40K Fleet Tactics And Strategy! The Innumerable Might Of The God Emperors Imperial Navy!

[@dougfoust117]

According to the rogue trader players handbook, Imperial torpedoes are driven by a machine spirit "unable and unwilling to make the distinction between freind and foe". One of my favorite lines of flavor text.

[@corradoalamanni179]

Based torpedoes

[@cnlbenmc]

Well modern sub launched torpedoes are kinda like that; Once the wires connecting it to the fire control computer are severed they go after whatever is most similar to the target signature last detected by their own active Sonar arrays and even circling around if it misses.

[@Jfk2Mr]

Ah, yes "When seeker turns on, Mr. Missile is no longer your friend"

[@monkeymonk666]

@@cnlbenmc I mean, still better than the old ww2 torps lol Those would frequently just straight up circle around immediately after launch and destroy their own vessels... And would only detonate maybe half the time if they actually did strike the enemy...

[@Tsurf]

Torpedoes: This explosion is Rated E for Everyone

[@enoughothis]

I love the Imperial Navy. The scale of the ships is truly bananas. A Luna class Cruiser clocks in at about 5 km long. An Imperial Class Star Destroyer is only 1.6 km, which is about the size of a Sword class escort frigate.

[@KT-pv3kl]

Its actually larger than that. The 5km figure comes from the erroneous assumption that all models for the Battlefleet Gothic Tabletop game are uniformly scaled. They are however progressively scaled meaning escorts and smaller vessels are usually oversized while the bigger ships are smaller for practical reasons. Otherwise a destroyer would barely be visible on the table while a battleship would be so large that moving it around becomes akward. The true size of a lunar is round about 6-6,5km depending on wether you count the prow ram/nova cannon towards the total lenght

[@enoughothis]

@@KT-pv3kl, makes sense

[@johnkonig865]

Would be nice though if the universe would acknowledge their might a bit more, the Imperium is way too focused on space marines, or at least it feels that way.

[@pubcle]

The scale of ship weaponry and shielding in Star Wars is still larger though, which is an interesting aspect despite having such a smaller size to 40k design in the lore. In the lore of the EU, three ISDs using purely their standard turbolaser fire can melt the surfaces of planets in hours.

[@SamTheManWhoCanTwice]

@@johnkonig865 Navigators have got to be the most overlooked. They are the only people allowing space travel to exist. Yet they are never mentioned in a single plot line. Navigators are more important to the imperium than space marines

[@ForgottenHonor0]

"This number isn't perfect." We know. GW plays with military numbers like a drunkard playing darts.

[@MetalsirenIXI]

Two trillion ships hovering over terra is something crazy GW would say lol

[@adrenjones9301]

@@MetalsirenIXI While making an entire "defend Terra" story about only 2 ships.

[@Venneroth]

@@MetalsirenIXI And also fighting ground wars across eight planets with a Guard army smaller than WW2's Eastern Front.

[@AAhmou]

@@Venneroth Considering how large the Imperial palace is supposed to be (a mountain range) you'd think it'd take more than 2 million guards to secure it.

[@BigsZone]

At a checkers tournament. After the tournament is over and everyone is cleaning up.

[@iang257]

"In which no ships could possibly exist, like black holes." Why do I feel like the Imperium has some sort of Archeotech that can make that shit work.

[@DetectiveLance]

The AdMech and Inquisition both have divisions dedicated to Black Hole as potential threats to Imperium security, sooooo probably.

[@fadelsukoco3092]

And even if that isn't true, then they would just have a higher average density of naval assets in the volume of space that they CAN exist in. Not to mention that certain areas would warrant higher than usual assets, like near the Eye of Terror, or somewhere like Terra. Usually you have a battlefleet for each sector, but I'd wage that the Sol system would have more defense ships than exist in an entire segmentum navy.

[@maddlarkin]

@@fadelsukoco3092 one of the books notes that 1 of the fleets assigned to Sol is The 1st Terran Battlecruiser Armada...

[@goofball3056]

Speranza.

[@TheEldritchGod]

Alright... I have a plan! What's your plan? We attack a singularity and try and take it for the imperium! Are you secretly an astral claw?

[@BlueSpartan2]

My headcannon solution to the whole inconsistency thing in space combat can be summarize as "what range are they engaging at?". If ships are hundreds or even thousands of kilometers apart basically taking the idea of a potshot and turning it into a military doctrine, then it makes perfect sense for space battle to take forever. On the other hand, take the opening picture of the episode, that doesn't look like thousands of kilometers apart, that doesn't even look like 100 kilometers. At that range the question is no longer "Will it hit?" and becomes "How much can I shoot?". Missile salvos turn from crapshoot deterents to semi-reliable direct fire weapons, while most weapons become damn near certain to hit irregardless or how much the enemy might want to dodge. At this range, it becomes more about how much punishment in the short term a ship can take before cracking rather than long term durability. Repair crews don't mean much when you have maybe a few minutes between engagement and your ship being turned into half melted swiss cheese.

[@jackr2287]

Yeah we can backfill the plot hole they create a little by the logic you lay out. Still, some consistency wouldn't be amiss.

[@kalyambamhango4548]

I agree that a lot of people factor out ange, plus micro debris from the battle might slow the projectile over time.... But I don't mean to nit pick.... Irregardless is not correct

[@balazsvarga1823]

This is pretty much it, but at close the ships blowing up can damage enemy or ally alike as well. I would assume long range battles are in the depth of space, close range when you really need to land troops on a planet.

[@Amoth_oth_ras_shash]

@@jackr2287 seconds that... since well , its consistent that say..energy weapons and the like have a diminished effect at long ranges... but missiles or any weapon that is a 'hybrid' of matter/energy... its chance to hit might be far lower at long ranges but like with a war head its yield shouldet have changed aka the damage should still be consistent so... i'd wave a wand and say screw gw and just pretend something like 2 houers of bad luck in broad side exchange will comming up close weakened the thing that did a vanishing trick ;)

[@randomblacktemplar738]

@@kalyambamhango4548 just like Table Top Battlefleet Gothic

[@vindicare9636]

Unironically one of the Imperial Navy greatest strengths is its diversity. So many active ship classes,comes in so many modifications,patterns,weapon types. Makes them really unpredictable. They would have a field day against uniformed fleets so common in Star Wars. Add in Mechanicus and Marine squadrons and they almost unstopable.

[@alganhar1]

That lack of uniformity however is a stone cold BITCH for Logistics, because you are supplying god knows how many different types and weights of ordinance. There is a reason for example that the USN in WWII stuck to 6 inch and 8 inch guns for its light and heavy cruisers respectively even after the Naval Treaties fell apart. The same with the Royal Navy who discarded the planned 9.2 inch ships after the collapse of the treaty primarily to simplify logistics for the Heavy Cruisers it planned (though did not end up building). It is also part of the reason you saw the USN and RN especially move to Dual Purpose secondary guns for their capital ships secondary armaments and their Destroyers Primary armaments. Dual Purpose guns may not be quite as good in the AA or anti surface role as specialised guns, but switching to DP guns meant you could have twice the fitted firepower against each threat and you used a common ammunition size. Compare that to say the Germans who used a mixed battery for their secondaries of 88's for the AA role and 120's for the anti surface role. The Imperial Navy is a logisticians fucking nightmare!!!

[@bkane573]

Assuming both galaxies merged, the imperium smashes everythjg in Star Wars except maybe the Galactic Empire. The Galactic was built purpose built to fight the incoming extragalactic threat of the Yuzzhan Vong. As such it is not tooled correctly to fight the imperium of man, but it might to very well. First, because it prioritizes standardization it’s logistics train is much better. Likewise, FTL is much more reliable, and ships, from fighters on up are more maneuverable. At the start of combat, Imperial ships would have an advantage due to the weapons forwards design, vs the broadside style of the imperium. The Galactic Empire could also rapidly redesign their fleet, in comparison to the Inperium due to reliable communication. It would be an interesting fight.

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

Imperial navy: 25,000 imperial 1 star destroyers, 1.5-40 million smaller warships(based off sector groups), 50+dreadnoughts(around 26 of which are executer classes), a sovereign class(continent/small moon busting laser), two eclipses(continent/small moon), over 288,000 other star destroyers/similar sized ships, sun crusher(star buster, that tanked a death stat laser), 2 death stars, an extra death star prototype with a functional laser, 2 death star sized habitation spheres, a galaxy gun(snipe planets and ships from across the galaxy), metal crystal phase shifters(bypass shields to weaken hull integrity), the tarken,(planet buster), the conqueror(continent/small moon cracking super laser) and dozens of world devastators(can rip apart planets with tractor beam projectors, while tanking shots from capital ships. Can collect materials to upgrade/grow, and even create new world devastators). There was a plan to include super class star destroyers(8km) in many of the empires sectors. That is potentially 100s. There was also the assertor class(15km), bellator(7km), and mandator III(12km). Imperial army: 10s of trillions(Rebellion era campaign guide) Stormtrooper corps: 100s of millions-billions CompForce: 100s of billions(2nd edition sourcebook) Tanks/repulsorcraft: 2-9 Trillion Walkers: 10s of millions Territory: over a million, and a half full member worlds(rebellion era campaign guide,and 2nd edition source book) , and 5-70+ million colonies(Essential atlas), vessels, and protectorates. Han solo stated to Luke they would have to search six million inhabited systems, and an old republic comic stated the holonet connected six million worlds. Weapon damage: Turbolasers dish out megatons of energy, while laser cannons in the kilotons. The attack of the clones cross section states 200 gigatons a shot, and 6 megatons a shot but we don't see that, so we treat it as an outlier. Contrary to popular belief star wars shields do protect against projectiles/high velocity attacks. A super star destroyer's shields have tanked rebel cruisers jumping out of hyperspeed, and multi megaton hits from asteroids in an asteroid field. Deflector shields can produce ray shields(Physical/High velocity projectile weapons), and particle shields(energy based weapons). Both the 2nd edition sourcebook, and cross section tell us star destroyers are capable of turning the upper crust of planets into slag which we can believe. Carnor jax states an imperial star destroyer can make stone run like water, and turn sand into glass. Going by the bombardment of caamas, it takes several star destroyers to reduce a planet's surface twice the size of earth to molten slag in under twenty four hours. The E-11 is the equivalent of a 14.5mm round with enough heat to punch through a lightly armored or unarmored opponent, and in a new hope it vaporizes steel bars. The DLT-19 was capable of taking down lightly armored vehicles. The T-21 light repeating blaster fires the plasma bolt equivalent of a 22.5-30mm bullet from a guass rifle. Mercenaries using light blaster cannons shot through 4 inches of plasteel. T-21

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

@@bkane573 The colony: Killik species: A telepathic hive mind of arthropods that could make others join their nests through auras(Heat,electric,magnetic,and chemical). It takes up to several months to become a full joiner for non insect species. They could be longer than 50 meters long(10 meters high), to human size, to as big as a wookie, knee high, thumb size, to as small as a mite at less than an inch long. The kolosolok's could reflect maser canons, with it's chitin, and when penetrated the walking tanks did not notice. Keep in mind normal charric blasters easily penetrate ceramic armors, with enough force to knock a lightsaber out the hand of a jedi. Despite their size the kolosoks were actually faster than smaller killiks, who had trouble keeping up with them. Thumbnail sized joojs formed large swarms, that injected flesh dissolving venom, which made those bitten feel as if their on fire. Some nests were airborne, others able to dig under enemy fortifications, and move boulders. Some could leap over fortifications, and trees. Once a joiner, the person's memories and knowledge are one with the nest. A single female could lay a thousand eggs in a month. Those eggs become ready for combat in a year, and then reproductives in 2 more years. Most killiks are female(fertile), and males only leave the nest to create new nests. A nest represented a single person, although killiks did have a seperate weak individual mind. They can be heavily influenced by large amounts of joiners. Force users are especially influential, and completely change the nature of nests. With enough normal joiners a nest can turn into warriors, cowards, nomads, pacifists, exct. Nests can also amp force users, putting the likes of Raynor, and Lomi on par with Luke skywalker. Welk was a match for jedi master Saba. Raynor could even use the force to reflect turbolaser shots. Nests: 375 Navy: They were capable of making fifteen nest ships(8km), dozens of shard capital ships(1.5-10km), and a hundred and fifty thousand dart ships(With just 4 nests) in a year. By the time of the battle of tenupe, they amassed around a million dartships. Additionally there were five blastbaots, a victory class star destroyer, dozens of megafreighters, B wings, 127 Slayn&Korpil transports, and a lancer class frigate. The great swarm: 7,000,000- 3.3 billion Overall population: Trillions Territory: Systems- 6+ Planets/moons- 25+ Membrosia: A alcoholic substance created by killik membrosia givers. Gold membrosia- Simple nourishment, and intoxication Black membrosia- Stronger, and more addictive, especially to other insect species. White membrosia- Healing, and strength Weapons: Electrobolt assault rifles- Fired shots of electrical energy, for stunning targets. Takes four bolts to kill. Tridents Shatter guns- Magnetically accelerated slug throwers Shatter rifles Thermal detonators Repeating blaster cannons Blaster rifles Concussion missiles Mag cannons(rail gun artillery) Catapults(Boulders, and hanpat incendiary) Trebuchets(Boulders, and hanpat incendiary) Naval weapons/Armor: Turbolasers Flak cannons Laser cannons Proton torpedos Spitcrete heat sinks Deflector shields Dart ships: Dart ships are mostly kamikaze fighters. They either used methane rockets, hydrogen rockets, or ion drives. The ones not laced with explosives, are armed with a turbolaser. Dark jedi: Welk, Alema, and Lomi Jedi: Jaina, Raynor, Lowbaka, Zekk, Tesar, Tihiri Allies: Dozens of pirates/smugglers, and a flotilla of priate ships. Black membrosia addicts/Insect species volunteers- Geonosians, verpine, Hukk, Snutib, fefze, flakax, and vlatix. Growth: To put their rate of growth in perspective, if they had the resources, and wanted to their military forces alone could reach 13 trillion members/650 million nests with a navy of 40 million capital ships, and over a 100 billion dart ships in two decades(Assuming the great swarm had a population at just 7,500,000). Jacen solo had a vision of the killiks causing the downfall of the galaxy, which is consistent with the math.

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

Keep in mind the seperatists weren't meant to win the war, and were actively nerfed by palpatine throughout the war. Seperatist Navy: 2,000,000-9,000,000(revenge of the sith cross section)Warships consisting of munificent class frigates(825m), recusant light destroyers(1,187m), providence class destroyers/carriers(1,088m), providence class dreadnoughts(2,177m), the Malevolence(4,845m), The devastation(larger sister of the malevolence with an ion pulse cannon strong enough to destroy small planets), Techno union destroyers, Lucrehulk class battleships/Carriers/heavy transports(3,170m), two star crushers(one was able to easily destroy three fully prepared venators, and the other one a decoy running on low power), Auxillia class pursuit destroyers, various ships from individual planets, and mercenaries. Droid army: 300,000,000,000- 1.3 Trillion Organic forces: 200,000,000- 9 billion Tanks/Repulsor Craft: 300,000,000- 1.6 billion Territory: 10,000- 450,000 systems Weapons/Armor: Standard blaster, the E-5 is the equivalent of a 14.5mm round. While lacking feats, it is powerful enough to burn through/penetrate the plastoid armor of a phase 2 clone trooper, which if like stormtrooper armor takes a 20cal bullet to fully penetrate. B1 battle droids are cannon fodder relying on swarm tactics that go down from a single blaster bolt. The BX commando droid was more resilient, being able to tank 1-3 blaster bolts. It is fast, and agile enough to take down multiple clones, with it's vibroblade, and throw them around like rag dolls. It sometimes carried a personal energy shield. The B2 super battle droid was also capable of tanking 1-3 blaster bolts, and was equipped with more powerful dual, fully automatic arm mounted laser cannons(sometimes armed with wrist rockets). B2 rocket trooper were equipped with jet packs. The B2-HA came with an arm cannon that could fired warheads or homing torpedoes. Missile launchers include the E-60R. The chameleon droid utilizes a holographic camouflage, frag mines, and three laser cannons. Droidekas were armed with two twin blaster cannons and a deflector shield. There was also the crab droid, dwarf spider droid, tactical droid, super tactical droid, B2 grapple droid, HKB-3 hunter killer droids, LR-57 combat droid, heavy super battle droids, mortar super battle droids, repeater super battle droids, A-DSD advanced dwarf spider droids, OOM series battle droids(Command ship controlled), aqua droid, SD-K4 assassin droid, t4 turret droids, skorpenek annihilator, E4 Baron droid, cold assault battle droid, D-60 assault droid, HK-77 assassin droid and A series assassin droids among others. Naval damage: Their point defense ion cannons and lasers, dealt 4.8 kilotons(ROTSCS)of heat, while turbolasers deal megatons of damage. A munificent frigate can destroy a 1,000km ice moon, and grievous's fleet is capable of slagging a planet's upper crust within an hour. Vehicles/droid vehicles: Hailfire droid is vulnerable to infantry, drives 45M an hour, and armed with thirty anti-armor heat seeking missiles, and an auto-blaster. The armored assault tank's heavy laser cannon has a blast range of 3 meters, is armed with two repeating blaster cannons, 2 light blaster cannons, and 6 energized projectile launchers. There's the octuptarra combat tri droid, octuptarra tri droid, and octuptarra magna tri droid armed with missiles, laser cannons, laser turrets, and rockets. Others include the NR-N99 droid enforcer, OG-9 homing spider droid, Multi troop transport, platoon attack craft, and HMP gunship. The protodeka was a large Repulsor tank armed with rapid firing light turbolasers, rapid fire heat seeking missiles, and a seismic wave emitter with a range of 10 meters. The FLTCH battle droids were over two meters tall, and armed with a double laser cannon, rockets, blades, and claws. The B3 Ultra battle droid was a bulkier, towering B2 battle droid armed with a flamethrower, rockets, rapid fire blaster cannons, and plasma cannons. It addition, it had a density projector, stopping it from being knocked down in combat. The mark II droideka was armed with a triple blaster cannon, twin blaster cannons, and twin ion cannons. It had deflector shields, which deactivated when on the move.

[@fadelsukoco3092]

This is why I love the timeline where BFG Armada 2 takes place in. Given that there are megastructures in 80% of map backgrounds and the opening scene on Cadia shows swarms of uncountable thousands of ships, it shows a good sense of scale that reinforces the expected theoretical "50-75 capital ships + howevermany escorts per sector of the galaxy" that the Imperium should have.

[@stalwartteakettlepotato9879]

We all know that 40k space combat is a well documented and consistent topic

[@billyelliot4141]

Lol

[@gokbay3057]

I can hear the sarcasm lol

[@genericpersonx333]

Well, we know the real problem is that Games Workshop decided that Battlefleet Gothic miniatures just didn't sell well enough back in the day, and once GW stops making minis of something, you can bet they are not prioritizing canon for that thing. Shame really, because the Void Warfare is the warfare that I generally found most appealing to actually play.

[@cookiecraze1310]

​@@genericpersonx333 same with HALO. Even if a table top couldn't work for either setting (RIP War fleet), a video game where you command 1 ship from inside of it or another game like BFG, or an official Sins of the Prophets, all of those would be so cool. Sad that we'll never get to see it in all likelihood.

[@Hallow_the_fur]

​@@genericpersonx333really wish that they decide to restart that game Been really loving the video games and would like to start collecting plastic miniatures of the ships I like from the game. And then play them on the tabletop

[@arnepietruszewski9255]

The lesson to learn from layered defense is: You always want to be at the cozy inside and not on the outside.

[@schnecks2180]

Space marines "Space is no excuse for not engaging in glorious melee combat "

[@Hallow_the_fur]

This is one of the reasons why the Imperial Navy is better than the Space Marine Navy a regular human and a Space Marine can both press the button, But the Space Marine gets bored really quickly when he's not laying into the enemy in glorious melee. The human on the other hand is perfectly fine not being anywhere near the teeth and or tentacles of a monster

[@Masra94]

The Imperial Navy is actually pretty effective, with the torpedoes followed by broadsides which is pretty good against a lot of factions. The Battlefleet Gothic videogame was pretty neat, because you just open up with waves upon waves of torpedoes and then you basically brawl the enemy to death. Chaos if it doesn't stick to long range gets destroyed, Orks suffer huge damage to torps and then you out brawl them. Eldar are the theoretically good faction which just doesn't work in the game though.

[@Mulletmanalive]

In the tabletop, Eldar were amazing but hard to play and they must’ve been a nightmare to implement in a semi-real-time game. Always found it interesting that them made them resistant to everything but the most basic weapons in the game (fewer dice was less of a pain than losing precious lance shots to the holofields)

[@davidlister7590]

@Random Platypus with Internet The Necrons from what i recall was an ok counter since they would bypass Eldar holofields if you got in range. Its a shame Necrons was a semi good counter to Eldar at the cost of been fucking worthless vs any other race. In BFGA not TT i mean.

[@billyelliot4141]

The imperium navy acts like an immune system. Layered response to threats. Like white blood cells reacting to an infection.

[@Raygun9000]

@@davidlister7590 Necrons weren't crap versus a specific faction. They were(are) unbalanced in certain scenarios. They gave better victory points to the enemy for being destroyed, but not all scenarios use victory points! One of the scenarios (blockade run) where you had to escape to the other side of the board, necron speed was(is) so extreme you could win in a couple turns!

[@davidlister7590]

@@Raygun9000 Yes a tactial fighting game where the only way to win as Necrons was to play the game mode that allows them to run away. The Necrons are balanced so badly no one played them.

[@barrybend7189]

Early Ironclad warfare but with massive city sized space battleships.

[@TheNoobYouHATE]

I can imagine that most smaller xenos races probably look at an Imperial cruiser the same way you'd look at a Borg Cube or a Reaper.

[@Makorze]

In most of the books is like "they look so slow and ugly" then they get the slightest tickle from some of the ordinance from the smaller ones and suddenly they are like "...where the feth did half of my ship go?".

[@-SRM-]

I saw one comment on the reply section and immediately expected "Finally it's here" or "Truth." with accompanied text garbled. Also, agreed.

[@cnlbenmc]

+@@Makorze+ Plus the Tau found out to their horror that Imperial ships can Really move when they want to.

[@kacpadestro8086]

@@cnlbenmc hahah the tau example is priceless Look at those barbarians moving in gigant bricks so slow ... wait a second what the fuuuuuuuuck

[@billyelliot4141]

@@kacpadestro8086 lolol🤣👌🇮🇪

[@HalIOfFamer]

Imagine battlefleet gothic with nebulous fleet command mechanics. Holy fuck this would be great.

[@imperatorvegetarius]

To clarify, the source you're getting 50 capital ships per sector from actually states 50-75 *ships* per sector. Battlefleet Scarus for example is said to have 5 battleships, 9 cruiser squadrons and 13 escort squadrons, which seems like a reasonable average.

[@robertnelson9599]

How many ships are in a squadron?

[@MrTerranaunt]

Sounds closer to 90 ships

[@colinbielat8558]

​​@robertnelson9599 going by siege of vraks, a cruiser squadron is likely three cruisers, as one cruiser squadron from battlefleet scarus was sent to vraks to initially scout out the chaos forces and it had three ships in it. Also if memory serves me correctly an escort squadron also had three ships in it.

[@terminusdragon8561]

Does this mean we might be getting an "Imperial Armory" vid on different Ships in the future? Imperial, or otherwise it would be Interesting see the vessels compared to their Xeno counterparts.

[@StarSage66]

If we did get one I'd recommend the Luna Class Cruiser, the classic ship of the line for the Imperium.

[@Marinealver]

I want the Mars class Battlecruiser.

[@inductivegrunt94]

I'd like to see the Retribution class battleship

[@mcsmash4905]

id love a vid about the absolute bonkers macro cannons

[@terminusdragon8561]

@@mcsmash4905 I'm sure if he dose, that he'll probably go into explaining how the massive things are supplied in the first place.

[@MnemonicHack]

When it comes to the writing, it feels like it's a person who's been to war, knows logistics, and knows what it takes to deploy forces, writing an entire logistical circus explaining how everything happens in controlled chaos, vs a guy who watches movies about war and just wants to get to the action.

[@jakehughes6087]

It's like a father as a soldier explaining war to his son and his son completely imagines it the wrong way

[@catsareevil101]

I voted genestealers because GW never agreed with it's self how space fights worked. A true pity as this could have been one of the most interesting parts of the lore. Mabey if they made more games about space combat they would standardize it, but that would require trusting them to do that right or pick a good partner to do it.

[@latayantheazran]

The problem of many authors, some will try to make it functional (some of these will succed and others fail) while others will try to just make it cool and damn realism.

[@argokarrus2731]

Just have Squadron Strike able to simulate it

[@bkane573]

Both Battle fleet gothic games are good.

[@catsareevil101]

@@bkane573 I did say "more games". And a third game would be very nice.

[@imperatorvegetarius]

The problem with using the games as a basis for canon is that they are required, by necessity, to have visually pleasing fights, which means very close range engagements. I prefer the descriptions from the BFG tabletop rulebook that talk about engagements taking place at hundreds of thousands of kilometers range, and the base of the flight stand of a ship's model representing an area of a few thousand kilometers.

[@Heard40k]

I very much appreciate those videos, focusing on larger strategic and logistic side of 40K (or other settings). Please, keep them coming.

[@Zakvadr1995]

Suddenly, one statement that at the Battle for Cadia in the 13th Black Crusade supposedly had thousands of ships going back and forth in the void feels very small on the wider scale, but absolutely MASSIVE in the localized conflict!

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

Macross Zentradi/Meltrandi Navy: Atleast over a hundred fleets numbering around 480 million ships. At most 1,000s of fleets numbering around 43 billion ships. Ships include Nupetiet-Vergnitzs Class command battleships(4km), Queadol Magdomilla medium command cruisers(2.7km), Quiltra Queleual class carriers(3km), Thuverl Salan class destroyers(2.3km), Fulbtzs-Berrentzs class mothership(1,400km), Thuverl salan class battleships(2.3km), quiltra quelamitz class medium gunboats(1.2km), tou redir picket patrol ships(500m), and northampton class stealth frigates.    Infantry: 19 billion-71 trillion Mechs: 38 billion-142 Trillion Fighter pods: 7 billion-28 trillion    Territory: Majority of the milky way Zentradi/Meltrandi: The Zentradi(Male)/Meltrandi(Females) are a militaristic human race of giants created by the protoculture(Forerunners). Their size scales from 8.5 meters to 15 meters(Command class tends to be taller).  Weapons: •Particle cannons •Lasers •Autocannons •Missile turrets •Torpedo launchers •Fusion beams Technology: Possess cloning(Main means of reproduction before being introduced to earth culture), and miclone technology that allows convenient size growth, and decrease. Their armor can take up to 15mm rounds, and they use energy weapons. Their ship hulls can withstand 30mm shells. Targeting computers can track hundred of enemy craft, at a range of 6,000km, and their weapons have an overall range of hundreds of kilometers. At sublight speeds they can travel at mach 4-8. They can fold/travel at a speed of one light year every 6 minutes. They can also track 10s of 1,000s of targets at hundreds of billions of kilometers.  Factory satellite: The Zentradi/Meltrandi repair, and build their massive fleets with 15,000 kilometer factories that produce over 10,000 vessels a day at 50% power. 

[@jamesdeegan7365]

what i love is that this video is listed as talking about "star wars: empire at war" in the discription

[@foxmcqwerty608]

the reason why space marines board enemy vessels is because it's usually QUICKER to just kill the bloody crew on board than it is to actually destroy the enemy vessel.

[@TeutonicKnight92]

We really need a Horatio Hornblower/Honor Harrington style naval series for the Imperial Navy.

[@Zepterra]

This, so much this! That would be truly awesome but I sadly doubt any of the GW/BL authors are up to the task

[@Makorze]

The only cool 40k Naval battle i can recall in my head is when Ragnar Blackmane was up against 2 choas ships and ordered the ship's captain to bait one in front of them, they then rammed it in half and escaped into the Warp. The only reason i remember that is because the next scene, his Wolf Lord is looking at the state of his ship, barely holding itself together, saying "Ragnar. What the bloody hell have you done to my ship?"

[@marley7868]

@@Makorze saved the other half?

[@Makorze]

@@marley7868 Ragnars ship was so busted he couldnt even shoot anymore so it basically faked its escape only to change course at the last moment and plow right though the other ship. By the time it is back in wolf controlled space it is so damaged it needed to be towed back to a shipyard for months of refitting work. Also said ship is kinda pricy since if i recall its one of the few ships the Space Wolves have that had a Nova Cannon which can one-shot anything but it seriously kicks the shit out if the ships structural integrity and power supply because it was designed orginally to be mounted on a much bigger ship than an astartes battle cruiser.

[@seanthompson6859]

That's exactly what we need. The Gordon Rennie Gothic War series was really good, if short. A story chronicling a young Midshipman joining the Navy and working his way up to Lord Admiral would be perfect

[@sohrabroozbahani4700]

I was actually thinking it would be a good idea to have a story about some sabotage or assassination being planned by one side and then countered by the other aboard an imperial ship while the entire fleet is engaged in one of these week long brawls...

[@jacobduty28]

Masters study logistics. Ameteurs study tactics. Absoloute Hyper-Giga Chads become Combat Medics.

[@malaficus]

Its easy to forget the sheer size the imperium has to protect.

[@janwitts2688]

On the contrary.. whlist sending a few escorts to deal with elder pirates is inadvisable .. it does tend to keep them happy and reduce transport losses somewhat...

[@edwardbryan9501]

"Strategies written by authors who have no idea of strategies." -Arch At least it's not stupid as hyperdrive ramming, major and repeating plot holes, redemption troupes, dumb lead characters, contradictory themes, or corporate/businesses screwing their customers. I do hope who ever reads this knows the sarcasm, but just case, this is to make it obvious.

[@r0br33r]

A redemption troupe? What minstrel shows do they perform? Or are you just a moron who failed English?

[@jai-kk5uu]

How is this sarcasm. All the things you list are stupid.

[@TealWolf26]

Despite presenting as technologically reactionary, the Imperium has to be stupidly advanced to run the logistics of galactic governance. How does it even acquire let alone transport the insane amounts of rare elements? How can it afford to burn fuel? I'm not even sure nuclear reactors could fuel the Imperium effectively. GW isn't going to care very much about details, but the mind-boggling logistics fascinate me.

[@attila535]

Logistics in 40k is just strange, because of warp shenanigans supplies might arrive before they even left their planet of origin.

[@balazsvarga1823]

They use warp enhanced fusion reactors called plasma reactors.

[@TealWolf26]

@@balazsvarga1823 Good to know, thanks Hey, wait a minute. That means the Imperium's ship run on the energy of hate and despair. Seems legit. I was gonna say hopes and dreams, but that's the Orks. And possible the Tau.

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

@@TealWolf26 macross Zentradi/Meltrandi Navy: Atleast over a hundred fleets numbering around 480 million ships. At most 1,000s of fleets numbering around 43 billion ships. Ships include Nupetiet-Vergnitzs Class command battleships(4km), Queadol Magdomilla medium command cruisers(2.7km), Quiltra Queleual class carriers(3km), Thuverl Salan class destroyers(2.3km), Fulbtzs-Berrentzs class mothership(1,400km), Thuverl salan class battleships(2.3km), quiltra quelamitz class medium gunboats(1.2km), tou redir picket patrol ships(500m), and northampton class stealth frigates. Infantry: 19 billion-71 trillion Mechs: 38 billion-142 Trillion Fighter pods: 7 billion-28 trillion Territory: Majority of the milky way Zentradi/Meltrandi: The Zentradi(Male)/Meltrandi(Females) are a militaristic human race of giants created by the protoculture(Forerunners). Their size scales from 8.5 meters to 15 meters(Command class tends to be taller). Weapons: •Particle cannons •Lasers •Autocannons •Missile turrets •Torpedo launchers •Fusion beams Technology: Possess cloning(Main means of reproduction before being introduced to earth culture), and miclone technology that allows convenient size growth, and decrease. Their armor can take up to 15mm rounds, and they use energy weapons. Their ship hulls can withstand 30mm shells. Targeting computers can track hundred of enemy craft, at a range of 6,000km, and their weapons have an overall range of hundreds of kilometers. At sublight speeds they can travel at mach 4-8. They can fold/travel at a speed of 6 light years a minute. They can also track 10s of 1,000s of targets at hundreds of billions of kilometers. Factory satellite: The Zentradi/Meltrandi repair, and build their massive fleets with 15,000 kilometer factories that produce over 10,000 vessels a day at 50% power.

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

One of the themes of the imperium is that it's a mixture of super advanced tech they don't fully understand and super basic tech. Because it's a post-post-apocoliptic society

[@harmen2456]

Imperial navy action, now that's a treat! I've played way more BFG then I ever did 40k and its wonderful, if flawed, system.

[@lorenburnham821]

Truly appreciate all of the content you produce and provide for the lore nerds

[@uncledoctor6920]

Alright so here's a thought of how a cruiser would engage an enemy depending on the target's size; 1. Use torpedoes as area denial to force the enemy into a disadvantageous path or position (e.i. a head-on or broadside) 2. Broadside/head on salvo the target so hard the Emprah feels a tickle 3. If the target is by some miracle still space-worthy after that, send Astartes boarding ships after the target once the salvo is over and it has passed out of targeting range of the main guns, hopefully finishing it off. Ideally the boarding parties aren't needed if the ship's captain plays their cards right and manages to destroy the target quickly and decisively, as per Imperium Naval Doctrine. Boarding parties should therefore only be used as a finishing blow to the enemy vessel, or otherwise used if the intent is to capture the ship for some purpose.

[@RolfHartmann]

I think the Orks might have similar resources of manpower and material as the Imperial Navy, but they spend most of their time fighting amongst themselves so it doesn't get brought to bear.

[@orrorsaness5942]

😆

[@robertnelson9599]

Orks are said to be the most numerous race in the galaxy.

[@dragonturtle2703]

It’s also important to know that any single fighter taking out a ship is probably a lucky/critical hit to a vulnerable spot. Most likely it will need many of them, that must get past enemy interceptors, point defenses, and picot ships.

[@The_Viscount]

40k strikecraft seem less like our atmospheric aircraft, and more like patrol gun boats and torpedo boats. I honestly think that's a better analogy.

[@robertrenato]

Me: heartbroken, trying to get away from 40K Arch: *wobbles MEGA LORE in face* 👀 Yet another aspect of 40K I loved so much... when will GW finally crash and burn in Minecraft and let the IP be free...

[@kingrainbow5432]

Who cares who owns it; you can just enjoy it as you want...

[@13ISHOP80]

Im with you robert...dont ever tell me what to do. pathetic .consume.

[@13ISHOP80]

@@kingrainbow5432 He does.

[@kingrainbow5432]

@@13ISHOP80 then why is he heartbroken trying to get away from it?

[@eidolon1426]

@@kingrainbow5432 Because he wants to stop being invested in the franchise before the inevitable heartbreak of watching it be completely irreparably destroyed by Games Workshop the same way so many other franchises have been ruined in a very short amount of time recently... Or is this your first week on the Internet?

[@sosogo4real]

Arch. The galaxy, at the time of GW creating 40k, has a volume of roughly 8x10¹² ly³. The volume of a sector is 8x10⁶. There could be a maximum of 1 million sectors in the galaxy. The Imperium also spans across a million worlds. A sector could easily have tens to hundreds of inhabited worlds in each sector. Further a Battlefleet has 50 to 75 ships in it ranging from destroyers and frigates up to battleships. This could give us a theoretical maximum of 50 to 75 million ships of all classes but is likely up to 2 OoM less, that being 500 to 750 thousand ships.

[@irontemplar6222]

And thats not even mentioning that large sections of the galaxy dont have imperial defined sectors, or Imperial navy presence.

[@aaronlaughter6471]

NERD, I'm joking, that's actual pretty interesting and cool.

[@randomblacktemplar738]

Don't forget some planet have their own colony

[@rahadityap2375]

​@@irontemplar6222 Because warp fuckery cause by Lorgar is what made some section are empty.. During Horus Heresy, Lorgar literally Cutt the Galaxy apart from Galactic Warp Storm equal to Noctis Aeterna or Age of Strife to bolstered Horus and Traitor forces arrived to Sol System and prevent Guilliman (Which its the Largest Loyalist Logistic and Armies are) entering to Traitor fleet.. Emperor of Mankind obliterate Horus soul its so Godly OP, It made the Galaxy actually return to normal from Ruin storm.. Well at cost, Half swath of region previously Cutt and glutted under Ruin storm became Chaos shit that Imperium need to quarantine

[@rahadityap2375]

Actually, There is even Lore Imperium commanded Bilion of Settled Human planet.. If there is measure up, Imperium should easily have Trillions or even Hundred Trillions of Gargantuan Ship

[@LAV-III]

It still blows me away that the imperium’s star destroyer equivalents are the size of a small super star destroyer.

[@tornesaurio]

Oh shit, I wanted this one for years! Now an Imperial Armor: Imperial Navy video to round it up would be perfect!

[@GasMaskTrenchCoat]

I recommend reading James Swallow's Blood Angels books. I really like the story and the descriptions of combat on the ground and in space. Although some of the ground battles make it sound like thousands of blood angels are involved even though during most of the books, it's only 2 understrength companies.

[@himmelblau2126]

this is the first and probably last time i´ll ever hear something measured in "cubic lightyears"

[@LasseROM]

Good to see all that old Rogue Trader and Battlefleet Gothic art put to good use 👌 Yet again everything is a question of logistics. And Arch delivers great narration on why numbers are fun.

[@firstnamelastname8058]

I'd so love to live in this universe. You could live your whole life in s section of these ships, without ever seeing the other side. Heck you may never see the stars with your own eyes. Then one day your ranting how sick of this job you are, and suddenly there's sirens, your getting locked in, the whole ship is shuddering and making unbearable noises.. And when the smoke clears your happily being whipped by demons, while gleefully working for chaos. Oh take me there now!

[@TheEldritchGod]

**Looks At The Person Next To Him** **Slowly Inches Away*

[@PosranaRegistrace]

Imperium tactic for space combat: **Brace for impact!** **Full speed ahead!**

[@Uzzgub]

also RELOAD TORP'S AND ATTACK CRAFT

[@randomblacktemplar738]

SATURATION NOVA BOMBARDMENT

[@BilboniousBagODonuts]

My best friend growing up got DEEP into 40k and would tell me all this shit about the lore and I always just sort of "that's crazy bro" him and never got into it myself. He unfortuantely died of cancer 10 years ago now. I just recently decided to jump in and start reading the books and found you through Sargon and that Chaos apologist video. Listening to your videos brings me back to hanging out with my buddy and I just wish I could go back and share in the joy of this utterly insane universe. But thank you for this library of content so I can bro out with my friend in spirit. It's weirdly emotional, and I appreciate it. I posted this on an OOOLD vid of yours but I wanted a chance for you to actually see it.

[@balazsvarga1823]

In the Asaheim novel, it is said that the loss of a million troop ships would not be noticed by the Imperium, but the death of a Wolfguard would be. Another thing to note is that the weapons fire ranges are very long, as lances can take minutes to hit... and their shots go at light speed as Arch said.

[@ZontarDow]

"It might be the largest navy in all of science fiction" Zentradi Empire with it's 5-10 billion large fleet: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@popeconstantine8839]

Yes, yes you are, he speaks only of the astra militarum ships here, not the inquisition, space marines, mars or rogue traders..... So yeah, 5-10 billion is a joke, not to mention arch is NOTORIOUSLY bad with numbers

[@ZontarDow]

@@popeconstantine8839 Except the Imperial Navy is explicitly the largest of all Imperial fleets, even if we make the mistake of assuming it's only 10% of all Imperial warships, that's still south of one hundred million. By comparison, the fleet defending Earth in Macross is a million warships.

[@TheEldritchGod]

Okay okay okay... the largest space fleet in Sci-fi... That isn't silly.

[@davidlister7590]

I like the slower pace fights makes more sense due to the size of the ships the fast instant killing works fine when you have small scale ships IE Startrek most ships are like 500-800m long in warhammer size thats tiny.

[@jakeparkin5961]

Gigantic city size ships exploding or Boarding with "A Pirate's Life For Me" blaring in my helmet? Hard choice

[@cypher4783]

Hypothetically tactically a space battle would begin with finding the target, this would involve flights of fighter craft conducting search patterns, probably in a spiral pattern, a small army of analyst to tell you what your actually looking at, and whether of not you should run away. The next phase naturally would be focused on defense, to make sure you actually have an opportunity to have a decisive engagement. This could be interlocking firing arcs, tactical withdrawals to lure targets on to unfavorable terrain, sudden and aggressive assaults with expressed intent to compromise those firing arcs, may be the use of bait to lure targets, or any combination of them. Then comes the problem of disrupting the enemy fleet you would need some way to disrupt their sensors , their commanders attention and expectation, their coordination or even guiding where their even aiming. Then there is the actual problem of striking for effect, because you want to be causing a domino effect that improves your control of the situation. Shielding will have to be overloaded or by passed either through super charged weapons just for the expressed purpose to crack the shields or by slow moving weapons like topedos. Armor would have to be mapped out to where the weakest points are. Followed by surgical strikes against targets that will cause a cascade failure or will cripple the ship, or will bring the captain to the negotiation table. Because at the end of the day war is about two things politics and survival .

[@Qver-gd9bg]

It’s not hard to find targets from across the solar system even with modern sensors, you wouldn’t have to send out fighter crafts to find a target at all. It seems like you have little conception of how space travel works in the first place, which causes all your assumptions to be flawed.

[@maddlarkin]

My old BFG Imperial Fleet, used to be broken down into 4 cruiser groups of 2 cruisers led by a battlecruiser, each with a single carrier supporting a couple of Emperor Class and around 4 escort squadrons, wasn't much that mix couldn't handle and as a mix it scaled up and down pretty well as needed

[@quigglebert]

A combination of BFG tabletop and the PC games is how I've always imagined it, ships of the line beating pulp out of each other until one collapses, although the idea of critical damage oneshotting a vessel doesn't break from that idea, a lucky torpedo hit to a reactor, a tightly packed volley from several vessels smashing a battle cruiser to pieces, I can see it, but hours long slugfests are the only way in universe it could work

[@TheKyleCostello]

The man is back I watched the janovich pod loved it, the difference between you and him was quite fun to hear and poke fun at the man

[@kostakatsoulis2922]

40K space combat is like Star Wars hyperspace: it moves at the speed of plot.

[@hydra7094]

Arch: here's a lore video about fleets in 40k KZbin: is that a star wars video game

[@Feenix102]

I love how the Imperium will just shove a church on ANYTHING, lol - 43:43

[@janwitts2688]

And as for retreating.. you perform this by division... one manoeuvres back and puts a salvo down.. allowing the other element to withdraw and go full ahead.. until they can repeat...

[@ModeratelyAnnoyed]

Just when I got into playing Battlefleet Gothic... Thanks Arch!

[@TheArchaos]

Arch: In my episode on the Siege of Vraks- *Me who has already listened to it four times a year* HMM You don't say?

[@magicmanbran54]

Is there anything on how the Imperiums economy runs? Do prices depend on the planet or are there set rates for metals, lasguns etc?

[@yochaiwyss3843]

I guess it's a combination of Supply&Demand and setting of Tithes to match the needs of a sector/segmentum/crusade.

[@Makorze]

Most planets go either boom or bust depending on the abundance of resources and access to shipping lanes. There are for example planets that lay at crossroads between multiple shipping lanes so exist on trading between various merchants and have no native industries of there own save effectively tourism for wealthy merchants.

[@Ackalan]

You have to differentiate between the Imperium (the organization) and the civilian parts. The Imperium demand its tribute and how the planets meet those is of no real concerns of the Imperium. That's how the Imperium's economy is run, the planets do whatever they think is the best., which mean anything and everything goes depending on where you live.

[@TheEldritchGod]

It's called "taxes". All of this is paid by taxes. What are the taxes? materials. men. weapons. ships. The economy is left alone. The imperium just goes straight to: give me shit or die. What are your taxes? What the imperium says are your taxes.

[@AnA10Pilot]

Allo Arch! I thoroughly enjoyed the video. Also one thing I think you forgot to point out, is that one of the other functions of the torpedoes is to force the enemy to cluster together to share Point defense fire. Then the Imperial navy can Nova Cannon/Plasma bomb the crap out of the enemy.

[@gunnargunnhilt]

57 million rather than 7 million capital vessels ;)

[@janwitts2688]

Or.. if your shipyards get their finger out.. you can build a dual hulled mauler. . Using 2 emperor class hulls linked together.. Common weapons outside port and starboard and if I remember right something like 24 hangars on the inner sides... this also has the usual powerful 180 degree lance turrets but x2 ... and of course 18 torpedo spread...

[@ThePyrusKnight]

That sounds... impractical. Especially since the Emperor class ships can't be replaced IIRC

[@janwitts2688]

@Pyrus Knigh Sorry .. the other one.. the one with torpedoes.. not the ancient ass one.. So long since I played this. . Park when port maw was a thing.. And yes it's quite impractical for most work.. but makes an excellent command ship for multi fleet work... quite capable of torching an enemy heavy cruiser in one forward lance salvo.. which is something any other imperial ship lacks. ..

[@randomblacktemplar738]

@@ThePyrusKnight it's Apocalypse class battleship that were irreplaceable, especially the lance array and conductor. While Emperor, Nemesis, and Oberon can be built from damaged Retribution class battleship. Just like Armageddon and Dictator from damaged Lunar. While Retribution class battleship seems to be in abundance, since tech priest in Bakka sector always modify and rebuild it to make new class of battleship in varying degree of success.

[@Alamandorious]

Imperium space strategy: when you allow the accountants to create battle plans.

[@mcsmash4905]

arguably my favorite thing about the ships in 40k are the over the top gigantic macro cannons which supposedly on impact have the power of a scale 10 earthquake

[@Azzie420]

Me on battle fleet gothic: Tactics? Just RAM THEM!

[@SnlDrako]

Each sector having 50+ capital capital ships. 1 142 857 sectors. That's 57 142 850. Arch, goddamnit, you missed FIFTY MILLION GODDAMN WARSHIPS. Is this the Kaurava Campaign again? Loosing 100 Baneblades were like "oops, administrative error, hold my beer"?

[@myduckisonqauck7227]

Macross Zentradi/Meltrandi Navy: Atleast over a hundred fleets numbering around 480 million ships. At most 1,000s of fleets numbering around 43 billion ships. Ships include Nupetiet-Vergnitzs Class command battleships(4km), Queadol Magdomilla medium command cruisers(2.7km), Quiltra Queleual class carriers(3km), Thuverl Salan class destroyers(2.3km), Fulbtzs-Berrentzs class mothership(1,400km), Thuverl salan class battleships(2.3km), quiltra quelamitz class medium gunboats(1.2km), tou redir picket patrol ships(500m), and northampton class stealth frigates.    Infantry: 19 billion-71 trillion Mechs: 38 billion-142 Trillion Fighter pods: 7 billion-28 trillion    Territory: Majority of the milky way Zentradi/Meltrandi: The Zentradi(Male)/Meltrandi(Females) are a militaristic human race of giants created by the protoculture(Forerunners). Their size scales from 8.5 meters to 15 meters(Command class tends to be taller).  Weapons: •Particle cannons •Lasers •Autocannons •Missile turrets •Torpedo launchers •Fusion beams Technology: Possess cloning(Main means of reproduction before being introduced to earth culture), and miclone technology that allows convenient size growth, and decrease. Their armor can take up to 15mm rounds, and they use energy weapons. Their ship hulls can withstand 30mm shells. Targeting computers can track hundred of enemy craft, at a range of 6,000km, and their weapons have an overall range of hundreds of kilometers. At sublight speeds they can travel at mach 4-8. They can fold/travel at a speed of one light year every 6 minutes. They can also track 10s of 1,000s of targets at hundreds of billions of kilometers.  Factory satellite: The Zentradi/Meltrandi repair, and build their massive fleets with 15,000 kilometer factories that produce over 10,000 vessels a day at 50% power. 

[@mbp1652]

Now this is what I love from you give me that good lore..

[@Raygun9000]

Why not use the BattleFleet Gothic rule book as a primary source? Weapons range on average is 30kkm -60kkm. Lances were accurate because it takes seconds to get to target rather than minutes as for weapons batteries. Torpedoes would usually take an hour or so(unless at really close range). Attack craft could be traveling for hours at ridiculous speeds.

[@XodusFTW]

It gave me a good chuckle that KZbin thought that you were talking about Star Wars: Empire at War.

[@MoggAssassin]

On boarding actions: "Remember it is the slow blade that penetrates the shield."

[@titanscerw]

Is there Drachinifel somewhere?

[@Hellsong89]

Also on thing to consider is that not all of those million plus ships are combat ready. There will be damage to them, there will be different amount of damage to them from lite scratching of the paintjob to missing half of the ship. You generally dont send wounded ship to battle unless its for stop gap measure among huge fleet, so those ships can be on repair dock... when ever they get there due warp and how fast they can limp there that is and these repairs can take from days to millennia depending again amount of damage and what kind of ship we are talking about. Pretty new destroyer being missing half of its hull.. well its tough job but can be repaired relatively fast back into combat as in few decades or more, where as Gloriana class battleship from dark age of technology missing half of its hull... that thing will be there millenia or two pretty much minimum, since mechanicus needs to first open every inspection hatch, that takes least months, then analyze all the damage, then try and figure out what those molten balls of slag use to be, specially since they might not even know what those are for anymore even if not turned into slag and then start to experiment on replacing those things they might not know about with stuff they know somethings, also taking into consideration no one Gloriana is same and the next. Millenias of retrofits, patch work repairs on and off the battle etc tends to turn any ship into nothing like base model was, even more if some of it has not been documented properly since techpriest in question holding that data got vented to void in particularly destructive enemy salvo, or data server holding that information was turned into slag in previous battle, but lets say ship has nothing major like experimental dark age tech jammed in from witch adapts know about much as press this button, it targets the enemy and press this to remove said enemy. By installing parts they do have at hand and can manufacture, they now start looking peaces to bolt in and also starting to figure out where said bolt holes are suppose to be, based on scans from other such ships that might be far different, but somewhat same layout. Alright now we have this thing that was on the other ship, least it looks like the same, ou this whats left of previous data cable looks the same, but connector is different, ou well lets keep looking and after while of negotiations between forge worlds right component can be arranged to be delivered or plans for one be transferred between forge worlds. Great now where the hell this next puzzle peace goes or is this even right peace... is this even from same puzzle? Well the plug seems to fit to this thing in torpedo room and it makes sounds when plugged, prase the omnissiah! They now have successfully installed and powered waste water treatment pod into torpedo room, where it most definitely belongs, just need to route one of these yellow pipes to here and red one here since those are same color as in component and half of those pipes are missing... hey why did fresh water supply output double? It must mean we did please machine spirit and omnissiah and his showing it by increasing freshwater out put! Job well done, now to plash the thing with holy oils and say prayers of inspection hatch closure for this one. Also why ammo feeding system tries to spew thousands of rounds of the point defense turret ammo from two feeders into this machine when we replaced this... i think that is fuse? Lets see here, ah here is one feeder...This is bit radical, but lets make Y joint here that dangles over and against the water treatment equipment, potentially taking out someones head if they are not careful... alright praise omnissiah point defense turret is operational again! Wait... why it is firing mix of AP and fragmentation ammo and ammo type selector is not working? I...We must have angered the machine spirit! Get me the holy oils! ALL OF THEM! After trial and error ship is back together with few less adepts that were triad for tech heresy and bit less original it was and this keeps happening time after time after time, hence why need for such absurd amount of ships... its cause repairing one is really time consuming and difficult even more so older the ship is, so maybe 10% of the total Imperial navy at one time is on repair dock, most of them ship of the line battle cruisers and battleships of old that took serious damage during some major engagement. This is also why after major event like destruction of tyranid hive fleet, it takes long ass time for Imperial navy to recuperate losses and damages. Also why they are constantly balancing on knifes edge to have just enough shit to throw at the current problem and why heavy hitters like Glorianas are kept in rear instead of utilizing their massive firepower in front line brawling, since loss of such ship would be devastating and fixing her... well as you is bit of a hassle.

[@warhawk4494]

Remember way back in the day when some these ships were 27km or longer.

[@musoklimbu4824]

Even the imperial navy does not want to miss out on melee fights

[@stonewirz2581]

Hach... I like your lore videos =) The Emperor protects!

[@deathrabbit8710]

Hey Arch, thanks for all of the hard work that you do.

[@FrostWolfPack]

Yep I too agree to prefer on the more slower void war, of course things might turn more hectic if like warp exit point ambush but ye its far more epic when ships battle by sluging their titanic blows by slow methodic way.

[@uchiha617hh]

imagine the horus heresy ended because horus went on a boarding action and the ship captain saw the chance, and went, aha! then overloaded his own reactor and blew up the ship with hours on it....

[@TheKlink]

I wonder how many officers spend their entire careers chasing subsequently cancelled distress signals without actually ever reaching an active warzone?

[@angrydragonslayer]

i actually like the variability in how fast ships go down but i wish it could have been intentional if the fast "sinkings" had been written like how the HMS Hood sunk irl, it could have been really good

[@RinAldrin]

I like the slow grinding space battle idea more. Feels more fitting with the theme

[@Mulletmanalive]

It annoys me that the games don’t match the designer’s stated flavour and some of the books choose to spit on both. I have to concur with the “slow and brutal” approach, with the occasional spectacular upset, as opposed to “whoops, where’d that ship go?” The original Battlefleet Gothic book made it sound like Legend of Galactic Heroes crossed with Master And Commander…IN SPAAAAAAAAAAYCE, which me likey.

[@paulellington1505]

I love these kinds of videos Arch. Keep up the great work.

[@DominusNox106]

The example of a planet holding on for reinforcement from a fleet in the Gate of Bones.

[@planet231]

40:22 this caught me off guard lmao

[@alcohol-freebeer3642]

Well, these war scenarios really put the Badab war and the Sabbat crusade in perspective.

[@chrisa.9071]

Hundreds of millions of hands ready to die for our mission in this cold, unforgiving space

[@truffelnootje]

THNX ARCH! I LOVE INMERIAL NAVY VIDS! Cant wait untill the next poll!

[@CypherRCX]

31:00 LOL, for every one invasion that the imperium quells another one pops up somewhere else.

[@thesuminer]

Arch, are we absolutely sure the Imperial Navy is larger than the Tyranid Hive Fleet?

[@Blood.Angel.]

Consider this: The hive fleet is not a fleet, it is made up of extremely large Tyranid bio ships aka a massive Tyranid with smaller Tyranids inside. They are genetically engineered and born from a process the imperium does not understand, so like many things in the imperium they just gave it to the most broadest classification. Additionally the Imperial navy has millions of capital class ships (battleships, grandcruises, heavy cruisers battlecruisers) billions of lighter class fleet ships (cruisers, frigates, destroyers, gunboats) Not to mention the trillion other smaller ships like supply ships, ODPs and countless other smaller ships I doubt the Imperial navy even considers for a large fleet. Meaning if you think about it the Tyranids don't have a fleet of ships and the Imperial navy ships number most likely upwards of 1,000,000,000,000*1,000,000,000

[@jonathandorsey]

@@Blood.Angel. On the theory side, this might not matter if the Tyranids are truly an inter-galatic threat. The amount of biomass needed to sustain a hive fleet between galaxies, with an unknown amount of those would probably dwarf the Imperial Navy in totality. Or it could shrink so much that it is smaller. Or the intergalactic bit could be a false theory. I doubt GW would stick to one answer either way.

[@Blood.Angel.]

@@jonathandorsey you make a point, even so the fact that the Tyranids are not an understood threat (fucking GW) makes any theory crafting extremely difficult in some respects. Whilst it is hinted quite heavily that the Tyranids came from outside of the 40k galaxy, I am still sceptical on if you could consider the Hive fleet to be a true navy. I agree that the Tyranids do outnumber any other faction in terms of singular organisms, they do not have any ships and the Tyranid void forms whilst still numbering in the billions at least, many are smaller than a thunderhawk or a sword class frigates and relatively few could be considered capital size. For this reason I still think that you have an excellent point was considering single organism to ship ratio, I still say that what the Imperial navy would consider a ship and what the Tyranids use as ships are extremely different and therefore in the Imperiums standards the Imperial navy would out number the Tyranid equivalents in the galaxy. (Let's not consider any of the ones outside otherwise we're going to go into the origin of the Tyranid and their lore which is a mess)

[@jonathandorsey]

@@Blood.Angel. Agreed. It might even make more sense to compare tonnage, but I'm not sure how biomass works in regards to naval combat versus surface invasion requirements. I have a feeling it's the same resource pool, which makes this not a relevant comparison.

[@Blood.Angel.]

@@jonathandorsey to be fair comparing the Tyranids to anything gets complicated.

[@douglastarbox7640]

Sadly GW retconned this with the seemingly endless fleets Failbadon threw into his 13th Black Temper Tantrum.

[@tatewoods7705]

Arch, I know this is an oldie but a goodie, but you seriously need to start a series on ship break downs

[@pierre-mariecaulliez6285]

A bit of a working theory here (and it shouldn't be OUR job) but allow me to try and harmonize the speed of space engagements : we don't know how long it takes a Void shield to activate... If we run with the principle that ships usually fly with their shields down because, as you pointed out, it's pretty volatile tech ! then, an ambush or sudden assault could result in instant kills, as the full power of the opening salvo (with energy weapons at peak efficiency and all projectiles loaded and hot) only has to contend with the hull ! As the attack shows up right on top of them, the defenders can only scramble to power shields/evade and bring guns to bear whilst enemy shots are already halfway accross ! On the other hand, when an enemy attack is expected or (Blessed Emperor) known imminent, these very same defending ships would be on high alert, weapons charged and shields on ! Resulting in the more traditional void warfare that takes hours to deal lasting damage to one another... Of course, keeping your entire combat fleet on alert 24/7 is not feasible on the grand strategic level, you have internal maintenance to perform, you have to dock and/or replenish food ammo and personel, let the power grid perform a static purge cycle, and so on...

[@Sorry_2026]

Arch you meant 57 Million Capital ships not 5,7 million.

[@jackr2287]

20:54 "Well, might as well ship out to help." *Elsewhere, where other regiments were expecting reinforcements....* "WHERE THE FUCK ARE OUR ALLIES? WE HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS. WHY DIDN'T THEY ARRIVE ON TIME?!"

[@ghola82]

I have been waiting forever for this!!!

[@matthieuniclas9784]

honestly it make sense that battels on those distances last for hours and days at a time

[@Dodsodalo]

YES!!! MORE vehicles of ANY sort! Tanks, ships, aircraft, whatever! I need MORE.

[@Gherichto]

Yessss finally! But gotta say da gobbo king would be so funny!