Hi. I have two questions.

1º: A ship without Lighter bay, how many auxiliar ships (arvus, halo barges, gun-cuuter, etc) could transport?

2º The Chiroptean Scout from Into The Storm looks very util, but I found strange that this flyer not have the spacecraft rule, because, until now, all the Imperial flyers are most designed to operate under the wing of the imperial navy. Could be a errata?

3º The Drop pods after use (crash on the drop site) how are rescued? With a barge or they can be take off alone?

1. All ships have some sort of capacity for shuttles and such. There is no rules on it that I know of. So we had to house rule it and my group uses 12 smallish non combat shuttles for a transport/raider/frigate, 24 for a light cruiser, and 36 for a cruiser. That is base, additional transports are gained based on the components you buy, buying a cargo hold gets you a number of larger transports (the bays are considered part of the component), and buying a barracks gets you some combat ground transports, etc.

2. No idea sorry.

3. Drop pods cannot take off on their own. You will have to load them on a transport.

CodenameXXIII said:

Actually, while the Thunderbolt, Lightning and Marauder (the main atmospheric heavy fighter, interceptor and medium bomber, respectively, of the Imperial Navy) are void-capable (for deployment purposes primarily - they're too small and too fragile for void combat, and aren't designed for it really), not all Imperial Navy aircraft are - the Valkyrie (and its variants) and Vulture gunships are low-altitude aircraft that lack any ability to operate outside of a planetary atmosphere.

Rules for the exact number of smaller craft a void ship usually has on it are likely to appear in the new Battlefleet book (At least I would hope so)

As for the pods, I figure they're picked up by lighters or some other ship(s) that come with the pods component itself.

In regard to question number 1.

I would handle it like Cargo space. You have some, but not enough to get a bonus out of it. Problem i see is that the cargo and lighter bay is just so much cooler. It has a lighter bay! Screw the oversized compartiments. I want that lighter bay. But without it you wouldnt be able to deploy enough craft to mount a full scale assault, or quickly trasnfer alot of cargo (Into the Maw right at the end could be played like that).

Voronesh said:

I would assume that ALL of the cargo holds come with lighters associated with them. The Cargo Hold and Lighter Bay just sticks the cargo into an enlarged (and unbalanced) combined hold. The 'oversized compartments' like the Compartmentalized Cargo Hold and the Main Cargo Hold are a step up and couldn't be as beneficial as they are if they didn't also include lighters to facilitate transfer of the cargo.

I received an official answer from FFG:

"1. Ships without a Hanger Bay or equivalent component do still have
hangers, they just have smaller hangers with less small craft.
Concrete rules are actually provided in the upcoming Battlefleet
Koronus, but as a rough guideline, you could allow a ship to have
three or four bulk lifters with the carrying capacity of a commercial
jetliner."

HappyDaze said:

Well youre right, its more of a defense against people who think a cargo bay is needed for transport endeavors. Cause its is either implicated that sufficient cargo hold (and hangar space) is available or it isnt. But that is what is so great about RT. You have pretty much every type of basic stuff on the ship. It just might not be good enough for real heavy duty.

CodenameXXIII said:

I'm glad they've decided to put concrete rules in BfK, I've been poking them in every RT playtest I've been in to include them Them being in BfK makes sense though, given it's all about space ships and stuff

I would like that on BK the speak about the Zaith macro-canons. When I played that adventure with my players they want install the auto reload macro cannons on their ship but I dont know what rules to apply

CodenameXXIII said:

Personally, I gave the group's Macrobattery a +1 bonus to Strength and a bonus degree of success on all successful attacks, so basically the gun hits once more per turn than it otherwise would.

In my game I gave the macrocannons +1 Damage and halved population damage to that component. It's largely a McGuffin in my opinion anyway; interesting from a technical perspective, but not truly better than what the Imperium's managed to preserve thus far.

CodenameXXIII said:

If you want ot be really lazy/evil.

Simply reduce crew numbers. Autoreloaders used instead of actual people. NUmber of shots still the same. But that is kinda too grimdark for most players i think ^^.

Always remember. The cheapest resource on a RT ship, is a human life that is doind indentured work (loading macrocannons). Better lose 200 people loading macrocannons, than the 1 ships-confessor.

Reload people on a Hive Planet is the easy thing on the 40K universe. The Rogue Trader only need to go down to the poorest places and say: "Who wants 2 daily meals and bed?

CodenameXXIII said:

A +20 to the test, but by no means the easiest thing in the world. Also there's that pesky Imperial governor you have to placate in the process. I would even go further and say if you want competent (rating: 30) crew, increase the modifier by -20 for +0.

Fortinbras said:

Crew rating shouldnt be that important when were talking reloading people. Simply aquire a few extras and have anybody who cant pull a rope correctly put into the brig for some time. If that doesnt improve training, have someone shot for handling sacred Imperial tech older than the scums family not in orderly manner.

Voronesh said:

You're incorrect. See P.226 of the corebook, and P.32 Edge of the Abyss for examples of what I just said. The example on P.38 specifically caps the amount of crew you can recover to 12 because the people of Naduesh have zero experience with machines.

Fortinbras said:

Absolutely correct new hires should likely effect drew competency if done in enough numbers. In fact in the above example I might even be harsher than that I would also proabbaly add a morale problem as tribals would have a hard time with ship board life and adaptation to it would be slow.

That being said hive worlds are really good places to pick up crew. Not only do they have lots of people but they are all used to machines and living in caves of steel. They should adapt quickly to life on a ship and with their tech knowledge would be useful for a lot more than strong back weak mind work right out of the box. So you could probably get away with picking up quite a few before it effected crew rating. Of course I would be much harsher if you had a really high crew rating of 50+.

Fortinbras said:

They are pulling a rope. You missed the point.

If we were talking general losses of crew after combat, i would totally agree with you. Since this started as we need a few people to replace losses at the macrocannons reloading stations i heartily disagree with you. (Since this is what autoloaders do). Imagine a bomb set in in crew quarters killing specifically a few people wo pull ropes in the macrocannon departement. Highly constructed i agree.

Voronesh said:

Perhaps if your grasp of the English language didn't extend only as far as a Babelfish translation, I wouldn't have missed it.

I was replying to CodenameXXIII, who wasn't replying to a post but was offering a generality. You replied to me, and I replied to you, assuming that you were attacking the premise I asserted. That's what I get for thinking logically I guess. Next time don't be so quick to hit the reply button simply because you dislike me.

In addition, as per Into the Storm's description in the Starships Extended chapter, "pulling a rope" can become a lost art on a ship where generations of crew live and die without ever seeing the surface of a planet. This is the second time you've basically been caught not knowing what you're talking about, perhaps you should go read the books.

Fortinbras said:

Oh good. It's not just me that Forti gets pissy with then...

Fortinbras said:

Ahh great. I offer you that i agree with you if were talking about general crew population and stuff (which is me actually saying whoops if i did miss the point). What do i get in return? Straight up smacktalk. Very mature. I dont know how old you are, but please you dont leave a good impression this way.