The Conquest-class Star Galleon is so cool yet so difficult to fit properly. These heavy transports don't try to crowd into the actual big-guns part of the Conquest, they're meant for cargo or other support roles.

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Heavy Transports

Though formidable, the warships of the Imperial Navy make up the minority of hulls in service to the Imperium. Most voidships are bulk transports, sailing ancient and established trade routes, delivering much needed goods from one part of the galaxy to the other. Though mass conveyors can move a world’s output of goods at a time, they are usually entrusted only on the safest channels. Light freighters and transports require long centuries of operation before their costs can be recovered through trade. Heavy transports are a viable medium of the two, able to generate profit from even low-margin goods due to economies of scale.

Heavy Transport: The value of heavy transports grants their owners some leeway in equipping them with usually restricted equipment. A Heavy Transport has access to Light Cruiser plasma drives and may use Cruiser void shields. It must use Light Cruiser variant components for its Warp Engine, Life Sustainer, and Crew Quarters. It has full access to Transport-only Components and cannot mount any weaponry that is not meant for Transports. All Heavy Transports come with one Main Cargo Hold and the hulls’ Spaces have been reduced to account for this, but when a Heavy Transport is constructed it must provide 2 Power to this Component.

Dromedary-class Heavy Transport

Dimensions: 4.8 km long, 0.7 abeam at fins approx.

Mass: 25 megatonnes approx.

Crew: 83,000 crew, 100,000-200,000 potential passenger capacity, approx.

Accel. 0.9 gravities max sustainable acceleration.

There is no such as the Dromedary-class of heavy transports, it is a fiction concocted by the Imperial Navy so that they have something to call the massive freighters in the convoys they oversee. Even in the loosest meaning of the term there are too many variations in hull designs, construction techniques, and equipment to begin classifying these brute haulers. The Dromedary heavy transports in the Calixis Sector have more in common with each other due to the Lathes’ influence in their design rather than any coherent effort at standardization. Often, these Calixian heavy transports shift more than just ore or food around, many are accredited passenger liners.

Speed: 3

Manoeuvrability: 0

Detection: +5

Hull Integrity: 55

Armour: 14

Turret Rating: 2

Space: 55

SP: 45

Weapon Capacity: Prow 1, Port 1, Starboard 1

Working Vessel: Dromedary-class heavy transports have one thing, usually, in common: a built-in manufactorum to keep the vessel operational in even the direst of situations. The hull’s Space has already been reduced to account for this, but when this ship is constructed it must provide one Power for this component.

Aquarius-class Heavy Transport

Dimensions: 5.2 km long, 0.8 abeam at fins approx.

Mass: 23 megatonnes approx.

Crew: 73,000 crew, approx.

Accel. 0.9 gravities max sustainable acceleration.

Many Imperial Worlds celebrate when an Aquarius enters the system. Usually, at least one world relies on the precious liquid cargo it carries and this is usually liquid water being delivered to the numerous arid or desert worlds. Some have been modified to carry frozen cargo as well, but keeping ice frozen requires tremendous power so this refit is very specifically planned for only a few hulls. Forge worlds use a prodigious amount of fresh water for their industries and often perform the refit themselves to eke out more efficiency from an Aquarius’ visit.

Most pick up their cargo near dangerous cloudmining sites so they feature sharper than average augurs. In transit, the ship’s robust filtration systems remove impurities, sometimes going so far as to distill the water. Many Aquarius heavy transports usually take on impure water and deliver potable water at the end of their journeys, some even accompanying Imperial Guard regiments to act as a mobile water filtration plant.

Speed: 3

Manoeuvrability: 0

Detection: +10

Hull Integrity: 55

Armour: 14

Turret Rating: 2

Space: 55

SP: 47

Weapon Capacity: Dorsal 2

Water Hauler : This class is almost galactically well-liked. It grants +10 to any Social tests regarding trade if the vessel is in the system. It is not limited to delivery liquid water, many deliver oils, chemicals, and even promethium instead. They are still adored for this, but most try to steer clear of them.

Cloud Bringer: Ships modified to store ice, of any kind, must be able to provide an additional 2 Power when the ship is constructed.

Spero-class Mobile Station

Dimensions: 5.1 km long, 0.9 abeam at fins approx.

Mass: 35 megatonnes approx.

Crew: 83,000 crew, 100,000-200,000 potential passenger capacity, approx.

Accel. 0.5 gravities max sustainable acceleration.

Despite the title, the Spero is very much a Heavy Transport. More than one bulk freighter in the Imperium’s history has been modified to meet the needs of a nearby wars, and the Angevin Crusade was no exception. Dromedary hulls that were ravaged when Imperial forces were turned back were considered scrap metal. Part of Saint Drusus’ stratagem were to leverage these broken hulks to function as semi-permanent bases of operation.

Most of the original surviving Speros have been refitted back to their bulk hauling forms, but many still serve in Battlefleet Calixis as tenders. Purpose-built Speros have gradually increased in number over the last few centuries, though very few have appeared in either Battlefleet Calixis or Koronus.

Speed: 2

Manoeuvrability: 0

Detection: +10

Hull Integrity: 55

Armour: 15

Turret Rating: 2

Space: 42

SP: 55

Weapon Capacity: Keel 1, Dorsal 1

Mobile Spacedock: The Spero comes pre-equipped with Spacedock Piers, a Medicae Deck, and a Manufactorum and its hull’s Space has been reduced to reflect this. When constructed, it must provide a total of 10 Power to these Components.

Investor-class Galleon

Dimensions: 5 km long, 0.7 abeam at fins approx.

Mass: 28 megatonnes approx.

Crew: 88,000 crew, 100,000 luxury passenger capacity, approx.

Accel. 0.9 gravities max sustainable acceleration.

A vessel meant for pure commerce, the Investor-class remains the standard to measure all galleons constructed since M37. Like the ancient Conquest-class Star Galleons, it usually relies on decks upon decks of macrocannon for defense, but includes a built-in prow landing bay for its small fleet of heavy barges. Galleons built since mimic the Investor in many ways and there have been wars fought over the various designs. They can be most commonly seen in Kar Duniash as the Segmentum Fortress becomes ever more popular amongst Rogue Traders.

Investors carry more than just cargo, they carry trade delegations from dozens of star systems who pay for the privilege of being aboard. Naturally, the ships’ owners take great pains to make the experience worthwhile for these powerful factors.

Speed: 3

Manoeuvrability: 5

Detection: +5

Hull Integrity: 52

Armour: 15

Turret Rating: 3

Space: 54

SP: 50

Weapon Capacity: Port 2, Starboard 2

Wealth and Influence: Gain +10 for all Social tests relating to Trade while aboard an Investor-class. The galleon comes pre-equipped with a Luxury Quarters Component and the hull’s Space has been reduced to reflect this but 2 Power must be provided to this Component when it is constructed.

Gift Horse’s Mouth: The Investor-class is usually identified by a prow-mounted bay. This is not able to launch attack craft, but merely doubles the amount of halo barges and much heavier bulk lighters that the vessel may normally carry. When docked with a sufficiently large void station, the “mouth” can open and greatly speed up its ability to load and unload cargo.

I am a fan. I find that Transports are the void ship I actually wish had the most support and expansion, as I think a big part of Imperial life is just how you move Goods from Point X to Point Y (other than just saying we ship them through Hell). Given that covers food, munitions, raw materials and people all get lumped together as goods, this is a good amount of balance. Also forbidding super-advanced weapons while mandating LC components is a nice touch.

In my humble opinion, this should be in the House Rules section. Other than that, these vessels strike me as too specialized, with too many pre-installed components. Also seems to me like you could trim some fat off the special rules for them, and I think they have very high turret rating for so little armour. Finally, I think you could drop the SP cost of pretty much all of them.

This is all a knee-jerk reaction, however. I've done absolutely no research or math to back any of it up.

I like the concept of crusade support ship. Some medical ship like Nebulon-B frigate from SW, where you can get your bionics installed, before being sent on the front again.

I'm just curious why these transports do not come with a Main Cargo Hold pre-installed?

I like it, though I'm with Tenebrae and Magellon on this. Turret ratings should be the same as other Transports with 2 being the max, and obviously Cargo Holds are a mandatory given for classification of Transports.

Heavy Transport: The value of heavy transports grants their owners some leeway in equipping them with usually restricted equipment. A Heavy Transport has access to Light Cruiser plasma drives and may use Cruiser void shields. It must use Light Cruiser variant components for its Warp Engine, Life Sustainer, and Crew Quarters. It has full access to Transport-only Components and cannot mount any weaponry that is not meant for Transports. All Heavy Transports come with one Main Cargo Hold and the hulls’ Spaces have been reduced to account for this, but when a Heavy Transport is constructed it must provide 2 Power to this Component.

Agreed with the turret rating. I like them. I've allowed my Explorers to completely retrofit a cruiser to a heavy transport in the past.

Thanks guys.

Yeah, instead of replicating that rule for every Heavy Transport I just put it in the generic hull rules. Which could use some trimming, but I like the theoretical balance it has.

This was inspired by Battlefleet Gothic 2010's heavy transports which had Cruiser stats, namely Turret 2 and Shields 2 and a Cruiser hull (though a weak one at that). I felt that giving them an Armour of 18-20 would be a bit much (and a bit useless RAW anyway).

As for why they're specialized, overly so, I imagine that a generic heavy transport would simply not have the specialized equipment. That, and the Manufactorum isn't installable on a Transport. The rest were to give it some flavour. In the end, they're just background ships. Not everything is going to be a Vagabond or a Jericho in the game, there'll be some bigger ships and we have limited options for those.

Yeah, instead of replicating that rule for every Heavy Transport I just put it in the generic hull rules.

Wealth and Influence : Gain +10 for all Social tests relating to Trade while aboard an Investor-class. The galleon comes pre-equipped with a Luxury Quarters Component and the hull’s Space has been reduced to reflect this but 2 Power must be provided to this Component when it is constructed.

It kinda feels wrong.

Yeah, instead of replicating that rule for every Heavy Transport I just put it in the generic hull rules.

and clearly some of us missed it, because it wasn't where we expected it

Wealth and Influence : Gain +10 for all Social tests relating to Trade while aboard an Investor-class. The galleon comes pre-equipped with a Luxury Quarters Component and the hull’s Space has been reduced to reflect this but 2 Power must be provided to this Component when it is constructed.

Not a huge fan of this one. I'd try to make an argument, but currently too tired.

It kinda feels wrong.

Well, considering I was pretty tired when I wrote and post this, I think that's the perfect mindset!

I may rewrite the whole thing now that I've had some sleep and coffee in me.

Like these new hulls, if to do nothing else than flesh out what people might run across in a "civilized" system

Weapon slots a bit too optimal. Turret ratings too high. Armor too high. I think transports need some more love, too, so thanks for the attempt. It strikes me that you're trying to flesh out the Chartist Captains, and I like that idea. Consider that many of them are flying with less than full Warp-flight capability. They probably require larger proportions of their hulls dedicated to life support systems. And really, while I always hear of games where the GM allows the manufactorum to do more than what's stated to be, RAW it's not that so useful an item as to want it aboard these ships. They'll do better carrying prefabricated cargo. Turning raw materials into finished goods results in a loss of tonnage and efficiency.

: This class is almost galactically well-liked. It grants +10 to any Social tests regarding trade if the vessel is in the system. It is not limited to delivery liquid water, many deliver oils, chemicals, and even promethium instead. They are still adored for this, but most try to steer clear of them. [/size] [/font]

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Wealth and Influence: [/size] Gain +10 for all Social tests relating to Trade while aboard an Investor-class. The galleon comes pre-equipped with a Luxury Quarters Component and the hull’s Space has been reduced to reflect this but 2 Power must be provided to this Component when it is constructed. [/size]

That sort of social bonus is an important part of what the endeavour bonus from the cargo hold does, to my mind.

Weapon slots a bit too optimal. Turret ratings too high. Armor too high.

Yes, I know the BFG stats, but these have a bit much of the "look'n'feel" of warships.

SP: 55

Weapon Capacity: Keel 1, Dorsal 1

Mobile Spacedock: The Spero comes pre-equipped with Spacedock Piers, a Medicae Deck, and a Manufactorum and its hull’s Space has been reduced to reflect this. When constructed, it must provide a total of 10 Power to these Components.

With this ship, what's the motivation for building space stations, other than Ramiles?

Yeah, the bonuses need going over.

I thought there were more weapons that were not available to Transports. I haven't really tried to arm Transports in a while though.

As for the Mobile Spacedock, it still requires that only smaller vessels can dock at the piers. Maybe light cruisers can, but it's for transports and frigates. Any Cruisers are tough out of luck. At least, going by RAW.

I am a fan of these hulls! It would add a lot more flavor to the random transports that we run across. Though a quick point of contention would be that it should actually take LESS power to keep liquid frozen in space. I get where you are going with it though.

That's not really true. Space doesn't conduct heat particularly well, so space ships require a lot of power to keep from overheating - ships powered by miniature sun have even greater trouble with that, I'd imagine, so if you wanted to store your ice inside your cargo hold, you would have to put power into lowering the temperature in that cargo hold.

Then again, perhaps you could vent the air from your cargo hold and use the vacuum as insulation. Oh well, I don't know and I don't care. I just like the sound of my own fingers tapping my keyboard.

Interesting thought Magellan. I thought heat radiated just fine in vacuum. Guess I was wrong!

Well you can think of the "freezers" as either vacuum seals or actual cooling/heating units. In either case, I figure it should cost some Power.

Then again, that could be exactly what the power cost for a cargo bay is.

Interesting thought Magellan. I thought heat radiated just fine in vacuum. Guess I was wrong!

It does radiate just fine in a vacuum. It's just that the majority of heat loss on earth is through conduction or convection (which is, I suppose, just conduction to a continually refreshing medium, meaning the temperature differential, and thus rate of heat transfer, stays higher for longer). Radiation is actually pretty much the least effective form of heat transfer.

I like all these ideas, though I'm not that well versed in the starship rules, so I can't really comment on the crunch, which, to be fair, is the easiest bit to fix.

I'm particularly interested in the Investor, as I had the idea of a rogue force of former administratum accountants roving the expanse that was in no way inspired by Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Not at all. Honest.