So Kokabiel (see Achilus Assault) is confronting ships, forcing them to halt and turn over stuff? How does he do that to ships that are plying the warp?

Alex

Ships don't (normally) dare to tranfer between warp and realspace near planets or deep in the star system as it dangerous (Rynn's world novel has orks doing just that to make a quick attack before the Imperial defenders are ready and they lose several ships simply by them being torn apart by the gravity.)

So normally the pirate has time to attack the ships as they are entering or leaving the star system. Spending a week or two getting to the planet because the exit point from warp happened to be a bit off due to "fun stuff" in the warp is not unheard of.

Ships can be tracked within the warp by a good Navigator or the forces of chaos, but as a general rule, most aren't insane enough to carry out boarding and pillaging within the warp.

Most attacks likely happen while in transit out from or into a system, before or after a warp jump.

Well, Kokabiel's Drop is clearly a region of warp space. And: "In 793.M41 a mysterious vessel of Imperial design began
preying on voidships passing through the Drop."

Alex

So Kokabiel (see Achilus Assault) is confronting ships, forcing them to halt and turn over stuff? How does he do that to ships that are plying the warp?

Alex

I think he has some kind of power that can force a ship to leave the Warp or be torn apart. I forget and my iPad is dead to check.

If we take the Ciaphas Cain novels to be accurate fluff then it is possible to force someone out of warp.

In one of those books it was done by ork Weirdboys who were waiting in warp space and used a psychic attack to knock out the navigators and force the imperial forces to drop out. But using their psychichs in the warp also meant that their ship got eaten by daemons so this method is quite costly.

Other than that, I've gotten the impression that there are merchant ships without navigators which can make short jumps and are only able to use well known routes and still make short jumps (because without navigators you can't take the more dangerous routes and jump distance is A LOT shorter. Unless you want to get eaten by daemons in the warp.) so that would mean that there are common routes where the pirates can prey upon victims.

The book says he can harrass ships by going in and out of the warp but it's not clear where the victim ship resides.

Alex

I think Navigator powers in RT include being able to create a localized, short-term warp storm that can be dangerous to ships.

Warp storms and the Tyrranic shadow in the warp are both examples of things that can cause a Navigator to say "lolNOPE." When that happens, suddenly the ship is back in realspace...

Askold is correct - one thing that's always been part of 40k mythos is that you can jump without a navigator, but only short, carefully plotted jumps and dropping back into real space regularly for course corrections. For that matter even ships with a proper navigator probably do that every so often.

Well, Kokabiel's Drop is clearly a region of warp space. And: "In 793.M41 a mysterious vessel of Imperial design began preying on voidships passing through the Drop."

Alex

Preying on voidships that passes through that point in the warp doesn't mean that they are attacked at that point, or forced out of the warp there.

I don't mean to argue that he doesn't, and I haven't read the concerned section(s), I'm just pointing that out.

Other than that, I've gotten the impression that there are merchant ships without navigators which can make short jumps and are only able to use well known routes and still make short jumps (because without navigators you can't take the more dangerous routes and jump distance is A LOT shorter. Unless you want to get eaten by daemons in the warp.) so that would mean that there are common routes where the pirates can prey upon victims.

In Rogue Trader, the devices that allow this are very rare and heavily restricted, because Navigators (obviously) enjoy having a monopoly on their role in interstellar trade.

Going by the text, it's clear that warp-traveling ships are preyed on. They either can take the risk or add weeks to their voyage as they circumvent the Drop.

So the options are to either give him the ability to force them out of warpspace or to engage them in combat in warpspace (for which there are no rules)? I kinda like the idea that he could choose on a whim...

Alex

Combat in warpspace is something never really touched on in 40k, but it'd be incredibly risky, no matter your force advantage:

Firstly, since the point of void shields is that they shunt destructive energy into the warp, I would be surprised if you can keep your shields up effectively whilst in warp space.

Secondly, all it takes is one lucky salvo from the enemy causing your gellar field to flicker - not just fail, but flicker - and you risk the a daemonic breach, which is likely to be a terminal experience.

The only example I can think of is the duel between Infidius Imperator and Macragge's Honour , the climactic part of which takes place after they jump into the warp. I can't remember if Macragge's Honour's shields are mentioned as working/collapsing/not working, but it certainly gets the **** kicked out of it. Also relevant is the global degradation of auspex performance - Infidus Imperator is so corrupted and infused by warp energy that it barely shows up against the background of the warp.

In short, unless you're a seriously powerful chaos lord or sorceror and have daemonic allies, either push the enemy out of the warp or wait for them to exit of their own accord before attacking them. It's just safer.

Well, I suppose it could work if the rogue Navigator(s) had a power that have them a substantial advantage in Warp Combat. I see why you guys are prefering that driven out of the Warp scenario though.

Alex