I always felt that a Rogue Trader should have enough resources not to have to do his own dirty work, and the rules for armsmen aboard ships made me happy as a clam when they came out. Barracks, storm trooper detachments and plain old Acquired bodyguards have been very popular in the games I've been involved with, when player characters have felt that they are above fighting their own battles. So far, none of this has been a problem.

However, when I recently went about building my own space ship I ran into a bit of a problem. Normally, when my players buy Crack or Elite crews, I make it clear to them that this doesn't mean everyone on the crew has 50 in all stats (since that'd make Space Marines seem weak), but that they have skilled admins, experienced leaders, crack pilots and so on and so on, to the point where every test is made against a rating of 50. However, when it comes to armsmen this poses something of a problem.

Obviously, not each one of their 9.000 armsmen can have 50 WS, 50 BS, 50 S, T and Ag, but at the same time they should be 'elite' armsmen. How would you deal with this?

Last but not least, comments to the effect of 'how dare you let your players use their NPCs for things' aren't really helpful. Assuming the players are allowed to bring armsmen with them, how would you stat Crack and Elite armsmen?

Gear, Squad leaders, versatility and accessories are probably the best way to go. For instance; choice of sidearm, close combat weapon, grenades per man. Availability of gunners for non-standard weapons - the Party might Acquire 10,000 meltaguns for their armsmen, but how many would actually be trained in their use? Same goes for demolition experts, scouts, artillery observers etc, a higher Rated group of Armsmen can do more with the same basic stats.