What's the largest fleet your Rogue Traders have built up? Is there ever such a thing as too many ships, either to deal with as a GM or player? Some of the more exciting ways you've acquired those ships might be amusing to read as well.

* 1 Tyrant-class Cruiser

* 1 Orion-class transport (original flagship, now it's the cruiser)

* 1 Universal-Mass Conveyor (captured pirate ship)

* 2 Riders (captured pirate ships)

* 1 Goliath-class Factory (found hulked on space and still trying to make it work again)

My guys are partway through Rank 6.

Koronus Available Fleet Ships
1 Grand Cruiser
6 Cruisers
2 Light Cruisers
3 Frigates
14 Raiders
7 Transports

Primary Fleet
Righteous Path, Repulsive Grand Cruiser
Vengefull Longtooth, Universe Mass Conveyor
Dexter Barracus, Dictator Cruiser
Sinistar Barracus, Dictator Cruiser
Mainz-Fulham, Viper Scout Sloop
Collosus, Lunar Cruiser

Naduesh-Zayth Fleet
Cor Imperium, Dominator Cruiser
Mobile Shipyard, Lunar Cruiser
Thellian Phoenix, Meritech Raider
12 Escorts, Hazeroth Raiders
5 Looters, Carrack Transports

Imperium Trade Group
Thesius, Dauntless Light Cruiser
Prestius, Dauntless Light Cruiser
Daedlus, Universe Mass Conveyor

Redemption Defense Fleet
Tempestas Custodi, Lunar Cruiser
Tonitrui, Firestorm Frigate
Grandini, Firestorm Frigate
Fulgur, Firestorm Frigate

Calaxis Assigned Ship Assets

Loaned Navy Ships
10 Claymore Corvettes

Calaxis Trading Fleet
9 Raiders
9 Transports

The following is the fleet. My party is around level 6, and I have a fair cast of NPC's who they know and love / hate ("Frenemies", as my AdMech calls them). The Horst Dynasty has a good relationship with the Imperial Navy and the Adeptus Mechanicus, and a decent relationship with some of the more Imperial-minded Rogue Traders (Saul, Lee, Bastille, Orleans, Blitz). They count Vall's Chaos Raiders and Rogue Traders such as Feckward and Fell as their enemies. As the campaign started around the Gothic War the fleet initially consisted of ships scrapped of Space Hulks and salvaged from dead systems, and they added a few ships in the Koronus Expanse as well. The Radiance generally travels alone of with the Exercitio on account of being a very fast ship and leave the running of the merchant operations to his grandson on board the Gilded Widow . As their fleet size increases, so does their fleet-overhead, and my cunning RT has been dealing with it admirably. So far. ;-)

- Radiance , Dauntless-class light cruiser: flagship and trusted vessel of Sebastian Horst the Elder (player character) and his party. 'Jumped' several centuries into the future in the aftermath of the Gothic War due to a warp squall (rolled very badly on the table), only to find his Dynasty had continued to flourish as merchants but stagnate as Rogue Traders. He intends to redress the balance.

- Exercitio , Cobra-class destroyer: forward scouting destroyer, specializes in escort, boarding and counter-boarding actions. Bit of a lone-wolf vessel with a notoriously deadly murder-servitor boarding crew. Formerly a mercenary vessel.

- Cornelius , Turbulent-class heavy frigate: stodgy old ship, specialized in orbital bombardment and high orbit support of ground offensives. Nearly permanent fixture in the Damaris-system to protect Horst holdings there, as it not so much soars through the stars but plods as if reluctant to leave the gravity well. Its vacuum tube communication system is amusing to no end as the Adeptus Mechanicus representatives kept looking for an MIU port to plug in...

- Gilded Widow , Sword-class frigate: nimble vessel, de-facto flagship of Sebastian Horst the Younger and staunch protector of the Horst merchant ships.

- Cardinal , Vagabond-class transport: in the Gothic War this vessel was hastily pressed into service as Escort Carrier, and was heavily damaged. Saved from the navy breaking yard and repaired by the Horst Dynasty. Later upgraded to handle Fury Interceptors and Starhawk Bombers, it protects the merchant fleet while training fresh pilots to serve on the front-line vessels such as the Radiance , and occasionally serves in the Koronus Expanse. Currently protecting Damaris.

- Light of Faith , Vagabond-class transport: saved from a lonely death in the Gothic War, this workhorse loyally plies the spacelines of the Gothic sector, supplying vast wealth for the Horst coffers.

- Wanderer , Jericho-class transport: while far less glorious then the Light of Faith , the Wanderer is seen as the dumping ground and career-death for House Horst crew and troops. Rumours abound about the practices of its Lord-Captain, but Rogue Trader Horst has yet to involve himself to straighten them out.

- Fire of Heaven , Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser: not officially part of the Fleet, but recently found (and quickly salvaged from under the nose of a traitor Rogue Trader) it is currently laid up in drydock near Damaris to be restored to its former glory - this process is expected to take the better part of a decade even with friendly Adeptus Mechanicus support. It remains a closely guarded secret how this ship ended up in the Expanse, and Sebastian Horst ultimately intends to return this vessel to the Battlefleet Calixis.

And here I thought I was being too generous with the 5 ships I was planning on giving out over the course of the game. It does seem that people tend to favor the Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser as their flagship, which is what I eventually intend to give my players, as it is the nicest looking ship of it's class.

Larkin said:

My players are reaching Rank 5 with the experience they are going to spend next sesion. You've convinced me they need more ships. Fortunatelly, once you have a high enough Profit Factor (My player are currently PF 74 but after this extremely long Endeavour it will reach something like 94 or so) it's not that difficult to make Acquisition rolls for small ships like transports or raiders.

My players started with a 'loaner' - an old Frigate, and worked their way up. My players fully intend to stick to Light Cruisers when it comes to flagships - being an ideal balance. The Repulsive is the best Grand Cruiser, tho, especially because of its speed.

My Characters fleet at the last count, although they will be making additions in the next session!:

200 frigates of various designations
270 raiders
53 light cruisers, 29 cruisers and 12 heavy cruisers
a pair of battleships
330 heighliners.
plus sundry fleets.

This is a huge fleet that has taken almost all their wealth to assemble. they are max level pcs and are currently engaged in a crusade in the expanse against the orks of undred undred teeth, the necrons of the forsaken demanse and the reavers of iniquity! My players prefer an epic feel to their game, and one of them did the math on construction times in 43rd millennium so i was pretty convinced that a normal world (pop 5 billion) could easily churn out a cruiser every five years, plus assorted other ships.

Their personal ships are a dauntless light cruiser (the Companion) and the lunar cruiser vengeful word. These two ships are pretty extensively equipped with arcotech and best quality componenets and have a staff of highly trained officers and navigators. This means they are more suited to the fast operations the PC’s personally get involved in.

Maese Mateo said:

Please take a note that most of those assets are tied up in various functions around the Expanse and only the Primary fleet is available for use. And it's really only 4 combat vessels, 1 scout/boarding vessel and the Dynasty Flag Trade Ship. They have a Combat Flag (The Repulsive) and a Trading Flag (The Universe).

My Rogue Trader has recently expressed a desire to get into smaller vessels and away from the large fleet. This after starting the game planning on capturing a large fleet of vessels by pumping his Command check well over 100... before bonuses.

2-5 ships is an ideal number though, as it gives players the flexibility to do a bunch of stuff whenever they need to.

Larkin said:

Yes, I tough so, that's how we do it as well. My players only take with them the Cruiser, using the other ships to keep working several old Endeavours.

By the end of my game, my lads were rocking the following:

Light of Terra, Emperor-class Battleship

Wrathful Son, Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser

Merovingian, Murder-class Cruiser (refitted to accept transport components)

Knight of Platea, Dauntless-class Light Cruiser

Fata Morgana, Firestorm-clas Frigate (and shockingly still the Flagship)

Sanguine Duty & Sanguine Favour, Falchion-class Frigates

Orion Sky, Orion-class Transport

RMV001 - Goliath-class Factory ship (retrofitted for Mechanicus research and manufactoria use)

Hungry Coyote, Pilgrim-class Transport Vessel

assorted other transport vessels.

Yeah, got a bit ridiculous. When the game ended with the group starting a crusade they actually added more combat ready naval vessels to the crusade than the Imperial Navy did.

Sna said:

Has anyone played around with the idea of capturing alien or chaos ships? I see tons of Imperial ships on these lists but nothing more esoteric.

Ale Golem said:

Not really. Humans shouldn't be able to pilot Xenos Ships (too esoteric and alien for them to understand) and I wouldn't do anything else to a Chaos Ship save to blow it up in a billon pices, since the risks are too high to consider it a good idea.

Not using the ship, but they are looking to salvage the components of the Eldar ship that survived the Nova cannon last Thursday night.

trentmorten said:

The Lunar-class Cruiser Lord Daros was constructed in orbit above the Feral World of Unloth in 11 Terran years by relying on the forced labour of most of that planet’s population for materials, but they're one of the least complicated vessels in the Imperial Navy to construct.

My players are somewhat averse to adding ships to their fleet for some reason, they tended to be more the kick-in-the-door types and didn't get much into the grand stellar empire aspect of RT that much.

My team has just two ships. A frigate and one transport. Rather small perhaps, but we prefer it that way. THey had to earn their ships the hard way as well:

The frigate came with the warrant. But to obtain the warrant they had to negotiate with a down on his luck RT, run from those who wanted to inn the debts, marry the mans daughter, provide him with a luxury lifestyle, bribe quite a few Imperial officials to make the transaction legal to gain the warrant/ship and a really really pissed of noble house who now and then tries to reclaim their goods by subterfuge, lawsuits or assasination attempts. The adventure involved office shootouts, car chases through the docks of Port Wander, Legal solicitors slamming documents on tables, quick negotiations and ofcourse a very rushed marriage ceremony.

The transport used to belong to the old Dynasty and was considered to be lost in the void. The players took the opportunity to reclaim it for their own, not realizing that the ship was a bait for an eleborate plot from the beforementioned Noble House. Of course it came without crew or a navigator when they managed to get it but they managed to find arogue Navigator who just happened to be on the run beause she was involved in an illegal psyker underground railroad.

The players now have decided that the time has come to enhance their fleet even more. This time with a Light Cruiser if possible. I am now pondering what kind of endeavor it will take to get their hands on that one. A nice opportunity for another grand endeavor.

We currently have two ships:

The Hazeroth Class Raider vessel Draconis ab Hebenin (Dragon of the Ebon Tree)

and

The Havok Class Raider The Chained Dragon

The Draconis ab Hebenin is our flagship. It was payed for by Lord Almus of the Inquisition as a favor to Rogue Trader Byrne. It is mainly our hit and run and boarding action vessel, as we upgraded the systems to give us more speed, and it is outfitted with Murder Servitors. The Chained Drago n was a slaver ship. It was actually the vessel that my partner was trapped aboard. (Press-Ganged origin path) After capturing it in a pretty one-sided boarding attempt, we took it to Footfall to be repainted, outfitted, and christened T he Chained Dragon . (Originally was named Paradise ) While the Draconis is more suited for rushing in to combat, The Chained Dragon is better at long range combat, with a much more powerful Lance Battery. It also serves as our "Transport" being outfitted with Compressed Cargo Holds and an Aboretum to increase our food supplies. We also discovered a 20 km long space hulk, so we may eventually attempt to salvage a few ships from that. As a bonus, while not technically our ships, we have an exclusive trade pact with a Trade fleet on Footfall. Compressed completely of Transports, they are the ones tasked with carrying loot and salvage we may find.

We currently have two ships:

The Hazeroth Class Raider vessel Draconis ab Hebenin (Dragon of the Ebon Tree)

and

The Havok Class Raider The Chained Dragon

The Draconis ab Hebenin is our flagship. It was payed for by Lord Almus of the Inquisition as a favor to Rogue Trader Byrne. It is mainly our hit and run and boarding action vessel, as we upgraded the systems to give us more speed, and it is outfitted with Murder Servitors. The Chained Drago n was a slaver ship. It was actually the vessel that my partner was trapped aboard. (Press-Ganged origin path) After capturing it in a pretty one-sided boarding attempt, we took it to Footfall to be repainted, outfitted, and christened T he Chained Dragon . (Originally was named Paradise ) While the Draconis is more suited for rushing in to combat, The Chained Dragon is better at long range combat, with a much more powerful Lance Battery. It also serves as our "Transport" being outfitted with Compressed Cargo Holds and an Aboretum to increase our food supplies. We also discovered a 20 km long space hulk, so we may eventually attempt to salvage a few ships from that. As a bonus, while not technically our ships, we have an exclusive trade pact with a Trade fleet on Footfall. Compressed completely of Transports, they are the ones tasked with carrying loot and salvage we may find.

Maese Mateo said:

I still have issues with this, since there are several classes of Chaos ship still used by the Imperium, including Repulsive, Murder, Executor, and Carnage. (Page 29, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada).

They really should have regular hull stats for these, since they would likely land in the hands of Rogue Traders after being released from the Reserve Fleets

I still don't understand why we got a lot of junk ships that were redundent in BFK when ships like the Cardinal class Heavy cruser, Siluria class light cruiser, and Charybdis class grand cruiser got skipped for the Imperium.