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Star Trek

2020-01-30T04:15:02Z

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[[File:Enterprise.jpg|thumb|500px|right|If you aren't already hearing the theme song you might not belong here.]]

{{Topquote|Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!|James T. Kirk, third captain of the starship USS Enterprise}}

'''''Star Trek''''' is a multimedia science-fiction series and one of the cornerstones of nerdy media properties, and one of the few to crossover into mainstream popularity (alongside ''[[Star Wars]]'', ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and a few others). It's also one of the longest-running science fiction franchises, as it began when the the first episode of The Original Series aired in 1966, and since then has had over 50 years of geek history spanning several generations. Needless to say, it's had a huge influence on all things sci-fi, and, by extension, [[/tg/]].

Originally, ''Star Trek'' was [[noblebright]] beyond noblebright and, in many ways, was the polar opposite of ''[[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40K's]]'' [[grimdark]]. The more recent reboot films, however, have taken a much, ''much'' more grimdark tone, which is delightfully [[skub]]tastic.

== Games ==
There's been plenty of tabletop games and [[/v/|vidya gaems]] featuring ''Star Trek'' without being merchandising bullshit (see: themed ''[[Monopoly]]'' sets), including one of the earliest action multiplayer wargame: ''Netrek''.

*'''''Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier''''' (1978) The very first Trek tabletop [[RPG]]. Written by, I shit you not, Michael Scott. Groggy (grokky?) as all hell, and due for an OSR.
* '''''[[Star Fleet Battles]] (SFB)''''' (1979-) The crunchiest starship combat game you're ever going to find outside of a computer. Based on the original series and not any of the later series, for licensing reasons. Takes some liberties with the setting, which (combined with the aforementioned licensing) is why "''Star Trek''" isn't actually in the title. It's had its own video game spinoff in the form of Starfleet Command. The series died when the last company owned by Interplay broke up in the early 2000s.
* '''''Star Trek: The Role Playing Game''''' (1982-1989) Made by [[FASA]], essentially ''[[Traveller]]''-lite, or a happier, shinier ''[[Rogue Trader]]''. Hasn't aged terribly well, what with having been made when the only canonical ''Star Trek'' materials to work with were the original and animated series, the first four films, and a couple of now non-canon novels. If you try to dust it off, expect tons of conflict with the rest of the show. Died as they were trying to update it for ''TNG'', because Paramount's corporate suits (surprise, surprise) had no idea what an RPG actually entailed and were worried about violence, and getting their cut, and... oh you know the drill by now. Welcome to the 80's.
* '''''Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator''''' (1983) FASA designed this, so it feels like ''[[Battletech]]'' but not as good.
* '''''Prime Directive''''' (1993-2008) The most successful tabletop RPG line (but that's not saying much), it's actually still in print. Produced by Amarillo Design Bureau, so again no direct name-dropping of "''Star Trek''." Lasted as long as it did by constantly evolving, in Borg-like fashion, to adapt to the current zeitgeist. Has had 4 editions, with the second using [[GURPS]], the third using [[Wizards of the Coast|d20]], and the fourth [[d20 Modern]].
* '''''Star Trek [[Card_Game|CCG]]''''' (1994-2007, 2011-2014, 2013-2015, 2018-) There's been a few of these, most notably the games released by [[Decipher]], but never globally popular. They also suffered from game balance problems from fans wanting their fave character, but needing extra rules for their quirks. There's also the problem of putting numbers to character stats, such as one game that asserted that [[Heresy|Picard having about twice the integrity of a Klingon pig]]. Later versions are "deck-building" games to try to cash in on the popularity of ''[[Dominion]]'' and ''[[Thunderstone]]''. And now virtual CCGs are the order of the day.
* '''''Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game''''' (1998-1999) The next attempt, made by Last Unicorn Games. Won an award for best new game, which makes it a complete shame that no one has ever played it.
* '''''Star Trek Red Alert''''' (2000) A Diskwars game themed to ''Star Trek''.
* '''''Star Trek Roleplaying Game''''' (2002-2005) When [[Decipher]] had the CCG license, they decided, "What the hell, let's make an RPG, too." It, like so many of its predecessors, died unnoticed and unmourned.
* '''''Star Trek Online''''' (2010-) An [[MMORPG|MMO]]. Decent gameplay mechanics, especially starship combat. Storyline leaves something to be desired, especially when the ostensibly [[Noblebright|peaceful]] Federation trades shots at least once with every other faction in the galaxy.
* '''''Call To Arms: Star Trek''''' (2011) [[Mongoose_Publishing|Mongoose]]'s license for ''Babylon 5'' expired, so they collaborated with Amarillo Design Bureau (the ''Star Fleet Battles'' guys), re-themed the game to Star Trek along with improving the system to make it more nifty. Less micro-management than SFB, and ships get some cinematic feats.
* '''''Star Trek: Expeditions''''' (2011) Ignore the tie-ins to the movie, Reiner Knizia designed this. Explore the gameboard, flip over missions, try to have the proper crew to get victory points.
* '''''Star Trek: Fleet Captains''''' (2011) Tile flipping, exploring, and spaceships fighting over resources
* '''''Star Trek: Attack Wing''''' (2013-) [[WizKids]] license the flightpath system from [[Fantasy Flight Games]] and adds ''Star Trek'' to the mix, [[Skub]] ensues. The game has been consistently plagued with balance issues, to the point that the rules errata is more than ten times longer than the actual rules. The actual current rules for things like the Borg special movement and fighter squadrons are completely different than the rules as written.
* '''''Star Trek: Ascendancy''''' (2016-) 4X table top boardgame from GaleForce9. Most of the races are represented, though the base set only has the Federation, Klingons and Romulans. Andorians, Vulcans, Cardassians and Ferengi can be purchased as expansions. There is even a Borg expansion that turns the game semi-coop as everyone tries real hard not to be assimilated.
* '''''Star Trek Adventures''''' (2017-) The latest attempt at an RPG, by Modiphius, coming out soon to tentative praise. It also comes with a whole range of miniatures of the various crews from the show.

== So why should I care? ==
Because between them, these six TV series and their assorted spinoff movies, books, etc. can provide inspiration for any sci-fi game you could care to run. If you want light-hearted action, look at the sort of things that happened in ''TOS'' or ''DS9'' to get the crew into some dangerous situation. If you want a charismatic villain, look at Gul Dukat or the Borg Queen. If you want moral issues and debates, look at the shit that happened to Voyager and remove all the transparent deck-stacking and cheesy moralizing (or you could read any decent SF book/watch a ''Twilight Zone'' episode written in the previous 50 years, if you don't need your source material to be served at a 2nd grade level). Like [[Tolkien]] is to fantasy it's a prime gateway drug to science fiction and especially science fiction which is more than "action movie IN SPACE!"

Not to mention in any sci-fi RPG with remotely free-form rules you're likely to encounter ''Star Trek'' fanboys, so you might as well know what they're talking about. The unholy spawn of a Trekkie and a [[Furry]] is known as a [[Chakat]], and you should fear it.

At its best ''Star Trek'' is thoughtful, optimistic futurism with a positive human element and brings you to strange new worlds in the grand tradition of speculative fiction which is accessible to even the layman. At its worst ''Star Trek'' is arrogant, smug, hypocritical, preachy, dull, sloppy and prone to the strawman fallacy.

== Setting ==
Here's the Cliff's Notes on ''Star Trek''. A couple of general warnings; firstly, ''Star Trek'' likes to ''really'' take its "racial themes" bits just a little too far. Second, despite this, it's rare for an entire race to be completely irredeemable the way many fictional aliens are: there are heroic and sympathetic characters from nearly every race listed below, able to put more-positive spins on their racial themes. Thirdly, aside from very occasional appearances by [[H.P. Lovecraft|aliens who are so bizarre that humankind can barely comprehend them]], all of the aliens look like dudes with rubber masks on (because they are). In real life, this was because there was no budget for anything else, but in-universe it's been explained by some kind of [[Old Ones|Precursor]] race who seeded all of the planets with their broadly humanoid DNA, and every race evolved slightly differently from there. There isn't much [[fluff]] on what these precursors were like, and some of it was contradictory, and Gene Roddenberry didn't like the idea (although he still had to work with the rubber forehead stuff). The good news for fa/tg/uys who like [[homebrew]] is that this makes it fairly easy to write [[d20 system]] rules for all of the races - after all, most ''D&D'' races are just humans with rubber masks on...

=== A Composite Creation ===
This is a general note that one should consider: Star Trek was created in pretty much the opposite way as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien worked out a bunch of linguistic stuff and general history of Arda in his spare time, then decided to use that as the basis for some stories that he eventually gave to some publishers which in the end sold quite well.

Roddenberry by contrast pitched a very broad general idea (it's the future, things are good, we got guys some on a ship exploring space; a "wagon train to the stars") to the networks who eventually took it up on it and had him work with a variety of writers and actors who added to this rough skeleton of an idea in a process that would continue on to this day.

This is not to knock either approach, but both have their advantages and disadvantages. In regards to Star Trek, a franchise which relies mostly on an episode of the week format that's been going on for more than half a century this means that the canon is a fucking mess. There were numerous people at the helm and many of them had often very different ideas about what should be done that were just thrown out to see what stuck, many of which were contradictory and some of which we'd frankly rather forget. In general fans and fluff writers have been spending a whole lot of time trying to straighten out things and much of the lore is basically a rough consensus of what people like and what fits in with it. Later series got more systematic about this, but there are still points of contention and a lot of flat out contradictions due to its scattershot nature.

=== Factions ===
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'''The Federation'''
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[[File:Federation_Ships.jpg|thumb|500px|left|Starfleet's ships of the Line (primary timeline)]]
Might as well talk about that main faction. The United Federation of Planets is what the [[Tau]] think they are. Its backstory is that in the distant future of the 1990s, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|übermensch]] [[Space Marines|created by genetic engineering]] began conquering the Earth. The [[Imperial Guard|normies]] fought back and won through sheer numbers, cryogenically freezing the Augments and kicking them out of Earth, but the damage and mass political unrest of World War III got half the planet nuked. This was why genetic engineering was banned. Fortunately, in 2063, a <s>drunken asshole</s> heroic visionary named Zefram Cochrane created humanity's first warp drive (though it functioned based on the principle that gravity bends space-time, and was therefore more akin to an Alcubierre drive than anything that's dependent on the [[Warp]]) and made first contact with the Vulcans. The Vulcans eventually helped humanity rebuild and overcome poverty, disease, war and hunger. With its Earthly problems solved, man turned to the stars and found out its three closest neighbors were [[Imperium of Man|racist xenophobic dicks trying to murder each other]]. Since any war between them would've swept up puny little Earth and gotten it glassed, humans decided to force their neighbors to sit down and talk things out. Incredibly, it worked, and the United Federation of Planets was born.

The Federation is a commie [[noblebright]] hippieland society with a strong democratic government ([[Mary Sue|pretty much Roddenberry's idea of utopia]]). As a result, Federation citizens work not because they have to, but because they want to. However, despite their advanced technology, transhumanism, that is intentionally making [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] and mutants like the infamous antagonist Khan Noonien Singh, is illegal.

The Federation's Navy is almost always called Starfleet. It's a mix between a military, a coast guard and a space agency, and usually rates scientific research as a higher priority than defense. One of its quirks is that it doesn't subscribe to the "bigger is better" policy used in most [[Warhammer 40K|sci-fi]], and even by most of the other ''Star Trek factions''. If the Federation ''does'' make a large ship, it's because they want it to have a daycare, swimming pool and ice cream bar. If they want a warship, they'll take a little gunship half the size of a modern day destroyer and pack it with enough antimatter nukes and guns to exterminate a solar system. In some cases, especially when dealing with ships from several centuries into the future, the ship is bigger on the inside than on the outside [[Creed|allowing it to hide a vast array of powerful armaments, ''space-bending'' equipment, and even whole planetary landscapes]]. They can get away with this because they out-tech almost everyone else by a country mile. The reason for the series' infamous "technobabble" is that <s>even ''they'' don't know everything their tech can do!</s> their technology is always evolving, and they know it so well that they can often use it in ways that even the original in-show design schematics did not intend.

In theory, Starfleet follows a rule called the "Prime Directive", which says that you're not allowed to interfere with low-tech races ("low-tech" being defined as "not having invented the warp drive", since warp technology apparently follows naturally from the laws of physics) or else things like turning the locals into Nazis might happen. The Original Series talked about this rule all the time, and Captain Kirk threw it aside whenever there was a sexy alien babe in sight. From ''TNG'' onward, it tended to instead be brought up whenever a hack writer needed a reason for the heroes to ''not'' instantly resolve a given problem with their superior technology or a way of making our heroes look like assholes for following it rigidly (yes, we could save this species from extinction but that would be interfering with the cosmic plan!), though there were a few good episodes that took it seriously.

Some of the more important member races are:

'''Founding members:'''
* [[Humans]]: You know 'em, you love 'em. Comprise seemingly 90% of Starfleet for reasons in no way related to the cost of makeup/CGI.
* Vulcan: The Original [[Eldar|Space Elves]], very emotional, especially during "pon'farr" (see below), who followed the teachings of an enlightened sage and embraced logic and rationalism after their emotions nearly led to them [[Slaanesh|wiping themselves out]]. They are what the average race of fantasy elves think they are, except on ''Enterprise'' because the writers wanted to artificially inject tension into the show (some of that was retconned to be a Romulan plot). Occasionally enter a state called "pon'farr," where they need to either [[Dark Eldar| fuck something half to death]], kill it with the nearest sharp object, or die of a brain aneurysm to let out all that pent-up emotional tension. Fa/tg/uys may recognize this as the sensation they feel every time [[Games Workshop]] puts out a new army book. Pretty bro-tier overall.
* Andorians: Blue dudes with antennae and constant fits of passion, the polar opposite of Vulcans and their one time foes. Pretty much fa/tg/uys, right down to the romantic streak, in the technical sense. Also, they live underground on a diet of meatbread and rage. Most of what defined them happened in Enterprise as they rarely showed up in the TNG-era, and even then did so as set dressing, allegedly because one of the showrunners hated their antennae and banned anyone from using them.
* Tellarites: Space [[Dwarf|Dorfs]]; like insulting everyone and arguing a lot (no, really, petty insults are considered a polite gesture in Tellarite culture), mostly because the very first tellarite ever shown in the series got in an argument with Spock's dad and now it's their whole racial thing. “Sarek said something in a scene once that was meant to demonstrate that he was stand-offish and kinda rude, but we like Sarek so it's now the defining attribute of this species.” It's all in good fun you understand, your confidence in your ideas and actions should be sturdy enough to withstand honest assessment and critique.
'''Notable Additional Members:'''
* Betazoids: Invariably attractive humanoid aliens with telepathic powers. Half-betazoid, half-humans apparently only have "empathic" powers, so they are well-regarded by Starfleet captains for their ability to point out the obvious and fill out the tight bodygloves that make up the Starfleet uniform in a pleasing manner, especially since theirs seem to come in a custom cut for reasons entirely unrelated to Roddenberry's erection. Their homeworld is like dropping a really hippie college and Space Vegas into a blender. They were taken over during The Dominion war because Earth or Vulcan would be seen as bullshit due to their large post Borg attack defense fleets/ship yards. While the writers would have to actually add new characters for the Andorians and Tellarites(such as Ambassadors for a government in exile). So Betazoid took the hit to raise the stakes.
* Trill: Originally a one-off race introduced as a sapient parasite that possesses and controls a barely, or even unintelligent humanoid host, they were radically reworked in ''Deep Space Nine'', right down to losing their rubber foreheads in favor of spots. Now, the host is itself an intelligent humanoid, and some, but not all, of their kind are able to willingly merge with a symbiont (because someone can't spell) that allows them to access a mixture of the memories and personalities of all previous hosts, though in a way that, theoretically, enhances the host's personality rather than destroying it or subsuming it. Then, when they die, they can pass on the symbiont to another host, theoretically one they mentored. Also, because the makeup artist didn't want to ruin the leads' good looks on DS9, they went from having a rubber forehead to some spots.
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'''The Klingon Empire'''
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[[Image:Batleth.jpg|thumb|right|A Bat'Leth (sword of honor), one of several types of Klingon bladed weapons. Frequently mocked IRL for being a poorly designed weapon.]]
[[Commissar|''"It is a good day to die!"'']]

The Federation's main rival and (movie era and afterwards) the quintessential ''Star Trek'' race of lumpy foreheaded aliens. Originally they were a rough analogue to the Russians (though they took some elements from [[Communism|communist China]]) in a rough cold war allegory with the Federation (even though the Federation are as commie as they come, though admittedly much of that came around in the TNG era). Their defining feature was that they were militaristic and imperialistic while the Federation was scholarly and respected liberty. This gradually moved more and more into them becoming Imperial Japan/[[Vikings]] In SPESSS obsessed with honor, fighting and dying honorably in battle while worshiping at the altar of [[Sigmar|warrior Jesus]], even as they turned from the Federation's bitter enemies into that friend who's fun to be around when he's not getting into drunken bar fights. You see shades of it in during the movie era and it became more and more prominent through ''TNG'', culminating in ''DS9''. Do not make the mistake of thinking that Klingons are nothing more than barbaric savages however; with Worf being part of the crew, and with ''DS9'' dealing with Klingon politics an awful lot we can see Klingon society as it truly is. Even so they do often wander into self parody territory.

The Klingons, in their current iteration, are a feudal society ruled by a council made up of the most powerful families. Klingon society holds very little value on things such as currency and material gain (which results in the Klingon empire [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65l7RHUx2A having a very simplistic understanding of economics]), believing that anything you acquire without some form of blood, sweat and/or tears on your part is a pathetic and dishonorable way of going about things, much the same way many cultures used to hurl abuse at merchants and bankers. Another thing to keep in mind is that a Klingon's reputation is literally everything. This can be easily seen in the episode "The House Of Quark" where dying honorably can literally change the outcome of an entire noble house, later when the Grand Council is visibly disgusted at D'Ghor. No respectable Klingon uses ''money'' to defeat his opponents. And no respectable Klingon would be so eager to perform an execution of an unarmed Ferengi in what was supposed to be an honorable duel. Klingons are still capable of being cunning and crafty however, and having a high diplomacy score is viewed as honorable as they still have examples of cunning and clever heroes tricking boorish and stupid monsters.

[[Warhammer 40000|Klingons often carry swords into battle in an age of energy beam guns]]. In-universe, this is less suicidal than it sounds in the context of boarding actions and tight starship corridors. The Bat'leth is actually a rather shitty weapon. The Mek'leth is noted to be better in most situations. They use the same Disruptor weapons as the Romulans, and at one point used similar starship designs. While is explained as the result of a temporary and unholy alliance, given the eventual animosity between the two races, it was just an excuse to reuse props on a limited budget.

The Klingons are tied with the Vulcans and the Borg as being the most prominent and recognizable non-human species in Star Trek. Beloved of the Internet and the general public, to the point that there are published books like "A Klingon Christmas" in the world. The Klingons have their own constructed language. If you are ever worrying that you might not be a nerd, learning Klingon will solve that problem for you. Please note that this is in general considered by experts to be pathognomonic of [[Chris Chan|autism]]. You have not experienced Shakespeare until you hear it in the original Klingon.
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'''The Romulan Star Empire'''
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''"It's always chess with the Romulans"''

You know those [[Eldar|Vulcans]]? Well a few thousand years ago, as their planet was ravaged by war, some of them turned to intense emotional control and logic to tame their murderous passions, while most others left the planet altogether, founding a colony on the planet Romulus and dubbing themselves [[Dark Eldar|Romulans]]. Since said planet shares a name with a mythical figure known for founding [[Roman Empire|a city which built a vast empire]], and they had warp drive while those around them did not, you probably know that they turned to building an empire of their own. They hold the second place of prominence as immediate rivals to the Federation. Comically, they actually have better emotional control than the average Vulcan, since they gene-engineered most of their problems away years ago, and don't have to deal with the emotional blowback from pon'farr. The downside is that they lost some of their cousins' niftier powers, like mind reading and being able to transfer their soul into another person for safekeeping. Although Star Trek Online also revealed that their trip to Romulus was a terrible ordeal, and their gene-engineering was taking during that time resulting in them losing most emotions save for bitterness of being "forced out".

The difference between the Klingons and the Romulans is basically the difference between Gork and Mork, or Khorne and Tzeentch. Klingons will fight you up front with simple brute force. Romulans are sneakier guys, preferring to fight you when you're not looking with spies, cloaked ships and complex plots behind the scenes and playing the long game. There is a lot of political infighting among them, though where the Klingons would duel to the death Romulans would seek to discredit their rivals, have them die in unfortunate "accidents" or disappear. This difference has left both Romulans and Klingons with a big hate-boner for each other, to the Romulans the Klingons are crude brutish barbarians and to the Klingons the Romulans are a pack of scheming cowardly weaklings.

Like the Klingons, they served as a rough Cold War allegory. In this case, they were rough analogs to Communist China (as seen by 1960s Americans), a distant horde of inscrutable and potentially dangerous Orientals who generally were unseen and projecting vague menace, but when encountered face-to-face could pack quite a punch indeed: the first major Interstellar War that Star Trek Earth fought was with the Romulans, which was fought entirely in space with neither side ever seeing the other face to face. Afterwards they set up a 'Neutral Zone' between the Federation and the Romulan Empire that no one even tried to cross for a century. From the Original Series onward, they frequently squabble and bicker with the Federation, before joining forces with them to fight the Dominion in ''Deep Space Nine'' and having their government devastated in ''Nemesis''. Finally, Romulus itself got caught in a supernova as part of the Abramsverse's backstory. ''Picard'' has revealed that Starfleet was going to help evacuate Romulus before the nova hit, but then some rogue androids destroyed the shipyards that the rescue fleet was being built at, so the Federation shrugged, flipped the Romulans the bird, and let them get blown up. The surviving Romulans are now scattered across half the galaxy, and some of them have got hold of a Borg cube and are presumably up to some nefarious shit with it.
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'''The Ferengi Alliance'''
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[[Image:GW_Ferengi.jpg|thumb|left|A typical ferengi engaged in typical ferengi activities]]
''"A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all."''-Eighteenth Rule of Acquisition

Introduced in ''TNG's'' early days as the villains for the series, and what [[/pol/]] thinks Jews are. Some Jewish people have actually complained about their being subliminally Jewish and thus anti-Semetic, specifically mentioning that they were moneyhungry, lascivious, and ugly, and their large ear lobes were stand-ins for the sterotypical Jewish nose ([https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/14/science-fictions-anti-semitism-problem/?noredirect=on more on that here, we're not shitting you]), based on an old medieval stereotype that was enforced to prevent them owning land or assets. The idea was to make a caricature of capitalism as a contrast with the techno-communist Federation. This might have worked if these were not [[FAIL|''TNG's'' early days]]. Instead they overshot the mark by a light year or so, on top of other bad decisions, and you got a race of short (Gene wanted to make an evil short race as big evil races were overplayed), big-eared, [[goblin]]-like losers about as threatening as a grumpy pug. Over the first and second seasons they tried to make these guys threatening, but they fell flat on their face every time. Eventually the writers just said "fuck it" and the Ferengi got demoted to comic relief species, and their status as terrible enemies was demoted to propaganda designed to scare the Federation while the Ferengi government tried to figure out what to make of a species that rejected the acquisition of wealth as a goal. The Ferengi had some good moments in the later seasons of ''TNG'', but most of the best stuff that fleshed them out came from ''DS9'', which had an [[awesome]] Ferengi bartender named Quark as a major character. For an idea of what the Ferengi might have been like if the writers had their shit together, look up the Druuge of [[Star Control|Star Control II]] or the Magog Cartel from Oddworld.

Ferengi religion is only hinted upon in ''DS9'', but what is seen implies a simplistic system based on financial success. Ferengi all follow a rulebook/canon known as the Rules of Acquisition, which can be described as Ayn Rand IN SPACE and condensed into the form of Confucius' Analects. There are 285 of these, each a short piece of advice on how to stay in the black. Examples include "Peace is good for business," "War is good for business," "Never have sex with the boss's daughter," and "Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack." The first, and most important, of these is "Once you have their money, you never give it back." Sometimes, the Ferengi Randian spirituality extends into outright interpretations of the afterlife: according to some, the afterlife consists of the Divine Treasury and the Vault of Eternal Destitution, which are respectively analogous to Heaven and Hell. Entrance into one or the other depends on one's business ventures at the time of death; those that were turning a profit are allowed to enter the Divine Treasury, and the rest are damned to the Vault.

Ferengi government is ruled over by a Grand Nagus, a mix between a <s>pope</s>chief rabbi and a CEO, and he basically treats his civilization like some sort of company, with citizens regarded as workers. Directly below him is the Ferengi Commerce Authority, a [[what|quasi-religious]] organization dedicated to ensuring that correct business practices were followed and correct moral behavior was shown (including keeping the proles in line), although to the Ferengi, these are one and the same. The agents of the FCA are the Liquidators, who are essentially Inquisitors crossed with IRS auditors on steroids. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Ferengi females have no rights and are mentioned as [[PROMOTIONS|not even being allowed to wear clothes]], which leads to [[That Guy|boorish behavior]] on the part of Ferengi towards just about any species. Of course, we see female Ferengi on the show who push that envelope, but it seems that overall "regressive" does not even begin to describe the gender relationships in their culture. Quark's mother, a social climber who marries the head of their government, begins pushing through a women's rights movement during DS9, which proves more successful as time goes on.
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'''The Borg Collective'''
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[[Image:Borg cube.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Borg have assimilated and improved your [[d6|die]]. It always rolls six. Crap your pants, 'cause resistance is futile.]]
{{Topquote|We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture shall adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.|The Borg's opening hail. This is not a boast or a brag, it's them simply explaining you how things are going to go down.}}
{{Topquote|One other thing. You may encounter Enterprise crew members who've already been assimilated. Don't hesitate to fire. Believe me, you'll be doing them a favour.|Picard going full [[grimdark]].}}

The Ferengi were utter failures as serious villains, so they needed something to fill that gap. Thus they made the Borg, an aggressive [[Tyranid|hive-minded]] collective of hyper-adaptive, [[Necron|regenerating]] cyborgs that assimilates entire species into itself in its attempt to improve and evolve. Shit, that's like coming up with [[Warforged]] while trying to replace [[Kender]].

In many ways, the Borg are the truest dark reflection of the Federation, and despite their name, they're not Swedish. While the Feds want you to join their little club on your own, to "add your culture to the galactic community," the Prime Directive means they will ultimately accept you turning them down, even if you have shit they really want. The Borg say "fuck that" and just absorb you. While the Federation believes everyone should work together [[Tau|for the greater good]], they still have a very strong sense of individualism and a culture of personal accomplishment (unless your individual belief happens to run counter to the Federation's principles anyway, in which case you're just WRONG because the Federation is the best). The Borg pool all their minds together into a massive collective consciousness in the pursuit of group perfection, becoming an almost-literal personification of techno-capital. The Federation is all about beauty and tranquility and all that hippie stuff, and their tech is eco-friendly and dolphin-safe. Borg [[Tyranids|strip mine entire planets and drain entire oceans]] in the name of growth and efficiency.

Your standard Borg [[cube]] is a huge multi-kilometer [[Firaeveus Carron|metal box]] (yes, bigger than most [[Imperial Navy]] cruisers) able to go up against an entire Federation warfleet and win. That's right, one of their ships could threaten the entire Federation and [[Exterminatus]] Earth. When done right, [[Necron|they are a cold, calculating, nigh-unstoppable force, a threat to all life]] that wants to retain free and distinct personalities (although they will ignore a single person if not on an assimilation mission, as what they really want is to absorb whole civilizations). Apparently, in Picard's nightmare in ''First Contact'', the Borg assimilation process includes a surgical [[Grimdark|drill through the eye. While awake.]] Of all the stuff to come out of the TNG Era they are undoubtedly the most well recognized in mass pop culture.

Unfortunately the got a bad downgrade during ''Voyager'' (the Borg Queen blew up cubes full of tens of thousands of drones because a few of them have been severed from the Hive Mind), but even there they were frequently not to be messed with. One amusing thing to note for people that haven't watched ''TNG'': the Borg were actually only in six episodes (and three were breakaway drones) and one movie, yet they're arguably the franchise's most famous pure villains aside from Khan. Goes to show how good they were when written properly. Then in ''Voyager'' they get their shit completely pushed in when they discover a new race of extradimensional aliens which they label Species 8472, which were immune to being assimilated, and had to ask the Federation for help in dealing with them. [[Necron#Regarding_Fluff_Change_-_Sore_Butts_Everywhere.|Wait, this sounds familiar...]]
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'''The Cardassian Union'''
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Introduced in ''TNG'', they are third fiddle to the Klingons and the Romulans. If the Klingons are hypothetically-honorable techno-barbarian warriors and the Romulans are an empire of civilized and refined but sly and ruthless expansionists, the Cardassians are essentially scaly fascists re-enacting ''[[1984]]'' IN SPACE. Their trials announce the outcome at the beginning, and the defense attorney is executed if he wins. Also, THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

Originally a race of peaceable, spiritual artists called the Hebitians (ironically not dissimilar to the Bajorans), modern Cardassia was born in hunger and desperation when their homeworld began to suffer simultaneous mass famine, pandemic, resource depletion, and ecological collapse. A military junta seized power, figuratively and literally auctioned off the soul of their culture through liquidating all the planet's art and religious artifacts into cold hard cash, and turned the Cardassians into the opportunistic imperialists they are today.

Despite being a whole lot weaker than the Federation, the Cardassians manage to hold their own, partly because what they lack in resources and raw power is made up for by a combination of intense cunning and high charisma stats. Compared to the equally deceptive Romulans, the Cardies are more likely to flash you a smile while tickling your ribs with a knife. They'll use any tool they can to gain the upper hand and while that often means unpleasant and terminal sessions in dark rooms, strip mined planets and the enslavement of entire species, they'll gladly become your bestest buddy if it would achieve their goals. Their intelligence service, the Obsidian Order, is also one of the most ruthlessly efficient organizations in the entire sector, managing to outscale the Romulan Tal Shiar when it comes to producing magnificent bastards and manipulating the politics of entire worlds to their advantage. Unlike the Romulans or the Klingons, they don't tolerate the sort of literal infighting that is rampant in both those states, that shit only serves to weaken '''GLORIOUS CARDASSIA''' and needs to be stamped out with ruthless efficiency. Exposing that someone who just happens to be your enemy as being a dangerous subversive is just a benefit, although this can result in both sides of a conflict shouting "For Cardassia!" as they charge each other. Sort of how Democrats and Republicans are both for America, yet oppose each other.

Cardassia has a very fluid hierarchical government, similar to the political realities of post-Stalin but pre-Collaspe Soviet Russia. Broadly speaking, there are three different facets of the government: the Central Command (which holds all the power) the Obsidian Order (who holds the least amount of power, but controls the most puppets) and the Detapa Council (similar to the [[High Lords of Terra]] and just as worthless). Cardassian society holds a very strict view of family, placing family just below the needs of the State.

The State holds a semi-divine mythical status in the eyes of its citizens, with it being viewed as impossible for the State to ever make mistakes. The ideal Cardassian life was one of complete loyalty and servitude to the State and family, with the "repetitive epic," detailing how generations of Cardassians go on to serve both in exactly the same way over and over seen as the height of their culture. The Cardassian government is assumed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent by pretty much every Cardassian, with all Cadassians gladly giving of themselves to the State. Such was this level of belief that when Picard was tortured by the Obsidian order, the torturer saw nothing wrong with bringing his daughter to work because he was working for the State, and therefore the torture of Picard could never be disturbing or wrong. That's why their trials announce their sentences at the beginning and execute the defense attorney if he wins; their "trials" are more excuses to show off the power and infallibility of the State to the masses than actually determine guilt or innocence.

As far as plot significant activities went, they had a war with the Federation a few years before ''TNG'' which ended in the creation of a Demilitarized Zone between the two powers and (significant to ''Deep Space Nine'') abandoning the previously occupied planet of Bajor they had exploited for resources. After a disastrous war with the Klingons and The Maquis led to a popular revolution and overthrow of the existing government, one leader seized power, declared himself absolute leader, and joined the Dominion towards the end of ''DS9'', which was some serious bad news for the ''DS9'' crew.
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'''The Bajoran Republic'''
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The Bajorans are a species native to the Planet Bajor. They were, until shortly before the events of ''Deep Space Nine'', under a brutal occupation by the Cardassians who strip mined their planet. They had a fighting resistance which veered in and out of being considered terrorists and all in all were often represented as Palestinians IN SPEHSS. After that, they got their independence, although they're thinking about joining the Federation. The Bajorans have one system and are technologically backwards; the Federation is technically breaking the Prime Directive by interacting with them, but as they've spent years under the oppression of a warp-capable species, they can probably handle it. Also ''DS9'' proves that ancient Bajorans managed to travel at warp speeds to Cardassia using solar sails and an enormous amount of luck, which technically makes them a warp-capable species. The only reason why they are significant in terms of the politics of ''Star Trek'' is that they have a wormhole near their planet, which has some timey-wimey aliens living it that they worship as gods, and serves as the only way to get to or from the Gamma Quadrant that won't take decades, making it strategically priceless. Hilariously, this was discovered almost immediately after the Cardassians ''thought'' they'd extracted everything of value from the Bajorans and peace'd out, certain that the system was no longer worth the PR hit they were taking from it, only to get burned by some harsh seller's remorse. Also, their species has the oldest civilization (roughly a half-million years) of any major ''Star Trek'' race, and the wormhole aliens have gifted them some cool shit, like the Orb of Time.

The big thing that makes the Bajorans unique is that they actually have a serious religion going on -the human race is depicted as mostly non-religious. They're also probably one of the most accurate depictions of any highly religious alien race in a sci-fi franchise, because they are divided between the majority who interpret their religion as [[Noblebright|peace and love]], and a small but loud minority of bastards who interpret it as [[Grimdark|condoning acts of terrorism]]. A blatant attempt to simulate Israelis for criticism, although that can apply to many religions nowadays.
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'''The Dominion'''
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A vast empire which exists on the other side of the galaxy in the Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion is ruled over by a species of liquid shapeshifters called The Founders.(aka Changlings aka Odo's people) They have at their disposal a military composed of two genetically engineered species that worship the Founders as gods: the short and articulate Vorta who serve as ambassadors, bureaucrats, and political commisars and the big brutal Jem'hadar, who are vat grown, drug addicted, cannon fodder. These oversee a large number of vassal races, including (as of later seasons of ''DS9'') the Cardassians.

The Founders were once (according to them anyway) a peaceful, kind civilization of explorers who wished to see the galaxy, explore strange new worlds, and seek out new forms of life. Unfortunately, they did this in the wrong neighborhood, and quickly ran into species who did not tolerate others. The fact that the Founders were shapeshifters capable of mimicking almost anyone did not help either. Paranoia, mutual mistrust, and some very bad things eventually led to the Founders deciding "fuck this" and moving their planet into a nebula so nobody would bother them. So more or less, a [[Grimdark|grimmer]], [[Grimdark|darker]], counterpart to the Federation, but with spookier Real Aliens.

The Founders are obsessed with order and are both extremely racist and xenophobic, and believe that all alien life is inherently untrustworthy and evil, and the best thing to do is conquer/enslave them before they do the same to them. They don't care about the rights of "Solids", and will happily ignore any sense of decency when convenient. This can be seen when The Dominion runs a simulation of the Dominion dominating the Alpha Quadrant. When O'Brien is assaulted by a Jem'Hadar and severely beaten to the point of needing emergency teleportation to medical (the crime being "disrespectful"), the Founders (disguised as Federation Officers) do not press charges, and when Sisko comes barging in demanding answers, dismiss him with little concern about their own soldiers brutalizing citizens. Their overall ideology could be thought of as Qin legalism IN SPACE: people are inherently evil and the only way to make a better world is to impose order upon them through brute force from a position of absolute, unquestioned power.

The Founders, when not wandering around in various forms, tend to spend their time in a massive ocean literally made up of countless billions of Founders, something which is referred to as the Great Link. According to the Founders, this allows them to share information with each other and come to peaceful decisions. This is rapidly proved to be bullshit; when a separated-at-birth one of their own merged into the Great Link to share his memories of the Federation as peaceful and tolerant space hippies, not only did the Founders ignore his memories, but actively fucked with his mind in an attempt to turn him into a sleeper agent. And even if it weren't, it shows their hypocrisy through their willingness to share freedom and liberty among themselves while depriving all their various slaves and conquered peoples of the same.

The Founders are massive dicks, even to their own people. Failure among Jem'Hadar is rewarded with slow and painful death from deprivation of the drug they're created to need and their lifespans are incredibly short. To be even bigger dicks, the Vorta have no sense of taste and can't appreciate beauty. Not to make them better diplomats, but because they were raised from a primitive stone-age ape tribe, and the Founders think they shouldn't be ever allowed to forget that. (On the plus side, they did give the Vorta an immunity to poison that would make [[Mortarion]] himself jealous. [https://youtu.be/rACCZaBcq1g?t=1m29s Observe.]) This may also stem from their own neuroses: the Founders themselves have almost no bodily needs at all and require no nourishment, so they design their slaves to be like them. Notably, Vorta tend to come in [[Paranoia|packs of clones; a new one is activated when an old one dies, and they retain some memories and personality between "lives,"]] further hammering home how expendable they are to their makers.

And both races are literally engineered to love their makers for what they have done to them and worship and revere them as gods.

Continuing from the Cardassian Union section because the fate of both powers are linked in DS9. After joining the The Dominion. Everything was going seemingly for them and their leader Gul Dukat. They figured out how to bring down the minefield block the wormhole created by the Starfleet crew of Deep Space Nine. (The Cardassians use its old name Terok Nor while in charge.)

However during the start of the sixth season the Founders learn that their not the only "gods" in the Galaxy. As the Sisko convinces the Bajoran Prophets to remove the Jem'Hadar reinforcements in transit. Forcing them to retreat back to Cardassian Space and Dukat's old friend Damar shoots Dukat's half Bajorion daughter Ziyal. This makes Dukat jump off the deep end as the sod loses his sanity and than goes full nutcase after his rehab transport is destroyed by the Jem Hadar, and ends up fighting an injured Benjamin Sisko after hide inside some caverns on a hell planet for a few days.

After escaping he allows one of the evil wormhole aliens to possess him, kills Jadzia Dax, forgives Damar for killing a family member. Creates a cult of Bajorions dedicated to the Pai-Wraths,than abandons the cult when Major Kira knocks over the suicide pill jar that mixes it in with his fake. Than has sex with an old woman and becomes a demi-god. Bent on buring the universe despite the fact that his own people suffered heavily under the rule of the Dominion. After getting a final bitch slap from the Sisko who gets to have a happy ending living with his god alien parents. At the same time teaching them not to be huge dicks. While Dukat himself is trapped in the Fire Caves on Bajor.

His old friend Damar despite murdering a half breed woman is a lot more sane. Lacking Dukat's crimisa, things get worse for him and the Cardassians under Dominion rule. Most of their victories are off screen such as taking over Betazed. One of the none few major non founding planets of the Federation. This forces the Sisko to bring the Romulans into the war to on the side of the Klingon-Federation alliance. With some underhanded methods from a former member of the Cassidian Obsidian Order(Elim Garak). I.e. blow up a Romulan Senator's shuttlecraft and tricking the pointy ears into thinking a damaged but fake datarod(an advanced form of SSD) was the real deal.

Thus the blame for his death will be switched from the Feds and pals are shifted to the Cardassians. By the final season this leads to the Dominion finding new best buds in the form of The Breen. Damar decides he has enough of the bullshit and in the ultimate irony realizes that the status of his people are now no different from the Cardassian occupied Bajor.

So after the Breen score the Domain a temporary victory over the Federation Alliance. Damar and his Cardi buds destroy a Dominion cloning facility while their backs are turned. Just so he can stick it to his "friend" the Vorta, Weyoun 8. Leaving them and the Klingons being the only thing stopping The Dominion from steamrolling over the Alpha Quadrant. As one Bird of Way(doesn't say if its the frigate sized B'rel or Light Cruiser sized K'vort class. Though DS9 almost always used the former) was immune to the Breen energy dampening weapon due to modding its warp core. Gowron, due to being a moron who did nothing to change course after his most trusted advisor(Martok) turned out to be a Founder and the first time the Jem Hadar kicked their asses during the Klingon-Cardassian War. Decides to take glory for himself and discredit General Martok(who now how his pre Dominion internment job). This goes as badly as your thinking. Forcing Worf(now a legitimate badass compared to his TNG days) to kill him and turning the role of Chancellor to Martok.

Meanwhile the Feds decided to help out Damar's resistance by sending him Colonel Kira(who now has the rank of a Starfleet Commander), Odo and Garak(Ziyal's former simi-boyfriend). The resistance eventually get their hands on one of the Breen Energy Dampeners. During some infighting Damar realizes that the restoring the old Cardassia is pointless. Killing one of his old friends. The Breen and Jem'hadar do eventually one up the resistance. But not before their brutality turns more Cardassian against them. So during the final space battle this makes the Cardi military switch sides.
Damar is killed during the final raid on the Dominion HQ. Focing Kira and Garak to lead the final push into the compound.
The War between the Alpha Quadrant Alliance and The Dominion is ends when Odo offers to share the cure to the disease created by Section 31(the Federation's answer to the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order) which he passed after the Founders tricked him for into return to the Great Link. While also promising to join the Great Link.
It's harder to say who are the bigger dicks here. The Founders for having Wayoon 4 infect Odo to return and turned him into into a solid(who was restored because dying a Changeling baby merged with him a season later) for killing a Founder who hacked the Defiant and almost succeeded at starting a war in the Alpha Quadrant. Or Section 31 for making the disease in the first place.

With all their advanced technology. One would think the Founders would have discovered a cure before being handed one. But the bad guys being just as flawed as everyone else is a common theme in Star Trek. Even in Star Trek Online despiste Odo being the one in charge a few decades later. As their Ambassador to the Federation. The experiments of the Founders sketchy past cause them and everyone else huge headaches including the dishonorable mention of the revived True Way movement.(i.e. the guys who hated that fact that the civilian Detapa Council ran Cadassaia.)

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'''Species 8472 / Undine'''
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The one and only race in the galaxy even the Borg don't want to fuck with. Introduced in Voyager, Species 8472 are three-legged creatures that live in a space called Fluid Space. It's similar to the [[Eye of Terror]] for the fact that it connects to an alternate dimension and [[Khorne|everyone will be ripped apart upon entering.]]

When the Borg first came around to try and assimilate them they were completely obliterated in a war in which 4 million Borg were killed in the first few days at the cost of almost no members of Species 8472. This war was such a roflstomp that the Borg were forced to call on the Federation for help. [[Tau|The Federation being the better people swallowed their pride and decided to help their sworn enemies,]] [[Eldrad|but were dicks and sent only one ship.]]

Species 8472 fought with fast moving, small ships and devastating beam weapons so the small ship of the Federation could keep up with them and helped the Borg force the species back into Fluid Space. The Federation were the villains on this one. That said, they eventually came to an accord with Species 8472, preventing further wars between the denizens of Fluid Space, except in lots and lots of video games that want to use a fresh antagonist.

That and that in ''Star Trek Online'', [[Awesome|they look like the fucking Predator.]]
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===The Q===

The Q are a race of beings who have elevated themselves to the point where they are basically gods. Most of them do not interact directly with the younger races, who they tend to consider with disdain- if they consider them at all. However a few of them take a more enlightened view, and one in particular has been known to fuck with individual humans from time time. They are mostly a TNG thing, and even there they work mostly by grace of John de Lancie's acting chops as a counterpoint to the charisma of Patrick Stewart, as de Lancie played the ''character'' Q, an all-powerful epic [[troll]] (no, not the fantasy kind) who's occasionally [[Tzeentch]]ian games sometimes appeared to be for his own amusement and sometimes acted as education or event protection to the human race. Various subplots involving the Q ''species'' range from somewhat thought provoking to mildly entertaining to ridiculous and banal, but the classic episodes that highlighted the charisma and chemistry of the two actors were often quite excellent.

=== The Mirror Universe ===
Not so much of a faction as an alternate setting, this is a parallel universe in which [[Alternate History|things have gone differently]] in Earth's History. The main point of divergence appears to occur when the Vulcan scientists who landed at Bozeman, Montana in 2063 are not welcomed with alcohol and music but instead are killed and have their ship looted. It is equally clear that where the main universe is Noblebright the Mirror Universe is Grimdark. Instead of a peace loving Federation searching for knowledge and friendly cooperation for the betterment of all, Earth gave rise to the ''Terran Empire'' which seeks out new life and civilizations to conquer and enslave, as it had done with the Klingons. Pretty much it's the PG-13 version of the Imperium of Man with a bit more Grimderp. Junior officers get promoted by killing their superiors, those that fail at that get thrown in the agony booth for their troubles and Emperor gets the job by usurping the previous incumbent. In general everyone in the Mirror Universe is a selfish asshole version of themselves and following comic book logic the uniforms for the female characters are more revealing. Occasionally people can cross over from one universe to the next due to technobabble and cause mischief in either realm.

Originally it was a one off TOS setting for an episode of the week, but it was brought back in a few novels and some romps in Deep Space Nine in which [[Fail|the Terran Empire had fallen]]. In Enterprise's fourth season it got a two parter that was pretty good and would have been an annual thing if the show had been renewed, this one having little crossover with the main universe (a ship from TOS ended up in the Mirror Universe and is salvaged after all it's crew have died). We also went there in Discovery, for better or worse. Voyager never did the mirror universe, but instead got a homage episode with some alien historians in the far future getting the details wrong like historians tend to.

== The Star Trek Crew ==
Whether the focus of the show is exploration, manning a space station in an important locale or trying to get home, all Star Trek series have a basic set up of casting and focus: namely on a collection of people who are usually the senior most officers on the ship. If you decide to make a Star Trek inspired game take this into consideration.

* '''The Captain''': Big cheese. Makes the hard decisions. Needs to be able to talk, think or fight out of situations as needed. The third option fetishist finding the balance between empathy and reason. (Two least skubby examples: Kirk and Picard, but the skub will fly hard if you say one is better than the other, sufficed to say that people like both of them alot but for different reasons)
* '''The First Officer''': Second in command and trusted advisor. Added after the original series, where the role was combined with and split between two others. (Two least skubby examples: Riker and Kira)
* '''The Science Officer''': Got high Int stats. Can analyze the situation and work out solutions. The voice of reason. Almost never human. (Two least skubby examples: Data and Spock)
* '''The Engineer''': Hard working technically minded guy who gets shit done. (Two least skubby examples: Scotty and Geordi)
* '''The Doctor''': Ship's healer with a secondary scientific role. The voice of empathy, whether prickly or serene. (Two least skubby examples: Bones and the EMH Doctor)
* '''The Security Officer''': Rough and tumble no-nonsense sort whose job it is to keep these guys alive when diplomacy fails, which it often does. Often has to juggle providing ship's security with working the tactical station on the bridge in a crisis. (Two least skubby examples: Worf and Odo)
* '''The Helmsman''': Got mad spacecraft piloting skills, either full-sized starships, shuttles, or fighters. (Two least skubby examples: Sulu and Tom Paris)
* '''The Other Guy''': A crewmember whose role doesn't cleanly map onto other positions, a role often restricted to a single show. Example positions include communications officer, ship's councilor, transporter chief, and linguist. (Two Least skubby examples: Uhura and Troi)
* '''The Outsider''': Someone who is a passenger and regular cast member, but exists outside the organization, looking in and commenting. Usually works a side-job, like tailor, bartender, or cook. Either a beloved fan-favorite or utterly despised, there is no middle ground. (Two Least skubby examples: Guinan and Quark)

Some of these hats may be worn by more than one character, some may be worn by no one at all. This is especially true in the original series, which had a smaller cast overall, and which put less emphasis on an ensemble and more on the main trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The usual roles and character dynamics were instead set down by ''The Next Generation'', which later series generally copied.

== The Shows ==
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===''The Original Series''===
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Created in 1966 by legendary sci-fi [[spiritual liege]] and money-grubbing sexist lounge lizard Gene Roddenberry and pitched as a "Wagon Train to the stars", it's a pulpy adventure sci-fi, full of fistfights, sword fights, and hammy speeches. (The guns never work.)

The USS ''Enterprise'' is tasked by the Federation to go on a five year mission to explore space: the final frontier, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before, though due to budget constraints, her crew often finds that man has in fact gone there before. Or at least something that looks exactly like a man but is actually an [[Xenos|Alien]]; most episodes split the difference. James T. Kirk sleeps with [[Hot Chicks|hot alien babes]] who either die tragically or leave tearfully at the end of the episode, but it's 'k because he's too in love with the Enterprise to ever love a mere ''woman'' more. Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are cold and logical and rash and emotional respectively, and their constant friction must be resulting in the best make-up sex in the world, Mr. Sulu and Lieutenant Uhura wait in vain for focus episodes that never come, Ensign Chekhov suffers horribly to the approval of American Cold War audiences, and Scotty [[gets shit done]]. Uniforms, while iconic, tend to look a bit civilian though. Miniskirts are apparently mandated attire for the ship's fan-servicey female "yeomen" and others, because 1966. The civilian nature of the attire (including, one must assume, the miniskirts, but they had a visual appeal all their own) were apparently an intentional design decision by Roddenberry who didn't want uniforms to look military. Further specialness on the part of Roddenberry demanded phasers not look like guns, instead looking like nothing in particular at all (although looking back at them today they look sort of like TV remotes, which would be invented much later), and also (probably the only sensible decision in this category) ships that didn't look like rockets, giving ships their distinctive and iconic saucer-engineering-nacelles look that still stands out today.

The Original Series frequently ran out of budget and entire episodes were filmed using spare costumes belonging to the production company, resulting in a series of extremely goofy excuses to go to planets full of gangsters or [[Nazi]]s. This is often copied by shows who don't realize it was done out of pure expediency, and nowadays this [[TVTropes|"Planet of Hats"]] gimmick is practically a box to check off when doing sci-fi adventure. The lack of budget also resulted in one of the more memorable inventions; unable to budget for a sequence showing the ''Enterprise'' or a shuttle landing on a new planet every week, the writers instead decided to invent the transporter to "beam" the crew down to planets or between starships. Also worth noting: despite its mediocre critical reception, ratings and eventual cancellation, not to forget the uneven quality of many episodes, especially in the Roddenberry-less third season where poor Fred Freiberger had to come onto a show he didn't understand and try to get better ratings with less money, ''TOS'' had a hell of a cultural impact thanks to syndication and it has been said that since it entered syndication in 1969, there hasn't been a 24-hour period without some TV station, in some country, playing Star Trek. Cancellation of The Original Series is now considered one of the worst decisions in TV history, and while much of its silly 60's campiness is now laughable, it often still manages to teach relevant and important lessons today.

Fun fact: the ''Enterprise'' and each of her 11 sister ships have enough firepower to [[Exterminatus]] a planet by themselves, after getting issued an order called General Order 24. This however is likely a time-consuming task. According to a later DS9 episode, it takes a fleet of 20 warships 1 hour of sustained bombardment to destroy a planets crust and 5 hours of sustained bombardment to destroy a planet down to its mantle. These 20 ships were also in service 100 years after the Enterprise so they were also more powerful.
Kirk has the distinction of being the only known captain to issue a [[Exterminatus|General Order 24]], because a planet was ''too'' much into wargames (he changed his mind after they dropped wargaming).
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===''The Animated Series''===
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The often forgotten middle child. More or less "seasons 4-5" of ''TOS'' with the same writing staff and actors, sans poor Walter Koenig. He was replaced by a weird camel person. He learned this at a convention, from a fan, while he was trying to announce he'd be writing an episode, which Gene promptly demanded he rewrite over and over. Classy.

Being animated allowed the staff to get a lot more creative with the alien designs and plots, and the writing and acting remain... well, top notch is a stretch, but certainly at the same levels as ''The Original Series'', with the occasional low point. Not ''nearly'' as bad as you're probably picturing from the name, although still limited by the low budget and primitive, cheap animation techniques of the television era it was aired in. Notably some sci-fi novelists were brought in to write some episodes, such as Larry Niven, and at least one episode, "Yesteryear," is considered such a pivotal moment in Spock's development that even people who hate the series enough to consider it all non-canon often make an exception just for that one.

Also, since the series now has no excuse for throwing in lots of Space Puritans and Space Wizards, it of course continued to do so to derptastic results, because by this point it had become traditional. The presence of a straight-up [[furry]] on the bridge, however, is downright unacceptable.
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===''The Next Generation''===
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Here's where it starts getting a little deeper and a little darker, although with a lot of left-wing political subtext turned up to 11. The USS ''Enterprise-D'' (the original and C were destroyed in action while A and B were retired) is, like its predecessor, tasked with going where no-one has gone before, but this time around the problems are less likely to be solved in a single episode. Jean-Luc Picard is the captain and he plots and negotiates his way to victory; Mr. Data is cold and unemotional, though not by choice - as an android, he'd very much like to change that; Riker takes over the captain's "sleep with alien babes" duties since Picard is married to the job; Worf the Klingon gets beaten up by monsters to show how tough the monsters are, meaning that Worf winds up looking incredibly weak by the end of the show's run and doesn't regain his badassery until his run on ''DS9''; Dr. Beverly Crusher is good old Bones minus his temper; Dr. Pulaski is Bones ''plus'' temper; Counsellor Troy is so badly written she becomes a running joke; and Geordi LaForge [[gets shit done]]. Only two things need to be said about helmsman Wesley Crusher: he was [[Mary Sue|Gene Wesley Roddenberry's shitty self-insert fanfic character]], and his sueness got to the point that even his actor started to hate him within the first season of the show.

Due to the massive success of The Original Series in syndication (and Paramount being [[Rage|pissed off]] by broadcast networks treating their most valuable IP like any other show), TNG was aired through syndication from the beginning. Although the first two seasons were laughably bad, the quality began to improve dramatically after an increasingly cocaine-addled Gene Roddenberry got too sick to keep ruining it and his partner-in-crime Maurice Hurley was thrown out on his ass, a moment often pinpointed via looking for when [[Meme|Riker grew a beard.]] The later seasons are widely considered to represent the apex of the franchise's episodic formula on the small screen (although ''DS9'' gave it a run for its money with a more serialized approach); sadly, this series only got one good movie.
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===''Deep Space Nine''===
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Unlike all the other series so far, ''Deep Space Nine'' primarily takes place in a fixed location - the titular space station Deep Space Nine, out near the borders of Federation Space. Said space station is near Bajor, which was recently freed from Cardassian occupation, and a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy which allows [[Warp|all sorts of of crazy shit to go down]]. If the other shows are a wagon train, this one's a border fort.

Benjamin Sisko is the captain, declared Emissary by the nearby Bajorans for making contact with the wormhole aliens they worship, and he successfully hybridizes the blow-the-shit-out-of-whatever-you-can't-punch Kirk approach with the talk-in-a-very-dignified-way-about-the-philosophy-of-the-thing-and-win-by-rhetoric Picard maneuver, in his ultimately-successful quest to become the baddest motherfucker in space, then literally becomes a space god. Kira the Bajoran ex-<s>terrorist</s> <S>''noble freedom fighter''</s> (who are we kidding she calls herself a terrorist) struggles to free and rebuild her people while coming to terms with the moral ambiguities of situations she prefers to see in black-and-white, Dr. Bashir works to find his character for several seasons before becoming a highlight, Dax gets often written poorly and has to switch bodies doing it, Odo IS ''Liquid Space Cop'', Quark runs his bar and [[troll|heckles]] the Federation, Garak pretends to be a tailor while definitely not being a super-spy and dropping killer lines, and Miles O'Brien [[gets shit done]]. Also, Worf wanders in halfway through, and actually gets to punch things instead of just getting punched by them. It's also a lot more political than other series (though ''TNG'' and ''Voyager'' have their moments) and the last series to have Gene Roddenberry's involvement (with less enthusiasm, in fact often much to the benefit of this particular series thematically, although Roddenberry's complete departure did not necessarily bode well for the franchise in general.)

It's the [[Awesome|closest the canon series ever get]] to [[Grimdark]], especially when the Dominion show up. The show has aged remarkably well and the terrorist/freedom fighter debate was repeatedly explored in a very mature and honest way. ''DS9'' is the most serialized of all Trek shows and could be considered a forerunner to the golden age of television with its long story arcs and deep character development. Overall, ''DS9'' has to be considered the most consistently good Trek show thanks to the excellent writing and fantastic performances from a truly wonderful ensemble cast. At least until the final season, when the writers who made it good were pulled to try and fail to make good movies, heralding the failure that was ''Voyager''. The finale episodes were mostly okay and tied up the story semi-satisfyingly, though a few die-hard subplots fell flat.

It wasn't without its controversies however. The show was airing around the same time as another thematically similar sci-fi show, ''Babylon 5''. Not only that but characters also shared similarities, as did the episodes. Interestingly, beginning of both series, introduction of characters and airing of similar episodes were often too close to each other for one show to copy the other but this did not stop massive [[Rage]] and [[/v/|fanboy wars]] from starting between fans of the two series accusing one another of plagiarism and having an inferior product. Happily, as time went on and both shows evolved, these hurt feelings have mostly faded.

How good is ''Deep Space Nine''? Every Star Trek series and even the reboot movies have pretty much ripped off ideas and concepts established during the series. Famously, within the "Trekker/Trekie" fan community, there's a little cell of fans who like it better than most other ''Star Trek''; these fans are typically called "Niners."
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===''Voyager''===
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Star Trek: Voyager centers around the eponymous USS ''Voyager'', a smallish ship which gets teleported over to the other side of the galaxy. The plot of the series centers on the crew's efforts to get back home, which COULD have made for an excellent premise. Unfortunately, there were few lasting story arcs, with most episodes being fully self-contained (as well as being littered with far too many episodes featuring holodeck or transporter incidents). As a consequence, despite being completely isolated from the Federation, no matter how bad things got Voyager always appeared in the next episode without a scratch, fully supplied, and with all its shuttlecraft intact. Think ''Gilligan's Island'' on a starship.

Like ''TNG'' and ''DS9'' it's a character-driven drama just as often as it is a sci-fi adventure romp, although compared to TNG only a few of the characters are particularly memorable. The captain and arguable "main character" is Kathryn Janeway, a Katharine Hepburn lookalike (I see what you did there) who is stern without being cold, and principled without being inflexible. The fan favorite is a character called "The Doctor" ([[Doctor Who|No relation]]); he's the solid-light hologram representative of the ship's emergency medical computer, who has to take on actual medical duties when their chief medical officer was conveniently killed in the pilot episode. Other than this, Chakotay is a peace-loving and spiritually rich indian <s>freedom fighter</s> <s>terrorist</s> [[FAIL|who was written with the help of a special cherokee consultant so native his name was Jamake Highwater and it turned out later on that he was actually jewish and didn't know dick about native cultures so he made everything up resulting in Chakotay basically being a borderline racist caricature of what you think indians are like. Akoochimoya.]] Tom Paris is an annoying jerk and is counterbalanced by Harry Kim who is the ideal boy-scout, making him only half as annoying and twice as boring. B'elanna Torres tries to perpetuate a lineage of dudes getting shit done but ends up blankly reciting her technobabble, having second degree plasma burns and – worst of all – systematically fails to get shit done whenever the warp core goes nuts. Tuvok tries hard to be as cool as Spock but ends up being a lame version of the n°1 Vulcan who uses logic to justify everything and makes it short for "you are wrong, I am right because I said so." Kes is passed as a fragile and nice character but it takes a couple of episodes to realize that having a short lifespan does not change the facts: [[powergamer|when you can boil someone to death from the inside of their body, drain life from everything around you to become stronger and do anything you want without knowing how, just by thinking of it]], you are a goddamn Mary Sue. From the fourth season onwards the only character the writers seemed to care about are Seven of Nine, [[Mary Sue|a human woman who recently escaped from Borg control and kept all of her cyborg enhancements but regained her free will]]; another Mary Sue, to be sure, but she's [[Hot Chicks|hot]], and the other characters are much worse, so that's not really a bad thing. Fortunately, The Doctor still received a lot of attention from the writers and almost single-handedly made the show watchable. There was also Neelix, who was the apparent inspiration for Jar-Jar Binks, and any sane crew would have pushed him out of an airlock on the first episode. Fans who stuck with the show despite its glaring failings were given one final slap in the face with the <s>controversial</s> shit final season, in which the producers decided "screw steadily crafting a satisfying conclusion to a story which we have wasted for most of the last seven years anyway; lets just ignore it until the final episode and then throw in some shit about trans-warp conduits and time travel, bitches love time travel!" If you did not care about any of the characters or the subplots or time travel making sense (the writers sure didn't), then the final episode was explosions (and the Borg got a major setback, just don't think about the setup too hard).

The Doctor never once stopped being totally fucking awesome though (enough so to even earn a cameo in First Contact), and the great acting from the cast carries the series from being horrific to ''occasionally'' watchable. Just goes to show that no matter how good your actors are, they can't make diamonds out of shit.

Overall, most Star Trek fans view Voyager's legacy with a shrug and a "meh." Unfortunately, hopes that Voyager's successor would revitalize the franchise would soon prove to be overly optimistic.

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===''Enterprise''===
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From the minute the Nickelback-tier theme tune started, Enterprise attempted to take Star Trek in a new direction and was only partially successful in doing so. The series never quite caught its footing, although it still managed to have some enjoyable moments. It was most notable for providing a first-hand view of the key events that directly led to the formation of the Federation. The Federation's founding races were also featured heavily, with Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans all enjoying significant screen time alongside the human characters.

It's a prequel to the rest of the canon, taking place on the first ''Enterprise'', before the Federation was founded and during the period when Earth was still an independent power- so there's a lot of primitive versions of things from other series. At least the uniforms were pretty cool in an Air Force sort of way. Captained by <s>that guy from ''Quantum Leap''</s> Jonathan Archer, in hindsight the fact that they had to rename him from their original choice of Jeffrey Archer to avoid confusion with the disgraced British MP and author of the same name probably cursed the series with bad karma before it had even begun shooting. In an unusual twist for a ''Trek'' series, his first officer isn't a <s>terrorist</s> ''noble freedom fighter,'' however she does share a trait with her ''Voyager'' predecessor in that the actress who portrayed her frequently criticized the show's writers in interviews. Other than that, well, Hoshi Sato screams a lot, Travis Mayweather was so dull even the writers forgot he existed, the resident Vulcan T'Pol serves as both the Science Officer and source of sexy fanservice, Malcolm Reed has an accent, Dr Phlox is a weird creepy alien with weird creepy alien moral (and gets surprisingly interesting when given enough screentime, which hardly happened), and Trip also has an accent and [[gets shit done]].

Was retooled twice, the third season tries to be ''24'' IN SPACE (stop some guys the Xindi from blowing up Earth) while the 4th season is a massive apology about the last three seasons that tries to fix all the problems they had, and as a result, the only season that's close to being good.

Unfortunately, the poorly-received final episode is set on the holodeck of the Enterprise-D, which leaves us with the firm impression that the producers would have much rather have just continued making ''The Next Generation''. Considering the mediocre quality of the ''TNG'' movies we got instead, this probably would have worked out better for all involved (Or not since ''Voyager'' was that; its first episode was even numbered 901, as in Season 9 Episode 1).

Yet despite all this bad directing, subpar plots, and frankly boring episodes, ''Enterprise'' still manages to be moderately enjoyable with occasional moments of awesomeness if you can suffer through a fair few awful spots and aggressive mediocrity almost everywhere else. The focus on founding Federation races like the Andorans was refreshing and the technology level, being somewhere between the original series and the real world present-day, was quite interesting. We also got to see the Vulcans portrayed as arrogant, superior dicks. Which makes a lot more sense than the way they're usually portrayed as fairly submissive towards humans because they are, obviously and objectively, the superior race. The Klingons certainly still considered themselves to be honorable but the show made it clear that the Klingon notion of honor is rarely analogous to the human concept which was interesting as all hell to watch. There have been a few small nods to it in discovery and the abrams movies.

And let's be fucking honest, [[/tg/]] loves 40k and the Xindi arc was about as grimdark as shit gets. And that was awesome.

Also makes a neat pairing with ''Voyager'' in that they really mess with the Prime Directive and question the Federation.
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===''Discovery''===
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----
<s>A LOAD OF SOCIAL JUSTICE SHIT!</s> Ahem, let's start again, shall we?

A new "prequel" series set 10 years before ''The Original Series.'' Again. Run exclusively on CBS' paid streaming service (unless you live outside the US and Canada, in which case you can get it on Netflix) to try and drum up sign-ups and revenue, it features a mix of ''Enterprise'' and Abramstrek aesthetics despite supposedly taking place in parallel to the TOS "The Cage" pilot while [[what|having technology superior to late DS9]] and introducing [[dune|mushroom-based space travel]] that would imply [[retcon|all later events and warp travel would be outdated]]. The trailer has attracted a lot of concern over the fact that Klingons have been completely redesigned to look like slit-nosed ogres wearing ancient Egyptian cosplay, and rumors that the Klingons shown were [[Racial Holy War|primitives who had been trapped in stasis]] proved to be unfounded, so there is no excuse. Not having a cold war to posture about, the new villains are based off of Trump-inspired xenophobia by the admission of the authors. Also the lead character is Spock's human sister that he never mentioned before, aka the ''exact'' origin of the [[Mary Sue]] which is just fucking depressing. To further reinforce this, there are ''numerous'' examples of dialogue and exposition that serve only to show how the Mary Sue main character was right all along, usually in conjunction with the death of the character that had foolishly disagreed with her. Want a new Star Trek episode about racism and immigration? Try the now-banned [https://youtu.be/3VEZH8bqytA Star Trek Continues]. Want Star Trek with humor, keep an eye out for the upcoming [https://ew-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/ew.com/tv/2018/10/25/star-trek-animated-comedy/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2WN6auDNm5YiunYhaqiu7vt9f-P08AuUjMpLA5LlpUgvTm9_xloJNRYb0 Star Trek: Lower Decks]; want a pseudo-Star Trek show about other modern issues? Try ''The Orville'' below; that's right, American Dad In Space may right now be a better Star Trek than an actual Star Trek series.

Initial reviews have been... well, it's shit. The writing is overly convoluted, the massive injection of grimdark into pre-TOS continuity is anathema to the hardcore fans (the ''human'' characters are often the ones doing the nastiest shit, including [[Marines Malevolent|trying to kill a Klingon party by planting an explosive on the corpse of one of their comrades for when they came to collect the dead]]) and the Klingons are so flat and devoid of characterization that they might as well be Larry the Cable Guy lookalikes wearing Trump hats. This is a massive disappointment for a series that promised to put a spotlight on Klingon culture but ended up retconning all the characterization that happened in TNG and DS9. It ''may'' get better with time (remember that it took two seasons for TNG to get really good) but given the release schedule (split between 2017 and 2018 with a long break) it may come too late for the fanbase to care. Currently it's cause for more fans to lose their shit over whether it's better or worse than the Abrams movies, which is a new record of [[Skub|Trek Skub]]. Releasing the show on CBS All Access instead of cable or broadcast TV makes it seem that executives don't really give a shit if the show succeeds or fails, bringing up the question of [[Bioware|whether they're deliberately putting Star Trek: Discovery in a no-win scenario where, no matter what happens, the executives have an excuse to cancel Star Trek altogether]].

Another stupid decision was not shelling out the cash to bring back Bruce Greenwood and Zachary Quinto as Captain Pike and Spock, respectively. Their ages wouldn't have mattered either if CBS and Paramount weren't too cheap to use the anti-aging CGI tech that is so commonplace these days. That being said, Anson Mount's portrayal of Captain Pike was a revelation that was BY FAR the most well-received aspect of Season 2.

There were also allegations that large chunks of the plot were stolen from previews of an in-development indie game (the unreleased 2014 game featured giant Tardigrades that had the ability to use an interstellar network to travel anywhere they wanted to- sound familiar?).

While Season 2 had some watchable moments, it was still middling at best, and nobody is ''ever'' going to let this series live down the garbage fire that was Season 1.
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===''Picard''===
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Set to be a continuation of the original timeline, featuring old man Picard with Patrick Stewart reprising the role. Hopes are not high, but at the very least Patrick Stewart's presence should make it watchable if nothing else.

The story so far: Picard ragequit Starfleet after they sat back and let the Romulans get blown up by the supernova mentioned in the first Abrams movie. This happened because some rogue androids orbitally bombarded Mars and blew up the rescue fleet that was being built there, so the Federation has banned all R&D on synthetic lifeforms. Picard has been living in his family chateau ever since, making wine and hanging out with his dog and his Romulan housekeepers. Then a scared girl named Dahj turns up on his doorstep, and it turns out she's a highly advanced biological android constructed from the surviving bits of Data's positronic brain. Before Picard can really figure out what to do about her, she gets killed by some Romulan assholes, but it turns it that's okay because she has a twin "sister" who is working with some other Romulans on a derelict Borg cube. Picard decides it's time to saddle up and go be a hero again. Stay tuned.

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== Homages ==
Being a longrunner with a wide audience, Star Trek has gained enough acclaim to have numerous references. In a few cases entire works get made to homage Star Trek. Here are some of the examples.

=== Galaxy Quest ===
A sci-fi/comedy film released in 1999, directed by Dean Parisot. It parodies science fiction films and series in general, but particularly ''Star Trek'' and its fandom. The film stars big name actors including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and the late great Alan Rickman. The plot revolves around the cast of a defunct cult television series called Galaxy Quest (for example, Tim Allen played the Kirk/Shatner expy and the late Alan Rickman played the Spock/Nimoy expy). They're also suffering fatigue that mirrors the experiences of the actual Star Trek actors (Rickman's character is typecast with his Galaxy Quest character and laments it, similar to how these things happened to the late Leonard Nimoy).

The cast are suddenly visited by actual aliens, who believe the series to be an accurate documentary (it helps that the aliens have no concept of fiction and only the most bare bones idea of lying) and seek their help. They take the actors with them, who find themselves involved in a very real, and dangerous, intergalactic conflict, and unlike the show where it all wrapped up quickly they struggle to learn about and relate to the aliens. Can these actors find greatness within themselves, and possibly personal redemption? (Spoiler: yes, and it is incredible.)

Built around the basic premise of "What if the cast of ''Star Trek'' ended up on a real spaceship and had to actually do the shit they did in the show?" Featuring a veritable all-star cast of talented comedians and character actors, this is one of the best parodies ever made, and an affectionate love-letter to the franchise as a whole.

===Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning===
Another parody, parodying not only ''Star Trek'' but ''Babylon 5'' as well. The seventh in a series fan movies released in 2005, it's about Captain Pirk builds a starship called CPP ''Kickstart'', allies with Russia and takes over the world. He wants to take over more planets but the ships of his P-Fleet aren't fast enough to travel outside the Solar system. A maggot hole opens and it leads to an alternate reality. Pirk wants to take over the Earth of this reality, which leads to an [[awesome]] space battle between the P-Fleet and the fleet of the space station Babel 13 led by Johnny Sherrypie. The movie features some of the best special effects ever put in a sci-fi movie, which is pretty impressive, considering that this is an amateur film with a very low budget and was rendered in five years in someone's bedroom. The film is spoken in Finnish but subtitles are available for a wide variety of languages, including Klingon. They also made [https://web.archive.org/web/20070828010927/http://rpg.starwreck.com/ a role-playing game based on it], where your character [[Truenamer|becomes more incompetent]] [[Page 42|as he levels up]].

===Star Trek: Renegades===
Kickstarter Trek. The makers submitted their made-for-TV movie pilot to CBS in an attempt to get it made into a legit on-the-air series (and by god it shows), but they were not successful. As a result, while the project limped along for a few years afterward, it has good and bad in equal measure. As a non-official product it also cannot be considered canon. Some characters are actually interesting (about time we saw more of the Breen!) while others are pure Mary Sues (including a male Seven of Nine with a built-in Borg-gun/personal shield/fully-functional hand). Some of the ideas are interesting while others are boring or already-been-done. The CGI is all Hollywood-quality, but the practical effects are okay at best.
It's obvious that they made this without knowing that they were going to be able to make a TV show or not, and tried to cram the sort of build-up and intrigue we saw in DS9 into a span of 90 minutes. For now though, it's decidedly meh, and probably a dead project as well since it hasn't been mentioned on the maker's website in over a year as of late 2019.

===Star Trek Continues===
Of all the offerings listed here, Star Trek Continues is BY FAR the closest in theme and tone to the original 1960's series. Indeed, this is the whole point: from its inception, this fan-funded project was intended to represent a what-if "4th Season" of the Original Series, ending with the conclusion of the Enterprise's 5-year mission. It is surprisingly and at times ''delightfully'' watchable, with strong stories, consequences and arcs that carry over to later episodes, tons of attention to detail, unexpected cameos, and a cast that really came together, particularly in later episodes. It also delicately navigated a line between viewing female characters through the lens of a show that was rooted in 1960's culture while not treating them as weak children dependent on men for protection. Star Trek Continues successfully concluded its "season" with all 11 episodes gradually released from 2014 to 2018. The show received heaps of industry awards and wide praise. Unfortunately, this success was somewhat marred by subsequent allegations of sexual misconduct against the lead actor, and the inevitable lawsuits that followed.

=== The Orville ===
A comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of ''Family Guy'' infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]] The guy's a huge Trekkie and felt too many shows were up in their ass with grimdark, so he pitched his idea to the execs to make a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville named after one of the Wright Brothers in a splash of genius]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the not-T'Pol alien security officer Alara, gay beefy not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys.

Season one started with a decent pilot about Ed and Kelly reconciling enough to work together, then had peaks and valleys to its final episode. Like Star Trek, there’s some commentary on real world issues, and while less preachy than ''Discovery'' on some subjects, it's just as bad or even worse on other subjects. The totally-not-Black-Mirror's-"Nosedive" episode "Majority Rule" had good commentary on social currency systems. The Season trod [[SJW|certain waters]] at times, such as the episode "About a Girl" being a surprisingly well done, Bortus-centered story about gender-fluid/sex-changing aliens... only for episode "Cupid's Dagger" to poke the hornet's nest when it revealed Kelly and Ed split because Kelly banged an alien whose seduction included pheromones (raising questions of consent, blame and date rape). Then, since it’s a Seth MacFarlane show, it has preachiness on atheism exceeding even Star Trek’s, with a quarter of Season 1 episodes all about beating the “Religion is Bad” drum. On that note there’s the alien race the Krill, the only religious race in the setting, so ''of course'' they’re fanatical devotees of a dangerous religion (a monotheistic one teaching that [[The Culture#Other civilizations|all non-Krill are soulless abominations to be subjugated or destroyed]]); between this and cues from villains like Nosferatu (all deliberate according to the devs, including a pallid reptilian look and being killed by UV sunlight), the Krill seemed set up to be the show’s go-to bad guys. While there were teething problems with plots, the jokes were hit and miss and the preachiness could grate even for those who agreed with the messages, The Orville did well enough for a second season.

In the second season, Alara was written out of the show halfway through. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumoured to be dating Seth MacFarlane and given the apparent distance between them later, this may have indicated a breakup which led to her departure from the show. If the rumor was true, this likely factored into writing Alara out because [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you almost never ends well]]. In any event, this change may come back to haunt them as she was one of the more well-received characters. In other events, Issac turns good at the last minute (becoming not-Data instead of not-Lore) and one episode has a plot hole where the Krill teacher Teleya - captured by Mercer and co. and imprisoned in Season 1 - comes back as part of a strike force targeting Ed with no explanation for her escape. Speaking of the Krill, they become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché, in a possible asspull given all the villainous setup they got in Season 1. The team up happens because the rest of Issac's robotic race, introduced this season and called the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. The cast seems to be gelling better (rumoured friction between Seth and Halston aside), the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humour is now used in service of the stories. The criticized elements were watered down but still remain, and while the show is getting a third season, it was moved from TV to streaming service Hulu.

Ultimately, some commend The Orville as a breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with good special effects and bouts of genius. Others denounce The Orville as derivative with sophomoric preachiness, clumsy pop-culture references and haphazard writing. Further criticisms include MacFarlane's stunt-casting of himself as the main character being the height of vanity and that his interactions with ex-wife character Kelly are uncomfortable to watch from the word "go." Some think both its supporters and detractors have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

== Films ==
As a general rule, the even-numbered ones aren't complete shit.

* '''''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''''': AKA: The Slow Motion Picture, or the Motionless Picture. A giant space whatsit is flying towards Earth, the mostly-retired crew has to go figure out what's going on and stop it. Old school sci-fi geeks like the ideas, but terrible pace and interminable special effects that were clearly meant to capitalize on ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' while failing to understand what people like about that movie kill them dead for everyone else. Besides the uniform worn by Kirk, the uniforms also look like pajamas. So no wonder they were changed only a movie later. Features an entirely bald female alien who is [[What|so good at sex that she has to swear an oath not to get it on with the crew]]. Really. This is canon.
* '''''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''''': As Kirk starts to feel his age, a one-off villain from the show makes a dramatic reapperance: [[Meme|KKKHHHAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!]] Widely considered the best of all the films, and the only one considered a straight up great film, no qualifiers. If you haven't seen it, see it. So good many later movies in the franchise just try to rip it off instead of finding their own identities. Interesting fact: due to time constraints, actors of Kirk and Khan weren't available at the same time. So the entire script was written so that Kirk and Khan never need to meet face-to-face. But you'd never notice if it weren't pointed out to you. Roddenberry screeched autistically and objected to some of the actions of his characters, including Kirk shooting a [[Enslavers|brain eating space parasite]] rather than "[[Noblebright|keeping it for study]]." The fact that his strongest objections came to the most [[win]] of the films says a great deal about his deprecating value to the franchise around the TNG era.
* '''''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''''': Where is Spock? ''He's on Genesis.'' ALL AHEAD FULL! Not really bad, just mediocre and run of the mill compared to the superior films that surround it. It was also saddled with the misfortune of undoing some of the previous film's more-daring decisions, and having its only daring decision reversed a film later. If you had to say that any film broke the "odd numbers suck" rule, it would be this one.
* '''''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home''''': The crew of the ''Enterprise'' travels back in time to save the whales. No, literally and unironically. Scott tries to talk to a computer through the mouse, Spock nerve-pinches a punk on a bus in San Francisco, and somehow it works, creating something perhaps not quite in the genre intended but a classic in sci-fi dramedy. ''The Voyage Home'' is a zany comedy romp beloved by the general public and fandom alike, leaving only the most intractable fanbois to bitch and moan. Nimoy directed this one but there was a contract stipulation that Shatner would get whatever Nimoy got, thus leading to...
* <del>'''''Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''''':</del> <s>The epitome of the "odd-numbered Star Trek films suck" rule.</s> {{BLAM|Lies! There is no}} '''''Star Trek V'''''{{BLAM|! It was not called}} '''''The Final Frontier'''''{{BLAM|! It was not directed by Kirk's egotistical actor and did not have a plot that could literally be summarized as "Kirk is betrayed by his incompetent crew, yet goes on to fight God and win!" The films mysteriously moved from four to six and ''we are all improved because of this!''}}
* '''''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''''': The Space Cold War ends amidst searing mystery and drama. The sendoff for the original cast, except Kirk who got a worse send-off a movie later. Gene Roddenberry watched it, hated it, and was going to seek legal advice but died a week later. And good riddance to that, because it's a pretty sweet political thriller if your hippie-panties don't get into a twist at the thought that the Federation isn't a perfect place full of perfect people.
* '''''Star Trek Generations''''': Malcolm McDowell blows up planets to get into a magic space ribbon to live forever, no it does not make any more sense in context. An already-weak story hamstrung by its obsession with being daring and unconventional rather than good. Also, Kirk dies on the bridge in the most face-palming manner possible.
* '''''Star Trek First Contact''''': The ''TNG'' crew face off with the Borg to ensure the future happens. Lots of action, a script that sparks with energy and snark, and some quite effective performances make this the only good ''TNG'' movie. It sadly is also the only appearance of the Defiant on screen, doing a pretty decent job of fighting the Borg before the Enterprise E saves the day of course. The Borg Queen was also introduced here before Voyager, ruining what could have been a good idea.
* '''''Star Trek Insurrection''''': If you thought the [[Avatar|Na'vi]] were a bunch of badly-written [[Mary Sue]]s, you ain't seen nothing yet! B-b-b-baby you ain't seen n-n-n-nothing yet! Also, Riker shaves his beard, and that's basically a war crime. Aged from terrible to forgettably bad thanks to that one scene of Picard and Data singing ''HMS Pinafore'' going memetic.
* '''''Star Trek Nemesis''''': The last stand of the ''TNG'' cast, ending not with a bang but a whimper. It also required amending the even=good/odd=bad rule to "''Galaxy Quest'' counts as a ''Star Trek'' film so this one is also odd."
* '''''Star Trek''''' (2009): Alternate timeline "reboot" (sideboot?) with the original crew, albeit with new younger actors. Timey-wimey shit happens and old prime timeline Spock (reprised by old Leonard Nemoy) is hurled back in time along with a bunch of Romulan assholes. The dickbag Romulans begin fucking shit up, slightly altering history in a way that ensures gratuitous lens flare. [[skub| Skubtastic]], but at least watchable, which is more than ''most'' odd-numbered films can muster. If you still even count it as odd, without the ''Galaxy Quest''-amendment.
* '''''Star Trek Into Darkness''''': Some [[edgy]] shit. The second of the alternate timeline ''Trek'' films. Terrorism, conspiracy and flapdoodle. Even more skubtastic, but generally considered worse than its predecessor, partially because (like ''Nemesis'') it tries to be a remake of ''The Wrath of Khan'' and having Kirk at his most punchable.
* '''''Star Trek Beyond''''': Controversial, but more in a question of whether it's decent or quite good. Lots of good character stuff and a decent story revolving around a race of mysterious space pirates trying to conquer a colony, but the action photography is poorly-lit shaky-cam horseshit and the sound work is awful. If it's the last "Kelvin Timeline" movie, as it seems it will be, at least it ended on a good note.

== Novels ==
Like most long time franchises ''Star Trek'' has a massive line of books. Unlike most they're basically just fanfics as nothing but the show and the movies is canon so the writers can do whatever they want. This changed after ''Nemesis'' since they might never have another show or movie in the "Prime" universe, so the writers got their shit together and wrote a group of books as a tight community very close to the shows. The relaunch novels are a continuation of the show they're about. Also there's the ''Titan'' book series which is about Riker and Troi getting their own ship, which happens to be staffed by every race in the Federation including living rocks, [[awesome|space dinosaurs]] that smell like [[meatbread|toast]] and a [[what|space cyborg ostrich]].

During yet another novel continuity (Star Trek: Destiny), the Borg go nuts and eat Pluto... yeah... and then they finally get sick of the Federation somehow managing to not get assimilated all the time, so they finally just send every last cube they have with orders to Exterminatus the absolute SHIT out of the entire Alpha Quadrant. Pretty much every important character from TNG, DS9, and Voyager has to team up to stop them, and even then the Federation still gets its shit kicked in and winds up having to rely on a vaguely ridiculous deus ex machina to win, and [[Grimdark|billions of people still die and dozens of planets are blown to shit]]. It was pretty insane.

Then all the Federation's main enemies get together to form an anti-Federation and start poking the bear, all the while telling their allies that they're somehow warmongering dicks, Section 31 gets its cover blown in a big way, and Riker gets promoted to Admiral. Also, a lot of the newer TNG novels have been devoted to following up on one-shot aliens from the show, like the guys that sent out the probe that made Barclay super-smart and those fish monks that were abducting crewmembers for experiments. Now that the Picard show is coming out, though, this will all presumably be chucked in the dustbin.

== Video Games ==
=== Star Trek Online ===
''Star Trek Online'' is the free-to-play online game built by Cryptic Studios and run by Perfect World. With an official license CBS, recurring characters voiced by various Trek alumni, and recently a license to include references to the reboot chronology (officially known as the "Kelvin Timeline"), it's the closest existing thing to an "official" continuation of the "Prime" timeline, and contains history and fluff extending nearly 40 years from the end of Star Trek: Nemesis.

Taking place in the 25th century (around the year 2409-2410), the Hobus supernova (the event that kicked Nero and Spock into the past during Star Trek 2009) has devastated the Romulans, and its near-collapse and fragmentation causes tensions between a resurgent Klingon Empire and the Federation. The tensions blow up into a war, with members of a new, nicer, breakaway Romulan Republic playing both sides in exchange for development aid.

The game contains deep cuts from all over Trek lore, and answers questions about what happened to various key characters, including Data (took over the Enterprise-E, then retired), the Enterprise (now an even bigger ship run by Andorian captain Shon), and the Voyager crew (it took Harry Kim 30 years to make Captain lol). Raises barely-shown, unnamed, and otherwise obscure races to new prominence as big bad foes, including the Iconians (ancient aliens with god complexes who mutated into energy beings, currently live in dyson spheres and were only defeated by predestination paradox), Tzenkethi (4-armed halo guys whose weak points are the FRONT of their shields), and Na'kuhl (the alien nazis from Enterprise as time-traveling terrorists who blame the Federation for a throwaway event that happened in TNG's beach episode).

Ostensibly free to play, but don't let that fool you... the ''not-so-micro''transactions are the only reason the lights stay on.

=== Starfleet Command ===

''Starfleet Command'' was a series real time space battle games by Interplay based on the much older tabletop game Star Fleet Battles. It came out in 1999 and was followed by several sequels and expansions. Gameplay was much like ''Battlefleet Gothic'', but with the player only controlling one ship. SFC remains Interplay's best selling game, topping even ''Baldur's Gate''.

=== Armada ===

A series of low effort RTS's churned out by Activision in 2000. Tried to take on both ''Homeworld'' and ''Age of Empires'', both of which have recently gotten HD remakes and ''Armada'' hasn't so that should tell you all you need to know. However, for one of the first 3D model space RTS's it was surprisingly easy to mod, resulting in many ship mod packs being made for it.

== Would you like to know more? ==
And oh Lordy, is there more...
*[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/ Main Memory Alpha: A ''Star Trek'' wiki]
*[http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/ Main Memory Beta: The flip-side of Memory Alpha for the less than official stuff]
*[http://sfdebris.com/ SF Debris: opinionated episode reviews, has some non ''Trek'' stuff as well]

[[Category: Television]]

Imperial Ordnance

2020-01-29T20:44:59Z

2600:6C58:637F:E506:A04D:381B:3B4B:A5AD:

{{topquote|Infantry win firefights, tanks win battles, artillery wins wars.|Common sentiment amongst the [[Imperial Guard]] senior staff.}}

That's how the saying goes. And it's true. Without the big guns you are doomed to be [[Ork|murdered gruesomely for the lulz of it]], [[Tyranids|get eaten]] or [[Chaos|have your soul used as a condom]] for all eternity. The Imperium knows this and has devised a truly staggering amount of heavy guns dedicated to ruining your shit into next Sunday from anywhere in between half a mile to half a continent away.

== Man-portable Weapons ==
The lightest of indirect support weapons can be carried by individual or paired soldiers. While this makes them tactically more flexible, they have reduced firepower compared to their heavier counterparts.

===Grenade Launcher===
[[File:Grenade Launcher.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Grenade Launcher]]
The grenade launcher is a light, man-portable weapon capable of firing small explosive charges. It is primarily employed by the Imperial Guard, with almost every trooper squad featuring at least one of them. Grenade launchers are a common weapon used by Imperial Guard infantry squads thanks to their ability to lob grenades greater distances and with more accuracy than can be thrown.

Their primary duty is to lay down suppressive fire and destroy light vehicles and buildings. It has a choice of two different payloads, anti infantry Fragmentation grenades, and anti-armour Krak grenades.

Space Marines scout bikers utilise a variation of this weapon, the "Astartes pattern" Grenade Launcher. It fires the same rounds, but with an increased rate of fire.
<gallery>
File:CadianShockTroopsGrenadeLauncher.png
image:ScoutBikeGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Scout Bike</center>
</gallery>

===Vengeance Grenade Launcher===
[[File:VengeanceLauncher.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Vengeance Grenade Launcher]]
A grenade launcher only found in the [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Vidya Game of SPEEES MEHREEEEENS!]]

A much more tactical weapon than its assault-orientated cousins.

The Vengeance Grenade Launcher is an experimental Adeptus Mechanicus weapon created on the Forge world Graia just prior to the Ork invasion of Warboss Grimskull. The Vengeance Grenade Launcher is not authorized for use off world, but those Space Marines who have field tested the weapon attest to its effectiveness against a range of targets. The launcher can fire out up to five fusion charges that stick to surfaces and then be remotely detonated.

The current status of this weapon is unknown.

<gallery>
File:TitusVengeanceZoomed.png|Captain Titus holding one of these badboys.
</gallery>

===Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher===
[[File:RPG-Imperial-Guard.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher]]

Like something out of Call of Duty, this is basically your stereotypical RPG-7 you find in every single modern first-person shooter. Like, GeeDubs ain't even trying anymore to be creative or subtle. It seems that, after 40,000 years of production, no one, not even the folks from the [[Dark Age of Technology]] could have topped the genius of the most widely used RPG in the world. So I guess the RPG-7 shares with the [[Stubber#Heavy Stubber|M2-Browning]] as the most unkillable gun in 40k.

The RPG Launcher is a more powerful version of the Grenade Launcher. They are capable of launching the same variety of grenades as normal launchers but are able to accurately hit targets hundreds of meters away. Unlike [[Missile Launcher#Missile Launcher|Missile Launchers]], RPGs don't have a complex targeting system that allows for extreme tracking and maneuverability capabilities. Rather, it just fires in a straight line. While this makes it less useful in hitting moving targets, it compensate for being far more cheaper to produce, easier to maintain and the logistical boon of not being as unergonomically big and ungainly as your typical missile launcher. It also can't be defeated by any counter-measure that doesn't focus on shooting things down. You can't trick a directionless rocket with flares or chaff and you can't ruin non-existent guidance with ECM.

===Grenadier Gauntlet===
[[File:GrenadierGauntlet.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Grenadier Gauntlet]]
Think of it as a heavy grenade launcher or a sawn-off Missile Launcher.

The Grenadier Gauntlet is a type of heavy Grenade Launcher used by Imperial Guard [[Ogryn|Bullgryn.]] Like all Ogryn weapons such as the Ripper Gun, the Grenadier Gauntlet is not meant for accuracy and range, instead it is constructed like a giant baton. The grenade launching mechanism is just a feature for the Bullgryn to launch something explosive at an enemy he can't reach.

The foes are often left reeling and shell-shocked even before the maul-wielding Ogryns charge into their midst and bludgeon the survivors into a red paste.

In terms of the firing mechanism, the Grenadier Gauntlet obviously works like any normal grenade launcher. However it does have a lower set of ammunition due to the Ogryn's natural stupidity and inability to understand the concept of reloading.

Still, as a baton, it is naturally incredibly tough to withstand the immense strength of a rampaging Ogryn as well as simple enough to use for these dumbasses.

<gallery>
image:BullgrynGauntlet.png|<center>Alternate View</center>
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Grenade Harness===
[[File:GrenadeHarness.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Grenade Harness]]
The Cyclone Missile Launcher of Grenade Launchers.

The Grenade Harness is a type of Grenade Launcher mounted on some Space Marine Terminator Armour. These launchers allow for a barrage of Frag grenades, usually before a charge by the Terminators to soften up any opposition.

The Grenade Harness has a lower ammunition capacity than a regular Grenade Launcher due to its smaller size. It is thus used tactically in surgical strikes in order to maximize the weapon's potential. Like the Cyclone, it functions the same way but with an obvious decrease in weapon range and output.

For the Ork equivalent, [[Stikkbomb Launcha|''see here:'']]

<gallery>
image:GorgonTerminatorGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Gorgon Terminator</center>
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Balistus Grenade Launcher===
[[File:AllarusCustodianGrenadeLauncher.png|200px|right|thumb|Balistus Grenade Launcher]]
A new type of grenade launcher wielded by the [[Adeptus Custodes|Golden Boys in Shining Armor.]]

Balistus Grenade Launchers are potent ranged weapons wielded by the Adeptus Custodes, which excel at piercing armor like a giant [[Bolter]]. The only users of these weapons are the venerable [[Allarus Custodians]]. It is unknown if the more common [[Aquilon Terminator|Aquilon Terminators]] (assuming they still exist) have permission to carry these around.

Like the wrist-mounted bolters carried around by Gray Knight Terminators, the Balistus Grenade Launcher works on the same principle. Except, instead of providing covering/suppressing fire in close to medium range, these things mulch infantry at longer ranges.

It is unknown where the Grenade Launcher stores its ammunition, given the relative size of the barrel in contrast to the size of the weapon itself. Maybe it is a single shot weapon? It is stated to be drum-fed but if it is drumfed, it must be either the galaxy's first invisible drum magazine or the Imperium rediscovered how to make and use pym particles and that tiny stick magazine attached to it is supposed to fit enough ammo to last a battle. Though, it's most likely somehow related to the magazine of grenades visibly sticking out of it in the picture right here. Although, that could just be your imagination and the magazine might not exist.

The choice of a grenade launcher as an anti-heavy infantry weapon is also bizarre, as grenade launchers are low velocity guns that fire thin skinned shells which basically make the shell itself relatively harmless for a round of its size if you're just looking at the kinetic energy. A dud round from a grenade launcher might not even hit someone hard enough to kill them, as all the killing power of the round comes from the explosive. You'd think it's some kind of HEAT round, but those focus the force of the blast on a single target by shaping the explosion to launch a jet of molten metal to achieve penetration and so wouldn't have the d3 shot profile given to what used to be small blast weapons.

So the most reasonable theory is that the grenade launcher's rounds are a kind of frag round whose shells are filled with a high grade sort of shrapnel able to shred right through most forms of personal armour in use in the galaxy. Because the shrapnel would be tiny, large monsters and vehicles would shrug it off as the shrapnel would lose energy before cutting too deeply into them, which fits with its not amazing strength characteristic, but infantry would be losing limbs, organs, and organs and power armour, cyborg augmentations, or robotic parts would have their delicate internal components devastated. In other words, basically launching a bomb full of some of the sharpest stuff known to man to reduce people to confetti and thus provide for choppy dakka. Khorne and Gork would be pleased.

Or maybe, just maybe, they use krak grenades or plasma or melta. You know, '''''anti-armor grenades'''''. Which we can safely assume it does, in fact, use. Knowing the favoritism for the Custardes, it probably also includes psyk-out grenades and refined vortex grenades.

<gallery>
image:BalistaGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Close-up View</center>
</gallery>

==Heavy Grenade Launchers==
A much bigger variant of the standard grenade launcher that peppers the battlefield with explosive munitions.

===Deathwatch Frag Cannon===
[[File:Deathwatch_Frag_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Deathwatch Frag Cannon]]

This is where the term Grenade Launcher ends and where [[Dakka|Grenade ''Cannon'' begins.]]

Fielded exclusively by Space Marine Veterans of the [[Deathwatch]]. This is a belt fed grenade spewing death machine. It's so new and confidential that there is no fluff to explain how it works. So we'll have to make guesses based on it's weapon profile. For now, we'll assume that since it's a grenade launcher, it works like a grenade launcher. I know, I know, this is quite hard to grasp, but bear with it. Deathwatch Frag Cannons fire at least two different rounds. The first turns it into a slightly better Heavy Flamer. The other turns it into a short range rocket launcher that hits twice. Becoming a two shot [[Lascannon]] at half range.

A Deathwatch Veteran squad can take four of these things. In the same unit as Terminators and other Deathwatch exclusive [[dakka]]. [[Xeno]]s and [[Chaos]] forces should consider themselves lucky that weapons like Barrage [[Plasma Gun]]s, [[Melta|Atomizer Cannons]] and Techxorcism Guns are ultra rare. [[Anal_Circumference|As the Deathwatch can deploy all of them in a single Veteran Squad.]] Whether these downsized Frag Cannons originate from an STC or a vault from one of the many Watch Fortresses is not stated.

===Auto-Launcher===
[[File:RepulsorAutoLauncher2.png|200px|right|thumb|Auto-Launcher]]
Resembling a rack/box of grenades, Auto-launchers are vehicle-mounted grenade launchers similar to Smoke Launchers. The [[Repulsor Tank|Repulsor]] is the most infamous user of these weapons.

They are simple, six-barreled – though the ones on the Repulsor have eight, for some reason – weapons mounted on vehicle hulls, firing salvos of either three grenades types at a time: Frag, Krak, and Blind. They are useful for when you are indecisive on whether you want immediate proximity defense or just a simple smoke screen. The Auto-Launcher carries six grenades, all of the same type. Auto-Launchers are best identified by the literal racks of exposed grenade/missiles pointed randomly everywhere. Why the Imperium thought it was a good idea to place these weapons on extremely random places is unknown since these grenades would not be able to hit its targets tactically...[[Awesome|unless those grenades can home on their targets, of course]]. But in all seriousness, this is because the design of these weapons is based on real life active protection systems which spit out slugs, shrapnel blasts, and sometimes even small rockets in the direction of incoming projectiles in order to shoot them down. This being the Imperium, however, they have decided that it will work just as well as an actual weapon, rather than just a defensive tool.

While you'd think them being externally mounted runs the risk of someone shooting at the exposed grenades and causing them to detonate, we should note that all the charges face outward, and so they are not capable of doing damage to the vehicle they are mounted on; and '''B''': they are designed (''assuming they really are based on our active protection systems'') to deal with incoming projectiles, so even if they are pointed the right (''in the perspective of the tank's crew, wrong'') way. the blast would not be able to much damage to the armour... unless the the grenades in question are Kraks.

It has a lid, though, so it's probably only open for a moment to fire.

{{Clear}}

===Ravenwing Grenade Launcher===
[[File:Ravenwing_Grenade_Launcher.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Ravenwing Grenade Launcher]]
A Ravenwing Grenade Launcher is a specially customised Grenade Launcher commonly utilised by the elite [[Ravenwing|Ravenwing Black Knights]] of the [[Dark Angels]] Chapter's 2nd Company, commonly called the [[Ravenwing]]. Ravenwing Black Knights employ Grenade Launchers adapted to fire even at the high speeds of their [[Bike Squad|Assault Bikes]].

These Grenade Launchers can also fire specialized shells utilizing ancient technologies such as [[Radium Weaponry|Rad Shells]] and [[Grenades & Explosives#Stasis Bomb|Stasis Bomb]] in addition to the standard Krak and Frag Grenades. Rad Shells are essentially dirty bombs that spread contaminated, radioactive fragments that have a toxic and debilitating effect on a foe, while Stasis Shells are impregnated with an ancient and now poorly understood technology that when detonated, [[Doctor Who|momentarily freezes the flow the space-time continuum,]] causing the reaction times of any enemies nearby to be dramatically slowed if they are caught in the area of effect.

On tabletop, these Grenade Launchers can cause D3 Mortal Wounds if using a CP whilst the Stasis Shells make a single hit roll with +1 to hit, and if it scores a hit the target takes d3 Mortal Wounds. Nonetheless, it is far better to just use the Plasma Talons instead.

===Ironclad Assault Launcher===
[[File:IroncladAssaultLauncher.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Ironclad Assault Launcher]]

Like the Fragstorm Grenade Launcher but for [[Centurion Squad|Centurions]] and [[Dreadnoughts]].

The Ironclad Assault Launcher is mounted on the Ironclad Dreadnoughts or Centurions. It projects both offensive and defensive grenades. On the Centurion, they are located on the torso, between the arms and the chest. They are the four squarish pods that house these grenades. On a Dreadnought, it comes in two sets of six like what you can find installed on top of some Land Raiders' tracks. The sets of two variant similar to the Centurion can also be found on the Caestus Assault Ram by the opening hatches, complementing its [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Melta#Magna-Melta Magna-Melta]. Like with the auto-launcher, this is essentially a defensive system being used offensively, spitting out all its grenades in something resembling a shotgun blast from hell to either demolish obstacles, suppress the enemy, or tear them to shreds.

On tabletop, the Ironclad Assault Launchers gives both the Ironclad Dreadnought and Centurions the ability to deal d3 mortal wounds to units within 1" of it after a charge on a 4+, which ensures they'll be softened up when you begin the fight phase.

<gallery>
image:IroncladLauncher.jpg|<center>Centurion Variant</center>
image:CaestusAssaultLauncher.jpg|<center>Caestus Assault Ram Variant</center>
image:LandRaiderAssaultLauncher.jpg|<center>Land Raider Variant</center>
image:SpartanAssaultLauncher.jpg|<center>Spartan Variant</center>
</gallery>

===Fragstorm Grenade Launcher===
[[File:FragstormGrenadeLauncher.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Fragstorm Grenade Launcher]]
Think the Grenade Harness for Dreadnoughts.

Fragstorm Grenade Launchers are a type of grenade launcher used by Primaris Space Marines. Like the Grenade Harness, these launchers allow for the firing of a barrage of frag grenades before a charge. However, they can also be used defensively when the Dreadnought is surrounded by enemies and they just need to pepper a targeted radius with shrapnel and explosions.

They are equipped for anti-personnel roles to Aggressor Squads and Redemptor Dreadnoughts.

Their more tank-busting equivalents is the similarly named Krakstorm Grenade Launcher.

And no, despite their appearance, they have in no way related to the Auto-Launcher by function.

<gallery>
image:PrimarisAggressorGrenadeLauncher.png|<center>Primaris Aggressor</center>
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Krakstorm Grenade Launcher===
[[File:PrimarisRepulsorKrakstorm.png|200px|right|thumb|Krakstorm Grenade Launcher]]
It's literally a Fragstorm Grenade Launcher that fires, you guessed it, Krak Grenades.

A Krakstorm Grenade Launcher is a type of Imperial Grenade Launcher usually wielded by the Primaris Space Marines that fires a volley of three aforementioned Krak Grenades at a time upon the enemy. It is deployed for use as an anti-armor or anti-fortification weapon by [[Repulsor Tank|Repulsor grav tanks.]]

Although there is no evidence of it being mounted on the [[Redemptor Dreadnought]], the fact that the ammunition of both the Frag and Krak are superficially similiar means it wouldn't be ''that'' out of the blue if GW decides to update the Dreadnought with these weapons.

Like the Auto-Launchers, the Krakstorm Grenade Launcher carries the same issue of it being awkward to aim, with the only logical explanation if that the Krak grenades themselves have homing features like that of a missile.

In terms of rules, they act as they are named. Good vehicle killers, although the sheer amount of anti-tank weapons that the Repulsor carries means that these weapons are best used for killing any stragglers.

{{clear}}

===Frag Cannon===
[[File:Frag_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Frag Cannon]]

The Frag Cannon is a giant [[Awesome|machine gun heavy grenade launcher]] and is the big brother of the more tacticool Deathwatch variant. Regardless we can guess that they are both automatic grenade launchers at different calibers. Making them at least 40mm in diameter or larger. In most cases, the term Frag Cannon refers to the one found in the [[Blood Angels]] Chapter. Like the [[Dark Angels]], they are one of those weapons jealously kept secret so that the AdMech can't horde all the good shit.

These Frag Cannons are the older larger version exclusively mounted on [[Furioso Dreadnought|Furioso Dreadnoughts.]] The Frag Cannon is a shoulder-mounted weapon, replacing the Dreadnought arm as other heavy weapons do, and fires a pair of long, hollow adamantium shells that fragment upon firing, resulting in a hail of razor-sharp shrapnel.

Their range is much shorter and lack the versatility of their smaller counterparts; somewhat capricious in nature since the shrapnel it produces [[Lolwut|can be stopped by light armor, while simultaneously being able to rip through power armour.]] Making up for it with a higher volume of fire.

In 8th Edition, this giant monster is a [[MOAR DAKKA|Double Heavy Flamer on steroids]] with 8" 2D6 S6 AP-1 1 D auto-hits. Hordes beware. Also an assault gun on a very fast model so you can advance and roast. Pair this with a Heavy Flamer and the amount of auto-hits your Dreadnought would produce would be enough to be a Tarpit ''Remover'', not a Tarpit Breaker. [[Rape|<u>'''A fucking REMOVER.'''</u>]]

===Blackstar Cluster Launcher===
[[File:BlackstarCluster.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Blackstar Cluster Launcher]]

An aerial grenade ordnance that fires from the air rather than on the ground. Air superiority and all that.

The Blackstar Cluster Launcher is an array of two six-barreled Grenade Launchers mounted on the rear of [[Deathwatch]] [[Corvus Blackstar]] gunships. These allow the pilot of the Blackstar to sow a hailstorm of munitions in his wake as he strafes the primary target. The launcher is capable of firing either fragmentation or incendiary munitions. If you wanna re-enact a miniature bombing of Berlin, the Blackstar has got your back.

As you can imagine, having a unit that can just fly over and drop what is essentially bombs without the risk of going close to enemy fire on a rather sluggish platform is pretty sweet. Thus, the Blackstar rocks a delightful Blackstar Cluster launcher, which lets you bomb a unit you flew over. For every model in the unit (up to 10), roll a die and, on a 6, that unit takes a mortal wound.

[[Tl;dr]], the Imperium has created a plane that [[Shitstorm|literally shits <s>out bird poop</s> grenades]]....while...[[Bullshit|more like explosive diarrhea.]]

== Mortar ==
A mortar is an artillery weapon that launches shells in a high arc. They tend to have relatively short barrels and fire shells at relatively low velocities. The Imperial Guard uses them in two sizes: the standard man-portable mortar, carried and operated by two Imperial Guard troopers; and the heavy mortar, which can be used in static or towed artillery mounts, or mounted in a Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier. They can destroy light infantry and light vehicles easily enough, but are unlikely to trouble heavy infantry or vehicles with tank-grade armour.

{{Clear}}

===Light Mortar===
[[File:CadianMortarZoomed.png|200px|right|thumb|Light Mortar]]
The most common form of Mortars is...well....the Mortar. Some may call it the Light Mortar due to the smaller payload and size and the existence of the heavy mortar (See bellow) but whatever. The Mortar looks like...a basic modern Mortar found in use in today's armies. I guess the design haven't change for over 40,000 years, but hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it.

The Light Mortar fires an explosive shell on a high-arching trajectory capable of flying over the heads of nearby troops and crashing down on the rear ranks of the enemy. Its primary use is in the anti-personnel role, breaking up enemy infantry formations and pinning them down.

Mortars are prized for their ability to lay down a curtain of fire from behind cover, and while not particularly accurate their explosive power makes up for this deficiency. However this indirect-fire capability requires accurate targeting information to be effective and the use of spotters with proper vox-protocols in order to avoid friendly fire. Standard procedures has the spotters locate targets, whether through visual or remote-servitor means, and send a fire request to the mortar crew's [[Imperial Guard Command Squad|Platoon Command Squad,]] which plots a firing solution and relays that information to the mortar teams assembled, adjusting fire as required.

In 8th Edition, the Mortar is now a 48" Heavy D6 S4 AP0 D1 heavy weapon, and may fire indirectly. Down in cost, and along with the [[Nerf|nerf]] to the [[Wyvern]] this brings it back into the realm of 'good' choices. At 11 points a gun team, it's a dirt cheap light and medium infantry muncher. Because of the revision to the way AP works it's in direct competition with the Heavy Bolter; this ALSO means it's in indirect competition with your entire motor pool. Consider this when the challenge of fitting half a dozen kits' worth of mortar tubes into your list is a daunting prospect. Becomes much more viable in games using a lot of scenery or buildings, so take it when you need to lob some pain over that city block or hill that your other heavy weapons can't shoot through.
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===Mole Mortar===
[[File:Mole_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Mole Mortar]]
Basically a reverse Mortar. In that it travels ''underground'' rather than overhead. It's more of a torpedo then a Mortar, but it got 'Mortar' in the name and we need to stick it somewhere.

The missile burrows its way toward its target, bypassing all surface hazards and defenses, emerging from the ground beneath the target. The missile is self-guided and able to track its target through solid rock. [[Mole Mortar Team|As an invention of the]] [[Squats|Sphess Dorfs]], the Mole Mortar soon found its way up the ranks of the [[Imperial Guard]] due to its unorthodox firing methods.

The Mole Mortar was originally developed to destroy enemy tunneling vehicles but was so successful that now used as a [[Wat|short-ranged assault weapon,]] even though such premonitions sounds outright [[Stupid]] let alone suicidal, it is worth remembering that since vehicles have thinner bottom armor if you can get a hit on a tank it's going to be fairly devastating. It is sometimes used to breach fortifications too strong for conventional weaponry to damage. Due to the unique way it operates, the mole mortar is able to circumvent most defenses, striking from below to explode within bunkers and other structures.

Heck, the Mole Mortar was so popular in the Guard that it eventually led to the creation of the Mole Launcher. [[Original character, do not steal|Figures.]]

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===Heavy Mortar===
[[File:Heavy_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Mortar]]
The Heavy Mortar is a larger support version of the standard Mortar used by the Imperial Guard. Its primary advantages are a wide range of ammunition types, a high rate of fire, and simplicity to construct and maintain. However its massive size means the heavy mortar must either be towed into place by a [[Trojan Support Vehicle|Trojan]] or [[Centaur Utility Vehicle|Centaur]]. A special version of this is mounted on the [[Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier|Griffon Mortar Carrier.]]

While they were once quite popular with many Imperial Guard regiments, the use of heavy mortars has fallen out of favor in recent years, since for many commanders it lacks both the heavy firepower and long reach of much larger artillery pieces, limiting its use in box-barrages or counter-battery fire (because out-ranging and quickly destroying enemy mortars is sooo terrible since the Guard is actively trying to get its own troops martyred). Towed heavy mortars have become even less popular, being seen as too slow to keep up with advancing mechanized units, and have largely been regulated to PDFs and Siege Regiments.

For all their faults heavy mortars also have a number of advantages. They are an excellent close support weapons for engaging enemy infantry and light vehicles, freeing the heavier artillery for use against more appropriate targets, and can maintain a steady rate of fire for hours. Its versatility also allows it to fulfill a variety of other roles, from launching illumination shells during night battles or laying down a smoke screen before an infantry attack.

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===Belleros Energy Cannon===
[[File:Belleros_Energy_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Belleros Energy Cannon]]

The Belleros Energy Cannon is one of the two primary weapons for the giant rubber duck known as the [[Skorpius Hover Tank#Skorpius Disintegrator|Skorpius Disintegrator]]. The Energy Cannon is a mortar, it basically functions like one. It is also a Direct-Energy Weapon (DEW), which means it is for all intents and purposes a [[Lolwut|laser mortar...]] sort of. Another explanation is that it is some sort of microwave DEW, which can cook targets through walls. It is a bit vague in that regards.

With a range of ''only'' 36" (This is shorter than the 48" Ferrumite Cannon mind you), the Belleros is no proper artillery. Rather, the energy cannon is a weapon meant to support allied troops through indirect fire via the harassment of enemy positions. With it’s 3D3 shots and 2 damage per wound, this is a weapon that is primarily made to clear hordes of GEQs and MEQs. One big advantage especially for AdMech players is that it can target units that aren’t in direct LoS. At Str 6 and -1 AP, this thing is not a vehicle killer in the slightest. Rather, as aforementioned, it is a Tarpit cleanser as, in terms of raw damage potential it can clock up to [[Powergamer|18 damage.]]

===Griffon Heavy Mortar===
[[File:Griffon_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Griffon Heavy Mortar]]
The Griffon Heavy Mortar is the smallest and lightest of the artillery guns. This weapon has been a source of [[Skub]] in-universe.

Critics of the Griffon claim that its main weapon is too small to warrant its vehicular mounting (despite being large enough it'd make a Rhino look like a truck), while tying up fire control and observation assets needed by much larger pieces (which wouldn't be communicating if the observers were calling for the Griffon instead). For its supporters though, the Griffon is the ideal compromise between weight, firepower, mobility and ease of use. Its heavy mortar is excellent against infantry and light vehicles, freeing heavier artillery for use against more appropriate targets, and can maintain a high rate of fire. The vehicle is also capable of keeping pace with rapid advances for which heavier vehicles like the Basilisk are too slow to maintain.

Its firepower is not impressive (it's S6 AP-1 and ignores cover), and its range is also relatively short (48"), but because it is so small and light, it can sustain higher rates of fire than other guns and, when carried in the heavy chassis of a [[Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier]], it can be fired indirectly and roll two dice dropping the lowest for number of attacks).

[[Tl;dr]], this weapon is the reason why conventional towed Heavy Mortars are now phased out from the Imperial Guard, instead being put in as a reserve artillery piece from the ''[[Planetary Defense Force|PDF]]'' of all things. How the mighty has fallen.
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===Stormshard Mortar===
[[File:Stormshard_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Stormshard Mortar]]
Take a mortar and give it the firepower of a machinegun. [[Dakka|You get yourselves a Stormshard Mortar.]]

The Stormshard Mortar is an artillery system commonly mounted in two pairs on Imperial Guard [[Wyvern Suppression Tank|Wyverns.]] These mortars excel in urban warfare, firing shrapnel down on enemy infantry without exposing the vehicle itself to harm. It is a fairly close range weapon for artillery, but it is needed in the heavily tight space of Hive Cities where the chance of an artillery shell hitting the rooftops of some poor hobo's house is actually quite high.

Because of the chance of facing against [[Tyranids|Horde]] [[Orks|Armies]], the Wyvern mounts not one, but <u>''TWO''</u> sets of Stormshards. These means that these badboys carry four mortars on one turret. [[Rape|Add to the fact that they can fire on auto and you have a weapon system that eats Swarmers for breakfast.]] All of the fucking yes!

Given it's similarity to the Heavy Quad-Launcher, it is likely the same weapon firing different ammo.

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===Karacnos Mortar Battery===
[[File:Karacnos_Nukes.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Karacnos Mortar Battery]]
The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] have their own mortar and [[Lord of the Rings|it is a mortar to rule them all.]] Called the Karacnos Mortar Battery which is so named after the [[Karacnos Assault Tank|vehicle it is mounted on.]] Also found as the carapace weapon on the Imperial Knight Astreus. The Karacnos Mortar Battery is special cause it uses ''[[Fallout|radioactive warheads]]'' [[Awesome|as its armaments!]] You can't get more metal than that! As it is basically firing a barrage of dirty bombs, this mortar fires its radioactive warheads which is designed to sweep an area clear of all organic life.

As you can imagine, these badboys aren't that well liked for those Imperial Commanders who want to have a idyllic and livable planet to prosper. Seriously, a couple of these batteries would turn a city into a uninhabitable wasteland that only a [[Death Korps of Krieg|Krieger from a Death Korps would enjoy.]]

On tabletop ([[Horus Heresy|The 30k rules at least]]), the Mortar is a R60 heavy bolter with barrage, small blast, fleshbane, radphage, Ignores cover and pinning which seems good on paper but with the majority of targets getting armour saves this mostly equates to a longer range Wyvern.

===Colossus Siege Mortar===
[[File:ColossusSiegeMortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Colossus Siege Mortar]]
The Colossus Siege Mortar is huge, cumbersome and highly destructive, and it's so large that its shells have to be loaded by cranes instead of by hand. It fires massive concussive rounds that will turn its target to paste (as long as it's a human wearing something less than terminator armor -- S6 AP-2 Dd3 is good against infantry blobs, not so much for harder targets), even if they are hiding in cover.

Because one cannon wasn't enough, the Imperium built the Dominus Armored Siege Bombard, a variant of the [[CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]] that carries an automated ''trio'' of Colossus cannons (though the Dominus only costs as much as two [[Colossus Bombard|Colossi]]...which actually makes sense, as the Colossi are built on a Leman Russ chassis where-as the Dominus just has to pay for an extra cannon, not a whole new vehicle to carry it).

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===Dominus Triple Bombard===
[[File:DominusTripleBombard.png|200px|right|thumb|Dominus Triple Bombard]]
Hey! Remember how we said that a certain Imperium vehicle was actually big enough to mount not one, but THREE Colossus Siege Mortars? Well here it is, the Dominus Triple Bombard found only on the DOMINUS ARMOURED SIEGE BOMBARD. This monster is a god damned tarpit cleanser.

An automated battery of three Bombard cannons rigged to fire together in sequence, it can pulverize anything caught within its field of fire. The Triple Bombard has two rates of fire: a slower rate the Dominus is limited to when on the move, and the second a higher rate for sustained fire when it is stationary.

In practice the Dominus throws [[Rape|10d6 S10 ap-3 shots with indirect fire when stationary,]] easily wiping any unit foolish enough to be larger than 5 models. S10 Ap-3 is also a serious threat to any armor short of a titan, and the weight of shots pretty much guarantees an overkill of single model targets. Essentially, [[OP|it is a mortar system so big, with shells so large that]] [[Rape|''Tank Armor]] [[Count as|now counts as]] [[Flak Armor]]'' [[Cheese|when faced with this cheesemonger.]]

The older, even bigger and more Squattier version of the Dominus Triple Bombard is the Thunder-Fire Cannon from the [[Squats]].

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==Multi-Use Weapon Systems==
Ordnance that has variable uses that ranges from clearing hordes of infantry, to tankbusting, to shooting those flying buggers out of the sky (the majority of which use WW2 style of anti-air guns which is only great for low altitude aircraft). These weapon systems can change its weapon loadout which makes it extremely versatile for almost all situations. May or may not bleed into the [[Missile Launcher]] categories.

===Tarantula Sentry Gun===
[[File:TarantulaTurret.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Tarantula Sentry Gun]]

One of the more iconic sentry guns and probably the only notable sentry guns used by the Imperium. The Sentry Gun, more commonly referred to as a Tarantula, is an Imperial automated mobile weapon system based upon ancient Imperial technology. Useful in a variety of roles, it is most notably used by the [[Imperial Guard]], but is also utilized by other groups including the [[Adeptus Astartes]] and the [[Adeptus Arbites]]. The exact origin for its nickname is unknown although it is fair to assume that their multi-legged appearance can be attributed in part to this.

Utilizing simple logic engines and infused with a machine spirit, the Tarantula can function without needing to be controlled by a human gunner. Commonly fitted with either twin-linked lascannons or heavy bolters, the Tarantula offers a significant deterrent to both enemy armor and infantry waves. [[Derp|However, it is not intelligent enough to actually choose its targets]] - [[FATAL|instead only prioritizing the closest threat in range.]]

The uses for these sentry guns are many and varied, from defending a perimeter from surprise attack to establishing a roadblock or operating as part of a static defensive line. However, their lack of inherit mobility restricts their use on a fluid battlefield. A Tarantula can be carried on the back of a [[Chimera]], [[Rhino]] or by a [[Valkyrie]] in addition to their normal passenger compliment. Tarantulas can even be air-dropped via grav-chute and deployed from packing crates.

Beloved by the [[Imperial Guard]], because it's an automated gun turret defending them on the front lines, and they don't even need to be in harm's way.

[[Grimdark|They will still be put in harm's way]].

Astartes Tarantulas are semi-mobile and can move themselves to a degree and even engage in pre-programmed patrol routes.
<gallery>
File:Hevboltertarantula.jpg|Tarantula Heavy Bolter
File:Lascannontarantula.jpg|Tarantula Lascannon
File:HyperiosLauncher.jpg|Tarantula Hyperios
File:RadarPlatform.jpg|Tarantula Air Defense Command Platform
</gallery>

===Sabre Weapons Battery===
[[File:Sabre_Gun_Platform.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Sabre Weapons Battery]]
Yet another weapons platform used by the Imperial Guard, usually for light air or ground defense at important assets or locations. Two Guardsmen are needed to crew the platform, which features dual heavy weapon mounts able to be fitted with standard Imperial Guard weapons for ease of supply and maintenance, although the actual model only showed one guardsman.

The Sabre (aka the Sabre Gun Platform) shares the same leg mounts as a Tarantula, but instead uses a crew of Guardsman to fight rather than a machine spirit. Its light structure means it can be easily disassembled and repositioned on the field, but not while under fire. Because of this, Sabre teams are expected to hold the line even against overwhelming odds. As they often form the last line of defense for a failing Imperial campaign, assignment to a Sabre is seen as a [[Grimdark|death sentence]].

Its primary armament is either quad Heavy Stubbers, twin-linked Lascannons, twin-linked Heavy Bolters, twin-linked Autocannons, or the most useless and suicidal of all, [[FAIL|a goddamned fucking searchlight]], I mean yeah sure, you could illuminate targets during night fighting, but that's as far as you could go. However, they are often used as a form of anti-air defense.
<gallery>
File:SabreGunPlatform01.jpg|Heavy Stubber Sabre
File:SabreAutocannon.JPG|Autocannon Sabre
File:SabreHeavyBolter.JPG|Heavy Bolter Sabre
File:SabreLascannon.JPG|Lascannon Sabre
File:SabreSpotlight.JPG|Searchlight Sabre
</gallery>

=={{anchor|Leman Russ}} Tank Guns ==

These guns are too large to be carried by infantry (excluding "heavy" weapons such as [[lascannon]]s and [[autocannon]]s), but are still small enough that a heavy vehicle, like the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], can carry and fire them while in the thick of battle. It should be noted that certain [[Autogun|Autoweapons]] are also a form of ordnance. So don't be too surprised if you see a few similiar faces around here.

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===Battle Cannon===
[[File:Battle_Cannon_Leman_Russ.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Battle Cannon]]
The primary weapon of the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], it is the most commonly used tank gun for good reason: the Battle Cannon can pull double duty as both an anti-tank and anti-infantry weapon thanks to its considerable range (72"), strength (S8 AP3 = instant death to [[MEQ]]s and capable of damaging any vehicle) and explosion size (5" blast = blob-killer). The cannon proved so popular that it was made the primary armament of the [[Macharius (tank)|Macharius]] and [[Malcador (tank)|Malcador]] super-heavy tanks, and has been forked into several versions by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]:
{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Battle Cannon (Leman Russ)|range=72|strength=8|ap=3|type=Ordnance|rof=|rules=Blast (5")}}
<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" />

Since the revamping of the AP-system and moving away from "blast template" mechanics, the stats for battle cannons were changed, becoming something of this<br>
{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-8|name=Battle Cannon (8th Edition)|range=72|strength=8|ap=-2|damage=D3|type=Heavy D6|}}
It is worth noting that while AP-2 now allows 3+ and 4+ armour to actually provide at least some save-roll (5+ save for 3+ armour and 6+ save for 4+ armour), 2+ armour (like that of the Terminators) now only get 4+ save instead of 2+.

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==={{anchor|Conqueror Cannon}} Conqueror Battle Cannon===
[[File:LRConq.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Conqueror Battle Cannon]]
Fitted to the [[Leman Russ Conqueror]], this is essentially a lighter and smaller version of the Battle Cannon. Its shorter range and smaller blast radius is more than compensated by the reduced recoil and higher rate of fire, allowing for an even greater damage output than a Battle Cannon. Like the battle cannon the Conqueror cannon is capable of firing high explosive, anti-tank, smoke, illumination, and even Hunter shells, although not infernus rounds. The Forge World Gryphonne IV also designed a special shell just for this weapon, known as the '''Augur Shell'''. While similar to an HE shell when the Augur's impact detonator is triggered the thin shell wall splits open and the soft explosive charge is spread across the target; a microsecond later the secondary detonator in the base of the shell ignites the explosive. This causes cratering and cracking of the target's outer armor, while inside the target it produces spalling capable of damaging internal equipment and wounding or killing personnel (Which sounds extraordinarily similar to HESH ammunition). However the shell was not considered a success and in the end relatively few were produced. Shaped charges work better, hence why HEAT is more common than HESH. Also, metals like nickel can be put in a HEAT round to turn it into a beam of plasma, but HESH is simply a pancake of explosive that goes boom. Ultimately, a focused boom is better, though HESH is better when you need just plain boom without it being focused somewhere. Though there is an important caveat when it comes to HESH VS HEAT: HEAT penetrates, but HESH sends more force into the target, meaning that if a HESH rounds sends enough conclusive force into a tank, you can scramble the crew and internal devices as if you shook a can half filled with jello. When all is equal, HESH is likely preferable against APCs, IFVs, and other forms of transports that HEAT or AP would kill but survivors would escape from to fight another day. HEAT is good for killing vehicles in which the machine is the threat, not the people in it (like battle tanks and mobile artillery, mobile guns, etc.).

On the tabletop, it's a "Heavy" weapon, as opposed to "Ordnance", which allows the carrying vehicle to fire its sponson weapons at full ballistic skill (though, since the Conqueror is not a heavy tank, that only applies if it holds still...).

In 8th Edition it's just a Battle Cannon with 50% of the range (36").

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=== Macharius Battle Cannon ===
[[File:Malcadorbattlecannon.png|200px|right|thumb|Macharius Battle Cannon]]
The [[Macharius Heavy Tank]] has a twin-barreled variant of the Battle Cannon, because it has a bigger turret and because two barrels are better than one. It also looks like it has a larger bore which means it can fire larger calibers. For all intents and purposes, the Macharius Battle Cannon should be considered as a superheavy weapon if not for the fact that the Macharius itself is not completely in the superheavy category.

It used to actually fire two shots, but that's been changed to a single massive (7") blast in more recent publications similiar to how some video games give sawed-off shotguns a firing mechanism to blows off the two barrels at the same time. Maybe they will get around to making a single massive cannon for it, too. A Macharius Vanquisher Cannon? It exists. But a Macharius with a giant single gun? we wish.

Then 8th Edition drop and we went back to a 2-shot Battle Cannon. Lame.

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==={{anchor|Vanquisher Cannon}} Vanquisher Battle Cannon===
[[File:Vanqcannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Vanquisher Battle Cannon]]
Huge gun, huge range, huge barrel, huge damage. Basically an anti-tank gun fitted on tank destroyers. The Leman Russ Vanquisher has its weapon tooled for only one purpose: to fuck enemy tanks and monsters hard using huge shells.

It sacrifices its blast radius for an improved capacity for armor penetration (AP2, S8 + 2d6 = 10-20 with an average of 15 = roll for the [[anal circumference|circumference]] of the hole that is about to get punched through your armor). The [[Macharius (tank)|Macharius]] can carry twin-linked Vanquisher cannons, and has enough internal space that it can also fire high-explosive shells like the regular Macharius Battle Cannon, so it's like two tanks in one -- and it costs about as much as regular Russ and a Vanquisher put together.<br>
Worth noting, that the cannon is now somewhat nerfed, being given only S=8,AP-3 while retaining Heavy 1 and gaining D=D6R (the same rule as meltagun, albeit not only when in half-range or less).

The only problem is that the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] lost Tigrus, the only [[Forge World]] that made Vanquisher cannons, to the [[Orks]] in M35 (somehow, you'd think the Imperium would throw so much firepower in defense of such a vital world that nothing could take it), so the only way to make new Vanquisher tanks is to take the cannons off of tanks that have been immobilized -- not a simple feat, given that the cannon is so dangerous to armor and stands out as a priority target for enemies. Two other Forge Worlds, Stygies VIII and Gryphonne IV have stepped up to try and match the old cannons (read: [[Forge World]], the company, has produced two alternate turrets for [[Leman Russ Vanquisher]]s), but they're just not quite there (though it makes no difference on the tabletop, of course). And then Tyranids ate Gryphonne. (It was delicious.)

And it also seems, that as per 6-th edition Astra Militarum Codex and onwards, the fluff was changed to do away with "Vanquisher cannon being rare" altogether - now the Leman Russ Vanquisher is noted as being simply the dedicated anti-armour variant of Leman Russ, often employed as command tank in armoured formations. However, it now also seem that Vanquisher cannon now lost it's ability to fire HE rounds, being able to only fire anti-armour HEAT rounds, something ineffective against infantry formations.

It should be noted that, unlike how many on /tg/ perceive it, the Vanquisher is '''not''' just a Battle Cannon firing specialised Anti-Tank shells. The Guard does use separate specialised HEAT shells for the basic BC, but Imperial Armour shows the Vanquisher Cannon to have a smaller bore than the standard one, while the shells have a greater diameter-to-length ratio and possibly be some form of APFSDS round.

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===Demolisher Cannon===
[[File:Demolisher1Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Demolisher Cannon]]
The Big One. Fitted onto the [[Leman Russ Demolisher]] and packing enough heat to turn [[Terminator|Terminators]] and heavy and super-heavy vehicles inside-out with a single shell, the Demolisher Cannon's short range (24" -- shorter than some infantry weapons) is the only thing that stops it from being a truly amazing weapon.

Even then, it can cause considerable damage (S10 AP2 Large Blast = kiss your everything goodbye) and because it is smaller than the other cannons, is one of the few ordnance weapons used by the [[Space Marines]], mounted on the [[Vindicator]] and [[Land Raider Ares]], and it is used as secondary armament on certain super-heavy tanks, like [[Baneblade]]s and the [[Malcador (tank)|Malcador]].

The Demolisher fires special ammunition much larger than that used in the Battle Cannon, allowing it to punch through layers of concrete and plasteel alike. A Demolisher shell is constructed with an outer layer of standard high explosive and shrapnel, which surrounds a chemical core. Upon impact, the explosive layer detonates, punching a hole in the enemy's armor and spreading shrapnel over a wide area. It also starts a chemical reaction in the core, causing it to super-heat into a jet of plasma, which lances through the compromised armor, spreading molten death over a wide area and literally ripping the target from the inside out. The tremendous recoil produced by firing the cannon is capable of lifting the front end of a tank off the ground and, were it fired while moving, risk causing it to roll over.

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==={{anchor|Nova Cannon}} Eradicator Nova Cannon===
[[File:Leman_Russ_Eradicator_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eradicator Nova Cannon]]
The Eradicator Nova Cannon fires shells with an unstable "sub-atomic" core (yes, this just might be a tank cannon that fires ''mini-nukes''). These shells are somewhat hazardous to the tank and crew, as they have a non-zero probability of exploding if they get jostled while loading, so most [[Imperial Guard Regiment|regiments]] that use [[Leman Russ Eradicator]]s have a margin for crew losses, and that is without the off chance of radioactive leaks from a faulty shell.

The Eradicator is most effective supporting infantry forces fighting in areas such as cities and jungles, and it is easily replicated on dozens of Forge Worlds. For urban combat however the Eradicator does not feature the additional rear armor found on similar vehicles, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from behind.

They keep using the Nova cannon, though, because the shell's massive blast completely flattens any cover, so unless the targets are power armored, there's no escape for them (S6 AP4 = Instant Death for most standard infantry; less effective for beefier troops). Why a shell that detonates if it's shaken does not go off when it's fired from a freaking cannon is not completely explained by GW.

== {{anchor|Baneblade}} Super-Heavy Tank Guns ==

Technically, these guns can be carried and fired by a vehicle in direct combat, but because that vehicle has to be the size of a [[Baneblade]], they deserve a category of their own.

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===Accelerator Cannon===
[[File:Fellblade_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Accelerator Cannon]]
The main gun of the [[Fellblade]]. It fired armor-piercing explosive ''self-guided'' "darts" via either magnetic acceleration or gravity impellers. It was also twin-linked, though the Fellblade had severely limited ammunition for it, relying mostly on its other weapons until a suitable target presented itself.

This type of cannon used a complex overpressure mechanisms of a special vacuum-based system which can propel heavy shells with greater force than a conventional cannon of similar size. This system is so efficient that they provide very little recoil from every shot, making the Accelerator cannon extremely stable and accurate. The loading mechanism of Accelerator cannon is also highly advanced and served by a special loading mechanism that allows the tank’s commander to switch ammunition type at a little notice.

It was made on the [[Forge World]] of Tigrus (home of the original Vanquisher cannon -- which resembles the Accelerator Cannon quite closely, with the long barrel and large muzzle brake). It can fire high-explosive shells comparable to a super-charged Battle Cannon (S8 AP3 7" Blast) or armor-piercing shells comparable to what would later become the Vanquisher battle cannon (S9 AP2 3" Blast, rolling 2d6 for armor penetration).

Its smaller brother is the Accelerator Autocannon.

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===Macro-Accelerator Cannon===
[[File:MacAccelerator_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Macro-Accelerator Cannon]]
Think of the Accelerator Autocannon on steroids. The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is to the Accelerator Cannon in the same way the Accelerator Cannon is to the Accelerator Autocannon (Try and speak that sentence five times in a row).

The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is a large kinetic weapon used by the Primaris Space Marines' [[Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank|Astraeus Super-Heavy Grav Tank]] as its primary armament. The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is actually a complex mass driver that uses a potent electromagentic field to accelerate a barrage of high caliber ferro-carbide slugs to extremely high speeds. It is basically an upscaled Imperial railgun. Usually twin-linked, these weapons unleash an onslaught against which even enemy heavy armor cannot stand.

Crunchwise, the fluff seem to match the rules. The Macro-Accelerator Cannon is a vicious Heavy 12, S8, AP-2, Damage 3 that ignores all abilities that impose negative hit modifiers when targeting anything with the FLY keyword. Normal vehicles wouldn't even survive a barrage of these and superheavies would take a beating.

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===Baneblade Cannon===
[[File:Banebladecannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Baneblade Cannon]]
The [[Baneblade]]'s primary cannon is an upscaled Battle Cannon, improved in strength, armor penetration, and blast radius (S9 AP2 10" blast = 10" wide [[lascannon]] pie-plate). Its special shells are not propelled by an explosion, but are rather miniature rockets that increases the shell's range and accuracy tremendously. However, this also leads to the danger of a build-up of gasses in the barrel, which can cause serious harm. To combat this the Baneblade Cannon is built with a double-sleeve design with venting ports studded around the cannon's muzzle, allowing these gasses to escape under their own pressure.

When fired the shell leaves the barrel under its own blast pressure with speed maintained whilst the rocket burns, with each booster burning out and falling away as the next one ignites. This means that the Baneblade's Cannon works on a similiar basis to a upscaled Bolter -- a feature that "counterfeit" Baneblades produced on other [[Forge World]]s are unable to reproduce, and so they substitute standard battle cannon rounds for them. There's no indication that they're much, if at all, different, though.

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===Dreadhammer Cannon===
[[File:Dreadhammer.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadhammer Cannon]]
Back in the [[Great Crusade]], [[Perturabo]] asked the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to build him a new cannon that could level buildings with a single shell and be carried at a reasonable speed. Because the [[Horus Heresy]] hadn't happened yet, and they were thus still feeling like innovating now and then, the tech-priests agreed, and built him the Dreadhammer.

It fires shells that weigh several tons, and experiences so much recoil that even the super-heavy [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank]] has to limit the propellant used (and thus the range) if it wants to fire on the move. At first, people made fun of Perturabo for asking for (and getting) a super-Demolisher, but it has a bigger blast radius and, if the Typhon stays still, a longer range, and it really does shake buildings to their foundations. The appearance, name, and firepower of the Dreadhammer cannon suggest some connection with the [[Baneblade]]-mounted [[#Hellhammer Cannon|Hellhammer cannon]].

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===Hellhammer Cannon===
[[File:Hellhammer_cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Hellhammer Cannon]]
The comically small Hellhammer Cannon is the main weapon of the [[Hellhammer]] tank. Resembling a Baneblade with [[Lulz|micropenis issues]], this gun has spawned numerous compensation jokes at the tank's expense. Still, every nerd has its day and one thing the Hellhammer excels at is in its ability to fire [[Fallout|mini-nukes.]]

The Hellhammer Cannon fires shells with a building-busting sub-atomic charge (like the Eradicator Nova Cannon). Each shell weighs 180 kilograms and is propelled by a rocket motor, with exhaust vents on either side of the barrel allowing for the safe discharge of gas with every firing. Due to the sheer weight of the shells, an automatic loading tray assists the loader, limiting the weapon's rate of fire. The tremendous concussive explosion (S10 AP1 7" Blast) is enough to collapse a building in one shot (Ignores Cover), so crews are trained to fire at the ground floors of structures that need to come down. The short barrel and recoil compensators give the cannon a very short range (a measly 36"). As such, the Hellhammer cannon is only used on tanks that are built for urban combat, like the [[Hellhammer]] super-heavy tank.

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===Quake Cannon===
[[File:Quake Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Quake Cannon]]
What has already been said about the Quake Cannon in the Autogun category has been said here. The Quake Cannon is an [[Awesome]] gun with a [[Stupid]] construction process. The quintessential fortress fucker supreme.

The Quake Cannon is an odd beast; its firepower is not unusual for a weapon of its size (S9 AP3 10" Blast), but it has a longer range than any other tank gun (180", only exceeded by the Earthshaker and Colossus cannons), and is normally an arm weapon for [[Warlord Battle Titan]]s.

It is occasionally mounted on a Baneblade chassis to make the [[Banesword]], essentially a super-heavy self-propelled artillery piece, primarily employed against fortifications. Also, it's ammunition is filled with the echoing shockwave of a world that was subjected to [[Exterminatus]], [[Awesome|and the sound it makes as it flies through the air is said to be the screams of those who died in the exterminatus that powered it.]]

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=== Stormsword Siege Cannon ===
[[File:Stormsword_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Stormsword Siege Cannon]]
The Stormsword Siege Cannon fires big bunker-busting rocket-propelled shells. Unfortunately, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] never considered that crews might want to fire at things other than ground floors of nearby buildings, so the cannon cannot elevate very far (though, if it did elevate too far, the recoil might just rip it out of the turret). It makes up for this by being able to turn entire city blocks to dust with a single shot.

The weapon and vehicle itself is built specifically for sieges and street-fighting, the Stormsword is geared towards providing troops close-quarter support with a variety of heavy weapons whilst its cannon is used to lay waste to entire encamped bunkers and buildings.

It used to be that the [[Stormsword]] just had a Hellhammer Cannon that couldn't swivel, but apparently that made them too similar, so in the sixth-edition version of [[Apocalypse]], GW made the Hellhammer Cannon a 7" blast and left the Stormsword with the 10" pie-plate.

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===Tremor Cannon===
[[File:Tremor_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Tremor Cannon]]
Most cannons launch shells that are fuzed to explode on or shortly before impact. Not the [[Banehammer]]'s Tremor Cannon: after landing it buries into the ground before it detonates. This muffles the blast (S8 AP3 is actually the lowest-strength and worst AP of all the super-heavy tank guns), but it sends a tremendous shockwave through the earth that leaves enemies not caught in the blast stumbling and slowed. The fluff describes this as ''liquifying'' the surrounding terrain.

Imagine the ground under your feet giving way, suddenly having the consistency of water. By the time you've figured out what's happened, you're partially buried in the dirt and have to dig yourself out before the enemy comes and shoots you like a horse with a broken leg. And that's if you're lucky, it's entirely possible to get buried completely and suffocate to death under several feet of earth and rubble. You can see why it would be very, very bad to be on the receiving end of this weapon.

In theory it would also make a decent wall and bunker cracker.

==Artillery Guns==

Sometimes, the Imperial Guard can't get in range to use tanks, or could, but only at a cost that even the [[Departmento Munitorum]] would find staggering, like when they are attacking enemy fortresses. To overcome such obstacles, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] had a brilliant idea: make even bigger guns with a longer range. These guns are so big that they cannot be fired on the move; they are often built into static defensive positions, or for [[Imperial Guard Regiment|regiments]] that need to be more mobile, they may have guns placed on towed platforms, or on self-propelled chassis (see [[Imperial Ordnance Pieces]] for more information).

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===Thunderfire Cannon===
[[File:SM-thunderfire.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Thunderfire Cannon]]
''Not to be confused with the [[Squats|SPESS DORF's]] [[Thunder-Fire Cannon]]. For the full page, [[Thunderfire Cannon|see here.]]''

The actual cannon of the Thunderfire Cannon Unmanned Ground Vehicle. This gigantic piss-off quad-barrelled cannon is a short-ranged artillery piece that is less indirect blind(-ish) firing and more in-your-face levels of FUCK OFF. It's like the [[Angry Marines]] of artillery guns. These cannons are so ECKSBAWKSHUEG that the vehicle it is mounted on is actually like, 50% of the total weapons system.

The only people even qualified of handling this thing are the [[Techmarines]]. For much added [[Lulz]], the cannon of the Thunderfire Cannon can be mounted as the primary weapon for the [[Land Raider#Achilles Pattern (Forge World)|Land Raider Achilles]]. Oh yes, we know what we are all thinking. [[Meme|Yo Dawg, we heard you like artillery guns, so we put a artillery gun inside a artillery gun so you can shoot whilst you shoot!]]

The Techmarine manning a Thunderfire Cannon can set its shells to detonate in a variety of different ways, depending on the tactical situation. Surface detonations are employed against numerous enemies in comparatively clear terrain, airburst shells are used to scour a foe from cover, and the Techmarine can even program the shells to burrow deep into the ground before detonating; though the force of the blast from such Tremor Shells is greatly reduced, the resulting shockwave is sufficient to leave the foe sprawling, making them easy pickings for his brother Space Marines.

They also look similar in appearance to the Astartes Quad Launcher found on the [[Rapier Armoured Carrier|Rapier Carrier.]]

===Lucius Pattern Heavy Quad-Launcher===
[[File:ThuddGun2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Lucius Pattern Heavy Quad-Launcher]]
''For the original, superior, motorized and [[Squat|shall-we-say ''Squat'']] version, [[Heavy Quad-Launcher|see here.]]''

Derived from the original, more mobile and cooler looking Squat Heavy Quad-Launcher mobile light artillery platform, the less cool and more cumbersome Imperial variant functions essentially the same, [[Fail|except you can't drive the damned thing but you have to tow it instead.]] This is made worse when considering the Squats ''literally'' gave the Imperium and by extension, the Mechanicus the blueprints for the original motorized tractor variant. [[FAIL|The Mechanicus some how lost the tractor in the process.]]

So now the Imperial Guard is stuck with the less mobile and cumbersome Lucius Pattern Thudd Gun. They were once quite a common light artillery piece, but ever since the day the Mechanicus lost the blueprints to attach a tractor at the rear end of the gun, most of these artillery pieces have now been relegated to second-line Imperial units, used by [[Planetary Defence Force|Planetary Defence Forces]] and militia units.

Similar to the Dorf version, the Quad Launcher's main drawback as a weapons system is the time required to reload between volleys. Ammunition is placed into the hopper, the breech is then hand-cranked back which allows the round to feed into the breech, which then slams forward into the ready position. The hopper can then be reloaded with another shell. When the gun fires, the recoil allows the second shell to load automatically. Once this second shell is fired, the whole slow reloading process must be repeated. The weapon's complex automated loader is also prone to jamming and misfeeds and must be very carefully maintained and cleaned in the field. However, at least the original Thudd Gun is mobile. This....thing however, requires to be towed by either a [[Trojan Support Vehicle|Trojan service vehicles,]] or [[Centaur Utility Vehicle|Centaur light tanks.]]

Like many Imperial models, this one is quite clearly based on a World War era artillery piece, in this case the German [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebelwerfer Nebelwerfer].

===Earthshaker Cannon===
[[File:Earthshaker2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Earthshaker Cannon]]
The Earthshaker Cannon is the [[#Battle Cannon|Battle Cannon]] of artillery pieces: common, highly recognizable and very lethal (S9 AP-3 Dd3 anywhere within twenty feet). It fires its shots further than any weapon except for the [[Manticore Launcher Tank]] and [[Deathstrike Missile Launcher]].

This 132mm caliber weapon has a muzzle velocity of 814 meters per second and fires a 38 kg projectile, hitting targets over 15 km away in under 19 seconds, using the standard five powder charge.

Six and seven powder charges can be used to hit targets well beyond this range, however the additional wear and stress this causes on the barrel limits the number of overcharged rounds to twenty, with authorization for their use required. Only Earthshakers on static mounts can fire these charges, as vehicle mounts are considered too unstable for their use. The most common type of shell fired by Earthshakers are high explosive, but it can also launch incendiary, smoke, illumination, and even diamantine-tipped armor piercing shells. Shells fired by Earthshakers have been known to cause craters fifteen meters in diameter and obliterate infantry in an instant.

The Earthshaker is most often mounted on the [[Basilisk Artillery Gun|Basilisk self-propelled artillery tank,]] though it also appears in static artillery positions as well as built into fortifications. Field artillery also makes use of towed versions pulled by Landcrawlers, as with Quad Launchers and Griffon Heavy Mortars.

Amusingly enough despite being depicted as an artillery gun in 40k, the Earthshaker is modeled after the long-barelled WWII German [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41 Flak 88] rather than a field howitzer from the same epoch.

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===Medusa Siege Cannon===
[[File:MedusaGun.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Medusa Siege Cannon]]
The Medusa Siege Gun is an aging siege weapon used by the Imperial Guard both as a towed artillery piece and mounted on the [[Medusa (tank)|Medusa Siege Tank.]] Compared to the Earthshaker Cannon the Medusa fires a much larger shell at lower velocities. This gives it immense destructive capabilities, useful in breaching the walls of an enemy fortress or destroying bunkers in a single shot, but it consequently has a much shorter firing range, even compared to other siege weapons like the Bombard. For this reason they are less useful for harassing and counter-battery fire, but are still prized by many siege regiments for their ability to blast enemy walls, installations, bunkers and trenches.

The Medusa Siege Cannon is the shortest-ranged of the Imperium's artillery weapons at 36" (Breacher shells on the carriage to 48"), but it is not meant to launch munitions over fortified walls; rather, it is meant to shoot fortifications directly and destroy them (which it certainly does, at S10 AP-3 Dd3) -- and when regular shells aren't enough, they can fire special Breacher shells that sacrifice indirect fire for d6 damage to buildings.

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===Basilisk Magnus===
[[File:SoulstormBasiliskMagnus.png|200px|right|thumb|Basilisk Magnus]]
Get a Earthshaker Cannon. [[Drug|Pump it full of steroids and growth hormones]] and make it big enough to launch an [[Angry Marine]] at full force. Ladies and gentlemen, the Basilisk Magnus is born. Seriously, this thing is the size of a [[Baneblade]].

Exclusive in [[Dawn of War]] or more specifically, the Soulstorm expansion. The Basilisk Magnus is a large artillery platform, defending the 252nd Conservator Regiment's stronghold in the Dussala Precinct on Kaurava I. It fires devastating rounds that creates a wide area of destruction, though it needs a spotter to acquire targets. If the artillery spotter is killed before the Basilisk Magnus' operators receive the targeting information, it will not be able to fire.

This honking piece of [[Rape]] was notorious for hitting something as small as a [[Gretchin]] from one end of the map. Shame there isn't a tabletop conversion....yet.

<gallery>
image:Basilisk_Magnus.jpg
</gallery>

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===Thunder-Fire Cannon===
[[File:Thunder-FireCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Thunder'''-Fire''' Cannon]]
''Not to be confused with the SPESS MEHREEN's [[Thunderfire Cannon]]. For the full page, [[Thunder-Fire Cannon|see here.]]''

The actual cannon of the Thunder-Fire Cannon (Jeez, a bit of deja vu here?). The Thunder-Fire Cannon was the foremost first line of defense for the [[Squat]] homeworlds and possibly the second largest artillery right next to the Goliath Mega-Cannon. Seriously, it might be [[Epic]], but those guns are fucking big capable of firing big-ass shells from quite a considerable distance.

Just to give you an idea on how ridiculous Squat artillery is. The Thunder-Fire Cannon is a ''[[Lolwut|supporting artillery piece]]'' meant to provide backup for the Goliath Mega-Cannon. Oh yes, [[Lulz|an artillery piece supporting a even ''BIGGER'' artillery piece.]]

As you can imagine, these things are triple-barrelled, kind of like the more mobile but smaller Dominus Triple Bombard. The Thunder-Fire Cannon in itself is always seen mounted as a static piece of artillery. So we ain't completely sure if it can be mounted on a mobile platform, although it wouldn't really surprise us granted that these ''are'' the Squats we are talking about here.

===Nemesis Quake Cannon===
[[File:99560108206_WarbringerTitanQuakeCannon01.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Nemesis Quake Cannon]]
The Quake Cannon on steroids, or the holy lovechild between a Quake Cannon and a Gatling Blaster, [[Skub|whichever you ask.]] These monsters are possibly the largest gun model ever made by Games Workshop on tabletop....''for now'' at least. Mounted on the new and shiny [[Warbringer Nemesis Titan]]. This giant six-shot revolver of doom is designed to kill enemy Titans on sight, thus in any sensible usage, this weapon is regulated at the back lines as a giant sniper, unfortunately the Imperium [[Herp|lacks any sensibility]] and uses these as front line weapons instead. Nevertheless, having a fast firing Quake Cannon '''''is''''' a boon to any forces as now you have a very quick way to whither down the [[Void shields|Void Shields]] of enemy Titans in a quick and efficient manner rather than risking the time reloading. And seeing how this Titan gained prominence during the [[Horus Heresy]] when [[Emperor Battle Titan|Emperor Battle Titans]] were common enough to be thrown left and right like normal battle tanks, the nature of this weapon makes a whole load of sense. This cannon also works wonders against heavily fortified encampments and any forms of fortifications in general due to the monumental concussive force unleashed as its shell impacts the ground setting off powerful localized earthquakes. Overall, what has been said on the [[Autogun]] page has already been mostly stated here.

However there is a reason why this giant dick cannon is here. It also functions extremely well as artillery. Unlike the more average Quake Cannon which is restricted to purely a superheavy tank gun due to the design of the Banesword; preventing any proper gun elevation, let alone install a proper turret and hit anything beyond 90 degrees. The Warbringer Titan is a big enough platform to not only mount a supersized Quake Cannon, but also spacious enough to install a proper turret module and some proper elevation. This allows the Nemesis Quake Cannon to launch its bullets in an arc and turns it into a supersized Earthshaker Cannon.

Of course, it is a designated Titan-killer first and foremost, but the nature of the Quake Shell also means that - as aforementioned before - it could function amazingly well against fortresses and entire fleets of smaller ground vehicles. The powerful concussive shockwaves would liquefy the grounds of enemy armor, forcing them to halt its advance and even sink them through the ground if the terrain collapse. It could also weaken the foundations of fortress walls and bunkers, causing it to collapse on itself or outright shattering the walls through brute force.

===Goliath Mega-Cannon===
[[File:GoliathCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Goliath Mega-Cannon]]
''For the actual vehicle itself, [[Goliath Mega-Cannon|see here.]]''

A hilariously [[Dick|phallic]] weapon made by [[Squats|They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named]]. The Goliath Mega-Cannon, both the gun ''and'' [[Goliath Mega-Cannon|the vehicle]] (Don't tell us why they decided to name both weapon and vehicle the same) is one of the largest artillery pieces ever known and fielded.

Basically each shell weighed several tons and was powerful enough to shatter entire fortifications and turn a fleet of Baneblades inside out. These motherfuckers were the Schwerer Gustav in all but name.

Curiously, the gun never really needed any shock absorbers to control the immense recoil. However it could be that the Goliath Mega-Cannon (The vehicle, not the gun) doesn't need one as the vehicle's own base ''is'' the gun's base.

The power of the Goliath means that each cannon fires its own barrage template. A Goliath attack is worth four barrage points plus the roll of a D6, giving a score between 5 and 10. The super heavy shells fired by the Goliath are so good at reducing fortifications to rubble that it ignores hit modifiers for cover altogether.

The Goliath lobs its shells high into the air to achieve its mammoth range, but it can't depress its barrel to hit a very close target. This means a Goliath can't shoot at targets closer than 50cm, so it has a min range of 50cm. They also don't have any self-defense secondary weapons so you need a few Thunder-Fire Cannons to offer cover support and picking off any units near the Goliath.

Of course, all of these rules are now outdated. But it is pretty cool to see the power it once had.

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===Thunderer Cannon===
[[File:Thunderer_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Thunderer Cannon]]
Not to be confused with the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank#Thunderer Siege Tank|Thunderer Siege Tank of Leman Russ fame]].

The Thunderer Cannon is a giant FUCKOFF cannon and one of the largest form of ordnance known on land. This cannon is one of the primary weapons of the [[Squat]] [[Colossus War Machine]] and the shells of which, is powerful enough to [[Fist of the North Star|cause nearby mountains to suffer critical existence failure in the form of giant mud slides.]] Seriously, just look at that [[Anal Circumference|''bore size'']] and translate that to the size of the vehicle itself.

The Thunderer Cannon acts as a giant artillery gun meant to deal with squadrons of superheavies and Titans rather than infantry and tanks. This is due to the placement of the Thunderer as well as the fact that it is not mounted on a turret, suggesting that the entire superstructure of the Colossus' 'tower' is reinforced, so as to properly handle the ridiculous recoil of this big stick of death.

Because of its placement and function, it is likely that the Thunderer Cannon was the basis for the Behemoth Cannon.

===Doomsday Cannon===
[[File:Squat Doomsday_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Doomsday Cannon]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Necron]] [[Doomsday Cannon|Doomsday Cannon.]]''

The appropriately named Doomsday Cannon is one of the three primary FUCKOFF cannons, with the first being the Thunderer Cannon and the last being the Behemoth Cannon. The Doomsday Cannon is a relatively popular weapon as far as superheavy ordnance weapons goes. As it is found as the primary weapon for both the [[Colossus War Machine]] and the [[Leviathan|Leviathan Command Center]].

[[/d/|Due to its size and ''girth'',]] the Doomsday Cannon can only be situated and mounted on the prow of these respective vehicles. This is to ensure that the recoil does not topple over or shake apart the vehicle's superstructure. However, this comes at the cost of having a lower maximum range even though the Doomsday Cannon is just as capable of adjusting its firing arc.

Unlike the more longer ranged and accurate Thunderer Cannon, the Doomsday Cannon removes all subtlety and just goes strait into [[Exterminatus]] territory, as the explosive yield of the shell being fired ([[Rape|Again, just look at that ''bore size'']]) can be felt several miles away.

[[Tl;dr]], it is literally a [[Autogun#Macrocannon|Macrocannon]] in all but name. When this thing fires, [[Anal circumference|you might as well just bend over and accept the consequences.]]

===Behemoth Cannon===
[[File:Behemoth_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Behemoth Cannon]]
The largest artillery field piece to date. [[Skub|Well, that is assuming that the Goliath Mega-Cannon is slightly smaller than the Behemoth Cannon]] ([[Derp|GW is very bad at size consistency, just look at the Warlord Titan and how its size jumps all over the goddamned fucking place.]] [[Fail|That's quality control for GeeDubs for you]]). Until GW decides to one-up themselves and invent an even ''bigger'' artillery piece.

The Behemoth Cannon is a massive weapon that is the primary armament of the [[Capitol Imperialis]]. The giant landships that can be mistaken for a city block and is tall enough that a goddamned motherfucking [[Warlord Battle Titan]] can use for cover. The Behemoth Cannon is so large that four [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]]s could fit within its barrel (Although the models and artwork definitely disagrees with that statement), and the concussive force of firing the weapon can produce a mushroom cloud and shake the earth itself.

It is basically a land-bound and more mobile version of a Macrocannon and may or may not be a variant of the Thunderer Cannon.

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{{Template:40k-Imperial-Weapons}}
{{40k-GenestealerCults-Weapons}}

[[Category:Warhammer_40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Warhammer Weapons]]

Imperial Truth

2020-01-29T18:53:03Z

2600:6C58:637F:E506:A04D:381B:3B4B:A5AD: sounds like more deus vault poltard butthurt. |religions can't be controlled", bs, history says otherwise

{{Heresy}}
{{topquote|There can be daemons in a secular cosmos, [[Knights-Errant#Garviel Loken|Garviel]]. Just as long as we understand the use of the word.|Warmaster [[Horus]], ''Horus Rising''}}
{{topquote|If once we can produce our perfect work — the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” — then the end of the war will be in sight.|[[Demon|Screwtape]], ''"The Screwtape Letters"'' by C.S Lewis}}
{{topquote|The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings.|Tahar Ben Jelloun}}
{{topquote|I have seldom seen a more powerful argument for the fallen nature of man, and his inability to achieve perfection, than those countries in which man sets himself up to replace God with the State.|Peter Hitchens}}

The Imperial Truth is the atheist rationalist doctrine espoused by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] as part of the [[Great Crusade]]. According to the Imperial Truth, the Emperor believed that religion and superstition had divided mankind too much during its history. On one hand, the Emperor had reason to believe since he'd lived through most of [[Earth|Terra]]'s religious wars. On the other hand, these were motivated by secular reasons, defensive responses or fanatics who would have simply attached their obsession to something else if they had no religion at the time. Thus did the Emperor [[The Last Church|become an extreme militant atheist who violently purged the religions of Terra]]. His plan was for [[Imperium of Man]] to become a secular state [[Star Trek|espousing science and reason]] (based on the Emperor's conjectures linking religious worship to the powers of Chaos, as seen below). Although, the science and reason thing didn't shake the religious trappings and presence (such as angelic figures, demons, and various vernacular and art quirks of the Imperium). Unsurprising; it's easy to convince someone that there is no buff guy in the sky throwing lightning bolts when you can prove it, but when confronted with something like "everything exist because God says so, the end" you can't really disprove it since anything you use was "created by God" or religions focused on an afterlife because A) can't be dis-proven even in 40K and B) souls actually ''do'' go to ''the other side of the Warp'' assuming nothing catches them and so that would actually ''encourage'' afterlife religious belief. Following the [[Horus Heresy]] and the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne, the Imperial Truth collapsed, the Emperor's very own philosophy denounced as [[HERESY]] wherever it was not simply forgotten, and the Imperium of Man has become [[Grimdark|a theocratic dictatorship where questioning anything results in a painful death]].

While the Emperor was viscerally against religion as a concept, attributing to it many of the woes that had plagued Mankind's history, he didn't just ban and purge religion simply because he disagreed with it. During his millennia of existence, the Emperor had come to partially determine the nature of the relationship sentient life had with the [[Warp]]. Knowing that the belief in gods would only serve to create them and empower the Warp creatures, the Emperor hoped to starve the [[Chaos Gods]] by denying them worshipers. Because creating and worshiping loving gods who protected humanity from the extremes Chaos represented would be a bad idea because...? Oh, right, da Emprah was also a control-freak to a degree.

This was doomed to failure from the get-go since the Emperor had failed to realize that the Chaos Gods were powered not only by faith, but also by raw emotions. People going about their daily lives experiencing their normal emotions would still empower the Chaos Gods. Also the same behaviors and traits some, such as the Emperor, hated and associated with religious people are also found among the non-religious. He also failed to realize that faith was actually the greatest weapon against the Chaos Gods, what was needed was an alternative to direct the belief at such as a God, a God-Emperor or the religions that existed at the time before Emps decided to go all [[Communism|Stalin]] on them. In fact, the Emperor may even have BEEN Stalin and Soviet Russia - the first nation in history with an avowed goal of purging religion and replacing it with atheism - might have been a precursor to the Imperial Truth. Faith enables a Guardsman to kill a daemon (sometimes) because that Guardsman believes so utterly that it becomes real for that daemon. Given the deeds of normal humans in the fluff which do not even involve daemons and still amount to things even a Space Marine would be impressed by, it is likely that faith and the Warp related to humanity goes beyond just fighting Chaos. Heck, look at the Acts of Faith for the Sisters of Battle as an example. Freaking Living Saints, even (potentially).

The final deathblow for his case came when proof was found during the Horus Heresy that faith in something else, and by extension other religions, actually hurts Chaos. While a non-religious creed against Chaos (like what the [[Interex]] had) can fend them off, at most this would achieve a stalemate until a controlled psyker decided to go outside the lines. But theistic religiosity proved superior since it gave the means to [[Ynnead|actually take the fight to Chaos, beat them back and, MAYBE... one day, even defeat the Chaos Gods]].

When [[Horus]] had a vision of the 41st millennium, part of his instant patricidal rage was that the Emperor was abandoning the Imperial Truth by seeking to become a real god (which made the Emperor a hypocrite if true). This in turn convinced him to renounce the Emperor. And then start worshiping the Chaos Gods. (Look, [[Horus]] was a dumbass).

An alternative view is that the Emprah's plan wasn't to actually kill the Chaos Gods but to remove them from the Materium (in hindsight we know how hilariously ridiculous ''that'' idea is). The Emprah had a few major pet-peeves: religion, uncontrolled [[psyker]]s, [[unregulated xenos]] and [[Astronomican|warp travel]]. Without [[Cultist-chan]] and chaos-worshiping xenos, there would be no summoning of [[daemons]]. Without uncontrolled psykers, few possessions would occur. Without warp travel, there would be few opportunities for Chaos Gods to [[rape|fuck Man up]]. Thus, without religion, xenos, psykers and warp travel, the Chaos Gods and their minions wouldn't be able to access the Materium (for the most part). Who gives a shit if the Chaos Gods are powerful if they are unable to do shit with that power? Answer, Emprah knows BEST!!!! (Although the Emprah withholding this knowledge from nearly everyone, including his own [[Primarch|sons]] who are out on their own all over the galaxy, probably wasn't the best idea since knowing the enemy is the first step in fighting it.) However there was one big problem with this idea in the form of the [[Eye of Terror]], which would still be providing a connection between the Materium and the Immaterium even in Emps purged religion, uncontrolled psykers, warp travel and aliens (not to mention humans are fallible and entropy is a thing, so a controlled psyker can become an uncontrolled one).

Unfortunately, any doctrine based upon scientific materialism and skepticism doesn't work in practical terms in a universe where gods are real and active (whether you believe in real life or not, they are most definitely there in 40k) / eternal & ethereal souls exist / people come back from the dead / technology is animistic / prayer actually works / sorcery does not require being a psyker / failure to burn enough witches at the stake makes your world a putrid mess with rivers of pus / Red 'Unz do go Fasta! / and the second most advanced race in the settings is religious, works on prophecies and ghost powered mechanized support. Chaos in particular is especially irreconcilable with such things, as everything about it is contradictory and unpredictable. Not only will trying to observe it make you go insane, ''replicating'' it would almost certainly destroy all of reality even if it didn't work.

The Tau tried treating things scientifically on Kronus (Eldar weapons), Kaurava (Living Saints), and Medusa V (analyzing a warp rift). In the first two cases they could not understand a thing about how they worked, and on Medusa they basically made the scientific equivalent of "Here be dragons".

Magnus said that the Warp is just another type of knowledge to be used. The Warp, in turn, made him its bitch. Even ignoring that, there is nothing "possible, observable, and repeatable" when it comes to the Warp (before Mortarion fell to Chaos he believed this and attempted to put it into practice, which got him fucked up by a Daemon he wanted to interrogate), and many other things in 40k. It's well, chaotic, the hate, anger and madness of uncountable beings in the Galaxy. There is nothing rational about the emotional refuse of sentience, and trying to apply scientific principles to them is a waste of time at the absolute best.

Still, why wasn't the Emprah more straightforward? He could have said: "There are no gods, just alien dimension energy beings that are so fucked up, they think they are Gods. They are lying and will fuck you over." But he probably didn't do that since the whole idea of the Great Crusade was to eliminate such creatures, and telling everyone about them like that would only lead to overzealous idiots making contact with 'the monsters' in an attempt to cage or eliminate them (a trait [[Fulgrim|sadly]] [[Angron|common]] [[Jaghatai Khan|in]] [[Mortarion|his]] [[Konrad Curze|sons]]), and that would open its own can of worms. Another reason for him not to tell anyone is that what counts as a "god" is entirely up to each individual person. To the Greeks, Zeus and Poseidon were gods. To the Christians, Zeus and Poseidon either do not exist or do not count as gods because they are more limited than the Christian God. It's all subjective, which means telling people about Chaos and daemons would still cause huge numbers of people to decide they're gods which A) would make them stronger due to that belief even if the believers hated them and tried to fight against them and B) a lot of the people would start worshiping and following them like wet-rot under the carpet.

The Emprah's own biggest fuck up was not trusting Mankind or even his own Primarchs to be able to cope with the actual truth of the matter, the existence of eldritch entities in general without falling on our knees to worship them. Extra stupid points since the war against the Men of Iron happened after a ''daemonic invasion'' of human space, to say nothing of the Age of Strife's frequent wars against daemons. Humanity had more than proven that we weren't going to join the fuckers. The Emprah was like a manager that hides vital information from his employees because he doesn't think they can cope with the big picture, then the company falls apart when an engineer pisses off a major customer because of some unknown piece of said info. That is WH40K in a nutshell.

Perhaps it was more than anything the fact the Emperor knew in his heart of hearts too many people resented the Great Crusade, as in all wars there is a losing side, even if they became part of the Imperium there is still lots of people who saw their worlds shattered, they would be the first ones to give Chaos a try, not because they need to believe in something but as an attempt to escape their deplorable condition and take revenge upon those who enslaved them.

If the Imperial Truth is even known about by the time of 40k is uncertain, although more than likely the term is now used as pro-imperial propaganda by Imperial Missionaries trying to sell worship of the Emperor to disbelieving locals on your newly discovered savage world. In fact the novel Hammer & Anvil flat-out says that's what it is. Some [[Chaos Space Marine|Chaos Space Marines]] might remember it, but due to their worship of the [[Chaos Gods]] none of them follow it, with the exception of [[Fabius Bile]].

Most Space Marine chapter and the Adeptus Custodes as a whole also teaches their forces their own versions of the Imperial Truth. However because the Imperium needs the Emperor's elite creations and would not survive without them. The Inquisition officially considers their beliefs considered variants of the [[Imperial Cult]]. Well, that and the problem that if they called out the Astartes, the Astartes and their supporters would point out that the Astartes beliefs are what the Emperor told them to believe, so only a ''dirty '''heretic''''' would try to stop them. [[Guilliman]] himself completely abandoned it shortly after his return, and after being saved by a Living Saint during the Plague Wars he's seriously started to wonder if Lorgar and the Ecclesiarchy actually had it right all along.

<small>* Note the word "wasn't" is strictly past tense, which is kinda important.</small>

[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]