The B teams

OK last time we took a glance at the main gangs I'm going to field in the Rogue trader/confrontation campaign I'm building so now, let's focus on some of the NPC's :

The illuminati :

Since I have a sensei gang, I believe having a couple of Illuminati to chase them may be a goo idea. These illuminati are humans that have been possessed by a demon and who have managed to chase this demon out of their soul with nothing else than their tremendous will power.

Those who have withstood such an experience have little mental sanity left and those who keep enough sense to start on a new life dedicate it to erasing chaos in all its forms. Amongst them some understand the nature of the sensei as children of the emperor and want to sacrifice them just like the shamans of old did to make the emperor a new man.

If nothing of this makes sense to you, I'd strongly suggest you read the Realm of Chaos books and everyting about the emperor and the star child. It is one of the most evocative part of the 40k background and it has shamefully been put aside of modern fluff.

I'm really looking forward to painting them and especially the lad on the right with his monk head and what appears to be jet engines on the legs. The left one has a very classy plasma gun thingee and the left bot is just a WIP rogue trader equivalent of the famous adventurer mule...

The adeptus Arbites :

Who doesn't want to throw a bunch of  judge Dredd inspired maniacs at their players when fighting in the underhive? Well, if some of you still have second thoughts about it, will you also let the opportunity to put lovely Jes Goodwin sculpts on the table? OK now we're talking...

Nomads/traders :

I still don't have enough of them but for Roleplay purposes I believe 2 will be enough for the time being. To battle you have to have equipement and to get the equipment you have to steal or buy it, that's when these 2 come. They'll also be here to help the players cross some areas or why not go from one planet to another...

Imperial officials :

These officials will serve as objectives or NPC's to kill/protect/extract or whatever depending on the scenario. The classic assasin on the right is clearly not going to be here to toast bread so expect him to act as a high-class bodyguard or guess what, assassin and to be a real pain in my player's feet.

Adeptus mechanicus :

Adeptus mechanicus. Always popular, you know where they're from, you know what they do, not necessarly why but they'll do whatever they have to in their renowned fashion. After painting this guy, my desire to paint some more ad mech has been fuled up so expect these quite soon.

Oh and yes, middle guy is getting his staff end back, no worries.

The eldar traders :

Did you ever ask yourself how on earth so much rogue trader marines/imperial guards/adventurers and even squats got to be equiped with eldar weapons? You thought it was just loot from battle? Nope , it isn't. Eldar weapons are made to obey their owner only, plus you would have the ammunition issue. Real adventurers rely on eldar traders to get their hands on xenos weaponry and that's exactly what this lot is supplying. You can't really know if they're just rogue and steal it from their craft world or if they have some secret agenda but here they are... you don't want to talk too much to them or your head starts to feel heavy and you mind gets confused. Just pay and go...

In case you're wondering, the eldar trader is th one from the adventurers range and his girl colleague in the right is a recent female version of him sculpted by Bob Naismith for a hobby group.

Oh and did I mention that the idea of a romance betwen a playing character and the female eldar can't be put aside?

Some planetary defense forces :

The last section will be the one with most NPC's (i.e. controlled by me) fighting alongside the players or against them depending on their side. I have some more squats to add and possibly some other models but this is just to give you an idea.

So here we are, just add the venators I'm working on, a fistful of marines and eldar pirates and we're done. Maybe a couple of genestealer hybrids could be used but let's focus on what we have for now.

I may have the occasion to post a couple more posts (with painted stuff) before the new year but if I don't manage to write or paint anything before, let me wish you a warm and very merry christmas !