Who, exactly, crews the ships of the Adeptus Astartes? Servitors? Highly trained voidmen? Mind-wiped pressmen? A combination of all those? Something else? It's certainly not the Marines, who are apparently too busy praying and kicking seven kinds of hell out of everything to hand, reef, and steer as it were.

Highly trained voidmen, officially classified as chapter serfs.

Specific chapters may use a different approach, depending on their style. Still, chapter serfs are used for all basic tasks that space marines themselves don't have the time and numbers for. Some of the highest ranking officers on their ships might actually be fully modified space marines themselves, though they don't seem to count against the maximum number of space marines as defined by the Codex Astartes.

Scut-work is mostly done by servitor charls, failed candidates for becoming space marines. The ships tend to be captained by Battle-Brothers incapable of fighting on the front lines anymore.

I imagine Space Marine vessels have alot more automation than most vessels, allowing for a much smaller crew than an equivalent ship.

Thanks boys, I'll take that all into consideration.

Some chapters use servitors or a mix, like the Grey Knights...which can all be forced to self-terminate on a specific word command.

jareddm said:

They do.

The BFG manual gives you more info on Space Marine starships. Basically stating that they benefit from a combination of highly trained crew (and that failed aspirants are still exceptional examples of humanity on top), lots of servitors, and the best technology that the Mechanicus is willing to give anyone.

I think you can still download it on the GW website.

And I hope we get rules for the ships of the Astartes soon.

I looked up the original article To Cleanse The Stars , where the Space Marine fleet is officially added to Battlefleet Gothic (it was not included in the four 'starter races'). While a translation to Rogue Trader stats has not been officially done yet, Space Marine vessels are indeed all noted to have exceptional armour and weapons, and superior technology compared to vessels from the 'normal' battlefleet, albeit highly specialized towards planetary assault. Some of the technology serves to vastly reduce crew complement and Space Marine vessels use higher leadership values by default. It is also noted that Masters of the Fleet don't just use standard boarding parties (which being Astartes are nasty enough) but Terminator boarding parties. Gulp. Also, there is the following sidebar:

Unlike the vessels of the Imperial Navy, a Space Marine ship has a relatively small crew. A Space Marine is far too valuable to waste in manning a gun or watching a surveyor screen, and so only the officers aboard a vessel are likely to be Space Marines, as well as the few Techmarines who oversee the engines and perform other mechanical duties. Almost all the ship’s systems are run and monitored by servitors; half-human cyborgs who are wired into the vessel’s weapons, engines and communications apparatus. There are also a few hundred Chapter serfs to attend to other duties, such as routine cleaning and maintenance, serving theSpace Marines during meal times and other such honoured tasks. These serfs come from the Chapter’s home planet or the enclave they protect, many of them Novitiates or applicants who have failed some part of the recruiting or training process. These serfs are fanatically loyal to their superhuman masters, and indoctrinated into many of the lesser orders of the Chapter’s Cult. Although human, they still benefit from remarkable training and access to superior weaponry than is usually found on a naval vessel, making them a fearsome prospect in a boarding action – even without the support of their genetically modified lords.

This should give an indication of Space Marine crew requirements.

The various Horus Heresy novels give a nice overview of life on board a Strike Cruiser or Battle Barge, so I recommend those for mood. Also, there is a book in the Ciaphas Cain series which is largely situated on a Space Marine vessel.

The very minimum you will have the ship's Captain, which is an Astarted, and a handful of Techmarines (sometimes as few as one depending). From there its, as mentioned, advanced servitors and other chapter serfs.

For Rogue Trader I'd give them a high crew skill (50 or 60) and the "Servitor Crew" upgrade.

Also of note is the fact that not all Space Marine ships are unique to them, they also use Sword/Firestorm/Cobra frigates & destroyers as rapid strike vessels. They do have a few unique hulls, but those are considered more rare.

kenshin138 said:

Incidentally, the Navy and certain factions of the Mechanicus are still not happy and kicking up a fuss about those Astartes RSVs, particularly the Nova-class frigate.

The Navy is concerned about how it will affect the balance of power for the Astartes to have their own escort vessels suited to fleet actions, rather than having to request and requisition them from Navy shipyards (which is why they're all against the Nova, as apparently a lance weapon is considered anti-ship rather than anti-planetary weaponry).

The Mechanicus is annoyed that the Dark Angels designed and built these from their own resources and started distributing the design to other chapters without consulting with Mars about their place in the STC canon. For that matter, the AdMech is probably worried about the Astartes having a design they can build without needing tech-priest support.

I'd reckon that to bring it in line with Rogue Trader crews you'd probably have a crew about half the size of an equivalent sized vessel, half of which might be servitors.

Crew ratings would probably begin at 50 and just go up from there.

A bonus to boarding and hit and runs due to extremely well trained chapter serfs (who even before their training were so badass they were considered good candidates for marines) might be +10, with that going up, a lot, maybe +40 if the ship has a company of marines onboard.

As for the ships themselves, overgunned, over armoured, fast frigates, cruisers and the occasional battle barge (essentially a battleship).