2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Imperial Navy

2019-10-11T06:17:42Z

2601:1C0:5C00:C130:48A3:1519:712B:42EE: /* Battlecruiser */

[[File:imperialnavy1.jpg|400px|thumb||Cathedrals IN SPEHSS!]]

{{Topquote|When you began, you couldn’t have possessed enough bones for the whole ship. It would look stupid with a few dozen skeletons nailed to the walls. So, how do you start? Do you save up enough bodies for a corridor at a time, or put them away until you have enough to decorate the entire vessel?’|Jain Zar,-Storm of Silence, And while in contex she is talking about a Dark Eldar ship, it applies equally well to the Imperium}}

{{Topquote|By my faith, may the light of the Emperor spread to the farthest star. By my duty, the galaxy will belong to the righteous. By my actions, the Imperial Navy shall be honoured and remembered on Holy Terra. For the Emperor of Mankind, AND FOR THE BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC!|Imperial Navy Captain Abridal, shorty before his blaze of glory that ultimately stopped the 12th Black Crusade and saved billions of Imperial lives.}}

The '''Imperial Navy''' is one of the main branches of the [[Imperium of Man|Imperial]] military in [[Warhammer 40,000]] (although very little of the Navy actually appears in the tabletop game). They are also one of the main factions in the beloved spin-off game [[Battlefleet Gothic]].

Unlike the [[Imperial Guard]], who get killed in the <s>thousands</s> <s>millions</s> billions every day, the Imperial Navy rarely suffers that many casualties. This is because, unlike the [[lasgun|flashlight]] used by Guardsmen, the main weapon of the Navy is a giant, heavily-armed, heavily-armored battleship that puts other races' spaceships to shame (well, except [[Necrons]]). These ships are also [[Awesome|massive, flying, Gothic cathedrals]].

Depending on how you look at it (and who you're looking at), the officers of the Navy are either wealthy cowards or badass gentlemen. In either case, their ships have crews numbering the hundreds of thousands or even millions (we're not kidding when we say that each ship has its own language(s) and culture(s)), since the Imperial Navy doesn't understand how auto-loaders work, so loading a gun requires thousands of slaves running on treadmills. Of course, this might be the fault of [[Adeptus Mechanicus|a certain other branch of the Imperium, who, coincidentally, ''do'' have working auto-loaders on their ships]]. In any case, [[Grimdark|the Imperium has found it cheaper and ''more effective'' to use manpower because they have ''that many people'' to throw at even the tiniest of problems.]] Except that the cost of hundreds of thousands or even millions of chain-gangs adds up over centuries and millennia whereas maintenance for the machinery would basically amount to "apply oil while chanting". Of course, for a major officer, most days simply require him to press a button and blow something up, then go back to drinking his tea. Oh, and ''maybe'' scramble the ground-support flyers, if he's feeling charitable that day.

Note that, back in the [[Great Crusade]], the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy were one and the same, operating under the far-less-badass name of "Imperial Army." However, thanks to the [[Horus Heresy]], the two got split up, so that a single military commander couldn't control too many forces; a Guard commander isn't able to get off any given planet without the Navy, and the Navy isn't able to conduct wars (and, you know, occupy territory) without the Guard. You'd think that this enforced mutual co-dependence would make them collaborate, but [[grimdark|of course]], despite how much they need each other, the two bicker constantly, which, in fact, may be the reason for all the [[fail|stupidity]] the 40k universe is saddled with, at least on the military front.

==Types of Ships==
The Imperial Navy has four types of ships they hide their cowardly asses in. The main ships are battleships, cruisers, escorts, and fighters
Each ship can also be classified by its weaponry, and role in the battlefleet:
*'''Basic:''' Jack of All Trades ships, due to having multiples weapons types, and not being specialized into any. Lunar class cruisers are the prime example, having macrobateries, lances & torpedoes.
*'''Lance-boats:''' Ships that focus into Lance weaponry, used for long-range focused attacks, especially against small ships & unshielded ones. Rarer as they have a weakness to Void Shields and require better drives due to the power requirements of the lances.
*'''Ordnance-boat:''' Opposite of the Lance-boat, replaces Lances with more Macrobatteries, focusing mostly into medium & short range brawls against enemy ships. Usually this is because they need extra power due to mounting a Nova Cannon or having power-hungry macrobatteries such as Plasma Cannons.
*'''Carrier:''' The red-haired stepchild of the Navy. Replaces the Lances with Launch Bays and is disliked by most Admirals due to the stigma against Attack Craft, although it is because the Traitors & Chaos pawns focused on raiding & striking fast, so with enemy fleets focused on long range attack (Lances, laser, and attack craft)plus Chaos likes them more because they can fill the bays with Assault Boats, the Imperial Navy might have got that stigma of seeing too many Chaos carriers raiding & pillaging imperial planets & so started dislike them. Some Carriers are also made from wrecked cruisers of other types, in which case damaged broadside weapons are ripped out and replaced by launch bays.
*'''Torpedo-boat:''' Originally an experiment for escort ships to overrun enemy vessel crews using boarding torpedoes, it was doomed to failure as the targets were either too nimble or too big. The Imperial Navy kept a few as Missile Destroyers.

===[[Imperial Navy Battleship|Battleship]]===
Supposedly rare, but every Grand Marshal and High Admiral has at least one and often several or even dozens to hide in because GW is completely and hopelessly inconsistent with fleet sizes, though as of late it seems that GW is leaning towards big fleets and big armies when it gives numbers. Bonus points if that coward is also Chaos. The biggest heaviest hitters available, these things are like actual medieval cathedrals in that the grandchildren of the workers who start building them get to live to see their completion. Fuckheug, lots (and lots, and lots) of guns and most can deploy fighters and bombers.
*'''Ordnance-boats:'''
**'''Retribution:''' Packing all gun batteries, the ship can devastate an entire continent in one broadside, but for some reason cannot destroy a hive city or fort with [[void shields]] - [[What|or in some cases, ones without any shields at all]]; either that or GW was just pulling another [[Derp|Michael Bay]] out of their asses again since, they have no idea how [[Herp|consistency works, let alone basic physics.]] Of course, considering the Dark Angels fortress-monastery and the huge chunk of land surrounding it survived the bombardment which turned Caliban into a bunch of space dust, it is perfectly reasonable that something that merely glasses half a continent would not destroy a void shielded city or other major fortification. If anything, this provides a degree of insight into why land battles in 40k are so massive in the first place. Because orbital artillery doesn't have many targets of opportunity it is actually capable of exploiting without tearing the planet to pieces.
**'''Invincible:''' An interesting class, dubbed a 'fast battleship', these were designed to chase down xenos and chaos raiders, and then use them to make the vast, empty tracts of space more interesting by filling it with their enemies' debris fields. This type of battleship combines the firepower of a ''Retribution'' with the speed of a ''Dauntless''. The problem with this is the general incompetence of Imperial tacticians. It looks exactly like a ''Retribution'' and has the guns to match, so it must be one, right? NO. They excelled at the role they were designed for, but throw them into gunfights against dedicated battleships, and these things tended to come apart easier than wet cardboard, earning them the nickname 'Kisher's Kombustibles' and the scorn of many admirals. Admirals who ignored the fact that the reports detailing the introduction of the ship and how to best use it (it's tactics also included in the Tactica Imperialis) explicitly state not to use it on a gun-line and that it is for fast-ship interdiction. The ship's Commissars must be particularly incompetent to let this slide as in the Guard the generals would be executed quickly for such incompetence. Of course, these are also the Commissars who do nothing when troop transports' escorts frequently run off to fight while the transports lose a significant percentage of their ships. Perhaps if they would actually enforce their orders to stay with the transports, the Imperium would have won most of the campaigns it has lost. Given that they still often win even with a fraction of their beginning ground forces actually managing to make landfall. [[Grimdark|Because they have THAT many men to throw at the enemy.]]
***Much like the Chalice-class of Battlecruisers, the Invincibles are a big reference to the real life Battlecruisers of World War 1, especially with the term "Kisher's Kombustibles" (real life Battlecruisers were referred to as "Fisher's Combustibles") and the fact that three blew up in a single battle (referencing Jutland).
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Apocalypse:''' One of the oldest ship designs (predating the ''Retribution'', which is also one of the oldest ship designs), this ship packs a lot of [[lances]] and a [[Nova Cannon]]. Good for taking out lots of smaller sized ships with massed lance fire. It's also described in fluff as being able to cripple anything up to a cruiser with a single, concentrated broadside. They're fairly rare, since the Imperium doesn't know how to build them anymore, and the ones still operating are so old, their weapons systems have degraded permanently, forcing them to fire their lances at only a fraction of their full power. Shares all the disadvantages of a ''Gothic''-class cruiser.
***Despite the fluff stating that the Apocalypse and Oberon classes are unique in that they lack figure-heads, the artwork and [[Crunch|models]] [[Derp|give them one anyway.]]
**'''Victory:''' Possibly an attempt to recreate the ''Apocalypse'' class, the ''Victory'' is basically a ''Retribution'' with a bunch of lances replacing its broadside cannons, and a Nova Cannon instead of torpedoes. Has the range that fluff states the ''Apocalypses'' once had, but lacks the same level of firepower. Effective at sniping, and hilarious when used against escort heavy fleets.
**'''Desolator:''' A ridiculously old design. Designed to emphasize range and carries Torpedos, Broadside Lances and Dorsal Macrobatteries. Like most keel-built ships, the Desolators ended up mothballed or went traitor.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Emperor:''' The "standard" battleship of the 40k 'verse, the ship has multiple fighter decks and weapons batteries. Unfortunately, most commanders like to use this ship as a hideout, causing the lack of sufficient air support in the ground wars even though the Navy's atmospheric aircraft are completely different from its much bigger space based strike craft. Tabletop-wise, its status as the official battleship of Battlefleet Gothic doesn't stop it from losing carrier duels against the Chaos equivalent.
***Ironically, the idea of the Emperor being the standard battleship conflicts with the fluff about the Navy hating Carriers. Go figure. Except it doesnt. Because the Imperial Navy isnt fond of carrier ships, but that doesnt mean they dont use them; So if you were an imperial admiral, would you choose to get multiple smaller carriers, at the cost of having less ship-of-the-line on your fleet? Or would you instead get a 8+ kilometer battleship with four city-sized hangar bays, having higher detection, and being capable of helping your fleet & any warzone in multiple ways (Not just void warfare, but also ground support in planet invasions, or logistical support) without the need of going too close to the enemy? Its no wonder the Emperor Class is so popular & useful in the Imperial Navy, looking at this way, in reality, the Emperor class goes well precisely on the conventional Imperial doctrine because of this reason. Despite the (idiotic) distaste Admirals have for strike craft, they will use still use them out of simple utility and they figure they might as well get something that can do more at the same time.
**'''Nemesis:''' The super-carrier of the Imperial Navy. It has SIX flight decks (the size of towns or small cities, each), more than any other ship in the galaxy. But because of Rule of Cool, it is incredibly rare since the Navy captains prefer to get up close broadside their enemies, or actually rather because all of the ships in this class were just ships modified from Emperor class ships in one particular war, because they were damaged or otherwise. Naturally, the Navy never considers making them based on the Invincible instead (the Invincible was mass-produced).
**'''Desecrator:''' The carrier variant of the Desolator. Replaces half the Broadside Lances with Landing Bays. Shared the same fate as its sister class and is now only seen in Chaos fleets. Traitorous despite its clearly pious and Emperor-loving name.
**'''Despoiler:''' Oh boy, where do we start? The Despoiler-class came about after the cogboys discovered plans for a carrier on Barbarus. The catch? Well, Barbarus is the former homeworld of the [[Death Guard]], and the plans were for the same class of ship that the [[Terminus Est]] is a part of. Showing a complete lack of common sense, the Imperial Navy decided to build ships of this class, only for them all to go traitor due to the class's inherent [[Gellar Field]] flaws. [[Fail|Oops]]. The Despoilers at first don't appear to be that unique, as they have Dorsal Lances and Broadside Landing Bays and Weapons Batteries. Their difference is that, like the Terminus Est, they managed to have a Prow Landing Bay as well.
***Despite being a new class, GW fucked up their fluff and had [[Rogal Dorn]] disappear aboard a Despoiler, [[What|5000 years before the class was created]]. Note this class was actually already named "Despoiler-class" by the Imperium. Yet, they were ''surprised'' the things went traitor. Wow. Also, after fixing the Gellar Field problem, the Imperium still decided not to build more, which was stupid since there was no longer a reason not to. I get not wanting to chance it, but beggars can't be choosers.
*'''Other:'''
**'''[[Gloriana-class_Battleship|Gloriana]]:''' Massive, terrifying and capable of decimating entire fleets on their own, these were the personal flagships of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Very few, if any, are still around in the Imperium in M41, though a few such as Horus's flagship ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' are still tooling around inside the Eye of Terror. Because they were dickheads, the [[Alpha Legion]] had two, creatively named the ''Alpha'' and the ''Beta''. Interestingly, the Ultramarines have one, the ''[[Macragge's Honour]]'', but didn't [[derp|fucking]] use it, the whole fucking time until [[Roboute Guilliman]] returned. It shows up again in ''Dark Imperium,'' with the Smurfs having stolen it back from the Red Corsairs, which at least is fucking funny even if it makes no sense. The Imperial Fist had the ''Eternal Crusader'', but it was never their flagship since the [[Phalanx]] is so much better, so [[Rogal Dorn]] gave it to the [[Black Templars]] in the [[Second Founding]]. The Emperor is known to have had at least one, called the ''Bucephalus'' (also the name of the horse of Alexander the Great... coincidence?), which he ditched after upgrading to an enormous golden space palace called ''Imperator Somnium'' for the sole purpose of flying him back to Terra to retire. Wait, did Emps just see the Phalanx and decide to build his own bigger better version?! [[Eldrad|DICK]].
**'''Oberon:''' The mixed-breed bastard of the Imperial Navy. It has [[lances]], fighter bays, and weapon batteries. Its a powerful ship... <s>when fighting foes half its size</s> "Newer" fluff says the Oberon is rare, but a complete success in making a ship capable of killing anything it comes across, alone. Unfortunately, fluff also says a ridiculously low number of these (apparently) powerful ships were made (like, 3 or so). Then again: only four Iowa class battleships ships were built (technically 6, but 2 were scrapped before completion), and we know HOW to build them. It makes sense in a way. Attack craft can cripple an enemy's main weapons and engines and likely ultimately damage the power transfer from generators to void shields. Combined with macro-batteries hammering away and the enemy's weakened ability to maintain its shields would cause them to drop much quicker than usual. Then the city-sized lance-batteries rip the enemy in half. If used against enemy escorts to support attacks on large enemy ships like battleships and grandcruisers, this would work extremely well to the point an Oberon would likely become a priority target for enemy ships.

===[[Imperial Navy Grand Cruiser|Grand Cruiser]]===
Only slightly weaker and less powerful than Battleships, Grand Cruisers were the weird middle-child of actual Line Ships (that really were the mainstay of the fleet back then) and Cruisers in the ancient Imperium. Built primarily with autonomy in mind, those were reserved for the most daring expeditions in the uncharted regions, conducted both by Imperial Army and Rogue Traders. Nowadays most of them run on archeotech that is barely understood and hard to repair with current Imperial knowledge. These grand ships are often used as flagships in lieu of extremely rare Battleships. Basically, they are the quintessential Battlecruisers; tougher and deadlier than Cruisers and yet more mobile than Battleships.
*'''Basic'''
**'''Vengeance/Furious:''' The granddaddy of "modern" Imperial warships. The ''Vengeance'' was the winner of a GW-sponsored ship design contest, and was originally known as the ''Furious''. Highlights include heavy shielding and armour (though lacking the prow armour of later designs), as well as both lances and long range weapons batteries, making this the sniper of the Imperium's Grand Cruisers.
**'''Repulsive:''' Originally named the Corinus Class, before being renamed after many fell to Chaos by an overly literal Mechanicum designation. Whilst the Repulsive Grand Cruisers are exceedingly maneuverable heavy warships (and therefore exceedingly useful because they can fill a hole in the Imperial tactical lineup), they are considered a cursed class due to the majority of them falling to chaos, [[Fail|which unfortunately was the result of experimental warp drives which occasionally interfered with the Gellar Field (OMGWTFBBQTIME)]]. Only the Emperor knows what kind of complete moron would deploy ships equipped with that. The ones that remain in Imperial control are kept mothballed in reserve fleets and segmentum fortresses (imagine giant glass boxes with 'In Case of Emergency, Break Glass' signs). It doesn't say anything about their warp drives being swapped out for something that isn't shitty or perhaps a completed and no longer experimental version of their own. Not that you want AdMechs tear off your head for tinkering with their sacred templates, on the other hand.
*'''Ordnance-boat:'''
**'''Avenger:''' The short range brawler of the Imperium's Grand Cruisers, it's a ''Vengeance'' with only macrobatteries (kilometres of Macrobattery broadsides). Intended to break the line of battle like Nelson's ships at Trafalgar, while suffering from the lack of an armored prow. Unfortunately line-breaking is quite a dangerous role for any ship, even a Grand Cruiser that excels at doing it, and so not many exist in the 41st Millennium. Those that have survived are known for being exceedingly reliable and faithful; it takes a lot of damage or mistreatment to cause these noble vessels to give trouble. If you spoke with members of the Imperium (both members of the public and the navy), this is the vessel they would think of if you asked them about Grand Cruisers. Now, if only the Imperium realized a slower but more heavily armored and shielded ship would fare better in its role.
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Executor:''' The sniper of the Vengeances, the Executor replaces its Broadside Macrobatteries with even more Lances. Unfortunately, the last remaining Imperial Executors decided to act retarded and chase a fleet into the Eye of Terror, meaning that all of the ships are chaos aligned now.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Exorcist:''' A ''Vengeance'' that has carrier bays in place of lances. Useful in providing carrier support to any Imperial fleet. As a bonus, being Grand Cuisers mean they can outrun anything except battleships to save their vulnerable carrier self while their attack craft are away. Originally designed for extended operations alone on the Frontiers of Imperial Space, either on Patrol or by exploring into the unknown, the Exorcist developed quite a reputation for 'boldly going where no man has gone before'. Whilst not many remain in Imperial Service due to maintenance difficulties, they still find use in the hands of Rogue Traders who need vessels capable of long cruises and of defending themselves against anything they might encounter. So much for maintenance difficulties.
**'''Retaliator:''' A mix of a Repulsive and a Vengeance, but as a Carrier. Has Lances, Launch Bays and Macrobatteries on its Broadsides. Unfortunately, it has the Repulsive's tendency to go traitor.

===[[Imperial Navy Battlecruiser|Battlecruiser]]===
What do you do when you forget how to maintain an entire category of heavy warships? You build a new bunch of heavy warships, with simpler technology.

Battlecruisers are basically upgunned cruisers, with more weapons (usually adding dorsal weapons and some armor), and are intended to fill the gap between true battleships, which are rare, and normal cruisers, which tend to die really easily to the ancient Chaos cruisers and grand cruisers. Battle cruisers were tried in real life as some way to combine battleship firepower or armor with the speed of a cruiser. They did not, frankly, work well and much like reality these things have their share of problems. Chaos operates their own versions known as Heavy Cruisers. In real life, the accepted successful form of a battlecruiser is between a heavy cruiser and a battleship; it can kill anything it can catch and it can outrun anything that can kill it (usually only an enemy battleship). After its teething years it was generally a good and effective form of combat when used intelligently.
*'''Basic:'''
**'''Armageddon Battlecruiser:''' An upgraded variant of the Lunar Class Cruiser (YAY! ANOTHER ONE!). A rather new innovation, the Armageddon class is basically made up from recovered Lunar Class Hulks that have been extensively repaired and then retrofitted with more armour and more weapons. The base hull was never designed to cope with all this extra equipment (and the extra crew to man said equipment) and so it has problems operating independently for long periods of time. This isn’t really a problem, though, since they wouldn’t be operating away from a fleet anyway. Though reinforcing its frame to handle the added mass would be a smart thing to do to save immensely in future maintenace costs over the centuries. Battlefleets won't say no to them because more guns = better! These ships are extremely powerful and live up to their name. Somehow, though, the Imperium never went “Hey guys, this thing kicks the shit out of everyone, let’s upgrade all Lunar-class ships to Armageddon-class and make a new class to accomodate the new crew and equipment.” Or someone did and was turned into a servitor...
**'''Hellfire Heavy Cruiser:''' An upgunned Murder-class. Has the same issues as the Armageddon, slow as fuck and has power and supply issues. [[What|Also, lacks Void Shields]]. Most mutinied and joined Chaos, which decided to use them for some reason.
*'''Ordnance-boat:'''
**'''Overlord Battlecruiser:''' The Classic Imperial Battlecruiser. Using the standard Imperial doctrine of - Macrobatteries, Lances and Torpedoes, the Overlord has become the most effective Battlecruiser simply because it really complements standard Imperial Navy Tactics. As an added bonus, its simplicity of design makes it easier to produce and one can be built within a decade. The only negative (if you can call it a negative), is that it's not really useful for anything except war.
**'''Chalice Battlecruiser:''' A fast heavy cruiser. Unique to the Calixis sector and an exceedingly new design, the Chalice was conceived as a Battlecruiser that could either out-run or out-manoeuvre anything it can't kill. Which means it was conceived to be a plain ‘ol normal battlecruiser. Whilst good in theory, unfortunately, speed came at the cost of armour and durability and so whilst these vessels punch hard, they can't take as many hits as other cruisers. In addition, it carries an experimental plasma drive layout, which while boosting power efficiency, also makes it rather vulnerable to lighting up like a roman candle. Imperial Propaganda is currently trying to cover up their failings and is lauding them as the Poster-ships of the Calixis Sector and therefore a lot of people think they're the 'Best Battlecruisers Eva!'. If they would just use a normal plasma drive and make the whole ship bigger, it would be fast enough, armored enough, and even better armed. Unfortunately, not being stupid is heresy in Calixis.
***The idea of a ship that can "either out-run or out-manoeuvre anything it can't kill" that turns out to be really poor at taking hits was the original design of real life Battlecruisers, which although being up-gunned Cruisers (which are the equivalent of Frigates IRL, not Ships of the Line), were used as discount Battleships at Jutland were they turned out to lack the armour required for a proper fight. Thus, if the Imperials were smart, they would be using the Chalice as a commerce raider, not a ship of the line.
**** Actually, they were not bad at taking hits, they were better at it than heavy cruisers. They just sucked at taking hits from battleships like everybody else on the planet. Real life battlecruisers (after their early screw up designs) were made only a little smaller than battleships which allowed them to have greater armor and firepower and speed than heavy cruisers and were even fast enough to outrun battleships at the cost of significantly lower firepower and armor than the only slightly larger battleships (which caused things like the Jutland kablooie). They had the whole package. In reality, the larger the ship the faster it is in navies (broadly speaking, in dense fluids the longer the vehicle is relative to its cross-section, the easier it is to go fast), sci-fi just is made by ignorrants. Battlecruisers fell out of favor shortly after they were perfected for the same reason battleships and heavy cruisers did: the carrier. That said, they were indeed usually used as commerce raiders. But that is true for all ships. Navies exist to destroy enemy commerce shipping and to transport armies. The only reason fleets engage each other is because both sides defend their own shipping and seek out enemy fleets to pre-emptively destroy to protect said shipping and transports. In 40k, it could be said that the Invincible-class is the closest thing the Imperium has to an equivalent to a real life battlecruiser.
**'''Long Serpent Battlecruiser:''' A true success story, this is what the ''Chalice'' wishes it was. Taking a battlecruiser's armour and firepower, and giving it the engine suite of a battleship, this thing can kick the shit out of anything short of a grand cruiser or battleship, while being able to keep up with raiders. It's only real flaw is that when one is taken out, it has a better than average chance of rupturing its warp drive. As a result, the names of ''Long Serpents'' that have been destroyed are usually accompanied by those of allied ships that were too close. Which is somewhat odd since the reasoning is that the Long Serpent also has a battleship's warp core (who knows why, it isn't big enough to need it). Given the small difference in size between this ship and other "normal" cruisers which are the mainstays of the fleet, the Imperium could just choose to use a smaller warp core suitable for this ship's size and focus on mass-producing the Long Serpent to replace basically every other class of ship except battleships , Cobras, and carriers. Fewer would be made but, unlike video games, swarming a capital ship with escorts does not work at all. The escorts are slaughtered and the capital ship like this one is left unharmed. But doing this would require common sense, which is [[Heresy]]. Like properly using the Invincible-class must be.
**'''Mercury Battlecruiser:''' Another fast Battlecruiser. It's a cruiser with a Battleships's engines. Nothing more.
**'''Hades Heavy Cruiser:''' A long-ranged brawler. Carries Broadside Macrobatteries and Dorsal and Prow Lances. Got phased out like most keel-built designs, but Chaos still uses them.
*'''Lance-boats:'''
**'''Acheron Heavy Cruiser:''' Designed to test new Lances and Macrobatteries. The Imperials only built one, which went traitor. Carries Broadside and Dorsal Lances with Prow Macrobatteries.
*'''Carriers:'''
**'''Mars Battlecruiser:''' In a word - Mediocre. Some Imperials say it's versatile due to its diverse weapons loadout but in reality it makes it an awkward duckling to use. The Nova Cannon and Launch bays would be good on a ship holding back and harassing enemies at range and yet it has Macrobatteries and Lances which are great for brawling. So if you sit back and harass or go in and brawl, you're wasting half your ship. The Imperial Navy never really got on with it either and so it has gone out of production on most Forge-Worlds. Which is a shame because if they would replace the macrobatteries and lances with larger, long-range lances, and a great number of small, short range weapons batteries for fighter support and self-defense respectively, this would be a great ship in any fleet. It's nova cannon clears a hole in the enemy escort screen, the attack craft rush through to wreck the weapons and engines of light capital ships while long-range lances assist other Imperial ships in slaughtering targets of opportunity. The destroyed enemy light capital ships leaves all the other big ships vulnerable to mass, concentrated torpedo attack from friendly ships. Attack craft return to the fight to tear up the no-doubt seriously damaged enemy big ships and lances win the day. Then just send in friendly light capital ships with attack craft support to finish off the surviving escorts. That would almost make this ship into a sort of miniature "I Win" button. Almost. Especially in a squadron of two, as they could assist each other against any opponents that slip through to them with their combined, close-range firepower, lances, and whatever attack craft they kept back for defense ripping the enemy weapons and engines apart to let the close-range macrobatteries have fun.
**'''Dominion Battlecruiser:''' Basically a fixed Mars, some tech priest got it in their head that, maybe, it'd make more sense to replace the Macrobatteries with Lance Batteries instead, making it a dedicated support ship, harrassing enemy ships at range whilst the big guns go out and fight. Apparently not that successful, a number were used at the Battle for Maccrage (Of course the fucking Smurfs get them) against the tyranids, though apparently they all got fucked up and have been in drydock since, which is why up until now no-one's seen them.
**'''Styx Heavy Cruiser:''' A pure carrier. Has Broadside Launch Bays, Dorsal Lances and and Prow Macrobatteries. For some reason the Imperial phased it out for the Mars, so only Chaos uses them now.
**'''Hecate Heavy Cruiser:''' An attempt to replace the Styx. Swaps out some of the Launch Bays for Macrobatteries. Believed to have an inherent design flaw that made them go traitor, so they were decommissioned.

===[[Imperial Navy Cruiser|Cruiser]]===
Cruisers are the bread and butter of the Imperial Navy. Much larger than escorts and light cruisers, but less rare than battleships, cruisers are what the Imperial Navy (and Chaos and Xenos) use to fight their campaigns across the stars. Thus far, all Imperial Cruisers have been shown to utilize the same hull-type: a squat armored prow in front, capable of mounting a prow-mounted weapon system, and a big bunch of engines in the back, with baroque and Gothic architecture in-between. Most cruisers can effectively be placed in four categories:
*'''Basic:'''
**'''Lunar:''' The Lunar. You've heard so much about it and now you want to know what it makes it the standard Imperial Cruiser. First of all, it's one of the oldest designs still in use by the Imperium and is so easy to build that even less advanced worlds can produce them. They're quite versatile due to their weapons loadout (a balanced build of Macrobatteries, Lances and Torpedoes) and make up the backbone of Battlefleets throughout the entire Imperium. This is the cruiser against which all other cruisers are measured.
**'''Emasculator:''' Considered a failure by the Imperium at large, Emasculators have the same basic load-out as the Lunar, but are keel-built, lacking the armored prow and replacing the torpedo tubes with more weapons batteries. This means they require different tactics to a Lunar, using their speed and longer ranged weapons to pound ships from a distance. As this fits with Chaos tactics more than Imperials. most of them ended up as traitors. [[/d/|The name Emasculator is due to them being seen mostly as Slaaneshi ships, their original name is unknown.]] The fact the Imperium keeps trying new ships built on the normally Chaos style hulls implies that usually it must work out just fine since otherwise it would have been banned by now. So, there are probably many cool looking keel-based Imperial ship classes floating around we'll never catch wind of ever.
**'''Slaughter:''' A special type of Cruiser, the Slaughter-class has a more powerful drive called the Scartix Engine Coil, but lacks prow weapons. Armed with short ranged, but powerful lances and macrobatteries, the Slaughter is designed to get in close, blast away and retreat. Unfortunately, the Imperium can't build them anymore because one went traitor and destroyed the plans for the Scartix Coil. It is unknown if they were always called the Slaughter-class or were renamed when most went traitor. Considering the usual lack of intelligence in the Imperium's leadership, it was probably called something worse, like the "Traitor-class" or something and then the Imperium wss shocked when they lived up to it. Really, would you be surprised if the Imperium did that?
**'''Inferno:''' A earlier counterpart to the Carnage-class, carrying more lances in exchange for some Macrobatteries. Had the same difficulties as the Carnage and was mothballed, though a few went renegade beforehand. Rare example of the Imperium learning its lesson. Still too stupid to realize that using cheaper-after-a-few-centuries-than-manual-labor auto-loaders would've fixed the problem for both ships.
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Gothic:''' Another variant of the Lunar Class, the Gothic is designed as a heavy Lance gunship. Due to the amount of Lance Weaponry it carries, it can easily deal with ships of its own size or larger but often does require an escort or a partner to strip enemy void shields first in order to use its own weaponry to the maximum effect. When supported and used correctly, Gothic Cruisers are the most efficient way to deal with enemy capital ships.
*'''Ordnance-boat:'''
**'''Dominator:''' A variant of the Lunar Class, the Dominator is designed primarily for planetary bombardment and assault. Not generally used in fleet actions even though it can provide support with its Nova Cannon when necessary. After one Dominator fucked over a Chaos Cruiser with said Nova Cannon during the Gothic War, the Navy took note and started making more Dominators. [[Awesome|Additionally, another Dominator came close to destroying the Terminus Est (''aka the toughest Battleship in the galaxy''), before being destroyed.]] The Dominator possesses the same armament as the Retribution-class battleship but lacks the range of one. This is fine, though, since it's meant to get close to the enemy like most Imperial ships anyway. Basically, if you get in range of this thing, ''you're going to die''.
*** From Lexicanum 40K: "Captain Straden of the Depth of Fury defended the shrine world of Kathur to the death, and came very close to destroying the Death Guard ship Terminus Est. As it was, he and his crew vaporised several of its decks and destroyed scores of escort ships before finally succumbing. Ironically, no Imperial souls survived to tell the tale."
**'''Tyrant:''' The Tyrant was originally intended as a stand-off vessel; it would stay at long range and bombard enemies from afar with superfired plasma weaponry. Unfortunately, due to design compromises where it mixed both short range and long range weaponry to save on power, it wasn't really deadly enough at long range to do its job. Therefore the Imperial Navy is trying to replace the short range weapons with ancient Long-range weaponry (that doesn't use a lot of power) recovered from Space Hulks or Renegade Ships. The Hull itself is a rather effective design and so the Tyrant has become very popular with Rogue Traders who generally replace all of the Plasma Weaponry in order to have more power available compared with other cruisers.
**'''Relentless/Carnage:''' Another attempt at a fleet support ship with Plasma weapons, the Relentless ended up with technical difficulties and, when these were overcome, [[Heresy|most ships ended up turning traitor]] [[Fail|(including the lead ship of the class)]]. [[Tzeentch|This is theorised to be due to something wrong with the geometry of the ship's design]], as the Relentless-class is keel built, like most older ships (This also means the Relentless lacks an armored prow and torpedo tubes, carrying more plasma batteries instead). The tendency of these ships to turn to Chaos, along with changing tactics, led to the class being renamed the Carnage-class and mothballed in favor of the Tyrant-class, though their speed means they suit Chaos tactics famously.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Dictator:''' A Carrier retrofit of extremely damaged Lunar Class Cruisers. If a Lunar class has its lance weaponry destroyed, it's quicker, easier and cheaper to replace those with heavy launch bays for strike craft. This makes it quite versatile and able to deal with virtually all situations and interestingly enough, makes it more effective than the original Lunar Class at everything except fighting as a ship of the line. Unfortunately, the Lunar Class is designed for fighting as a ship of the line, so Admirals dislike Dictators.
**'''Jupiter:''' A kitbashed design, converted from other classes of cruiser that have been heavily damaged in battle. By stripping out all the damaged components and replacing them with launch bays, you get a pretty sturdy carrier. Just don't let the enemy get anywhere near it. Apparently the Imperium doesn't build these normally at all, likely because they are absolutely shit at defending themselves from other Cruisers.
**'''Devastation:''' Deviating from the standard Carrier design, the Devastation-class carries Lances instead of Macrobatteries. Mostly turned traitor or mothballed, as they lack armored prows and torpedos; and are keel-built. Chaos likes them, as they can pack them with mutants and sit back to spam assault boats and lances at anything that looks at them funny.
*'''Other:''' Various other cruiser types exist, but are rarer.
**'''Ambition:''' Custom-made Cruisers for the exceedingly affluent - it's the Rolls Royce of the Cruiser World. Most Rogue Trader ships are second-hand, battle-scarred, tired and worn ex-navy vessels but the Ambition is not. It's the only cruiser class that can be bought brand spanking new by Private parties in the Imperium and each one is unique and built to the customer's specifications. These exclusive ships, whilst still cruisers and deadly in their own right, are stately homes and status symbols. Some durability sacrifices have been made in order to make them the most opulent and luxurious ships on the market but for eccentric people like Rogue Traders, it's generally worth it.
**'''Conquest-Class Star Galleon:''' Built for the very first Rogue Traders on the orders of the Emperor himself, the Star Galleon is an ancient and noble design. Whilst not considered heavily armed by modern standards, they're still formidable opponents and yet as specialist exploration vessels they are able to operate independently for many years and can transport greater quantities than other Cruisers. In effect, it's a cruiser fused with a transport and looks fucking amazing.
**'''Murder:''' The predecessor to the Lunar. Differs by being keel-built, exchanging their torpedos for Lances and having more powerful macrobatteries. The majority that appear in modern 40k are Chaos-aligned, as the Imperials mothballed theirs in favor of the Lunar. A few carried lances as well as Macrobatteries, meaning they don't fit into any category. As with the Slaughter, it is unknown if Murder-class is their original name or they were renamed.

===[[Imperial Navy Light Cruiser|Light Cruiser]]===
Smaller than true cruisers, light cruisers are used in two ways. Either you use a fast, maneuverable light cruiser like the Dauntless to add some extra firepower to a scouting squadron or long-range patrol, or you use a pocket cruiser like the Voss light cruisers to add some heavy firepower and armor to a convoy, fleet, or base. The advantage of the light cruisers are that they're cheaper to build and operate than real cruisers. Another departure from real nomenclature. In real life, “light” cruisers were less armed and armored normal cruisers made to make up for losses, especially in America after Japan’s initial attack. After the industry fully turned to wartime manufacturing, the light cruisers’ changes were recinded and they were just normal cruisers again. However, with the introduction of heavy cruisers, the normal cruisers again were named “light” cruisers to avoid confusion. In 40k, however, light cruisers are very distinct and fill a unique niche. Like the Cruiser, they fit into a few base categories.
*'''Basic:''' Same as its larger sibling, a Jack of All Trades.
**'''Dauntless;''' The standard Light Cruiser of the Imperium; it's a Jack-of-all-Trades. You can't go wrong with the Dauntless even though other Light Cruisers may be better for certain tasks. Considered 'scouting' cruisers, these make up the bulk of Imperial Patrol Squadron leaders.
**'''Defender:''' A convoy escort variant of the Dauntless, with added dorsal weaponry.
**'''Endeavour;''' A 'heavy', Light Cruiser, designed as a stop-gap between the 'lighter' light cruisers and true cruisers. Whilst they can slug it out in a fleet fight, they can easily be overwhelmed because they simply aren't cruisers and don't have the equivalent fire-power or hull integrity. As an added titbit, most of Battlefleet Koronus' patrols consist of an Endeavour and a pair of frigates.
**'''Lathe-class Monitor-Cruiser;''' An Adeptus Mechanicus Light Cruiser designed around deep space exploration and extreme self-reliance. These ships, when properly outfitted, can operate for decades without returning to imperial space for resupply. These would make up the bulk of Explorator fleets.
**'''Secutor-class Monitor-Cruiser;''' An Adeptus Mechanicus Light Cruiser designed to excel at the art of war. Tougher than all of the other Light Cruisers and yet still more mobile than true Cruisers. Due to being designed from the ground up to be a Warship, this Light Cruiser is fitted with Cruiser sized Void Shield Generators.
**'''Siluria;''' Three-quarters the cost of the Endeavor, and about three-quarters the ship. Standard weapon batteries only, no fancy frills to speak of. Cheap and effective, at short range, to catch enemy torpedoes.
*'''Lance-boat:''' Also the same as the Cruiser version, though some have weak weapons batteries for better defence.
**'''Endurance;''' Light Cruiser with just enough guns to claim it has them, lance batteries and a couple of torpedoes. It's the lance half of a Lunar, nothing more.
*'''Carrier:''' More useful as a Light Cruiser, as it can act as backup for patrols.
**'''Enforcer:''' A carrier variant of the Dauntless. Designed to maintain control of rebellious planets via intimidation [[Grimdark|(and possible orbital bombardment)]]. Given one managed to stop the rebellion of an ''entire sub-sector'', its a shame the Imperium doesn't build more of them.
**'''Defiant;''' A carrier variant of the Endeavour. It's quite versatile (by virtue of being a carrier) and so has found a home in many Rogue Trader houses but unfortunately the Imperial Navy doesn't consider it as useful because they can't stand by themselves and require an escort. Due to being based off of the Endeavour, it's relatively well armoured for a Light Cruiser and that does help with its survivability.

===Ironclad===
8 kilometer long battering rams. No, really. Tyranids and Orks are busy taking notes.

===[[Imperial Navy Escort|Escort ships]]===
Escorts are the smallest armed vessels available to the Imperial Navy. These ships are normally assigned sector patrol duties or perform as escorts for much larger ships. In fleet engagements they will also act as scouts, ranging out in front of their armada to verify enemy ship numbers and locations. They are generally clasiffied as either frigates, or as destroyer ships.

====Frigates====
Ranging from about 1.4-2km long. They are used for all sorts of duties from convoy escorts to attack or patrol squadrons. Ironically named, as in real life Frigates were the same as Cruisers (which were not Ships of the Line).
*'''Basic:''' Laser batteries only, maybe some Torpedoes if you're lucky. Named after types of swords.
**'''Sword Frigate:''' The most common warship in the Imperial Navy, and one of the simplest. No torpedoes or lances to distract you here; a Sword puts two massive laser batteries behind a pointed armored prow and cuts into enemy formations like [[C.S Goto|a multi-laser through canon.]]
**'''Falchion Frigate:''' A new (245 years old) class of escort ship built by [[Forgeworld|Voss Prime]]. Slow as balls but still capable of firing torpedoes. While Cobras are used offensively in fleet actions, Falchion's are designed to be convoy escorts and stick close to larger warships to defend them from enemy escorts. Effectively a Voss-pattern Sword with torpedo tubes and one laser battery.
**'''Claymore Corvette:''' Designed entirely around escorting vulnerable transports and protecting them against light raiders in order to allow true Frigates to accompany more valuable ships such as Battleships, Battlecruisers and Cruisers. The Claymore Corvettes are easy to mass produce and maintain and are exceedingly common in the private sector, as they are simply a discount Sword.
**'''Turbulent Heavy Frigate:''' Heavy Naval Escorts; these things have comparable armour to cruisers. They're built to sally forth ahead of the main fleet and win skirmishes against enemy scouting forces and vanguard elements. They've garnered a reputation for being lucky; they've contributed to many glorious victories and survived catastrophes that other ship classes have not. Their only downside is that they have rather antiquated communication equipment, probably equipped for durability, not ease of use.
*'''Lance-boat:''' Rarer for Frigates, as they need a Prow slot to mount a Lance.
**'''Firestorm Frigate:''' A Sword-class frigate with a prow-mounted Lance replacing one laser battery. Gives the Sword some extra anti-ship punch that it dearly needs. It's also two hundred meters longer than the Sword-class as a result. The Navy does not like the Marines having them, for some reason.
**'''Thunderbolt Heavy Frigate:''' Not much information on this one, but implied to be a Lance version of the Turbulent, like how the Firestorm is the Lance version of the Sword.
**<s>[[Derp|Given the general naming scheme for Frigate classes is naming them after weapons (Claymore, Sword, Falchion, Gladius etc), the Firestorm would make more sense being called the ''Lance''-class due to its role.]]</s> It's pretty clear refits do not follow the same naming conventions.
*'''Ordnance-boat:''' Mostly upgunned Frigates. Can carry a mix of macrobatteries and small lances.
**'''Tempest Strike Frigate:''' Specialized Brawling frigate designed for devastating enemies at close range. Basically a Sword with a triple armoured prow and heavy short-range broadside batteries. They're often equipped with Assault Boats and Barracks for boarding actions.
**'''Havoc Merchant Raider:''' Small, yet fast raider sized vessels whose impressive firepower came at the expense of armor. Glass Cannons, in large squadrons these can easily overwhelm larger vessels by weight of fire.

====Destroyers====
The most common warship class. Their tasks range from scouting to shuttling VIPs or fighting in fleet engagements in large squadrons. Most pirates use these speedy, nimble vessels to prey upon transport ships.
*'''Basic:''' Usually mounts Prow Torpedoes and a Macrobattery.
**'''Cobra Destroyer:''' The PT-Boats of the Imperial Navy. Small, fast, and lightly armed, their one purpose in life is to fire shoals of torpedoes from 3-8 ship squadrons. A great part of the Imperium's military advantage (in fluff and [[Battlefleet Gothic|on the tabletop]]) comes from all the torpedoes they can fire at the enemy, and the Cobras are a big part of that.
**'''Infidel Raider:''' Was meant to replace the Cobra, but the plans [[Blood Ravens|were stolen]] by Chaos. Armed with Prow Torpedos and a Macrobattery like its predecessor, though some Chaos fleets upgrade them to Heavy Raiders by adding another Macrobattery.
**'''Iconoclast Destroyer:''' If there ever was an Guardsman of starships, the Iconoclast is it. A destroyer so shitty the Navy doesn't want it, the Iconoclast mounts 1-2 macrobatteries and is used by Rogue Traders, Chaos and Pirates. Notable for being one of the few ships to have a forward placed bridge, likely due to the smoke-stack like pylons along its spine.
*'''Torpedo-boat:''' Why waste space on pop guns?
**'''Viper Destroyer:''' Given GW's naming conventions, it was inevitable somebody would do this. Not to be confused with the Sloop below, this is a variant of the Cobra where the guns are replaced by torpedoes. Weak against escorts but deadly in numbers against capital ships. Use [[Boarding Torpedo|Boarding Torpedoes]] for hilarious results.
*'''Lance-boat:''' Rather rare among Raiders, as most use their Prow slots for Torpedoes.
**'''Apostate Heavy Raider:''' A variant of the Infidel. Somehow those heretics managed to shove a full sized Lance into a Dorsal slot, which only Light Cruiser and bigger can normally manage.
**'''Idolator Raider:''' Also known as the "WTF is this" ship, the Idolator is the lovechild of a Infidel, a Firestorm and Xenotech. Has a prow lance and a macrobattery.
*'''Other:''' Mostly weak scouts.
**'''Viper Scout Sloop:''' Smallest warp-capable ship in mass production. It is an exceedingly fast scout ship with ridiculously powerful realspace engines and high-tech auspex scanners. In support of Naval Operations these vessels would burn into enemy territory at high speed, collect as much information as possible and then warp back to friendly territory. Unfortunately they are so specialized that they can't do much else apart from that.
**'''Rudense "Class":''' A small ship designed post Gathering Storm to be as fast, heavily armed, and densely armoured as possible, which they do with aplomb. You may ask yourselves, why are they not used in more regular combat roles? Well, the answer is that they are a specialised orbital insertion ship - designed to get as close to the atmosphere of a heavily defended planet as possible, drop it's cargo of primaris marines into the top layer, and get out of there. Whilst this may seem too specialised to be practical, few enemies are ready for half a company of marines dropping in to their base unexpectedly. (Nb - the class hasn't been formally named yet but the only example of it thus far was named the Rudense).

===Aircraft===
As part of the reforms falling the Horus Heresy the Imperial army was not just split into regiments to insure that no one imperial army could be self sufficient if it fell to heresy or rebellion, the army was also split from it's air power which was given to the Imperial navy. Strictly speaking all atmospheric aircraft are also part of the Imperial Navy, with only [[Phantine Air Corps| few general exceptions]].
*'''[[Fighter]]:''' The fighter's main role is to stop enemy torpedoes and bombers before they can [[anal circumference|rip your flying cathedral multiple new assholes]]. Comes in different models like the [[Fury Interceptor]] or the Thunderbolt Fighter. The main difference is that some can enter a planet's atmosphere to dogfight and/or strafe ground targets where others are limited to space combat.
*'''Bomber:''' Basically reusable torpedoes. Come in different models like the [[Marauder Bomber]] and the [[Starhawk Bomber]], but again the main difference is that some can dip in a planet's atmosphere and drop bombs on ground-pounders where others are space-combat only.

===Armed Freighter (in the Battlefleet)===
Ships bought, borrowed or stolen and then armed in the misguided attempt to boost the strength of a fleet in desperate need of ships (instead of simply using the legio cybernetica to make robots to do the monotonous manual labor so 90% of the hundred thousand crew members can be spread out amongst a hundred more warships)

===Fire Ship===
A fancy name for a fuckheug bomb. A old, damaged or for whatever reason no longer usable ship is packed to the brim with explosives and flown straight into the heart of the enemy formation. Again, Orks are busy taking notes for their Roks. Contrary to what you might think from the Imperium, this is not a suicide assignment. A skeleton crew is used and supplied with plenty of escape pods/lifeboats. The crew evacuates and the ship detonates after they are far out of the danger zone. Some captains decide to go down with the fire ship anyway. Or they mindfuck some penitents to stay and guide it to the best point of detonation. The Imperium isn't short on criminals and/or desperate underclassmen/mutants. Despite its reputation, the Imperium does care about its people’s lives. It just doesn’t care how many of those lives are sacrificed when necessary; but does attempt to minimize said necessity and sacrifice. It’s a nation, not a team-killing asshole out to murder its own people...when not believed needed for the majority to survive.

===Non-Warp Capable Vessels===
Vessels incapable of interstellar travel. All but the most primitive Imperial planets have them.
*'''System Ships:''' Civilian ships that do all the civilian stuff like ferrying, mining and transport. As nobody would buy models of them, [[GW]] never bothered to flesh out their canon. If armed, they are dragooned into the System Defense Force during invasions.
*'''Defense Monitor:''' Essentially, a mobile gun emplacement in space. Slow and small, it diverts all its power into the battleship-sized gun it carries. Crewed by regular Imperial Navy personnel and used to augment existing defenses.
*'''System Defense Vessel:''' The primary unit of a System Defense Force aka the [[Planetary Defense Force|PDF]] in space. Nobody knows what they look like or even what capabilities they have. It is assumed they are lightly armed vessels usually used in police actions and customs enforcement. In times of invasion, they use hit and run tactics as best they can until they die.

===Logistic Vessels===
Ships used for the transportation of cargo or individuals. The majority of Imperial ships would fall into this category.

*'''Carrack-Class Transport Ship;''' A newer version of the Conquest Star Galleon. It's a hardy vessel that can defend itself quite well against raiders. The profile even looks like a Military Vessel so opponents who can't distinguish between Imperial Ships could be scared off.

*'''Goliath-Class Factory Ship;''' An Adeptus Mechanicus vessel designed to harvest plasma from Stars. These ships supply the fuel for the entirety of the Imperium. Other ships can be fitted with Plasma Scoops to top up their own tanks but this is the true fuel-harvesting-workhorse of the Imperium.

*'''Jericho-Class Pilgrim Vessel:''' Refinery ships that have been converted into personnel carriers, the majority of which will be transporting poor-er passengers. Can't really defend itself but usually not even worth the bother for pirates.

*'''Loki-Class Q Ship;''' Converted Cargo ships designed to sacrifice some space for added weaponry. They can serve as Convoy defence in a pinch and can surprise the odd pirate who may underestimate them.

*'''Orion-Class Star Clipper;''' Blockade runners through and through. They're designed to transport low-volume but high-quality goods, even through hostile space. Speed is the name of their game. Hell, these things can put some Eldar ships to shame.

*'''Universe-Class Mass Conveyor;''' Think Super-Tanker in space. It's the largest standardized Cargo hauler in the Imperium and is 12km long. It looks freaking awesome too.

*'''Vagabond-Class Merchant Trader;''' Rather small cargo vessel but extremely common. As if to assist with its 'commoner' theme, it makes you yawn just looking at it.

==Adeptus Mechanicus ships==
Being in charge of manufacturing the warships for the other departments of the Imperium, obviously the Adeptus Mechanicus would also have fleets of its own. The official Mechanicum body that constructs and operates spacecraft is known as the Basilikon Astra. Because the Quest for Knowledge can involve long & dangerous travels into unexplored space, it is important that they be heavily armed and armored, so the Adeptus Mechanicus ships generally are overall of higher quality than standard ships, with better tecnology, weapons, and shields. Though the total number of ships the Adeptus Mechanicus has at its disposal dispersed among its many forge worlds is far outnumbered by that of the Imperial Navy, it goes without saying that those responsible for all starship construction reserve for themselves among the most powerful and best-equipped warships encountered anywhere in the Imperium.

*'''[[Ark_Mechanicus|Ark Mechanicus:]]''' If battleships are literal void-traveling cities, then Ark Mechanicus are void-traveling factories or massive laboratories, with industrial capabilities rivaling that of many hive cities, with kilometre upon kilometre of manufactoria, refineries, crackling Plasma Reactors and laboratories, test ranges, chemical vats and gene-bays. This kind of battleships are incredibly large, nigh-mythical ships that are said to endlessly search the stars as part of the Adeptus Mechanicus Quest for Knowledge, being led by a Venerated Archmagos Explorator. An Ark Mechanicus is outfitted with the most powerful weapons available to the Imperium, generally having a balanced set of macro-cannons, lances, launch bays & a Nova Cannon; Because the search of STC into the unknown can be THAT dangerous.

*'''Adeptus Mechanicus Cruiser:''' Besides vanilla cruisers, the Mechanicus have its own original Cruisers & Light Cruisers, that have better equipment than Imperial Navy cruisers, many times they tend to have nova cannons and that they use servitor slaves instead of human slaves, and occasionally use auto-loaders. In resume, take Imperial Cruiser but quit the typical imperial armored prow, make it shinier, give it better weapons, and can put a nova cannon as a plus.

==Important Details==

===Crews===
''Navy crews are made up of officers, techpriests, slave drivers, and slaves.''

A bit of an over-simplification, but broadly true. Due to the Imperium's aversion to AI and Automation each ship needs at least thousands of people to man it. Whenever the crew count gets low, the Imperial Navy sets up fake strip clubs on a planet claiming "Free Hookers" to lure in unsuspecting men (and the occasional woman). Once a future crewman steps in, he's knocked out, bound, gagged, and taken to the ship, [[grimdark|where they'll slave away the rest of their soon-to-be-short existence]] doing everything needed to make flying through space and fighting in the void possible.

This includes dragging shells the size of houses into cannons while being whipped. Still, at least for the crew sex is allowed, in fact encouraged, if for no other reason than maintaining the crew complement. Seriously, whole fucking cities and civilizations arise from the more massive ships, every bit as intricate as a long lived Hive City. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax7wcShvrus Here is an idea of how it works, right up to the Roman armor, whips and beatings.] Oh and apparently besides whole civilizations, there are whole civilizations of mutants around too. They can more or less settle new worlds for da [[Emprah]] by simply disgorging their excess population, which the crew is probably all too happy to do.

One area where fluff [[Black Library|hasn't been consistent]] is in the uniform worn by Imperial Navy crewmen. Some sources suggest that uniforms are divided by segmentum of the Imperium, while others suggest that it is a sector-by-sector fashion choice. Given the scale the of the Imperium and the fact that Navy fleets are already identified by hull color, it's probably on a segmentum basis, but [[Games Workshop]] doesn't care enough to make a decision about it. For the ranks of the aforementioned shell draggers at the bottom of the naval hierarchy they'd wear a motley collection of their old civilian clothes and whatever they could scrounge up and sew together.

===Travel===
The ships of the [[Imperium]] travel through the [[Warp]] using what's called a warp drive to get to where they're going. However, this isn't your happy, fancy tunnel-of-light like in Star Wars, or everything-moves-fast Star Trek, it is an alternate dimension full of [[Chaos]]. In order to avoid being turned inside-out (think Event Horizon) and getting hentai-raped by every daemon in the warp, the ships rely on what is called the [[Gellar Field]] to keep the [[furries]], undesirables, and various other evil beings out of their ship when traveling through. The Baroque decorations are also implied in helping to ward off said daemons. They rely on a [[Navigator]] that uses the [[Empra]] as a beacon to safely navigate the Warp, hence the title "Navigator".

==Ranks in the Navy==
While the Imperial Navy uses a lot of the ranks in similar fashion to modern militaries, they invariably hold to a more archaic form and are not equivalent to modern day ranking systems. Particularly since it's quite clear that commissions in 40k can often be purchased rather than earned, and that a "Warrant" would most likely hold to the original term and be an "officer by appointment" rather than an enlisted grade. Though considering the immense variety of units within the Imperium, this may not necessarily be the case galaxy-wide, so all options are equally valid. Also, the ship commander will generally be referred to as Captain internally for the sake of simplicity, except in Astartes fleets where they are called shipmasters to avoid confusion regarding the actual rank of Captain in the Astartes.

===Officer Ranks===
*'''Lord-High Admiral of the Imperial Navy''' - This guy is a [[High Lords of Terra|High Lord]] and is the single dude responsible for the '''ENTIRE''' Imperial Navy, though likely he doesn't do much other than delegate to his subordinates and attend tedious High Lord meetings.
*'''Lord-High Admiral''' - There are five of these guys, one for each Segmentum. While they're probably never anywhere near the front lines they probably have more to do, since its their job to oversee the deployment of fleets and materials from sector to sector.
*'''Lord Admiral''' - The guy in charge of a sector fleet who gets direct command of vessels and formations. You see these guys in the fluff quite regularly when "key" worlds ''(like Armageddon)'' need defended or attacked.
*'''Solar Admiral''' - Often a ''terminal'' rank... no really. Occasionally regular Admirals who do good jobs can put themselves forward for promotion to this position, which needs to be approved by the Lord-High Admiral of their Segmentum, then the officer needs to travel to Terra be reviewed by the Lord-High Admiral of the Imperial Navy. Obviously this can take a very, ''VERY'' long time to approve. So they might often be [[Grimdark|dead before the paperwork gets rubber-stamped]]. If they do get approved they are likely to get promoted straight up to sector commander (see Lord Admiral) as a position will probably have opened up while he was waiting. More rarely, Solar Admirals can get sent on "detached duties" which is basically a license to do as they please with their independent fleets.
*'''High Admiral''' - Commands several group of naval fleets (e.g. Battlegroups), often the most senior Navy officer in a Crusade but the things these fucks usually do is just having snacks with their Imperial Guard counterparts and leaving the combat duties to their subordinate Admirals
*'''Admiral''' - Gets put in charge of a fleet and told to oversee some subsectors. He's usually the highest of the "front line" ranks and much of his time will be on active duty patrolling his assigned region.
*'''Vice Admiral''' - Fleets traditionally get split into three parts, with the highest Admiral taking up the portion containing the larger ships, while the "Vice" Admiral takes the "Vanguard" portion of faster moving ships.
*'''Rear Admiral''' - the third portion of a fleet would be the "Rearguard" and usually gets assigned to the youngest/least experienced Admiral in the fleet. His job is usually the quietest one as he gets the mop-up and repair duties.
*'''Commodore''' - an experienced Captain in command of a squadron of capital ships. It's traditionally only a temporary rank, as capital ships don't always get assigned to each other the same way that escorts do. But the realities of war often mean that ships stay together for extended periods, often well beyond the lifespans of generations of captains.
*'''Lord Captain''' - not actually a rank, but an honourific applied to Captains of detached vessels operating independently. The '''"Lord-"''' part implies that they operate with the full authority of the the Imperial Navy when they act so they can deal with outside organisations (like planetary governors, Space Marines or Imperial Guard) on relatively even footing. Sometimes also known by the more archaic term of "Flag-Captain", since as the commander of a detached vessel they figuratively carry their own flag.
*'''Captain''' The commander of a single capital ship or the lead starship in an escort squadron.
*'''Commander''' - Usually the commander of an escort vessel. Is also the ranking officer on board orbital space stations. It also gets used as the terminal rank amongst Pilots, since small attack craft all fall under the remit of the Navy; so a '''Wing Commander''' would get command over all pilots based on a single carrier.
*'''Lord Lieutenant''' - The second-in-command to captains of capital ships, bizarrely Commanders don't hold that role and hold their own positions. Thankfully because a chain of command exists in any military, despite a Wing Commander holding higher "actual" rank over a Lieutenant on a carrier vessel he would not hold any higher authority on that ship than his duties allow for.
*'''Lieutenant''' - a "working" rank. Either holds command over small system vessels or acts as second in command to Commanders of escorts, or as department heads on Capital ships. They are also Squadron leaders amongst pilots.
*'''Sub-Lieutenant / Ensign''' - Team leaders or attack craft pilots
*'''Midshipman''' - Apprentice officers who haven't passed any exams or earned any responsibility, they would exist below the Warrant Officers in terms of authority, despite holding a commission. Midshipmen are commissioned from Imperial Nobility as part of the [[Administratum|Imperial Tithe]] ''(which can mean virtually anyone gets the job if they send their useless heirs just to keep the best ones at home)'' but they are also assigned from the [[Schola Progenium]]. In addition, Midshipmen also may be taken on as a personal favour from the Captain of a vessel if he knows the family. This echoes the ancient real-world practice of young noblemen showing up while the vessel was in dock with a letter from their family and being granted a commission on the Captain's say-so.

===NCO Ranks===
*'''Ship Master''' - the most senior Warrant officer on board a starship, also quite possibly the busiest man on the starship. It's his job to maintain the logs, update stellar navigation charts, oversee ships stores and order supplies, and command a hangar deck if there is one. Basically he's the guy who knows the ship better than anyone. In real-world historical usage, this guy would have an authority equivalent to a Lieutenant on board a starship, and would "mess" ''(ie: occupy the same space)'' as the other officers do.
*'''Bosun''' - ''(Shorthand for Boatswain)'' The NCO directly responsible for all of the common crew members, including [[Commissar|maintaining discipline]]. Despite his position, his actual rank may vary depending upon the size of vessel or operational requirements, in practice it never really matters since he's unlikely to ever meet another Boatswain. ''(real-world Boatswains are typically petty officers or warrant officers, but could be of any rank. They held responsibility over all areas of the ship other than Engineering, which was left to the Chief Engineer, as if the bosun disciplined/executed/imprisoned a skilled crewman from that department the ship could be crippled because of it)''.
**Note that most Capital Ships, but not all Escort ships, may have an actual Naval [[Commissar]] on board in this role, tasked with maintaining discipline up to and [[Blam|including]] the Officer compliment.
*'''Chief Warrant Officer''' - Also called "Chief Petty Officer" on some vessels. Will often be given command of important ship sections ''(like Chief Engineers, helmsmen, or auspex control, as these are are critical to ongoing operation of a starship)''
*'''Warrant Officer''' - You'll find lots of guys of equivalent rank on a ship, in command of various operational sections keeping the ship running at all times:
**Masters of Ordnance - make certain that Torpedoes and Attack craft (if any) are fueled and maintained.
**Master Gunner - have responsibility over all of the weapons batteries through the Gun Captains and make ensure they are loaded and fired when required.
**Master-at-Arms - responsible for all "small" arms on board a starship, overseeing all Sergeants-at-Arms, as well as maintaining order over any barracked Guard regiments currently in transit.
**Master of the Vox - making sense out of the bazillions of messages that run through the bridge at any given moment both internally and externally ''(crews can get pretty massive, and a lot of traffic can come through at once)''.
**Steward - the guy who keeps everyone else well fed.
*'''Gun Captain''' - Funnily enough, the man in charge of a single gun crew. Makes sure that the weapon is taken care of, is reloaded quickly enough, and is accurate when asked to fire. All of that comes back to this guy.
*'''Sergeant-at-Arms''' - Man in charge of the weapons lockers and leader of boarding parties, as well as maintaining ship-board security. Usually they are transferred from [[Imperial Guard]] regiments so that they don't have any prior association with the crew.
*'''Armsmen''' - Crewmen trusted to carry weapons more than a standard issue Lasgun/Laspistol. They are not true soldiers as offensive boarding actions tend to be rare. So these guys still have their own regular responsibilities on board ship. Since they are trusted more, they have slightly more freedom to move around the vessel as well, though most Imperial employees really don't want the job, since it means they get scrutinised more, or they could end up beating up their buddies.
*'''Voidsmen''' - the lowest rank of crewman on board a Naval Starship above the [[Servitor]]s unless the Captain is cool with slavery. If they have a skill or a trade they may be referred to as '''Able Voidsmen''' which is an official rank that might require examinations. Additionally, if they show leadership qualities they might be promoted to '''Leading Voidsman''' and put in charge of work gangs and be considered for promotion to Warrant Officer if a position opens up.

==Notable Problems==
These are problems some have with the Imperial Navy and their fluff....

===General Logistical Problems===
The big problem that the Imperial Navy has is that it's the only organised navy in the galaxy that's trying to defend its massive amounts of space. To do this takes vast numbers of ships but rather thinly spread out. Given the problems of warp travel it's also extremely hard to reinforce friendly fleets under attack. The foes of the navy come essentially in two flavours; raiders who might just manage to scrape together a few converted transports (building even escort-sized ships is a huge undertaking, akin to building damn near the entire American Navy combined from iron ore and making it fly) which take an escort squadron to murder, and huge organized invasion fleets that take a whole fleet to fight. These combine together to mean that outside of fleet bases and important strategic worlds there is nowhere in the Imperium that is actually well-defended. At best a fleet has to be formed and sent out and they could arrive months later. Travel takes a lot of time, and out in the void it can be extremely hard to know what you are actually fighting against, especially since the enemy tend to kill anyone who tries to look at them. So when there's a large enemy force that you absolutely must fight (not fighting is much preferable) you don't just band together whoever was within shouting distance of the flagship and go murdering, you pull together every single vessel in the sector and hope to the Emperor it's enough to do the job.

TL,DR: Acquiring a force sucks when command thinks paperwork and red tape are forms of worship and maintenance thinks the toilet needs a prayer before it is unclogged.

Warships genuinely are vast things and obscenely expensive and risking them at all in major actions is not something anyone does lightly. Each cruiser is larger and more complex than a fully-kitted titan legion. These things are MASSIVE. In the BFG book there's a fluff story of a cruiser being built at a shipyard that orbits a primitive world. The entire population of the planet were given over to mining the resources needed to build one single cruiser. It took them eleven years to mine the ore. Sure, that's a primitive world, but if you think about it that makes carving out the rocks for it the largest single project ever engaged upon without mechanization. If you add together all seven wonders of the world you aren't even close to the pile of rock we're talking about. So these things are a big fucking investment and the high lords really don't like risking them without a really good reason (makes you questioning why they wouldn't build 20 smaller ships instead).

So if you ever wondered why the Navy doesn't get more action, now you know. By the time the big, awesome ships get on the scene the invasion already probably finished and the bad guys moved on. Then you nuke the shit out of them from orbit or drop millions of poor bastards into the meat grinder. Far better idea all round. It's the reason that the enemy, even nutters like Chaos, don't fight in the void without reason. On the ground it's just a scrap, and maybe you win or maybe you don't. If you lose in the void then your campaign on the surface is dead. No reinforcements, no support and a massive constant orbital bombardment to kill everyone left (which sometimes doesn't happen, because, you know, plot armour). That tends to mean fleets hover around and not fighting, one ensuring the other can't directly interfere with the surface war. This is actually an excellent and realistic explanation for why there is significant ground warfare in 40k. Also, ground-based defenses, mobile theater-shields, etc. are common. So, attacking a planet worth anything is like attacking a planet-sized Death Star without the super-weapon. Your ground forces taking out shields and anti-space batteries is critical to achieving anything. But, by that point, most of the enemy is dead and the survivors have either moved to the next defended region or got so stuck-in with your dudes that you can't shoot without killing your own army. Unless you worship Khorne, in which case you really couldn't care less who you kill, even yourself.

So, the navies of the galaxy ultimately get pushed down into either raiders, escorts against raiders, raider-hunters, or babysitting and logistical duty for groundpounders. Which of course brings back the question of why the Navy has such a desire to get more interceptors and bombers for ship-to-ship combat when they rarely engage in combat in the first place and the attack craft are insufficient. Could be to weaken the enemy ships' ability to shoot at the surface, but by the point they would have a target it would have (as stated) gone to a new defended location or whatever else, defeating the point of sending attack craft to weaken the enemy ships' offensive power. They won't shoot at each other, and they can't shoot at the surface (or at least can't shoot anything worth shooting at). In exchange for packing in so many attack craft into hangars designed for countless atmospheric air support fighters and bombers, the Imperial Guard has to die in radically greater numbers than they have any need to since they have limited anti-air capabilities and all of their enemies have no problem sending massive swarms of fighters and bombers at them. That is without even getting to engage the enemy on the ground and not counting the countless soldiers killed as the transports are shot to pieces due to their escorts commonly ditching them to go after obvious bait tactics.

Thus the rumor that the Navy has no balls. But who needs balls when you have a nova cannon sized dick and eighteen dice worth of fire power.

===Ship Size===
No one is quite sure how big the ships really are. One story claims the Retribution-Class is a mere 3 kilometers long, while another says it is 9 kilometers and up to 20 kilometers.

Your best bet is Rogue Trader, although going by those figures, anything bigger than a cruiser has an average density around that of hydrogen... From a helpful poster on [http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=63267&page=2 Heresy-Online] we have this:

For the most accurate scale, look towards the Battlefleet Koronus Expansion, as it is more a stat/rule book than a story. That and previous consensi, as well as cross referencing with the Horus Heresy rulebooks by Forge World (which places Battleships at 8-12km) place Cruisers just above 5 kms, and Battleships in the mid 8s. Please note that most ships above the size of 8ish kilometers are either a unique modified/purpose built flagship or a ship of a small class that is not in widespread calculations. For a sense of scale the largest warship in the world is currently the US Navy's Ford Class Aircraft Carrier measuring in at 337 meters long or 0.337km making the USS Ford the size of a cannon. They have guns literally the length of an Aircraft carrier!

*Transports and other Attack Craft, typically rated for atmospheric operation; also includes ships designed to be boarding torpedoes.
**<1 kilometer. That's the small ones, there are super transports in 40k as well. (A [[thunderhawk]] would go here).
*Escorts are "small" ships, like the Cobra, designed to flank foes and operate in squads.
**1-2 kilometers.
**Heavy Frigates
**Frigates
**Corvettes
**Destroyers
**Freighters
*Light Cruiser, a smaller Cruiser.
**3-5 kilometers.
*Cruiser, the standard fighting vessel; every Imperial fleet has them.
**5-6 Kilometers.
*Battle Cruiser, a beefed up Cruiser; generally more 'modern' than a Grand Cruiser.
**6-7 kilometers.
*Grand Cruiser; pocket-sized Battleship, very old.
**7-8 kilometers.
*Battleship; the biggest of the lot, simply put.
**8-12 kilometers.
**Battleships
**Fleet Carriers

The Horus Heresy novel "Know No Fear" had this to say about ship sizes, taken from [http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/22848349/ /tg/] who quoted it from the book and written here is just the lengths and names of the ships, for simplicity and space:

*Macragge’s Honour. Twenty-six kilometers - Flagship
*Spirit of Konor. Seventeen kilometers - Battleship
*Antrodamicus. Twelve kilometers - Grand Cruiser
*Antipathy. Nine kilometers - Cruiser (note that the book said it had "six thousand lives" on board, which would be an absurdly small crew for its size by 40k or even 21st century standards - Cruisers normally have 85-95 thousand crew in 40k, and that's for normal sized ones, not double length ones like this one. But this is a Horus Heresy ship, so perhaps it's automation was much better then a later 40k ship)
*Aegis of Occluda. Seven kilometers - Class unknown
*Gladius. Four kilometers - Escort
*Then there is the Abyss-class created by Lorgar that is said to match the Phalanx in size. He made three of them.

===Weapon Effects===
If the weapons can annihilate a continent, why can't it destroy a mere hive? Because different writers don't talk to each other that's why. Also shields maybe. Also, at Calth the Word Bearers tried to collapse the local star by shooting it and that only failed due to the Ultramarines managing to get their shit together.

Alternate take: Sure these weapons can destroy continents, but generally speaking why would the Imperial Navy want to bombard a probably Imperial Hive? Another thing to consider is that while Imperial warships are capable of *BLAM*-ing a planet, it requires a lot of ships firing either specialized planet-killing ordnance or just bombarding round the clock. One virus bomb/Cyclonic torpedo/lance shot would do comparatively little damage. But it does make you think about how powerful those void shields must be.

Another take: Something to keep in mind is the different size of ships and thus cannon barrels. A Retribution-class battleship is a lot bigger than a Mars-class battlecruiser is a lot bigger than a Turbulent-class heavy frigate, just to name a few. Different ships have different weapons.

Another Alternate take : The heresy novels elaborate a little on little on the practicalities of Orbital bombardment as a battlefield weapon. Whilst it is occasionally used tactically and reserved as a strategic level weapon, it requires utterly pinpoint accuracy (targeting being off by a millimetre in orbit could result in a shot being kilometres off on the ground) which is only possible when orbit is completely uncontested. It's use during land battles is the VERY definition of Danger Close and often a dead giveaway to the enemy, as allied forces have to withdraw kilometres away before ordering a bombardment, letting an enemy force bunker down or get out the way. Ships are also very easy targets for anti-orbital weapons during bombardment and the effect of a starship hulk hitting a planet you're fighting for is not something to be risked.

Alternate alternate take of an alternate take take: Hives are designed to withstand bombardment from orbit while firing back with enough power to make enemy ships stay away. This is the main reason why massive ground engagements happen (and there are theater shields available, too). For example, the Rock of the Dark Angels survive Caliban being essentially turned into its component atoms via mass bombardment. Also, the previuos "Another Alternate take" directly above this one is right. Now combine that take with this one and really the only way to take an enemy position is to get off your ass and do it yourself the manly way.

Alternated take because alternate takes on alternate takes don't take what it takes: most weapons are jackshit useless against a planet with atmosphere and magnetosphere. Nova cannon shots, plasma bursts and lance batteries are distorted by magnetic fields, macrobattery shots burn up in dense atmosphere, just like torpedoes and most void-faring attack craft.
To fire effectively the ships either have to come CLOSER into low orbit (being exposed to oversized cannons and missile launchers that can be seen around every major spaceport and hive city) and risk being burst open like a pinata, or are forced to just shit bombs from high orbit, being absolutely horrible at aiming.

===Lack of Balls===
It is well-known that most Imperial Navy Officers don't have em.

An Imperial Navy fleet is most effective when Inquisitors take it over. [[Exterminatus|See Here]].

===Carrier Hate===

Back in M36, the Imperial Navy fought a lowkey civil war over fleet doctrine in Segmentum Tempestus known as the Gareox Incident. A cabal of chaos worshipers worked their way high enough in the navy to start designing ships that were ready-built to turn traitor, most of which were carriers. The battlefleet eventually figured out something was off and the result was a giant carriers vs battleships fight that went down the way the Battle off Samar would have if the Japs hadn't been scared shitless by three destroyers. The surviving carriers went openly traitor and since then building new carriers has been borderline heresy so far as the navy is concerned.

==Music of the Imperial Navy==
Not to be outdone by the Imperial Guard (as well as to compensate for their aforementioned lack of balls), the Imperial Navy has begun collecting music to either be blared on loudspeakers when not in active use, or in the case of battleship command decks, played live by orchestra. the first four are taken from [[Battlefleet Gothic Armada|Battlefleet Gothic Armada.]]

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DhAAGZVAVo [[Awesome|This one is by far the best.]]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80QrqY_FgQ8
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0I7M0W_Ig
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFREOz5CvDs
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AlLNITLk8A - A piece dating back to the Armada Imperialis' of the Great Crusade, but is still played regularly.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5STVoaxz8-Y - This instrumental is rumored to date back to some epic naval battle during the later dark age of technology.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJEgAFR9vDc - While not quite fitting for battleships and grand cruisers, this piece dates back to when humanity was just beginning to march upon the stars, and as such, is heard regularly in ships captained by sentimental officers.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUrSQNSN6_c - This fitting instrumental is often played in bastion fleets whenever they are mustered to put down [[Black Crusade|yet another temper tantrum.]]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAw1KlZ8C-A - Battlefleet Gothic Imperial port theme.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlcUwUwjLrs - This ancient piece, a popular mobilization theme for the Imperial Navy, was apparently created during a time in which humanity was at war with a xeno species known as "Cylons". [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|No other records of this species can be found.]]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so10dKbhorI - Another piece from the same era that the Cylons existed, it was created to commemorate a successful assault on a planet known as New Caprica, what is now an imperial hive world.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFEHCuSnun0 - This was commissioned by a very srs bzns admiral.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gii4e-h3DBc - This was commissioned by a very srs bzns admiral from Praetoria.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7qOJrT_lUg - One of the pieces Lord High Admiral Langsung ordered to be played during the Battle for Port Sanctus.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu_Lp51wyao - This dated back to the glory days of human stellar exploration, when the universe was less grimdark, but is still a favorite for exploratory fleets, or for trying to distract yourself from the fact that you're just one [[Gellar Field|energy field]] away from a level 99 rapefest.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPLXNmKvLBQ - One of many favorites of those captaining Ironclads.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXlJ5DMq5o - A favorite of Vostroyan admirals.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elK5iReyAMI - Played during ceremonial ship or fleet launches since the great crusade.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR5N0-DqZoU - One of many pieces played when the fleets return victorious.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm3q6dCeP7M - An orchestral litany created to aid in battles against chaos ships.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvriqdS3vsc - A common theme of blockade runners, more nimble imperial vessels, and rogue traders plundering xeno planets in the name of the God Emperor.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbh6HT7lLx8 - Popular among fleets in Segmentum Pacificus.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NDn6WtZBJY - Popular among fleets in Segmentum Pacificus led by admirals from oriental cultures.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KylMqxLzNGo - Music played whenever the Navy has to perform exterminatus.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZcj56XXrPM - A personal favorite of an admiral from Armageddon.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3iwvG2ZKuw - The christening and launch of a new ship, straight out of the docks.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9mFPDRZIgE - Encountering a Tyranid Hive Fleet

==See also==
* [[Famous_Spaceships_of_Warhammer_40,000#Famous_Imperial_Spaceships|Famous Imperial Spaceships]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.darkreign.org/sites/default/files/BFG%20FAQ%202010_0.pdf/ A Comprehensive List of Ships]
* [http://yenlowang.free.fr/warhammer-forum/BFG/BFG_-_Additional_Ships_Compendium_1.4.pdf Battlefleet Gothic Additional Ships Compendium]
* [https://i.imgur.com/2q7J2Xv.jpg A big poster of fictional navies], with 40k in the center left
* [[Kor'Vattra]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image: EMP-Class.jpg|The Lord Admiral's Love Shack
image: Avenger.jpg| The Grand Marshal's Summer Palace of PWNAGE
image: Lunar-Class.jpg|<s>Imagine how quick land battles would be if these things actually helped</s> They do help, but they can't do it too much or they risk fucking up the planet they came to save, also you try aiming a lance cannon at a spot a meter wide from orbit without hitting your mates on the ground
image: RapidStrikeVessels.JPG|The Bullet-Catchers of the Navy
image: Imperial Fleet Size Sca.jpg|Another demonstration of too much spare time
image: Flagship-mk2.JPG|One of the revered ships of Battlefleet [[/tg/]]: [[Flankitus]]
File:Warhammer Imperial Cruisers by mik.jpg|
File:M1130006 Gothic Art Cover.jpg|
</gallery>

{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Battlefleet Gothic]]
[[Category:Imperial]]

Imperial Navy

2019-10-11T06:16:33Z

2601:1C0:5C00:C130:48A3:1519:712B:42EE:

[[File:imperialnavy1.jpg|400px|thumb||Cathedrals IN SPEHSS!]]

{{Topquote|When you began, you couldn’t have possessed enough bones for the whole ship. It would look stupid with a few dozen skeletons nailed to the walls. So, how do you start? Do you save up enough bodies for a corridor at a time, or put them away until you have enough to decorate the entire vessel?’|Jain Zar,-Storm of Silence, And while in contex she is talking about a Dark Eldar ship, it applies equally well to the Imperium}}

{{Topquote|By my faith, may the light of the Emperor spread to the farthest star. By my duty, the galaxy will belong to the righteous. By my actions, the Imperial Navy shall be honoured and remembered on Holy Terra. For the Emperor of Mankind, AND FOR THE BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC!|Imperial Navy Captain Abridal, shorty before his blaze of glory that ultimately stopped the 12th Black Crusade and saved billions of Imperial lives.}}

The '''Imperial Navy''' is one of the main branches of the [[Imperium of Man|Imperial]] military in [[Warhammer 40,000]] (although very little of the Navy actually appears in the tabletop game). They are also one of the main factions in the beloved spin-off game [[Battlefleet Gothic]].

Unlike the [[Imperial Guard]], who get killed in the <s>thousands</s> <s>millions</s> billions every day, the Imperial Navy rarely suffers that many casualties. This is because, unlike the [[lasgun|flashlight]] used by Guardsmen, the main weapon of the Navy is a giant, heavily-armed, heavily-armored battleship that puts other races' spaceships to shame (well, except [[Necrons]]). These ships are also [[Awesome|massive, flying, Gothic cathedrals]].

Depending on how you look at it (and who you're looking at), the officers of the Navy are either wealthy cowards or badass gentlemen. In either case, their ships have crews numbering the hundreds of thousands or even millions (we're not kidding when we say that each ship has its own language(s) and culture(s)), since the Imperial Navy doesn't understand how auto-loaders work, so loading a gun requires thousands of slaves running on treadmills. Of course, this might be the fault of [[Adeptus Mechanicus|a certain other branch of the Imperium, who, coincidentally, ''do'' have working auto-loaders on their ships]]. In any case, [[Grimdark|the Imperium has found it cheaper and ''more effective'' to use manpower because they have ''that many people'' to throw at even the tiniest of problems.]] Except that the cost of hundreds of thousands or even millions of chain-gangs adds up over centuries and millennia whereas maintenance for the machinery would basically amount to "apply oil while chanting". Of course, for a major officer, most days simply require him to press a button and blow something up, then go back to drinking his tea. Oh, and ''maybe'' scramble the ground-support flyers, if he's feeling charitable that day.

Note that, back in the [[Great Crusade]], the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy were one and the same, operating under the far-less-badass name of "Imperial Army." However, thanks to the [[Horus Heresy]], the two got split up, so that a single military commander couldn't control too many forces; a Guard commander isn't able to get off any given planet without the Navy, and the Navy isn't able to conduct wars (and, you know, occupy territory) without the Guard. You'd think that this enforced mutual co-dependence would make them collaborate, but [[grimdark|of course]], despite how much they need each other, the two bicker constantly, which, in fact, may be the reason for all the [[fail|stupidity]] the 40k universe is saddled with, at least on the military front.

==Types of Ships==
The Imperial Navy has four types of ships they hide their cowardly asses in. The main ships are battleships, cruisers, escorts, and fighters
Each ship can also be classified by its weaponry, and role in the battlefleet:
*'''Basic:''' Jack of All Trades ships, due to having multiples weapons types, and not being specialized into any. Lunar class cruisers are the prime example, having macrobateries, lances & torpedoes.
*'''Lance-boats:''' Ships that focus into Lance weaponry, used for long-range focused attacks, especially against small ships & unshielded ones. Rarer as they have a weakness to Void Shields and require better drives due to the power requirements of the lances.
*'''Ordnance-boat:''' Opposite of the Lance-boat, replaces Lances with more Macrobatteries, focusing mostly into medium & short range brawls against enemy ships. Usually this is because they need extra power due to mounting a Nova Cannon or having power-hungry macrobatteries such as Plasma Cannons.
*'''Carrier:''' The red-haired stepchild of the Navy. Replaces the Lances with Launch Bays and is disliked by most Admirals due to the stigma against Attack Craft, although it is because the Traitors & Chaos pawns focused on raiding & striking fast, so with enemy fleets focused on long range attack (Lances, laser, and attack craft)plus Chaos likes them more because they can fill the bays with Assault Boats, the Imperial Navy might have got that stigma of seeing too many Chaos carriers raiding & pillaging imperial planets & so started dislike them. Some Carriers are also made from wrecked cruisers of other types, in which case damaged broadside weapons are ripped out and replaced by launch bays.
*'''Torpedo-boat:''' Originally an experiment for escort ships to overrun enemy vessel crews using boarding torpedoes, it was doomed to failure as the targets were either too nimble or too big. The Imperial Navy kept a few as Missile Destroyers.

===[[Imperial Navy Battleship|Battleship]]===
Supposedly rare, but every Grand Marshal and High Admiral has at least one and often several or even dozens to hide in because GW is completely and hopelessly inconsistent with fleet sizes, though as of late it seems that GW is leaning towards big fleets and big armies when it gives numbers. Bonus points if that coward is also Chaos. The biggest heaviest hitters available, these things are like actual medieval cathedrals in that the grandchildren of the workers who start building them get to live to see their completion. Fuckheug, lots (and lots, and lots) of guns and most can deploy fighters and bombers.
*'''Ordnance-boats:'''
**'''Retribution:''' Packing all gun batteries, the ship can devastate an entire continent in one broadside, but for some reason cannot destroy a hive city or fort with [[void shields]] - [[What|or in some cases, ones without any shields at all]]; either that or GW was just pulling another [[Derp|Michael Bay]] out of their asses again since, they have no idea how [[Herp|consistency works, let alone basic physics.]] Of course, considering the Dark Angels fortress-monastery and the huge chunk of land surrounding it survived the bombardment which turned Caliban into a bunch of space dust, it is perfectly reasonable that something that merely glasses half a continent would not destroy a void shielded city or other major fortification. If anything, this provides a degree of insight into why land battles in 40k are so massive in the first place. Because orbital artillery doesn't have many targets of opportunity it is actually capable of exploiting without tearing the planet to pieces.
**'''Invincible:''' An interesting class, dubbed a 'fast battleship', these were designed to chase down xenos and chaos raiders, and then use them to make the vast, empty tracts of space more interesting by filling it with their enemies' debris fields. This type of battleship combines the firepower of a ''Retribution'' with the speed of a ''Dauntless''. The problem with this is the general incompetence of Imperial tacticians. It looks exactly like a ''Retribution'' and has the guns to match, so it must be one, right? NO. They excelled at the role they were designed for, but throw them into gunfights against dedicated battleships, and these things tended to come apart easier than wet cardboard, earning them the nickname 'Kisher's Kombustibles' and the scorn of many admirals. Admirals who ignored the fact that the reports detailing the introduction of the ship and how to best use it (it's tactics also included in the Tactica Imperialis) explicitly state not to use it on a gun-line and that it is for fast-ship interdiction. The ship's Commissars must be particularly incompetent to let this slide as in the Guard the generals would be executed quickly for such incompetence. Of course, these are also the Commissars who do nothing when troop transports' escorts frequently run off to fight while the transports lose a significant percentage of their ships. Perhaps if they would actually enforce their orders to stay with the transports, the Imperium would have won most of the campaigns it has lost. Given that they still often win even with a fraction of their beginning ground forces actually managing to make landfall. [[Grimdark|Because they have THAT many men to throw at the enemy.]]
***Much like the Chalice-class of Battlecruisers, the Invincibles are a big reference to the real life Battlecruisers of World War 1, especially with the term "Kisher's Kombustibles" (real life Battlecruisers were referred to as "Fisher's Combustibles") and the fact that three blew up in a single battle (referencing Jutland).
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Apocalypse:''' One of the oldest ship designs (predating the ''Retribution'', which is also one of the oldest ship designs), this ship packs a lot of [[lances]] and a [[Nova Cannon]]. Good for taking out lots of smaller sized ships with massed lance fire. It's also described in fluff as being able to cripple anything up to a cruiser with a single, concentrated broadside. They're fairly rare, since the Imperium doesn't know how to build them anymore, and the ones still operating are so old, their weapons systems have degraded permanently, forcing them to fire their lances at only a fraction of their full power. Shares all the disadvantages of a ''Gothic''-class cruiser.
***Despite the fluff stating that the Apocalypse and Oberon classes are unique in that they lack figure-heads, the artwork and [[Crunch|models]] [[Derp|give them one anyway.]]
**'''Victory:''' Possibly an attempt to recreate the ''Apocalypse'' class, the ''Victory'' is basically a ''Retribution'' with a bunch of lances replacing its broadside cannons, and a Nova Cannon instead of torpedoes. Has the range that fluff states the ''Apocalypses'' once had, but lacks the same level of firepower. Effective at sniping, and hilarious when used against escort heavy fleets.
**'''Desolator:''' A ridiculously old design. Designed to emphasize range and carries Torpedos, Broadside Lances and Dorsal Macrobatteries. Like most keel-built ships, the Desolators ended up mothballed or went traitor.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Emperor:''' The "standard" battleship of the 40k 'verse, the ship has multiple fighter decks and weapons batteries. Unfortunately, most commanders like to use this ship as a hideout, causing the lack of sufficient air support in the ground wars even though the Navy's atmospheric aircraft are completely different from its much bigger space based strike craft. Tabletop-wise, its status as the official battleship of Battlefleet Gothic doesn't stop it from losing carrier duels against the Chaos equivalent.
***Ironically, the idea of the Emperor being the standard battleship conflicts with the fluff about the Navy hating Carriers. Go figure. Except it doesnt. Because the Imperial Navy isnt fond of carrier ships, but that doesnt mean they dont use them; So if you were an imperial admiral, would you choose to get multiple smaller carriers, at the cost of having less ship-of-the-line on your fleet? Or would you instead get a 8+ kilometer battleship with four city-sized hangar bays, having higher detection, and being capable of helping your fleet & any warzone in multiple ways (Not just void warfare, but also ground support in planet invasions, or logistical support) without the need of going too close to the enemy? Its no wonder the Emperor Class is so popular & useful in the Imperial Navy, looking at this way, in reality, the Emperor class goes well precisely on the conventional Imperial doctrine because of this reason. Despite the (idiotic) distaste Admirals have for strike craft, they will use still use them out of simple utility and they figure they might as well get something that can do more at the same time.
**'''Nemesis:''' The super-carrier of the Imperial Navy. It has SIX flight decks (the size of towns or small cities, each), more than any other ship in the galaxy. But because of Rule of Cool, it is incredibly rare since the Navy captains prefer to get up close broadside their enemies, or actually rather because all of the ships in this class were just ships modified from Emperor class ships in one particular war, because they were damaged or otherwise. Naturally, the Navy never considers making them based on the Invincible instead (the Invincible was mass-produced).
**'''Desecrator:''' The carrier variant of the Desolator. Replaces half the Broadside Lances with Landing Bays. Shared the same fate as its sister class and is now only seen in Chaos fleets. Traitorous despite its clearly pious and Emperor-loving name.
**'''Despoiler:''' Oh boy, where do we start? The Despoiler-class came about after the cogboys discovered plans for a carrier on Barbarus. The catch? Well, Barbarus is the former homeworld of the [[Death Guard]], and the plans were for the same class of ship that the [[Terminus Est]] is a part of. Showing a complete lack of common sense, the Imperial Navy decided to build ships of this class, only for them all to go traitor due to the class's inherent [[Gellar Field]] flaws. [[Fail|Oops]]. The Despoilers at first don't appear to be that unique, as they have Dorsal Lances and Broadside Landing Bays and Weapons Batteries. Their difference is that, like the Terminus Est, they managed to have a Prow Landing Bay as well.
***Despite being a new class, GW fucked up their fluff and had [[Rogal Dorn]] disappear aboard a Despoiler, [[What|5000 years before the class was created]]. Note this class was actually already named "Despoiler-class" by the Imperium. Yet, they were ''surprised'' the things went traitor. Wow. Also, after fixing the Gellar Field problem, the Imperium still decided not to build more, which was stupid since there was no longer a reason not to. I get not wanting to chance it, but beggars can't be choosers.
*'''Other:'''
**'''[[Gloriana-class_Battleship|Gloriana]]:''' Massive, terrifying and capable of decimating entire fleets on their own, these were the personal flagships of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Very few, if any, are still around in the Imperium in M41, though a few such as Horus's flagship ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' are still tooling around inside the Eye of Terror. Because they were dickheads, the [[Alpha Legion]] had two, creatively named the ''Alpha'' and the ''Beta''. Interestingly, the Ultramarines have one, the ''[[Macragge's Honour]]'', but didn't [[derp|fucking]] use it, the whole fucking time until [[Roboute Guilliman]] returned. It shows up again in ''Dark Imperium,'' with the Smurfs having stolen it back from the Red Corsairs, which at least is fucking funny even if it makes no sense. The Imperial Fist had the ''Eternal Crusader'', but it was never their flagship since the [[Phalanx]] is so much better, so [[Rogal Dorn]] gave it to the [[Black Templars]] in the [[Second Founding]]. The Emperor is known to have had at least one, called the ''Bucephalus'' (also the name of the horse of Alexander the Great... coincidence?), which he ditched after upgrading to an enormous golden space palace called ''Imperator Somnium'' for the sole purpose of flying him back to Terra to retire. Wait, did Emps just see the Phalanx and decide to build his own bigger better version?! [[Eldrad|DICK]].
**'''Oberon:''' The mixed-breed bastard of the Imperial Navy. It has [[lances]], fighter bays, and weapon batteries. Its a powerful ship... <s>when fighting foes half its size</s> "Newer" fluff says the Oberon is rare, but a complete success in making a ship capable of killing anything it comes across, alone. Unfortunately, fluff also says a ridiculously low number of these (apparently) powerful ships were made (like, 3 or so). Then again: only four Iowa class battleships ships were built (technically 6, but 2 were scrapped before completion), and we know HOW to build them. It makes sense in a way. Attack craft can cripple an enemy's main weapons and engines and likely ultimately damage the power transfer from generators to void shields. Combined with macro-batteries hammering away and the enemy's weakened ability to maintain its shields would cause them to drop much quicker than usual. Then the city-sized lance-batteries rip the enemy in half. If used against enemy escorts to support attacks on large enemy ships like battleships and grandcruisers, this would work extremely well to the point an Oberon would likely become a priority target for enemy ships.

===[[Imperial Navy Grand Cruiser|Grand Cruiser]]===
Only slightly weaker and less powerful than Battleships, Grand Cruisers were the weird middle-child of actual Line Ships (that really were the mainstay of the fleet back then) and Cruisers in the ancient Imperium. Built primarily with autonomy in mind, those were reserved for the most daring expeditions in the uncharted regions, conducted both by Imperial Army and Rogue Traders. Nowadays most of them run on archeotech that is barely understood and hard to repair with current Imperial knowledge. These grand ships are often used as flagships in lieu of extremely rare Battleships. Basically, they are the quintessential Battlecruisers; tougher and deadlier than Cruisers and yet more mobile than Battleships.
*'''Basic'''
**'''Vengeance/Furious:''' The granddaddy of "modern" Imperial warships. The ''Vengeance'' was the winner of a GW-sponsored ship design contest, and was originally known as the ''Furious''. Highlights include heavy shielding and armour (though lacking the prow armour of later designs), as well as both lances and long range weapons batteries, making this the sniper of the Imperium's Grand Cruisers.
**'''Repulsive:''' Originally named the Corinus Class, before being renamed after many fell to Chaos by an overly literal Mechanicum designation. Whilst the Repulsive Grand Cruisers are exceedingly maneuverable heavy warships (and therefore exceedingly useful because they can fill a hole in the Imperial tactical lineup), they are considered a cursed class due to the majority of them falling to chaos, [[Fail|which unfortunately was the result of experimental warp drives which occasionally interfered with the Gellar Field (OMGWTFBBQTIME)]]. Only the Emperor knows what kind of complete moron would deploy ships equipped with that. The ones that remain in Imperial control are kept mothballed in reserve fleets and segmentum fortresses (imagine giant glass boxes with 'In Case of Emergency, Break Glass' signs). It doesn't say anything about their warp drives being swapped out for something that isn't shitty or perhaps a completed and no longer experimental version of their own. Not that you want AdMechs tear off your head for tinkering with their sacred templates, on the other hand.
*'''Ordnance-boat:'''
**'''Avenger:''' The short range brawler of the Imperium's Grand Cruisers, it's a ''Vengeance'' with only macrobatteries (kilometres of Macrobattery broadsides). Intended to break the line of battle like Nelson's ships at Trafalgar, while suffering from the lack of an armored prow. Unfortunately line-breaking is quite a dangerous role for any ship, even a Grand Cruiser that excels at doing it, and so not many exist in the 41st Millennium. Those that have survived are known for being exceedingly reliable and faithful; it takes a lot of damage or mistreatment to cause these noble vessels to give trouble. If you spoke with members of the Imperium (both members of the public and the navy), this is the vessel they would think of if you asked them about Grand Cruisers. Now, if only the Imperium realized a slower but more heavily armored and shielded ship would fare better in its role.
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Executor:''' The sniper of the Vengeances, the Executor replaces its Broadside Macrobatteries with even more Lances. Unfortunately, the last remaining Imperial Executors decided to act retarded and chase a fleet into the Eye of Terror, meaning that all of the ships are chaos aligned now.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Exorcist:''' A ''Vengeance'' that has carrier bays in place of lances. Useful in providing carrier support to any Imperial fleet. As a bonus, being Grand Cuisers mean they can outrun anything except battleships to save their vulnerable carrier self while their attack craft are away. Originally designed for extended operations alone on the Frontiers of Imperial Space, either on Patrol or by exploring into the unknown, the Exorcist developed quite a reputation for 'boldly going where no man has gone before'. Whilst not many remain in Imperial Service due to maintenance difficulties, they still find use in the hands of Rogue Traders who need vessels capable of long cruises and of defending themselves against anything they might encounter. So much for maintenance difficulties.
**'''Retaliator:''' A mix of a Repulsive and a Vengeance, but as a Carrier. Has Lances, Launch Bays and Macrobatteries on its Broadsides. Unfortunately, it has the Repulsive's tendency to go traitor.

===[[Imperial Navy Battlecruiser|Battlecruiser]]===
What do you do when you forget how to maintain an entire category of heavy warships? You build a new bunch of heavy warships, with simpler technology.

Battlecruisers are basically upgunned cruisers, with more weapons (usually adding dorsal weapons and some armor), and are intended to fill the gap between true battleships, which are rare, and normal cruisers, which tend to die really easily to the ancient Chaos cruisers and grand cruisers. Battle cruisers were tried in real life as some way to combine battleship firepower or armor and cruiser speed. They did not always work, and much like reality these things have their share of problems. Chaos operates their own versions known as Heavy Cruisers. In real life, the accepted successful form of a battlecruiser is between a heavy cruiser and a battleship; it can kill anything it can catch and it can outrun anything that can kill it (usually only an enemy battleship). After its teething years it was generally a good and effective form of combat when used intelligently.
*'''Basic:'''
**'''Armageddon Battlecruiser:''' An upgraded variant of the Lunar Class Cruiser (YAY! ANOTHER ONE!). A rather new innovation, the Armageddon class is basically made up from recovered Lunar Class Hulks that have been extensively repaired and then retrofitted with more armour and more weapons. The base hull was never designed to cope with all this extra equipment (and the extra crew to man said equipment) and so it has problems operating independently for long periods of time. This isn’t really a problem, though, since they wouldn’t be operating away from a fleet anyway. Though reinforcing its frame to handle the added mass would be a smart thing to do to save immensely in future maintenace costs over the centuries. Battlefleets won't say no to them because more guns = better! These ships are extremely powerful and live up to their name. Somehow, though, the Imperium never went “Hey guys, this thing kicks the shit out of everyone, let’s upgrade all Lunar-class ships to Armageddon-class and make a new class to accomodate the new crew and equipment.” Or someone did and was turned into a servitor...
**'''Hellfire Heavy Cruiser:''' An upgunned Murder-class. Has the same issues as the Armageddon, slow as fuck and has power and supply issues. [[What|Also, lacks Void Shields]]. Most mutinied and joined Chaos, which decided to use them for some reason.
*'''Ordnance-boat:'''
**'''Overlord Battlecruiser:''' The Classic Imperial Battlecruiser. Using the standard Imperial doctrine of - Macrobatteries, Lances and Torpedoes, the Overlord has become the most effective Battlecruiser simply because it really complements standard Imperial Navy Tactics. As an added bonus, its simplicity of design makes it easier to produce and one can be built within a decade. The only negative (if you can call it a negative), is that it's not really useful for anything except war.
**'''Chalice Battlecruiser:''' A fast heavy cruiser. Unique to the Calixis sector and an exceedingly new design, the Chalice was conceived as a Battlecruiser that could either out-run or out-manoeuvre anything it can't kill. Which means it was conceived to be a plain ‘ol normal battlecruiser. Whilst good in theory, unfortunately, speed came at the cost of armour and durability and so whilst these vessels punch hard, they can't take as many hits as other cruisers. In addition, it carries an experimental plasma drive layout, which while boosting power efficiency, also makes it rather vulnerable to lighting up like a roman candle. Imperial Propaganda is currently trying to cover up their failings and is lauding them as the Poster-ships of the Calixis Sector and therefore a lot of people think they're the 'Best Battlecruisers Eva!'. If they would just use a normal plasma drive and make the whole ship bigger, it would be fast enough, armored enough, and even better armed. Unfortunately, not being stupid is heresy in Calixis.
***The idea of a ship that can "either out-run or out-manoeuvre anything it can't kill" that turns out to be really poor at taking hits was the original design of real life Battlecruisers, which although being up-gunned Cruisers (which are the equivalent of Frigates IRL, not Ships of the Line), were used as discount Battleships at Jutland were they turned out to lack the armour required for a proper fight. Thus, if the Imperials were smart, they would be using the Chalice as a commerce raider, not a ship of the line.
**** Actually, they were not bad at taking hits, they were better at it than heavy cruisers. They just sucked at taking hits from battleships like everybody else on the planet. Real life battlecruisers (after their early screw up designs) were made only a little smaller than battleships which allowed them to have greater armor and firepower and speed than heavy cruisers and were even fast enough to outrun battleships at the cost of significantly lower firepower and armor than the only slightly larger battleships (which caused things like the Jutland kablooie). They had the whole package. In reality, the larger the ship the faster it is in navies (broadly speaking, in dense fluids the longer the vehicle is relative to its cross-section, the easier it is to go fast), sci-fi just is made by ignorrants. Battlecruisers fell out of favor shortly after they were perfected for the same reason battleships and heavy cruisers did: the carrier. That said, they were indeed usually used as commerce raiders. But that is true for all ships. Navies exist to destroy enemy commerce shipping and to transport armies. The only reason fleets engage each other is because both sides defend their own shipping and seek out enemy fleets to pre-emptively destroy to protect said shipping and transports. In 40k, it could be said that the Invincible-class is the closest thing the Imperium has to an equivalent to a real life battlecruiser.
**'''Long Serpent Battlecruiser:''' A true success story, this is what the ''Chalice'' wishes it was. Taking a battlecruiser's armour and firepower, and giving it the engine suite of a battleship, this thing can kick the shit out of anything short of a grand cruiser or battleship, while being able to keep up with raiders. It's only real flaw is that when one is taken out, it has a better than average chance of rupturing its warp drive. As a result, the names of ''Long Serpents'' that have been destroyed are usually accompanied by those of allied ships that were too close. Which is somewhat odd since the reasoning is that the Long Serpent also has a battleship's warp core (who knows why, it isn't big enough to need it). Given the small difference in size between this ship and other "normal" cruisers which are the mainstays of the fleet, the Imperium could just choose to use a smaller warp core suitable for this ship's size and focus on mass-producing the Long Serpent to replace basically every other class of ship except battleships , Cobras, and carriers. Fewer would be made but, unlike video games, swarming a capital ship with escorts does not work at all. The escorts are slaughtered and the capital ship like this one is left unharmed. But doing this would require common sense, which is [[Heresy]]. Like properly using the Invincible-class must be.
**'''Mercury Battlecruiser:''' Another fast Battlecruiser. It's a cruiser with a Battleships's engines. Nothing more.
**'''Hades Heavy Cruiser:''' A long-ranged brawler. Carries Broadside Macrobatteries and Dorsal and Prow Lances. Got phased out like most keel-built designs, but Chaos still uses them.
*'''Lance-boats:'''
**'''Acheron Heavy Cruiser:''' Designed to test new Lances and Macrobatteries. The Imperials only built one, which went traitor. Carries Broadside and Dorsal Lances with Prow Macrobatteries.
*'''Carriers:'''
**'''Mars Battlecruiser:''' In a word - Mediocre. Some Imperials say it's versatile due to its diverse weapons loadout but in reality it makes it an awkward duckling to use. The Nova Cannon and Launch bays would be good on a ship holding back and harassing enemies at range and yet it has Macrobatteries and Lances which are great for brawling. So if you sit back and harass or go in and brawl, you're wasting half your ship. The Imperial Navy never really got on with it either and so it has gone out of production on most Forge-Worlds. Which is a shame because if they would replace the macrobatteries and lances with larger, long-range lances, and a great number of small, short range weapons batteries for fighter support and self-defense respectively, this would be a great ship in any fleet. It's nova cannon clears a hole in the enemy escort screen, the attack craft rush through to wreck the weapons and engines of light capital ships while long-range lances assist other Imperial ships in slaughtering targets of opportunity. The destroyed enemy light capital ships leaves all the other big ships vulnerable to mass, concentrated torpedo attack from friendly ships. Attack craft return to the fight to tear up the no-doubt seriously damaged enemy big ships and lances win the day. Then just send in friendly light capital ships with attack craft support to finish off the surviving escorts. That would almost make this ship into a sort of miniature "I Win" button. Almost. Especially in a squadron of two, as they could assist each other against any opponents that slip through to them with their combined, close-range firepower, lances, and whatever attack craft they kept back for defense ripping the enemy weapons and engines apart to let the close-range macrobatteries have fun.
**'''Dominion Battlecruiser:''' Basically a fixed Mars, some tech priest got it in their head that, maybe, it'd make more sense to replace the Macrobatteries with Lance Batteries instead, making it a dedicated support ship, harrassing enemy ships at range whilst the big guns go out and fight. Apparently not that successful, a number were used at the Battle for Maccrage (Of course the fucking Smurfs get them) against the tyranids, though apparently they all got fucked up and have been in drydock since, which is why up until now no-one's seen them.
**'''Styx Heavy Cruiser:''' A pure carrier. Has Broadside Launch Bays, Dorsal Lances and and Prow Macrobatteries. For some reason the Imperial phased it out for the Mars, so only Chaos uses them now.
**'''Hecate Heavy Cruiser:''' An attempt to replace the Styx. Swaps out some of the Launch Bays for Macrobatteries. Believed to have an inherent design flaw that made them go traitor, so they were decommissioned.

===[[Imperial Navy Cruiser|Cruiser]]===
Cruisers are the bread and butter of the Imperial Navy. Much larger than escorts and light cruisers, but less rare than battleships, cruisers are what the Imperial Navy (and Chaos and Xenos) use to fight their campaigns across the stars. Thus far, all Imperial Cruisers have been shown to utilize the same hull-type: a squat armored prow in front, capable of mounting a prow-mounted weapon system, and a big bunch of engines in the back, with baroque and Gothic architecture in-between. Most cruisers can effectively be placed in four categories:
*'''Basic:'''
**'''Lunar:''' The Lunar. You've heard so much about it and now you want to know what it makes it the standard Imperial Cruiser. First of all, it's one of the oldest designs still in use by the Imperium and is so easy to build that even less advanced worlds can produce them. They're quite versatile due to their weapons loadout (a balanced build of Macrobatteries, Lances and Torpedoes) and make up the backbone of Battlefleets throughout the entire Imperium. This is the cruiser against which all other cruisers are measured.
**'''Emasculator:''' Considered a failure by the Imperium at large, Emasculators have the same basic load-out as the Lunar, but are keel-built, lacking the armored prow and replacing the torpedo tubes with more weapons batteries. This means they require different tactics to a Lunar, using their speed and longer ranged weapons to pound ships from a distance. As this fits with Chaos tactics more than Imperials. most of them ended up as traitors. [[/d/|The name Emasculator is due to them being seen mostly as Slaaneshi ships, their original name is unknown.]] The fact the Imperium keeps trying new ships built on the normally Chaos style hulls implies that usually it must work out just fine since otherwise it would have been banned by now. So, there are probably many cool looking keel-based Imperial ship classes floating around we'll never catch wind of ever.
**'''Slaughter:''' A special type of Cruiser, the Slaughter-class has a more powerful drive called the Scartix Engine Coil, but lacks prow weapons. Armed with short ranged, but powerful lances and macrobatteries, the Slaughter is designed to get in close, blast away and retreat. Unfortunately, the Imperium can't build them anymore because one went traitor and destroyed the plans for the Scartix Coil. It is unknown if they were always called the Slaughter-class or were renamed when most went traitor. Considering the usual lack of intelligence in the Imperium's leadership, it was probably called something worse, like the "Traitor-class" or something and then the Imperium wss shocked when they lived up to it. Really, would you be surprised if the Imperium did that?
**'''Inferno:''' A earlier counterpart to the Carnage-class, carrying more lances in exchange for some Macrobatteries. Had the same difficulties as the Carnage and was mothballed, though a few went renegade beforehand. Rare example of the Imperium learning its lesson. Still too stupid to realize that using cheaper-after-a-few-centuries-than-manual-labor auto-loaders would've fixed the problem for both ships.
*'''Lance-boat:'''
**'''Gothic:''' Another variant of the Lunar Class, the Gothic is designed as a heavy Lance gunship. Due to the amount of Lance Weaponry it carries, it can easily deal with ships of its own size or larger but often does require an escort or a partner to strip enemy void shields first in order to use its own weaponry to the maximum effect. When supported and used correctly, Gothic Cruisers are the most efficient way to deal with enemy capital ships.
*'''Ordnance-boat:'''
**'''Dominator:''' A variant of the Lunar Class, the Dominator is designed primarily for planetary bombardment and assault. Not generally used in fleet actions even though it can provide support with its Nova Cannon when necessary. After one Dominator fucked over a Chaos Cruiser with said Nova Cannon during the Gothic War, the Navy took note and started making more Dominators. [[Awesome|Additionally, another Dominator came close to destroying the Terminus Est (''aka the toughest Battleship in the galaxy''), before being destroyed.]] The Dominator possesses the same armament as the Retribution-class battleship but lacks the range of one. This is fine, though, since it's meant to get close to the enemy like most Imperial ships anyway. Basically, if you get in range of this thing, ''you're going to die''.
*** From Lexicanum 40K: "Captain Straden of the Depth of Fury defended the shrine world of Kathur to the death, and came very close to destroying the Death Guard ship Terminus Est. As it was, he and his crew vaporised several of its decks and destroyed scores of escort ships before finally succumbing. Ironically, no Imperial souls survived to tell the tale."
**'''Tyrant:''' The Tyrant was originally intended as a stand-off vessel; it would stay at long range and bombard enemies from afar with superfired plasma weaponry. Unfortunately, due to design compromises where it mixed both short range and long range weaponry to save on power, it wasn't really deadly enough at long range to do its job. Therefore the Imperial Navy is trying to replace the short range weapons with ancient Long-range weaponry (that doesn't use a lot of power) recovered from Space Hulks or Renegade Ships. The Hull itself is a rather effective design and so the Tyrant has become very popular with Rogue Traders who generally replace all of the Plasma Weaponry in order to have more power available compared with other cruisers.
**'''Relentless/Carnage:''' Another attempt at a fleet support ship with Plasma weapons, the Relentless ended up with technical difficulties and, when these were overcome, [[Heresy|most ships ended up turning traitor]] [[Fail|(including the lead ship of the class)]]. [[Tzeentch|This is theorised to be due to something wrong with the geometry of the ship's design]], as the Relentless-class is keel built, like most older ships (This also means the Relentless lacks an armored prow and torpedo tubes, carrying more plasma batteries instead). The tendency of these ships to turn to Chaos, along with changing tactics, led to the class being renamed the Carnage-class and mothballed in favor of the Tyrant-class, though their speed means they suit Chaos tactics famously.
*'''Carrier:'''
**'''Dictator:''' A Carrier retrofit of extremely damaged Lunar Class Cruisers. If a Lunar class has its lance weaponry destroyed, it's quicker, easier and cheaper to replace those with heavy launch bays for strike craft. This makes it quite versatile and able to deal with virtually all situations and interestingly enough, makes it more effective than the original Lunar Class at everything except fighting as a ship of the line. Unfortunately, the Lunar Class is designed for fighting as a ship of the line, so Admirals dislike Dictators.
**'''Jupiter:''' A kitbashed design, converted from other classes of cruiser that have been heavily damaged in battle. By stripping out all the damaged components and replacing them with launch bays, you get a pretty sturdy carrier. Just don't let the enemy get anywhere near it. Apparently the Imperium doesn't build these normally at all, likely because they are absolutely shit at defending themselves from other Cruisers.
**'''Devastation:''' Deviating from the standard Carrier design, the Devastation-class carries Lances instead of Macrobatteries. Mostly turned traitor or mothballed, as they lack armored prows and torpedos; and are keel-built. Chaos likes them, as they can pack them with mutants and sit back to spam assault boats and lances at anything that looks at them funny.
*'''Other:''' Various other cruiser types exist, but are rarer.
**'''Ambition:''' Custom-made Cruisers for the exceedingly affluent - it's the Rolls Royce of the Cruiser World. Most Rogue Trader ships are second-hand, battle-scarred, tired and worn ex-navy vessels but the Ambition is not. It's the only cruiser class that can be bought brand spanking new by Private parties in the Imperium and each one is unique and built to the customer's specifications. These exclusive ships, whilst still cruisers and deadly in their own right, are stately homes and status symbols. Some durability sacrifices have been made in order to make them the most opulent and luxurious ships on the market but for eccentric people like Rogue Traders, it's generally worth it.
**'''Conquest-Class Star Galleon:''' Built for the very first Rogue Traders on the orders of the Emperor himself, the Star Galleon is an ancient and noble design. Whilst not considered heavily armed by modern standards, they're still formidable opponents and yet as specialist exploration vessels they are able to operate independently for many years and can transport greater quantities than other Cruisers. In effect, it's a cruiser fused with a transport and looks fucking amazing.
**'''Murder:''' The predecessor to the Lunar. Differs by being keel-built, exchanging their torpedos for Lances and having more powerful macrobatteries. The majority that appear in modern 40k are Chaos-aligned, as the Imperials mothballed theirs in favor of the Lunar. A few carried lances as well as Macrobatteries, meaning they don't fit into any category. As with the Slaughter, it is unknown if Murder-class is their original name or they were renamed.

===[[Imperial Navy Light Cruiser|Light Cruiser]]===
Smaller than true cruisers, light cruisers are used in two ways. Either you use a fast, maneuverable light cruiser like the Dauntless to add some extra firepower to a scouting squadron or long-range patrol, or you use a pocket cruiser like the Voss light cruisers to add some heavy firepower and armor to a convoy, fleet, or base. The advantage of the light cruisers are that they're cheaper to build and operate than real cruisers. Another departure from real nomenclature. In real life, “light” cruisers were less armed and armored normal cruisers made to make up for losses, especially in America after Japan’s initial attack. After the industry fully turned to wartime manufacturing, the light cruisers’ changes were recinded and they were just normal cruisers again. However, with the introduction of heavy cruisers, the normal cruisers again were named “light” cruisers to avoid confusion. In 40k, however, light cruisers are very distinct and fill a unique niche. Like the Cruiser, they fit into a few base categories.
*'''Basic:''' Same as its larger sibling, a Jack of All Trades.
**'''Dauntless;''' The standard Light Cruiser of the Imperium; it's a Jack-of-all-Trades. You can't go wrong with the Dauntless even though other Light Cruisers may be better for certain tasks. Considered 'scouting' cruisers, these make up the bulk of Imperial Patrol Squadron leaders.
**'''Defender:''' A convoy escort variant of the Dauntless, with added dorsal weaponry.
**'''Endeavour;''' A 'heavy', Light Cruiser, designed as a stop-gap between the 'lighter' light cruisers and true cruisers. Whilst they can slug it out in a fleet fight, they can easily be overwhelmed because they simply aren't cruisers and don't have the equivalent fire-power or hull integrity. As an added titbit, most of Battlefleet Koronus' patrols consist of an Endeavour and a pair of frigates.
**'''Lathe-class Monitor-Cruiser;''' An Adeptus Mechanicus Light Cruiser designed around deep space exploration and extreme self-reliance. These ships, when properly outfitted, can operate for decades without returning to imperial space for resupply. These would make up the bulk of Explorator fleets.
**'''Secutor-class Monitor-Cruiser;''' An Adeptus Mechanicus Light Cruiser designed to excel at the art of war. Tougher than all of the other Light Cruisers and yet still more mobile than true Cruisers. Due to being designed from the ground up to be a Warship, this Light Cruiser is fitted with Cruiser sized Void Shield Generators.
**'''Siluria;''' Three-quarters the cost of the Endeavor, and about three-quarters the ship. Standard weapon batteries only, no fancy frills to speak of. Cheap and effective, at short range, to catch enemy torpedoes.
*'''Lance-boat:''' Also the same as the Cruiser version, though some have weak weapons batteries for better defence.
**'''Endurance;''' Light Cruiser with just enough guns to claim it has them, lance batteries and a couple of torpedoes. It's the lance half of a Lunar, nothing more.
*'''Carrier:''' More useful as a Light Cruiser, as it can act as backup for patrols.
**'''Enforcer:''' A carrier variant of the Dauntless. Designed to maintain control of rebellious planets via intimidation [[Grimdark|(and possible orbital bombardment)]]. Given one managed to stop the rebellion of an ''entire sub-sector'', its a shame the Imperium doesn't build more of them.
**'''Defiant;''' A carrier variant of the Endeavour. It's quite versatile (by virtue of being a carrier) and so has found a home in many Rogue Trader houses but unfortunately the Imperial Navy doesn't consider it as useful because they can't stand by themselves and require an escort. Due to being based off of the Endeavour, it's relatively well armoured for a Light Cruiser and that does help with its survivability.

===Ironclad===
8 kilometer long battering rams. No, really. Tyranids and Orks are busy taking notes.

===[[Imperial Navy Escort|Escort ships]]===
Escorts are the smallest armed vessels available to the Imperial Navy. These ships are normally assigned sector patrol duties or perform as escorts for much larger ships. In fleet engagements they will also act as scouts, ranging out in front of their armada to verify enemy ship numbers and locations. They are generally clasiffied as either frigates, or as destroyer ships.

====Frigates====
Ranging from about 1.4-2km long. They are used for all sorts of duties from convoy escorts to attack or patrol squadrons. Ironically named, as in real life Frigates were the same as Cruisers (which were not Ships of the Line).
*'''Basic:''' Laser batteries only, maybe some Torpedoes if you're lucky. Named after types of swords.
**'''Sword Frigate:''' The most common warship in the Imperial Navy, and one of the simplest. No torpedoes or lances to distract you here; a Sword puts two massive laser batteries behind a pointed armored prow and cuts into enemy formations like [[C.S Goto|a multi-laser through canon.]]
**'''Falchion Frigate:''' A new (245 years old) class of escort ship built by [[Forgeworld|Voss Prime]]. Slow as balls but still capable of firing torpedoes. While Cobras are used offensively in fleet actions, Falchion's are designed to be convoy escorts and stick close to larger warships to defend them from enemy escorts. Effectively a Voss-pattern Sword with torpedo tubes and one laser battery.
**'''Claymore Corvette:''' Designed entirely around escorting vulnerable transports and protecting them against light raiders in order to allow true Frigates to accompany more valuable ships such as Battleships, Battlecruisers and Cruisers. The Claymore Corvettes are easy to mass produce and maintain and are exceedingly common in the private sector, as they are simply a discount Sword.
**'''Turbulent Heavy Frigate:''' Heavy Naval Escorts; these things have comparable armour to cruisers. They're built to sally forth ahead of the main fleet and win skirmishes against enemy scouting forces and vanguard elements. They've garnered a reputation for being lucky; they've contributed to many glorious victories and survived catastrophes that other ship classes have not. Their only downside is that they have rather antiquated communication equipment, probably equipped for durability, not ease of use.
*'''Lance-boat:''' Rarer for Frigates, as they need a Prow slot to mount a Lance.
**'''Firestorm Frigate:''' A Sword-class frigate with a prow-mounted Lance replacing one laser battery. Gives the Sword some extra anti-ship punch that it dearly needs. It's also two hundred meters longer than the Sword-class as a result. The Navy does not like the Marines having them, for some reason.
**'''Thunderbolt Heavy Frigate:''' Not much information on this one, but implied to be a Lance version of the Turbulent, like how the Firestorm is the Lance version of the Sword.
**<s>[[Derp|Given the general naming scheme for Frigate classes is naming them after weapons (Claymore, Sword, Falchion, Gladius etc), the Firestorm would make more sense being called the ''Lance''-class due to its role.]]</s> It's pretty clear refits do not follow the same naming conventions.
*'''Ordnance-boat:''' Mostly upgunned Frigates. Can carry a mix of macrobatteries and small lances.
**'''Tempest Strike Frigate:''' Specialized Brawling frigate designed for devastating enemies at close range. Basically a Sword with a triple armoured prow and heavy short-range broadside batteries. They're often equipped with Assault Boats and Barracks for boarding actions.
**'''Havoc Merchant Raider:''' Small, yet fast raider sized vessels whose impressive firepower came at the expense of armor. Glass Cannons, in large squadrons these can easily overwhelm larger vessels by weight of fire.

====Destroyers====
The most common warship class. Their tasks range from scouting to shuttling VIPs or fighting in fleet engagements in large squadrons. Most pirates use these speedy, nimble vessels to prey upon transport ships.
*'''Basic:''' Usually mounts Prow Torpedoes and a Macrobattery.
**'''Cobra Destroyer:''' The PT-Boats of the Imperial Navy. Small, fast, and lightly armed, their one purpose in life is to fire shoals of torpedoes from 3-8 ship squadrons. A great part of the Imperium's military advantage (in fluff and [[Battlefleet Gothic|on the tabletop]]) comes from all the torpedoes they can fire at the enemy, and the Cobras are a big part of that.
**'''Infidel Raider:''' Was meant to replace the Cobra, but the plans [[Blood Ravens|were stolen]] by Chaos. Armed with Prow Torpedos and a Macrobattery like its predecessor, though some Chaos fleets upgrade them to Heavy Raiders by adding another Macrobattery.
**'''Iconoclast Destroyer:''' If there ever was an Guardsman of starships, the Iconoclast is it. A destroyer so shitty the Navy doesn't want it, the Iconoclast mounts 1-2 macrobatteries and is used by Rogue Traders, Chaos and Pirates. Notable for being one of the few ships to have a forward placed bridge, likely due to the smoke-stack like pylons along its spine.
*'''Torpedo-boat:''' Why waste space on pop guns?
**'''Viper Destroyer:''' Given GW's naming conventions, it was inevitable somebody would do this. Not to be confused with the Sloop below, this is a variant of the Cobra where the guns are replaced by torpedoes. Weak against escorts but deadly in numbers against capital ships. Use [[Boarding Torpedo|Boarding Torpedoes]] for hilarious results.
*'''Lance-boat:''' Rather rare among Raiders, as most use their Prow slots for Torpedoes.
**'''Apostate Heavy Raider:''' A variant of the Infidel. Somehow those heretics managed to shove a full sized Lance into a Dorsal slot, which only Light Cruiser and bigger can normally manage.
**'''Idolator Raider:''' Also known as the "WTF is this" ship, the Idolator is the lovechild of a Infidel, a Firestorm and Xenotech. Has a prow lance and a macrobattery.
*'''Other:''' Mostly weak scouts.
**'''Viper Scout Sloop:''' Smallest warp-capable ship in mass production. It is an exceedingly fast scout ship with ridiculously powerful realspace engines and high-tech auspex scanners. In support of Naval Operations these vessels would burn into enemy territory at high speed, collect as much information as possible and then warp back to friendly territory. Unfortunately they are so specialized that they can't do much else apart from that.
**'''Rudense "Class":''' A small ship designed post Gathering Storm to be as fast, heavily armed, and densely armoured as possible, which they do with aplomb. You may ask yourselves, why are they not used in more regular combat roles? Well, the answer is that they are a specialised orbital insertion ship - designed to get as close to the atmosphere of a heavily defended planet as possible, drop it's cargo of primaris marines into the top layer, and get out of there. Whilst this may seem too specialised to be practical, few enemies are ready for half a company of marines dropping in to their base unexpectedly. (Nb - the class hasn't been formally named yet but the only example of it thus far was named the Rudense).

===Aircraft===
As part of the reforms falling the Horus Heresy the Imperial army was not just split into regiments to insure that no one imperial army could be self sufficient if it fell to heresy or rebellion, the army was also split from it's air power which was given to the Imperial navy. Strictly speaking all atmospheric aircraft are also part of the Imperial Navy, with only [[Phantine Air Corps| few general exceptions]].
*'''[[Fighter]]:''' The fighter's main role is to stop enemy torpedoes and bombers before they can [[anal circumference|rip your flying cathedral multiple new assholes]]. Comes in different models like the [[Fury Interceptor]] or the Thunderbolt Fighter. The main difference is that some can enter a planet's atmosphere to dogfight and/or strafe ground targets where others are limited to space combat.
*'''Bomber:''' Basically reusable torpedoes. Come in different models like the [[Marauder Bomber]] and the [[Starhawk Bomber]], but again the main difference is that some can dip in a planet's atmosphere and drop bombs on ground-pounders where others are space-combat only.

===Armed Freighter (in the Battlefleet)===
Ships bought, borrowed or stolen and then armed in the misguided attempt to boost the strength of a fleet in desperate need of ships (instead of simply using the legio cybernetica to make robots to do the monotonous manual labor so 90% of the hundred thousand crew members can be spread out amongst a hundred more warships)

===Fire Ship===
A fancy name for a fuckheug bomb. A old, damaged or for whatever reason no longer usable ship is packed to the brim with explosives and flown straight into the heart of the enemy formation. Again, Orks are busy taking notes for their Roks. Contrary to what you might think from the Imperium, this is not a suicide assignment. A skeleton crew is used and supplied with plenty of escape pods/lifeboats. The crew evacuates and the ship detonates after they are far out of the danger zone. Some captains decide to go down with the fire ship anyway. Or they mindfuck some penitents to stay and guide it to the best point of detonation. The Imperium isn't short on criminals and/or desperate underclassmen/mutants. Despite its reputation, the Imperium does care about its people’s lives. It just doesn’t care how many of those lives are sacrificed when necessary; but does attempt to minimize said necessity and sacrifice. It’s a nation, not a team-killing asshole out to murder its own people...when not believed needed for the majority to survive.

===Non-Warp Capable Vessels===
Vessels incapable of interstellar travel. All but the most primitive Imperial planets have them.
*'''System Ships:''' Civilian ships that do all the civilian stuff like ferrying, mining and transport. As nobody would buy models of them, [[GW]] never bothered to flesh out their canon. If armed, they are dragooned into the System Defense Force during invasions.
*'''Defense Monitor:''' Essentially, a mobile gun emplacement in space. Slow and small, it diverts all its power into the battleship-sized gun it carries. Crewed by regular Imperial Navy personnel and used to augment existing defenses.
*'''System Defense Vessel:''' The primary unit of a System Defense Force aka the [[Planetary Defense Force|PDF]] in space. Nobody knows what they look like or even what capabilities they have. It is assumed they are lightly armed vessels usually used in police actions and customs enforcement. In times of invasion, they use hit and run tactics as best they can until they die.

===Logistic Vessels===
Ships used for the transportation of cargo or individuals. The majority of Imperial ships would fall into this category.

*'''Carrack-Class Transport Ship;''' A newer version of the Conquest Star Galleon. It's a hardy vessel that can defend itself quite well against raiders. The profile even looks like a Military Vessel so opponents who can't distinguish between Imperial Ships could be scared off.

*'''Goliath-Class Factory Ship;''' An Adeptus Mechanicus vessel designed to harvest plasma from Stars. These ships supply the fuel for the entirety of the Imperium. Other ships can be fitted with Plasma Scoops to top up their own tanks but this is the true fuel-harvesting-workhorse of the Imperium.

*'''Jericho-Class Pilgrim Vessel:''' Refinery ships that have been converted into personnel carriers, the majority of which will be transporting poor-er passengers. Can't really defend itself but usually not even worth the bother for pirates.

*'''Loki-Class Q Ship;''' Converted Cargo ships designed to sacrifice some space for added weaponry. They can serve as Convoy defence in a pinch and can surprise the odd pirate who may underestimate them.

*'''Orion-Class Star Clipper;''' Blockade runners through and through. They're designed to transport low-volume but high-quality goods, even through hostile space. Speed is the name of their game. Hell, these things can put some Eldar ships to shame.

*'''Universe-Class Mass Conveyor;''' Think Super-Tanker in space. It's the largest standardized Cargo hauler in the Imperium and is 12km long. It looks freaking awesome too.

*'''Vagabond-Class Merchant Trader;''' Rather small cargo vessel but extremely common. As if to assist with its 'commoner' theme, it makes you yawn just looking at it.

==Adeptus Mechanicus ships==
Being in charge of manufacturing the warships for the other departments of the Imperium, obviously the Adeptus Mechanicus would also have fleets of its own. The official Mechanicum body that constructs and operates spacecraft is known as the Basilikon Astra. Because the Quest for Knowledge can involve long & dangerous travels into unexplored space, it is important that they be heavily armed and armored, so the Adeptus Mechanicus ships generally are overall of higher quality than standard ships, with better tecnology, weapons, and shields. Though the total number of ships the Adeptus Mechanicus has at its disposal dispersed among its many forge worlds is far outnumbered by that of the Imperial Navy, it goes without saying that those responsible for all starship construction reserve for themselves among the most powerful and best-equipped warships encountered anywhere in the Imperium.

*'''[[Ark_Mechanicus|Ark Mechanicus:]]''' If battleships are literal void-traveling cities, then Ark Mechanicus are void-traveling factories or massive laboratories, with industrial capabilities rivaling that of many hive cities, with kilometre upon kilometre of manufactoria, refineries, crackling Plasma Reactors and laboratories, test ranges, chemical vats and gene-bays. This kind of battleships are incredibly large, nigh-mythical ships that are said to endlessly search the stars as part of the Adeptus Mechanicus Quest for Knowledge, being led by a Venerated Archmagos Explorator. An Ark Mechanicus is outfitted with the most powerful weapons available to the Imperium, generally having a balanced set of macro-cannons, lances, launch bays & a Nova Cannon; Because the search of STC into the unknown can be THAT dangerous.

*'''Adeptus Mechanicus Cruiser:''' Besides vanilla cruisers, the Mechanicus have its own original Cruisers & Light Cruisers, that have better equipment than Imperial Navy cruisers, many times they tend to have nova cannons and that they use servitor slaves instead of human slaves, and occasionally use auto-loaders. In resume, take Imperial Cruiser but quit the typical imperial armored prow, make it shinier, give it better weapons, and can put a nova cannon as a plus.

==Important Details==

===Crews===
''Navy crews are made up of officers, techpriests, slave drivers, and slaves.''

A bit of an over-simplification, but broadly true. Due to the Imperium's aversion to AI and Automation each ship needs at least thousands of people to man it. Whenever the crew count gets low, the Imperial Navy sets up fake strip clubs on a planet claiming "Free Hookers" to lure in unsuspecting men (and the occasional woman). Once a future crewman steps in, he's knocked out, bound, gagged, and taken to the ship, [[grimdark|where they'll slave away the rest of their soon-to-be-short existence]] doing everything needed to make flying through space and fighting in the void possible.

This includes dragging shells the size of houses into cannons while being whipped. Still, at least for the crew sex is allowed, in fact encouraged, if for no other reason than maintaining the crew complement. Seriously, whole fucking cities and civilizations arise from the more massive ships, every bit as intricate as a long lived Hive City. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax7wcShvrus Here is an idea of how it works, right up to the Roman armor, whips and beatings.] Oh and apparently besides whole civilizations, there are whole civilizations of mutants around too. They can more or less settle new worlds for da [[Emprah]] by simply disgorging their excess population, which the crew is probably all too happy to do.

One area where fluff [[Black Library|hasn't been consistent]] is in the uniform worn by Imperial Navy crewmen. Some sources suggest that uniforms are divided by segmentum of the Imperium, while others suggest that it is a sector-by-sector fashion choice. Given the scale the of the Imperium and the fact that Navy fleets are already identified by hull color, it's probably on a segmentum basis, but [[Games Workshop]] doesn't care enough to make a decision about it. For the ranks of the aforementioned shell draggers at the bottom of the naval hierarchy they'd wear a motley collection of their old civilian clothes and whatever they could scrounge up and sew together.

===Travel===
The ships of the [[Imperium]] travel through the [[Warp]] using what's called a warp drive to get to where they're going. However, this isn't your happy, fancy tunnel-of-light like in Star Wars, or everything-moves-fast Star Trek, it is an alternate dimension full of [[Chaos]]. In order to avoid being turned inside-out (think Event Horizon) and getting hentai-raped by every daemon in the warp, the ships rely on what is called the [[Gellar Field]] to keep the [[furries]], undesirables, and various other evil beings out of their ship when traveling through. The Baroque decorations are also implied in helping to ward off said daemons. They rely on a [[Navigator]] that uses the [[Empra]] as a beacon to safely navigate the Warp, hence the title "Navigator".

==Ranks in the Navy==
While the Imperial Navy uses a lot of the ranks in similar fashion to modern militaries, they invariably hold to a more archaic form and are not equivalent to modern day ranking systems. Particularly since it's quite clear that commissions in 40k can often be purchased rather than earned, and that a "Warrant" would most likely hold to the original term and be an "officer by appointment" rather than an enlisted grade. Though considering the immense variety of units within the Imperium, this may not necessarily be the case galaxy-wide, so all options are equally valid. Also, the ship commander will generally be referred to as Captain internally for the sake of simplicity, except in Astartes fleets where they are called shipmasters to avoid confusion regarding the actual rank of Captain in the Astartes.

===Officer Ranks===
*'''Lord-High Admiral of the Imperial Navy''' - This guy is a [[High Lords of Terra|High Lord]] and is the single dude responsible for the '''ENTIRE''' Imperial Navy, though likely he doesn't do much other than delegate to his subordinates and attend tedious High Lord meetings.
*'''Lord-High Admiral''' - There are five of these guys, one for each Segmentum. While they're probably never anywhere near the front lines they probably have more to do, since its their job to oversee the deployment of fleets and materials from sector to sector.
*'''Lord Admiral''' - The guy in charge of a sector fleet who gets direct command of vessels and formations. You see these guys in the fluff quite regularly when "key" worlds ''(like Armageddon)'' need defended or attacked.
*'''Solar Admiral''' - Often a ''terminal'' rank... no really. Occasionally regular Admirals who do good jobs can put themselves forward for promotion to this position, which needs to be approved by the Lord-High Admiral of their Segmentum, then the officer needs to travel to Terra be reviewed by the Lord-High Admiral of the Imperial Navy. Obviously this can take a very, ''VERY'' long time to approve. So they might often be [[Grimdark|dead before the paperwork gets rubber-stamped]]. If they do get approved they are likely to get promoted straight up to sector commander (see Lord Admiral) as a position will probably have opened up while he was waiting. More rarely, Solar Admirals can get sent on "detached duties" which is basically a license to do as they please with their independent fleets.
*'''High Admiral''' - Commands several group of naval fleets (e.g. Battlegroups), often the most senior Navy officer in a Crusade but the things these fucks usually do is just having snacks with their Imperial Guard counterparts and leaving the combat duties to their subordinate Admirals
*'''Admiral''' - Gets put in charge of a fleet and told to oversee some subsectors. He's usually the highest of the "front line" ranks and much of his time will be on active duty patrolling his assigned region.
*'''Vice Admiral''' - Fleets traditionally get split into three parts, with the highest Admiral taking up the portion containing the larger ships, while the "Vice" Admiral takes the "Vanguard" portion of faster moving ships.
*'''Rear Admiral''' - the third portion of a fleet would be the "Rearguard" and usually gets assigned to the youngest/least experienced Admiral in the fleet. His job is usually the quietest one as he gets the mop-up and repair duties.
*'''Commodore''' - an experienced Captain in command of a squadron of capital ships. It's traditionally only a temporary rank, as capital ships don't always get assigned to each other the same way that escorts do. But the realities of war often mean that ships stay together for extended periods, often well beyond the lifespans of generations of captains.
*'''Lord Captain''' - not actually a rank, but an honourific applied to Captains of detached vessels operating independently. The '''"Lord-"''' part implies that they operate with the full authority of the the Imperial Navy when they act so they can deal with outside organisations (like planetary governors, Space Marines or Imperial Guard) on relatively even footing. Sometimes also known by the more archaic term of "Flag-Captain", since as the commander of a detached vessel they figuratively carry their own flag.
*'''Captain''' The commander of a single capital ship or the lead starship in an escort squadron.
*'''Commander''' - Usually the commander of an escort vessel. Is also the ranking officer on board orbital space stations. It also gets used as the terminal rank amongst Pilots, since small attack craft all fall under the remit of the Navy; so a '''Wing Commander''' would get command over all pilots based on a single carrier.
*'''Lord Lieutenant''' - The second-in-command to captains of capital ships, bizarrely Commanders don't hold that role and hold their own positions. Thankfully because a chain of command exists in any military, despite a Wing Commander holding higher "actual" rank over a Lieutenant on a carrier vessel he would not hold any higher authority on that ship than his duties allow for.
*'''Lieutenant''' - a "working" rank. Either holds command over small system vessels or acts as second in command to Commanders of escorts, or as department heads on Capital ships. They are also Squadron leaders amongst pilots.
*'''Sub-Lieutenant / Ensign''' - Team leaders or attack craft pilots
*'''Midshipman''' - Apprentice officers who haven't passed any exams or earned any responsibility, they would exist below the Warrant Officers in terms of authority, despite holding a commission. Midshipmen are commissioned from Imperial Nobility as part of the [[Administratum|Imperial Tithe]] ''(which can mean virtually anyone gets the job if they send their useless heirs just to keep the best ones at home)'' but they are also assigned from the [[Schola Progenium]]. In addition, Midshipmen also may be taken on as a personal favour from the Captain of a vessel if he knows the family. This echoes the ancient real-world practice of young noblemen showing up while the vessel was in dock with a letter from their family and being granted a commission on the Captain's say-so.

===NCO Ranks===
*'''Ship Master''' - the most senior Warrant officer on board a starship, also quite possibly the busiest man on the starship. It's his job to maintain the logs, update stellar navigation charts, oversee ships stores and order supplies, and command a hangar deck if there is one. Basically he's the guy who knows the ship better than anyone. In real-world historical usage, this guy would have an authority equivalent to a Lieutenant on board a starship, and would "mess" ''(ie: occupy the same space)'' as the other officers do.
*'''Bosun''' - ''(Shorthand for Boatswain)'' The NCO directly responsible for all of the common crew members, including [[Commissar|maintaining discipline]]. Despite his position, his actual rank may vary depending upon the size of vessel or operational requirements, in practice it never really matters since he's unlikely to ever meet another Boatswain. ''(real-world Boatswains are typically petty officers or warrant officers, but could be of any rank. They held responsibility over all areas of the ship other than Engineering, which was left to the Chief Engineer, as if the bosun disciplined/executed/imprisoned a skilled crewman from that department the ship could be crippled because of it)''.
**Note that most Capital Ships, but not all Escort ships, may have an actual Naval [[Commissar]] on board in this role, tasked with maintaining discipline up to and [[Blam|including]] the Officer compliment.
*'''Chief Warrant Officer''' - Also called "Chief Petty Officer" on some vessels. Will often be given command of important ship sections ''(like Chief Engineers, helmsmen, or auspex control, as these are are critical to ongoing operation of a starship)''
*'''Warrant Officer''' - You'll find lots of guys of equivalent rank on a ship, in command of various operational sections keeping the ship running at all times:
**Masters of Ordnance - make certain that Torpedoes and Attack craft (if any) are fueled and maintained.
**Master Gunner - have responsibility over all of the weapons batteries through the Gun Captains and make ensure they are loaded and fired when required.
**Master-at-Arms - responsible for all "small" arms on board a starship, overseeing all Sergeants-at-Arms, as well as maintaining order over any barracked Guard regiments currently in transit.
**Master of the Vox - making sense out of the bazillions of messages that run through the bridge at any given moment both internally and externally ''(crews can get pretty massive, and a lot of traffic can come through at once)''.
**Steward - the guy who keeps everyone else well fed.
*'''Gun Captain''' - Funnily enough, the man in charge of a single gun crew. Makes sure that the weapon is taken care of, is reloaded quickly enough, and is accurate when asked to fire. All of that comes back to this guy.
*'''Sergeant-at-Arms''' - Man in charge of the weapons lockers and leader of boarding parties, as well as maintaining ship-board security. Usually they are transferred from [[Imperial Guard]] regiments so that they don't have any prior association with the crew.
*'''Armsmen''' - Crewmen trusted to carry weapons more than a standard issue Lasgun/Laspistol. They are not true soldiers as offensive boarding actions tend to be rare. So these guys still have their own regular responsibilities on board ship. Since they are trusted more, they have slightly more freedom to move around the vessel as well, though most Imperial employees really don't want the job, since it means they get scrutinised more, or they could end up beating up their buddies.
*'''Voidsmen''' - the lowest rank of crewman on board a Naval Starship above the [[Servitor]]s unless the Captain is cool with slavery. If they have a skill or a trade they may be referred to as '''Able Voidsmen''' which is an official rank that might require examinations. Additionally, if they show leadership qualities they might be promoted to '''Leading Voidsman''' and put in charge of work gangs and be considered for promotion to Warrant Officer if a position opens up.

==Notable Problems==
These are problems some have with the Imperial Navy and their fluff....

===General Logistical Problems===
The big problem that the Imperial Navy has is that it's the only organised navy in the galaxy that's trying to defend its massive amounts of space. To do this takes vast numbers of ships but rather thinly spread out. Given the problems of warp travel it's also extremely hard to reinforce friendly fleets under attack. The foes of the navy come essentially in two flavours; raiders who might just manage to scrape together a few converted transports (building even escort-sized ships is a huge undertaking, akin to building damn near the entire American Navy combined from iron ore and making it fly) which take an escort squadron to murder, and huge organized invasion fleets that take a whole fleet to fight. These combine together to mean that outside of fleet bases and important strategic worlds there is nowhere in the Imperium that is actually well-defended. At best a fleet has to be formed and sent out and they could arrive months later. Travel takes a lot of time, and out in the void it can be extremely hard to know what you are actually fighting against, especially since the enemy tend to kill anyone who tries to look at them. So when there's a large enemy force that you absolutely must fight (not fighting is much preferable) you don't just band together whoever was within shouting distance of the flagship and go murdering, you pull together every single vessel in the sector and hope to the Emperor it's enough to do the job.

TL,DR: Acquiring a force sucks when command thinks paperwork and red tape are forms of worship and maintenance thinks the toilet needs a prayer before it is unclogged.

Warships genuinely are vast things and obscenely expensive and risking them at all in major actions is not something anyone does lightly. Each cruiser is larger and more complex than a fully-kitted titan legion. These things are MASSIVE. In the BFG book there's a fluff story of a cruiser being built at a shipyard that orbits a primitive world. The entire population of the planet were given over to mining the resources needed to build one single cruiser. It took them eleven years to mine the ore. Sure, that's a primitive world, but if you think about it that makes carving out the rocks for it the largest single project ever engaged upon without mechanization. If you add together all seven wonders of the world you aren't even close to the pile of rock we're talking about. So these things are a big fucking investment and the high lords really don't like risking them without a really good reason (makes you questioning why they wouldn't build 20 smaller ships instead).

So if you ever wondered why the Navy doesn't get more action, now you know. By the time the big, awesome ships get on the scene the invasion already probably finished and the bad guys moved on. Then you nuke the shit out of them from orbit or drop millions of poor bastards into the meat grinder. Far better idea all round. It's the reason that the enemy, even nutters like Chaos, don't fight in the void without reason. On the ground it's just a scrap, and maybe you win or maybe you don't. If you lose in the void then your campaign on the surface is dead. No reinforcements, no support and a massive constant orbital bombardment to kill everyone left (which sometimes doesn't happen, because, you know, plot armour). That tends to mean fleets hover around and not fighting, one ensuring the other can't directly interfere with the surface war. This is actually an excellent and realistic explanation for why there is significant ground warfare in 40k. Also, ground-based defenses, mobile theater-shields, etc. are common. So, attacking a planet worth anything is like attacking a planet-sized Death Star without the super-weapon. Your ground forces taking out shields and anti-space batteries is critical to achieving anything. But, by that point, most of the enemy is dead and the survivors have either moved to the next defended region or got so stuck-in with your dudes that you can't shoot without killing your own army. Unless you worship Khorne, in which case you really couldn't care less who you kill, even yourself.

So, the navies of the galaxy ultimately get pushed down into either raiders, escorts against raiders, raider-hunters, or babysitting and logistical duty for groundpounders. Which of course brings back the question of why the Navy has such a desire to get more interceptors and bombers for ship-to-ship combat when they rarely engage in combat in the first place and the attack craft are insufficient. Could be to weaken the enemy ships' ability to shoot at the surface, but by the point they would have a target it would have (as stated) gone to a new defended location or whatever else, defeating the point of sending attack craft to weaken the enemy ships' offensive power. They won't shoot at each other, and they can't shoot at the surface (or at least can't shoot anything worth shooting at). In exchange for packing in so many attack craft into hangars designed for countless atmospheric air support fighters and bombers, the Imperial Guard has to die in radically greater numbers than they have any need to since they have limited anti-air capabilities and all of their enemies have no problem sending massive swarms of fighters and bombers at them. That is without even getting to engage the enemy on the ground and not counting the countless soldiers killed as the transports are shot to pieces due to their escorts commonly ditching them to go after obvious bait tactics.

Thus the rumor that the Navy has no balls. But who needs balls when you have a nova cannon sized dick and eighteen dice worth of fire power.

===Ship Size===
No one is quite sure how big the ships really are. One story claims the Retribution-Class is a mere 3 kilometers long, while another says it is 9 kilometers and up to 20 kilometers.

Your best bet is Rogue Trader, although going by those figures, anything bigger than a cruiser has an average density around that of hydrogen... From a helpful poster on [http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=63267&page=2 Heresy-Online] we have this:

For the most accurate scale, look towards the Battlefleet Koronus Expansion, as it is more a stat/rule book than a story. That and previous consensi, as well as cross referencing with the Horus Heresy rulebooks by Forge World (which places Battleships at 8-12km) place Cruisers just above 5 kms, and Battleships in the mid 8s. Please note that most ships above the size of 8ish kilometers are either a unique modified/purpose built flagship or a ship of a small class that is not in widespread calculations. For a sense of scale the largest warship in the world is currently the US Navy's Ford Class Aircraft Carrier measuring in at 337 meters long or 0.337km making the USS Ford the size of a cannon. They have guns literally the length of an Aircraft carrier!

*Transports and other Attack Craft, typically rated for atmospheric operation; also includes ships designed to be boarding torpedoes.
**<1 kilometer. That's the small ones, there are super transports in 40k as well. (A [[thunderhawk]] would go here).
*Escorts are "small" ships, like the Cobra, designed to flank foes and operate in squads.
**1-2 kilometers.
**Heavy Frigates
**Frigates
**Corvettes
**Destroyers
**Freighters
*Light Cruiser, a smaller Cruiser.
**3-5 kilometers.
*Cruiser, the standard fighting vessel; every Imperial fleet has them.
**5-6 Kilometers.
*Battle Cruiser, a beefed up Cruiser; generally more 'modern' than a Grand Cruiser.
**6-7 kilometers.
*Grand Cruiser; pocket-sized Battleship, very old.
**7-8 kilometers.
*Battleship; the biggest of the lot, simply put.
**8-12 kilometers.
**Battleships
**Fleet Carriers

The Horus Heresy novel "Know No Fear" had this to say about ship sizes, taken from [http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/22848349/ /tg/] who quoted it from the book and written here is just the lengths and names of the ships, for simplicity and space:

*Macragge’s Honour. Twenty-six kilometers - Flagship
*Spirit of Konor. Seventeen kilometers - Battleship
*Antrodamicus. Twelve kilometers - Grand Cruiser
*Antipathy. Nine kilometers - Cruiser (note that the book said it had "six thousand lives" on board, which would be an absurdly small crew for its size by 40k or even 21st century standards - Cruisers normally have 85-95 thousand crew in 40k, and that's for normal sized ones, not double length ones like this one. But this is a Horus Heresy ship, so perhaps it's automation was much better then a later 40k ship)
*Aegis of Occluda. Seven kilometers - Class unknown
*Gladius. Four kilometers - Escort
*Then there is the Abyss-class created by Lorgar that is said to match the Phalanx in size. He made three of them.

===Weapon Effects===
If the weapons can annihilate a continent, why can't it destroy a mere hive? Because different writers don't talk to each other that's why. Also shields maybe. Also, at Calth the Word Bearers tried to collapse the local star by shooting it and that only failed due to the Ultramarines managing to get their shit together.

Alternate take: Sure these weapons can destroy continents, but generally speaking why would the Imperial Navy want to bombard a probably Imperial Hive? Another thing to consider is that while Imperial warships are capable of *BLAM*-ing a planet, it requires a lot of ships firing either specialized planet-killing ordnance or just bombarding round the clock. One virus bomb/Cyclonic torpedo/lance shot would do comparatively little damage. But it does make you think about how powerful those void shields must be.

Another take: Something to keep in mind is the different size of ships and thus cannon barrels. A Retribution-class battleship is a lot bigger than a Mars-class battlecruiser is a lot bigger than a Turbulent-class heavy frigate, just to name a few. Different ships have different weapons.

Another Alternate take : The heresy novels elaborate a little on little on the practicalities of Orbital bombardment as a battlefield weapon. Whilst it is occasionally used tactically and reserved as a strategic level weapon, it requires utterly pinpoint accuracy (targeting being off by a millimetre in orbit could result in a shot being kilometres off on the ground) which is only possible when orbit is completely uncontested. It's use during land battles is the VERY definition of Danger Close and often a dead giveaway to the enemy, as allied forces have to withdraw kilometres away before ordering a bombardment, letting an enemy force bunker down or get out the way. Ships are also very easy targets for anti-orbital weapons during bombardment and the effect of a starship hulk hitting a planet you're fighting for is not something to be risked.

Alternate alternate take of an alternate take take: Hives are designed to withstand bombardment from orbit while firing back with enough power to make enemy ships stay away. This is the main reason why massive ground engagements happen (and there are theater shields available, too). For example, the Rock of the Dark Angels survive Caliban being essentially turned into its component atoms via mass bombardment. Also, the previuos "Another Alternate take" directly above this one is right. Now combine that take with this one and really the only way to take an enemy position is to get off your ass and do it yourself the manly way.

Alternated take because alternate takes on alternate takes don't take what it takes: most weapons are jackshit useless against a planet with atmosphere and magnetosphere. Nova cannon shots, plasma bursts and lance batteries are distorted by magnetic fields, macrobattery shots burn up in dense atmosphere, just like torpedoes and most void-faring attack craft.
To fire effectively the ships either have to come CLOSER into low orbit (being exposed to oversized cannons and missile launchers that can be seen around every major spaceport and hive city) and risk being burst open like a pinata, or are forced to just shit bombs from high orbit, being absolutely horrible at aiming.

===Lack of Balls===
It is well-known that most Imperial Navy Officers don't have em.

An Imperial Navy fleet is most effective when Inquisitors take it over. [[Exterminatus|See Here]].

===Carrier Hate===

Back in M36, the Imperial Navy fought a lowkey civil war over fleet doctrine in Segmentum Tempestus known as the Gareox Incident. A cabal of chaos worshipers worked their way high enough in the navy to start designing ships that were ready-built to turn traitor, most of which were carriers. The battlefleet eventually figured out something was off and the result was a giant carriers vs battleships fight that went down the way the Battle off Samar would have if the Japs hadn't been scared shitless by three destroyers. The surviving carriers went openly traitor and since then building new carriers has been borderline heresy so far as the navy is concerned.

==Music of the Imperial Navy==
Not to be outdone by the Imperial Guard (as well as to compensate for their aforementioned lack of balls), the Imperial Navy has begun collecting music to either be blared on loudspeakers when not in active use, or in the case of battleship command decks, played live by orchestra. the first four are taken from [[Battlefleet Gothic Armada|Battlefleet Gothic Armada.]]

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DhAAGZVAVo [[Awesome|This one is by far the best.]]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80QrqY_FgQ8
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0I7M0W_Ig
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFREOz5CvDs
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AlLNITLk8A - A piece dating back to the Armada Imperialis' of the Great Crusade, but is still played regularly.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5STVoaxz8-Y - This instrumental is rumored to date back to some epic naval battle during the later dark age of technology.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJEgAFR9vDc - While not quite fitting for battleships and grand cruisers, this piece dates back to when humanity was just beginning to march upon the stars, and as such, is heard regularly in ships captained by sentimental officers.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUrSQNSN6_c - This fitting instrumental is often played in bastion fleets whenever they are mustered to put down [[Black Crusade|yet another temper tantrum.]]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAw1KlZ8C-A - Battlefleet Gothic Imperial port theme.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlcUwUwjLrs - This ancient piece, a popular mobilization theme for the Imperial Navy, was apparently created during a time in which humanity was at war with a xeno species known as "Cylons". [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|No other records of this species can be found.]]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so10dKbhorI - Another piece from the same era that the Cylons existed, it was created to commemorate a successful assault on a planet known as New Caprica, what is now an imperial hive world.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFEHCuSnun0 - This was commissioned by a very srs bzns admiral.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gii4e-h3DBc - This was commissioned by a very srs bzns admiral from Praetoria.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7qOJrT_lUg - One of the pieces Lord High Admiral Langsung ordered to be played during the Battle for Port Sanctus.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu_Lp51wyao - This dated back to the glory days of human stellar exploration, when the universe was less grimdark, but is still a favorite for exploratory fleets, or for trying to distract yourself from the fact that you're just one [[Gellar Field|energy field]] away from a level 99 rapefest.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPLXNmKvLBQ - One of many favorites of those captaining Ironclads.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXlJ5DMq5o - A favorite of Vostroyan admirals.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elK5iReyAMI - Played during ceremonial ship or fleet launches since the great crusade.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR5N0-DqZoU - One of many pieces played when the fleets return victorious.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm3q6dCeP7M - An orchestral litany created to aid in battles against chaos ships.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvriqdS3vsc - A common theme of blockade runners, more nimble imperial vessels, and rogue traders plundering xeno planets in the name of the God Emperor.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbh6HT7lLx8 - Popular among fleets in Segmentum Pacificus.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NDn6WtZBJY - Popular among fleets in Segmentum Pacificus led by admirals from oriental cultures.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KylMqxLzNGo - Music played whenever the Navy has to perform exterminatus.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZcj56XXrPM - A personal favorite of an admiral from Armageddon.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3iwvG2ZKuw - The christening and launch of a new ship, straight out of the docks.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9mFPDRZIgE - Encountering a Tyranid Hive Fleet

==See also==
* [[Famous_Spaceships_of_Warhammer_40,000#Famous_Imperial_Spaceships|Famous Imperial Spaceships]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.darkreign.org/sites/default/files/BFG%20FAQ%202010_0.pdf/ A Comprehensive List of Ships]
* [http://yenlowang.free.fr/warhammer-forum/BFG/BFG_-_Additional_Ships_Compendium_1.4.pdf Battlefleet Gothic Additional Ships Compendium]
* [https://i.imgur.com/2q7J2Xv.jpg A big poster of fictional navies], with 40k in the center left
* [[Kor'Vattra]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image: EMP-Class.jpg|The Lord Admiral's Love Shack
image: Avenger.jpg| The Grand Marshal's Summer Palace of PWNAGE
image: Lunar-Class.jpg|<s>Imagine how quick land battles would be if these things actually helped</s> They do help, but they can't do it too much or they risk fucking up the planet they came to save, also you try aiming a lance cannon at a spot a meter wide from orbit without hitting your mates on the ground
image: RapidStrikeVessels.JPG|The Bullet-Catchers of the Navy
image: Imperial Fleet Size Sca.jpg|Another demonstration of too much spare time
image: Flagship-mk2.JPG|One of the revered ships of Battlefleet [[/tg/]]: [[Flankitus]]
File:Warhammer Imperial Cruisers by mik.jpg|
File:M1130006 Gothic Art Cover.jpg|
</gallery>

{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Battlefleet Gothic]]
[[Category:Imperial]]

Nazi Equipment

2019-10-11T03:00:40Z

2601:1C0:5C00:C130:48A3:1519:712B:42EE: /* Tanks */

[[Nazi|Nazis]]. History's most stylish villains. They're famous as much for their cool equipment as for their total evilness, and because of its distinctive aesthetic and reputation- they did develop some of the most technologically advanced weapons of the 1940s, after all- it gets a lot of use in games, both traditional and otherwise. Here's a hilariously non-brief overview. As a general rule of thumb (with the exception of the Karabiner 98 which predated the Nazis by decades) Nazi equipment was [[plasma|very advanced in concept and potentially quite strong, but overly complicated and unreliable to the point of being dangerous to its user.]]

===Small Arms===
* '''''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBrh1euWg0 Karabiner 98 kurz]'':''' ("Carbine 1898 short" in German, also called simply ''Gewehr 98'', "rifle of [18]98") The standard German infantry rifle during WWII from the old Mauser family (the Mauser action was used in dozens of countries and is still in wide use today: Mauser rifles from WWI era caches and beyond are still being demilitarized and sold to people, primarily for hunting, ''today''.) It was beginning to become dated in WWII, given that it was essentially just a shorter version of the venerable Gewehr 98 which armed most German soldiers in WWI. It used 7.92×57mm Mauser ammunition (often shortened to "8mm Mauser"). The rifle's strengths were that it was fairly cheap, very accurate, and reliable. But its drawbacks were that it had a slow rate of fire and only a five-round magazine. The easiest weapon to compare it to in WWII would be the Soviet Mosin Nagant, which was cheaper to make (and currently in something of a renaissance as very inexpensive Soviet era demilitarized versions were sold in huge numbers not too long ago.) It fell short compared to the British SMLE rifle, which had a ten-round magazine and had a good rate of fire for a bolt action, though it has a substantial advantage due to 8mm Mauser being rimless while .303 British is not. Worse yet, the Karabiner 98k also went up against the semi-automatic American M1 Garand (which General Patton had called "the greatest weapon ever devised") which vastly outperformed it in spitting bullets down range. (All of the above are roughly the same range of calibre—.30 [inches] or 7 to 8mm—one which remains in use today by almost every major military as well as many civilian uses, although today's fashion is for smaller calibre, higher velocity rounds for infantry.) Even then, the gun was generally quite well regarded for what it was and there was plenty of them to go around. It was also the go-to weapon for German snipers who affixed a scope to it. The gun is still in use today actually, it is still the German army's drill rifle, some states still use versions of it as a sniper rifle and it's sometimes found in Iraq and other third world nations where it acts as a cheap marksman's rifle. Of course, it's also an excellent hunting rifle in civilian hands.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUjPeAgvf3U '''''Gewehr 43'']:''' "Rifle 1943". the German army's semi-automatic rifle. This weapon was developed in response to their invasion of the Soviet Union, where the Germans were shocked to find Soviet troops brandishing semi-automatic rifles (the SVT-40, primarily), drastically out-gunning their troops in firefights. The result was a fairly decent semi-automatic rifle/carbine chambered for the same rounds as the Kar98k, which derived many of it's concepts, while not being an outright clone of, the SVT-40. The rifle's magazine was also not built-in in that its detachable (allowing for quick reloads) but still had the option of allowing the shooter to rapidly use stripper-clips when reloading (either attaching them directly to the weapon from above, or using them to push several bullets at once into a magazine which attached to the rifle below.) Much like the Kar98k, it worked well as a marksman/sniper's weapon when affixed with a scope. Unfortunately, mechanically it was far from perfect as it was overgassed (not surprising, as the gas pressure that was tapped from the barrel to cycle the semi-automatic action proved to be too strong for the rifle's quite complicated mechanism, especially when made by unskilled workers from lower-quality steel). This resulted in (comparatively) frequent breakdowns and shattered parts, in addition to requiring more maintenance. Copying overmuch from the SVT-40 may have also contributed to this problem, as the 7.62x54mmR cartridge in the SVT-40 produces a lower gas pressure than the 7.92x57mm Mauser. For this reason, the G43 wasn't a very popular weapon among German troops, though its firepower was still welcome.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQhO8FtY7c '''''Maschinenpistole 38/40'']:''' "Machine pistol 1938/1940", the iconic MP 40 is a slightly updated variant more suitable for mass-production. The most common German submachine gun through the war used mainly by squad leaders and troops fighting in urban areas. It was also the go-to weapon of specialist units like paratroopers and the SS. Uses a 32-round magazine chambered for 9x19mm rounds and typically comes with a folding wire stock. In general pretty good but only a million of them were produced, compared to the millions of SMGs made by the British, Americans and Soviets. [[Derp|The primary weapon of the Nazis, according to Hollywood at least, where every single German grunt has one.]] Known for its rather simplistic design; the weapon had only one fire setting (automatic), though its cyclical rate was much lower than equivalent Allied SMGs, allowing aimed single shots at the cost of some room-clearing power. Was a major influence that can still be seen in SMG development.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIX1EL1hTmE '''''Pistole Parabellum 1908'']:''' "Pistol Parabellum 1908". The Nazis used a bunch of pistols in truth, but none are as iconic of the Third Reich as the P08 Luger with its joint armed breech. It could load an eight-round box magazine or a thirty-two-round drum. The 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge was initially designed for this pistol and is still one of the most common pistol calibers in the world. It was eventually phased out in favor of the P38 as being a standard-issue sidearm due to the Luger being too expensive to manufacture for the entire German army, although the Luger was still available for the troops and officers who could afford it. The Luger was also somewhat unique at the time in that it could still double as a pistol carbine by affixing a stock and a 32-round drum-magazine to it, when carbine-convertible pistols had started falling out of fashion years before. The exotic toggle-lock mechanism of the gun meant it had shitty reliability in field conditions, but the gun was made at a time when sidearms were typically issued to specialists, officers, and policemen, who were typically away from conditions that could foul up the gun.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAMma6mUq8 '''Walther ''Pistole 38'']:''' "Walther Pistol 1938". The Walther P38 replaced the Luger P08 as the Wermacht service pistol just before World War II due to it being cheaper to produce. It loaded a 9x19mm eight-round detachable box magazine. Nerds will recognize this as G1 Megatron's alt-mode. MUCH more common than the Luger despite what Hollywood would tell you, and a decent pistol, if a bit annoying due to its hard-to-pull trigger.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vkU3CIPdMk '''Mauser ''Construktion 96'']:''' "Construction 1896". Popularly known as the "Boxcannon" (by the Chinese) and "Broomhandle" (by most everyone else); it loaded ten rounds from a stripper clip into an internal magazine, although there was also an option for a 20-round magazine that had the added bonus of the entire magazine being detachable instead of being built-into the weapon. The C96 was typically chambered for either the newer 9x19mm or the original 7.63x25mm rounds (which were so high velocity for a pistol cartridge of the time that they were only surpassed with the later development of the .357 Magnum). The C96 was not typically issued to the main German army during WW2—only the Luftwaffe were known users of the weapon during the war, as sidearms for their pilots. It was also one of the first and most iconic of the pistol carbine designs, innovating the wooden holster that could double as a detachable stock, making it (and Spanish and Chinese knockoffs) extremely popular in areas like China where proper longarms might be either too expensive or banned from import. However, by the 30s and 40s, this feature had fallen out of fashion in the West and wasn't included in newer production models, with only a few being modified to restore the functionality. Nerds will recognize this as Han Solo's DL-44 blaster pistol from the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, with some gubbins glued to it to make it more sci-fi.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4COZpIw9UMI '''Walther Polizeipistole/Polizeipistole Kurz''']: "Police Pistol/Police Pistol short". You know this one, it's the gun made popular by Ian Fleming and James Bond super-spy character. The Walther PP is a compact pistol that was typically issued to German police units (Kripo, Gestapo, Gefepo and Feldgendarmerie), but also as a sidearm to military officers. The PPK variant was an even smaller version of the PP, designed for concealed carry in mind (in fact it was so small that it can typically fit into the sleeves of most longcoats, making it useful for infiltrators). It could come chambered for either 7.65mm (.32 ACP to Americans) or 9x17mm (9mm Parabellum) rounds. The Cold War era Soviet Makarov pistol would largely be based on the PP pistols, though in a (slightly) more powerful cartridge known as 9x18 or 9mm Makarov (which is actually thicker than the now ubiquitous 9x17/9mm Parabellum, since Soviets measured width from a different part of the cartridge). The PPK and cheaper clones (such as the Bersa Thunder, in .380 ACP or 9mm Kurz "Short") are readily available today and basically never stopped production.

* [https://www.forgottenweapons.com/evolution-of-the-sturmgewehr-mp431-mp43-mp44-and-stg44/ '''''Sturmgewehr 44'']:''' The "Assault rifle 1944" was the first assault rifle adopted on a large scale. Chambered for the new 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge, it gave a rifleman the power and accuracy of a rifle with the rate of fire of a submachine gun. As its name suggests, it entered the war very late, even though it is only an updated version of the MKB42, which, as the name suggests, came into the war mid-early 1942. In a rare demonstration of common sense, Hitler vetoed its development early on due to logistics (replacing over 10 million '98k' rifles with a new model that used different ammo couldn't be done overnight, or cheaply), though he changed his mind later in the war when it became clear a limited impact would be better than none at all. This, combined with the fact that producing the Stg44 required the industry to adapt their tooling, and recurrent shortages of resources later in the war, heavily limited the scale at which they were produced. It also had some mechanical issues, including a fragile feed mechanism which could jam if the rifle was knocked over. Anecdote: one of its optional attachments was the ''Krummlauf'', a curved barrel and periscope for firing around corners or from inside a vehicle hatch. Yes, it worked, but the bullets often shattered as they skittered along the curve of the barrel, causing a shotgun-like spread, and the barrels wore out quickly. In any case, the troops who received the regular Stg44 loved them because it gave the firepower of a submachine gun at about three times the effective range—and it was particularly interesting to the Russians, inspiring a certain gun called the AK-47. Even at a glance the inspiration is clear, although the Stg44 is noticeably heavier and klunkier, partly due to the materials the Germans had to make do with in a total war environment.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJkU4Sah8I '''''Maschinengewehr 42'']:''' "Machine gun 1942". German military doctrine during WWII was built around the machine gun and, as such, the Germans developed an exceptional machine gun in the MG 42 (basically an improved but functionally identical version of the earlier MG 34). It was lightweight at 11.7 kg, was belt fed unlike the magazine fed LMGs it usually went against, and it could nominally fire 1,200 rounds per minute (although, in practice, it was actually even faster) while most other machine guns could barely reach 600. That much [[dakka]] causes a lot of heat, so the gun was designed for easy swapping of barrels; although even with the barrels being regularly changed it was not uncommon for these guns to fire so fast that a cartridge would ignite before being fully loaded, completely breaking the gun and potentially injuring the gun's crew. Its terrifying rate of fire and distinctive report earned it the nickname "Hitler's Buzzsaw". The MG 42 was the basis for numerous other weapons throughout the Cold War (and is still used in NATO-forces today as MG3, they only changed to NATO-standard-caliber and reduced the firing rate to actually be 1200 rounds per minute, as opposed to the 1500 rpm of the original MG42). The MG3 is still widely exported and its production licensed to NATO and allies. A ''double barrel'' variant of the MG3 was also produced as a ''low cost Minigun alternative''.

* '''''Maschinengewehr 34'':''' The predecessor to the MG 42, it was still in wide use at the start of the war. It had a lower, more controllable rate of fire of around 800-900 RPM, and had a single-shot mode that was removed in the MG 42. Its production went on parallel to the MG 42 because its swing-down barrel-swap method was more compatible with vehicle ball mounts than MG 42's slide-open method, so all MGs seen on German tanks even late in the war were still MG 34's.

* '''''Fallschirmjägergewehr 42'':''' "Paratrooper rifle 1942", and if a K98k and a MG42 could have a baby together this battle rifle would be it. Created in limited numbers for the exclusive use of German paratroopers. The high-ups realized that the K98k was too long for paratroopers, and the MP40 wasn't suitable outside of urban combat, so they wanted something that handled like a carbine but could fire like a machine gun. the FG 42 was designed as a shorter, automatic battle rifle to give paratroops superior firepower, using a side-loading box magazine. Its high recoil made automatic fire inadvisable, as with later automatic high-caliber battle rifles such as the US M14. While it never really took off, it was quite the solid design, and is notable for influencing the design of the MG 42 (along with the American M60 machine gun after the war).

* '''''Hafthohlladung'':''' In English, "Attachable Shaped Charge" (get used to this very literal naming scheme, it continues below). Very soon into the war, the Germans realized they would never have enough tanks and AT guns to go around, so they developed weapons that would allow an infantryman to (in theory, at least) deal with a tank. The Hafthohlladung was such an early attempt. A big AT grenade with three magnets that allowed it to stick to any metallic surface, it would make a nice hole into any tank it was attached to... Which makes the weapon's main drawback immediately clear: [[Tankbustas|running up to an operational tank to slap a bomb to its flank wasn't exactly safe]]. In theory, you could also try to [[Genestealer cults|wait and hide in ambush]] for the tank to pass close by since visibility from inside a tank wasn't that great, but that would require being able to anticipate the path of the tank (without accidentally getting run over), and tanks were often supported by infantry anyway. The Hafthohlladung wasn't really a successful weapon and saw only limited use, but it paved the way for the next item on the list:

* '''''Panzerfaust'':''' "Armor fist", or, more literally, "tank fist". A disposable one-shot anti-armor weapon for use against tanks and entrenched positions. Really cheap to produce, lightweight, and able to do a lot of damage to tanks at close range (maximum range being at most 150 meters for the later models). And it was really easy to use: hold in crook of the arm, flip a switch up that becomes an iron sight (and also arms the weapon), aim, squeeze the firing lever, and enjoy the fireworks. The basic idea of how they were used was to give one guy in every squad (or more) one of them so that if a tank ever did get close, there was a chance they'd be able to take it out or do some damage. This, among other things, made allied generals wary about sending tanks to clear out German infantry forces, especially among the ambush-friendly hedgerows of northern Europe. That said, Panzerfausts were useless for trying to snipe at tanks from a distance (with an effective range of only 150m, about the same effective range as most SMGs) and could not be reloaded with another rocket, preventing most troops from carrying more than one shot on their person. In the last days of the war, the Nazis gave these to grannies and kids on the off-chance that they could destroy an allied tank when they rolled into town. Looked like a fist in a tube, hence the name. Its general design was later copied by the Russians, eventually used in the RPG-2 and RPG-7 rocket launchers. The concept of the Panzerfaust is still very much alive in the form of many "Light Anti-tank Weapons" (M72, AT4, MATADOR,...) in use today.

* '''''Panzerschreck'':''' "Armor terror", or "tank fright". A reusable anti-tank rocket launcher based off captured American bazookas, and you can almost imagine the Nazi scientist getting one and saying "[[Ork|Bigga is Betta!]]" It was larger than the Bazooka, with an 88mm muzzle size (where the first Bazooka was only 60mm)—in fact, it is still larger than most rocket launchers and mortars in use today. Like the Bazooka, but unlike the Panzerfaust, it could be reloaded, and had a longer range than the Faust. The Panzerschreck has a distinctive steel blast shield in front, which has to do with the larger rocket blowing hot exhaust into the users face. Early models without the shield ended up requiring the operator to wear a gasmask and protective poncho (which must have sucked for the first person to test it, before they figured that out). The Panzershreck was more useful as an offensive weapon than the Panzerfaust, since it was capable of easily penetrating the armor of any tank they faced (and at better ranges) thanks to the bigger rocket. But on the other hand, it was very much a temperamental weapon that required trained operators, so its use was restricted to dedicated tank hunter teams (unlike the Panzerfaust, which was simple enough that a 10-year old kid could handle it).

*'''''Panzerwurfmine'':''' "Mine to be thrown at tanks" (don't say we didn't warn you about the names). Another attempt at allowing infantrymen to deal with a tank, this is basically a shaped charge with deployable stabilizing cloth fins that was thrown overhand to land on the top a tank and blow a nice, big hole through it. Cheap to produce and very efficient, but it required lots of practice to use, so it was only given to trained "[[Tankbustas|tank-hunter]]" teams. The Russians captured some of those, were duly impressed, and promptly refined the German concept into their own "RPG-6" AT hand grenade that was just as cheap and efficient but way easier to use, and so good it was still part of their arsenal when the Soviet Union fell and can still be found all over the world in relatively low-intensity conflicts. Sure, it won't kill a modern tank, but it sure as hell will kill third-world militia in up-gunned Toyotas.

*'''''Captured Weapons''''': Due to necessity and practicality, German troops also commonly used enemy equipment from all sides, predominantly Soviet weapons due to their large sweeps during the first stage of the invasion of Russia. To ease supply concerns, some weapons were converted to use standard German ammunition like the ''PPSh-41 submachine-gun'' (which was converted from 7.62x25mm to 9x19mm), while others actually had new Soviet-style ammunition made for them in converted factories.

===Vehicles===
====Tanks====
German tanks were in general well designed, but in hindsight were overengineered and prone to breakdowns in the field. For example, take their ''Schachtellaufwerk'' (interleaved roadwheels system for tracks). The idea was: more roadwheels = weight distributed more evenly over track = less ground pressure = less bogging down and/or a higher maximum load. It was also supposed to lessen tank shaking and allow to fire (relatively) accurately on the move. Great idea on paper, and a pretty good one when testing prototypes at home... but an absolute hell on the Eastern front, where the almost supernaturally awful mud (or ''rasputitza'') infiltrated between the wheels before freezing and breaking everything. Cue hour after hour of work for the maintenance teams, removing the track and wheels for cleaning before mounting them again [[FAIL|each and every time the goddamn tank sortied]], where a more traditional slack-track system would have required much less cleaning. And let's not even get into ''real'' mechanical breakdowns...

In the end, the true selling point of the ''Panzerwaffe'' was not the tanks themselves, but instead, primarily, the tactics of using them, the crew members manning them, the mechanics supporting them, and the radios installed in every tank that allowed for a level of coordination between tanks, infantry, and artillery not seen before the start of WWII (which formed the core of ''Blitzkrieg'' tactics). This, along with some powerful late-war designs, occasionally gave German tanks an edge over Allied tanks until production problems, stability issues and most of all fuel shortages became overwhelming.

German tanks are called "''Panzer''", which when directly translated means "''armor''", and more specifically is the shortened version of "''Panzerkampfwagen''" (Armored Fighting Vehicle). The name is often abbreviated to just "PzKpfw".
* '''Panzer I:''' Designed and produced in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the ''Panzerkampfwagen I'' was the first Nazi tank. It was small, weighing only 5.4 tonnes, and was armed only with two MG-13 machine guns. Some 1,493 were made, and were most notable in that they allowed tank crews to be trained, and (after being sent to Spain) let tank doctrines be developed that later allowed the Nazis to take over Poland. They saw some use at the beginning of WWII, but were pretty soon deemed to be out of date even on scouting missions. Until they were deemed totally obsolete, they were continuously upgraded and specialized, and had several variants including a potential recon paratrooper-tank. Primary Nazi tank of the Condor legion in the Spanish Civil War [[File:Panzer I.PNG|thumb|right|300px|Mein Herr! Can't ve get somezing better zan zis Panzer I?]] As with a lot of Nazi tanks that became obsolete, the old PzKpfw 1s were sometimes stripped to the chassis and repurposed for things such as artillery and tank-destroyer roles, though this was relatively rare.
* '''Panzer II:''' The ''Panzerkampfwagen II'' was designed using the experience gained in the Spanish Civil War. Heavier than the Panzer I at 8.9 tonnes, it was designed as a stopgap, as the Panzer III and IV were experiencing delays in production. It was armed with a dinky automatic 20mm cannon that was little better than an anti-tank rifle. Common during the early war, it was made obsolete by the arrival of the Panzer III and IV, and relegated to reconnaissance duties, training, or conversion into open-topped tank destroyers. Much like it's younger brother, it too was pushed through several variants; however, instead of trying to upgrade it to stay in main-line action, it was turned into a better scout tank so that the Panzer III could take over the main-line role. Primary Nazi tank for the invasion of Poland and France.
* '''Panzer III:''' One of the two main German tanks of the war, the ''Panzerkampfwagen III'' was about when Germany really got the hang of this whole tank design thing. Introduced in 1939, it weighed 23 tonnes, carried a 37mm anti tank gun, and notably had a turret big enough for three guys (which is actually more important than you might think, as it allows the crew to share the workload, e.g., the Loader's only task would be to load the gun with correct ammo in as short time as possible, the Gunner focuses on aiming and firing the gun, while the Commander can retain situational awareness and, well, give orders). Contemporary tanks usually had two- or even one-man turrets, forcing the crew to share responsibilities, thus lowering combat efficiency. The Panzer III was designed from the ground up to engage enemy tanks, rather than the infantry and light vehicles of earlier models. In Poland, France, and North Africa it did well, even though some French vehicles still outgunned them. Against Soviet T-34s, however, it was completely insufficient, unless upgraded to a 50mm gun and firing APDS. Thankfully, unlike the French and Russians, the Panzer III were all equipped with radios, allowing them to out-maneuver the un-radioed yet otherwise better tanks. Production stopped in 1942, but since they had built 5,774 of them, they stayed in service until the end of the war. The chassis was used to produce the StuG assault cannon (although "Geschütz" is hard to translate to English: it's neither a mere gun, nor a cannon, being more of a tank destroyer, i.e., a "sniper"-style tank), which would be the most widely produced German vehicle of the war. Primary Nazi tank for the invasion of Soviet Union.
* '''Panzer IV:''' Ultimately the most common German made tank, with nearly 9,000 units being built over the course of the war (now compare numbers with those of Sherman and T-34), the ''Panzerkampfwagen IV'' was the Panzer III's big brother. The Panzer IV was originally intended to be used against infantry and was armed with a low-velocity 75mm gun for blowing stuff up with explosive shells. After the invasion of Russia they switched to a 50mm anti-tank gun, and later a 75mm high-velocity cannon while also being up-armored to an absolute weight limit of a chassis. After that upgrade, it was generally on par with the T-34 and M4 Sherman (on average, at least—they had a less powerful engine, but better optics). Unlike early Soviet tanks, every Panzer IV generally had a working a radio receiver. It's chassis became the foundation of many German vehicles of all classifications. Primary Nazi tank from 1942 to the end of the war in 1945.
* '''Panzer V Panther:''' The Panther was introduced in 1943 and is often argued to be the the best tank of the war. It copied many features of the T-34 and improved on them. It was listed as a "medium tank," despite weighing in at 44.8 tonnes. Its 75mm/L70 gun was one of the most powerful tank guns of the war, and could destroy any Allied tank. Its frontal armor was more effective than that of the Tiger's. A swift and hard as nails death machine... when it was in working order, that is. The Panther was rushed into service and had even more mechanical problems than the Tiger did due to its rushed design. On the plus side, the Panther was only about 20% more expensive to produce than the Panzer IV, and the Germans managed to produce 6,000 of them, though switching over did cost them in terms of other production due to the necessary retooling time. Along with the Tigers, this was enough to get the Americans and British to make the Sherman Firefly and the Soviets to make up-armored and up-gunned T-34-85s. Along with the aforementioned US and Soviet tanks, the Panther eventually became the inspiration for the post-war "Main Battle Tank" concept. An upgraded Panther II was planned, but never entered production. [[File:Panther_Tank.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Zis vill do nicely! Danke!... Gott im Himmel, zat's a lot of Shermans!]]
* '''Panzer VI Tiger:''' Even before invading Russia, the generals of the Wehrmacht sent requests for a tank that could be called "heavy", mostly after seeing French B1's in action, however brief or desperate. But only the shock of encountering previously unknown Soviet KV-1s and T-34s gave a necessary push and resources to the project, as perceived German tank superiority was shattered. The Nazi top brass took this as a challenge to create the ultimate tanks, and the result of said project were "the Big Cats". The first of these was the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger heavy tank, which entered service in 1942 (yes, the Pz. V actually came out after the VI did). Heavy definitely described the Tiger: it weighed 54 tonnes, had a 690 hp engine, had up to 100mm of armor, and was armed with a massive 88mm cannon that could take out a T-34 or Sherman from 2 kilometers with ease; in fact, it could do this to ''any tank the Allies would have at any point of the war'' from one kilometer away, barring IS-2s and Churchill VIIs. Despite this, the Tiger was over-engineered mechanically and somewhat under-designed chassis-wise. It was expensive and labor intensive to build, had reliability issues, and was horribly maintenance-intensive. The Tiger chassis was essentially an upgraded Pz. IV (and therefore a [[Metal Boxes|metal box]]), and the design took no advantage of the sloped armor concept the Russians were by then fielding in the T-34, which made the Tiger heavier and slower than it could have been for the same armor effectiveness. Only 1,347 Tigers were built, but they did have an effect on Allied morale. In one instance a single Tiger destroyed most of the 22nd Armoured Brigade and forced them to retreat (Battle of Villers-Bocage). The Tiger is without a doubt the most famous (and overrated, due to the problems listed above) tank of WWII, known even to those illiterates who think WWII was only fought between America and Germany, and if most video games are to be believed, every Nazi tank was a Tiger. That is, however, somewhat understandable given just how often allied tankers yelled 'Tiger' whenever they lost a tank, even to a regular Pz IV (which could be mistaken for a Tiger at a distance). The Tiger and Panther tanks, like a used car, came with an owner's manual (the Tigerfibel and Pantherfibel, respectively), and Heinz Guderian (one of Germany's, and possibly the entire war's, best tank commanders) wanted every tank crew to read the manual. But even back then, people understood just how few guys actually read the instruction manual for anything. So it was written as a fun book to read, with humor, poetry, and naked girls alongside the information about how to use two of the most famous heavy tanks to be fielded in WWII.
* '''Tiger II:''' The Tiger II, sometimes known as the King Tiger (from an incorrect translation of ''Königstiger'', meaning "Bengal Tiger", but which literally translates to "Royal Tiger"), was the ultimate German tank, and introduced in 1944 as a successor to the Tiger. It weighed 68.5 tonnes (more than most modern tanks) and had 150mm of frontal armor, which was even sloped (a huge step forward from the boxy Tiger I)! Even so, between limited resources and an increasingly bombed-out industrial base, only 492 of these behemoths rolled off the assembly line before the war ended. These tanks were considered to be just as temperamental as the Tiger I, but for different reasons. The designers learned how to fix some of the problems with the Tiger I, and promptly over-built the Tiger II even more after patching the holes, because they thought they had wiggle room or something.
*'''Anything they could steal:''' From French [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_B1#Operational_history B1 heavy tanks] to Soviet [http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-t-34r-soviet-t-34-in-german-service.htm T-34's] to American [http://beutepanzer.ru/Beutepanzer/us/M4_sherman/m4-75-sherman-01.htm Shermans], the Nazis used everything they could get their hands on like Orks in clean uniforms (not that the Allies were any different: Soviets, for example, had several companies armed with Panzers V used as tank destroyers). This became so chronic that the British had a strong rule in place that said any tank which could not be repaired or salvaged was to be destroyed, so the Germans wouldn't pinch it. They deployed stolen tanks pretty much everywhere, and of every type; hell, even Renault FT-17s were used in police roles in some areas.
**'''Panzer 35(t) and 38(t):''' the most famous tanks the Nazi <s>stole</s> were supplied with by puppet governments all across Europe were the PZ 35(t) and 38(t). Light tanks, both were Czech designs (hence the (t) for ''tschechisch'') Germany acquired when they took over first the Sudetenland, and then the rest of Czechoslovakia. While very useful early in the war, the designs were rendered obsolete by 1942 (they simply couldn't compete against a T-34), and the chassis was instead used to produce Marder 2 and Hetzer tank destroyers. A version of the 38(t), called the Stridsvagn m/41, was also used by Sweden. The vehicle's Czech steel was lower-quality than German stock.

====Tank Destroyers/Assault Guns====
Between the First and Second World Wars, various nations were still trying to figure out what good designs were for armored vehicles. This is the same era that gave us the British infantry and cavalry tank concept. In response to the super heavy British infantry tanks of the time, the Germans were quick to invent and use an armored doctrine they called ''Panzerjäger'' (tank hunters). The concept was to stick a huge gun (too big to put in a proper turret with then available technology) onto a vehicle with a fixed casemate and open top to allow the heavy gun to be moved around easily. Think like the [[Basilisk]], only built for direct fire. Later in the war, Germany discarded the lighter Panzerjäger tank destroyers and instead designed big heavy tank destroyers, with thick armor and guns big enough to make an ork blush with envy, and labeled the class "''Jagdpanzer''" (hunter-tank). Panzerjäger of both types had the advantage of being cheaper and simpler to make than turreted tanks, and having lower silhouettes that allowed for easier ambushes. Plus it was easy to convert an otherwise out of date, under-gunned tank into a destroyer. The disadvantage was, of course, that they had no turrets, so they could be outflanked and had no way to point their guns at any targets that did not drive in front of them short of turning the entire tank around.
*'''Panzerjäger I''': Remember that little note in the Panzer 1's description on how it was repurposed? Well, this is the end result. What basically amounts to a Panzer I with its turret taken off and a casemate installed instead, it had a nice 4.7cm anti-tank gun but was relatively weak otherwise. There were no vision slits in the casemate, meaning that in order to aim, the crew had to peek over the top and get themselves shot in the head (a pressing issue in particular for Anti-Tank battalion 643).
*'''Marder:''' The Marder 1, 2, and 3 were all very similar tank destroyers, hence why they share a listing. The Marder 1 is based on the chassis of the French Lorraine 37L tractor, the Marder 2 is based off the Panzer II chassis, and the Marder III is based of off the Panzer 38(t) (the "T" means it was Czech in origin, not that it weighed 38 tons). All three were open topped and armed with either 7.5 cm cannons or converted Russian 76 mm cannons they stole early in their invasion of Russia. At the start of Operation Barbarossa, German tanks were again under-gunned and -armed compared to their enemies, especially when compared to the T-34 (which one German field marshal quipped was the best tank in the world in 1941). But, like the battle for France, the Germans had more radios and were thus able to make massive advances anyway through superior tactical coordination. Still, a better anti-tank weapon was needed, so the Marders were created and armed with 7.5 cm weapons (although there were never enough of them, so they would revert to using Russian guns).
*'''Wespe''' and '''Hummel''': The Wasp and Bumblebee, respectively, and both with a nasty sting. Both were re-purposed tank chassis, but sporting artillery howitzers instead of AT guns (Which makes them technically self-propelled artillery instead of assault guns, but in the end it's a huge gun on tracks so fuck that noise!) the Wespe was based off the Panzer II and sported a 105mm 'light' howitzer; the Hummel was based on a modified Panzer III chassis and sported a 150mm howitzer. They're the real-life equivalents of (and probably the inspiration behind) the Imperial Guard's [[Basilisk Artillery Gun]].
*'''Hetzer''': Repurposed Panzer 38(t) with a casemate-mounted 75mm gun. A nice late-war re-design and a dangerous opponent since its small chassis and decent speed made it easy to get in position for a good ambush, and its gun was strong enough to take on any allied tank. The Hetzer lacked in the armour department, though, and couldn't slug it out.
*'''Nashorn''': Also called '''Hornisse''', this was a Marder-like tank-destroyer, with a chassis specially designed to mount the fearsome "Acht-acht" 88mm gun. Just like the Marders it was open-topped, but the huge range of its gun made it a dangerous opponent.
*'''StuG III & IV''': By far the most widely produced German vehicle of WWII, the Stug was easily one of the most versatile combat platforms fielded in the war. StuG's, or "''Sturmgeschütz''" or "''assault artillery''", were built to combat a problem Germany learned from the first world war: that infantry lacked the ability to take on fortifications, and the artillery was too slow to keep up to allow direct fire on these targets. The StuG was the solution: by mounting a 7.5 cm <s>howitzer</s> [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmgesch%C3%BCtz_III gun] in a fixed casemate on a Panzer III chassis, they allowed the vehicle to roll up with the infantry and blow any fortifications in the way to rubble. Of course during the invasion of the Soviet Union the Germans ran into tanks much better than their existing vehicles, namely KV-1s and T-34. In order to quickly counter these threats, the StuG was "up-gunned" (quote marks are there because the guns caliber did not change), to mount a high-velocity 7.5 cm anti-tank gun. In 1943, the StuG chassis was changed from a Panzer III's to a Panzer IV's, otherwise no changes were made. StuG's, despite looking like and being compared to tanks, were not considered tanks, and were crewed by artillery men. StuG's are estimated to have destroyed 20,000 enemy tanks in the course of the war, impressive when you consider that just over 10,000 were made, and not all of those were armed with actual anti-tank weapons. After the war, the Soviets gave a number of captured tanks to Syria where they were used up to 1960s. (There was a self-propelled-gun with a an actual howitzer, too: the StuH 42.)
*'''Sturmpanzer:''' Known commonly as the ''Brummbär'' (Grouch), this infantry support gun was based on the Panzer IV chassis. It mounted a 15cm mortar-sized direct-fire cannon, which fired a combined shell-charge weighing in at over 100lbs, designed to make infantry and buildings explode. It was given this name for two reasons: the tank broke down all the time (way more than any Panzer IV), and the shells were arduous to load.
*'''Ferdinand/Elefant''': To put the Ferdinand into perspective, this is a tank that even Hitler though was too complex, too unreliable, and too theoretically advanced to use. The Ferdinand is the result of a contest between two of Nazi Germany's top companies, Porsche and Henschel (both of which still exist to day), to produce a heavy tank that could use the 8.8 cm gun. The Porsche did not fair well during the trials, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Z9j071Zbc in fact we have rare colorized footage of how the trial of the Porsche tiger went]. Needless to say it was Henschel who won the contest and its design ended up becoming the much famed Tiger tank. But Prof. Ferdinand Porsche was Hitler's favorite, and so he arrogantly began production before the results came in. That's why, despite losing the contract, he now had 90 Porsche Tiger hulls laying around, along with a fully tooled-up production line for more. It was decided to turn those unused Tiger P prototypes into tank destroyers, and so they bolted even more armor on and added a fixed super structure for the gun, and thus the Ferdinand (named humbly after Porsche himself) was born. The Ferdinand was a troubled vehicle: rather than one engine, its immense bulk required two, and thanks to poor ventilation they often overheated. Bizarrely, the two engines did not even connect to the drive train (possibly because of issues keeping the two engines synchronized without modern computer control), and were instead connected to a set of electric generators that in turn powered a pair of electric motors. That's right, in 1942, the Nazi's built a 65 ton gas-electric, hybrid-powered tank destroyer, good for the environment maybe (but not actually, because the primitive technology just made the combo even less efficient), but maintenance for the thing was a nightmare worse than the Tiger. And before we forget, it did not have a machine gun. Rather ironically (less so for its crew) it could destroy any tank on the eastern front at distances exceeding 2000 meters, but five guys with Molotov cocktails could take it out. So in 1943, 48 of the 50 remaining tanks were converted to have a machine gun, more armor, anti-magnetic zimmerite paste coatings, and a commander's cupola. The modified tanks were named Elefants. Overall, more Ferdinands were destroyed by their own crews after they broke down and could not be towed back to a repair base than were lost to enemy fire. Maybe it is the inspiration for the Shadowsword Imperial Guard superheavy.
*'''Jagdpanzer IV''': A Panzer IV chassis mounting a long-barrelled 75mm gun in a casemate mount.
*'''Jagdpanther''': A Panther chassis mounting a long-barrelled 88mm gun in a casemate mount. Arguably the best "Jagd-" model combining decent mobility, decent protection and a very powerful gun.
*'''Jagdtiger''': Tiger II chassis outfitted with a long-barrelled 128mm (!) naval gun. Pure overkill, and ultimately a poorly-performing design. To put it in perspective, the M1 ''Abrams'' TODAY has a smaller and shorter 120mm cannon, even if most of its armor busting power comes from the fact it fires modern (and far more deadly) sabot rounds. Even back then, two of the most effective AT guns of the war were the German ''Acht-Acht'' 88mm gun and the British 76.2mm ''17 pounder'' gun; both much smaller, lighter and with a better rate of fire than this 128mm monster. No warmachine used on the frontline called for such a massive gun to be dealt with in World War II (save perhaps for the USA's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T28_Super_Heavy_Tank T28 Super Heavy Tank], which never left the prototype stage), and even the fact it could double up as artillery support in a pinch didn't make up for the fact it was just too big and unwieldy and slow-firing a gun to deal with tanks. Add to that, a tank with a 128mm main gun is especially stupid when your enemies on both sides favored zerg rushes of Sherman and T-34's medium tanks respectively, much lighter vehicles that could reliably be taken out by much smaller guns. While anticipating future enemy capabilities is important in wartime weapon development, pretty much no one was working on a vehicle sufficiently armored to warrant this firepower, unless it was intended to fire on battleships from the shore—and firing from a stationary coastal-defense position probably would be for the best, because even at its crawling pace, going off-road tended to knock the gun out of alignment and require it to be recalibrated before firing again, so good luck with flanking maneuvers. The nicest thing that could be said about it was that it was great for shooting at enemy tanks hiding behind buildings, because it would shoot straight through building and tank alike. (Seriously, read Otto Carius' memoirs. His opinion on these is as first-hand as it is scathing.)
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
On a sidenote:
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
One could reasonably point out that the Russians weren't much better in that regard, since they too threw a couple of 'overcompensated' tanks/assault guns into the fray over the course of WWII: The KV-2 sported a 152mm howitzer in a gigantic (and horribly impractical) turret, and the SU-152 and ISU-152 were also equipped casemate-mounted 152mm howitzers. The difference here is that these vehicles had been designed for infantry support (and demolishing ''festungs''), making the huge gun mobile enough to keep up with the grunts and chucking high explosive death at the enemy from medium/long range instead of blasting other tanks to smithereens. This doesn't mean they couldn't: indeed the ISU-152 was effective enough in that regard to be nicknamed the ''Zveroboy'' (''Beast Killer'' in russian), but being able to blast a Tiger on its back was merely a handy bonus. Add to that the low-velocity 152mm howitzer was a good 30% lighter than the massive PaK 80; resulting in lighter, more compact, and more mobile vehicles overall once they realized trying to mount a huge howitzer in a turret wasn't such a good idea after all.
</div>
</div>

*[[File:Sturmtiger.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Contrary to what it might looks like, this is not a mock-up of a 40k [[Vindicator]] but a real combat vehicle.]]'''Sturmtiger''': The Sturmtiger is one of the most striking example of Nazi "mad genius" given form, to the point that this assault gun could almost belong in the "Wunderwaffe" section. As you can see from the picture, it looks like a [[Vindicator]], which is not a coincidence: both vehicles' role is to rumble up to a strongpoint and obliterate it with extreme firepower. Very quickly, the Germans realized that fortifications were a major pain in their Aryan butts to deal with and that static artillery was too slow and vulnerable to keep up with their ''Blitzkrieg'' attacks. So at first they relied on airplanes, but as their opponents started to contest the skies, they fielded self-propelled howitzers that would rumble up 'close' to the bunker/building/... and blast it to pieces. The Sturmtiger... The Sturmtiger is what you get when the point where you should have stopped putting bigger, larger guns on tracks is long passed, yet one still keeps going... and somehow manages to make it work. Based off of the Tiger 1 chassis, it sported a [[awesome|''380mm rocket launcher adapted from a Kriegsmarine depth-charge launcher'']] as its main gun; [[wat|and only because the 210 mm howitzer they intended to use first wasn't available]]. Although it sported a gun that could obliterate anything in front of it, the Sturmtiger suffered the same problems as the Tiger itself. Overbuilt drivetrain, maintenance-intensive and prone to breakdown ''Schachtellaufwerk'' tracks to keep ground pressure tolerable, and an underpowered engine. On top of that, the rocket was so powerful that in order to not break the barrel of the gun or kill the crew, the exhaust gasses from launching the depth-charge rocket had to be vented out of a number of tubes that went back up the barrel.
*'''Flakpanzers''': Tanks whose main gun had been replaced with one (or more) anti-aircraft guns. With the Luftwaffe having been squandered by Hitler's stupidity and insanity, and Göring's mind being on an extended leave of absence (as in, about two decades, from the start of his morphine addiction at the Münich Putsch to being cold turkey'd before Nuremberg), the Germans came up with these SPAAGs in other to try to defend themselves from all those nasty american ''Jabos'' (German shorthand for fighter-bomber) making their lives hell. Didn't really work, because towards the end of the war the ground attack aircraft had become too fast to be engaged reliably by guns relying on human eyes to acquire and follow their target. They were, however, [[rape|murder on tracks]] when facing infantry and lightly armored ground targets.

===Airplanes===
* '''Messerschmitt Bf 109:''' This plane is credited with more kills than any other fighter in the history of man due to the tens of thousands of communists it has sent to hell in burning metal coffins. It is also the most produced fighter of all time. The variants of the 109 and the Spitfire competed with each other throughout the war for the title of "World's Best Fighter" as they were both continually upgraded. The 109 was small, very fast, a good turner, a god tier climber, and was inexpensive to produce and maintain. The 109's speed and climb rate made it a top tier energy fighter.
[[File:Fw190d9jv 1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|When the Nazis applied their sense of style to aerospace engineering, the result was the Fw 190D-9, the second sexiest son of a bitch in the sky, second only to the SR-71]]
* '''Focke-Wulf Fw 190''': When first introduced, the Fw 190 was hands-down the best fighter on the planet, due mostly to its very powerful radial engine. The 190A-3 was rocking 1,700 horsepower at a time when the Spitfire V had 1,450. As the war dragged on, BMW failed miserably to improve the engine and the 190 dropped in effectiveness until it was given a completely new engine in the Dora variant. The 190 was horrifically fast at low altitude, had extremely powerful armament, outstanding high speed handling, and had the best roll rate of any plane in the war. However, it was a very poor turner. This set of attributes made the 190 one of the best "boom and zoom" fighters.
[[File:HE111Z.JPG|thumb|left|150px|One of Germany's attempts at packing enough dakka in explosive form]]
*'''Heinkel He 111''': The main German bomber from beginning to end, it was developed in the 1930s; the Nazis called it a high speed passenger jet to get around the Treaty of Versailles. It was first put to its real use in the Spanish Civil War. The He 111 was a twin engine medium bomber, cheap to make and maintain and able to carry up to 3,600 kilos of bombs. Early on it performed very well and was one of the most effective bombers in the world but after 1941 the British and Americans began building larger and longer ranged four engine bombers like the Lancaster and the Flying Fortress in large quantities. The german engineers had a plan to counter these with an enhanced version of the HE 111 called the HE 111-Z that consisted of two 111 fuselages fused together on a central wing (which is just as retardedly awesome and awesomely retarded as it sounds) therefore gathering twice the bombs and weaponry of a regular bomber while being powered by 5 engines. They did manage to make it fly but it remained a prototype. Note: Actually it was suppose to be used as a glider tug for the massive Messerschmitt ME-321 and the purposed Junkers JU-322 Mammut.

* '''Messerschmitt ME-163 Komet''': Before the Nazis mastered jet engines, they toyed around with rocket-based fighters instead. The Komet was a tiny, zippy little fighter plane, and the first plane to travel faster than 1000 kph. It was also the first and last rocket-powered fighter, as they only succeeded to shoot down about eighteen allied craft at the cost of ten crashed Komets. This was because despite being far faster than anything the allies could field, the komet proved very temperamental: it was difficult to control while building speed, its fuel dangerous to handle, its landing gear could bounce off and smack the plane, its cannons were too slow to keep up, and it was vulnerable as it glided back to earth. Still, for its time, it was the only fighter capable of threatening the allies' high-altitude bombers, until the ME-262 came about.
[[File:ME 262.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The ME-262: Nazi Germany's state of the art sky shark]]
* '''Messerschmitt ME-262''': The Me 262 was the world's first operational jet fighter and possibly the most advanced aircraft of all in WWII. It was very fast, able to achieve a speed of 900km/h (in comparison, a P51 Mustang had a top speed of about 700km/h) and carried four 30mm cannons. Quality suffered due to a lack of high quality steel, which severely limited the shelf life of their engines to twelve hours. Even so, it was an effective against bombers. Much like every other advanced Nazi weapon, it arrived too late (in part due to delays involving the Nazi top brass) and in too few numbers to influence the course of the war, though it spurred development of jet aircraft on both sides of the Iron Curtain postwar. The Japanese built a rather similar jet fighter in the Nakajima Kikka, but that never got beyond prototype.
[[File:Heinkel He 162 CASM 2012 5.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The "Volksjäger" aka. "Spatz" or "Salamander". Tiny. Deadly.]]
*'''He-162''': With a max speed of 900 kph, 2 centerline 20mm cannons, and a 39 lbs/ft^2 wingloading, the He-162 was almost invincible in combat. Where the 262 was an interceptor, the He-162 was designed as a cheap, easy to build and fly air superiority fighter. It was also designed to be piloted by children. Developed as a Volksjäger (”people's fighter”) the He-162 was a last ditch design meant to be piloted by the high school aged Hitler Youth as Nazi Germany had almost completely run out of regular pilots at the time. Amazingly enough despite the incredibly short time between design and full production, it turned out to be a solid design; both cheap and easy to build (most of the frame was made of wood) and a dangerous opponent (allied testing after the war showed that a large number of them would have been a major pain in the rear to deal with). The only point where the "Spatz" didn't deliver was the 'easy to fly' part; like all early jet airplanes it required an experienced pilot at the stick and being able to bench press to just turn the damn thing (which was a problem to everyone until the lessons of the Korean War).

===Ships===
As a general rule, Hitler dumped most of money into the ''Heer'' (army) and ''Luftwaffe'' (air force), leaving the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) out in the cold, so to speak, so they were not overly fond of him. (Although Hitler realised he wouldn't be able to build up a navy to rival the English quickly so he prioritised planes and tanks over ships to seize land and industrial capacity at first, which kind of made sense.)
* '''U-Boote''': U-Boote, which are shortened the version of the word "''Unterseeboot''" or "underwater boat", are submarines. They were used in devastating effect to cut off Britain from supplies from the outside world by having "wolfpacks" of U-boats patrol around shipping lanes and sink down any enemy ship they found. Their other uses involved seeking and destroying enemy battleships, placing automated weather stations all over the world (helpful for Kriegsmarine ships) and dropping off a substantial number of spies in Britain and even America, most of which got caught-and subsequently replaced by Loyal British spy's (read about some of the ways the British Bamboozled the Nazi's in world war 2 some of it, like the moment the Germans gave a British agent the Iron cross, is just hilarious). They were so terrifying to Winston Churchill that he spent most of his naval planning on working out ways to subvert or destroy the U-boat wolfpacks. As a consequence of all this, they worked very well in the first years of the war, sinking huge (and i mean HUGE) numbers of ships with very few boats (only about 15 boats, at most, were out at sea at any given time in the first year or so). Being such an absolute pain in the arse, the British thus invested a fuckton of money and manpower into hunting and killing said U-boats, and finally got very, very good at it, through a combination of new technology, a [[Wikipedia:Western Approaches Command|massive information network]] for coordinating defenses, and [https://www.google.com/amp/s/paxsims.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/the-wargaming-wrens-of-the-western-approaches-tactical-unit/amp/ navy wargamers] [[awesome|developing new strategies to counter the U-Boats]]. Right when more and more U-boats were being produced, as German high command finally realized their potential, the British began sinking ever more of them (Example: in all of 1941, 35 boats were lost, in 1943, 244 boats were sunk, with 41 in May alone). Admiral Karl Dönitz, unlike Hitler, loved the U-boats, and built one of the largest structures on earth (at the time) to house them: the German U-boat pens in captured France. U-boats were invented in the first world war, and there unrestricted campaign of sinking any ship, even those with US citizens on them (even after the German government made a very public warning to the US that boarding a ship to England was a very bad idea), that approached England led to the neutral though leaning allied American to join the first world war and for them to be the last straw on the German back to end it.
* '''''Bismarck and Tirpitz''''': <s>A pair of battleships so large and well designed no other battleships could sink them.</s> Memes aside, those were the largest ships built by the Nazis, but they were neither the biggest or meanest or most modern ships of World War 2. Germany's building skills had suffered under the limitations of the Versailles treaty in the inter-war period, ''Bismarck'' and ''Tirpitz'' were the best they could build on a relatively short notice of five years and with a ten year technological gap to fill on the go. Both ships were envisioned as commerce raiders sinking transport ships and disrupting allied supplies, not to slug it out with the Royal Navy. This being said, while no superweapons capable of turning the war on their own they were far from worthless. Sinking the ''Bismarck'' required an entire Royal navy fleet, six battleships and battlecruisers and two aircraft carriers, along with a number of cruisers and destroyers in a running battle over several days (albeit this was mostly due to the Brits not learning Jutland's lesson of not putting unarmored battlecruisers in a line battle, incredible luck and terrible luck at the same time on all sides and rank incomptence, stubbornnes and general stupidity on all sides). And the ''Bismarck'' was alone. ''Tirpitz'' was similarly tough. The RAF spent most of a year bombing ''Tirpitz'' with everything in their arsenal, including the British Tallboy earthquake bombs. 5,400kg, fortification-destroying ''earthquake bombs'' could not destroy the ''Tirptiz'' despite scoring direct hits until a final bombing raid by 32 heavy Lancaster Bombers managed to score a hit on one of the ammunition magazines. These two ships had a weakness that greatly limited their offensive capability however: Very few facilities existed that were large enough to work on them. Of these few facilities only one of them, the Normandy dock at Saint-Nazaire, was held by the Nazis and remotely in a position where the giant ships could both rest and be in a position to attack. The British (and [[Wikipedia:USS_Buchanan_(DD-131)|one American suicide bomber]]) exploited this by launching a commando raid on the dock, destroying it. This forced the pair to use docks safely in German territory where they presented minimal threat to the allies.
* '''''Graf Zepplin''''': The Nazi's sole attempt at building an aircraft carrier that was a weird carrier/cruiser hybrid. Never completed.

===Wunderwaffen===
Wunderwaffen. One thing that caught the the imagination of the world and started the "Superior German Engineering" meme. As a preface, civilian engineering is great in Germany. Military? Well... you'll see in a bit. This is the place any of the "Nazi Super science" stuff goes. You want lighting guns? Wunderwaffen. Super tanks? Wunderwaffen. Moon rockets? Wunderwaffen. Hitler in a giant robot spider powered by the souls of the damned? Wunderwaffen.

The truth is, as usual, a lot more nuanced. Yes, the different wonder weapon projects were on the bleeding edge of technology when envisioned, next generation devices which most of the scientists of other nations had been toying with but had yet to reach prototype much less combat stage (because they were, unlike the Germans never that desperate enough to use untested machinery with teething issues in battle). Yes, the Germans pioneered a lot of things that were afterwards [[Blood Ravens|acquired and adapted]] by the Allies and the Soviet Union. The problem was, at the start of the war, the technology to make said Wunderwaffe '''efficient''' weapons (a real guidance system for the V1 and V2, for instance) simply wasn't there yet, and once the war got into full-swing and the attendant drain on fighting a multi-front war along with the effects of Allied strategic bombing became dominant, the Germans never managed to close the gap.

It can be argued that while the German quest for military innovation lead to advances that did have everyone else scrambling to catch up, most were nothing more than a drain on Germany's resources. For every development that led to things like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (which was a very good plane), you had the trials that gave us the Tiger (and the entire extended VK3X.XX series, and the Ferdinand/Elephant, and all the associated waste of time and resources; it really was a lot!). Hitler had a documented fascination with anything that screamed "German Supremacy", and later one once the multi-front war turned against Germany, an arguable desperation for something-anything to one-shot win-the-war. As you can imagine with two hands strangling Germany, one smelling of vodka and the other apple pie, these weapons were developed and produced with a shortage of resources and time and the lack of quality only exacerbated their various shortcomings and strained an already breaking economy. They were rather dismissively called "voo-vah" by Allied troops, and they allegedly thanked Hitler for ultimately shortening the war by authorizing the waste of resources on them. Perhaps ironically, the wunderwaffen did help to shorten the war, since those resources may have been better used on propping up a failing wartime economy. As with anything on this wiki, YMMV and you're encouraged to do your own research (and find a lot of really interesting stories in the process; did you know that at point-blank range, the standard 88mm AP round could rip a furrow through the entire length of the roof of a M4 turret, peeling open the steel like a centre-parting in hair? SCIENCE!)

* '''V1 flying bomb:''' The V1 is considered as an early version of the cruise missile and was used in the bombing of England, since a city was pretty much all they COULD accurately hit (and even then). The V1's used an early version of a Pulse jet and they were quickly called "buzz bombs," "doodlebugs," or "farting furies" to discourage people from calling them "robot bombs," which gives the impression that they were unstoppable. Fun fact about the V1: it uses the same fuel as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle type of beetle] uses to defend itself. It was infamously known for cutting its engine as it dived (due to a fuel flow error), leading to it suddenly becoming silent just before it smashed into the ground. Its entire "guidance computer" was nothing more than a simple gyroscope system to keep it level and flying, plus a small spinning propeller in the nose that would set the flaps to dive the V1 into the ground once it revolved a certain amount of times (calculated to have covered the distance to the target city). Far too inaccurate to be used against a military target, the V1 was ultimately a gigantic waste.
*'''V2 rocket:''' The V2 was the world's first ballistic missile and spacefaring craft. The scientists that developed it, including Werner von Braun, went on to work for NASA and developed the booster rockets on the Saturn V launch vehicle (Nazi science really did put a man on the Moon in the end). Unlike its brother the V1, it was utterly unstoppable by AA; not a single inbound V2 was ever shot down by anti-aircraft fire, owing to it moving at 3 times the speed of sound. It was the first vehicle to ever reach space (but not the first object, that honor falls to Imperial German artillery in WW1, specifically the Paris Gun), from a vertical test launch in 1943, and after the war it was very frequently reused by the Americans (with extra shit often strapped on top) as an early spacecraft, with grainy images returned from suborbital flights in space as early as 1946. Less of a waste than the V1 but even so, without a decent guidance system it had a hard time hitting England as well as the dubious distinction of being the only weapon which killed more people in its manufacture than it did enemies.
* '''Horten 229 and Horten 18:''' While technically Nazi aircraft, they really deserves to be here, not up in Aircraft. Commonly known as the "Nazi stealth fighter," this twin-turbojet flying-wing fighter was found in a secret workshop hangar by invading American forces. Nobody knows for certain if the Horten 229 was originally built for stealth, but it's all-wood construction and smooth radar-fouling shape, coupled with radar-absorbing paint on the outer shell makes a fairly clear case for a stealth aircraft (Though [[Wikipedia:de Havilland Mosquito|the allies had already been fielding wooden aircraft for years]] and the Germans knew Radar worked poorly on them.). The concept that the 229 was build around was the "3x1000": 1000kph, 1000km range, 1000kg bomb payload. This, in 1943. During test flights, it outperformed the Me. 262 while using exactly the same engines. It was probably going to be used to fly through or knock out the British radar array in a second, never-realized "Battle of Britain 2: Electromagnetic Boogaloo." The Horten 18 was an even bigger flying wing, with a huge wingspan and 6 jet engines. This one was designed to be an intercontinental bomber, intending to hit American cities as the western front made Hitler [[rage|angrier and angrier]]. The Horten 18 was never built, but the 229 was rather successfully test flown. Both planes looks quite a bit like the modern B2 stealth bomber, which isn't much of a surprise considering the Americans hauled the Horten 229 prototype back home to be studied in a secret airforce base (where it is today).
[[File:Maus_Trials_1944.png|350px|thumb|right|[[Approved_anime#Gaming_anime|Panzer vor]], motherfuckers.]]
* '''''Maus'':''' The ''Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus'' ("mouse") is the largest tank ever built. A 200 metric ton monster with a 128mm (5 inch) main gun, and a 75mm co-axial gun in the turret, it crept along at a blistering 13 kph and sucked down liters of gas per kilometer. The most amazing thing is that (beyond not cancelling the project on sight like anyone withing hailing distance of sanity would) ''they actually managed to build this tank''. Five were ordered, but only two prototypes and one turret were built. It was originally going to be called the ''Mäuschen'' (Little Mouse), but because the Germans liked schadenfreude more than irony, just ''Maus'' stuck. Realistically, neither front's tanks would have had the firepower to penetrate the Maus, only extreme-caliber anti-tank guns and artillery fire would have done the job, however it was so big that there was no road or bridge big enough to take it so it had to have special snorkling gear to get past river. Its extremely slow speed and massive size, however, likely would have made it prime bait for bombers (which is one of the reasons why modern militaries don't use heavy tanks anymore). While neither side had anti-tank weapons strong enough to penetrate its armor, it's more then likely it would never get there even if it was built. It's not quite a [[Baneblade]], but they were getting there. The Nazi's really didn't want anyone to get this monster, so they blew up the complete first model. The second Maus, armed with the first one's turret, was towed back to Russia by invading forces, and currently resides in the Kubinka Tank museum for all to see.
* '''''Ratte'':''' The ''Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte'' ("rat") was an even larger tank, or "land cruiser", since it was essentially a naval warship on tracks. Never actually built, despite being ordered by Hitler. [[Wat|The Rat was to be a 1000 metric ton tank, mounting a naval turret with two 280mm guns, a 128mm anti tank gun, eight 20mm FlaK cannons, and two 15mm aircraft cannons]], surpassing even the Eleven Barrels Of Hell of the Baneblade. It would have been so heavy that it would have destroyed every road it used, capable of wrecking a town just by running through it, and it would have collapsed every bridge it crossed. It needed two U-BOAT motors to get around, or maybe EIGHT 20 CYLINDER ENGINES. Not surprisingly, Albert Speer canned the project (mostly because a single bomber dropping a 500kg bomb on top of the thing would fuck its day up immensely), which is a great shame because A- Building and maintaining such a monster would have posed a noticeable strain on Germany's logistics, thus accelerating their defeat and B- It would have made the most [[awesome]] museum piece in the known universe.
*'''''Karl-Gerät''''' The ''Karl-Gerät'' is one of the very few real world weapon ever built that is BIGGER then its 40k equivalent. Karl weighs 124 tons, is armed with a 60cm (24 inch) gun that fires a shell that weights more than a ton, that can hit a target between four and ten kilometers away depending on the size of its shell. This thing was the largest self-propelled gun ever made and it could give even a (admittedly small) Titan pause for thought. These things were actually used in combat to decent effect in Warsaw, but had mixed results in other deployments. it fucked up any target royally, but the Gerät was so big and slow that it had to be disassembled and put on special tractor trailers to move around (one hell of a logistic operation) and and was moved any real distance by train. Its shells were carried by special turret-less Panzer IIIs. Surprisingly one of these things survived the war and was captured by the Russians. It's currently in the Kubinka Tank Museum along side the only Maus heavy tank in the world and assorted other war trophies.
[[File:Hitler-gustav-railway-gun.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If there was a fine line between [[Dakka]], [[Titan|massive overcompensation]], and [[Rape|"Holy shit, Greg! Is that a fucking landship on rails!?",]] then the Gustav sure hits the spot.]]
*'''''Schwerer Gustav'':''' An excellent example of the brilliance and impracticality of Wunderwaffen, ''Schwerer Gustav'' was a railway gun that resembled a cruiser fucking a freight train and an artillery piece, built in the late 30's to defeat the Maginot Line. Two were built, the other called "Dora." It is a descendant of the German Empire's 1918 "Paris gun," a smaller gun ("only" 238mm's) built in World War One to shell Paris from Germany, 120 kilometers away (a range so far they had to account for the curvature of the Earth when firing the damn thing). Gustav was designed to defeat any fortifications in existence; as such, it was the largest-calibre rifled weapon ever used in combat, the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built in terms of overall weight, and fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece. It fired 80cm (31 inch) shells, weighing 4,800kg to 7,100kg up to 48km. The AP shells could penetrate 7m of reinforced concrete. It completely succeeded in its job of defeating any existing fortification, but at the same time was completely impractical: it required two specially-laid parallel railway tracks to move (yes, it was a railway gun too big for the railway), took 54 hours to set up for firing, and had a rate of fire of 14 rounds per day as charges had to be heated up in a special device for roughly 1 day before firing. Since building a gun that fired shells that wouldn't fit through the front door to your house wasn't excessive enough for the Nazis, plans were made to mount the Schwerer Gustav 80cm gun on a 1,500t self propelled artillery platform (the ''Landkreuzer P.1500 Monster'') with two 15cm howitzers and multiple 15mm autocannons as secondary weapons. Unfortunately, both guns were scrapped near the end of the war. The Schwerer Gustav, overall, was the biggest (if the strange rocket exhaust powered V3 listed bellow is not counted) motherfucking gun on the planet. The weapon likely could have blown a Titan away if its shields were down, and much science-fiction set in WW2 features the gun (notably, in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, the gun is used to blow up two landed alien spacecraft from sixty kilometers away).The fucking thing was hilariously impractical as there is no recorded cases it of successfully hitting the target (and with the accuracy of that thing it's a miracle no German forces were harmed). There is an urban legend about one AP shot detonating an ammo dump through 15 meters of water and 7 meters of concrete during the Siege of Sevastapol, but no hard proof supports it.
*'''V3''': If you thought Gustav up there was nutty wait to you here about the V3, a gun that's as big as a 40k titan. The V3 was an attempt to make a gun that could shoot across the English channel, and there were a number of sane guns that could do this including railway guns and big bunkers built with battleship battery's. but they could only shoot between the narrowest point between England and continental Europe. The V3 was built to shell London from France. I said early it was a s big as a titan, and I was not being sarcastic, (though it would only be as big as a knight, which despite being the smallest titan is still bloody big) from breach to muzzle the gun was 130 meters or 430 feet long with a bore of 150mm or 5.9 inches across. Rather then use a single big explosion to propel the shells, the V3 used rocket motors mounted in pairs, set so there exhaust would thrust a 140kg shell out of the barrel like a reverse bolter. This set up allowed it to fire a shell out to 165km and put London well in range. Of course like all of the Nazi Wunderwaffen, in practice it sounded good but was actually kinda shit. the gun was so big, remember 130meters that it had to be built in a hill meaning it was impossible for it to change target after being built, and after all the time you spent building the damn thing, by the time you were done it might no longer be useful to have, such as what happened during the Nazi Operation Nordwind. Further even if you ignore the logistical issues compared to other period artillery the V3 was just plain shit. The 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns of the USS Iowa class battleship, had a caliber of 16 inch or 406mm, and fired a shell that weighed 1,225 kg, so over twice as big around and almost exactly nine times as heavy, and the Iowa had nine of them, and it could move. and to put the cherry on the HMS sound plan, by the time the first five guns were finally built to shell London, the British airforce destroyed them with Tallboy Earthquake bombs. If anything proves how silly the idea of Nazi Super Science is, let the fate of the V3 super gun stand testament to how many times Hitler's scientists, and Hitler himself, had been hit with the stupid stick growing up.
*'''''N-Stoff:''''' Someday, somewhere in the ''Kaiser Wilhelm Institute'' there was an Evil Overlord that was unhappy about the quantity of flammen his flammenwerfer could werf - so he got around and took two guys named Ruff and Krug to play around with some flourine and some chlorine. Now, if you studied something about chemistry, you may realize that using "flourine" and "chlorine" in the same sentence does not spell good news for anybody, but you know, ''Nazi Evil Overlords..''. What they discovered made their commissioners - yes, the same ol' boys who thought gassing millions was cool - go '''NOPE!''', and when you discover something that's too crazy even for Crazy Nazi Science standards you know you're in for a treat. Indeed, Chlorine Trifluoride (as the compound is called) proved to be pretty good in burning bunkers to the ground - and by "burning bunkers" we mean the ''whole'' bunker, as in ''the motherfucking concrete is on FIRE!'' - plus it doubled as a chemical warfare agent, giving off corrosive and toxic fumes. N-Stoff (translating to Substance-N; yeah, they kinda failed the naming here) burns at a raging 2400 degrees Celsius - twice the temperature of lava and almost enough to BOIL steel - and can set fire to things that shouldn't burn like glass, wet sand (or asbestos (the same substance that they used to make fireproof stuff out of) and things that have already been burnt. In fact fighting the fire with water is counterproductive, the water is just more fuel and it reacts to create deadly acids and gasses. In the 1950's a ton of the stuff was spilled on a warehouse: the chemical then burned through a foot of Concrete and three feet gravel, while releasing a deadly gas that corroding everything it came into contact with. If there ever was something like [[Dakka|Enuff Dakka]] for flamethrowers, Substance N came close to delivering it. The Nazis never used the stuff, as it was too dangerous an uncontrollable, but it later found its use in the semiconductor and nuclear industry - after being dubbed a bit too violent to use as rocket fuel, one rocket scientist famously said that the best way to deal with a Chlorine Trifluoride accident was "a good pair of running shoes". Also, [[Sly Marbo]] uses Substance N to spice up his Catachan Take Away.

===Misc===
[[File:Stalhelm.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The Distinctive Stahlhelm. The Germans lucked out helmet design during WWI]]
* '''''Stahlhelm'':''' The many variants of the iconic German helmet were derived from the medieval sallet during the Great War. The purpose of these helmets was to keep shrapnel out of one's head. It was better than it's contemporaries by better protecting the sides and back of the head as well. Not to be confused with the spiked Prussian ''Pickelhaube''. Used by all kinds of German troops but the Fallschirmsjäger (paratroopers) as it is impractical to jump with it. Paratroopers had a special version of the helmet that removed the front and back flanges, giving it a much more streamlined appearance. The basic shape of the helmet would go on to become the basis for most modern helmets, especially as the shape was well suited to wearing a headset under it.

*'''''Stielhandgranate'':''' Often called "stick grenades" or "potato mashers," these are those grenades on sticks you see the Germans always using. The Stielhandgranate is what is called a "offensive" grenade known now as a "concussive" grenade. The difference is an offensive grenade uses explosive pressure waves to kill an enemy, thus allowing you to use it while advancing without getting a face full of shrapnel, while a defensive grenade (like the US "pineapple" grenade) uses shrapnel to kill an enemy, affecting a much larger area but also putting you in the blast radius, hence they were designed to be thrown over the wall of a fox hole or trench line at advancing enemy troops while you keep your head down. The reason the Stielhandgranate has the stick is to give you more leverage when throwing it as compared to a round grenade.

*'''''Nebelwerfer'':''' A family of weapons whose very name means "Fog/Mist Thrower"; they were listed as smoke screen launchers before the war (to get around the Treaty of Versailles), but in truth were rather deadly artillery pieces designed to deploy chemical munitions, though in the extent of the war they never did (actually they did in Crimea), probably because Hitler had survived gas attacks in the last war and drew the line at using them himself and the fact that using chemical weapons would invite retaliation. These types of weapons included some mortars, but, more importantly, rocket artillery. In Germany between the wars, there was a fair bit of interest in new rocket designs (as conventional artillery was strictly regulated/forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles) and the Nazis knew they had use for that. These rockets were inaccurate, but you could easily fire a whole bunch of the things off at once for a good saturation bombing, though thanks to the smoke you had to scoot away or the other side would drop their own artillery on top of you. The rocket based system made a very distinctive sound. The Germans nicknamed the thing "Heulende Küh" (Bellowing Cow) and US troops would come to call them "Screaming Mimi" and "Moaning Minnie".
**The Germans would also later on mount the launcher onto a half-track known as the "Panzerwerfer" (armored thrower). In many ways a German analogue to the BM-21, the Panzerwerfer saw intensive use during the Battle of the Bulge.

*'''Goliath:''' A remotely controlled mini-vehicle on treads, stuffed full of explosives. They were driven up to an enemy tank or a bunker and then blown up. (Games Workshop stole the idea and design for the Imperial Guard Cyclops.) Good idea, but the execution was lacking since Radio Control wasn't good enough yet. They had a cable like some sort of bargain remote-controlled car which limited their range dramatically, and cutting this would utterly defeat the weapon. (At least it's not as bad as the Russians and their kamikaze dogs which they trained to run under tanks, that is, THEIR OWN TANKS, but I digress...) On the flip side, American soldiers often made great fun with captured Goliaths by riding them around as the tiny thing could carry quite a load.

*'''Flammenwerfer:''' A werfer zat werfs flammen. Your standard flamethrower in both name and function, though there wasn't much use for it - There were no real line wars like in WW1 where people sat in <s>comfy</s> little (hell) holes and took potshots at each other. not to say they weren't used. but unlike the trench wars of WW1 most of the fighting was mobile rather than static. For added nastiness, some bigger ones were mounted in Flammpanzers, able to shoot hundreds of liters of sticky, burning fuck you over distances exceeding 50 meters.

*'''8.8cm flak gun:''' Known as the "Acht-Acht", this is THE German gun of world war two, and it sums up the German experience in the first part of the war; of never being truly ready but by being very clever and doctrinally flexible. The 88mm was designed as an anti-air weapon (Flak standing for ''Fliegerabwehrkanöne'', or AA gun) built to throw a high explosive shell as high into the air as it could so that it could explode somewhere in the same ballpark as the enemy plane and put one piece of shrapnel into something important and bring it down, which is a role it preformed throughout the war. However against the heavy allied tanks such as the British Matilda 1 and French B1, the German tanks of the time had no ability to penetrate their frontal armor The the 8.8 cm flak guns however, thanks to the high muzzle speed required to fire their explosive shell so high into the air, were able to deal with enemy tanks at unparalleled ranges at the time. So the guns were pulled to the front by a certain Erwin Rommel during the battle of Arras, the barrels lowered, a French-British tank-heavy counterattack stopped; and it snowballed from there. Germany quickly pushed to have both a proper PaK version of the 88 (Pak standing for ''Panzerabwehrkanöne'', or AT gun) that had a lower profile, was easier to move around and had a shield to stop stray bullets from decimating the crew; and a tank armed with the 88 as it became clear that against the soviet union, tanks were only going to get stronger. Which is why the Tiger I is a metal slab with a huge gun: its job was to get an 88mm gun into the battlefield as fast as possible. Using AA guns as AT guns was such a good idea that the US did the same thing with their 90mm AA gun converting it into a anti-tank weapon for the M36 tank destroyer and the Pershing tank; and so did the Russians with their 85 mm gun for the upgunned versions of the T-34 and KV-1. The Imperial Guard Basilisk cannon looks almost exactly like the Flak 88.

*'''The S-mine:''' The Sprengmine (jumping mine), or, to use the name US soldiers gave it, "Bouncing Betty", was one of the most widely used and most effective, weapons of its class. It was a mine that when triggered 'bounced' about three feet into the air before exploding at about waist height in an 'air burst', able to inflict casualities (The military definition of the word meaning more then just dead) at up to 140 feet. And it had a tendency to not kill you, but maim you. Later in the war, some were made out of glass and even pottery, with minimal metal parts, to make them even harder to find. Suffice to say, they still havent found all of them... 1.93 million S-mines were made and it was widely copied after the war, these things are still killing people to this day as old mines forgot about are stepped on and the explosive proves itself still good. While the S-mine is hardly unique in that regard (Unexploded US aircraft bombs and shells make up the bulk of what they still find in Germany, around 2,000 pounds year according to the Smithsonian) land mines, like the S-mine, are still dug up by the truck load in North Africa.

*'''Pervitin:''' Not a traditional weapon as such, but a key element in how the Nazis blitzkrieg tactics were so effective, Pervitin was a methamphetamine drug that provided the base recipe for today's crystal meth and which was distributed to all members of the Nazi military. Its powerful stimulatory effect enabled them to fight harder for longer, and was essential in the breakneck races from the border to the battlefield. With all of the Nazi troopers hopped up on this drug, which later incorporated cocaine for increased effectiveness, Nazi forces could keep fighting effectively well after their enemies were worn out. At least until their supply lines were cut and addiction/withdrawal symptoms crippled them all, that is. Also "fun" fact: The Soviet alcohol ration was pooled within units and they took turns drinking themselves silly. At any one point in time, a decent chunk of all soldiers in the Eastern Front were high on meth or drunk off their asses on vodka. As one can imagine, that + a shit ton of guns and tanks meant a lot of chaos.

== C3i Waffen ==

Not exactly their strongest area...

*'''Enigma:''' Enigma was a communications scheme based on a sophisticated but easy to use electromechanical encryption/decryption device resembling a cross between a typewriter and an odometer. When used with proper procedures it was the one of the most secure means of communication available in the world for its time, offering effectively 76 bit encryption with 1920's technology in a device that was superior to anything the allies had. SIGABA was comparably secure but far heavier and fragile, and the M-209 was far inferior in both ease of use and encryption strength (although it was still adequate). However the combination of lax discipline, reuse of settings, and notes from a polish customs inspection of an enigma device resulted in the technology being reverse engineered and cryptographic attacks being discovered. Only Kriegsmarine communications remained difficult to decrypt by the end of the war, due to their practice of using secret codebooks to further compress their messages prior to encryption.

*'''Bombing Beams:''' Wouldn't you know it, the Instrument Landing System used today at pretty much every major airport was originally invented to 'land' bombs on London in the middle of the night when the lights are out. By using narrow radio beams the Nazis could steer bombers to a precalculated drop point. All the pilots had to do was maintain a certain speed and altitude, and the drop their bombs when the signal detector said they should... except when the British were fucking with them. Towards the end they were fucking with them so hard German bomber pilots were landing at RAF bases believing they were in France. When it actually worked, such as at Coventry, it was more accurate than daytime saturation bombing, with most bombs falling within 90 meters of the beam centerline. This system is why Nazi bombing raids tended to less of a brief swarm like the allies used and more of a continuous bomb conveyor belt lasting most of the night. If the Nazis had continued to improve this technology with ECCM and built a lot more bombers instead of squandering money on Wunderwaffen, they probably would have won the Battle of Britain (even then, Göring would have found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory).

*'''Tank Radios:''' While today we take it for granted that any trooper anywhere in the galaxy could get a call from the emperor himself to execute order 66, this wasn't always the case. Throughout the 1930's, all German armored vehicles had radios, while their opponents would typically only have a radio for the unit commander. This was an enormous advantage for Nazi tank units that remained the case basically until America showed up. The Nazis also had the Torn.Fu.d2, a backpack portable infantry radio comparable to the American SCR-300, although they didn't distribute them as widely as the Americans did.

[[Category:History]]