Space Marine Battle Barge - Design, Weapons, Tech Explained

The origins of their iconic battle barges trace back to the Great Crusade, which was a time period of expansion of the Imperium, a time when the Emperor himself walked amongst men. During this glorious era the need for military vessels capable of enduring the dangers of Real space and the Warp led to the development of various warship classes, more often than not requiring the Mechanicum as it was known back then to go through data slates and available STCs on forge worlds to bring forth these classes of voidships.
As stated just now, the Battle barges have no specific class and are mainly reconfigured battleships, cruisers and other warships, modified to fit the requirements of the space marine chapter.
- The Battle barge follows a similar standardized ship design layout which is common for all imperial ships but still unique in its own way. It has a hammerhead shaped prow followed by a bow fitted with all types of sensors, weapons and tubes.
And, For interstellar travel, most Imperial Navy warships use Warp-Drives to breach the barrier between realspace and the Immaterium. Going through the soul dimension and emerging out in real space with minimal time consumption.
The warriors of the Adeptus Astartes are too rare and too valuable to be tasked with performing the functions required to operate the ship. Instead, they act as officers, overseeing the ranks of servitors and Chapter serfs who carry out the ship tasks; performing all of the menial and manual processes required.
Aside from the crew and personnel, the battle barge also carries quite a number of different Aircrafts and Voidcrafts which has different functions, from assisting in ship to ship combat, boarding actions, transport, strike missions and providing close air support.
While the vehicles and equipments mentioned just now are mainly for air to air and air to ground missions , there is another group of machines that are found on board of a battle barge that performs the most important tasks amongst them all and this is Boarding in ship to ship combat.
In void combat, as the battle barge closes in on an enemy ship, it uses weapons batteries like plasma projectors, macro-laser cannons, missile racks, and fusion beamers to strip a target's shields and overwhelm its defenses.
The previously mentioned large Bombardment cannons also serve as the primary orbital space to ground assault weapons which are used sparingly to target planetary defence lasers and batteries as well as anti aircraft systems to provide a safe route for the space marines to enter the world and perform their duties.
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[@ElvisPresleyTouchedMe]

I always thought a cool thing about the typical 40K era battle barge design was how much more practical they look compared to the floating cathedrals. Reminds me of the scene in ‘Scars’ when Jaghatai surprises the Mechanicum adepts with his knowledge of tech and what he wanted to make the most efficient ship to match his legion’s battle doctrine.

[@mpdnull]

wish we had some cross section artwork of all the interiors of every thing

[@xTheZapper]

There's no point really, if you look at how ridiculous and out of proportion the various parts of it are any cross section "detail" would make no sense. Just look at how big the barrels are for the broadside guns, the shells for these would be so big that the ship would need to be 10x bigger to accomodate the amount ammo that they fire in the stories.

[@jeambeam3173]

Speaking of interiors one thing I'd love to see is a map of the interior of the Imperial Palace meaning the main central building that houses the Golden Throne

[@Knight-chaplainashriel]

This was wicked helpful on my lore for my Risen force. Leaning towards Imperial Pirates of a sort. So this really helped.

[@nutbug445]

Glad to be of service

[@CousinJesse1]

As powerful Battle Barges are, my homebrew traded in its Battle Barges (along with a great many other things) for an all Strike Cruiser navy. Excluding the escort & support ships, of course. Other than for very rare occasions such as a major huge fleet incursion (ex: Behemoth or Leviathan), a Black Crusade, or a significant Waagh (ex: the two wars for Armageddon or The War Of The Beast), etc.. we just can’t see the need for having that much force response at one time. It’s a bit of a double edged sword in that Battle Barges are so powerful that to even do them justice enough to call for them means they won’t be the appropriate response most of the time.

[@RumbleFilthskin]

Man. The refueling of the warp drive is brutal af.

[@zac0918]

the ships looks cool with all the huge cannons all over but the only thing that annoys me is the size of the ship to the size of the cannons and where the hell do they keep the massive ammo for those cannons, i am talking about the projectiles not the lasers

[@user-yb9tl6ei3i]

8:45 excuse me6 can you share the link to full image of this

[@bad-people6510]

"...have these massive macrocannons placed on the two sides of the keel." The problem is there are four sides of the keel.

[@michaelmitchell6476]

Not to be that guy but the Eternal Crusader is also a Gloriana class battle ship

[@JackHuws]

Pretty pictures, but I muted it after the assertion that a Battle Barge is more or less the same thing as a Gloriana Class battleship. The biggest class of spacecraft humanity has ever built, or ever will, with only eighteen made and the means of production irretrievably lost.

[@karlarden6260]

It’s canonically stated that there are more than 18 Glorianas

[@nutbug445]

You do you, but just fyi, the most common warship classes that are also termed as battle barges are - Legatus (reserves), Basileus (transport type), Ironclad (retired), Warspite(most common) and the Gloriana (command type)

[@JackHuws]

Then someone has changed the canon. Glorianas were capital ships built for the Primarchs as their personal command craft, and flagships for their Legions, hence eighteen. I dimly recall that an extra one was built for Battlefleet Solar but that's it. Or used to be...

[@Reuben5120]

Probably due to a retcon years ago, but I think they have now accepted even the Gloriana class Eternal crusade of the black templars as their flagship, biggest battle barge and command center

[@user-py6wo6ri7q]

In recent lore there are 20 *Scylla-pattern* Gloriana-сlass battleships that were ever made. *Vengeful Spirit* is one of them. There are different patterns. Word Bearers had second *Chronicle of Ashes* Gloriana-class battleship and World Eaters (or also Word Bearers) had *6* Gloriana-class battleships. Abaddon has *Magna Tyranis* which is a twin of the *Vengeful Spirit* and also a Gloriana. Most legions had 2 or more of such vessels. And Glorianas are the biggest *battleships* (class), not the biggest ships. There are also such things as macro-battleships, mass conveyors and many more larger vessels.

[@dannygelbart6827]

Eternal Crusader is a gloriana and they are 20-30km. Battle Barge is 10-12km.

[@Dontlicktheballoons]

Wtf? There's no 'armored prow' on the BB you're showing, you seem to think 'starboard' means 'aft', and I'm only a third of the way through. You're capable of so much better.

[@kalebgonzales4009]

is this from the sketchfab 3d viewer?

[@fluffmma9076]

Im still here🎉🎉🎉

[@Sujad]

A foot? Are you insane? Even the smallest Imperial vessels are a one and a half kilometres. You're looking at a bare minimum of five to ten meters of armour plating with the larger battleships like the Mars having armour plates in the hundreds of meters. These are ships that throw around weapons that could kill off all life on planets at worst and punching holes through the crusts of planets at best.

[@user-py6wo6ri7q]

Even worse, one huge battle barge was described to have armour *kilometers* thick. 🤣

[@Sujad]

@@user-py6wo6ri7q Was it Mike Brooks? Gav Thorpe? CS Goto? Maybe the Speranza considering it's supposed to be the size of Australia.

[@phillipgouthier5525]

No, pretty sure most people don't call a space marine strike cruiser a battle barge. Nor have i ever heard a gloriana-class ever refered to as a Battle barge

[@jeambeam3173]

Well they are so your cluelessness doesn't rly matter

[@gragglenotz]

I’m just here to watch people argue. 🙊

[@michaelhband]

👍👍👍❤❤❤

[@NorbertKasko]

Looks really weird. Of course this is Warhammer.

[@sourabhdeb701]

How's Gloriana class battle ships a battle barge 😂 even luna class light cruiser have Nova cannon but a battle barge which comes in light battleship class by tonnage may have or may not . Battle barge are made from ground up as battle barge by the Mars and few others. Otherwise no chapter could bring in there dreadnought. Even Emperor class battleship the up gunned luna class cruiser can't carry a single dreadnought. Let alone imperial knights or God machine

[@JackHuws]

Hold on, wut? A Dreadnought is tiny by 40K standards. A ship that size ought to be able to carry plenty. Titans no, clearly, but Dreadnoughts-? Easy.

[@mikehawkisb1g]

Dreadnoughts are maybe 15 to 25 ft depending on the pattern what are you even on about, you dont even know what a Gloriana class even is either those were the primarchs ships like the Mcragges Honour it could carry Titans if it wanted/had the facilities for it much less a Dreadnought 😂

[@thenecrophymm6591]

Depending on your source, a Dread fits in a Drop Pod (rather than a squad of marines) or a specifically modified Dread Drop Pod. Perhaps you're imagining walking about the ship? Ya, not really save for the main gangways, lol trying to fit through a hatch. But even then, getting deck to deck via lifts is still doable. However, they are in sleep mode most of the time anyway. A Dread has earned the privilege of having people come to them.

[@mephisto5856]

I’m pretty sure you’re new at Warhammer 40K.

[@sourabhdeb701]

​@@mephisto5856just so you know during war of Armageddon or vraks or baal no imperial Navy ships dropped or carry dreadnought in any book I know of or during damaculeus crusade it required at least a strike cruiser from what I know only large storage ships of imperial or battleship carried any knights comparable to dreadnought size. Don't start with emperor class I meant the smaller ones that one has a cathedral on top . I'm stating no imperial Navy cruiser can carry one of those astartes dreadnought but yeah if you make space of course in a battleship of imperial Navy that too in a huge hangar type one