Toying with the idea of using an Oberon class battleship for a groups flagship and could use some rules. Before anyone says that a battleship is too powerful for RT let me give you some background.

1: This is the only resource the PCs start with

2: PCs are all slightly coo-coo from spending 10k years (from both their and the Imperium's Perspective) trapped in the warp

3: A confirmed sighting results in a redeployment of navy assets by the Lord Admiral on a scale that leaves battlefleets without a capitol ship to their name

4: Despite previous points this is still firmly a RT campaign not a BC campaign

1) So they have no crew, no weapons, no strike-craft, no... you get the idea. How exactly are they supposed to play with no way to repair their ship if it even gets dinged, let alone which port of call will re-supply a Battleship

2) They also do not speak the current Low Gothic or know any of the current Trade Laws, they have no idea where they are or who is talking to them or even the history of where they are meaning that any sort of Endeavour they undertake will be at a massive disadvantage.

3) Oh and they also cannot operate within any sort of Imperial Space either and are also dooming billions upon billions of Imperial citizens to certain doom by removing the Naval presence from their areas.

4) That doesn't make it better...

Have you thought this through? I mean really chewed, to the bone? Because the Battleship stats seem to be the least of your worries here.

1: When I said that the ship would be their only resource I assumed you would understand that I meant the ship and it's contents

2: High Gothic and Polyglot should allow them to get by, the starting Endeavors would be of a more find out where they are and "give me your stuff or I'll kill you" nature, disadvantage shouldn't be that big after a few months

3: The last time they were in realspace the Emperor still walked among his subjects, who said they recognized the authority of the Imperium in it's current state

4: BC would be actively undermining the Imperium, RT would be establishing your own stellar empire, trust me this is RT

Ok man, good luck with that. Its just that from the way you're describing it this is less a campaign about character growth and more a power fantasy. If your players are into that, go right ahead, but in that case don't bother with stats for the ship just do everything narratively.

Emperor Class Battleship

Dimensions: 9.7 km long
Crew: 210 000 approx.
Accel.: 1.6 Gravities max sustainable acceleration

Move: 3
Manoeuvre: +0 [Cannot perform Come To New Heading Manoeuvre Action]
Detect: +18
Hull Integrity: 105
Armour: 20
Turrets: 5
Space: 110 (24 are reserved for the Launchbays)
Weapons: 1 Prow, 1 Dorsal, 1 Port, 1 Starboard, 2 Port Jovian Launchbays, 2 Starboard Jovian Launchbays, (must provide 4 power to this components)

SP: 86+8 for landing bays

Battleship class Void Shield Array: 4 Void Shields

8 ready squadrons of attack craft, 24 squadrons total.

Note : Cannot take Armoured Prow due to extensive prow mounted sensor probes. Cannot remove launchbays.

Apocalypse Class Battleship

Move: 3
Manoeuvre: +0 [Cannot perform Come To New Heading Manoeuvre Action]
Detect: +10
Hull Integrity: 105
Armour: 20 (24 on Armoured Prow)
Turret: 4
Space: 110 SP: 84
Weapons: 1 Prow Nova Cannon, 1x Dorsal, 3x Port Titanforge Lance Battery, 3x Starboard Titanforge Lance Battery

Retribution Class Battleship

Move: 5
Manoeuvre: +0 [Cannot perform Come To New Heading Manoeuvre Action]
Detect: +10
Hull Integrity: 105
Armour: 20 (24 on Armoured Prow)
Turret: 4
Space: 110
Weapons: 1 Prow Torpedoes (Strength 9), 1x Dorsal, 3x Port, 3x Starboard

Ur welcome.

Someone created a pdf doc a while back before ItS, which had battleships on it. Go to my link below, go to the folder "ships" and then the doc "ships of the Imperium..." First stated blocks are some battle ships. Might be other stats for them in my conglomeration of docs I have accumulated; however, I have yet to trash obsolete ones due to sentimency issues.

In my own head, I've never really had a huge problem with "Party acquired a Battleship, via illicit means, or salvage", when doing so could cause so many problems for them. If their previous owner didn't try to reclaim it, it is possibly damaged to the point it would take DECADES, and a small loan, cosigned by BOTH Smaug, and Scrooge McDuck, to cover, and fix. Once up and running, it would consume what many Rogue Traders would consider inordinate resources to manage, in manpower, power, ammunition, and "specialized maintenance staff", to keep its special bits working. Lastly, and this is where it can get expensive, BIG ships, while impressive (possibly HUGE hull points, maybe three weapon mounts to a side, AND space to mount almost anything in almost any prow/side mount), almost demand small ships, to keep the flak off them. I'm very glad to have a cruiser, but I'd be much less happy if she didn't have an escort raider/destroyer. A battleship is a huge investment, and might make it hard to maintain the escort fleet it needs to manage, but desperately needs. I know that the book tends not to optimize to the degree players will, but the two battleship equivalents I've seen, in the RT line, the Kroot Warsphere (BFK), and da' Wurldbreaka (EotA), while mighty, will not survive concerted player attempts to destroy them, without several escorting vessels, to absorb fire, while the big ship uses its monumental firepower to crack them.

Blah, blah, blah. If a party can figure out how to get one (not for sale), how to repair/maintain it (where will you do that? Specialized parts and staff), and able to fend off all the social flak that comes with it (everyone is jealous, scared of your new seeming might, and the prior organization it belonged to might want THAT ONE back), the potential RP opportunities practically write themselves, and the ship, alone, still isn't really so much better, for being so much more expensive, at what they were going to do. I very much like battleships, and definitely recorded an in-game briefing presentation of what it would take for the crew of the Fata Morgana to reclaim the Light of Terra , from Lure of the Expanse, for their dynasty, and I later refurbished that to be a ship of my own design, with a capital-ship scale superweapon (I found the web doc with said battleships, though they might be a little underpowered for what the official books say of ships that class would be; still very good). Still, the dossier does a wonderful job of mapping out the difficulty, the investments, and the pitfalls, of such a mighty endeavor. And it's still just one ship, which very much uses up prodigious resources, and can be destroyed, if the nimble Chaos raiders, or the piratical Eldar, decide to zip in, and hulk it.

I hope they enjoy themselves, but I almost hope they eventually follow the path of cell phones, back in the day, and downgrade to something as good, but smaller, and more manageable. Their brick-phone battleship isn't necessarily as great an option as they might want it to be, especially if it must stand alone. Fear not, I'm done babbling all the stuff you already know, now. It could be alot of fun; just remember to make it a monumental nightmare, logistically, professionally, etc. They will have to fight tooth and nail just to keep it, and keep it running. It's a battleship, which even Scrooge McWinterscale, himself, doesn't have, and there are reasons for that. Have a great time with it.

All valid points but something that should be kept in mind is that before campaign start the last time the ship or crew (including PCs) was in real space was in M31. That means a teleportarium and a shitload of other archeotech components.

So this battleship came from the the time of the Great Crusade? Has it occurred to you that it will probably be one of the Chaos battleships? (Such as the Desolator.) After all, those were the original imperial fleet! Now, aside from the logistical and technical issues, imagine how an imperial world will react when a Desolator rolls up claiming to be a friendly! Bear in mind that at this point your vessel is undoubtedly low on fuel, supplies and probably munitions! Threatening said world may not even be a viable option! Not to mention, a pre-heresy crew wouldn't dream of threatening an imperial world! That's what they're sworn to protect!

All valid points but something that should be kept in mind is that before campaign start the last time the ship or crew (including PCs) was in real space was in M31. That means a teleportarium and a shitload of other archeotech components.

Now I am no expert, but simply the fact that a ship is old does not mean it has Archeotech components. Or a teleportarium for that matter. In fact if this is a standard ship it would have the same components found on modern Navy ships, if in slightly different forms and variants.

Old does not mean Archeotech, though it is often mistaken as such.

All valid points but something that should be kept in mind is that before campaign start the last time the ship or crew (including PCs) was in real space was in M31. That means a teleportarium and a shitload of other archeotech components.

Now I am no expert, but simply the fact that a ship is old does not mean it has Archeotech components. Or a teleportarium for that matter. In fact if this is a standard ship it would have the same components found on modern Navy ships, if in slightly different forms and variants.

Old does not mean Archeotech, though it is often mistaken as such.

Uhm, In the case of a Battleship it means exactly that! Especially in the case of something like a Desolator! (look it up). Battleships are the Pride of ANY fleet! They will have the best equipment, crew and anything else the owning faction can provide! This means Homing Torpedoes, Vortex Warheads Teleportariums etc! Of course said equipment may be depleted or broken down!

And it gets even better! The Imperial military of the Great crusade was a lot more integrated than the 40k current era. A combat loaded battleship would have had a number of special purpose contingents on board. Among them would be a detachment (Think company sized at least!) of the Legion Astartes! These would be Pre heresy era Space Marines and this means that you have at least a 50% chance of them being from one of the traitor legions! I'm not sure I want to be the guy that tells a battle company of Luna Wolves that their legion are all traitors and there Primarch is an analogy for the Devil himself! Maybe you'll get lucky and they're "only" a company of World Eaters.

I was thinking less of company strength legion marines and more of battalion strength blackshields drawn from all twenty legions.

Oberon Class Battleship Darklight

Move: 4

Maneuverer: -5

Detection: +35

Hull Integrity: 120

Armor: 24

Turret: 5

Space: 150 (147 used) Power: 150 (129 used)

Crew: 100 Morale: 104

Essential Components: Modified Jovian Pattern Class 7 Drive; Strelov 4 Warp Engine; Geller Field; Quadruple Castellan Void Shield Array; Bridge of Antiquity; Ancient Life Sustainer; Clan-Kin Quarters; Deep Void Auger Array

Supplemental Components: Teleportarium; Compartmentalized Cargo Hold; Munitorium; Manufactorum; Barracks; Cogitator Interlink; Energistic Conversion Matrix; Extended Supply Vaults; Arboretum; Pilot Chambers; Small Craft Repair Deck

Weapons: 1 Prow Battleship Plasma Accelerated Torpedo Tubes; 1 Dorsal Battleship Staravar Laser Macrobattery; 1 Port and Starboard Battleship Star-flare Lance; 2 Port and Starboard Lathe-pattern Landing Bay

battleship torpedo tubes have twice the strength and three time the reserve capoacity, battleship macroweapons and lances have twice the range and a nominal increase in strength; they both use twice the power and space as the non-battleship version

energistic conversion matrix uses a ratio of 7 power to 1 speed

I know you like the Oberon but I don't think the class existed back then! That's why I suggested the Desolator. (As well as the role playing opportunities!) Also, since the Inquisition didn't exist during the great crusade, neither did the deathwatch! Therefore, no blackshields!

I have to admit, this campaign idea has me fascinated with the possibilities! Keep it coming!

The Oberon class is an early variant of the Emperor class battleship. The Emperor class was discovered in a space hulk more than 10k years ago (from a M41 perspective). So the Oberon could have been around in limited numbers during the crusade.

The idea behind Deathwatch blackshields is (in-universe) based on the Heresy blackshields which were marines that didn't fight for their parent legion; whether that was because they fought on the other side; were unholy abominations that were spawned, pointed at something and told "kill", never knowing who they came from; said "screw this civil war, I'm outta here"; or for some other reason. The blackshields on this ship are the third kind.

I know you like the Oberon but I don't think the class existed back then! That's why I suggested the Desolator. (As well as the role playing opportunities!) Also, since the Inquisition didn't exist during the great crusade, neither did the deathwatch! Therefore, no blackshields!

I have to admit, this campaign idea has me fascinated with the possibilities! Keep it coming!

The Oberon has been around since the middle of M32 at the very least. Unless the Oberon involved in the War of the Beast was one the very first of its class, it wouldn't be that unexpected to see one in early M31. Also the nature of the Oberon as a jack of all trades that unlike other battleship designs makes it far less reliant on escorts, means it is the perfect ship for the purpose of this game.

And that is why it would be the most likely battleship a Rogue Trader would have. The Darklight has an effective speed of 7, more if it disables some components to free up convertible power. This is on top of the range 14 port and starboard lances and the range 24 dorsal macrocannon.

I think Politically - only the most powerful of Rogue Traders have Battleships. It's just too much power concentrated into to the hands of the morally unscrupulous, the Imperial Bureaucracy and Navy do not let powerful ships like that fall into the hands of Rogue Traders without an excellent reason.

Battlefleet Calixis has exactly 1 battleship.

I would like to say again that the Darklight was lost in the warp during M31 and the Rogue Trader was the captain at the time.

That's good and fine, but if he's been missing for all that time, there'll be no records of him, and he'll have some weird beliefs, compared to the rest of the Imperium ("what? the Emperor is a god? Didn't He expressly forbid that? I thought he burned the churches, and dressed down an entire Astartes legion fof that.") You take these strangers, with strange beliefs, and throw them into the current Imperium, they'll likely be declared heretics, and make lots of enemies, who will then come for that precious battleship, and all of its old technology, and you'll be hard-pressed to win against all that.

So, why they have it is fine, in this case, but can they keep it? That's the hard part, and they'll have, in a lot of moments, no allies.

Actually they have exactly one ally. When they finally came out of the warp they dropped into the middle of a naval engagement between renegade (NOT CHAOS) astartes and chaos space marines. The leader of the renegade astartes recognized the ship and captain from his days serving in the great crusade (he is a dreadnought, it isn't because of warp time or extreme longevity). The renegade astartes fleet is hulked in the engagement meaning that the players still only start out with the battleship.

Also during the last few decades that the ship was in the warp the crew sang this when defending from the (not infrequent) demonic incursions.

10,000 years stuck in the warp

it's really been that long
some of us died, others survived
hope we're not here 10,000 more

If this sounds like me just sniffing for cheese, I apologize ahead of time, but does this also mean that, with their own fleet hulked, the RT ship in question is now also playing host to however many rogue Astartes, and Captain Ironsides (maybe funny, if you played Fallout 4)? As much as I might, personally, gak at the concept of having an archeotech battleship, with parts that haven't aged fully 10,000 years, possibly with no Mechanicus/Techmarine aide, if they also have one, or more detachments of whatever force of Space Marines, that'll be almost as crazy as it would be helpful, when they do have to start rebuffing all the people who will want their stuff.

I do apologize if I appear confrontational, or just rying to pick your idea apart; I've just had a few where I wish someone had caught me early, and said something, even if it would've just ended with me backpeddling, and shoehorning in an excuse that i thought, at least, worked, so if I at least help you feel a need to answer some questions that might come up, just to make it seem more cohesive, a win is a win.

Some things that I might not have made clear

1) Time passed on the ship while it was lost in the warp and time passed in the imperium is a roughly one to one ratio

2) The only mutation that the crew suffered from the time there was that they don't age while travelling the warp

3) This does not apply to the ship itself so it has still aged 10,000 years

4) Captain Ironsides knows the RT personally

5) The space marines are at about legion battalion strength (less if too much was destroyed)

6) The space marines loyalty is to the person that will stand with them in the firing line, Captain Ironsides is the nominal leader because he has demonstrated that he will get stuff done with minimal casualties and won't set out to do anything that could be considered suicidal, as soon as he does something against it he will no longer command them.

So in addition to a Battleship, you're also starting your players off with a Great Crusade era battalion of Legion Space Marines.

Just want to make that point clear, a battalion, that's 500 marines, of Legion Space Marines appear on a Rogue Trader's personal Oberon-Class Battleship after having spent 10.000 years in the Warp.

If this sounds like me just sniffing for cheese

Don't have to smell hard on this one, the stench is pretty overwhelming.

1) the marines can trace their origins to the great crusade, only one was actually there, and they have lost most of their heavy equipment since then

2) 10,000 years in the warp mean that they are low on food, parts, and ammunition, this is in addition to having sustained (non-irreparable) damage to the ship that they couldn't fix with what they had at the time (issue of supplies not knowledge of how to do it)\

3) starting PF is 10+/-5

It seems similar in spirit to a campaign I always wanted to be part of where the previous dynasties head when insane and spent the entire dynasty's wealth on making a flagship so magnificent, so crammed full of archeotech that anyone witnessing it would basically have to assume that those in charge sailed fight out of the Imperium's Golden age.

That said my idea was that the ship only had the vital components (though they were magnificent) and a very few optional components. No weapons whatsoever (aside from turrets) and a profit factor of zero.

The idea was that the players would need to bluff and make deals with parties interested in their ship until they had earned enough to actually get some weapons and defend themselves.