So yea, I was hoping Battlefleet Koronus would offer the answer but it seems to treat transporting troops as an endeavor which runs kind of at odds with the games "Have starship, will travel" theme. My players have recently run a purpose built troop transport as part of a wager with other rogue traders and i'm attempting tos tat it out. Further the way the campaign is going large scale military conflict will likely be in their future.

So i got to thinking, how many troops should I be allowing my players to transport per barracks component. If we use crew quarters as a guideline roughly 3 space gets you 20,000 or more troops. That seems way high as it's presumed there is some measure of "crew quarters" discount built into the system as the ship's people can spread out into unused spaces in the hull. However a barracks represents not just places for the troops to sleep and eat but train, repair, and co-ordinate ongoing conflicts.

So the figure i've come up with is 10000 troops per barracks or roughly a thousand unit strength if you use the BFK ground force rules. I thought that seemed about right until i started fliping through Frozen Reaches and found that they list units with strength value's in the double digits. Since I plan on potentially running that adventure in modified form I'd like others input on how to manage the disparity.

I just let my players put whatever they want in it, really. Purchasing troops is expensive as hell and they're not likely going to be able to buy enough to fill up an entire barracks component. So when they start nearing 1000 unit STR or so, then I'll decide what's what.

My group has 130,000 trained troops aboard 5 different vessels, including Leman Russ', Chimeras, Bassilisks and a Baneblade (don't ask). Early on I ruled that the barracks represents different amounts of troops based off of the size of the different vessels. For their Universe it was 80k, for the Grand Cruiser 50k, each cruiser 30k, and for the Scout Sloop merely 5k. Tanks and the like take up a cargo hold inside of the Universe in addition to using barracks space.

This method made the most sense to me, since the size number represents different actual space volumes depending on the ship it is in. It also allowed me to leave behind troops depending on if my players wanted ships to run out and do other things.

Hmmmm interesting, the thing is a barracks size is relatively fixed and the size value is represented by how much space a given craft has available. By that logic if you want more troops on a Universe you install more barracks. It's also not particularly helpful since the idea behind the vessel i'm building is it's a purpose built troop ship but is small enough to actually land on a planetary surface in the final stage of an invasion and disgorge it's troops.

lurkeroutthere said:

Aye, more troops = needs more barracks. But for my purposes, each barracks would add that number again.

For what it's worth I went with 5k men per barracks component. I figure i'll go straight numbers for regular inantry and then give equivalents for other units. (2 men per artillery unit, 4 per mobile infantry, 25 per tank etc.

For what it's worth I went with 5k men per barracks component. I figure i'll go straight numbers for regular inantry and then give equivalents for other units. (2 men per artillery unit, 4 per mobile infantry, 25 per tank etc.

I haven't looked at BFK's mass-combat rules, but are you sure it uses the same system as the defence of Damaris in Frozen Reaches? (**** BF3, almost typed the planet name as Damavand )

The strength values for the defence seem pretty heavily tied up in how the GM is supposed to run the defence, or were some of the basics of that system re-used in BFK's mass-combat rules?

How to put it..? The BFK system is a more complicated version of that used in Frozen Reaches, but which removes all the unique character from your army choices. It's not much fun to use.

I've tried to think of ways to make it more interesting (which would make it more complicated, but oh well) but haven't come up with much. I really, really, really want to use the BFK ground war rules in a homebrew adventure of mine but with the way they are right now, there's no way, really.

The thing that bothers me the very most, though, is that a Strength 10 unit does the exact same amount of damage as a Strength 100 unit. 4d10+Power. That's why one of the rules I was thinking of introducing is +1 to Power (for the purpose of Attacks only) per 10 unit strength. That way a Strength 10 unit with 10 power would deal 4d10+11 damage, while a Strength 100 unit with 10 power would deal 4d10+20 damage.

Also thought about adding +1 to Power (for the purpose of Defense only) for every 20 unit strength. That way it simulates the fact that it's a lot harder for 100 soldiers to do any damage against a 1000 soldier unit.

Unless there's already rules for quantity of unit strength and I've just overlooked them, which I don't think there are.

I found some house-rules; they're geared towards providing similar units to those in the Frozen Reaches campaign. Means there's a lot more going on than just throwing numbers at each other until one of the targets falls over.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ItRtCwMpMc3xkbzwcVQDuWEkZZ5oRIu96IQMhI8w9NI/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMTG0NEJ

Another of the shortcomings of the BFK system is that it is not explained how many tanks/artillery/aircraft are needed to make an STR point.

Thank you very much for the house rules, Errant!

Also some kind of Character Sheet for the troops would have been welcome.

It might be a valuable note that the average regiment size in 40k is supposed to be around 10,000 people. This is generally thought to include the units support, logistics and even family train that follows it wherever it would go and would need to be allocated space as well. The numbers of course go up and down, depending on where the unit is from and what type of unit it is. Some tallaran and especially valhallan units have been reported as 100,000 strong in a regiment, while baneblade units support barely two hundred souls though they take up near as much space, but these are the exceptions.

If you're going for barracks space, suspect that 10,000 level for imperial based barracks. Even with vehicle heavy units that have less manpower, the vehicles themselves and their preperatory bays would take up the freed room.

This does bring up an interesting point though. Would the barrack component be somewhat modular? Since what we're given supports one unit of whatever we're supposed to be putting into it, though the internal space requirements of different unit types would be as vastly different as the units themselves, could a tank regiment barracks be immediately turned around and used for light infantry? The internal look of the barracks component is one that really needs thought of and fleshed out in campaigns doesn't it?

I also wonder if a barrack shouldn't require a munitorium. The armory requirements for a imperial regiment make the requirements for an armsman unit look like peanuts, and it would be bad to get to the fight without enough guns ammo and supplies to actually fight the battle.

SirRunOn I believe that the barracs don´t need a Munitiorum because the lack of it doesn´t mean that there´s not an arsenal in the ship.

If you read the description of the Munitiorum structure, you´ll see that it´s an specially well stocked armory, nothing more. Of course each and every ship has an armory, but with this component you´re ensuring that your ship has a really well stocked one.

This has come up a few times on this board, if you do a search you'll find the old threads I have started.

It ultimately comes down to GM style and what seems reasonable. when you do volume calculations on ships, not all components are equal. Should a barracks on a raider hold 5000 vs a barracks on a Grand Cruiser only holding 5000? It makes me kind of crazy personally. Given that your crew quarters are typically space 2 to 4, and barracks are 4, it should be some fraction of the crew complement, IMO… But trying to keep things "consistent" in RT can drive you to madness.

alpha1983 said:

Here's how I treat it:

Armsmen make up 5-10% of a ship's crew (BK p.72). The ship's armory/arsenal is made to support the ship's armsmen and the ship's weapon systems, not the additional forces that populate a barracks. The fact that the Munitorium further bolsters the damage done by macrocannons reinforces that notion. Whatever is going on to boost the damage done by these giant-sized shells probably doesn't leave much extra room for additional gear.

I believe that a Munitorium serves well on a ship embarking on an extended voyage in the same way that Extended Supply Vaults do.

YMMV.

I'm not looking at a book right now, but I think the barracks component takes the same amount of space as a voidsmen quarters. So if thats about true, I'd guess you can hold about as many troops as you have crew, until you factor in vehicles, gear and the like, so maybe 50-75% crew population per barrack point….

Cornwallis said:

That's how I ended up looking at it. I'd argue more for 25 to 50% of the crew compliment, soldiers need a lot of gear.

HeavensThunderHammer said:

agreed, but I'd also hazard a guess that troops would normally deal with the equivalent of cramped quarters, giving extra space for gear.

I have the following House Rules implemented in my games.

Barracks
This component has space for a 20,000 troop sized army. Whether vehicles, troops, or a combination of above, this component can store it. Includes training areas, shooting ranges, billeting, latrines, mess halls, food storage areas, and supply rooms to store everything a unit requires. The total time the unit can stay in the void without suffering crew or morale loss is equal to the ships.

Cargo Holds
This component has space for a 40,000 troop sized army. Whether vehicles, troops, or a combination of above, this component can store it, though it will be uncomfortable for troops. Cargo Hold components do not come equipped with anything a barracks does, besides vast storage areas. Accidents will happen and troop morale will waiver if used to store troops. Vehicles and other supplies, on the other hand, can be stored in this component with no issues. The total time the unit can stay in the void without suffering crew or morale loss is equal to the ships.

Definition of “Space”: Space does not just mean the immediate area that a trooper resides in. “Space” also includes latrines, training areas, mess halls, storage areas for supplies like food, water, extra gear, etc, that a trooper requires in order to sustain a healthy lifestyle during transit in the void. The “space” a trooper requires for use is almost equal too or more than a vehicles in storage. “Space” that vehicles require are storage areas for the vehicle(s) itself, supply, fuel, ammo, and repair areas, and sometimes ranges/training areas (mind you, these areas may be virtual areas not just physical and are probably the same training area’s that Infantry troops train in). So, in essence, barracks “space” that an army utilizes encompasses all aspects for living amenities for that unit, while traveling in a ship.

Refer to the link provided below for questions on units. Or, you can click the link in my signature block to browse all the files that I have compiled and/or edited over the years. Mind you, it is of significant quantity, but hopefully some of it can help you.

docs.google.com/document/d/1UixYlF1Y9INf7Yp-BZ9gpYvxGc_X2J2Gfd_3Ga37YXQ/edit

When in doubt, pester FFG about it.

Good question. The Barracks Component was indeed left abstract on purpose, but a single such component can usually accommodate a single Regiment of Infantry. Obviously, Regiments vary in size, expertise, and effectiveness.