So, the name above isn't even really set in stone; I mostly needed something to call this. I am working on the stats for one of RT NPCs, Aedan Qel-Drake's ship. So, he's a rather pirate-like swashbuckler of a Rogue Trader, to get money and impress the women, and I want a ship that goes with that feeling. One of my all time favorite hulls is the Conquest-Class Star Galleon, but as it is meant to, I find it a bit underwhelming on armor and armament. Back in the founding days, people like Rogue Traders could use their clout and wealth to petition whole new hull designs to be created, and the AdMech wasn't brain-numbingly incapable, or unwilling to do it. What I'm currently referring to as the Annihilation-Class Star Dreadnought is a Conquest stepped up. While still a Cruiser hull, it gets back its prow mount, and sports some more armor, while still being able to haul back an empire's plundered booty. It might be a bit slower than average, but the heavy front gun gives it some much wanted hitting power, to keep its ill-gotten goods safely within, and some heavier armor will protect that payload.

The Stellar Dragon will also sport some upgrades that make Navigating the warp easier, and maybe something that helps minimize crew losses, I'm not sure. What I mostly need is some ideas on how to turn down some bits of the ship, to justify it getting its prow mounting, and some extra hull plates. The armor might be inconsequential; it's just a regular upgrade, but I'm not sure what to lose to gain the spot where I plan to mount a nova cannon. Any ideas would be great.

Also, while the name I'm using is good for me, if anyone knows something better, I'm game. "Annihilation" is Conquest to a greater, more "I simply pwned you" degree, and Dreadnought is a step up from a Galleon (my navy lingo is weak, so I'm not sure if there's a better real ship class, in between, that better fits this vessel I'm making.

thanks for your interest, and for any assistance. Please have a good one.

Just have it be the Star Galleon with Excess Void Armour. I think it's in Hostile Acquisitions.

Star Galleon lacks the Prow slot. Just say it is, and has one, anyway? Would be an easy fix, if not a bit wanky.

Have you considered the Ambition class cruiser?

It's a standard Cruiser but with weaker armour. Annihilation seems a bit much. The Conquest star galleon brings to mind the Conquistadors that sailed the Atlantic on Spanish galleons.

As for names of the new hull type... what about Star Caravel?

I should note that the general convention (going back to the 1906 launch of HMS Dreadnought) is that a dreadnought is a really powerful battleship. Often, that translates to "larger", sometimes to "most advanced" (Traveller, for example, has the most recent/advanced design of battleship in a polity's navy be designated a "dreadnought", before being downgraded to a mere "battleship" when superseded by a new design). 40k does have some ships what may well be considered dreadnoughts (before we get to stupendously, "That's-No-Moon" large pieces like the Rock (a fair bit of the planet Caliban, transformed into a conglomerate-structure starship, vaguely on the same lines as the Stryxis caravans... but much bigger),and Eldar craftworlds)- the Furious Abyss (launched and destroyed during the Horus Heresy, owned by the Word Bearers Legion), the Planet Killer (created for Abaddon in the run up to the Gothic War, no sightings between its presumed destruction in 154.m41 and the start of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.m41) and the Phalanx (flagship/home base of the Imperial Fists. Pre-Imperial, it's the largest actual starship known to be built by humans), to name but three.

As a suggestion for a replacement description- well, to be honest, the best bet is actually either cruiser (to fit in with the actual size and the name commonly given to that tonnage bracket), ship-of-the-line or man-of-war, as galleon basically wound up as a generic term for sail-powered warships (galleons developed from the earlier carracks, notably mounting only a low, single-deck forecastle. By the 17th century, pretty much every naval power was building them, with galleys and galleas' [sort of a hybrid between a war galley and a carrack] being mostly relegated to coastal defence and shallow water [ie mediterranean] usage, so the term became fairly generic). The next step in naval evolution was the line-of-battle ship, but that basically came down to a redefining of naval combat (come to think of it... in much the same way that HMS Dreadnought did, or the carrier warfare at Midway etc.): gunnery was recognised very much as the rule, and fleet formations organised to maximise their firepower while minimising their vulnerabilities. In RN usage, ships-of-the-line were organised into several different "rates", the most powerful of which would be cognate with BfG battleships, while the lower end of the 4rd rate down to the 6th would be referred to as "frigates" (or "cruisers", if assigned to long patrols or escort duty) (generally speaking, the smallest 4th rates weren't considered quite tough/powerful enough to stand in the line-of-battle, and so were "frigates", but not frigates, which were defined as 5th rates with their guns on a single deck; there were also some 2-decked "frigates" among the 5th rate (more properly great frigates), and some of the smaller frigates (28 guns or less) were relagated to the 6th rate).

Welcome to the confusion that the milieu of 40k naval combat is based on. We probably have Andy Hoare or Andy Chambers to thank/blame for this (my personal vote is thanks, but YMMV).

Anyway- canonically, ships of Cruiser size or greater in 40k were (by the time of the Gothic War, the term is considered outdated, but taught to naval cadets) known as ships-of-the-line. However, a Ship-of-the-Line is... not its best without other Ships-of-the-Line to help cover it (escort ships can only do so much). Man-of-War is a more generic term, referring to any powerful ship-of-the-line or frigate, although it could be considered to apply to pretty much any purpose-built warship. Hmmm. Maybe go for calling it a Razee (a ship that has been "cut down"- originally by removing or reducing the forecastle and poop, later by pulling off the quarterdeck, or even an entire deck, resulting in a ship built for the stresses of a larger vessel, but is much handier/stable/more maneuverable as a result of reducing topweight. As a bonus, they generally don't lose that much of their firepower in the doing, either (unless the razing removed an entire gundeck, of course). Particular note should go to the Foresight , the first race-built galleon (that is, designed as a razee to begin with), which reputedly "run circles around the clumsier Spanish competition.")?

You need to determine what the Dreadnought's role is in void warfare before you can really think about loadouts and slot arrangements. I don't see many holes in imperial ship design philosophy, especially in the capital ship classes. Cruisers are ships of the line. Grand Cruisers are flagships capable of dealing and absorbing mountains of incoming fire. Battlecruisers are sort of a tweener class, but really designed for 1 role - killing other capital ships. The Battleship is such a rarity that it need not even be discussed, but its role should be clear to all.

Between the above voidship size-types, there's sub-classes that fill specialized roles within each weight class. Thus, I'm not quite sure where your design would fit into that - meaning I'm not sure why it ever would have been designed, much less constructed.

That said, I see something like a Dreadnought as a Battlecruiser on steroids. No launch bays, no frills. Just a pure killer, so not at all something an RT would be overly interested in - since all the "sexy" things on a voidship are what seem to attract your average RT. I'd go with a 3 Port/Starboard and 1 Prow slot set-up. The Prow should almost certainly be a Nova Cannon, with the port/starboard going 2 lance/1 macrocannon broadsides.

Again, I view the Dreadnought as a pure killer. It's big, slow and tough as nails. It's bristling with almost stupid levels of firepower, but it lacks adaptability and much cross-functionality. Hammer the enemy with the nova cannon on the way in, then settle in on the broadside and commence ****.

Just my 2 cents.

I'm not going for a colossal supership; battleships like the Light of Terra and my Emperor's Deliverance are more reserved for when I'm writing about Korvallus, as he has PF more akin to Chorda or Winterscale, and even he doesn't have a battleship in my work. I believe I spoke poorly in my post. Basically, what I want is a ship made for merchanty stuff (the Conquest-class Star Galleon is one of my favorite ships, even if it is kind of bad), but that still has a prow mount (granted, an admittedly military-themed addition). So much of Qel-Drake's hokkum is dragon-themed, and so i wanted a ship with a prow-mounted nova cannon or torpedo tubes, like a dragon's breath. I said "dreadnought" because I figure a ship with an "added" prow weapon would have to be bigger, and dreadnought seemed to be a bigger ship term than galleon. It was no more intelligent or inspired than that; "bigger than a galleon". I believe that the Star Galleon bears a sort of pirate/loot ship feel to it; the first Rogue Traders reputedly may have sailed away in these vessels, bearing the weapons strength to crush what would be sin in the eyes of the Emperor, AND bring back all their loot, to further fund both the endeavors of the Rogue Trader's own dynasty, AND those of the Imperium he or she purports to support, and in turn be supported by.

I like Cruisers because they are big, powerful, and often have multiple starboard/prow slots, allowing for broadsides AND lances. So many Imperial vessels are sans-dorsal, and keel slots are practically restricted to space stations. What I want is a ship that feels like Blackbeard's ship, sort of; bigger than what the opposition might have, and with a hard hit, but also with the air of a pirate ship, large enough for Qel-Drake, his warrior-harem, and all the loot he can carry. Just haven't decided on a hull yet for the Ascendant Wyrm, or whatever dragon-themed thing I'll call it (maybe the Emperor's Breath; he "speaks for the Emperor", and his firepower can wither those who dare stand before him).

Also thinking of having two torpedo "destroyer" raiders as escort, sometimes. With the Conquest being a bit lacking in armor, it seemed a nice idea, though I might not if I go with a beefier hull.

Oh. Well, larger than a galleon, at least in terms of tonnes burthen, would be a fluyt (pronounced "flight"). I'd considered mentioning that one earlier, but historically the fluyt was distinguished from galleons by being built in such a way they could not be practicably used for war as anything other than a transport or fire-ship; they were lighter-framed, and built without gun-ports, with some not even mounting swivels.

Hmm. The pre-Rate class bands may prove useful- unlike Rates (which were calculated on the number of carriage guns they mounted), the Ranks were based upon the number of crew- it went smaller ship, Ship, Great Ship, Royal Ship. Galleons typically fell into Ship and Great Ship, but there were Royal Ships that were built as galleons.