Ship Hulls of the Badab War
I'm thoroughly enjoying Battlefleet Koronus. Its inspired me to write up a few more ship hulls, based upon some of the types presented in the Forge World Badab War books. Hope you enjoy them!
Warp Barque
Dimensions: 6.25km long, 1.4 km abeam
Mass: 41 Megatonnes approx.
Crew: 20-1000 Marines, up to 12,000 support crew and chapter serfs
Accel: 2 Gravities max sustainable acceleration
A warp barque is an ancient specialist Astartes fleet support vessel, designed to sustain and resupply the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade. Given that no Imperial forces now operate at the Legion level, these vanishingly rare ships are now rightly regarded as anachronisms. But they are still viewed with awe, as each colossal ship of this type is a true Imperial relic, a magisterial and astounding star cathedral that witnessed the birth of the Imperium.
Barques are huge, heavily armed and armoured transports which-through the use of rapidly replaceable internal modular task units-are also able to fill a variety of fleet support roles, such as hospital ship, fleet tender, and mobile crusade headquarters. Some barques would act as re-supply factoria, drifting in the wake of the compliance fleets and churning out endless bolt shells and explosives. Others would act as mobile apothecaria, treating the endless tide of crippled and wounded marines, and resurrecting them for battle once more. Yet others would huddle lesser ships to them, refuelling and repairing.
Their principle assets are their adaptability and vast size: although they are smaller than an Astartes battle barge, they are stocky and boxy vessels, and mass slightly more. Their huge internal space consists of a number of truly gigantic linked hangers, all of which can be connected together to form a single cavernous hold. In extremis, given that barques were equipped with cavernous bay doors almost a kilometre across, an empty warp barque can act as a mobile drydock, swallowing ships up to the size of a light cruiser.
Although better armed and armoured than the transports employed by the Imperium’s lesser servants, the barque fleets were devastated by the Horus Heresy, falling prey to the more numerous and aggressive ships of the rival Astartes Legions. Few indeed survived the Heresy, and those few that did were rapidly mothballed as Gulliman’s reforms deliberately crippled the Legions, preventing them from ever rising up against mankind in such numbers. The barques-ever having been loyal servants of the Legions-were victims of the same political process which led to their dissolution. Modern Marine Chapters simply do not require transports and support vessels of this size.
Now, few examples of these ships remain. A handful are in use amongst larger fleet based chapters such as the Lamenters and Black Templars, and a yet smaller number were tithed to the black fleet or to a number of Rogue Trader dynasties who chose their allegiances wisely during the dark days of the crusade. For those who can afford the upkeep of such a vessel, they are priceless assets, flexible and powerful ships with huge internal space and enough armour and firepower to enable the captain to take on anything up to the size of a cruiser. Such a ship will always be the prime asset of any Imperial organisation in whose hands it is placed, and the Imperium will punish those who do not treat it with the reverence it deserves.
Speed:
5
Manoeuvrability:
-5
Detection:
+15
Hull Integrity:
60
Armour:
23
Turret Rating:
2
Space:
50
SP:
60
Weapon Capacity:
Dorsal 2, Starboard 1, Port 1
Cargo Hauler:
The Warp Barque was designed for transporting Legiones Astartes support modules of various types, and as such will always be a transport vessel. This ship is pre-equipped with three Main Cargo Hold components. The hull’s Space has been reduced to account for these, however when the ship is constructed it must be able to provide a total of 6 Power to these Components.
Redundancies:
The barques were constructed to face the worst the universe could throw at them, with a variety of backup systems and redundancies. If a player wishes, he may equip a barque with up to two plasma drives and two bridges, though the plasma drives must be of the same type.
Transport:
The Barque counts as a transport for the purposes of all Components.
Charibdys Class Grand Cruiser
Dimensions: 7.5 km long, 1.75km long at fins
Mass: 31 Megatonnes approx
Crew: 127,000 approx
Accel: 3.5 gravities max sustainable acceleration
Virtually nothing is now known of the mysterious Charibdys class grand cruisers. No extant examples are known to remain in the service of any Imperial organisations. The only known ship of this type to be encountered in the last 3,000 years appeared as a major component of the space hulk
“The Ruin of Ages”
in 915 M38, and this was seized by the Adeptus Mechanicus as valuable archeotech. However, rumours of ships matching the class’ description conducting terrifying campaigns against rebel-held worlds on the fringes of the Imperium have filtered back into civilised space for millennia.
What little is known of the class beyond the secretive Magi of the Mechanicus is based upon a worn and tattered parchment copy of a ship recognition guide issued to the Imperial Navy in M32. Known as the “Dessey fragment,” this record pictures a vessel which appears to owe much in its outline to what is now known as the Repulsive Class Grand Cruiser. However, the Charibdys appeared to deviate even further than the Repulsive from what is now the standard Imperial ship design template. The fragment pictures a sleek, narrow vessel lacking the “Imperial prow” and equipped instead with high dorsal and ventral control vanes, and a massive maw-like prow launch bay.
The performance figures for the Charibdys Class quoted in the body of the Dessey fragment are widely believed to be a hoax, as few modern commentators can believe that a ship so large could attain the speeds ascribed to it. If the fragment is to be believed, however, this ship must have been a truly terrifying opponent, forced by its unusual design to favour an aggressive attack pattern.
Speed:
6
Manoeuvrability:
+9
Detection:
+10
Hull Integrity:
82
Armour:
19
Turret Rating:
3
Space:
90
SP:
74
Weapon Capacity:
Prow 2, Starboard 2, Port 2
Grand Cruiser:
This weapon may use “Cruiser only” Components.
Void Predator:
Due to the unusual configuration of this vessel, Launch bays may be mounted in the Prow weapon slots. In fact, they must be mounted in the prow, if chosen. No Launch bays may be mounted on the port or starboard slots.