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InWarhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader,as the story progresses, you make important choices. Also, your increased responsibilities are leading you to different places. You engage in battles against different enemies on various planets with your companions by your side. Your companions must have useful abilities in battle.
Another important aspect is your own character. Deciding from the start how you’ll shape your character is important. Will you take a frontline role and act as a tank, or will you play a support character and strengthen your companions? The choice is yours. But how about disregarding all that and playing as an Astra Militarum Commander focused on dealing damage?
What Are The Features And Talents Of The Astra Militarum Commander Origin?
If you choose this origin, you start the game with an ability called “Regimental Tactics.” When you use this ability, you and all your alliesgain bonus damage equal to twice your Perception bonus plus 20.However, this bonus damage is only applied to certain enemies under specific conditions.
Either theenemies must be next to you or next to another ally.This means it’s important for your tank or other melee character to end their turn next to an enemy in battle.
Another advantage of Regimental Tactics is that until the end of the next turn, you and your alliescannot deal friendly fire damage to each other.
Additionally, you start with aplus-five bonus for Ballistic Skill and Perception. This is a good start for a ranged character. Moreover, the Astra Militarum Commander has other useful talents as well:
Description
Suppression Fire!
While the Astra Militarum commander is under the Regimental Tactics effect, their single target melee, ranged attacks, and area attacks gain +20% to dodge reduction, parry reduction, and cover penetration against enemies adjacent to the commander or their allies.
Timely Rescue
While the Astra Militarum commander is under the Regimental Tactics effect, killing an enemy adjacent to any ally grants that ally an additional +10 momentum.
Shoulder to Shoulder
While the Astra Militarum commander is adjacent to any ally, the commander deals an additional (10+PER Bonus)% damage to all enemies adjacent to the commander‘s allies. This stacks with Regimental Tactics.
Field of Fire
While the Astra Militarum commander is under the Regimental Tactics effect, all their allies gain +5% to rate of fire for every attack they have made since the start of this effect.
Unflinching Heroism
Every time the Astra Militarum commander’s ally uses a heroic act, the commander gains +5 to all of their characteristics until the end of combat.
Which Homeworld Should Be Chosen For Astra Militarum Commander?
Honestly, Fortress World is quite a good choice. It gives you aplus five for Perception and Willpower characteristicswhile decreasing your Fellowship by five. Since you won’t have a character relying on Fellowship, this won’t matter at all.
The featured talent of this Homeworld is “Never Stop Shooting.” With this talent,when you kill an enemy, it gains ten stacks.For each stack gained, there’s a chance ofzero AP cost for your first attackof that turn, based on the number of stacks. When the effect triggers, your stacks are reset.
This means if you use the attack that consumes the most AP at the beginning of the turn, there’s a chance it won’t cost anything. Additionally, this attackdoesn’t count toward the attack limitsper turn, making it quite useful in the early and mid-gamewhen you don’t have a lot of AP.
Moreover, one of the best talents of this Homeworld is “Combat Addict.” With this talent, you’ll receive a plus seven bonus to Perception and Ballistic Skill while you’re in combat. If you’re not in combat, it’ll decrease by minus seven. Although this might seem like it affects skill checks, your companions will assist you in those.
Your other talents are geared towardsadding stacks to “Never Stop Shooting.“For example, “Spare Magazine” allows yourfirst reload to cost zero AP,which is extremely useful for ranged characters since a reload renders your turn ineffective in the early stages of the game. Additionally,every time you reload, “Never Stop Shooting” gains ten stacks.
Similarly, “Familiar Kickback” and “Never Stop Believing” are talents aimed at making your “Never Stop Shooting” talent even more effective by adding more stacks to it.
What Should Be The Starting Characteristics Values?
Thanks to your chosen origin and homeworld, you’ve taken the first steps toward becoming a proficient ranged character. Now, it’s time to focus on increasing your starting stats that are crucial for you: Ballistic Skill, Perception, and Agility.
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First Archetype Choice: Soldier
By choosing the Soldier archetype, you’ve created an even more effective ranged character. Your goal should be to rain bullets upon your enemiesfrom the back lines.It would be beneficial for your carriedweapons to be different from each other. One could be a single-shot weapon focusing on high damage, while the other could excel in burst fire.
You should always maintain a good distance from enemies because youronly protection from damage is your dodge. Therefore, you won’t need Toughness or heavy armor. The Soldier archetype not only deals high damage but also has anadvantage in mobility, so it’s crucial to move to positionswhere you can take coverand maintain distance.
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Run and Gun
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Firearm Mastery (Upgrade III)
“Run and Gun” is one of your most important abilities. It not onlygives you extra movement pointsto keep you mobile, but it also allows you to make anadditional attack that doesn’t count towards the attack limitper turn, and this extra attackcosts one less AP.
However, after using “Run and Gun,“you become windedand cannot use it again on the next turn. While winded,your Ballistic Skill is reduced by ten.
Another fantastic soldier ability is “Revel in Slaughter.” This allows you toremove the winded effect, enabling you to use Run and Gun once more. Additionally, until the end of the battle, you gain ten to Ballistic Skill, double your AGI bonus plus five to critical damage chance, and your AGI bonus to critical chance.
To use this amazing ability, you need tokill a total of three enemies, even if not all in the same turn. With the “Swift Slaughter” talent, the number of enemies you need to kill isreduced to two.Revel in Slaughter is crucial for turning into a death machine.
Sometimes, the battlefield conditions may change, and you might find yourself surrounded by enemies. In such cases, the “Concentrated Fire” ability will be very useful. It increases thedamage of your next ranged areaattack by a minimum of 110 percent andreduces enemy dodge by at least 22 percentwhile dealing this damage.
Additionally, “Dash” is a great movement ability for escaping from tough situations.
Second Archetype Choice: Arch-Militant
The Arch-Militant is also a very effective archetype, much like the Soldier, and you’ll need to maximize its potential. The first thing you need to know is the “Versatility” feature, which will require you to change your playstyle. Now, your goal will be touse a different type of attack from your previous attack.
As a ranged character, your options are somewhat limited. The types of attacks you may make aresingle shot, area shot, or burst.Each time you change your attack type, you’llgain one stack of Versatility.Each stack will increase yourBallistic Skill and Weapon Skill by five. Since you’re not using a weapon, the Weapon Skill bonus doesn’t matter.
The best part is, if you have four stacks or more, you’ll gain a percentage damage bonus equal tothree times the bonus of your Ballistic Skill.This is truly an excellent feature, and you should make the most of it by changing your weapons regularly.
Calm and Steady
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Contempt for the Weak
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Steady Superiority (Upgrade II)
attempt to use your ultimate ability, “Steady Superiority,” as early as possible. This will allow you tomake an extra attack per turn,and your first attack each turn willcost zero AP. This gives you more chances to stack Versatility.
“Wildfire” is another excellent ability. It reduces the cost of your next attack tozero APanddoes not count toward the attack limit for that turn.Additionally, even if you use the same attack type as the previous one,it grants you one versatility stack.The cost of this ability is three AP, but don’t let that deter you. For every four versatility stacks you have,the cost is reduced by one AP.
“Confident Approach” is a skill you’ll need totoggle depending on the situation.When activated, instead of the bonuses from Versatility, you gain afive percent reduction in dodge and parry for each stack.All your attacks become critical hits,but your critical damage is reduced.However, if your critical chance is high, you’ll be less affected by this negative effect.
Additionally, if you have four or more Versatility stacks,your attacks will always deal maximum damagewhile the “Confident Approach” is active.
The “Devastating Attack” skill subjects the affected enemies of your next attack to a Toughness resistance test. If they fail,they receive negative status effectssuch as bleeding, slowed, or blinded, depending on your attack type.
Third Archetype: Exemplar
When you reach the Exemplar archetype, you need to continue the gameplay style you adopted as an Arch-Militant. Most of the skills you’ll acquire next are geared towards dealing even more damage, so keep playing without lowering your guard and using different attack types.
Additionally, if there’s a weapon you want to equip but can’t, don’t hesitate to replace one of the talents in this build with it.
