian]

The thought of penal legions as redshirts lifted my mind for a second...

And made me think of Soviet Naval Infantry. When manpower was so short in '42 whole battalions of ships crew in their navy blues went out fighting in the Ukraine. They developed a reputaion as the fiercest, most suicidal Russians on the front. (the navy was one of the nexuses for the Bolshevik revolution--see the movie Battleship Potempkin, etc.)

Depending on which direction you want to go, possibly toward greater faith in the Emperor than my army, you might have an Imperial Navy officer recently given his RT warrant. An abundance of vehicles, and crazy combined squads/conscripts in navy blues become a possibility. Could be a very sweet concept, with Chenkov some competitive leverage, and in keeping with you ambition to be 'infantry heavy.'

now just to get FW to make some Imperial Navy models...
STOP THE PRESSES! Mordians! Jervis DID say they were coming in plastic 'someday...' so...there may be hope for sailors with lasguns flooding the battefield!