Also if you dont let players use their BS for shooting, you could let them assist. Eg one player tests BS to add +10 to roll.

As for the skills, it is reasonable to add a bonus to crew rating when testing skills. Crack crew (40) should have skills at +10, unless crack means that they have 30 +10. Also veteran and elite crews should have skills at +20.

Yeah, that was how I did it. I assumed someone on the NPC ship (or, more likely, several someones) was actually competent and using lock on target, put your backs into it, have a +10 because I'm a RT, etcetera. I gave the NPC ships a flat bonus (usually +20 for run of the mill foes) that could be divided up amongst their rolls. It seemed to work reasonably well.

Cheers,

- V.

In a typical World War II British ship the fire control system connected the individual gun turrets to the director tower (where the sighting instruments were located) and the analogue computer in the heart of the ship. In the director tower, operators trained their telescopes on the target; one telescope measured elevation and the other bearing. Rangefinder telescopes on a separate mounting measured the distance to the target. These measurements were converted by the Fire Control Table into the bearings and elevations for the guns to fire upon. In the turrets, the gunlayers adjusted the elevation of their guns to match an indicator for the elevation transmitted from the Fire Control table — a turret layer did the same for bearing. When the guns were on target they were centrally fired.

And don't forget the movement of the target. Hang time on a target 10 miles away could be 45 seconds or more meaning that the target will have moved twice the length of the ship before the shell reaches it.

As I see it, the OP (rightly) suggests that NPC ships are not a challenge to experienced RT crews.

The simple solution would be the increase the stats of NPC’s as eloquently suggested earlier.

Another solution suggested in this thread is to put more emphasis on the actual crews. I personally like this more as RT is not about heroes singlehandedly sailing the void searching for treasure (that is when they land on planets…). They are leading crews of many thousands of voidsmen and these unsung deck rats should matter too IMO.

Starting with a regular crew and then see their quality improve through missions is rewarding and offers more role-playing opportunities or skill challenges (is the crew getting better through experience, better training, religious fervour, heretical sacrifices, the brothel in deck 7, etc…). And numerous bloody battles will see their quality decline as new recruits are conscripted/hired/impressed etc. to make good the losses.

Using the crew quality puts the crew in the limelight which I’d indeed argue is a better description of how a large, archaic WH40k ship with crews of 30,000+ should operate.

But what of the players? Well, they can still influence the crews with their own characteristics. Perhaps the BS43 of the arch militant provides a +4 bonus to the firing skill of the crew. And the void master’s Ag 60 can provide the bridge crew with a +6 bonus.

The players' vessel often seems overpowered versus NPC vessels. Personally, I put NPCs on those vessels that approximate the PCs. Once, however, the party's flotilla starts growing, they usually need PC captains, even if those captains aren't RTs. Then, all the ships in a combat are relying on their crews' skills.