Hi, new to the forums and I've got a question. My group wants to hire troops to be get the use of their Barracks, but I was wondering if someone could tell me if there is a limit to how many soldiers they can fit on the ship, or if there is a set number the Barracks allows you to have.

There is not, in fact, an established number. Most people on the board appear to be running it around 1,000 to 10,000 depending on conditions, equipment etc. Clearly mechanized troops will fill up the space faster then light infantry. The exact number may also depend on the exact orginization of the troops to determan what amounts to 1 battalion, 1 division and or 1 Army.

Got ya. I think I have a way. Thanks

You can, however, only have one Barracks component (to answer your second question).

^ Nope, you can cram in as many barracks as you have room for. (They're in the "Cargo Holds and Passenger Compartments" category, not the "Additional Facilities" mentioned in the errata.) Which makes sense, really.

As for how many men, I suggested 5000 the last time it came up , but I'm leaning more towards 10-20 thousand now. It all depends on how well equipped they are, and how much you think should be included in the "barracks" component that's not included in regular crew quarters. Stores? Gyms? Shooting ranges? Do they have tanks? APCs? Artillery? How many support personnel? And so on.

I ruled you can transport up to 500 troops without barracks, want more, get barracks.

A single set of barracks can hold a single regiment 5.000 men and their equipment (say a few tanks, walker, apc's and artillery)

Iku Rex said:

Fair enough, though I'd houserule otherwise. Or, if I didn't restrict it to only one barracks, I'd have the 6 month supplies be reduced faster due to more people eating the food and drinking the water to balance it a bit.

How would you regulate that? Is there a ratio you use or what?

The way our GM figured was that it was dependant on the ship's size and crew compliment. Barracks took up the same amout of room as crew quarters after all... and troop barracks would be like pressed quarters with large exercise areas, supplies, munitions, vehicle parks, etc.

Our cruiser therefore was able to house about the 3 quarters of the amount of troops as crew... modified of course for mechanised and cavalry regiments so in the end we agreed on about 60,000 troops for our cruiser.

I forgot to add - 60,000 troops is nothing when trying to subdue a planet!

Well, a ship can hold 6 months worth of supplies for it's crew. It's fairly simple to figure out how much faster the food will run out if you have half as many additional troops as you do normal crew (it would reduce the supplies to 4 months).

Giaus Novus Khan said:

One of the ideas feeding into Rogue Trader is of the conquistadors conquering much larger empires with superior technology, cunning and more than a few local allies. 60,000 troops in the right place at the right time and a world can be yours.

For additional fun, scroll down to "The Motives of the Spanish Conquistadors" on this page: www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/spanish-conquistadors.htm - more than a little reminiscent of Rogue Traders.

I always took the Barrecks to include the areas to store food and other supplies for the people living there. You need atleast 3 Barracks componenets to make a dedicated troop transport, which are known to exist. I would, however, make it so the Hit & Run and boarding action bonuses don't stack. At a point, they just get in each other's way.

Quicksilver said:

If that was being used, then fair enough, there's no need to balance it, because all that additional Barracks do is add more space for troops.

I've houseruled in my game that a barracks holds about 5000 troops plus all their kit, supplies, vehicles (within reason) and so on. It contains very limited training facilities, firing ranges, dojos, etc.

Also house ruled, multiple barracks get diminishing returns on boarding/hit and run bonuses. First barracks is full bonus (+20), second is half that (+10) and the third is half that again (+5). Any more don't add the bonus.

Multiple barracks are certainly possible and i'd not have it affect th ships stores, the barracks contain ample stores for the troops.

A dedicated troop ship might be a transport with 4 barracks and not much else at all. Bugger all use in space, but good for hauling around 20,000 household troops.

True Imperial navy troop carriers might be the size of cruisers carrying somewhere in the region of 100,000 to 200,000 troops, although in practice these would be used for only the largest wars. Most Imp guard regiments wouldn't require anything so huge.

Well let's see... a Space Marine Strike Cruiser is known to carry a single company's worth of troops on average. That is about 1000 power armored troops with supporting gear and maybe a few supporting vehicles, and that is usually with training and housing. A strike cruiser is about equal to a light cruiser, give or take, but is more of a dedicated "troop carrier" than the Dauntless per se. A dedicated troop ship based on a Dauntless Chassis is probably going to max at 3-4 barracks (haven't done the math, but by my reckoning I'm close enough). A strike cruiser probably has about the same, or a little less than that (due to the heavy weapons and armor also stacked onto the Strike Cruiser frame). However, it is likely that since Guardsmen take up less space than a Space Marine, you could probably fit at least 1.5x as many Guardsmen as Space Marines into the same amount of space.

Therefore, I estimate each barracks able to hold approximately 500-750 marines and their gear, which would equate to 750-1000 guardsmen and gear at least. Obviously the kind of unit being transported would make a difference, as 1000 light infantry would take up less space than 500 mechanized infantry in all likelihood.

That's just my stream of thought, not exact science or anything.

Barracks use as much space as voidsmen quarters for a Cruiser (95 000 crew). Soldiers would probably have to settle for pressed-crew quarters standards, so we could theoretically be talking about 125 000 men. But again, you need the room for more than just quarters.

1000 guardsmen is too few. Even the vague description says that barracks have room for "thousands".

A Space Marine Company is around 100 Space Marines, not 1000 (that's an entire Chapter), so your calculations are way off in that regard, sadly.

MILLANDSON said:

You are so right. That'll teach me for posting at 2 am.

I'd say that a space marine strike cruiser would probably only have a single barracks. Much space, in Rogue Trader terms would be spent on increased armour, big ass guns and supercharged engines.

Space marine barracks could well be the same as normal barracks cost wise but holding only 100 troops. However, given that its marines, you'd expect complex training grounds with various simulated conditions, extensive shooting ranges, mock combat set ups for trench warfare, house to house, jungle, etc.

Essentially instead of holding lots of troops, most room would be for extremely high quality training environs. Marines, after all, live pretty much solely for combat and spend most of their time in training.

I'd imagine that the barracks component might contain dedicated pod bays sufficient to land the entire company, plus vehicles, dreadnaughts and anything else they require via drop-pod.

I haven't seen anyone do stats for marine vessels. I'd imagine they'd be rather deadly in a ship to ship battle and utterly vicious in hit and run attacks. Certainly more so than murder servitors.

Barracks use as much space as voidsmen quarters for a Cruiser (95 000 crew). Soldiers would probably have to settle for pressed-crew quarters standards, so we could theoretically be talking about 125 000 men. But again, you need the room for more than just quarters.

There's a problem with that logic: it's assumed that every ship will have one and exactly one of each essential component. The result is that most ships may actually have larger Space ratings, but we never see them because they're used up by the bare-bones variants of the components. If that isn't true, I'm sure you can explain why voidsmen quarters for a Vagabond trader (crew 18k) take up exactly the same space as voidsmen quarters for a Tempest frigate (crew 30k - one and a half times as many) - or for that matter, why the Ship Master's Bridge takes up as much space on a cruiser as pressed crew quarters. I mean, 40k is all about opulent, but for a bridge to take up the same room as the living space of a hundred thousand people?

Depending on the chapter, a Space Marine Strike Cruiser may not even have a barracks. In many chapters, the marines also act as the ships officers – overseeing systems and keeping up morale and discipline among the chapter serfs. In this case they’d fall into the normal officer and/or voidsman quarters, like a Rogue Trader and his 100 personal bodyguards.

Strike cruisers are powerful, but they’re designed specifically for breaching orbital defenses, not fleet engagements. Even with their advancements and bonuses they’re no match for a true ship-of-the-line. Which was intentional after the Horus Heresy.

Quicksilver said:

I'd disagree. While some Astartes serve officer roles in their Chapters' fleets, they're still aboard the Strike Cruiser or Battle Barge to be transported to their designated warzone.

Now, they may not stay in a conventional barracks - certainly, I imagine that each marine has his own quarters, compete with arming chamber and storage for his own wargear, along with personal servants and servitors.

Either way, I imagine that the benefits of having a company of Marines on board would be pretty much identical to those of having a barracks filled with thousands of men - boosts to hit-and-run attacks and boarding actions, and bonus points on Military objectives... in the close confines of an enemy vessel, a Space Marine is as deadly as many times his number of warriors (fewer enemies can attack the Marine at one time, and from shorter distances, and generally with lighter weaponry).