Has anyone seen or worked up anything that could be viewed as a decent primer on the Imperial Navy and/or its customs of service?

(naval ranks, courtesy, general procedures and/or culture/etiquette)

I have a player who took Battlefleet Calixis as a homeworld and was trying to put together some guidelines for him to help hang the background on.

BFG seems to have a little here and there, but it is scattered and difficult to find. The novel Relentless gave only the barest ideas of naval culture. So looking for other sources, official or not. (Would prefer not to have to read entire additional novels to glean minimal info)

If I can't find anything else I'll work up something based off the (very) little I know about the U.S. and British Royal Navy traditions and customs, modified to fit the 40k setting. However, if this is already done anywhere, it would be great not to have to duplicate the work.

Any suggestions?

There's some bits of useful stuff in Gordon Rennie's novels Execution Hour and Shadowpoint . Likewise, there's some in Crossfire , although far less. Also, it's worth reading the Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin novels for easily-nickable customs and styles.

I haven't finished working on it, but I have been putting together a brief Navy primer. I'll see about shoving an incomplete draft up on Dark Reign once it's vaguely usable. It won't be pretty, but it'll be reasonable.

For the time being, you might try Port Maw . There's some nice blokes there, and at least a half-decent work-up of naval ranks.

This is kind of extrapolated from various sources, but mostly what I think would make sense.

Naval (officer) Ranks:

• Cadet (Cdt.)
• Ensign (En.)
• Midshipman (Mid.)
• Masters Mate (M Mt.)
• Sub-Lieutenant (Sub Lt.)
• Lieutenant (1st to 6th Class) (Lt.)
• Senior Lieutenant (1st to 6th Class) (Snr Lt.)
• Flag Lieutenant (Fg Lt.)
• Fleet Lieutenant (Ft Lt.)
• Lt. Commander (Lt Cmdr.)
• Commander (Cmdr.)
• Captain (Cpt.)
• Senior Captain (Snr Cpt.)
• Flag Captain (Fg Cpt.)
• Fleet Captain (Ft Cpt.)
• Commodore (1st to 6th Class) (Com.)
• Rear Admiral (Rr Ad.)
• Vice Admiral (V Ad.)
• Admiral (Ad.)
• Admiral of the Fleet (Ft Ad.)
• Lord Admiral (Ld Ad.)

The first four ranks are petty officers, but from the officer class(ie. they're officers in training, outranked by some of the seniour ratings). The Masters Mate is a Midshipman ready to be promoted to Sub Lt. with additional duties OR a senior rating who assists the ships Master.

Some of the ranks have special duties and not every officer will hit every rank in his career. Eg. Fg Lt's, aid a Flag officer (a Commodore or Admiral, in diplomatic and communications duties within a fleet or squadron, whilst Ft Lt's support senior Admirals by co-ordinating between fleets and squadrons. A lot of Captains therefore, are very careful around these individuals as though they vastly outrank them, they cary a measure of their seniors authority. This can lead to arrogance and overstepping the bounds, and more than one young officer with oh so sharp creasses has come to regret annoying the wrong Captain. A Fg or Ft Cpt. will command the Fagship under his Commodore or Admiral (helping with fleet tactics) and is expected to ake over in the event of that individuals death in combat, at least until other more senior men present (in other vessels) can take over when the shooting stops.

The Classes of certain ranks aren't just mars of seneority (though hey are) but an indication of that individuals duties and authority too. Eg. A 3rd or 4th Lt. might command a whole deck (of which their can be hundreds), whilst the Snr Lt's control whole sections (groups of decks, related parts of the ship or bridge stations). A Commodore of 6th Class has no Fg Lt's or Cpt's under him, but must cary out those duties himself, whilst more senior Commodores (commanding greater resources) may have several of each.

I just suggest to remember that the 40K is full of religious or para-religious trappings even in places where we are not used to see it. So i suggest to insert into the beautifull previous list some religious crap like Holy, Brother, Father, Blessed, Revered. And remember that every member of Ecclesia, even if not part of the ship chain of command, will probably exert influence by means of their role in keeping together the ship itself.

Personally, I would strongly recommend the Patrick Obrien series of books that follow Captain Jack Aubrey (the novels that the film Master and Commander was very loosely based upon).

Not 40k related, but you couldn't get a better idea (in my mind at least) of how the ships of the Imperial Navy might operate. From press ganged ratings up to the specialist that deal with navigation, gunnery, etc to the traditions and rules of a warship. As with a lot of 18th Cent settings, it works well with 40k for background information.

Besides Execution Hour and Shadow Point , the actually BFG rulebook available for download at Games Workshop Specialty Games is handy. Battlefleet Gothic (the sector battlefleet in particular) doesn't appear to use the ranks of commander or lieutenant commander with a flag lieutenant serving as the executive officer of major capitalships. How far this particular rank system extends is unknown.

I'm going to sound like everyone else, but Execution Hour would be your best shot. Gordon Rennie tells you an amazing tale *AND* in a way it's the "Big Book of Everything you ever wanted to know about the Imperial Navy". I wouldn't recommend Shadow Point though... let's just say it wasn't at the same epic level as Execution Hour (though still amazing and the reason for it not being at the same level not at all the fault of the author) and, if you ever ask the author about it and the third Battlefleet Gothic novel that was never promised, yet never produced, you'll get a most interesting story from Mr. Rennie, particularly if he's had a bit to drink. Let's just say the man is like the Samuel L. Jackson of Science Fiction... one bad Mother F'er who you should never mess with!

Other than that, as mentioned before the Battle Fleet Gothic stuff will tell you a bit, though it's more concerned (unsuriprisingly!) about playing the game as opposed to immersing you in back story.