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How Many Ships Does A Great Company Command?


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It really goes with whatever they could get when the Company was made. Most chapters have 2-3 Battle Barges at the most in the best of times. Alot of chapters don't have one. But I see alot of stuff about there is at least 5 Strike Cruisers per chapter. Because a Strike Cruiser has room for two standard companies with supple staff, crew, and vehicles.
This is based off memory, but the Space Wolf books mention either fifteen or eighteen capital ships in the entire fleet, meaning one for each company, plus a few extra.

this isn't including the supple ships aswell. A single Capital Ship can have up to 10 supple ships.

Certainly an interesting question and one I don't think GW have touched upon much for Space Wolves.

 

Given that most Chapters operate 1-2 Battle Barges (including "Venerable" Battle Barges and between 6 and 10 Strike Cruisers, logically a Chapter with 50% extra men should have a larger fleet. Of course, the Space Wolves aren't known for a particularly power fleet or manufacturing facilities, so I would be conservative in my estimates of:

 

2-3 Battle Barges

9-12

 

I also see the Space Wolves having slightly fewer Battle Barges but more Strike Cruisers. This is because each Company is notoriously independent and Battle Barges are difficult to produce/aquire.

 

As for supply ships - no, none. Marines don't use supply ships.

Certainly an interesting question and one I don't think GW have touched upon much for Space Wolves.

 

Given that most Chapters operate 1-2 Battle Barges (including "Venerable" Battle Barges and between 6 and 10 Strike Cruisers, logically a Chapter with 50% extra men should have a larger fleet. Of course, the Space Wolves aren't known for a particularly power fleet or manufacturing facilities, so I would be conservative in my estimates of:

 

2-3 Battle Barges

9-12

 

I also see the Space Wolves having slightly fewer Battle Barges but more Strike Cruisers. This is because each Company is notoriously independent and Battle Barges are difficult to produce/aquire.

 

As for supply ships - no, none. Marines don't use supply ships.

:devil: I meant support ships damn typos.

Escorts, actually. ^_^

 

Continuing my journey into my memory, the Space Wolves often don't use Battle Barges or Strike Cruisers per se, but rather ships taken as prizes, recaptured IN ships and so on. I think there are even some Mars class battleships and equivalents in there.

TAKEN FROM vash113 Comprehensive History:

 

The Chapter Fleet

 

The Space Wolves maintain fifteen ships in their fleet, one for each Great Company and three in reserve. Each of the fifteen ships is unique unto itself, the fleet including many different classes and configurations of vessels. Two of the Chapters ships are massive warships akin to Imperial Navy capitol ships. The Iron Wolf is the ship of Egil Ironwolf which he claimed in combat when his Company’s own ship was badly damaged. Slightly larger The Pride of Fenris is the personal ship of Logan Grimnar.

 

The Fist of Russ was the flagship of Berek Thunderfist's Great Company, badly damaged after the battle for Hyades the ship was sidelined for repairs but brought back into service before long to carry Ragnar Blackmane and a strike force of Space Wolves Blood Claws and Wolf Blades to Charys. The ship and its crew sacrificed themselves to deliver Ragnar and his comrades into the Thousand Sons stronghold and save the Chapter from Magnus' vile plot.

 

The Pride of Fenris

-Battleship of Logan Grimnar, largest ship of the fleet.

 

The Iron Wolf

-Second largest ship of the Chapter fleet and former Battleship of the Imperial Navy, under the command of Egil Ironwolf.

 

The Fist of Russ

-Ship formerly commanded by Berek Thunderfist. Lost in the Charys Campaign.

 

The Holmgang

-Ship serving the Thunderfist Great Company during the Charys Campaign.

 

The Stormwolf

-Strike Cruiser in service to Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company.

 

The Wolf Spirit

-Battle-Barge in service with the 13th Company during the Horus Heresy.

 

The Iron Wolf

-Battle-Barge in service to the 13th Company during the later days of the Great Crusade.

 

The Stormblade

-Strike Cruiser in service to the 13th Company during the later days of the Great Crusade.

 

The Wolf of Fenris

-Strike Cruiser of the Chapter captured in the Parenxes system by the Red Corsairs.

 

Vengeance

-One of the Chapter's ships lost above the world of Jytor.

 

Retribution

-Unknown class vessel of the Chapter fleet.

 

Blood Eagle

-Rapid strike Frigate of the Space Wolves that inserted the Scout Teams onto the Forge World of Cambion.

Reading all that lot, does anyone else see the delicious irony of that Strike Cruiser of theirs being taken over by the Red Corsairs? :HQ:

 

I kinda get the impression the Space Wolf fleet looks like an Ork fleet - "What I finds, I keeps."

Reading all that lot, does anyone else see the delicious irony of that Strike Cruiser of theirs being taken over by the Red Corsairs? :D

 

I kinda get the impression the Space Wolf fleet looks like an Ork fleet - "What I finds, I keeps."

:HQ: maybe that is where they learned it from.

For a reference, in Codex Space Marines, the Ultra Marines have...

 

8 Strike Cruisers

3 Battle Barges

12 Rapid Strike Vessels

31 Thunderhawk Gunships

 

Yeah, there are other sources which suggest their fleet is bigger, but going with this fleet rosteris a good idea for a typical fleet, though I'd imagine there a few factors to make it stand out;

 

1) There are accounts of other Chapters having much smaller fleets, particularly smaller numbers of Battleships. Flesh Tearers springs to mind. It's possible a Fleet with several Battleship sized vessels would need less Strike Cruisers.

 

2) Ultramarines have great resource, including Calth which acts constructs ships for use elsewhere in the Imperium. Seems likely they have access to more Space Vessels than most.

Reading all that lot, does anyone else see the delicious irony of that Strike Cruiser of theirs being taken over by the Red Corsairs? :HQ:

 

I kinda get the impression the Space Wolf fleet looks like an Ork fleet - "What I finds, I keeps."

 

lol, pretty much. I've generally thought of the Space Wolves as the Vikings of the 41st Millennium.

 

Considering the additional size of the Chapter as a whole in comparison to most, and going with the idea that the Space Wolves tend to either capture or salvage other Imperial / x-Imperial vessels to combine into their own fleet, I imagine the over-all fleet size to be something closer to that of the Black Templar then to that of a regular Chapter.

 

Add in all the "Lost Companies" and whatever attack fleet's they took with them, along with the general independent (and so assuredly self sufficient) nature of each Great Company, I've always envisaged the Space Wolf fleet as something of a motley combination of 12 smaller attack fleets, each capable of operating independently of the whole (and holding their own). So combined, quite a force to be reckoned with.

 

Then also take into account the Imperial fleets they've chased off in the past (though accounting for the fact these were coming at Fenris, and so possibly also fired upon by planetary defences), and you start to see an image of quiet a formidable fleet when brought together as a whole.

According to the fluff, with every company being very independent from one another, they each have theire own stike cruiser or battle barge, varrying in size. The smaller vessels, I cant be sure on. If a wolf lord were able to capture another vessel, then he would have it as well. So 1-2 large vessels each I would say.

Taken from Battle Fleet Gothic:

 

"Instead, a compromise was reached which limited the Space Marines to vessels whose primary role was that of transport, delivery and suppression designed to facilitate planetary assault. Only the smallest of vessels would be permitted to act exclusively as gunships, with the larger battlebarges and strike cruisers remaining predominantly as aids to invasion, ensuring the Space Marines would never present a threat to the Imperial Navy proper."

 

Battle Fleet says that a Marine Chapter can have:

 

 

Capital Ships

 

0-3 Battle Barges (can deploy three Companies at once)

0-10 Strike Cruisers (carries one full company including support vehicles)

 

Escort Ships

 

Rapid Strike Vessels (Firestorm, Sword, and Cobra)

Hunter Class Destroyers (favored by the Dark Angles)

Gladius Class Frigates

Nova Class Frigates

 

Thunderhawks are carried by the Strike Cruisers and Battlebarges.

 

The Nova Class Frigates push the line on the "primary role" ruling. So I would guess Space Wolves would have a few extra of these.

Thanks for all the replies guys. So really for my Great Company/Lost Company I can include a Strike Cruiser, some Gladius frigates and maybe a ex-Navy Battlecruiser.

 

The background for my GC is that they have travelled far from Fenris in pursuit of a dangerous Ork Warlord, sort of an obsession on the Wolf Lord, now they are so far away they don't see themselves being able to return to the Fang to carry on the duties of a GC and so they have been declared a Lost Company. Its stands to reason in my mind that they would happily capture other Imperial ships if they have the manpower for it.

It would be possible for them to have IG troops and ships with them because the Space Wolves are rumoured to have the second largest area of planets, second to the Ultramarines, that they defend and pull resources from.

Hmm, so I could get away with 2 Strike Cruisers and maybe even something cheeky like an Armageddon Battlecruiser or Grand Cruiser, plus escort vessels.

 

This makes me tempted to start a mini IG army to reflect the mortal support elements.

Hmm, so I could get away with 2 Strike Cruisers and maybe even something cheeky like an Armageddon Battlecruiser or Grand Cruiser, plus escort vessels.

 

This makes me tempted to start a mini IG army to reflect the mortal support elements.

You can

It would be possible for them to have IG troops and ships with them because the Space Wolves are rumoured to have the second largest area of planets, second to the Ultramarines, that they defend and pull resources from.

 

Really? I've never heard of that before, but it would explain why the SW are able to maintain such numbers.

 

Still, doesn't sound right to me, I thought SW only recruited Fenrisians, and Fenris was sparsely populated?

 

Or are just talking about local allied planets which build ships for them?

 

Little confused.

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