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You can add in portable fortifications now that seems to be becoming a standard part of GWs fluff for the Asartes.............

Personally I think the best explanation for Strike Cruisers is to look at the original source (Battlefleet Gothic) which doesn't say they "carry" or "support" 1 company, but rather "they appear to" "they have been seen to deploy".

Space Marine vessels are build around one thing: Toughness. After the Heresy the Astartes were allowed to retain their vessels BUT they were limited on the ship-to-ship armament front. The modern Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges were designed with this restriction in mind: They aren't allowed to carry the weapons to blast their way through enemy fleets, so they are designed to be tough enough to simply ignore the enemies fire long enough to deploy their cargo.

Launch bays - be it torpedo, drop pod or landing craft are weak points, not only do they require holes in the armour, but inside they often have nice juicy contents that go boom. To minimise the number of holes they go with the bare minimum in launch facilities: just enough to comply with Guillimans doctrines on quick strikes.

Extra Thunderhawks and Drop Pods are likely carried - but they'd be in internal storage hangars scattered throughout the ship,locked safely behind ponderous blast doors in case of a catastrophic hit on the actual launch bay (secondary and tertiary explosions are a bitch). Downside: The bays can rarely be reloaded in a tactically relevant timeframe* thereby giving the appearance that they only carry a single company, because that's all anyone really sees them deploy.

* cue somewhat Battlestar Galactica quote:
Pilot: You sure they'll fly?
Tech: Well, the reactor's still hot, so all we have to do is pull the rad buffers from the engine, refuel it, load the ordnance, and you're ready to go. The biggest problem is getting them over to the port launch bay.
Pilot: Why can't we use the starboard launch?
Tech: It's a gift shop now.

SerQuintus wrote:

 Exergy wrote:
SM's are forbidden from having ships in excess of what it would be required to launch their ground forces(although many do have excess)

I'm not sure that's true. From an operational standpoint they would need an excess to fulfill their duties to the Imperium. If they had no excess vessels then they would be unable to withdraw ships to repair battle damage without rendering companies undeployable.

but they arent allowed to have 15 extra battle barges just so they can run around the eye of terror without the imperial navy's help.

I know it sounds weird in light of how well putting that much power and more in the hands of one genetically engineered super human with a huge daddy complex worked out 10,000 years ago but you have to remember that things are different in 40k.

I once started to make rough schematics for a Gladius-class frigate, ship that it is said to be able to deploy single squad of marines. I scaled it to 1,4km, smaller than most people seem to assume. Even though I tried to use a lot of space for engines, cargo space, structures, weapons, etc. It became quickly apparent that the ship could easily carry and deploy an entire company. The amount of space is massive. And Strike Cruiser will many times that volume (depending how big you scale it, there are no definite numbers, estimates are from 2,5km to over 4km.)

SerQuintus wrote:
Space Marine vessels are build around one thing: Toughness. After the Heresy the Astartes were allowed to retain their vessels BUT they were limited on the ship-to-ship armament front. The modern Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges were designed with this restriction in mind: They aren't allowed to carry the weapons to blast their way through enemy fleets, so they are designed to be tough enough to simply ignore the enemies fire long enough to deploy their cargo.

I think this is a good point: the objective of the SM fleet is to get it's marines to the war-zone and deliver them in one piece, although the battle barge and strike cruisers are extremely powerful warships in their own right in space combat they are primarily used for orbital insertion and support. They are very heavily armoured and armed but they aren't ships of the line like imperial navy battleships. Their asset is what they carry inside that they can put onto other ships via T-hawks and Assault rams.

 Exergy wrote:
SM's are forbidden from having ships in excess of what it would be required to launch their ground forces(although many do have excess)

This is generally true, the majority of their ships are for supporting transport, insertion and supression for making planetfall, with the only true warships they are allowed being the Nova, Gladius and Hunter frigates for the escort of their capital ships. Like you mentioned some fleets do indeed include alot more versatile ships like the Carcharadons for instance.

I once read that the ultramarines do have a couple of reserve battle barges that are mothballed that can be put back into service in the case of a loss of a front-line operational one, although I doubt only first founding chapters and few very well equipped later founding ones would be able to have more than a few. Also not all of the fleet would be operational at once, just like modern navies a few will always be undergoing refits and maintenance.

Crimson wrote:I once started to make rough schematics for a Gladius-class frigate, ship that it is said to be able to deploy single squad of marines. I scaled it to 1,4km, smaller than most people seem to assume.

This got me thinking. Where does the "IoM ships are 1km+" actually come from? I know I've said so in the past myself, but mulling it over I've never actually read anything like that in the actual material, and merely adopted it because everyone else said it's so.

Considering how this worked out for a lot of other "word of mouth" details in 40k ...

During the attack on the Necron World Engine the Astral Knights drop-pod'd their entire chapter (772 marines) from a single Battle barge.

The original Space Fleet range had some nice fuel tankers, refinery and manufacturing ship ideas in there. The battle barges and strike cruisers should be about force projection in my view. The home fleet would look like something from Battlestar Galactica with different ships specialised to different roles such as manufacturing or multi-environment combat training facilities.

The Homeworld games and the Quarians from ME3 would be other reasonable representations of a purely fleet based chapter.

beast_gts wrote:
During the attack on the Necron World Engine the Astral Knights drop-pod'd their entire chapter (772 marines) from a single Battle barge.

IIRC, they were making a one-way suicide trip, so they may have had everyone crammed in like sardines. However, that does imply that the capacity to hold an entire chapter is there.

In terms of resupply, a SM fleet would have to bludge off some friendly planets for a lot of things. That said, there'd be some things that they'd have to make themselves- I doubt your average Imperial planet will have Dreadnought parts or Power Armour repair shops on hand. Also, trying to source enough bolter rounds for an entire chapter when bolters are rare outside of the Astartes could be difficult, so they'd need their own ammunition plant somewhere.

 Zed wrote:
However, that does imply that the capacity to hold an entire chapter is there.

Of course it can hold an entire chapter, it could easily hold all marines in all chapters. (Probably not all their tanks and aircraft though.)

 Crimson wrote:

 Zed wrote:
However, that does imply that the capacity to hold an entire chapter is there.

Of course it can hold an entire chapter, it could easily hold all marines in all chapters. (Probably not all their tanks and aircraft though.)

You mean it could hold a million marines?
I don't think it could... that seems extreme for even a battleship.
Maybe a space hulk.

 purplefood wrote:

You mean it could hold a million marines?
I don't think it could... that seems extreme for even a battleship.

Yes. If it is 5km to 8km long as the common figures are, it could easily. A 300m long aircraft carrier has a crew of 5000 and could probably hold much more people if it was absolutely necessary. 5km ship would have about 4500 times the volume of that carrier, and 8km ship almost 20000 times the volume!

 Crimson wrote:

 Zed wrote:
However, that does imply that the capacity to hold an entire chapter is there.

Of course it can hold an entire chapter, it could easily hold all marines in all chapters. (Probably not all their tanks and aircraft though.)

A Battle Barge could comfortably hold a chapter, yes. I was thinking more along the lines of how quickly they could deploy everyone via Drop Pod, as in the Astral Knights' case they would have had to be working fast to get everyone out before the ship hit the World Engine.

Edit: Lexicanum (grain of salt, I know) reckons three companies simultaneously. But that's using "inter-system craft" as well.

 Crimson wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

You mean it could hold a million marines?
I don't think it could... that seems extreme for even a battleship.

Yes. If it is 5km to 8km long as the common figures are, it could easily. A 300m long aircraft carrier has a crew of 5000 and could probably hold much more people if it was absolutely necessary. 5km ship would have about 4500 times the volume of that carrier, and 8km ship almost 20000 times the volume!

You're assuming they have barely any armour, no engines, no command functions, no bulkheads, no guns, no ammunition, no launch bays for drop ships, no drop pod bays and no crew.
A million marines takes up more space than you might think. Even if they don't, does it matter if a battle barge can hold a million marines? They sure as hell can't deploy or support them which means it's not really going to matter in terms of how an SM chapter operates.
I disagree on both counts that:
A) A battle barge is that large
B) It can hold a million marines.

SerQuintus wrote:
After the Heresy the Astartes were allowed to retain their vessels BUT they were limited on the ship-to-ship armament front. The modern Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges were designed with this restriction in mind.

But don't some of the more space-oriented Chapters manage to capture enemy ships from time to time? I'm sure someone like the Black Templars (who are experts in space combat) will capture quite a few enemy ships. Do they have to turn any larger combat vessels over to the Imperial Navy to secure repairs on smaller crafts and captured transports?

 purplefood wrote:

 Crimson wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

You mean it could hold a million marines?
I don't think it could... that seems extreme for even a battleship.

Yes. If it is 5km to 8km long as the common figures are, it could easily. A 300m long aircraft carrier has a crew of 5000 and could probably hold much more people if it was absolutely necessary. 5km ship would have about 4500 times the volume of that carrier, and 8km ship almost 20000 times the volume!

You're assuming they have barely any armour, no engines, no command functions, no bulkheads, no guns, no ammunition, no launch bays for drop ships, no drop pod bays and no crew.

No I don't. 5km ship has over 22 times of space per person than the aircraft carrier, and the 8km one has almost hundred times. Plenty of room. Not to mention that hulls of aircraft carriers are not exactly entirely empty living space either.

Even if they don't, does it matter if a battle barge can hold a million marines? They sure as hell can't deploy or support them which means it's not really going to matter in terms of how an SM chapter operates.

This certainly is true. It still should be able to easily deploy a single Chapter though.

disagree on both counts that:
A) A battle barge is that large
B) It can hold a million marines.

That makes sense, B logically follows from A. How big you think they're then?

Crimson, i think people don't seem to understand the ridiculous sizes of imperial ships, even with all the bulkheads included a BFG capital ship could hold a whole space marine chapter plus support (even a gothic class ship has 10 thousands of crew)