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Two part question:

Do SM warships use Imperial Navy craft like the Fury Interceptor (flown by Chapter serfs)?

How many void capable attack craft are carried in a Strike Cruiser or Battle Barge (combat ready, not in storage or pieces)

I ask because I've only heard of SM using Thunderhawks for void combat but Thunderhawks are described as rare vehicles unlike the IN attack craft.

Rogue Trader game reference guide mentions that an IN cruiser can carry 1000-4000 attack craft and twice that number of atmospheric craft like the Marauder.

The Thunderhawk is about 50% larger then a Marauder, so we would expect to be able to fit less then the 2000-8000 bombers that could be carried in an equivalent space but I've never seen anything to justify a single SM warship carrying thousands of Thunderhawks. Not to mention that the number of Techmarine pilots would be greater then the entire Chapter.

To me this means that either:
SM must use IN attack craft piloted by normal humans to maintain a sufficient level of carrier strength
OR
SM warships have no measurable attack craft strength (not consistent with their portrayal in BFG rules) because they have no way to field even a tenth of what an equivalent sized IN cruiser or Chaos warship could field.

It depends on the Chapter. Space Marines themselves wouldn't use Navy ships, they'd pilot the Thunderhawks (and Xiphon Interceptors) but their serfs might.

From Imperial Armour 5: Siege of Vraks:
Dark Angels fleet:
1x Battle Barge
2x Strike Cruisers
(+escorts)

15x T-hawk Gunhips
22x T-hawk Transporters
42x Drop pods

That or they replace the hangar space with more guns. They also need armories for their vehicles and wargear, drop pod bays, vaults for the Dreadnought Sarcophagi, etc.

beast_gts wrote:


From Imperial Armour 5: Siege of Vraks:
Dark Angels fleet:
1x Battle Barge
2x Strike Cruisers
(+escorts)

15x T-hawk Gunhips
22x T-hawk Transporters
42x Drop pods

If we use the BFG rules, the above is 7 squadrons worth of attack craft (BB = 3, SC = 2 each)
That is barely two gunships per squadron or 6 to protect a single Battle Barge. Seems like a hard task when you're fighting thousands of attack craft.

And even if the RT numbers are too high by a factor of 10, SM attack craft are still out numbered 20:1.

EPIC: Armageddon gave the ships 3 Thunderhawk Gunships for each squadron in BFG.

This fits with the BFG Tau rules which stated that Manta's were 1 ship per 'squadron'.

I think the Rogue Trader numbers are the fevered ramblings of someone who didn't ventilate their painting area.

It makes the most sense for the Thunderhawks to be something of a rare occurrence in actual space battles, due to rarity and required Space Marine pilots. It seems far more likely that Chapter Serfs pilot things like the fury interceptor to protect Battle Barges, Strike Cruisers, and the like.

 dusara217 wrote:
It makes the most sense for the Thunderhawks to be something of a rare occurrence in actual space battles, due to rarity and required Space Marine pilots. It seems far more likely that Chapter Serfs pilot things like the fury interceptor to protect Battle Barges, Strike Cruisers, and the like.

I agree but I can't find any evidence to support that notion.