The early years of Rogue Trader:

The rulebook written by Rick Priestley for the Warhammer 40,000 game, Rogue Trader was published in 1987, this first issue is vastly different from any of the future issues. It is primarily a cross between RPGs and classic board games, rather than a pure board battle game. Rogue Trader had more detailed information and background on the broader reaches of the 40K universe, its races and its technologies, unlike later editions of the game, for me that is why it is considered a prized collector’s item and holds a special place. in my collection.

This rulebook is considered much less rigid in the 40K rules than later editions, as it employed a much broader set of points of view within the narrative than was common in future versions and easily encouraged mixed faction forces. .

Jokero, Slann, Squats, Zoats are examples of races that were not included in the first edition of RT.

Rogue Trader had six sections:

• rules of engagement,
• Scenario for the Crimson Fist Space Marines fighting the Orks in the World of Rynn,
• An equipment section.
• Background section
• Special rules for advanced players,
• A summary that includes all the graphics in the book.

Some elements of the environment (bolters, Dreadnought armor) can be seen in a wargame ruleset called Laserburn written by Bryan Ansell and produced by Tabletop Games in 1980. The influence of these can also be seen in the mechanics of the prototype game. of Necromunda.

My interest in Rogue Trader

When I got into Games Workshop products in the late eighties, it was the Rogue Trader miniatures that caught my eye. Rick Priestley really did a number in my life! When I started modeling, I used to build and paint my own lead models, typically British Redcoats, Prussian and Napoleonic forces, etc.

Then one day I bought a pack of Ral Partha fantasy figures and started to drift down the fantasy route, but it wasn’t until 1987 with the arrival of Rogue Trader that I found something that would take a lot of time, effort, and of course. . money and that was the good old Imperium of Man – (Rick Priestley wrote Rogue Traders as independent explorers employed by the Imperium to search for planets outside established borders) and all the ghastly creatures you had to fight. Although at first there were no signs of Chaos, well, not like the ones that exist today; Surely Preistley hints at the forces of the warp (Chaos), but it wasn’t until some expansions came out that we saw the full power of the forces of Chaos coming. through.

The pride of my collection was an entire army of Imperial Space Marines, carefully constructed and painted over several years. Moreover, he also had a fantastic collection of Zoats, Space Slann, Imperial Guard, ah, the list is really endless!

After a few years I moved in with my future wife and had our first child, suddenly games became less and less important, working and paying the bills seemed to occupy every moment of my life (even when I was in college. I managed to balance games with real life, but having kids really is a completely different ball game 🙂

So over the next decade my beloved collections were lost or broken when we bought our houses and moved due to our careers, and sadly I finally stopped playing!

Then I jumped to 2001 and a soccer injury drove me home for 6 months and under and lo and behold, I started buying 40K models at the local GW store. In the years that followed, I began to really appreciate the workmanship of the Rouge Trader models (today’s models are definitely more sculpted / embellished and are really pleasing to the eye). nostalgic bags that I remembered but suddenly wanted to recover my lost collections!

Guy!!! Easier said than done? Since Games Workshop put all of the RT stuff out of production and broke most of the mold I was having a hard time finding them BUT thankfully the web was really starting to reach its potential and I was able to start finding clubs and websites where I could talk. with other like-minded folks and of course EBAY :)) Now I know it has its has its knockers and its downsides but it was the # 1 stop to find a lot of my lost minis BUT it was a nightmare of scam bidding, sniping, buyers who they withdraw from sales because the auction did not reach what they wanted, figures that are lost or broken in publication, etc.

Unfortunately, there are now a multitude of places to find your old miniatures 🙂

The complete list of Rogue Trader armies from Games Workshop and their codes:

The codes were changed in the 1991 edition, but I have listed the codes from the first releases.

First codes:

RTO1 – Space Marines (wd93)

RTO2 – Space Orcs (wd93)

RTO3 – Space Dwarfs (wd94)

RTO4 – Space Elves (wd94)

RTO5 – Imperial Army (wd96)

RTO6 – Heavy Marine Weapon (Multi-Melta)

RT7 – Mercenaries (wd95)

RT7 – Dreadnought Armor (wd95)

Space marines

RTO1 – Space Marines (wd93)

RT101 – Imperial Space Marines (wd99)

RT101 – Imperial Space Marines (wd100)

RT103 – Heavy Marine Weapons (wd102)

RT105 – Imperial Commander (wd98)

RT106 – Vincent Black Shadow (wd99)

RT106 – Doctor on a bicycle (wd102)

RT107 – Marines Rhino Crew (wd103)

RT108 – Imperial Robots (wd104)

4106 – Space Marine Chaplains (wd108)

Space orcs

RTO2 – Space Orcs

RT202 – Ork Command Group (wd97)

RT204 – Orko Battleship (wd99)

RT205 – Ork Battle Buggy (wd98)

RT206 – Dreadnought Ork Expansion (wd99)

RT207 – Ork Heavy Weapons (wd100)

RT – Space Orcs (wd106)

Space dwarfs

RTO3 – Space Dwarfs (wd94)

RT302 – Space Dwarf Command (wd97)

RT303 – Space Dwarf Heavy Weapons (wd97)

RT304 – Squat Punch Gun (wd101)

RT305 – Squat bikes (wd103)

Space elves

RTO4 – Space Elves (wd94)

RT401 – Space Elves (BotA)

RT402 – Space Elf Command (wd99)

RT403 – Battleship Eldar (wd100)

RT403 – Eldar War Robot (wd101)

RT403 – Eldar Warwalker (wd102)

RT404 – Eldar D Cannon (wd99)

RT404 – Eldar Artillery (wd103)

4306 – Eldar Jet Motorcycle (wd106)

4306 – Harlequin Jet Motorcycle (wd107)

4306 – Harlequins (wd107)

imperial army

RTO5 – Imperial Army (wd96)

RT501 – Imperial Army 1 (wd98)

RT501 – Imperial Army 2 (wd98)

RT502 – Imperial Heavy Weapons (wd102)

RT502 – Mercenaries (wd95)

RT503 – Imperial Landspeeder (wd101)

RT505 – Imperial Rapier (wd100)

RT509 – Motorcycle Protections

4010 – Commissars of the Imperial Guard (wd109)

4010 – Imperial Guard (wd109)

Diverse

RT601 – Adventurers (wd99)

RT601 – Pirates (wd103)

RT602 – Ambull (wd99)

RT701 – Doctors

IC301 – Iron Claw Space Pirates (wd99)

IC501 – Iron Claw Squats (wd100)

IC2003 – Jump Troops

Boxed sets:

RTB01 – Space Marines

RTB02 – Space Orc Raiders

RTB03 – Devastators

RTB04 – Rhinos

RTB05 – Land Raiders

RTB06 – Harlequins

RTB07 – Imperial Guard (Plastic Kit)

RTB08 – Predator (Plastic Vehicle Kit)

RTB09 – Terminators

RTB10 – Space Dwarfs (Plastic Kit)

RTB11 – Land Raider (Single Kit)

RTB12 – Rhino (single kit)

RTB13 – Space Orcs (Plastic Kit)

RTB14 – Orko Tank (Kit)

RTB15 – Space Marine Strike Force

RTB16 – Exterminators and Tyranids

TSF (blisters)

TSF16 – Jet Cycle

TSF18 – Slann Space

TSF18 – Space Zoats

Imperial Hero of Ogyrn

Ogretes (and ogres)

Limited Edition Rogue Trader

Gravitational attack vehicle

RTLE – Christmas Marines

Giant robots SFD

LE1 – Space Orc

LE2 – Imperial Space Marine

LE6 – Space Santa Claus

LE9 – Space skeleton

LE10 – Marine with Power Armor

LE22 – Orcas Bazookas

LE101 – Renegade Chaos Marine

LE102 – Traitorous Legionnaire

Battleships of the Space Crusade