Hi there, I'm wondering about a good houserule on how difficult it is to get a Command/Control/Scouting Chimera, which I believe is a 'Command Salamander'.

This would be a vehicle very likely to have decent auspex equipment, and good communications equipment, yes? Or does the Guard not 'do' Auspex gear that much? What would a version of this that for SURE has powerful Auspex gear be?

I'm trying to get a good vehicle for exploration/surveying (being, you know, an exploration-focused Rogue Trader), and this seems like a good basis (remove the weapons except for maybe put a heavy stubber back on, reduce the amount of people it can carry, remove the gunports, make the whole thing able to be sealed for hostile environments), and I am wondering if this would fit.

Alternately, what would a Rhino that can do similar things be, as far as difficulty of obtaining it? What about any 'fairly swift, enclosed, fairly heavy, survey vehicle that is crewed' be? And what would such a thing be called?

A Rhino equiped with additional comm equipment is probably your best bet for a Rogue Trader. It has heavy armor, decent capacity, runs on anything, and is easy to repair. A Rhino is a Rare Vehicle (-20 Aquisiton base), and including comm equipment is likely to be VR as well. That would make a single 'Command Rhino' a +5 Aquisition check (-20 base, +30 for 1 quantity, -5 for additional equipment per item). If you want to equip it with additional advanced systems you add another -5 to the Aquisition check. I would suggest you get a few of them, just in case…

I wrote this up as a thing, based on someone else's writeup of the vehicle, and I would like you to consider if it is balanced or not:

Pachyderm

A six-wheeled APC that provides reasonable protection for troops against fire at a reasonable cost. Essentially a poor man’s Rhino, this vehicle is popular across the Calixis sector as a PDF transport. It has also seen use as a riot suppression vehicle, or in civilian applications where a degree of ruggedness is required, though these versions usually have their weapons removed. Normally, it carries a heavy stubber for protection, but some are outfitted for riot suppression will exchange this for a grenade launcher outfitted with choke grenades or a Webber.

Type: Ground Vehicle
Size: Enormous
Armour: Hull 23, Top 17, Rear 16
Structural Integrity: 25
Tactical Speed: 35 kph
Cruising Speed: 70 kph
Maneuverability: +0
Armaments: Pintle (all directions) Heavy Stubber OR Grenade launcher (usually armed with Choke grenades) OR Webber (gunner doesn't gain benefit of enclosed when firing)
Crew: 1 (Driver), 1(Gunner)
Traits: Rugged, Enclosed, Wheeled Vehicle
Passengers: 10
Availability: Average
-Top hatch (which the gunner can't stick half out of to fire the gun, unfortunately), and rear door for access
-Running lights for night operation

Civilian Survey Pachyderm
Type: Ground Vehicle
Size: Enormous
Armour: Hull 23, Top 17, Rear 16
Structural Integrity: 25
Tactical Speed: 35 kph
Cruising Speed: 70 kph
Maneuverability: +0
Armaments: None; can be modified to add Pintle Heavy Stubber OR Grenade Launcher (gunner doesn't gain benefit of enclosed, gunner doesn't count against passenger limit, being completely on top of the vehicle)
Crew: Driver, Technician
Traits: Rugged, Enclosed, Wheeled Vehicle, Command and Control
Passengers: 6+1 on top (takes gunner position if armed)
Availability: Scarce
Other Items of note:
-Multi-spectral surveillance auspex for surveying local area, including life forms, land masses, areas of interest, mechanical objects, etc.
-Several Searchlights and running lights for night operation or spotting objects
-A dedicated generator to run the communications and auspex equipment
-Top hatch (which the gunner can't stick half out of to fire the gun, unfortunately), and rear door for access

Enhanced Civilian Survey Pachyderm
Type: Ground Vehicle
Size: Enormous
Armour: Hull 23, Top 17, Rear 16
Structural Integrity: 25
Tactical Speed: 35 kph
Cruising Speed: 70 kph
Maneuverability: +0
Armaments: None, can be modified to add Pintle Heavy Stubber OR Grenade Launcher (gunner doesn't gain benefit of enclosed or environmentally sealed, gunner doesn't count against passenger limit, being on top of the vehicle)
Crew: Driver, Technician
Traits: Rugged, Enclosed, Wheeled Vehicle, Command and Control, Amphibious, Environmentally Sealed
Passengers: 6+1 on top (takes gunner position if armed)
Availability: Rare
Other items of note:
-Multi-spectral surveillance auspex for surveying local area, including life forms, land masses, areas of interest, mechanical objects, etc.
-Several Searchlights and running lights for night operation or spotting objects
-A dedicated generator to run the communications and auspex equipment
-Top hatch (which the gunner can't stick half out of to fire the gun, unfortunately), and rear door for access
-It is amphibious in that it is sealed and has a propeller for extra aquatic mobility, and can ford streams, but it requires (easily attachable) pontoons to truly float

PDF Hostile Environment Recon Pachyderm

-This Pachyderm is generally located on planets which would have use of it, such as planets with hostile atmospheres that also interfere with sensors, which have fairly extensive PDF forces (for whatever reason, such as recurring minor but hard to stamp out Ork infestations) who need local vehicles with eyes, ears, and a 'voice' on the scene, which are often delivered to hostile locations by sea-ship. These might also be sold to a Developing world with oversized wet-navies and antequated auspex equipment by an enterprising Forge world.

Type: Ground Vehicle
Size: Enormous
Armour: Hull 23, Top 17, Rear 16
Structural Integrity: 25
Tactical Speed: 35 kph
Cruising Speed: 70 kph
Maneuverability: +0
Armaments: Heavy Stubber OR Grenade Launcher (gunner doesn't gain benefit of enclosed or environmentally sealed, gunner doesn't count against passenger limit, being on top of the vehicle)
Crew: Driver, Technician, Gunner
Traits: Rugged, Enclosed, Wheeled Vehicle, Command and Control, Amphibious, Environmentally Sealed
Passengers: 6
Availability: Very Rare (Scarce on appropriate planets)
Other items of note:
-Multi-spectral surveillance auspex for surveying local area, including life forms, land masses, areas of interest, mechanical objects, etc.
-Several Searchlights and running lights for night operation or spotting objects
-A dedicated generator to run the communications and auspex equipment
-Top hatch (which the gunner can't stick half out of to fire the gun, unfortunately), and rear door for access
-It is amphibious in that it is sealed and has a propeller for extra aquatic mobility, and can ford streams, but it requires pontoons to truly float. It comes with the pontoons.

Just as a general point, a Command Salamander is not quite the same as a Command Chimera.

The Salamander is based on the same basic hull/tracks as the Chimera but is a variant that eliminates the turret and the enclosed troop compartment in order to reduce weight (allowing for a higher speed) but at the cost of reducing firepower and exposing the crew to enemy fire.

Obviously given that it's open topped it's not particuarly well suited for survey work on hostile planets . Command Chimeras have been mentioned in some of the stories I've read. Basically they have reduced transport capacity in exchange for additional communications and auspex gear (and IG command Squad is normally 5 men plus maybe a commissar so figure on transport being reduced form 12 to about 8).

Here is a vehicle from a long ago

Guess it’s a little big i was going to use one of the stats above? I wonder what lands this thing on the surface of a planet

yeah i wanted to put it on here hope it doesn't violate any rules.

Here is a vehicle from a long ago

Guess it’s a little big i was going to use one of the stats above?

What are you talking about? You just gave me a random picture? That looks nothing like how IG vehicles look...?

That’s funny, i guess i did give you a random pic and your right it doesn't look like a IG vehicle. It’s from the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader from 1989 book I found it on the net after I saw this post I went looking for a “Rogue Trader all terrain planetary survey vehicle” I personally thought that it was in the spirit of the game.

I will endeavor to be more helpful,

About survey vehicles, and some military vehicles

While I do like IG Vehicles I think they would be pretty cramped for surveying.

Most military vehicles have very poor rating when it comes to human comfort, in a recent game (after I read the post) I told my players that they had a tracked survey vehicle, so we all go on the net and look for some cool pics (they didn’t want to use the one posted here either) for a tracked vehicle, a few that we came up with was an M113, a Russian BMP, a Bradley and a slew of others the funny thing was when we decided on one the K200 KIFV (Korea Infantry Fighting Vehicle) which looks the roomiest in our opinion (which is a M113 knock off) it was still small looking interior but we said take out some chairs and "it’ll be fine".

Until we went to fort dix in jersey (visiting a friend) and I was laughing it up when I saw the interior of the M113 which is roughly the same as the K200, I was like imagine these big buff guys in a little a$$ box going for hundreds of miles surveying or getting from one place to another “in a little box” wow funny stuff makes for a great roleplaying secession lots of laughs.

So were looking at this thing and realize that this can’t go in the water for long time and is horrendously slow, also it’s not rated for server weather unless you do some serious preparation, (unless you take 40k tech into account) so it has limited use in its plain vanilla version.

So we figure whatever survey you do would have to be from orbit or low flying Cutter or something equivalent and then when you find something interesting and have to land…

1.) Trace out routes where it looks like you would use a vehicle and it would be able to move around without getting bogged down.

1a.) Modify the vehicle to be able to withstand the weather gravity and what not, the explorator should be a busy bee (or his flunkies) whenever new planet is found. (Makes me wonder what survey vehicle I would use on a water world?)

2.) Estimate the amount of time you would have to be in the vehicle for the trip and if it has to be a long ride how comfortable would it be (in a lot of road trips I remember having to stop a lot cause we would get tired and cramped from sitting on our fannies the whole time) also would the weather permit it.

I guess you would need a vehicle for every world type? Or the explorator would be doing a lot of custom vehicles for the PCs and whichever one you get.

Best option get a Land Raider (cheapest way is troll old battlefields till you find one) I think the Land Raider can go underwater and over lava, and in space or something like that (someone correct me if I’m wrong) they are just slow as crap.

Unmanned aerial vehicles for scouting. It’s the only way. (Till you have to put feet on the ground)

Please let me know what you think I know there’s a lot to planetary surveying I pretty sure this is not even a dent.

The closest real life things seem to be a VAB, a Fuchs, an Urutu, a VBTP-MR, or an Anoa-2... I need an artist to look at those and draw up a 40k-ized version of something kinda like those as a 'cheaper rhino', lol.

Anyone know of plausible stats for the non Damocles command rhinos? Like the Legatus?