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The Mass Combat rules under 'The Detailed Method' on pg. 292 of the core book do not mention what the Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill would be. One could assume these would be the average of combatants in the unit, which makes perfect sense. However, the rules for hiring soldiers on pg.271-272 do not take into account what their Ballistic or Weapon Skill would be.

Additionally it does not specifically provide rules for arming any combatants hired, unless one makes the assumption that the 'Combining Acquisition' rule on pg.271 applies to mercenaries as well as items, or that the equipment is purchased as a series of separate acquisitions.

theres a section on ground wars in the battlefleet kronos book. troop quality (and thus bs/ws) is on page 126 of that book. default skill is 30, the same as for ship crews.

Thank you. Sadly I don't have that book yet, so I appreciate the information.

How about rules for troop capacity? Clearly a Starship can hold a great number of people, but most of these will be crewman. The Rogue Trader can purchase one hundred troops quite easily (+0), but there will have to be a limit on how many he can transport.

For example a frigate might have a maximum crew of 25,000. How many mercenaries might you have in addition to this number, or settlers for that matter? How many aircraft can fit in the cargo bay etc.?

Ships: 1 lighter, shuttle, or heavy lifter for every 5 Space your ship has.

Troops: I wouldn't allow more than a thousand troops aboard most ships without the installation of a Barracks component. That said, the warrant for my player groups permits the requisitioning of Imperial Guard, provided they can properly support and maintain them, including suitable quarters.

Those lighters are supposed to be the size of a jumo (size of an assault boat).

Which means those ships can carry a few platoons easily. Plus every cargohold adds another 4 transport vessels. Id allow barracks to have such transports too.

Idk about ships without barracks, but a ship with barracks should be able to handle quite a large number of soldiers.

On the Lunar of my PCs (i upped crew to half a million) ill up barracks to allow 270k troops. Which is an army groups worth. Troop acquisition will be extra. (But i have a WW2 fanatic as a Rogue Trader)

According to Forgeworld an Aarvus Lighter is a small shuttle capable of transporting small infantry squads. That would suggest a passenger capacity of eight to ten people.

Don't forget, you never pay mercenaries enough to die fore your cause...

Santiago said:

Unless you hire Orks.