Well, I got bored again, and decided to put all those delicious new ship options from Rogue Trader: Into the Storm to use...

Thunder's Word , Galdius Class Frigate:

Crew Skill Rating: 40
NPC Crew Actions : 4
Crew: 100%
Morale: N/A
Speed: 11
Maneuverability: +31
Detection: +25
Hull Integrity: 35/35
Armor: 18(20 front)
Turret Rating: 4
Space: 45/45
Power: 47/47
Weapon Capacity: Dorsal 2

Plasma Drive: Lathe-Pattern Class 2b "Escort" Drive
Warp Drive: Markov 1 Warp Engine / Warpsbane Hull
Void Shields: Castellan Void Shield
Ship's Bridge: Command Bridge
Life Sustainers: M-1.r Life Sustainer
Crew Quarters: Pressed Crew Quarters
Auger Arrays: Deep Void Auger Array

Armament:

Dorsal Staravar Turbo-Laser Macrobattery
Strength 4, 1d10+2 Damage, Crit 4, Range 13

Dorsal Staravar Turbo-Laser Macrobattery
Strength 4, 1d10+2 Damage, Crit 4, Range 13

Extras
Augmented Retro-Thrusters
Micro Laser Defence Grid
Drop Pod and Thunderhawk Bay
Empyrean Mantle
Reinforced Prow

Upgrades
Best Quality Turbo-Weapon Batteries x2
Best Quality Servitor Crew (Skill 40)
Best Quality Star Chart Collection
Good Craftmanship Atomics x3

Background - Deathwatch Vessel:

Emperor's Crusader: All BS skill tests to fire the ship's weapons gain a +10 Bonus
Strike and Fade: All Silent Running manoeuvres the ship performs gain a +10 Bonus
Duty Unto Death: When this ship is crippled, the ship's Captain may make a Challenging (+0) Command Test. If the Test is successful, the ship does not suffer the effects of being crippled during its subsequent turn.

Assorted Bonuses:
Atomics (Good Quality): Nuclear Warhead, Capable of destroying a hive spire between 5-10 km across. Can be adapted into a torpedo or macrocannon shell, does 1d5+5 hits doing 1d10+6 damage each, void shields and armor protect against this normally, however all hits are added together as a salvo. If detonated deep inside a ship or station, destruction is guaranteed.
Castellan Void Shield: During one opponent's turn, the ship's Engineseer may make a Difficult (-10) Tech-Use Test, this does not count as the Engineseer's Extended Action. If he Succeeds, the ship doubles its number of void shields for the duration of a single opponent's strategic turn.
Command Bridge: +5 to Command Tests by Captain, +5 to Ship Weapon BS Tests
Empyrean Mantle: All tests to detect this vessel while in Silent Running increase their difficulty by two degrees.
Markov 1 Warp Engine: Reduces base travel time for a journey through the Immaterium by 1d5 weeks.
Reinforced Prow: Ship has +2 armor in front facing, does +1d5 damage when ramming.
Servitor Crew (Best Quality): Morale is always 100%, Crew losses reduced by 50% (minimum 1), Crew Skill Rating = 40
Star Chart Collection (Best Quality): Reduces Warp Travel times by 1d5+5 days, to a minimum of one.
Turbo-Weapon Batteries x2 (Best Quality): Ignores penalties for firing at double range, +5 to Weapon's BS Tests
Warpsbane Hull: Any Navigation Tests to pilot the ship through the warp gain a +10 Bonus. When rolling on the Warp Travel Encounters table, the GM rolls twice and allows the Navigator to chose which result is applied.

Hull was based on a slighty upgraded Sword Class Frigate, since its a very close analogy to the Galdius. Otherwise I just threw in whatever felt appropriate and was suitably sneaky/killy. Fast, sneaky, hard, and capable of blowing apart ships of equal tonnage at frightening distances. It can outfight anything it can't outrun (which isn't much) and outrun anything it can't outfight. It is certainly not a ship I'd want to go up against with anything less than a Grand Cruiser.

I don't know if it has a practical use, I doubt I'd ever use it myself in a game of Deathwatch, since that focuses on the ground action, but it was an amusing enough diversion, so I figured I'd share.

well with a few adjustments that design could make a good astartes strike cruiser.

and I would adjust emperors crusade to apply only against xenos ships

This thing is built on a Frigate hull, I'd hate to see what I could build using a Cruiser hull and more goodies.

And good suggestion RE: the Crusader Trait. All three of those traits are simply lifted from three seperate ship background packages.

I like it, and I find myself wishing I had a copy of Into the Storm.

But, to concur with earlier sentiments, I don't plan on running any space combat in my Deathwatch game.

I like it a lot, too. Very good work.

Out of interest, did you keep a running total of how many ship points this little beauty cost? One imagines it's massively expensive, even by Rogue Trader standards...but that is of course totally appropriate for an Astartes vessel.

Excellent work.

Am I missing something (some rule), or does the ship lack a crew complement number ?

@ Lightbringer:

70+ish. But its got multiple pieces of Archeotech installed as well as several Best-Quality Upgrades (which technically don't cost ship points). So someone like Deathwatch is pretty much the only one who could afford such a ship, and from what I understand, the Thunder's Word is exceptional even amongst Watch Fortress Erioch's fleet.

@Ariolan:

Crew in Rogue trader is measured in a percentage. If you mean actual population, Frigates usually have around 10,000-25,000 personell aboard, however this ship has an (almost) all Servitor crew, and is likely highly automated by Machine Spirits, so who knows how many "people" are actually aboard. In the fluff I've read, the hard only crew number mention for Gladius Frigates is that they're captained by a single Space Marine and are capable of transporting a one Squad worth of marines. Add in a few Marines for Thunderhawk crew and the Thunder's Word probably has no more than a dozen Battle Brothers aboard usually.

Yea, the Astartes ships have very few marines onboard. In the GM Kit adventure there are 2. I have been running 1-2 for a ship of this size. I suppose there would likely be a Techmarine though, not sure how they explain that really.

GalagaGalaxian - very nice work

Just a couple of little things though...

Crew Quarters: Pressed Crew Quarters - I would have thought Voidsmens would have been better; the crew of SM ships are Chapter surfs and are thought much more of the pressed ganged masses of the typical Imperial warship.

Reinforced Prow - not really something you see on the SM ships (at least not according to BFG), I always saw this as the great armoured prows of the Lunar class and her ilk.

Anyway, more please

DW

Traveller61 said:

I went with Pressed CrewQuarters because I figure the Thunder's Word is very spartan, its described as having very little internal spaces that aren't dedicated to the engines, weapons batteries or other similar components. Finally the majority of the crew is servitors, who really don't need crew spaces. Honestly though I originally had Voidsman quarters but it was downgraded when I needed the space/power to install one of the other components. The quality of the living conditions doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the crew themselves. Chapter serfs, and the Space Marines themselves are very pious and simplistic in their wants. Afterall, a Battle Brother's quarters on the Watch Fortress would be mistake for a prison cell by many normal people.

As for the reinforced prow, its a new component from Into the Storm the kind of "great armoured prows" you're describing are exactly that, the Armoured Prow upgrade from the core Rogue Trader book. Reinforced prow is a new "lesser" version of it, which takes up less space but only has half the effect (+2 front armor and 1d5 bonus ramming damage instead of +4 front armor, 1d10 bonus ramming damage). Additionally only Cruisers can take the armoured prow, while the reinforced prow is available to any ship. I picture Reinforced Prow as just front of the ship being very sturdily built to better absorb fire from enemies, meanwhile Armoured prow is the great "Gothic pattern" (or Ancient Greek ship) style thickly armoured ramming prow designed to smash/slice an enemy ship in half as much as protect the vessel.

GalagaGalaxian - thanks for the explanation; now I see why you made those choices I completely agree with them

Now if we can just have a Strike Cruiser and Battle Barge to go with it please

DW

Great write-up. I've ordered a pack of Gladius escorts (the FW ones) and I'm definitely going to paint one as Thunder's Word. There's just one little thing I would change. I would the base speed of the Gladius by one and give the Thunder's Word a Modified Lathe-Pattern Class 2b "Escort" Drive. Same speed in the end, but the Gladius isn't that much superior to the Sword. As a bonus you get a bit of free space.