Hello Rogue Traders!

This week I’d like to take a few minutes about some of the new things in Battlefleet Koronus , the upcoming supplement for Rogue Trader . This extensive sourcebook is all about about the starships that traverse the Koronus Expanse, and today we’ll look at two new classes of them: the battlecruiser and the grand cruiser.

The Big Guns

Battlecruisers, like their name suggests, are upgunned cruisers. In the Imperial Navy cruisers are the warships that do most of the work: patrols, garrison duties, convoy escorts, and when full-fledged fleet engagements break out, they’re the ships forming the battle line. Battleships, on the other hand, are few and far between. Though tremendously powerful, they are inflexible in their roles, and usually reserved for fleet flagships or key roles in the largest fleet engagements.

However, a gap exists between cruiser-sized vessels and full battleships, and the the battlecruiser fills that gap in the Imperial Navy. Battlecruisers share the size and maneuverability of a cruiser, but sacrifice space to fit more, longer-ranged weapons. Beyond new macrobatteries and lances powerful enough that they require the specialized fittings and hull design of a battlecruiser, these powerful warships usually sport dorsal weapon mounts, giving them even more combat flexibility. Most importantly, while almost no Rogue Trader could afford to operate and maintain a battleship, a battlecruiser might barely be within one’s means.

Of course, since battlecruisers don’t have any more space than an average cruiser, the additional weapons do mean that battlecruisers may be less flexible for other endeavors. A Rogue Trader with a battlecruiser is likely one anticipating a great deal of combat.

Ponderous and Powerful

While a battlecruiser is a modified cruiser, a grand cruiser is a different beast entirely. Ponderous, slow, and powerful, grand cruisers are an ancient relic of a bygone age. Once they filled the gap between cruiser and battleship in the Imperial Navy, but now most are relegated to reserve fleets, mothballed in storage, or granted to the occasional Rogue Trader wealthy enough to afford them.

Interestingly, though the Navy finds the less costly and more agile battlecruiser a more potent warship, many Rogue Traders find the grand cruiser a more useful vessel for their needs. Though very heavily armed, grand cruisers have so much space that a Rogue Trader can outfit his vessel for almost any task, from decade-long voyages of exploration to full-scale planetary invasions.

One of the few drawbacks of grand cruisers is that they’re outside the price range of almost every starting group. However, this provides something for a group to work towards. Grand cruisers should never be common in the Koronus Expanse, and the group that manages to obtain one shows themselves to be a force to be reckoned with.

Later this month, watch the shelves of your local game store for Battlefleet Koronus !

Rogue Trader is a roleplaying game set in dark gothic far future of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. Players take on the roles of explorers aboard a Rogue Trader's ship, searching for profit and adventure while discovering new alien cultures and threats in the uncharted regions of space.