Page 166
Purposes/duties of a Rogue Trader. They largely seem to act as mobile/independent search and destroy/reconnaisance/diplomatic and commerce functions (kind of like a Federation starship, just better designed and with fewer exploding reactors) Note that while I believe some of the purposes have changed a little with progressive editions, this largely amounts to the RT's and the Imperium being alot more xenophobic in principle. In reality, they still are wililng to trade/deal with aliens to some extent (But they probably still plan for the race's eventual elimination.) and they quite likely still plunder the tehcnologly regardless.If he [Rogue Trader] judges a race to be potentially dangerous he may attempt to destroy it, or gather as much information about it as he can so that others may do so. If he decides a race may be of use to humanity he may attemt to make contact and establish relations. If merely technologically or minerally rich, a planet may be plundered, and the Rogue Trader will return to Earth laden with the treasure of space; alien artifacts, rare and precious mineral sand undreamed of technology.
Page 166
I believe BFG and later editions retconned the sizes of fleets up to "dozens". We might infer that a "dozen" as something of an average, I suppose.His [Rogue TRader's] total responsibility may extend to a dozen spacecraft, often huge, lumbering cargo vessels crammed with a small army, and a full crew of technicians and volunteer settlers to establish colonies on new worlds.
Page 185
Average height of Orks. Again, I believe this carries through into later editions, but gets retconned slightly by the Orks slouching/stooping rather than walking erect.Orks are large humanoids, averaging 2 metres tall, with long, poweful limbs.
Page 186
"Most" Ork worlds are largely in the feudal category (or somewhat above it), though they exhibit the same variety of variation that Imperium worlds do. Presumably they have a share of Agricultural, civilised, mining and other worlds to support the individual "empires". They may even have "forge" worlds. Note, however that most of these worlds are probably conquered/occupied territories home to slave/servant races the Orks have dominated (as mentione din other sources, the Orks will make heavy use of slave labor to provide their infrastrucutre and whatot.)As in the Imperium there are many levels of civilisation throughout the Ork domains. Most o ftheir worlds are self-sufficient semi-medeviel planets where technology is largely ignored or reserved purely for the arts of war.
It is rather safe to say (due to the fact that "most" worlds are of the quasi-feudal level, ,as well as observed Ork technology in general) that the general level of Ork technology (computers/fire control, weaponry/ordnance, materials science, etc.) is probably inferior to the Imperium's, though they clearyl have areas (force fields and teleporters) where they are equal/superior.
Page 191
Gretchin (or Grots) are roughly human-sized, and probably in most respects comparable to humans, t hough probably not as potentially strrong due to their physique.Gretchin vary in height from 1 to 2 meters but most are around 1.7 meters. They are thin and wiry, agile and quite athletic but not particularily strong or resilient.
Page 194
Of all the races in teh galaxy the Slann claim to be, and may actually be, the oldest.
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The Slaan evolved, matured and spread throughout the galaxy many hundreds of thousands of years ago.
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During the heyday of their empire they discovered and nutured many primitive creatures, encouraging the evolutionary process on countless worlds, eradicating or moving dangerous species, and seeding many planets with promising stock.
As I recall the Slaan are considered quite likely to be the "Old Ones" who engineered the psychic races and fought the Necrons many millions of years ago. Of course, with the advent of hte Necrons, I'm also pretty sure the whole "Slaan are the oldest race" bit also got retconned.
PAge 196
The Jokaero share the "genetic engineering/science" brainbug that the later-edition Orks acquired,but on a higher/more sophisticated plane. They are considered more advanced than any other race save the Slaan/Old Ones (including the Eldar) - probably not a real surprise since IIRC the Jokaero were "engineered" by the Slaan/Old Ones the same way the Orks and Eldar were. Its also likely that their technology is less advanced than the Necrons, since the Necrons are on par with the Slaan (possibly better even, I don't really remember.)The most amazing thing about the Jokaero is their technical brilliance - they appear to have an innate, ,genetically structured understanding of technology. Their comprehension of astrophysics is baffling, they seem to be able to tap power-currents which flow imperceptibly through the galaxy. Their understanding of such matters goes far beyond that of even the most advanced of other known races, with the possible exception of the Great Mages of the Slann. Jokaero spacecraft are a case in point. A Jokaero spacecraft looks like no other form of space transport, consisting entirely of an open framed lattice structure, forming a unique polyhedral shape. This structure draws energy from the galactic powercurrents simply by virtue of its shape. In a similar way to which force weapons channel psychic energy by virtue of their spiral patterns, Jokaero spacecraft move, manoeuvre. and transcend warp-space by means of making physical changes ot the ship's shape, thereby altering the craft's relationship to the universal powers it employs, ad modifying its place in the naural galactic order.
Of interesting note is how the technology of the Jokaero is heavily implied to be based on tapping "galactic power currents" - I take this to be some reference to the Warp (probably is.) This would probably suggest their technology is heavily psychic-based in the same way the Eldar is. That might go some way to explain/mitigate the goofy "genetic technology" bit as well.
Also, they use the warp as a sort of reactionless drive as well as power generation system. The latter is no surprise since the Eldar can do that also (well the Imperium's plasma reactors probably do as well.), but save for a Tau slave race, warp-based reactionless drives have never been suggested before. Its possible that the "propulsion" of the Eldar might be similar as well (its alot more sensible than that silly "light sail" thing they already have..)
PAge 200
According to this, there are at least thirteen (and probably more) hive fleets consisting of many "millions upon millions" If we assume "millions upon millions" implies 4 million minimum, that means at least fifty million Tyranids. Each Hive fleet also supposedly has countless billions of Tyranid troops, so that also probably means some many tens/hundreds of billions or even trillions of Tyranid troops in the Hive fleets alone (not that it matters, Tyranids can raise/create troops fairly quickly given access to any resorucecs.)No-one knows how many Hive Fleets there are buried deep within the darkness of interstellar space. The best efforts of the Imperium to scout out the Hive Fleets so far revealed thirteen scattered thrroughout the western par of the galaxy. However, the galaxy is uncompromisingly large, and there may be manyy more which remain undetected.
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Each fleet comprises millions upon millions of craft, resembling a huge cloud of cosmic locusts.
I don't know if the number of hive fleets is still considered valid, though as far as I know there have been at least 8-9 different hive fleets mentioned in later various sources, so it can't be off by much. Moreover, the whole "ther ecould be many more" idea has been carried through IIRC - there has been much conjecture about there being "bigger" fleets still in the void between galaxies, and IIRC there was one online source (which I'll have to dig up later) on Tyranoforming which implied that much of the matter harvested from a world gets transported elsewhere.
In any case, the minimum numbers alone imply frigging huge/insane Tyranid numbers (which is scary coupled with their insane durability, also to be discussed later.) WHat's more scary is that there could be (and probably are) MANY more Tyranids out there than I calc'ed.
Page 200
The Tyranids harvest all biological life (apparently even bacteria and viruses and other microscopic life) as well as the oceans and atmosphere, as well as some minerals (probably those relevant to human life, as well as some silicates/ceramics for augmenting their chitin.)A world is nothing more than a resource to the Hive Fleets, a mine of minerals, ,fuel and biological material. The Tyranids find a use for everything - from each tiny living creature to the very atmosphere of the planet, nor do they leave a world until it is reduced to a bare core of airless rock.
PAge 235
High trajectory weapons ae the futuristic equivalents of mortars and howitzers, which "lob" shots over the tops of buildings, woods, and other scenic features at targets beyond. This is called indirect fire.
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High trajectory wepaons include thrown objects, grenade launchers, auto-cannon, macro-cannon, and most large missiles.
I'm only including this because in Rogue Trader autocannons could include tank guns, and thus this implies that Imperium tank weapons can engage in indirect fire (I've speculated as much, and its been shown in some novels like "Necropolis.". Note that battlecannon (the main tank weapon on Imperium MBTs) don't get introduced til a later source, but they fell somewhere bettween autocannon and macro-cannon in size, so they arguably too would be capable of indirect fire like the other two weapons are.