Editing Imperial Navy (section)

=== [[Imperial Navy Battleship|Battleship]] ===

Supposedly rare, but every Grand Marshal and High Admiral has at least one and often several or even dozens to hide in because GW is completely and hopelessly inconsistent with fleet sizes, though as of late it seems that GW is leaning towards big fleets and big armies when it gives numbers. The biggest heaviest hitters available, these things are like actual medieval cathedrals in that the grandchildren of the workers who start building them get to live to see their completion. Fuckheug, lots (and lots, and lots) of guns and most can deploy fighters and bombers. Many of you are wondering why battleships instead of focusing on carriers. Contrary to popular belief, large ships are not negated because of smaller but more numerous ships being able to swarm it dead. Big ships are built to kill the ships directly below them, which the ones below them etc. like the universe’s most brutal food chain. So, the ships below them in power ganging up on them still costs more than the big ship they’re ganging up on. For torpedo boats, big ships are escorted by vessels specialized in killing torpedo ships and attack craft. Carriers replaced battleships in real life due to range, which is irrelevant when cheap swarms of potent anti-air ships can be spammed.
*'''Ordnance-boats:'''
**'''Retribution:''' Packing all gun batteries, the ship can devastate an entire continent in one broadside, has 3/4 of Gothic broadside as auxiliary weapons in turrets and enough torpedo tubes to tear a cruiser in half just for good measure. Subtle as a sledgehammer to the face.
**'''Invincible:''' An interesting class, dubbed a 'fast battleship', these were designed to chase down xenos and chaos raiders, and then use them to make the vast, empty tracts of space more interesting by filling it with their enemies' debris fields. This type of battleship combines the firepower of a ''Retribution'' with the speed of a ''Dauntless''. It worked ''incredibly well'' to the point that piracy and xenos activity in the entire sector became almost non-existent practically overnight. The problem, of course, is the general incompetence of Imperial tacticians. It looks exactly like a ''Retribution'' and has the guns to match, so it must be one, right? NO. They excelled at the role they were designed for, but throw them into gunfights against dedicated battleships, and these things tended to come apart easier than wet cardboard, earning them the nickname 'Kisher's Kombustibles' and the scorn of many admirals. Admirals who ignored the fact that the reports detailing the introduction of the ship and how to best use it (it's tactics also included in the Tactica Imperialis) explicitly state not to use it on a gun-line and that it is for fast-ship interdiction. The ship's Commissars must be particularly incompetent to let this slide as in the Guard the generals would be executed quickly for such incompetence. Of course, these are also the Commissars who do nothing when troop transports' escorts frequently run off to fight while the transports lose a significant percentage of their ships. Perhaps if they would actually enforce their orders to stay with the transports, the Imperium would have won most of the campaigns it has lost. Given that they still often win even with a fraction of their beginning ground forces actually managing to make landfall. [[Grimdark|Because they have THAT many men to throw at the enemy.]] Hmmm in fact, misusing the Invincible-class is technically heresy as its instructions of use are in the Tactica Imperialis and violating the Tactica Imperialis is outright heresy (I think I remember someone actually being executed in the fluff for violating it).
***Much like the Chalice-class of Battlecruisers, the Invincibles are a big reference to the real life Battlecruisers of World War 1, especially with the term "Kisher's Kombustibles" (real life Battlecruisers were referred to as "Fisher's Combustibles") and the fact that three blew up in a single battle (referencing Jutland).
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Apocalypse:''' One of the oldest ship designs (predating the ''Retribution'', which is also one of the oldest ship designs), this ship packs a lot of [[lances]] and a [[Nova Cannon]]. Good for taking out lots of smaller sized ships with massed lance fire. It's also described in fluff as being able to cripple anything up to a cruiser with a single, concentrated broadside. They're fairly rare, since the Imperium doesn't know how to build them anymore, and the ones still operating are so old, their weapons systems have degraded permanently, forcing them to fire their lances at only a fraction of their full power. Shares all the disadvantages of a ''Gothic''-class cruiser.
***Despite the fluff stating that the Apocalypse and Oberon classes are unique in that they lack figure-heads, the artwork and [[Crunch|models]] [[Derp|give them one anyway.]]
**'''Victory:''' Possibly an attempt to recreate the ''Apocalypse'' class, the ''Victory'' is basically a ''Retribution'' with a bunch of lances replacing its broadside cannons, and a Nova Cannon instead of torpedoes. Has the range that fluff states the ''Apocalypses'' once had, but lacks the same level of firepower. Effective at sniping, and hilarious when used against escort heavy fleets.
**'''Desolator:''' A ridiculously old design. Designed to emphasize range and carries Torpedos, Broadside Lances and Dorsal Macrobatteries. Like most keel-built ships, the Desolators ended up mothballed or went traitor.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Emperor:''' The "standard" battleship of the 40k 'verse, the ship has multiple fighter decks and, thanks to dorsal and prow turrets, enough weapons batteries to put Dominator broadside to shame. Unfortunately, most commanders like to use this ship as a hideout, causing the lack of sufficient air support in the ground wars even though the Navy's atmospheric aircraft are completely different from its much bigger space based strike craft. Tabletop-wise, its status as the official battleship of Battlefleet Gothic doesn't stop it from losing carrier duels against the Chaos equivalent.
**'''Nemesis:''' The super-carrier of the Imperial Navy. It has SIX flight decks (the size of towns or small cities, each), more than any other ship in the galaxy. But because of Rule of Cool, it is incredibly rare since the Navy captains prefer to get up close broadside their enemies, or actually rather because all of the ships in this class were just ships modified from Emperor class ships in one particular war, because they were damaged or otherwise. Naturally, the Navy never considers making them based on the Invincible instead (the Invincible was mass-produced).
**'''Desecrator:''' The carrier variant of the Desolator. Replaces half the Broadside Lances with Landing Bays. Shared the same fate as its sister class and is now only seen in Chaos fleets. Traitorous despite its clearly pious and Emperor-loving name.
**'''Despoiler:''' Oh boy, where do we start? The Despoiler-class came about after the cogboys discovered plans for a carrier on Barbarus. The catch? Well, Barbarus is the former homeworld of the [[Death Guard]], and the plans were for the same class of ship that the [[Terminus Est]] is a part of. Showing a complete lack of common sense, the Imperial Navy decided to build ships of this class, only for them all to go traitor due to the class's inherent [[Gellar Field]] flaws. [[Fail|Oops]]. The Despoilers at first don't appear to be that unique, as they have Dorsal Lances and Broadside Landing Bays and Weapons Batteries. Their difference is that, like the Terminus Est, they managed to have a Prow Landing Bay as well.
*'''Other:'''
**'''[[Gloriana-class_Battleship|Gloriana]]:''' Massive, terrifying and capable of decimating entire fleets on their own, these were the personal flagships of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Very few, if any, are still around in the Imperium in M41, though a few such as Horus's flagship ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' are still tooling around inside the Eye of Terror. Because they were dickheads, the [[Alpha Legion]] had two, creatively named the ''Alpha'' and the ''Beta''. Interestingly, the Ultramarines have one, the ''[[Macragge's Honour]]'', but didn't [[derp|fucking]] use it, the whole fucking time until [[Roboute Guilliman]] returned. It shows up again in ''Dark Imperium,'' with the Smurfs having stolen it back from the Red Corsairs, which at least is fucking funny even if it makes no sense. The Imperial Fist had the ''Eternal Crusader'', but it was never their flagship since the [[Phalanx]] is so much better, so [[Rogal Dorn]] gave it to the [[Black Templars]] in the [[Second Founding]]. Also, due to Forgeworld apparently hiring people from the street now, the 9th black book of HH states Dark Angels had those as core of their ''support'' flotillas.
**'''Oberon:''' The mixed-breed bastard of the Imperial Navy. It has [[lances]], fighter bays, and weapon batteries. Its a powerful ship... <s>when fighting foes half its size</s> "Newer" fluff says the Oberon is rare, but a complete success in making a ship capable of killing anything it comes across, alone. Unfortunately, fluff also says a ridiculously low number of these (apparently) powerful ships were made (like, 3 or so). Then again: only four Iowa class battleships ships were built (technically 6, but 2 were scrapped before completion), and we know HOW to build them. It makes sense in a way. Attack craft can cripple an enemy's main weapons and engines and likely ultimately damage the power transfer from generators to void shields. Combined with macro-batteries hammering away and the enemy's weakened ability to maintain its shields would cause them to drop much quicker than usual. Then the city-sized lance-batteries rip the enemy in half. If used against enemy escorts to support attacks on large enemy ships like battleships and grandcruisers, this would work extremely well to the point an Oberon would likely become a priority target for enemy ships.