Space Battles in 40k

[DogWelder]

I was wondering if there were any well-written, detailed Space Battles in the 40k universe. The Horus Heresy had some really nice ones (Battle of Phall, Battle over Sotha) 

 

Gathering Storm had this great one:

 

“The shrine world of Laphis became the site of the liberation’s greatest naval engagement when the Ultramar Defence Fleet engaged the ships of the Alpha Legion blockading the planet. Marneus Calgar commanded the offensive, seated in the captain’s throne aboard the ancient flagship Macragge’s Honour. The Ultramarines vessels swept in through the void with their guns thundering, successfully driving back those Alpha Legion craft engaged in surface bombardment. 

 

Triumph turned to horror when a flotilla of fleeing Imperial bulk carriers were revealed to be crewed by Alpha Legion cultists. Packed with explosives, the lumbering haulers ploughed into the Ultramarines ships and crippled several. 

 

Lord Calgar had expected treachery from his foes, however, and now revealed his own masterstroke as a second, reserve fleet of swift Strike Cruisers and frigates swept in from behind Laphis’ third moon, Aurora. At the same time, elite strike units containing Ultramarines Techmarines dropped onto Laphis’ surface and succeeded in awakening the world’s battered orbital defence grid. Caught from three sides, the Alpha Legion warships were torn apart, left as a belt of drifting wreckage above the shrine world. ”

 

 

Excerpt From: Games Workshop. “Gathering Storm: Rise of the Primarch Enhanced Edition.” Games Workshop, 2017. iBooks. 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Caius Tadius

[Leif Bearclaw]

If it's void war you're looking for, the Night Lord's trilogy by ADB has a couple of good ones (Vandred being a real master of that type of combat), particularly in the first couple of books.

 

Another really good series to check out are Gordon Rennie's Gothic war novels, Execution Hour and Shadow Point. They're a tad old now, and so have a few inconsistencies with later fluff (like size and crew complement of Imperial Navy ships). However, they're still marvellous reads.

[Walter Payton]

Space battles aren't consistently portrayed.  Some authors (ie, William King in Ragnar) portray them very much as Age of Sail naval warfare in space, complete with broadside duels and ramming attacks a la Ben Hur, whilst others (like McNeill in The Either) try to inject a (rather plaintive) note of realism into the usual 40k space fantasy by measuring engagement ranges in the thousands of kilometres.

[Eddie Orlock]

Space battles aren't consistently portrayed.

My possibly under informed perspective is that consistency improved in the wake of Chamber's the seminal work 'Battlefleet Gothic' which codified a very specific vision of void warfare in the forty first millennium.

 

Works that predate this are liable to exhibit 'early instalment weirdness'. These earlier works might draw some reference to the much less widely circulated precursor 'Space Fleet', however this was still during the formative rogue trader era in which the setting was very much still in flux.

 

My unexamined experience with post BFG works is that they are largely consistent about the details that could be derived from the game.

[Perry]

Find yourself a pdf of the old Battlefleet Gothic rule book and read the story sections and unit entries. Plenty of good ship action as the Imperium combats the 12th Black Crusade

 

Additionally read the Gothic War book from Black Library set during the same conflict

[BadgersinHills]

The Beast Arises series has a few nice space battles, with Book 3 being focused on a battle in the void.

[Sandlemad]

Seconding Gordon Rennie's Gothic War books. Very age of sail in terms of characters (captains, lieutenants, ratings, the hierarchy).

 

Chris Wraight's heresy work has some good fleet battles, thought there's usually a focus on boarding actions. Scars has some particularly good stuff.

[Scammel]

It'll be hard to find, but there was a completely excellent article on the fleet engagements of the 3rd Armageddon War in WD issue... 284? It details the Imperium's initial attempts to stymie the Ork fleets, before being forced to concede the immediate orbital space and instead harrying and head-hunting. The Armageddon book itself is good, too, as is the Eye of Terror campaign if memory serves.