Hi everyone!

I'm looking for help for my next adventure. I want to introduce a large organization of mercenaries. I want them to be a real threat in a sense that are well equipped and trained. Do you have any suggestions for a ship that can carry 10 to 20 soldiers and is well equipped (or has high HP)?. An alternative is to carry 5-10 speeder bikes. The ship should be able to handle support fire and space combat.

Thanks for the suggestions! It might be for EotE, AoR or FaD.

A consular class cruiser should do the trick. Well-armed and operates with a small crew, and large enough to fit a decently sized vehicle hangar. Turbolasers are always nice too.

If that one's out of the organization's price range, you could consider the C-ROC Gozanti -class Light Cruiser from No Disintegrations. Crew of 12, space for another 20, 6 HP, and the speeder bikes oughta fit as well.

The CEC YZ-900

ETA: No one had replied yet when I started typing this. It looks like there was some agreement between responders.

Since they are mercenaries, I would put them in an aging military ship or a beefed-up merchant vessel. So, if you are in the classic era, give them a retired Clone War era a ship or a newer civilian transport and slap on better weapons and defensives using it's HP's.

From what you describe, it sounds to be a Silhouette 5 ship is needed. Silh 4 seems too small to meet the requirements of 10-20 passengers and possibly several speeder bikes. Silh 6 seems like overkill. Looking through the core books I found:

GR-75 Medium Transport (EotE): Silh 5, 3 Armor, 20 HT, Enc. 1000, Passengers 100+ (with pods), HP 2. A large cargo capacity for speeder bikes and may easily carry a large infantry fighting force. Poor choice in my opinion since no default armaments and only 2 HP's to upgrade. This is the classic Rebel Transport container ship and looking at its configuration (map) with all of the pods makes it seem an odd choice to be home for a merc unit.

Wayfarer Medium Freighter (EotE): Silh 5, 4 Armor, 32 HT, Enc 850, Passengers 6, HP 5. Starts with a quad laser cannon, is tough, and has 5 HP's to make it even more combat ready. The only downside is 6 Passengers with your requirement of 10-20 soldiers. Suggested crew size is 10 with 7 of those being general "crew" or "cargo master", so these could easily double as soldiers to make up for the short passenger capacity. There are maps available which show a cargo hold that could easily fit speeder bikes. You could also drop the cargo module on a planet to use it as a temporary base. Best choice in my opinion if you want to go with an armed civilian ship. Wayfarer Map

The Maruader-class Corvette in Edge is Silh 5, but has a crew of 177, room for 80 troops, and 12 snubfighters which seems a little much for what you have planned.

Consular Light Cruiser (AoE): Silh 5, 5 Armor, 46 HT, Enc up to 3200, Passengers up to 16, HP 4. You could justify a merc crew somehow picking this up as old Clone War surplus. Since it's a military ship, it packs a punch. Large amount of armaments, good armor, and still has 4 HP to upgrade. Easily enough room for some speeders. This would be a great ship and the incredible cross-sections schematic shows it with a "salon module" which would be perfect for a merc tactical command room. Consular Schematic

Gozanti Armed Transport (AoE): Silh 5, 5 Armor, 50 HT, Enc 1000, Passengers 12, HP 4. Also well armed and carries enough to hold a merc's soldiers and vehicles. Another good choice and Rebels has shown us even the Empire is still using these even though they are considered old surplus and justifiable as available to civilians.

The closest ship in FaD that you could use was the Adz Destroyer, but even it was a poor fit for what you wanted.

So, with only the core books as a source (sorry this took enough time looking through those 3), I would personally pick either the Wayfarer or a Consular Cruiser.

Another option I left off the list due to stock characteristics is the Space Master from EotE. It doesn't work as is, but I've made a custom "Mine Master" for my PC's including maps. It's been configured to allow its towed modules to be broken down to make a temporary surface mining base. Modules include general cargo/garage, bunk modules, a power/command module, etc. This could easily be altered to instead carry a merc company with the option of setting down, unloading vehicles, and setting up a temporary base when on a mission.

External Full

External Bobtail

Internal Full

Internal Bobtail

Example Deployment Site

4 hours ago, penpenpen said:

A consular class cruiser should do the trick. Well-armed and operates with a small crew, and large enough to fit a decently sized vehicle hangar. Turbolasers are always nice too.

That's what I was going to suggest also you can get a deck plan from colonial chrome and wotc made a "republic cruiser" miniature to match and.... this

3 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

The CEC YZ-900

Is what I was expecting tramp to say (he's a creature of habit very rigid and predictable), although I was hoping (but not expecting) for him to have added the caveat that the third party stats are not official.

Edit: BTW the consular also appears in disciples of harmony but that version is the diplomat version (no weapons) and the aor version has been retrofitted for combat. It's unclear whether the aor version is an official c70 charger refit of the type that was used in the clone wars

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Consular-class_cruiser_(Charger_c70_retrofit)

or a rebel adhoc refit.

The disciples of harmony version has stats for the salon pod

7 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

That's what I was going to suggest also you can get a deck plan from colonial chrome and wotc made a "republic cruiser" miniature to match and.... this

Is what I was expecting tramp to say (he's a creature of habit very rigid and predictable), although I was hoping (but not expecting) for him to have added the caveat that the third party stats are not official.

What can I say, it's my favorite ship.?

3 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

What can I say, it's my favorite ship.?

You could add the caveat that it doesn't have official stats, which is highly relevant to almost everyone except you

Thank you so much for the answers. I never consider the Consular Light Cruiser, until I reviewed the stats closer. What a fine ship! I love the idea, and I think is in the price range for this particular mercenary corp. I love the boarding pod described in AoR.

The Wayfarer was among my original choices, but I wanted something with more punch. The Gozanti, unfortunately I have been using them way to often.

Thanks again! More ideas are always welcome!

If you can stomach a crew of 37, there the minstrel class star yacht, page 116-117 lords of nal hutta, it's a warship disguised as a luxury yacht, it has 3 port and 3 starboard concealed turret mounted light turbo lasers, 3 port and 3 starboard medium ion canons, a forward mounted medium tractor beam, and can carry 6 star fighters and 2 shuttles

Sil 5

Speed 3

Handling -1

Shields 2/1/1/2

Armor 6

Hull threshold 45

Ss threshold 28

Hyper drive 2/backup 12

Sensor range medium

Enc 800

Passengers 75

Consumables 1 year

1750000 credits rarity 7

3 hard points.

Very cool ship. Crew requirements are slightly too high to be a party ship unless it's crewed by minion droids.

@Tramp Graphics other than a small crew requirement, and that is circumventable (Droid brains and minion droids) it has everything and more that you're fond of claimING that you can only get out of a CEC YZ-900

While the consular might have the best turbolaser-to-crew rating in the game, the minstrel sure is hard to beat for traveling in style while still 'sploding pretty much anyone who offends you along the way. Add a roomy hangar as standard and whatever other benefits a civilian design may bring over a military one and its well worth bringing the extra crew. I should get the other players in on getting one for our PCs. One and three quarters of a million credits is perhaps a bit far off at the moment, our PCs currently being in prison and getting their pillows and desserts stolen...

The Space master and Wayfarer are also nice options and, neither being military or luxury ships, should draw a lot less attention. Both of them also qualify for being considered technically ugly, yet somehow strangely awesome looking. Caution is however advised when making left hand turns in the Wayfarer. Always add add an extra sensor package and/or a heavy weapon to to make sure it's clear to turn.

3 hours ago, penpenpen said:

While the consular might have the best turbolaser-to-crew rating in the game, the minstrel sure is hard to beat for traveling in style while still 'sploding pretty much anyone who offends you along the way. Add a roomy hangar as standard and whatever other benefits a civilian design may bring over a military one and its well worth bringing the extra crew. I should get the other players in on getting one for our PCs. One and three quarters of a million credits is perhaps a bit far off at the moment, our PCs currently being in prison and getting their pillows and desserts stolen...

You could always take one from pirates who took it from a hutt. A minstrel class star yacht is perfect bait until the hidden turbolasers pop out

5 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

You could always take one from pirates who took it from a hutt. A minstrel class star yacht is perfect bait until the hidden turbolasers pop out

You'd think the galaxy would catch on at some point...

Once word gets out, maybe a minstrel-class with the turbolasers removed to make room for extra luxury amenities. If everyone assumes you have them, you might not actually need them.

9 hours ago, penpenpen said:

While the consular might have the best turbolaser-to-crew rating in the game, the minstrel sure is hard to beat for traveling in style while still 'sploding pretty much anyone who offends you along the way. Add a roomy hangar as standard and whatever other benefits a civilian design may bring over a military one and its well worth bringing the extra crew. I should get the other players in on getting one for our PCs. One and three quarters of a million credits is perhaps a bit far off at the moment, our PCs currently being in prison and getting their pillows and desserts stolen...

The Space master and Wayfarer are also nice options and, neither being military or luxury ships, should draw a lot less attention. Both of them also qualify for being considered technically ugly, yet somehow strangely awesome looking. Caution is however advised when making left hand turns in the Wayfarer. Always add add an extra sensor package and/or a heavy weapon to to make sure it's clear to turn.

Steal a luxury yacht you say? I thought that was the way to conflict, but what the **** I'm already darksided. Lets find us one of those suckers and steal the everloving crap out of it, then we can pirate in style!

1 minute ago, Darth Revenant said:

Steal a luxury yacht you say? I thought that was the way to conflict, but what the **** I'm already darksided. Lets find us one of those suckers and steal the everloving crap out of it, then we can pirate in style!

Given our luck, I think we should be prepared to settle for less .

C-Roc is solid contender.

3 hours ago, penpenpen said:

You'd think the galaxy would catch on at some point...

Once word gets out, maybe a minstrel-class with the turbolasers removed to make room for extra luxury amenities. If everyone assumes you have them, you might not actually need them.

It says each one is custom, maybe the turbo lasers are just a common upgrade rather than standard, and there are a lot of different starship in the galaxy, it's impossible for anyone to know all of them and I think these ships are uncommon outside of Hutt space.

7 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

it's impossible for anyone to know all of them

Have you even met Star Wars fans?

16 minutes ago, penpenpen said:

Have you even met Star Wars fans?

Anyone in universe, the star wars galaxy is a lot bigger than the fiction we have about it (e.g. we don't have the details on every sentient who ever lived). And no sentient in universe knew every ship ever made in the unknown (to them) regions. But I agree that a star wars fan could know about every ship ever published.

Its not like there aren't other civilian ships that size with turbos. Look at the CR-90s AKA the most common civilian capital ship in the known galaxy

Why not give them a modified CIS C-9979 Landing ship and you could add it a hyperspace engine, living crew quarters, an armory, lands hip cargo bay, and maybe some holding cell. According to the wookiepedia an used C-9979 costs 75k used and 200k new