Hi Rogue Traders,

So, I was browsing through Battlefleet Koronus, and it occured to me that Jovian Escort Bays were relatively weak... which would be fine if they weren't light cruiser components.

My problem is the following: light cruisers are on average 5 profit factors cheaper than cruisers only, and already feature 1 fewer port/starboard mount pair and one fewer void shield. This makes escort bays relatively underpowered, since that's all a light cruiser will get. The prow weapon isn't very useful on a carrier light cruiser, since it has to go through the void shield (for a lance) or the armor (for a macrobattery). The only thing it an really

Basically, light cruiser carriers are impractical and way overpriced. they get half the strike craft abilities of a cruiser, and no other practical weapon - or 1/4th the strike craft ability of a full-carrier cruiser or star galleon, even though star galleons are cheaper and can do other things. I don't see any incentive to buy that starship instead of a slightly more expensive buy vastly more efficient cruiser.

Does anyone else share my point of view? Would it be unbalanced to change the availability of escort bays to "Transport/Raider/Frigate" and the standard launch bays to "light cruiser" and above? It would help justify the ship point difference between frigate and light cruiser...

Also, I would like to have adivce about the following set of houserules concerning strike crafts:

-Bombers squadron cannot be grouped together in a single wave.

-Each hit deals 1d10+5 (not 1d10+4) to compensate.

-Turret defense check is an opposed test vs. the piloting test.

-Grouping a fighter wing with a bomber wing (as escort) gives a -10 to the turret defense test, and the fighters are defeated first. The turrets can ignore the fighters and shoot straight at the bomber with a -20 penalty to the roll.

Does this look reasonable? I'm not looking for perfect balance, but I want these choices to be decent ones for the players/NPC.

The Escort Bays only really make sense on support vessels, not ships of the line. I can see an RT getting a Light Cruiser with the escort bays and torpedo tubes in the prow that stands way back during battles, launching ordnance at will.

Of course, that's one really expensive Light Cruiser at that point...

They are escort bays. Imo they serve to get enough fighters on a light cruiser to be able to fend off a bombing or torpedo run by an enemy. Not to be an offensive weapon.

I think they are fine as is. Just have to think more in terms of rogue traders and less in terms of imperial navy when employing them (or factoring them in to a build).

Badlapje said:

But then, that light cruiser will have nothing else to defend itself with (except that prow weapon), so its only purpose in life will be "defending itself against enemy bombers". I mean, this would be all fine if light cruisers were 45 or 50 ship points, but here, I can get a cruiser for 57, or a star galleon for 52, and they'll be much better at this stuff.

The Defiant class costs half the points of a cruiser in Battlefleet Gothic, and the void shield rules are different in that game, making the prow weapon more useful. That's why it has fewer strike crafts. In Rogue Trader, Defiant classes are just a choice that's difficult to justify.

the defiant already comes with two jovian pattern launch bay components (not escorts). I just think it depends on what you want. If you want a ship that serves as a main ship, then no: don't use escorts. If you want a fast scout that can take a beating, then a light cruiser isn't a bad choice. And in that situation an escort bay might be good too as it allows you a few fast eyes and ears to do reconnaissance of a star system.

RTs aren't all that wealthy, so the upkeep for fighters and bombers might be a reason to take it over a proper launch bay. But basically: if you don't like the component, don't use it. It's not that expensive to upgrade to a lathe pattern launch bay after all.

Badlapje said:

Light cruisers can only have escort bays. Which is my problem (it might make sense in BFG, but in Rogue Trader, but in RT a light cruiser carrier is just underpowered).

p26 of BFK: "the defiant class LC comes pre-equipped with two Jovian-class Launch Bay Components, which may not be removed."

I know. However there are no such things as Jovian Launch Bays, just Jovian Landing or Escort bays. And the only one that fits in a light cruiser is the Escort one.

Werewindlefr said:

They go back to being rather good if you allow them to turn 90 degrees like frigates.

A lenient reading of the upgrade rules on table 1-5 of Battlefleet and treating them as if they were just another weapon might allow you to upgrade them to best quality for any extra point of strength and one fewer point of energy/space which would give them remarkable space efficiency relative to the two holds for cruisers.

This means for an extra sp relative to a standard Jovian Class Bay, you could have the same hitting power in half the space. It would be difficult to acquire however and this could be bordering on a house rule.

I rather like the Defiant-class Light Cruiser and I think that as it comes pre-equipped with non-removable bays that those bays are in fact the Jovian Pattern Landing Bay's, not the Escort Bay's. I often use the rule that if the designers use a pre-equipped option it is because they want to give the class a more advance pattern that it is designed for.

The question in my opinion is, what is the best weapon to equip the prow slot with? A torpedo launcher to make a long range stand-off fight with carrier capabilities?

Either a torpedo launcher, or an Errata'd Voidsunder with 3 strength. The torpedo launcher is the best bet - a Mars-pattern will do. Sure, it makes the starship very reliant on acqusition tests (to replace expended torpedoes and destroyed crafts), but on the upside, it's a very potent vessel that will literally tear through raiders and even frigates with relative ease.

My suggestion is to equip it with at least a Craft Repair Bay (or whatever the name is, I don't have the book near me at the moment). You want to avoid having to replace lost bombers too frequently.