Imperial Navy Dreadnought [Unknown Class]...750 pts
| Type/Hits | Speed | Turns | Shields | Armour | Turrets |
| Battleship/14 | 15cm | 45° | 4 | 5+/6+ | 5 |
| Armament | Range/Speed | Firepower/Strength | Fire Arc |
| Prow Apocalypse Cannon | 90cm | See Special Rules | Front |
| Dorsal Lances | 60cm | 6 | Left/Front/Right |
| Port Weapons Battery | 60cm | 24 | Left |
| Starboard Weapons Battery | 60cm | 24 | Right |
| Port Launch Bays | Furies: 30cm
Starhawks: 20cm | 4 | - |
| Starboard Launch Bays | Furies: 30cm
Starhawks: 20cm | 4 | - |
For an extra +5 points the dreadnought may carry squadrons of Shark Assault boats (30cm).
Special Rules:Unwieldy: The dreadnought is notoriously slow to manoeuvre and so cannot use the Come to New Heading special orders.
Apocalypse Cannon: Follows all rules for the Armageddon gun as listed on page 37 of the Armada rulebook.
Unique: The Imperial Navy Dreadnought [Unknown Class] is a unique vessel. Only one may be included in an Imperial Fleet.
Archeotech Plasma Reactors: When reduced to zero hits, it rolls 3D6 on the catastrophic damage table and adds the results (any roll greater than 12 counts as 12).
Archeotech Targeting Matrix: On a turn that the Apocalypse Cannon is not fired, weapons batteries on the ship gain a left column shift.
History[spoiler]Very little is known about the origins of the ship as no records exist anywhere that detail a class of ship of this magnitude. It was found a millennia ago drifting in a graveyard of debris around a long lost planet on the fringes of Imperial space, newly brought back into the loving embrace of the Imperium as a result of a grand crusade. Since then it has been brought back to Mars for seemingly endless repairs and refits, while techpriests of the highest ranks have sought to understand and document the archeotech present throughout the behemoth.
Ships of such size are rumoured to have been common in times long forgotten, when fleet battles occurred that dwarf those now fought by the Imperial Navy. Tales have been passed down in whispers for countless millennia amongst Navy ratings that a ship of such magnitude once felt the footsteps of the almighty Emperor himself. While no official class or designation has been assigned to the ship as of yet, records from the discussions of the Council of the High Lords of Terra indicate an unofficial name that is used to refer to the dreadnought, ‘His Will Incarnate.’ Ratings and officers alike are swayed by the tales of old and the ship is regarded as holy ground and is treated with the utmost respect and awe. [/spoiler]
Design[spoiler]The hull itself shows signs of numerous repairs and refits over its history – in fact the entire prow of the ship seems to have been fitted anew at an unknown time. Intricate details and carvings grace both the inside and outside of the ship, this in combination with the gothic arches speaks of immeasurable man hours of workmanship. The presence of multiple Palatine Aquila’s built into the hull date the vessel to at the very earliest circa 800.M30 when the Emperor choose to replace the previous Lightning Bolt symbol of the Imperium, however the ship is likely younger than that date.
Perhaps the greatest example of archeotech built into the ship is the Apocalypse Cannon that runs the length of the dreadnoughts underside, protruding from the Eagle motif prow. It appeared at first to resemble an oversized Nova Cannon; however upon closer inspection techpriests realised that modern Nova Cannon is but a pale shadow of this lost technology. Its true workings are still to be divined, but the apocalyptic mess made of whatever it is fired upon has given rise to its new name. Test firings have shown the cannon to fire a stream of plasma approaching the speed of light that pierces all before it before finally dissipating off somewhere in the void.
A series of immense plasma reactors are built deep into the aft section of the hull, these reactors are of completely unknown design. After many years of study the machine spirits were successfully roused, and activation and operation has been achieved. Whether the technology can ever be fully understood and reverse engineered is yet to be known. The size and number of the reactors is due in part to the enormous power needs of the plasma drives that are required to shift the vast bulk of the ship, as well as the plasma requirements of the ships Apocalypse Cannon and plasma batteries.
Another example of ancient technology aboard the ship is the immense data banks, targeting matrixes, and logic engines that all work together to process vast amounts of sensory information gathered from apparatus all over the hull. When all these systems are running in unison the captain of the ship has enough accuracy to place an Apocalypse Cannon shot through multiple targets across tens of thousands of kilometres. When not being used to aim the Apocalypse Cannon, the systems processing power can be directed to assist the port and starboard weapon batteries instead, calculating witheringly accurate barrages of plasma.
The weaponry, while old, is comparable to systems present on some of the older Grand Cruisers in the Imperial Fleets. Instead of the standard explosive shell equipped macro cannons seen on most Imperial ships, the dreadnought’s batteries are comprised of Hecutor pattern plasma batteries. These batteries fire concentrated blasts of plasma as photonic packets which outrange most standard macro cannons. Similarly the dorsal mounted lance batteries are of the Godsbane design, which are commonly seen on ancient Grand Cruisers and ships of the Archenemy which date back to the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. These lance batteries have a longer focal length and are focused through a system of four lens arrays which enables them to hit targets at extremely long distances.[/spoiler]
Points Justification[spoiler]Using the “Smotherman Formula†the cost of the ship comes out to 721 points, however this does not include the targeting matrix bonus or the plasma reactors vulnerability. 750 points seemed a nice number to bring it up to for ease of use and to account for the uniqueness of the ship. While the ship can put out very impressive firepower at long distances, it is slow and turns very poorly which hinders its ability to bring its forward arc Apocalypse Cannon directly in line with a target. I also think that paying separately for port and starboard batteries is a little much because it should be very difficult to get targets in both arcs of this ship. Also with only 14 hull points and 4 shields it is only as tough as the planet killer, but costs nearly 250 points more![/spoiler]
ConclusionI love the idea of a massive ship with double height batteries, something so rare and so colossal that it could only be brought out in really large point battles involving multiple peoples fleets. I initially wanted the ship to appear longer, but balancing 4 columns of slots that are double height (4x2=8 slots per side) seemed a little too difficult. If anyone has had any experiences using large ships like this please do leave some comments or even your rules set. Is this ship too vulnerable for the points cost? Should I swap the armageddon gun rules for just a slightly buffed Nova Cannon? I probably won't be building this thing for a while, but it will make a great centerpiece at some point in the future.
