So, my pcs have acquired a grand cruiser built for planetary invasion. That ship has 3 Barracks which means a capacity for about 300 000 soldiers (considering barracks take as much space as crew decks, and usual soldiers have less space in bunk-beds than voidsmen, which compensates for their extra need for "training spaces").

The ship also has 2 hangar bays loaded with Flyers (as this doubles the ammount of available ships: per Battlefleet Koronus the space 10 Thunderhawks would take would fit 20 Marauders).

From which I dedicated 2/6 of the space to Support craft (dropships) which would mean 40 Valkyries in theory (as listed later on in Koronus Battlefleet for "Air force" units in ground wars).

However, this is where I got stuck.

Valkyries are not void capable at all and although could be dropper from Low Orbit with little modifications, would have no way to return to the voidship for continuing the troop transport down. (Valkyries are different from Thunderbolts and Marauders in this sense, which have minimal void faring capabilities)

Maybe I could grant some spare jet adaptations to the valkyries so they may be able to return to a ship in low orbit?

So, I thought of Halo Barges . Which by their size comparison to the other crafts, would take the space of 5 valkyries each . ( and not surpass the carrying capacity of 5 valkyries though )

In addition to that, they suck terribly at combat.

After a lot of research, I found this beauty:

After a lot of scaling and comparisons, I reached the below status for it:

Devourer dropship
Tactical Speed 10m/5 AUs
Cruise Speed 700kph/2VUs
Man. -20
Structure 80
(Armor)
Size 15x an Arvus Lighter
Front 40
Side 35
Rear 30
Crew Pilot, Co-Pilot, 6 Tech-Priests, 1 Enginseer, 2 Gunners
Carrying Capacity 500 humans + 50 Leman Rus Tanks/Chimeras (or 1000 humans total)
Availability Extremely rare
Special Rules Spacecraft, Reinforced Hull

However, each hangar would be able to hold 3 of these in total at maximum I guess . (so I'd have only 2 for the whole ship)

So.... Thoughts please!

I noticed in BFK that aeronautica fliers take up half as much space as their void cousins, so technically 80 Valkyries (40 per strength) judging by your distribution. That would at least mean 4 Devourers, plus all the escort craft given your size estimates.

Not just a ton of them, but you might also remember the extra craft that the ship has thanks to its components. BFK also suggests 4 50ft craft per cargo bay (which I would take to mean that Barracks come with a few extra ships as well, which could be space given over to Devourer cradles). That gives you space for at least a handful more if you wanted to judge the heavy modifications for invasion carried over into its launch bays as well. Personally, I would have Devourers attached to sheltered cradles outside my barracks in a heartbeat.

I wish though I could find the page that talks about launch bay strength per installation, but it's eluding me.

We had a bit of a workshop on stuff here last week-

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/91314-can-a-voidship-land-on-a-planet/

We had a bit of a workshop on stuff here last week-

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/91314-can-a-voidship-land-on-a-planet/

Hey, according to your sizing of the Devourer, each Barracks could house one in its exterior cradle, along with a smaller 'tender' ship for supplies or ferrying of small detachments.

Everyone liked the Devourer I take it. haha

But what do you say about the Valkyries? Could the players easily retrofit a booster into them so they can come back for resupplies later in the voidship when in low orbit?

Valks as best I have from Imperial Armour are a 2 x F75-MV afterburning vectored turbojets.

Basically, its an air-burning turbine

It does say that it specifically cannot work in hard vacuum and its a dedicated atmospheric aircraft. For similar flyers which do the same role except will do it both in an aero-space environment, there are Gun-cutters. So I guess Valks go down in landers.

Hey, according to your sizing of the Devourer, each Barracks could house one in its exterior cradle, along with a smaller 'tender' ship for supplies or ferrying of small detachments.

Its sort of a 'best guess' that I could do with the scale of the ships it'd dock with and comparisons with known flight vehicles (like C5's and so forth that I know a little bit about) and Aust-Navy troop ships (that I know a bit about)

Even an escort class of ship in 40k is a really big bastard of a machine and it does need its supplementary craft to be something of a larger scale, my initial take on it envisioned something which would fit in with the normal heavy-lift facilities onboard a ship.

The Barracks facility on something like a RT's ship doesn't really make it a dedicated 'troop transport', its more of an ancillary role there for small-scale military actions, boarding/counter boarding and security. 2 Power & 4 Space does make it a fairly considerable bit of structure as well, (that's very nearly a single macrocannon broadside!) and not just a playpen for soldiers. Its a dedicated structure meant for so I don't see that it wouldn't have drop facilities onboard; along with the room for simple motor-pool repairs, basic medical and room for extensive logistics to keep them running for extended periods of time.

Heck I don't think theres been many frigates in the last 30-40 years which haven't had a small heli-pad on them and they've all had some kind of means to chuck a small boat or two over the side for sending the angry men onboard with guns over to another ship or land to go break stuff and terrorise people

That's just my take on it

Valks as best I have from Imperial Armour are a 2 x F75-MV afterburning vectored turbojets.

Basically, its an air-burning turbine

It does say that it specifically cannot work in hard vacuum and its a dedicated atmospheric aircraft. For similar flyers which do the same role except will do it both in an aero-space environment, there are Gun-cutters. So I guess Valks go down in landers.

Hey, according to your sizing of the Devourer, each Barracks could house one in its exterior cradle, along with a smaller 'tender' ship for supplies or ferrying of small detachments.

Its sort of a 'best guess' that I could do with the scale of the ships it'd dock with and comparisons with known flight vehicles (like C5's and so forth that I know a little bit about) and Aust-Navy troop ships (that I know a bit about)

Even an escort class of ship in 40k is a really big bastard of a machine and it does need its supplementary craft to be something of a larger scale, my initial take on it envisioned something which would fit in with the normal heavy-lift facilities onboard a ship.

The Barracks facility on something like a RT's ship doesn't really make it a dedicated 'troop transport', its more of an ancillary role there for small-scale military actions, boarding/counter boarding and security. 2 Power & 4 Space does make it a fairly considerable bit of structure as well, (that's very nearly a single macrocannon broadside!) and not just a playpen for soldiers. Its a dedicated structure meant for so I don't see that it wouldn't have drop facilities onboard; along with the room for simple motor-pool repairs, basic medical and room for extensive logistics to keep them running for extended periods of time.

Heck I don't think theres been many frigates in the last 30-40 years which haven't had a small heli-pad on them and they've all had some kind of means to chuck a small boat or two over the side for sending the angry men onboard with guns over to another ship or land to go break stuff and terrorise people

That's just my take on it

As has been pointed out on another thread; The Barracks component is generally accepted to hold 1 regiment (somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 troops). Vehicles are generally stored in cargo bays and aircraft in launch bays. The Devourer is actually considerably larger than any of the small craft described in Into the storm. On the other hand; The Shark assault boat (pg. 140 Battlefleet Koronus ) is capable of carrying fifty troops (Roughly a Platoon.) and is in fact trans atmospheric. A standard squadron of 8 such boats could deliver about 4 companies (about a Battallion) to the surface than return to orbit. I would envision this being the standard "Beach head" assault groups followed up by heavier devourer and Tarantul class heavy landers. (Or arguably just landing the transport itself which is possible per BFG!) Please note: My personal opinion is that the Tarantul is nothing more than a Vagabond class transport optimized for troop transport. (Sort of like a giant version of the LST's [Landing Ship Tank] from world war II). In this type of scenario, 1 or two Battalions of troops are delivered to the surface for an initial assault followed by the lumbering Mass of a Tarantul transport delivering Heavier Tanks and equipment as well as the balance of the regiment. The overall effect being like a cross between Starship troopers and Saving private Ryan! (How's that for a visual?!)

My decision (layout):

3 Barracks make up for 300 000 soldiers. Each barrack has 1 Devourer bay.

My Jovian Pattern Landing bay: 32 Shark boats, 20 Marauders, 40 Thunderbolts. (potentially doubling that number with a 2d bay)

Cargo-hold & lighter bay with 10 Halo Barges, 50 Chimeras, 50 Sentinels, 4 Basilisks (no tanks as they surpass the barges carrying capacity).

Droppods with spec ops personnel in power armor.

Generic invasion plan:

Clear a spot or spots with dedicated OB macro-batteries. Send in all Thunderbolts & marauders for securing a beachhead, followed by all the sharkboats.

Once the landing spot is save enough, Devourers start to ferry-down all troops. With barges' support for supplies & armor support.

If I keep the other landing bay for Fury & Starhawks, I would use those to break any resistance that mechanized infantry is not able to.

Droppods are used for "spec ops" missions and capturing of special objectives.