I'm not sure there's a Seeker variant out there that can handle 24 heavy vehicles AND another 40-48 light vehicles - that's way more in just vehicle bays than the Seeker's total weight!
The Overlord could be further re-designed to carry quite a bit though. Heck just go with two Overlords and you should be able to carry everything you need and have room to spare.
Hmm, you're right about that. I was just reading my newly purchased Mercenaries Field Manual, which has a handy dropship load chart.
It lists the Seeker as having a Mech variant, holding 48L/24L, L meaning Light Vehicles, 4 mechs and 4 infantry platoons. It also lists a vehicle variant, capable of holding 64L/36L, zero mechs, and still carrying 4 infantry platoons.
I was going off the stats in the 3025/3057 TROs which gave the Seeker 40-48 light vehicles in bay 1, 24 vehicles "or" 4 mechs in bay 2, and 4 infantry platoons in bay 3. I managed to miss the "Notes" section that says the Seeker can carry 64 vehicles, or 48 vehicles and 4 mechs... And now the vehicle chart in the Mercs book makes a little more sense.
The mercs book lists the Seeker mech variant as holding 4 mechs, 0 aerospace, 48L/24L vehicles, 4/9 infantry platoons, 1,350/48 tons of cargo, costing 105k per mission.
The mercs book lists the Seeker vehicle variant as holding 0 mechs, 0 aerospace, 64L/36L vehicles, 4/9 infantry platoons, 1,350/48 tons of cargo, and costing 105k per mission.
I think that's probably where the problem arose. The 3025/3057 TROs don't specify the space for 24 vehicles in bay 2 as light or heavy. Whereas this new mercs book uses a split system. You can carry more vehicles and cargo, and just a small infantry section, or fewer vehicles and cargo and more infantry.
Are you sure an Overlord could be built to accommodate that many vehicles? The description of the Overlord-2 in the 3057 TRO says it takes space normally reserved for 24 mechs in order to have space for only 9-15 vehicles... Also doesn't specify whether they are light or heavy vehicles. That's not a very good trade off I think
I've got a total of 84 vehicles. 40 light and 44 heavy. I don't think an Overlord would be capable of holding enough vehicles.
So right now it seems I have two options.
One, I could take an Excalibur class dropship which would probably be able to carry the entire vehicle complement of 84 light and heavy vehicles I have, as the Excalibur is listed as carrying 90 "Heavy" vehicles, so carrying lighter vehicles should be easy. This would let me drop the Seeker in favor of a second Leopard CV to carry the fighters I have.
Or Two, I would have to add a 4th dropship in order to transport the Heavy vehicles, which would likely be a Triumph class that carries 45 heavy vehicles, another 8 light vehicles and another 4 infantry platoons. And naturally this would also necessitate a larger class of jumpship, going from an Invader class, which can only carry a total of 3 dropships, to a Star Lord class which can carry a total of 6 dropships.
Option One is probably the cheaper option, but I'm really, really not thrilled with the Excalibur's extremely light armament. It would probably be better suited to a fully operational house unit like an RCT where it has ample aerospace protection.
Option Two gives me the required amount of transportation for all the stuff I have, plus room to expand in the future. Not that I plan to expand the unit any time soon. This is enough of a daunting project already. Future expansions probably depend on how much interest I manage to stir up.
So it looks like I'll be going with Option Two.