Imperial Navy
"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
The Imperial Navy is one of the main branches of the 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 and its video game adaptations.
The Emperor's Might
While the Imperial Guard is responsible for prosecuting the Emperor's will during any planet-bound conflict, the Imperial Navy sees to it that the systems and sectors said planets are part of are adequately defended from any (internal or external) space-borne threat. With countless warships under its disposal, threats -- whether they're lowly pirate raiders or bitter survivors of the legendary Horus Heresy -- are dealt with extreme prejudice.
As for the warships themselves, many are akin to spaceborne cathedrals, encrusted with Gothic spires and arches, stained-plasteel windows, and often gilded in gold. Operated and maintained by crews in the thousands, many ships have their own culture (even dialects!) unique to them alone. This is due to the generations of voidborn crew that had populated them since the vessels first set off, centuries or even millennia before.
Organization
Imperial Navy fleets are given a degree of autonomy, but ultimately all answer to Segmentum Command, who are nominally based in fortresses located in each of the Imperium's five major Segmentums. The Segmentum fleet in its entirety will be named after the Segmentum it is based in (like Warfleet Obscurus), but smaller fleets will also be named after the Sectors they protect. An example of the latter is the redoutable Battlefleet Gothic, which defended the Gothic Sector from Abbadon's 12th Black Crusade.
A Lord High Admiral commands the Segmentum fleets, and each of the five in turn answer to the Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Navy, who is one of the High Lords of Terra.
His-On-Terra's Ships
The Imperial Navy is made up of a vast number of warships. From the humblest Destroyer escort to the mightiest Battleship, each is an expression of the Imperium's spaceborne might.
These ships can further be classified via the weaponry they use, and their roles in the fleet:
- Basic: Ships that are armed with multiple weapons types, making them effective in any situation their skipper finds themselves in.
- Lance-boats: Ships that are armed mostly with Lance batteries. Built to destroy things at long rang with focused attacks, they are somewhat rare in-universe due to the power requirements needed for such weaponry.
- Ordinance-boats: Ships that are armed instead with Macrobatteries, these are made with a medium-to-short range brawl in mind. Much of the extra power diverted to maintain Nova Cannons or Plasma macros.
- Carriers: Ships that have Launch Bays that carry Fighters, Bombers, and various flavors of Assault craft. Many ships don't start out as Carriers, and were instead converted when their weapons batteries became damaged beyond repair.
Battleship
The biggest warships available, Battleships are heavily-armed, armored, and protected by layers of Void Shields. Very powerful, they're also ponderous due to their size, which on the low side measures in the kilometers. They are also relatively rare (probably only in the hundreds per Segmentum compared to the thousands of cruisers out there), need major Forge Worlds to repair, and takes centuries to replace if lost. As such are precious resources that have to be used carefully. They are usually used as the flagships of Lord Admirals.
See their own article for more information on individual Battleship classes.
Grand Cruiser
Smaller than a Battleship, but still larger than a modern Battlecruiser, the Grand Cruisers have features and technology no longer easily replaceble, and as such are often retired from front-line duty, and kept in Reserve fleets. Many lack the Armored Prow seen these days on Imperial ships.
Battlecruiser
Based on the Cruiser hull, Battlecruisers provide battleship-grade weaponry on a much faster weapons platform. These ships took the place of Grand Cruisers in many fleets, as unlike those, the technology in Battlecruisers are far more simple and easier to maintain.
Cruiser
The workhorse of the Imperial Navy, Cruisers make up most of any given fleet's numbers. Though less heavily-armed than a Battleships, cruisers are also much more quicker, and are easier and cheaper to build. Minor Forge Worlds and any good-sized orbital dock can service Cruisers without difficulty.
See their own page for more details on the individual classes of Cruiser.
Light Cruiser
Straddling the divide between a Cruiser and an Escort, a Light Cruiser mixes the firepower and armor of the former with the speed and nimbleness of the latter. Quite common, Light Cruisers are typically used for recon, or whenever a quick but forceful response is needed.
Escort
The smallest and most common warship type in Navy fleets, these come in two distinct classes: the Frigate and the Destroyer.
Frigates are bigger and better-armed, while Destroyers are smaller, and yet are the fastest and agile warships of the Navy. These are normally organized in squadrons of two to six ships, and will always operate in a group.
In a fleet action, Escort squadrons will either act as forward scouts, or as a screen for bigger ships and Attackk Craft. Most of the time however these will patrol the space lanes around a subsector, ensuring the safety of passenger carriers and freight haulers travelling from planet to planet or off-system.
See their own article for more information on the Escort classes.
In Battlefleet Gothic
The Imperial Navy features some of the most diverse ship classes and ship types in the game, rivaled probably only by Chaos, and can even add in Space Marine ships as support. Due to the variety of ships available, it's easy to cater a fleet to an individual player's preferences.
That said, many Imperial Ships feature good frontal protection thanks to all those Armored Prows, and short-to-medium range weaponry, with the long-ranged Lances somewhat rare. This encourages a similar medium-to-close range playstyle, with Ramming thrown in for good measure.
Again, this all depends on the individual player's preferences, plus there are enough Lance ships available if one wants to play more as a sniper than a brawler.
Gallery
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The Lord Admiral's Love Shack
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The Grand Marshal's Summer Palace of PWNAGE
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Imagine how quick land battles would be if these things actually helpedThey 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 -
The Bullet-Catchers of the Navy
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Another demonstration of too much spare time
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