Large troop transports?

[Hakkonen]

I'm looking for a class of ship suitable for use as a transport by a regiment-sized mercenary unit (3,000-5,000 soldiers), minimum capacity 1,000 passengers plus equipment. High Guard doesn't have anything that looks suitable.

[Linwood]

One question you might consider is how often do contracts come around that will pay for deploying the entire regiment? If the answer is "not often" it might be tough for the regiment to justify owning a troop carrier that large.

Charted civilian vessels might be fine for most missions. But that depends on the contract and the opposition. A dedicated troop carrier might be little more than a lightly-modified civilian design unless the expectation is that the vessel will have a real combat role (or orbital bombardment, small craft support base, minelayer, etc.). I'll grant you that the MTU is a little short on those designs at present, but there might be something out there that suits your needs. (Maybe a version of the Deepnight exploration vessels?).

[Condottiere]

Historically, ocean liners.

But, as a one off, pretty much circumstantial and environmentally based: what's commercially available, and whether it has to be armed.

If it needs conversion, probably a container ship with about seven to eleven kay tonnes for accommodations, and double that for equipment and stores, assuming light infantry.

Five thousand is closer to an independent brigade.

[Annatar Giftbringer]

I’m thinking perhaps a Galoof mega-freighter? It has a HUGE cargo bay that should be relatively simple to convert into troop barracks and vehicle parking.

An Amara cruiser filled with marine ops and/or orbital assault pods can also support a decent number of troops.

[AnotherDilbert]

Agreed, 4000 troops would need about 15-20 kDt payload space.

A J-4 ship with that payload would be roughly 50 kDt and cost in the region of MCr 100 per month to operate. Presumably too expensive.


Pack the troops into 1000 Dt containers, about a company per, and ship as commercial cargo? One large ship, a few smaller, or even some warships could take the load.

As an added bonus, the containers works as barracks in the target system.

[Condottiere]

I'm not quite sure you want to open up that can of worms.

Depending on the spaceship configuration, and exactly how we define containers, I'd bet they can be perforated or blown apart any number of ways.

I could be wrong, not having perfect recall, but I don't think there's a dedicated troop transport in Traveller with more than ten thousand capacity.

I do believe, the ocean liners could and did hold a division's worth with personal weapons, but those things ran at full speed.

[Linwood]

I'm not quite sure you want to open up that can of worms.

Depending on the spaceship configuration, and exactly how we define containers, I'd bet they can be perforated or blown apart any number of ways.

Or an overworked clerk at the starwort might (for a price) change the routing codes in the system and the regiment's crack orbital assault contingent ends up getting shipped to the Solomani Sphere....

More likely - their equipment gets shipped to someplace like Efate and the troops end up with SuperSoakers and Big Wheel bikes.

[Old School]

I’m thinking perhaps a Galoof mega-freighter? It has a HUGE cargo bay that should be relatively simple to convert into troop barracks and vehicle parking.

An Amara cruiser filled with marine ops and/or orbital assault pods can also support a decent number of troops.

Challenge with the Galoof is the hieght of the cargo bay. You’d essentially be building a mutli-story barracks inside of the bay. Doable, ut not a fast conversion.

An Amara class cruiser is likely outside the budget of a mercenary company, not to mention the authorities might frown upon that level of firepower outside of military control.

Traveller spaceships are far too expensive to be built for a specialized purpose like this unless there is enough of a need for them to be running all the time. Even then, the cost of transporting troops is much, much higher than the cost of paying them (unless using low berths) Troops are only going to travel long distances to fight in very specific circumstances.

[Condottiere]

Spaceships are quite cheap.

It's the return on investment aspect that seems off.

[phavoc]

You could take a large liner, and then freighters for their equipment. IF you wanted to transport that many troops you'd probably be better off have regiment-sized transports (around 500 troops) with their own vehicles and basic supplies, while freighters would hold additional munitions and other supplies.

It's better to split your troops up anyways, in the case of enemy activity and losing all your troops in one attack.