Chaos Light Cruiser
The Light Cruiser is a type of warship that straddles the line between Escort and Cruiser. Better-armed and protected than an Escort, a Light Cruiser is still just as fast, which is why they are often used as flagships for Escort squadrons.
Light Cruisers are a rare sight in Chaos fleets, outside of the Strike Cruisers used by recently-turned Renegade Space Marines.
The Hellbringer in particular creates the question “If you can make turreted, lance-sized macrobatteries, why the hell aren’t those on the sides of all Chaos ships?” Along with the smaller turrets their lances usually have, of course.
Light Cruiser Classes[edit]
Carrier[edit]
Hellbringer[edit]
Known to bedevil the isolated communities in the lawless frontier of the Koronus Expanse, the Hellbringer is a swift but powerful class of ships of unknown origin. Imperial experts are baffled as it matches no known existing design, leading many to believe this is a relatively new development, constructed by a Heretek enclave or even Dark Mechanicus Forge World.
The Hellbringer has been seen in two configurations: as a Carrier or a Gunboat. The Carrier variant was armed with a pair of Launch bays carrying a complement of Swiftdeath Fighters, Doomfire Bombers, Dreadclaw Assault Pods or more rarely, Kharybdis Assault Claws, as well as 2 long-ranged Macro Weapons Batteries.
As of the 9th year of the Indomitus Crusade, the Imperium believes it has been 8,000 years since a new Hellbringer has been built.
The Hellbringer-class Light Cruiser is also called a Planetary Assault Ship. It is designed for exactly what that sounds like.
- Length: 3.8-4km
- Mass: 20 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 35,000 crew, 10,000 pilots and support personnel; approx
- Acceleration: 5.8 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Lance-Boat[edit]
Hellbringer Mk.II[edit]
The sequel to the original Hellbringer. The Mk.II is the Gunboat variety that replaces the Launch Bays with 2 long-ranged Double-Barrel Heavy Lance Battery Weapons instead. Presumably, the aforementioned statement regarding a Hellbringer not having been built for 8000 years before the 9th year of the Indomitus Crusade does not apply here, as the vessel is actually a pretty effective fire support ship (assuming other Chaos vessels with launch bays are around, which is pretty likely).
By dropping the Launch Bay, it shaves off 12 points of cost to go all direct fire with a pair of the aforementioned Heavy Lance Batteries. The lances output pretty decent dps and crits on their own for this tier and considering their accuracy and piercing, coupled with that 18,000 unit range makes the Hellbringer Mk 2 a deadly cheap sniping line ship.
Lock-on orders will help your Macros match the dps output of the Lances by hitting more often while boosting both's chances to crit. Considering the high dps output of the macro turrets, reload isn't without its usefulness either, though is very limited in its benefit, so might only be worth going with at short range.
- Length: 3.8-4km
- Mass: 19 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 32,000 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 5.8 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Other[edit]
Pestilaan[edit]
An obscure and rare vessel that is exclusive only to the Death Guard and its successors.
The Pestilaan Light Cruiser is a class of Cruiser used by Chaos raiders and forces, specifically, those which follow the Chaos God Nurgle. Not much is really that known about them, except that it is hard to kill and stinks like a few megatonnes of shit.
Appearing bloated and sluggish with rusted metal and open sores scattered across its hull, the Pestilaan Light Cruiser's diseased nature drives the energies that sustain both it and its crew. It is thought that many are ancient Imperial vessels that have been captured and perverted by the forces of Chaos.
They do not appear in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada as the Chaos pacts kind of made them redundant. Maybe your cruisers get turned into them with Mark of Nurgle, idk.
- Length: 3.8-4km
- Mass: 24 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 42,000 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 3.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
In Battlefleet Gothic[edit]
The Light Cruiser category didn't exist in the Chaos fleet list, which instead jumped straight from regular Cruisers to Escorts. And no, Strike Cruisers from Chapters that went Renegade still don't count.
If it had, however, it's likely that it would have the same list limitations as regular Cruisers, which meant that only up to a dozen could be included at any time.
The Hellbringer itself doesn't come from the specialist game at all; instead it comes from an entry in a supplement of the Rogue Trader RPG from FF Games describing Battlefleet Koronus.
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2[edit]
"Borrowed" from the Rogue Trader RPG to make sure all the ship size categories had their representatives for all factions, the Chaos Light Cruiser variants display both the high speed and longer weapons ranges that would soon characterize the larger ships of the fleet.
That said, the Light Cruisers are comparatively cheap, and with their long weapons ranges, can ably serve as support to their larger brethren.
| Vessels of the Traitor Legions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Space Station | Blackstone Fortress | |
| Super Battleships | Abyss | |
| Battleships | Battleship (Gloriana - Planet Killer) - Ark of Omen | |
| Cruisers | Light Cruiser - Cruiser Heavy Cruiser - Grand Cruiser | |
| Escorts | Escort | |
| Others | Silver Tower of Tzeentch | |
| Combat Spacecraft | Doomfire Bomber - Swiftdeath Fighter | |
| Landships | ||
| Siege Carriers | Siege Carrier | |
| War Machines | Chaos Harvester - Nurgle Plague Tower - Woe Machine | |
| Titans | Questor Scout Titan - Slaanesh Subjugator Feral Scout Titan - Ravager Battle Titan Chaos Warlord Titan - Chaos Emperor Titan Skull Reaper | |
| Troop Transports | Mastodon | |
| Superheavy Tanks | Baneblade - Fellblade - Plaguereaper Tower of Skulls | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Harbinger | |
| Aerospace Vessels | Stormbird | |
| Seaships | ||
| Oceanic Battleships | Oceanic Battleship | |