Space Stations

[Calgar 2.0]

What would combat be like, would it be like a space hulk? Also, would space marines utilize one as a fortress-monastery?

[Aldramelech]

Thats no moon...... Its a Space Station!

[Herald of Nurgle]

1) See Babab War for a scenario, or buy Space Hulk - coming from the warp soon!
2) Case Point: Counter's Soul Drinkers.

[Just_Me]

What would combat be like, would it be like a space hulk? Also, would space marines utilize one as a fortress-monastery?

The short answer to both questions is "yes." Battles through a space station would be much like Space Hulk in a lot of ways (albeit with more troops), I am hoping that the new battles book will give us some rules for special scenarios like boarding actions...

The foremost "line" of military space stations the Imperium has are the Ramilies class Starforts (near the bottom of the page [URL="http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/acatalog/QUATERMASTERS_STORE_BATTLEFLEET_GOTHIC_9.html"]here[/URL]), these are MASSIVE (massing several times greater than a battleship) heavily armed installations fully capable of taking on whole fleets and winning. In addition they have huge warp drives and can be moved from point to point (not exactly a routine or easy task, but certainly possible). Other individual stations may be larger (for example Port Maw, Port Wander, and of course the Ring at Hydraphur) but these are all "one-off" examples, the Ramilies class is a replicable STC and can be found across the Imperium.

The semi-official BFG article establishes that void based Space Marine chapters use the Ramilies and other installations of similar capabilities (lest someone attack me over that, it was written by Gav Thorpe, Andy Chambers, and Matt Keefe, guys in charge of BFG for most of its lifespan and released on the old Fanatic website). Some have even more ancient and formidable basses that further blur the line between ship and station, the Dark angels Fortress Monastary The Rock, the Imperial Fists Fortress Monastary Phalanx come to mind, and the Black Templars are (in theory) based on the super-Battlebarge Eternal Crusader.

[LemanRussCommander]

Thats no moon...... Its a Space Station!

Hopefully by the time the 40th Millenium rolls around they won't make exhaust ports the size of wamp rats that go straight to the energy core

[david5th]

No, it will the size of a smart car and will lead straight to the self destruct button.

[ThreadNecromancer]

it would be like fighting on a space hulk, only the space marines/termies would make their own doors

[dark messenger]

I have often wondered why is it so many Imperial planets fall/are made chow when the Imperium has these giant space stations, fleets capable of killing entire star systems in hours and "inexhaustible" armies???
It's laughable. Shouldn't most intelligent xenos be thinking "I'm going nowhere near that!" when they see this?

Can anyone explain that?

[Wildcard]

Well, those space fortresses are from the dark age etc. Imperium doesn't have the know-how to build massive "i kick your *** - fortresses" anymore.. So they aren't guarding every planet there is..


Nice thread resurrection btw

[Nabterayl]

I have often wondered why is it so many Imperial planets fall/are made chow when the Imperium has these giant space stations, fleets capable of killing entire star systems in hours and "inexhaustible" armies???
It's laughable. Shouldn't most intelligent xenos be thinking "I'm going nowhere near that!" when they see this?

Can anyone explain that?

The Imperium's armies are only "inexhaustible" in a fairly specific sense. Given an arbitrarily large amount of time, the Imperium can raise a force with an arbitrarily large combat power (or at least to a closer approximation than any other society). Within a given amount of time, the Imperium's elite resources (the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy) are always stretched incredibly thin. The Guard operates as the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comitatenses]comitatenses[/url] of the Imperium out of necessity - there are so few of them that they have to act like a quick reaction force. Navy combat groups are rarer still (which is why the Guard can always land, but never has the air or orbital support you'd expect once on the ground - as a rule, the warships can be spared to punch a hole, but not to support the invasion). Only the Imperium's second line resources (the PDFs and system fleets) are numerous enough to act as garrison forces, and they are of significantly lower quality than the front-line things.

And ... yeah, the Navy can render a system uninhabitable in short order, but only by using superweapons. The United States could render this planet uninhabitable in a few hours, and while that isn't a fact any of our opponents can ignore, it doesn't mean that our less severe options are commensurately powerful. Being able to render a planet uninhabitable in a few hours doesn't imply you can conquer it in a few days, you know?